Hi! Yep, you know I have to touch on football here. Amazing game today. I was for the Saints because I’m not a Manning fan (doesn’t matter which one).  And, I don’t know why, but I didn’t place a bet on this game. I never got around to it. I’m sitting in the middle of the gambling capital and I don’t make a bet on the Super Bowl. Ha! I wanted to, but the Super Bowl snuck up on me, and before I knew it, I was watching it. Trust me, I kick myself now, but if I had placed a bet on the Saints, they probably would of lost! That’s just my luck! So, I’m glad they won and I’m looking forward to a horse race coming up on April 3rd, if all parties show up. I’ll tell ya what I’m talking about if you click HERE. I’ll be keep an eye on this one.

Anyways, enough about sports! I’ve got some news for you! You will not be seeing any pictures in my blog postings for a few days because I’ll be posting from my Blackberry starting tomorrow! Yes, that’s right. We are leaving Las Vegas tomorrow. I guess we are all “Vegas-ed” out (I never knew that was possible) and there are other adventures and more casinos down the road to see. We are leaving tomorrow morning and heading back to Yuma, Arizona for the night (I’m hoping to go to Paradise Casino for Monday night Bingo!). I hope my Bingo partner in Yuma is reading this…..I’m on my way!!!

Tonight we went to Circus Circus  Casino and I lost $40 dollars, and then we hopped across the street to the Riviera Casino and I won $167 dollars. So, it was a good day today! I finished my night with this (took it with my Blackberry)…….

OH, I just saw now on the news that the new Hoover Dam bridge is set to open in November! Wow, neat. 1,900 feet across the Colorado River. So, if you are looking forward to seeing this bridge in action, then November will be your month!

So, bare with me for the next few days. I will blog from my Blackberry telling all the news, but no pictures. And, I like to yap, so don’t forget to check on me. Have a great night. I’ll be back tomorrow! OH, and don’t forget to leave me a comment, I can approve comments right on the spot from my Blackberry!

This morning wasn’t too bad. I called the vet here just down the road from us and scheduled an appointment for Jake. If you’ve been following along you know that he hasn’t been keeping his food down at all for the past three days. He eats and four hours later, it come up and lands somewhere on the floor of the RV. Poor little guy.

So enough is enough. Time to bring in the professionals and no, we didn’t change his diet at all. Same food as always. So I called up a local veterinarian at 8am and and ask for an appointment to bring the little guy in. They tell me “Thursday at 3pm.” I laugh! That’s not going to happen. So I say, “How about today?” They say they have nothing open for appointments until Thursday at 3pm unless I do an “emergency walk-in”. Oh, so I ask, “How much is the walk-in going to cost me.?” They say “65 dollar office visit fee” I say, “How much is the office visit if I make an appointment?” They tell me 45 dollars and I tell them I will be in today. They tell me to come in between 11am and 2pm.

Okay, so we hang out until 11am and say goodbye to our neighbor who is leaving for a week to go to Quartzsite. Quartzsite is nice, it’s in Arizona and it’s an hour north of where we are, I’ve been there before, it’s a huge outdoor RV and Sport Expo show. Hundreds of thousands of RVs come together to hang out for a week, shopping, and checking out all the neat RV vendors that come to town to sell what they are selling, from RV club memberships to health products to heater units to everything that you can imagine using in or with an RV. Not sure if we will hit Quartzsite this year, we will try. So we say our goodbyes to our neighbor and off she goes…..

Anyways, we get to the veterinarian office at 11:30 and of course, with being a walk-in, it’s now a waiting game. We see the doctor at 1pm and I’ve never seen any doctor come to a conclusion of what’s wrong with Jake in a matter of minutes. I brought all of Jake’s papers with him from his doctor’s in New Hampshire and after I tell her what he’s recently been doing (being sick), she comes up with “Intestinal Lymphangiectasia” and nails on the head every previous symptoms that Jake has been through in his life. Bloated tummy sometimes? Yes. Difficulty breathing at times? Yes. Low protein level? Yes. So the doctor does a blood test on Jake and it comes back great because of the pills I have him on to increase lack of protein from my doctor in New Hampshire. Yes, this is an on going case of lack of protein that never had a title to it until today.

