Well, yesterday was a great day. I've decided to consider it my Mother's Day.

I went on a field trip with my daughter's class. We went to a farm (with chickens, ducks, peacocks, turkeys, emus, cows, pigs, ducks, geese, and cats). I didn't want to go at first because my stomach was all messed up when I woke up. I'm pretty sure now that it was just because I was nervous about the bank account, which turned out to be fine. I'm so glad I changed my mind and decided to go. The gentleman that runs the farm was VERY patient, totally willing to let the kids interact with some of the animals. He even did a hayride for the kids at the end of the field trip - a load of hay in a trailer being hauled around the farm by his big ol' John Deere. I really appreciated how much re-using and recycling he does. The farm is totally solar powered, he has shades for the emus, the ducks, and his picnic table that are made from the old satellite dishes - they're turned upside down and have a pole attached. Really clever!

Anyhow, I got home from the field trip around 1:00, and I couldn't find Corey. I asked Alex, and he said Papa was with Kavik (our dog). I went into the backyard, and there he was, hanging the last of 4 loads of laundry that he'd done!

We waited for Mercedes to get home, set my dad up with a couple cans of Dinty Moore (to which he added a bag of egg noodles) for dinner for him and the kids, and Corey took me to Laughlin. He promised to take me to an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, and since the casinos only have them on Fridays, we had to go last night instead of on Mother's Day.

We went to the River Palms first. We headed over to join their Players' Club (just in case it would give us a discount on our dinner - yes, I'm so cheap that I find things like that fun...). They didn't give us a discount for our dinner, but we DID each get a free T-shirt. We went down to the restaurant in there where we used to go, but it turned out that they didn't have all-you-can-eat seafood anywhere in that casino. Weird! So we moved on to the Pioneer. I knew they had a seafood buffet.

So we got to the Pioneer, but guess what? $18.95 EACH for their buffet! I couldn't believe it. I decided to take us back to their Players' Club booth and sign up in case they offered a buy one, get one free thing. Nuh-uh. Corey said it was fine, he didn't mind paying for it. I almost gave up and stayed there, but as I'd walked into the Pioneer, I'd grabbed the Laughlin Entertainer (a newsletter about the goings on in Laughlin). Right in the front, they had a listing of the different restaurants in the different casinos. It said the casino right next door, the Colorado Belle, had an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. I told Corey, "One more, and if the price isn't any better, we'll come back to the Pioneer."

$12.95 at the Colorado Belle! Woohoo! And when we looked at the board that the price was listed on, we saw that we could get $3 off EACH by joining their players club. So we went down to the booth.

While we were standing in line, Corey saw some dinnerware with fruits on it. He thought it was ugly, but I immediately thought of Christine. I told him I thought she would like it. "But then again, she likes that damn pitcher your grandparents gave us for our wedding," I said. He replied, "Well, give it to her."

"WHAT?!?!?" Now, I've been wanting to give it to her from the moment that she said she liked it. The first time I mentioned it, he said we couldn't, no matter how much I hated it, because it was a wedding gift. His excuse? "Well, it's BEEN 9 years now." Oh. The magic year.

Anyway, I said, "I should give it to her as a Mother's Day gift." He said, "She's not a mother." I told him, "I know, but she's close enough." He said, "No, because then I'd feel obligated to get Christie something. I mean, she's almost a mom, too." OMG. I almost choked on AIR. He never really says anything like that (unless it's about Jean). I honestly almost fell down!

When we got back up to the buffet, the line was about 40 people strong. There was a casino worker coming up the line, and she was giving certificates to everyone with the players club cards. CLEVER ploy. The $3 discount for having the card is for 3 $1 gaming chips. You can either cash them in, or you can use them to play. So Corey and I got back $6 between us.

I ate. OH, how I ate. I ate and ate and ate. When we first got there, there were hardly any hot crab legs left (and I don't like mine cold), so I grabbed a plate with rice pilaf, a shrimp medley dish, caeser salad, and red potatoes. I finished that, then I went and subsequently ate 4 plates worth of crab legs. I had a Krispy Kreme chocolate eclair (YUM!) for dessert. Corey was full after a couple of plates and dessert, but he also ate things that didn't require him to burn calories to eat☺.

On our way out, we cashed in our certificates. He got quarters, and I got nickels. I had very little luck on the slots. I hate those things anyway. Corey didn't have much luck on his poker machine either. He found 6 more quarters in his pocket, and split them with me. In short order, I managed to win 25 quarters on a poker machine. He lost his 3 on a slot machine (this is why they call them one-armed bandits LOL). I kept playing a quarter at a time until I had an even number of quarters (turned out to be 24) and I split them with him. We lost 'em all, but it was fun.

We went back to the Pioneer (we'd parked there and walked to the Belle). I wanted to walk along the river, but Corey just wanted to get back to the van. I'm glad I listened! We ran into our friends Paul and Sarah, who were just loading up onto their bike and getting ready to go somewhere else. How likely is it that you'd run into someone from your town, in another town, that you're friends with, as you're both leaving, at a casino that they ate at and you didn't...Generally, the odds would be against you.

We agreed to meet back in our town at the Dambar for pool and karaoke. Funny thing happened, too. I sang and a girl came up and paid me $3. LOL! I couldn't stop grinning. So I sang another song that she wanted me to (I mean, didn't that $3 make me her bitch for at least one song?). I got pleasantly drunk, and we walked home. We stopped at Gas N Grub, but they didn't have the sandwich I wanted, so I skipped it. We got home, and a lusty, er, lovely, time was had by all.

the last trail...the next path