January 8, 2006

Went to Laughlan the other day and won about $600 over and above what we spent. So we went shopping and bought new shoes, some new clothes, and me a new purse. I came in 2nd in a live Poker tournament and won quite a bit on a poker machine. Guess it was my lucky day. Willard lost about $20.

Took Duster to be groomed. We have to have him groomed at least once a month ,since we live in such close quarters in our motorhome. We love him and wouldn't trade the joy he has given us over the past 7 years, so we deal with his upkeep. Worth likes to roll in the dirt when we let him out, but I just clean him up with a handiwipe. I buy them by the case.

We went to Quartzsite to check out the rock show at Desert Gardens and ran into some of our friends (Allen and Mary from E. Texas and Jeff and Judy from Tombstone, AZ). We had a good day. We plan on going back to Quartzsite next week to present a seminar on Metal Detecting and sitting in on a Jam session with the Graduating Class of 2005 (people who started fulltiming in 2005). We are looking forward to seeing the people in the class that we met in Illinois this summer.

We have been so busy in camp lately. Of course, Willard prospects for gold every morning for a couple of hours. Then other prospectors come to our rig to see what he found. The musicians in camp gather over here for jam sessions several times a week. And we play Bingo once a week. The ladies in camp play Bunco on Wednesday nights and I play Texas Hold'em at least once a week. We have a potluck dinner on Fridays. We attend rock club meetings, prospector meetings, and go on rock club field trips.

Willard and Don played for a group at a guest ranch just outside of Wickenberg Monday night. We laughed because they actually sang for their supper. We ate with the ranch hands. It was a wonderful evening.

I have made several more pieces of wire-wrapped jewelry, painted some, practiced my clarinet and keyboard and of course cooked, washed clothes, and put things away in the motorhome. I'm also working on a family newsletter. Hopefully, it will be ready to send by the end of the week.

The weather has been just wonderful...cool nights and shirt sleeve weather during the day. We do need rain though. I think it has been about 90 days without rain which is almost a record.