So, I’m excited to get some solid information on this disease. Yes, it is a disease and I’m happy to know that if I treat it right, the disease and symptoms will settle down and Jake can still live a normal, long, life. She puts him on a totally new food by Science Diet and we get some dry food for him, some canned food for him, and Science Diet even makes treats we can feed him twice a day. She also took one x-ray in case something was lodged down his throat causing the sickness after eating his meal. The x-ray came back perfect, nothing inside of him that shouldn’t be. She also gives him three shots and Jake didn’t care for that too much as he screamed so loud after the third shot, it echoed within the small room we were in. Poor guy.

After I pay the bill of $310.48 to be exact including the purchase of food and treats, we leave the office with our new information and go back home. It didn’t take Jake long to fall sleep on the couch after his big day, so we leave him alone. Oh, before I get too far, if you want more information on Intestinal Lymphangiectasia you can click HERE to read more about it. After Jake falls asleep, Mom hops on the laptop and my Dad and I take the electric bicycles out.

Well, I guess it wasn’t my day because I lost traction on a dirt patch with the electric bicycle and it was all over. I went down and it wasn’t good. Three cars stopped around me to help because I must of scraped up myself pretty bad. So, we managed to get back to the RV and I clean myself up checking out the damage. And damage there was! My right knee is swollen, both my hands are scraped up pretty bad, and the side of my face will probably turn black and blue for the next 20 years with two cuts, one below my eye and one below my cheek bone.

You wait! Someone will walk by me and say, “Ohhh, honey, don’t do that to yourself, leave the guy, he isn’t worth it.” Yeah, I look THAT bad. Ha! Yes, now I laugh because I’m in bed doped up on pills killing all the pain and that Tylenol PM is about to kick in…..

BUT, wait…..wait…..my day isn’t done! Nooooo, you think a couple of scrap and the sight of blood is going to hold me down??? No way, we went to the Paradise Casino tonight! Hey, I had to do something to make me feel better. You betcha we went! And I won! Woo-Hoo! I won 70 dollars on the Quick Hits slot machine and I won 422 dollars on the Keno machine getting 7 out of 8 numbers!

Ahhhhh, my day is now complete. I’m still in pain that is masked by pills, I dread looking in the mirror tomorrow at all the day-after damage, and actually I’m not sure how I will get out of bed tomorrow.

Hey, retirement isn’t always soft and cushy, there will be bumps and bruises along the way that you will deal with. Take it as it comes, take it easy, and tomorrow will be a better day.

Have a great night and thanks for checking on me!

Okay, what else did we do today – I’ve got pictures!!!!!! We ventured over to the Yuma Fun Factory. This is right off the highway here (I-8), like 5 or 6 miles from us. Always saw it from the highway, always wondered what the heck is was all about. Today we stop……

Outside they have mini golf, go cart track, and bumper boats…..

Part of the mini golf course….

Let’s take a look inside. We ate lunch here today. The food is okay. As you can see this is a glamorous Chuck E Cheese. If you have kids, you can’t ask for a better place. They have a deal every Monday – Unlimited go carts, unlimited mini golf, and unlimited bumper boats for there hours, and $10 of arcades all for $19.99 per person.

They have a restaurant and full bar – more like a sports bar with TVs everywhere…..

Let’s take a look at the arcade section……

Well, that’s what we did so far today. And tonight, you know what tonight is……I’ll give ya a hint….Monday night…..Monday night Bingo at the Paradise Casino!!! I’m feeling lucky too! I’m going to go in there and dab all my little boxes on my paper and shout “BINGO!” and I can feel that money in my hands already! Well…..that’s my plan at least! Well, that’s all for today….have a great night!

Hi! I know, I know, pretty routine over here, but I’m gonna tell you about it anyways I woke up pretty late today (11am)….I know…what a bum, huh? Today was hotter than usual – peaked to 75 degrees today. Took Jake for a walk today and sat outside with my netbook.

