Great St Patrick's Day

The projection for yesterday's game was 3800 fans and the projection was way off. The game between the White Sox and Royals had at least 7,000 fans and we were very busy most of the game.
It ended a little later than usual - about 3:45 - and I thought if I did all the inventory counts quickly that I could get out at a decent time to go to Brian and Amy's home for St Patrick's Day dinner. No such luck. It took what seemed like forever for the General Manager to begin the checkout process for the concession stands and I didn't get out until around 5:15. I rushed home to freshen up for dinner and we left for Brian's at 5:45 for the 6 PM dinner. Alas, in my rush to get out of work, I forgot to pick up my drivers license that we turn in each morning as security for the uniform shirt that we wear each day. So, we had to make a stop at the stadium and take a chance that somebody would still be there. To make it even worse, as we entered the Jeep to leave, the low gas light was on so we had to stop for gas. We finally arrived for dinner at close to 7 PM.

We had a wonderful dinner and visit with the family. Brian, Amy, George, Chery and Amy's parents Sally and Jay were all there. Of course, they had already eaten and we were grateful that the food was left out for our late meal. I had my first scotch of the year and Josie and I enjoyed a delicious corn beef and cabbage dinner. We talked and visited until almost 9 PM when we left. I was able to get everybody in a good picture following dinner:

It will most likely be the last time we see them before leaving on the first of April. Brian had his computer at the table and we were able to see the updated web site for Western Michigan University where Austin begins his exciting college years. He is already listed on the football roster for this year and we were able to see the full schedule of games for the coming year. Brian also had many pictures of the family - some of my mother and father that I haven't seen before. It was a fun time, to say the least. I will try to get some more of the old pictures I have to Brian before we leave so that he can create a CD of all of them for the whole family to enjoy.

We're marching on to the end of the winter stay here and will get more work done today on our vehicles to make sure they are in top shape for our summer journeys...

Nice Visit With Family

We left right around 9:45 AM yesterday to go to Aliso Viejo where our niece Debby lives to spend some time visiting with her and her family. When we arrived shortly after noon, we were dissappointed that Debby's children, Taylor and David, were not going to be there as a result of her ex-husband having them for the day. We still had a very nice visit with Debby, George and Cheryl, and had a terrific lunch that Debby made. Below is a picture of them as we sat around and chatted for nearly 4 hours:

It was great seeing them again and we hope it's not too long before we can get together again.

We thought we might catch the rush hour traffic going home, and we did to some extent. Thank goodness for car pool lanes. We had just about made it home when Josie pointed to a (guess what) - casino. There was a casino (Agua Caliente) about 3 miles from our home that we haven't been in before. Of course we had to go in to check it out and we spent some time there before finally making it home at 8:30. Fortunately, we played just long enough to win a little money so it was worth it.

Today we will probably hang out close to home and do some chores -like laundry - UGH! Whatever we do, it will be better than a work day...