Clean Up, Then Cleaned Out

This morning was devoted to cleaning our one-bedroom apartment.

Last year, Helen and I had a young woman clean our place every two weeks at a cost of $100 a month. This year, we decided we could handle the cleaning ourselves and bought a Bissell vacuum and some cleaning supplies to help with the task.

After putting together the vacuum and a nifty Swiffer floor cleaner, we set about getting the place in order. I vacuumed the bedroom, living room and dining area and Helen used the Swiffer to clean the tiled areas of the kitchen, bathroom and entryway. Then I cleaned the bathtub and shower, while Helen did all the other work.

She sent me out to earn some money, while she finished cleaning the apartment. She really did a great job and was pretty worn out after it was done.

Meanwhile, I rolled into the Red Rock casino where I found a $10 blackjack table. Right away, things turned ugly - I lost the first four hands, pushed one, then lost two more. I changed tables and that didn't help at all. In less than 45 minutes, I left with $80 less than I arrived with.

But hope springs eternal in a gambler's breast, so I headed over to the Suncoast. I've had an amazing run of success there and surely the generous Suncoast dealers would make up for the scoundrels who were tossing cards at the Red Rock. I was confident - It wasn't a matter of if I would win, it was only a question of how much.

But this time the Neon Empire Struck Back...I proceeded to have a very lackluster hour of down and up and down and down and down. Luckily I had one big hand where I split 9s against a dealer's 6. I received another 9 and then another. Eventually I had four hands, with one double down for a total of 5 $15 bets. Luckily the dealer broke and I collected $75. But even that singular bright event was not enough to nudge me into the black for long.

I left Suncoast down $30 - so for the day I lost $110. My first losing session after 9 Consecutive Winning trips.

I got home around 2:30 p.m. and just relaxed for about an hour. While I was gone, Helen received a package she had been waiting for - 12 bags of special "Wild Berry Flavored Jolly Ranchers" that we've been unable to find here in Las Vegas. They are her favorites and we ordered a dozen bags through Amazon.

Around 3:30 I started a big batch of spaghetti sauce and let that simmer for a couple of hours til I boiled the pasta. It was a tasty dinner that we both enjoyed. Now we're just relaxing and watching TV. Tomorrow the adventure continues...