I see alot of RVs moving in and out of this RV park. It looks like the turn-over time right after the holiday. We are here for another few weeks.

This afternoon we headed over to the Cocopah Casino. I’m not winning that much lately. I think the slot machines are turned down a tad too. Not really paying out like it was over the holidays. So, today I found a machine that is 5 cent Keno. I sat down that that machine and started playing 5 cents at a time on one card and then I got 6 out of 7 numbers that paid out 1750 nickels. Hang on, I’ll do that math for ya…..that would be $87.50. So I sat there for another hour but my money balance when down to $68 dollars and I decided to call it a day.

Tonight, we went to Church’s Chicken. We don’t have Church’s Chicken in New Hampshire. It’s pretty good, typical fast food.

So, now I sit here updating my blog. Tomorrow I have to buy more lemons to make more lemonade and I think I’ll stop at Barnes and Nobles to pick up a book or two. I love reading. OH, I almost forgot, tomorrow is Monday – Bingo night at the Paradise Casino!

Sorry I didn’t entertain you with anything exciting…..stay tuned…..maybe tomorrow!

Well, my blackberry wasn’t working during these past few weeks, and because of it’s malfunction, I was getting to the point of getting 3G digital panic attacks. So this morning I dropped it off at a Nextel Authorized Service Center here in Yuma. After I told them that I do have insurance on my Blackberry they told me that it would take 45 minutes to look it over and try to repair it. Fine. So I left the Blackberry there for the afternoon (separation anxiety – yep, now I know how that feels – you laugh, but there’s a reason why they call it “Crack”berry).

I called them two hours after they had it and I was explained that upon inspection of my Blackberry they had found some corrosion inside my phone due to liquid damage. Huh? Wait a minute, I take good care of my Blackberry! It’s a part of me, like a third arm!!

So they told me that if I talk on my phone excessively, my sweat left on the phone could of caused the damage. I am in no way impressed by their answer. So they continue to tell me that liquid damage wasn’t covered under my insurance policy and if I wanted to submit an insurance claim there is a $100 deductible. HUH? Whatever! I told them I’ll be down to get my phone.

So after I hung up with them, I called Nextel and inquired about my options. Nextel told me that I could get a brand new Blackberry for $150, but I’d have to wait until March, my one year purchase anniversary on the Blackberry I have now.

Yeah Exactly! Did you get that…my Blackberry didn’t even make it one year. Okay, I may use it over excessively, I admit, I read and reply to my emails on it, my 21 rss feeds comes through 30 times a day, I get tweeted and I got to tweet back, my 10 text messages an hour, my news websites to keep me up with reality, check my bank accounts (again to keep me IN reality ), blah, blah, blah.

I don’t sweat over it, I don’t drool all over it, I don’t drop it. I mean, seriously, on my bed I have three pillows, one for me, one for Jake, and one for my Blackberry. Yes, I am a tad traumatized by this hic-cup with my phone’s behavior. It wasn’t working right, have you ever seen CPR done to a Blackberry……well, you should of been here then. I was in complete chaos. I don’t like it when something I depend on to make my life run smoother breaks.

So, anyways, I go back down to the service center and pick up my phone. What was wrong with my Blackberry is that the trackball wasn’t working right…I couldn’t scroll around the screen or use any of the menu options. So, I picked up my phone from the service center and the guy gave me information to submit a claim to repair my phone. I took the information and left. On the way home I was fidgeting with the trackball on my device and something must of snapped under the trackball, because it decided to work! It’s working!!!! The trackball works great now. So, I’m assuming that once the service guy opened up the device, some “corrosion” must of loosed up and released the tension of the trackball. The Blackberry Gods love me again!!! Yes! Okay, so my life is back on track again. My Blackberry is back to normal and yes, so am I……

What else did we do today? Jake got him nails clipped at a local pet grooming shop here next to our RV park. He needed it. And for lunch today…..take a peek….

