Just for Fun

Things have been pretty low-key in our neck of the woods, but here are a few things we’ve done just for fun.

Casino

After many, many years living in Reno, casinos have little appeal for me.  However, since retiring and taking more road trips, we have learned to stop in casinos along our way.  Their restrooms are spic and span and they offer really nice refreshments.  All for no charge, or maybe a drop of a quarter or two.

On a recent afternoon with nothing better to do, we decided to take a little trip to one of the casinos about 30 minutes from our house. 

Desert Diamonds Casino is a chain which opened a Phoenix location during the lockdown and thus had a slow opening.  It still looks brand new and I don’t think it may be too busy yet.

Wow!  Is it gorgeous!  Upon entering, the exterior is huge and beautiful.  There is a lot of garage parking.  The actual entry into the building is stunning flooring and lighting.

The food court chandeliers are stunning.

Since we haven’t spent much time in a new casino, all the machines were foreign to us.  John just picked one on a whim and had great luck winning enough money for gas and a car wash but not enough for a down payment on a Porsche.  Dang it.

All-in-all a fun afternoon, but I’m still not a casino addict.

Patio

Okay you guessed it, another patio clean-up day.  The lovely April weather beckons me outside.  It was time to give our patio furniture one more good clean and position them for the summer.  It’s likely we’ll have to move things around again as the sun leaves us less shade on the patio, but this will work for a while.

It was time to move our plants out into the sunshine and let the petunias and snapdragons have one last hurrah for the season.  Sweet potato vines are already filling in some of the holes.  There is such a small window between winter plants and summer plants.  It seems like nothing flourishes for long.

Popsicles

Using up some fresh fruit and looking for some hot-weather desserts, I whipped out the popsicle molds from winter storage and made a fast and easy treat.

I used Crystal Light raspberry lemonade as the juice on top of small slices of fresh lemon, strawberries and blueberries.  I know everyone cannot tolerate the fake sweeteners (nor do they want it) but the small amount in these popsicles works fine for us.

If you’re interested in how I made homemade lemonade popsicles, here is the link.

Pool Time

The pool water still seems a bit cool, but catch-up with my dear local friends has been great at the pool during our hot spell.

Evon and I thought we were the only ones at the pool and surprise!  This couple seemed quite put out we were joining them.  They stayed around a bit, gave us the stink eye, made some annoying honking and finally flew off.  Oh, after leaving huge poos on the pool deck. 

Sorry the picture isn’t great, but I didn’t want to get to close. Those things can be aggressive.

Canadian geese at the Arizona pool were never what I thought I’d see, but cute.

Prayer Time

I stopped by our local juice shop and while I was waiting, I saw this canister for placing prayer requests.  They even provided cards with a bible verse.  You can bet I was busy filling those out.  My prayer list has gotten quite long and it’s nice to know there are others standing in agreement for requests to God.

Which reminds me, it is my pleasure and privilege to pray for others, so if you’re in need, bring it on.