In the Eye of the Beholder

My husband & I just got back from Las Vegas. We have been going to L.V. for at least 25 years & take great pride in the fact that we once ate breakfast while watching the Mirage being built. If you know Vegas, that may mean something, if not, not. The Mirage was sort of the beginning of the "theme" hotels & it was really fun with a tropical theme & the erupting volcano out front was a real people stopper. We stayed only at the Mirage for years & were "comped" for food and the hotel room because we gambled for hours on end. Craps was our game & going to Las Vegas was our self indulgent entertainment once every 6 weeks or so. Then we adopted our girls & the game changed from craps to family. The game of family has been our focus & love for the past 13&1/2 years & although our daughters have been to L.V. many times & really enjoy it, my husband & I went alone this time. We laughed & held hands, drank frozen margaritas every night, spoke of our luck & love for each other & family & had a really sweet & fun time. Thank you Las Vegas, you plastic, money changing, fake, glittery, air freshened adult Disneyland. Thank you for being able to still somehow charm us & my dog has gas.

I Had No Idea

I just finished my second week in the pumpkin patch. My oldest & best friend & her brothers grow pumpkins every year on their farm & have a large stand & area where they sell them for the month of October. She has asked in the past, if I had any interest in working & I didn't. It didn't look like all that much fun. This year though, she was really desperate for help & asked again with pleading eyes & came close to begging. I felt badly for her & said sure. I declined the offer to give squash & pumpkin talks or drive the hay ride & settled in the front booth collecting field trip money & eyeing & pricing pumpkins for customers. I'M HAVING A BLAST & insist on working next year! I welcome all the little pre-schoolers as they eagerly arrive for their fun hour in the patch & bid them farewell as they board their bus, pumpkins in hand. Most forget they are wearing name tags & are amazed when I welcome every third or fourth one by name, that's the fastest I can read, & when asked how I know, tell them it's pumpkin patch magic. They all love that explanation & none have challenged it. We are encouraged to take any squash, gourds & pumpkins we want, & do. If offered a job in a pumpkin patch by really nice people, take it, it's really fun & my dog has gas.

Elusive Enchiladas

One of my sister's & my favorite Mexican restaurants isn't very good anymore. We are always searching for a place that makes really good cheese enchiladas & when we find one, eat there alot. A really good cheese enchilada is actually very elusive. It first, needs to be hot enough for the cheese to be completely melted, should be smothered in yummy sauce & lastly, have a ring of that really bad for you, orange grease encircling it. The enchiladas have been so disappointing lately, that we ordered crispy chicken tacos today. The chicken tasted of old grease & I took it out & ate the rest of the taco, my sister ate three bites and quit. I mentioned to the woman behind the counter that the chicken tasted very greasy & she couldn't have cared less. She just lost two good customers. Had she seemed at all concerned, we might have given it yet one more chance. So, the search begins again and my dog has gas. OXOX