It was delicious! I think I’ll make another one tomorrow. What else did we do today? We squeezed some more orange juice with our electronic juice maker and I made some more lemonade. I’m practically living on lemonade now.

Okay, this evening we didn’t have much to do, so we decided that we could eat dinner at the Paradise Casino. I know, I know, I know we said we would not gamble again this year, but tonight was the lassssssst time we would gamble this year…….just tonight, this was the last time….no more gambling this year! Ha!

But, you won’t believe what happened to me at the casino tonight. You aren’t going to believe me, but I swear this is what happened. I was sitting at a slot machine and I put 50 dollars in it. This guy sits down next to me (he was around my age – no, I’m not telling you how old I am ), so he hit a bonus feature on his slot machine. Cool! His slot machine rings and he gets 50 free spins. Wow! The winnings can really add up on a slot machine bonus round with 50 free spins.

So, I sit there playing my slot machine. And as the balance on my machine is going down, his balance is going up. Of course! So, we small talk it about how lucky he is, blah, blah, blah and he asks me how much I’m down tonight. So I look at my balance and it says $33.80, so I tell him I’m down about 20 bucks. So he says, “I believe in Karma, when I cash out my bonus money, I’ll give you $20 dollars so you will be where you were when you started.” My mind goes blank…..I mean, what’s the chances of that happening?? Noooo, this is not a dream….it really happened….now stay with me here.

So, I look at his balance and his bonus feature gave him $223.00. Well, I don’t feel so bad about taking $20 dollars of that if he’s offering it…..and no, he doesn’t want anything in return….I hope he doesn’t. He cashes his bonus out and passes me $20 dollars out of his pocket. I ask “Are you sure you want to give me this money?” He says, “I’m not suppose to be here. If my wife finds out I was even thinking about going to a casino, she’s a mean Mexican, she would get out her brass knuckles, and she’s not shy with them.” Oh boy. So I take my part of his bonus winnings and we say bye and go our separate ways.

So, I have now considered this $20 dollar bill my lucky charm. So I put it in my jacket pocket and head over to the Keno machine in the back of the casino. (Mr. $223 winner walks out the door). I take out another $20 dollar bill (not his $20 dollar bill, that’s my lucky charm) and I put my $20 dollars in the Keno machine and play 8 numbers on my Keno card.

I get down to about $12 dollars and I hit 7 out of 8 numbers on my card! 7 out of 8 numbers! And the display on my Keno screen says I won 1,652 quarters! 1,652 quarters!!!!! That’s $413 dollars! Wow! So, I put my hand in my jacket pocket and think, “Yep, my lucky $20 dollar bill is still there. I’ll hang on to that for a while.” So at the end of the night, when we left the casino, I had my lucky $20 dollar bill from Mr. bonus feature winner and I had a couple of hundred dollar bills. I am a happy camper.

So, here I am back at home and I’m not sure what we are up to tomorrow, but hey, don’t forget to come back and check on me! Have a great night. I’ll be back to yap tomorrow! Hey, my question of the day! Tell me, do you have a lucky charm?? Tell me what your lucky charm is and where did you get it? Did you find it, did you buy it…..tell me about your lucky charm!

It’s 11pm here and it’s 1am back home so it’s Christmas Day back home, and soon to be Christmas Day here in Arizona! Let me tell you about my day today and I’ll leave you with a little Christmas treat at the end of this blog entry (pictures and a song)…..

This morning we didn’t do much but sit around outside and shoot the breeze…..I like doing that….just relaxing and enjoying good company. The sun was high and it was a beautiful day out with a slight breeze……exactly how I like December.

OH, I almost forgot…I did some research today and found two local companies in Yuma that fixes Blackberries…..I called one of them up this morning and they told me that they can fix it for free because I have an insurance plan on my Blackberry. They reopen after the holidays and I can wait that long…..I think

This afternoon we stopped by the Paradise Casino. I know we said we wouldn’t be going to any more casinos this week, but it wasn’t my idea, I just get in the car and follow everyone else. I’m innocent! Ha! I lost today at the casino, oh well. I’m use to it….

