We wento to the Mohegan Sun casino yesterday. We didn't leave here until after 3pm, and it's about an hour to get there, so it was a bit of a late start. We didn't leave until around 11pm. I've never been to a casino so it was interesting to go. The place is huge, it has over 6000 slot machines in it, along with the usual table games, and a giant hotel, conference center, arena, shops, etc. One of the reasons we went was because yesterday was free scoop day at Ben and Jerry's icecream stores, and that was the nearest one. We had been talking about going for a few weeks now anyway, so it was a good time to go.
We had alot of fun. There are 2 diffent gaming areas with the shops in the middle, and an upstairs that is mostly just restaurants. We ate at Johnny Rockets, which is like a 50s style hamburger joint. They even give you 2 nickles to put in the little juke-box on the table. It plays overhead, rather than at the table, so it takes a while to get to your song. It was really good though.
We didn't play any of the table games. They're pretty expensive, and there aren't any that we really cared to play. We decided to dedicate $10 to playing slot machines and video-poker though. We ended up doing really well. We signed up for the little player's club card, which gives you bonus points every time you play something that you can redeem for food or whatever else. We didn't build up many points, but that's ok. The first thing we tried was one of the slot machines, and Sabrina won a few pulls in a row, so we had a good start. We did more slots off and on, but never really won anything else. We did do well at video poker though. We played for quite a while, and did well enough to start having more than we started with, so we cashed out with $12 before we went to eat. So from our $10, we made $2 more. Then after dinner we went back to play some more, and did even better. We lost for a while, but started winning again, and put aside $10 in quarters so we would know that we would at least break-even for the day, and used the leftovers to play more. I was on a losing streak for a while, and on my last $0.50 I got a really good hand, and won $12.50 back. After that I did pretty well for a while, and so did Sabrina (she also got a $12.50 hand) and by the time we called it quits, we had $33.25. So we had a profit of $25.25 once we took out the $10 we started with, and included the $2 we won earlier. We were both pretty pleased.
It's pretty unlikely that we would do so well repeatedly, but it's certainly a nice way to start off the first time we try going. The best you can hope for usually is to not-quite break even. We'll probably go again in a month or so, or go to the other casino, which is not far from this one, called Foxwoods.
The only other thing new is that we did manage to catch the stray cat we were after. We got him this afternoon and took him to the vet that the no-kill shelter said to go to. He's very friendly, and obviously likes people. He just rolled around on the ground with us and then went right in the carrier when we put it down with some tuna in it as a lure. We'll probably never know what happens to it, but hopefully he'll find a new home.
It's been a slow week. It rained quite a bit over the weekend though, and now I've got a bunch of sprouts in the garden. The rows are really full now. The cucumbers are the only things that haven't sprouted now. There may be one sprout so far, but it's hard to tell for sure. By the end of the week it should be going pretty well though. Pretty soon I'll have to start thining it out. I'm not really looking forward to that, but it won't be too bad.
We all went to the track yesterday to do laps. It's only the second time we've gone down, but it was another nice day so we decided to go. It's very different to run on a nice track, compared to a treadmill. It's hard to tell how fast you are going on the treadmill too, since they are never really calibrated correctly. I measured about 1mph faster on the track than the treadmill, and felt like I was doing less work. Having a breeze helps too, you don't get tired quite as quickly. Overall its nice to go to the track, but you never know until you get there if there will be a bunch of people, or the school using it or something.
Not much new today. I checked my garden and there's already one sprout from a radish. I don't see signs of anything else, but that's pretty quick, considering its less than a week since I planted. I also helped sabrina put together a bench we got at Target for her garden area. It's an iron fire-bench, meant to go with a set that has a fire pit, but we just liked the bench. It even came with its own tools with which to assemble it. It was still hard to put together because some of it was a very tight fit to get it into position, but it was ok, and looks nice now.
