Journal Entry for Saturday, Apr 7th

Foiled Dinner Plans Today, after the 3rd round of the Masters golf tournament, we headed over to the “M” Resort to have their new Saturday night “all you can eat Lobster & Champagne” buffet. Disappointed! This was going to be my 3rd special "dinner out" birthday present. That’s right, all you can eat. Lobster baked stuffed with crab, steamed crab legs, shrimp, lobster bisque, and about 150 other selections. It’s no wonder this has been voted the best buffet in Vegas. Oh well! It was so popular, that when we got there both two lines (the regular line and the handicapped/line pass line) were so long, that it would have been about a 2-1/2 hour wait, even with our line pass. After saying “no way”, we went over to the deli and had tuna sandwiches and French fries; not really the ‘seafood’ dinner we had hoped for. Oh well, there is always next week, we’ll just go earlier.

Journal Entry for Friday, Apr 6th

The Millennium-series by Stieg Larsson* Today I finished reading the final book of Stieg Larsson’s detective trilogy about Lisbeth Salander, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest”. As the result of his sudden death in 2004 at the age of 50 from a heart attack, this and the previous two books, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Played With Fire”, were all published posthumously. As of today they have sold more than 25 million copies, and he was the second bestselling author in the world in 2008. We really enjoyed Ronney Mara in her role as Lisbeth Salander in David Finchers American movie version of "The girl with the dragon tattoo" and can’t wait for her to do the next two movies. Last month we watched the Swedish version of “The girl who played with fire” and have just ordered the Swedish movie version of the last book that I just finished from Netflix. In the Swedish movies based on the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth Salander is played by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace. Even though she is quite good, I think we liked Ronney Mara better. I thought the first book started a little slow, however, once it "got going" I couldn't put it down. Within minutes of finishing it I downloaded the next one, "The Girl Who Played With Fire'. This one was better than the first one. The last book was equally as good. The only thing I found difficult was trying to pronounce, remember and keep straight all of the Swedish names of the characters, streets and locations.  I  thoroughly enjoyed all three of these books and highly recommend them to anyone who hasn’t read them. * Footnote - Stieg left no written will, and according to Swedish law, Stieg's full estate was inherited by his father and brother. This sparked a dispute between them and Stieg's life-long companion Eva Gabrielsson, who was left with nothing. The situation has been complicated by the fact that Eva controls the script for the 4th book in the Millennium series.

Journal Entry for Thursday, April 5th

Claim Jumper Tilapia Bianca Today after my hike, I showered and took Connie to Claim Jumper’s for dinner. This is a great restaurant; we even took Jim Herring here on his last visit in February. Just two blocks up the street from us, this excellent restaurant is part of the Landry’s restaurant chain, and because I am a member of their Landry’s Dining Club, they sent me a $25 gift certificate for my birthday. Connie ordered the homemade New England clam chowder for an appetizer and I got the Southwest Eggrolls that were filled with  fresh chicken, cilantro, black beans, pasilla and bell peppers fried golden with sweet and spicy and salsa ranch dipping sauces. I only ate half of it. For the main entrée we both had the Tilapia Bianca, a pan seared tilapia topped with artichoke hearts and sautéed shrimp in a sherry cream sauce. Both were so big we were only able to eat half of it. We boxed the leftovers and had them for lunch the next day.

Journal Entry for Monday, Apr 2nd

Another Year Older Today was my 66th birthday and I can remember the days when I used to say, “It’s just another day and I don’t feel any different.” Well, I think those day are long gone. As I’m sure is the case with many of you out there, each passing year seems to bring more aches and pains, reminding us about how much older we are getting. Obviously, it’s better than the alternative, so we do not dwell, but just move on. I want to thank all those who sent birthday wishes. This morning Connie and I went out for a nice breakfast brunch. As we are trying to watch what we eat, we make it a habit to only go out to eat once a day. Because I have birthday coupons for free entrees from 7 different restaurants, some worth up to $35 each, we will probably be going out for dinner several times during the month. In the meantime, our property maintenance man came in to make some needed fixes on one of our shower doors, toilets, and some faucets. He also replaced the burner elements on our kitchen stove. They are very good here at keeping everything in good shape.  I then went to my garage and made an appointment to drop the car off for some needed work tomorrow. Betsy, our 1992 Cadillac, turns twenty this year - 185,000 and still ticking. But like us she needs more and more attention to keep running right. It was then off to the store to do a little grocery shopping and finally a stop at the library to return books and pick up some new ones for Connie. After the library we stopped at Green Valley Ranch Casino up the street for a little gambling. No luck today, but I actually got an early birthday present yesterday by hitting a $235 jackpot while playing in the poker room.  Came home, fielded a few more “birthday” calls, made a fresh fruit salad for dinner, watched the Country Music Awards off the DVR, and then headed off to be. All in all it seemed like just another day.