21, Beer, Bunco, and Bars

On Friday night, we went to our friend Julie's holiday party. The theme was Casino Night so Karen and I (and others) were asked to be dealers. I dealt Blackjack for the first time ever. That was fun. I was an English major and, seriously, numbers make me nervous. I did okay and I just said to the people I was dealing to "English major here" and then they were nice to me. I don't think I could ever deal at a casino, though I suppose if I did enough of it, my math skills would greatly improve.

There are four things that have helped me along the way make my math skills better than I would have guessed:

1. a job as a cashier at the Spring House restaurant in Cedar Rapids where I had to use math to count change back,
2. college girls tutoring me throughout junior high and high school. I used to FLUNK math tests. Side note: I remember sitting in math class and someone would say, "I did bad on this test," and show me a B-. I'd say, "I did bad on this test," and show them a D or F.
3. college math where I actually got a B on a test
4. going through flash cards with Alex.

I digress.

After the casino night broke up, we went to have a drink at the Marriott Hotel and sit with some friends. It was a good wind-down.

On Saturday, we played @ 5:15 Mass and then went downstairs to a potluck/Bunco night in the basement. Really good conversation and that was really cool. There were 5 tables of 4 and we played 3 games x 6 so 18 total things you can win or lose. You keep track of how many games you win, how many games you lose, and how many buncos you get. I won a giant Kit-Kat bar because I had the most losses (13). I couldn't roll what I was supposed to roll for the first 6 rolls so I started out 0-6. Alex won a candy bar and Megan won a candy bar. Joel, who was spending the night, won a prize for newcomer since it was his first night.

Karen didn't win anything.

For my surprise 39th birthday, my brother-in-law Dave gave me a 12 pack mix of Samuel Adams beer. For the first time in Bunco night history, there was beer available as we played bunco. There were 3 unopened bottles when I came home so it wasn't a wild and crazy night but it was fun.

Today is practice @ 2:15 and then we are taking Karen's brother's truck up to the Cedar Rapids Airport because they are flying in today from Orlando (Disney World). Rumor is that we'll have McDonald's for supper - there's one by the airport - and miss the season premier of "24" which may be okay since the Gazette had a story on it that said it wasn't very good.

I didn't sign in to my work PC this weekend. I slept in both yesterday and today. And, if you're caring, I shaved after 5 days. I looked bad with a beard/mustache and I could tell I wouldn't like the way I looked.

Now, I'm going to clean the basement for a 1/2 hour before we leave for practice.