Wine and Cake ... OH BOY!!

 AND ....... it's Magic Castle of Bingo day once again.  Gosh ... it feels like it's almost EVERY day around here.  I barely get enough sleep to make it through the day ... and then Bingo happens and I'm falling asleep at the wheel.  Well not the wheel, but you know what I mean.

I began the day by trying to save this squash.  The gopher did a number on it, not to mention being transplanted and regaled with hot sun all day long. Yesterday, it was flat as a pancake, a little worse for wear.  This morning, having put the chair over it for shade, it's doing MUCH better! 

A quick walk around found all these guys VERY happy with the warm sun.  I call these Ladys of the Nile.  Whoohoo they are ready to burst out in blue!

It didn't take long for the early hour to arrive.  If I can make it to the Lodge by 1:30, I can put in my order for a BLT with salad.  The days of fried chicken fingers and corn dogs are gone.  And now, so too are the chili cheese dog ... no bun.  Two weeks in a row, I got sick from eating that at Bingo.  On this day, I went to the kitchen with a few questions.  

How do you heat the chili?  And more importantly, what do you do with the leftovers?  Wasn't I shocked to hear it's kept in a crock pot on low for almost 8 hours.  Leftovers are bagged up and stuck in the freezer, to be reheated ... on low ... the next week.

NO .. NO .. NO!  That's probably why I got sick.  Throw that stuff out!  It's not worth saving $2.00 worth of chili for someone to get sick.  They complied.

That brought me to this.  Sometimes it's just less hassle if I say yes instead of no thank you.  We discussed the chili over a small glass of white zin.  

In no time, it was GO time as we all headed downstairs.  That's funny ... where's the crowd?  I expected a full house, but only 89 diehards showed up.  It's graduation week around here, so we expect everyone is out with their graduates.  

Eighty is our minimum number to break even.  On this night, we had 85.  Instead of $250 for every pot, we barely squeaked by and paid $150 for ten of the games (22 games in total).  Unfortunately, that was made worse by the fact that two of our best callers were absent.  Oh my goodness ... in 30 minutes, we were 30 minutes behind schedule.

My first challenge was our one guy who has had multiple strokes.  I feel bad for him ... I really do .. but he should NOT be driving, yet here he is every week.  It's interesting to note that he walks very VERY slow, hardly lifting his feet at all ... unless you happen to catch him outside where he walks MUCH easier and faster.  Hmmmmm .........

For whatever reason, on this day he decided to test me.  He sent one of the helpers to tell me I didn't give him one of the game sheets.  Yes we did ... and we even put them in a bag so he could carry them.  I finally relented.  THAT was a mistake.  

After the next game, HE himself came to the table and told me he didn't get either speed game.  Maybe he dropped them???  He can't speak either, so just mumbled at me, getting really angry and loud.  NO I said ... I can't give you any more free games.  That's not fair to everyone else in the room.  He actually smiled as he pulled out some money to pay me for two more.  See what I mean?  They try to cheat you all the time.  When the game came around, I checked his table.  Sure enough, there were all the cards sitting in front of him.  

By now the peasants have grown weary of being way behind schedule.  I admit, I was too.  Even the King had to call on this day, and they harassed him mercilessly.  I just smiled and had a piece of my cake that now looks like someone sat there with a fork and nibbled at the flowers.  I didn't care one bit!!

It woke me up enough to begin the closeout with the new recruit.  I try not to overload her with things like "don't give away all the $5 bills or you will have to go buy more" ... and how to quickly and easily count out 126 $20 bills instead of taking five minutes.  

On this night however, the Infernal Machine showed her his bad side.  She was $25.00 short.  I might have been able to figure that out, but it was already an hour past the time my chariot turns into a pumpkin.  It's hard to think when you are being asked many questions about why.  I counted the money again, and it was what it was.  

I'll check it again today when I go back in.  Big sigh ... we are obliged to work with the Grand Lodge, whose accounting system is made for a large company like IBM.  To say it's complicated is putting it mildly.  They don't like some of our budget items, so it's a problem.  Between that, my dentist appointment and a rescheduled Trustee and Board meeting tonight, I do not see ANY sleep in my future.  

I'm pretty sure however that I DO see a Starbucks stop coming up VERY soon!