We've dropped immediate plans to bring the cat to the shelter because it hasn't been around at a time we could bring it. It's been by late at night, but that doesn't help any. We did see it briefly today, but it just ate and ran off again. The shelter called to see if it could give the spot to another cat, and we said yes. They said to just call anytime we manage to catch it, so we'll keep trying. It seems to be better in general, so hopefully it didn't suffer any permanent injury.
The last couple days has mainly consisted of eating Easter candy. We had chocolate of various sorts, ham, and hard boiled eggs. I certainly enjoyed it. The ham was really good, it was Corando, which was on sale this week in honor of Easter. We decorated the eggs Easter night, then started right in eating them. I had one with dinner tonight, with leftover ham, and also some leftover sausage from grilling the other night. We also had our egg hunt sunday afternoon, and got a bunch of candy out of that. Sabrina gave me a basket with some Mounds eggs (chocolate covered coconut) which are very good, and also a giant hollow chocolate egg from Nestle, which is made out of the same chocolate as a Crunch bar, complete with the crispy bits, filled with wrapped up mini-crunch bars. I ate about half of it today. I dont want to think of how many calories of junk food I have had the last couple days, but I'm still counting it in my holiday break, and pretending I'll go back to my diet after I finish the candy.
We're planning to try to bring one of the stray cats we've been feeding to a shelter. It got in a fight, or had an accident of some sort, and there's a chunk of fur missing from it's head, and a pretty deep open wound. There's a no-kill shelter that Sabrina called and said they would take it. We still have to catch it though, at a time when we can bring it to the vet that the shelter said to go to. So of course today it didn't come by at all during the day. We saw it around 10 tonight and gave it some food. Hopefully it'll be by again tomorrow during the day. It's a very friendly cat, and will come up to us to be pet and roll around on the ground in front of us, so we're pretty sure we can get it into a carrier. None of the other cats are really willing to let us touch them, so it's very unlikely we could bring them anywhere. If one of them is going to be injured, its good in a way it was that one since we can take care of it better than the others. I'm pretty sure someone will adopt it since it is so friendly. It's a good enough looking cat, and probably belonged to someone at some point and was abandoned for some reason. It's too willing to come to us to have been born wild. In any case, hopefully we'll get it to the vet tomorrow.
Today was a slow day. We dug out where Sabrina is going to put more plants in her garden. She has a plot in front of the house, next to the driveway. She has some seeds that she is going to put in the new area, the old garden had herbs that had already been started and she replanted. We're looking for some edging that will fit in there, but its hard because it is an odd shape and size. Once we do, we'll plant the seeds for more herbs.
We also tried out a new-ish icecream place on the way home from Home Depot today. It's right along the main road, and was open last summer, but we never went. The place is a big farm, that sells plants and flowers, and added icecream last year. They don't make their own icecream, but its a nice addition. It's pretty popular; there were always people there last summer, and there were quite a few there tonight, even though it wasn't really warm when we went. I got a sundae with Reece's Nightmare icecream, which is pretty much chocolate and peanutbutter, and also had the little Reece's candy (that looks like M&Ms) on it for a topping, and hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry. Sabrina got a sundae with coconut icecream, pistachio icecream, mashmallow topping, whipped cream, and no cherry. It was a pretty big sundae, even though it was the "regular" size, they have a bigger one too. We both liked it alot. I'm sure we'll go again later this sujmmer.
I grilled for dinner again tonight. I made hotdogs, sausage (2 packs), 6 turkey burgers, and two packs of kielbasa. It took a while, and we have a bunch of leftovers, but it came out really well. We'll eat the rest on monday most likely. I enjoy grilling, and am getting better at it. For the most part things don't get too singed. It can be hard with the grill we have because there's a hole in the burner so there's a giant flame in the middle where the propane is escaping, then the side the propane is supposed to go to doesn't generate much heat. I'm used to it now, and work around it. We're thinking about getting a new burner for it. You can get it at Wal-Mart for only $13 or so, which is much better than buying a new grill. I'm not completely sure the one they have will work with the grill we have here, but its worth a try.
