January 8th

The rain finally let up, with only a few sprinkles today.  While they do need the moisture here, I am a little more selfish and would prefer warm sunny days.
  We went out to Total Wine today, so we could see what we are missing out on.  It turned out quite a lot, so we picked up some refreshments.  It was pretty funny as we never expect to run into anyone we know here, but John & Betty Simpson were in there.  I guess they are house sitting here and around for a while.  Got a new scotch to try out and it seems to be fine.
  After we stopped by Albertsons where they had some great specials.  We were most interested in the steaks, but got a few things as well as a powerball ticket.  The powerball is up to $800million, the largest jackpot ever and still climbing.  You know what they say, it only takes one ticket to win, so we have quite a few more chances than that.  Seems like an obscene amount of money, but even a piece of a prize that large would be something special.  The steaks were a great deal, we got some ribeyes and T-bones that look awesome.  There were lots of specials, so Marg picked up the ones that appealed. 
  We just got back and had a text from Bill to get him some powerball tickets, so we went down to the local circle K to pick them up.  Oddly enough most winners seem to come from convenience stores, so he just might have a leg up on the process..   By the time we got back it was time to go and do the prep work for the breakfast crew.  There were 5 of us to do it, so it went quickly and we were done in under an hour.  We should be ready to go in the morning.  We have a new couple with us and still have the couple that are going to their own team, so it should be a good group to work with.
  By that time it was happy hour, so we went down to swap tales and catch up on the news.  Somewhere in the process, Marg had agreed on dinner plans with two other couples.  We went to a bar/restaurant called the Dog Run where they had an all-you-can-eat cod special.  The place was jam packed and we had to wait a bit, but that gave us time for a couple of beer.  The fish was great and there was certainly lots of it.  The waitress was very friendly and kept hugging Jerry, it was pretty funny.  Kenny didn't tell us until we got there that the last time he was there, some gals were dancing on the bar, but it never happened tonight.  I kept a close eye Marg, but she never made a move to get up there, LOL.
 We were a bit late getting out, but after getting back it was the animal races.  They had a good sized crowd and we managed to pick a few winners and have a few laughs.