Tonight I took the electric bicycle out with Jake and snapped some pictures around the park…..I’ll leave you with pictures and a little song.

No, this next picture isn’t our Montana…..It sure is pretty though….

Okay, here’s a Christmas song for you….you can sing this to the tune of “Walking In A Winter Wonderland”……

Palm trees wail, are you listening,
in the pool, water’s glistening,
we are happy tonight
living in a desert wonderland.

Gone away, is the blizzard,
here to stay, is the lizard,
a warm sunny day,
living in a desert wonderland.

In the desert we will have a picnic,
road runners, cactus flowers, and sun,
Christmas dinner is an old tradition,
salsa and tamales by the ton.

Later on we’ll perspire,
as the temperatures rise even higher,
a warm sunny day,
we like it that way,
living in a desert wonderland.

(Lyrics Website Credit is Here)

Okay! Now I want to say Merry Christmas To Jake….

Yep, he’s out cold.

My family and I wish everyone of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. A special holiday wish goes out to all the men and women in the armed forces! Thank you for what you do for us and God bless you and your family….

Good night!

Hi! Well, I don’t have any pictures for you today. Whoa, don’t leave me now…I gotta tell you about my day! I didn’t do much today, but for me, it was a great day!

I went to the movies! Dad wanted to see “Avatar” (click Here to watch movie trailer, it will open in a new window) and I really didn’t see any commercials about it….so I went along, not sure what it was about. This is a very good movie and James Cameron, once again, put together special ingredients for action packed entertainment. The movie is 165 minutes long and delivers a great story, impressive graphics, and action that did make me jumpy at times! I’m not going to tell you about the movie in case you want to see it. But I will tell you that it was worth the price of admission…..

Today was a very windy day. The awning on the RV came in and the chairs were picked up and stored away. Things were blowing around everywhere and Mom said she saw a Christmas tree working its way down the street in control of the wind. I saw in the news today that this wind surge caused quiet a wreck in Phoenix today, you can read about it by clicking Here.

After the movies, we went out to dinner at KFC 1 mile from the RV Park that we are staying at and tonight, yep, you know what we did tonight…..

Casino Time! We stopped by the Quechan Casino and I lost, lost, lost…..got nothing out of that casino. On the way home, some of us (there are 5 of us) wanted to stop at Paradise Casino and majority won, so we stopped and boy, am I glad we did! I won $100 at Keno, $100 at Wheel Of Fortune, and $219 at some volcano themed slot machine that I can’t remember the name of! I’ve lost enough money until now, it’s was time for the tide to turn. So, now we are home and it’s late. I’m sure this blog will post for the 23rd of December, but to me, it’s still the 22nd.

Not too sure what we are doing tomorrow, but we all decided no more casino until next week……..okay, you can stop laughing now. Have a good night!

This morning was “Jake” time! He wasn’t feeling so good yesterday, but now, he’s back to normal again. Whatever was wrong with him to make him sick yesterday had now moved on and Jake is back to his good old self again. We went for a walk this morning. I got a few pictures around the park, not many, but it’ll give you an idea of what’s around me…..look, alot of empty sites for you to come on down and perch with me!!!

That’s our street….there are some RVs already and in January it is suppose to be loaded, packed full here, so you better hurry if you are coming down to hang out with me…..

This is our street, home is at the end of the street…..I’ll let Jake lead the way!

We are almost there…..This RV Park has manufactured homes in it too, at the other end of the park, and on this side of the park is mostly all RVs…..

See! There we are….The RV closest to you is our neighbor we hang out with….she is showing us all the good places to go! And the Montana is right next to it! Nope, not much grass around here……

Okay, around 1pm we left to go to a Tamale Festival in Somerton, Arizona. Do you know what a Tamale is?? Me neither!! So, let’s check it out……

This is a picture of the T-Shirt you could buy for 10 dollars…..I didn’t buy one…….

They have a live band here….they  were playing music from Santana…..

Alot of vendors are here to sell food…..