For Easter festivities, we made hard-boiled eggs, but haven't decorated them yet. We'll make egg salad, and probably deviled eggs, later on. And we'll have our ham dinner, and probably an easter egg hunt, tomorrow. We thought about going to New York to have dinner with Sabrina's aunt and uncle, but decided not to. That much travel for a dinner tends to kill a holiday. It's about 3 hours each way, and Sabrina's mother has to work on Monday, so we'd have to be back really early sunday. We all thought it was better to just have Easter by ourselves.
The garden is finally done. Well, mostly done, there's still some leftover dirt that has to be cleaned up, and a big pile of rocks that has to go somewhere, but the garden itself is finished. Yesterday we put in the edging, the rest of the dirt, and the manure, and made a little rock-garden to put the pots of cucumbers on, and today I planted all the seeds.
I'm pretty happy with how it came out. It took quite a bit of work, and its not quite straight, but its still nice. Hopefully things will actually grow in it. The stray cats that we have certainly enjoy it, they either play in the dirt, or with the string that we have marking the rows. We want to find something to put out in it to keep the animals away. Supposedly things like chimes, or a pinwheel, will work fairly well for some animals, but we haven't found anything we liked. We spent quite a while the last couple days out shopping, looking for something to use and just for other general stuff. I got a 40lb set of weights for dumbells, so I can move up from the dinky weights we had around the house. That should hold me until I am sick of doing it. If I get to the point that I can do all my exercises with 20 pounds in each hand, I'll be happy. There's no reason to aim for more than that.
We've also been trying to find stuff for Easter. I'm not sure what we're going to do, if anything, other than eat ham and eggs. We still haven't put away the Christmas decorations yet, they're on the couch in the living room. At least the tree is gone finally.
Not much else new here. I just finished my daily exercise routine, and tomorrow is my day off. It's always weird to not do it when I do it the other 6 days each week. I feel like there's something else I should be doing. I haven't lost any weight this week, or even gained a little, because I didn't do as much exercises as I usually do (since I spent the time gardening) and ate much more than I usually do. We're counting it as a holiday week though, since Easter is coming, and will do better next week.
I didn't get as much done on the garden as I had hoped I would, but it's still going ok. I got around half the dirt put back in the hole, along with the straw lining underneith, and have the edging laid out where I want it. I still have to level off the ground under the edging and make it match up right, and then shore it up with more dirt, but the edging will be done after that.
We did go buy more soil, got 3 more bags, because the 3 I had barely made one layer in the hole. Once the new dirt was in (the first layer), we put more of the old stuff in to make it high enough for the edging. I still have to put in the rest of the dirt, and the new dirt, and the manure, once the edging is completely in place. We'll hopefully finish that tomorrow, and plant on Friday. I had hoped to be done today except for the planting because the weather was supposed to be bad tonight and tomorrow, but it ended up that it will be ok afterall, so I wasn't worried about it. It was much hotter than forcast today, so we didn't want to work too hard, and didn't start until around 4pm. We shopped first, then worked on the garden after. It was much better once we got back, and had started to get breezy, so it was almost pleasant again. It's much easier to put the dirt back in, than it was to take it out, but still not something to do when it is 80.
So far I'm pretty pleased with it. It looks good, and the soil we got is really nice. Very black and organic. We didn't take any pictures today, but will take more once the edging is in, and then more again when it is finished.
The last couple days have been pretty busy. It took both days to dig out the hole, and tomorrow we're going to spend the day filling it back in. It's amazing how rocky the ground is here. Not only are there alot of huge rocks, but there are hundreds of little ones. It looks like it could be fill from when the house was built, or the addition was built, and then buried later. We managed to get the bigger rocks out of it as we went, and we'll try to get some of the smaller ones out as we put it back in. It's just as well that we didn't get the tiller, it'd probably break trying to crush through the giant rocks here.
