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Observations of the Day – April 12, 2018

Observations for the Day (Hudson US Family Tour Edition – Part 1):

– While packing for the trip, I decided maybe I should try on my shorts since I hadn’t had them on since last summer. Good call. I haven’t done any exercise since my cancer diagnosis, so I’m a bit poochy. When trying to button them up, some weren’t even close and the ones that did button had me very concerned about said button. I could just see it flying off and putting out someone’s eye. I called Mama and off shopping we went. Bad news (poochy), good news (shopping), I guess.

– We checked in at Atlanta Hartsfield way too early. Looking at my eyes in this pic, I guess my tummy ain’t the only thing that’s poochy! Off to Vegas!

– There’s nothing quite like McCarren Airport in Vegas. The car is a McLaren and you can have 4 hours in it for a mere $900! We didn’t dilly dally there, got our rental car and headed out to Laughlin.

– Ah Laughlin – where walking outside is like walking into a blow dryer. Hot and windy! The Colorado River is beautiful though as seen here from our hotel room.

– We were there for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s annual Round-Up for its retirees. Monday morning, we bowled in a tournament. I was pretty proud of my scores since I didn’t have my ball or my shoes. Hubby and I both won 11th place for men and women and scored $20 each. All I can say is that Hubby must have had a hell of a handicap!

– We met up with friends and I heard hubby asking when a particular friend would arrive. Later, I saw this friend and asked hubby if he had seen him (he did not). The next morning, hubby met up with said friend and others and he asked this friend how I knew him. Friend could not remember (and I never actually said I knew him). They were trying to figure out how we had previously met, and friend was quite puzzled. That night, we went to a cocktail party and this friend came in late and we were already seated. He sat down, and we made eye contact. Me being me, gave him a very enthusiastic wave across the table. He asked me how I like living in GA and I caught him several times studying me and trying in vain to remember where we met. I was gonna really play it up, you know saying things like, “Remember that time….” but hubby, being the killjoy that he is, said not to so I was reasonably well behaved. As the party was breaking up, I decided to put him out of his misery. I walked over to him, put my hand on his arm and his eyes widened in alarm because I’m sure he thought I was going to speak about our (nonexistent) past together. I simply said, “We have never actually met” and explained what had happened. You could visibly see him relax. It was fun while it lasted.

– In my never-ending search for fame, at this party I talked about being mentioned in podcasts and that I had a blog. When I replied “quilting” when asked the blog subject, two of my new friends (Hi Renea and Robbin) told me they were quilters. Excellent conversations and pictures on phones followed.

– I have actually managed to make this post quilt related! When we arrived at the Round-Up, Hubby and I each received a ticket and periodically, they’d post numbers on poster boards correlating to different prizes. This quilt was one of two they were giving away.

– This is what hubby’s ticket won: We bought a silver chain and it looks beautiful on me!

– I thought I had a defective ticket (story of my life), but on the last day I actually won something. It said, “wine and gift certificate”. Hummm, what kind of wine? What kind of gift certificate? For a gift basket? For specialty crackers? For caviar? Nope! I got a very nice bottle of Malbec, which is Amy’s favorite wine (I don’t drink red) and a McDonald’s gift certificate for a whopping $10! I will have to search for the proper wine paring on the Mickey D’s menu.

I don’t know why the pic is sideways – it’s upright when I import it.

– Nothing better than local, I guess they’re saying.

– The service was terrible in Laughlin. Be prepared to wait in restaurants (and wait and wait – both to be seated and to get your food) there. This was especially hard on us as we are used to southern hospitality! The we went to Harrah’s. They have wonderful and quick people working for them. Everybody was nice!

– I played Blackjack at fun tables but must have set a record for drawing 12, 14 and 16’s. Every table, every casino and on different days. I wanted to call Guinness Book of World Records. I also finally got to play craps at a VERY fun table (we were whooping it up) and managed to walk away a winner. Overall, I didn’t lose too much and had a great time.

– On our last morning there we ate at a buffet (see my treat and hubby’s treat) and then headed back to Vegas.

– We had an hour or so to kill so we went to Binion’s Horseshoe and I played a little blackjack and then we walked along Freemont St (we prefer downtown to the strip). Just a typical day in Vegas:

– As we were walking along, more hijinks were to be had. I love free samples, especially body products. A lady handed me a sample packet of this:

and when I took it she grabbed my arm and started asking me about my eye products. I told her I used stuff from Wal-Mart and she told me I HAD to try this new product. She told me to look up, I complied, and she rubbed some gel under my left eye. Hubby had walked on and wasn’t there to stop my mischief. She asked if I wanted to see the results and I very enthusiastically told her YES! She led me into the store front to this dude who was a registered esthetician from Belgium and then she left. He asked me again about my eye product. This time I replied that I made my own moisturizer from beeswax. He dramatically threw up his hands and asked why I didn’t take better care of my eyes? He told me that you moisturize your face, not your eyes! He asked if the girl had cleaned my under-eye area before applying the product, I replied in the negative and he grabbed a wet cloth and began wiping off my concealer. This did not please me as I had places to go and people to see. Then he reapplied the product. While we were waiting for it to work, he showed me before and after pictures where people had big, bulbous bags under one eye and model eyes for the other. With each picture I exuberantly asked, “Can I see now?” to which he replied, “Not yet, not yet”. Finally reveal time. My under-eye area felt stretched, like when you use egg whites or Sudden Change from Wal-Mart. I do not use egg whites or Sudden Change because I don’t like that stretchy feeling. He finally let me look in the mirror and I could see an infinitesimal change in the under-eye area and I exclaimed, “OHMYGOODNESS – THAT’S SO AWESOME!!!!!”. The guy explained that I could buy the product he applied (step 1) and step 2 for a conference price of a paltry $199 each (regular $399 each). I was OOOHing and AHHHing while trying to figure out if he really ever sold any of this stuff. Then it gets really fun. Hubby comes in to find me.

– Now hubby is a crusty ex-cop who I occasionally refer to as “Grumpy-Pa” when talking to the grandchildren. He doesn’t suffer fools lightly, so I already know how this is gonna go. My profile is to hubby and I asked him if he wanted to see something awesome. Belgium dude (BD) is beaming and I count 1-2-3 and turn to face hubby. “See the difference???” I ask. He scrutinizes my face and points to the right eye and asked if that was the one they treated. I am trying not to laugh at this point, Belgium dude again throws his hands in the air and I told hubby that it was the other eye. I tell him to look closer because there is a very dramatic change. He looks a bit closer and after a few seconds says, “There is absolutely NO difference in either eye. DO NOT give this guy any money!” and then turns and walks off. BD is now red-faced and asked what was going on. I said, “It’s ok, he’s a bit grumpy today”. BD then told me to follow him, that me would “show” my husband and took me to the cash register. He told me that he would give me step 2 for only $99. I played dumb and said, “Well, I don’t want step 2 without step 1”. He said, “Oh no, no, you would have to buy the step 1 for the $199 price and he’d give me the step 2 for $99”. At this point, I was tiring of the sham and my under eye was tight so I told him to let me walk around and see how it looked in 10 minutes. He followed me out the door yammering about the results and I walked out into the circus that is Freemont Street.

– We flew to Tucson to an awesome house, but we’ll talk about that next time.