What’s the commotion down the street?? Of course I’m going to go check it out – Ha!

Ohhh, they were showing everyone what “Zumba” is! Do you know what Zumba is? I do…I’ve done Zumba before! It’s alot of fun! And you want to hear something funny…..this Zumba team is here from the Cocopah Casino! The Cocopah Casino has Zumba in it’s huge conference room every Tuesday night from 7pm to 9pm. I’m thinking about going……

Awww, now they have another dance show with kids!

Tap dancers made their debut here at the festival! They are very good too…..

Okay, enough fooling around….we are going to find out what the heck is a Tamale!! This is what it looks like….I’m glad I got a picture of this because I don’t know how to explain it to you….

Well, let’s get one…..HA! We got one and didn’t know what to do with it. We were talking to the vendor lady that we ordered it from and asked her, “Do we eat this part?” Meaning the outside part of it. She smiled that big smile and said, “Noooooo, here, let me fix it for ya.” So, she was really nice about it and she showed us how to open it up and peel out the inside….

Scrap, Scrap, Scrap……

Add some fixin’s to it and Viola! Yeah, I tasted it….well, it taste kind of bland. There really wasn’t any taste to it. I don’t know…if you want to try one, come on down, I’ll “fix” it up for ya!

NOW we are in my favorite area! This is my Margarita man…..he is here from the “3 Amigos Tequila” company serving up mini Margaritas for free to pass out…….

Okay, I got my Margarita and my free T-Shirt…..

There are alot of people here. Tequila, 72 degrees outside, and food….yeah, I see why it’s packed here……

What is that?????? Is that a……

YES!!! I wanted to go over and hug it!! A slot machine!!!! Oh Boy!!!!!

I got three free spins on this slot machine, I lost, my Mom won a T-Shirt because she hit the bonus on the slot machine with her three free spins. Then we decided to leave…….we were driving around and, wow, they were picking the lettuce field on a Saturday. They usually don’t work on a Saturday……

Okay, we stopped and there’s our neighbor (our driver too) out there waiting to get free lettuce….You think that those workers are going to stop working, get some lettuce, and bring it to her????

Yep, take a look. The guy in the blue shirt in the background asked her how many she wanted and she said, “Two” and sure enough…..

He gives them to her…..

Another happy customer with her fresh lettuce. OH, you can not tip these workers. They absolutely will not take any money from you at all. And the guy in the blue shirt goes back to work…..

Okay, that’s all we picked up from the field today. We are on a roll and decided to stop at Paradise Casino (you knew THAT was coming up didn’t ya – ha!), so on the way to Paradise we had to go down these back roads (short cut roads) and there were cats all over the place……not sure why….I guess someone is feeding them……

So we went to the Paradise Casino and of course I couldn’t bring my camera inside….that’s a no no, unless I sneak it in….and I really didn’t want to get kicked out. So we spend about an hour at the Paradise Casino and I won $35 on Keno. They have the Keno on the slot machine (not live Keno), and I had a good time…..

After we left Paradise Casino, we went out for dinner. So, let’s head over to the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant!!! Have you been to this restaurant before?? They have peanuts everywhere!

Yep, I’ll take some of those…..

Oh, our name is called and I can’t wait to open the menu……I’m hungry…..

I know! I know! I take pictures of everything! I brought my camera with me……I order the ribs and the salad. Very good food there…..

And of course!! An appetizer……we had a coupon for a free onion blossom…..

I got a to-go box. Did I finish all my food? Yeah, I did….but I still got a to-go box, bet you’re wondering why……

Yum! Peanuts! The waiter says, “I don’t see anything, I don’t know anything” Haha! So we walked out and I brought my peanuts home with me…..

Well, I know that’s alot of pictures, but I wanted to share my day with you! I hope you enjoyed my blog because I had a great day today. Tomorrow is going to be a relaxing day and I hope that’s exactly what we do – relax and hang out! But you know us, we could be doing anything, so check back tomorrow so we what we do! And don’t forget to leave me a comment. Nite Nite!