Our current plan is to fill in a fair amount of the dirt we dug up, on top of a layer of straw (which we've had since last summer when we got it for cat beds). Then we'll put down a layer of the new soil we got, and mix it together with the rake, then more of the old soil, and the new soil again, then later on put on the fertilizer, and more straw once the seeds are planted and growing a bit. That way the seeds will have nice soil to grow in, and we can cut down on the weeds with the straw. The edging will go in before the last of the old and new soil, so we can bury it as we go rather than dig a new trench after we fill it in. We'll probably have to buy a couple more bags of soil to get a good mix, we only have 3 bags right now, and that won't spread far. I don't want to end up with a big hump of soil in the yard either though.
I'm pretty happy with how it's going overall. It's been hard work to dig the big hole (it's over a foot deep, and 8 feet by 4 feet now). There are two giant piles of dirt on tarps, and another pile of rocks, to show for it. We took a couple more pictures today so everyone can see our progress. Hopefully it'll grow well and we'll have nice vegitables later this summer.
In other news, we tried a new Chinese buffet tonight. Royal Buffet, in Enfield. It's about half an hour away, but it was really good. Someone had told us it was good and we wanted to try it out. It's only $10.95 for dinner, and $1 for soda. It's got 6 buffet tables of food, 2 of which are almost all dessert items. There's a bunch of seafood, which doesn't do much for me, but it was good if you like that kind of thing. The usual Chinese items were all there, like Mongolian Beef, Chicken Teriaki, General Tso's Chicken, fried rice, white rice, wonton soup, hot and sour soup, etc etc. There's over 130 items every day. Plus they have a sushi bar, and a Mongolian bbq style thing, where you pick out your raw ingredients and they stir-fry it on the spot for you. We didn't bother with that since there was enough else to eat, but it's nice to have if you want it. I've never been good at picking good spices to go with my food, so I don't enjoy it as much as the prepared foods. The food was all really good, and they had a great selection. They even had self-serve prime-rib if you want it. For the price it was really good, and would be a bargain even if it cost more. Lunch is served 'till 3pm, and is only $6. We'll definately go back again sometime.
We went to two different Home Depot's today, but didn't end up with much to show for it. I got a pair of gloves to wear while working on the garden, and also 3 plastic pots for my cucumbers. I was hoping to get some edging for the garden, but couldn't find anything that I liked, and was inexpensive. It was rather disappointing. We also didn't get the soil and manure yet, because it was somewhat out of reach, and we didn't feel like finding someone to drag it down for us so close to closing. We were hoping it could all be delivered, since carrying 320 pounds of dirt and manure isn't our idea of a great time, but it costs $50 even just bringing it across town, so we'll have to do it ourselves. It won't be a big deal, but won't be a great time either.
So tomorrow, I guess we'll make one trip to get the dirt and stuff, and another trip to pickup the tiller. I still have to stake out where I'm going to put the garden, but hopefully that won't take too long. I never did find any stakes that I liked so I'll probably end up just using some thick sticks from the yard. There are plenty of them around, I just have to sharpen an end and stick them in the ground. I'm sure it won't be that easy, since nothing ever is, but one can hope.
The rain did stop when it was supposed to, so it was a pretty nice afternoon. It's pretty soggy out, but it was relatively warm. It should be about the same tomorrow, so that's good. It won't be so warm that we'll be broiling outside while working, but won't be cold either. The ground should be fairly soft after the rain and warm, so that'll make things easier too. Hopefully things will go more smoothly tomorrow than today.
Not much to talk about today. We bought some stuff for the forthcoming vegetable garden. We got a combination hoe and cultivator, with an extendable handle, which is pretty cool, and we also got some trellis type things that will go in the cucumber pots. We still need to buy pots, and some soil and fertilizer, but we're planning to do that tomorrow. And then on sunday we're going to rent a honda tiller from Home Depot to clear the land for my garden, and the herb garden sabrina is making. It's too bad that we don't have more land to do, because it would make it really easy. We don't really need a giant garden though.
I've got a little diagram for how big my garden will be, and how I'm going to divide it. Once it stops raining I'll stake it out so I can see what it'll look like, and where I have to run the tiller. That'll probably end up being on sunday, since it is supposed to rain part of tomorrow, and we have more shopping to do, which will take most of the day anyway. I have to decide what I am going to put around it too. I need some sort of edging for it, or something similar. I don't want my new soil to get washed away, and I don't want grass to grow into it any more than necessary. The less I have to weed it the better.
I can't decide if I want to plant everything at once, or do a little each week so I have stuff ripen at different times. It'd be nice to make it last longer, but at the same time the garden is so small it seems silly to plant it over time. I'll have to decide by monday or tuesday, whichever I end up planting the seeds.
I hope it all goes well. We'll have to take pictures of the construction as we go.
Tax season is here again. I actually did mine a few weeks ago. I filed the federal form online through Turbotax Online I couldn't e-file my state form because I was only a part-year resedent of Massachusettes, and you can't do that online. I already got my federal refund back, and am waiting for the state. Who knows how long that'll take, MA is really slow with their taxes. I was hoping that by doing it early I would get it back sooner, but who knows. I did ask for direct deposit, so at least I don't have to wait for a check. It is somewhat satisfying to get a check in the mail from the government, but I'd rather be surprised that my bank balance is higher than i expected.
I wouldn't mind paying taxes if they didn't make it so complicated. I don't see how the average person can do it without using an accountant. The government must make a fortune off of people that don't take advantage of all the deductions and other ways of reducing your taxes. It's definately worth having someone that knows what they are doing do your taxes for you. If you own a house, or make more than, say, $30k/year, you shouldn't do your own taxes. And really, people that make less than $12k or so shouldn't do their own either, because they may be eligable for the Earned Income Credit, and that's really hard to figure out correctly for most people. At the very least, you should use tax software such as TurboTax, or TaxCut, to do your taxes. That's much less expensive than a CPA, and can help save alot of money in the long run. It knows what to ask and how to figure it all out for you.
I've done all 3 (CPA, myself, and TurboTax) and I prefer TurboTax so far. I'll start using a CPA once I meet the requirements I said earlier. I know that I don't know enough to do a complex return as well as it could be done. I could certainly do a good job, but I'm not trained to get the most out of the tax code. I may not like the way it is setup, or the complexity, but I'll take advantage of it when I can.
A pretty slow day today. I bought some seeds to start a vegetable garden, as you may have seen on sabrina's blog. It'll take quite a bit of work to get it going, since we'll either have to clear a big chunk of land, or make a raised garden. 'm currently planning an 8ft x 4ft plot. I'm going to put in cucumbers (potted, not in the ground), radishes, a mesclun mix, and bibb lettuce. It'll be interesting to see how it goes, I've never tried to raise produce before. We also seem to have a bunny living in the backyard, so it'll probably eat all my lettuce.
Clearing the land is going to be the hard part. If it is too difficult, or the dirt isn't rich enough, I'll have to do the raised garden. Either way we'll have to buy a bunch of soil, and filling that big a space is going to take alot of soil. I don't know if we could even put that much in the car in one trip. I think it could be fun though, in a way. If everything grows well it'll be nice having fresh salad makings for the summer. It'll be a month or two before anything starts to be edible, but then the rest of the summer we can have stuff, if I plant it right.
I also found a pretty good site last night for learning various bits of web programming, such as html, xml, vbscript, javascript, asp, etc. It's hard to find sites that offer lessons for free, that aren't really poorly done. It's even harder to find one that has so many areas covered. I read through several of them, and will keep it in mind for later reference. I'd like to learn to do more with style sheets, and xml, but don't really have any usefull application in mind for it. Until I do, it's hard to just read through and get much out of it. I like to have a project to work on while I learn, rather than just examples and lessons. It's a worthwhile site to look at for anyone interested in learning any kind of online programming.
We sent to Olive Garden tonight to celebrate Sabrina losing 5 pounds on her diet. We got there pretty early, and so we didn't have to wait for a table, which is a nice change. I think it's only possible if you get there before 5pm, I've never been to an Olive Garden that wasn't crowded.
I ordered Garlic Herb Chicken con Broccoli, which is my current favorite dish. We had our salad and breadsticks, which were good as always. Then we got our main dishes, which appeared fine at first, but after the waiter left, I realized that there was no pasta on my plate! There was chicken, and broccoli, and sauce, but no orecchiettes (little pasta shaped similarly to hats). Up until that point, the waiter had been over to the table to make sure we didn't need anything pretty frequently, but of course now that I had something to say to him, he wasn't anywhere to be found. I ate what I had and got about half way through before he came back to see how we were doing. He was chagrined to see what the problem was, which is a good thing. There's nothing worse than a waiter that acts like you are putting them out because they messed up your food. Apparently someone else had ordered the same dinner but asked for extra broccoli and no pasta (why they would do that is beyond me). I'm not sure if I got theirs, or if the kitchen just made 2 that way and we both got the same thing. He didn't seem to think the other person's was wrong too, so its hard to say. The other person may have gotten mine afterwards and he hadn't found out yet.
In any case, he brought out a bowl of orecchiettes a few minutes later and I got to eat it with the other half of my chicken and broccoli, so there wasn't much harm done. It was fresh and hot too, so it reheated the rest of my plate, which is nice too. Chilly oil/cream sauce on pasta would be gross. As an added bonus, he gave us a free dessert to make up for the mistake, so we got the Black Tie Mousse Cake afterwards.
It's become a joke that no matter what I order at a restaurant, there will be something they don't have. This time I was missing pasta, but I can't remember how many times I've gone somewhere and they were missing something else. Usually they are completely out of it and have to make a substitution. It's happened frequently at Olive Garden too. I've ordered the same dish in the past, and had to substitute Alfredo Sauce instead of the garlic cream sauce one time, and bowties for orecchiette another time. I've most frequently had problems with broccoli for some reason. I don't know how many times I've gone somewhere and not been able to get it. One time I went to a restaurant/grill and they didn't have hamburgers! How can you not have hamburgers? They were right next to a supermarket too.
If it wasn't for the fact that I really like the food at Olive Garden, I don't think we would ever go. The service is always ok, but not great, and there seems to be too much staff with too little to do most of the time. But at the same time, there is always a huge wait while they stand around, even if there are tables open. Couldn't they stop yakking at eachother and clear a table? Waiting around must be part of the Italian experience.
Why is it so hard to get a restaurant with good food and good service? The food is generally good most places, but it's become a surprise when the service is anything better than mediocre, and usually closer to poor. We've frequently (especially in Boston) had almost hostile servers. They ask how you are, and if you don't speak up and act cheery, they get offended and look at you like you're retarded or something. Why do you have to be friends with the server? They're there to bring you food, not become your best friend.
Half the time they can't even do their job properly. They don't pay attention, don't bring your drinks and refills, are always slow with the bills (you'd think they'd want their money). You have to wait in a crowd to sit at a little table to have a hostile server bring overpriced food. At least most places we go give generous portions, so the price isn't too offensive. I do enjoy eating out.
Someday I should open my own restaurant and do things the way we like it. I realize that many people like the suckup service and false-cheeriness of servers that are at trendy restaurants, but I'd be much happier with service that is courteous, competent, and unobtrusive... without having to go to a restaurant that is $150/person for tiny food that is made to look pretty, and be trendy, rather than satisfying. They really shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
My favorite restaurant is Bugaboo Creek. You get plentiful food, and good service, at a reasonable price. The decor is a little weird, but despite that I like it. It's hard to believe that it is so hard to find somewhere to eat that fits our style. At least there is one place to go.
As I suspected, we only got a couple inches of snow, I'm not sure how much it actually is. It didn't start until late yesterday, and ended a few hours after midnight, but never was nearly as heavy as the weather people said it would be. I think it mostly went south of us. Schools were cancelled for nothing.