I ended up inadvertently taking a few days off from the computer, basically. I always feel somewhat guilty when I don't write for a couple of days, but I'm always reminded of a journaler who wrote a long time ago that if she wasn't writing in the journal, that was good--it meant that she was out doing things rather than writing about them. And that was pretty much the case with me this week, as well.

Some of it was just plain tiredness, though, but since it was probably tiredness caused by activity, I guess it was good.

On Sunday, Bob's friend John came in to town and he, Bob and I messed around. When he got here, he rang the doorbell and I let him in; Bob was upstairs in the office. John stood in the hallway and talked to me for a few minutes, and as soon as she heard his voice, Pyewacket came running down the stairs crying. I don't know whether she actually remembers him or not (he was the one who found her and kept her for us), or whether she just loves company, but she came running up to him as if he was her long-lost friend, and I guess, in fact, he is.

We went to Barley's Brewhouse (a micro-brewery) for lunch, went to Best Buy to look at scanners, went to CompUSA to look at software, and it seems like we went somewhere else, although I can't think of where it would be now. John collects coins and wants to get into some auction selling, maybe, so he's thinking about getting a scanner. I scanned a coin for him and showed him how the process works.

We got back home early in the evening, and I ran out and got sandwiches for dinner while Bob and John played Bob's new game upstairs, and the rest of the evening was taken up with doing laundry.

Monday was Bob's birthday. I asked him what he wanted to do, and he decided he'd like to go to the boats (the casinos--they have to be in water here, so they're "boats," although you'd be hard-pressed to recognize that fact). So as soon as I got home Monday night we headed up to North Kansas City to Station Casino, had dinner in one of the restaurants there, and gambled for a couple of hours.

I had told myself that I could lose $50 before I had to stop, but I only got through $20. I played a quarter slot machine the whole time, winning and losing the twenty dollars several times, I think. Bob won $150 or so on a video poker machine, then came over and played the slots with me, feeding me quarters when I ran out. At 9:30 we stopped, and came home.

I was driving; I don't remember why now, or if there was a reason. I think Bob drives so much that he likes me to drive when we go places together, and I don't mind. I love my little car. But driving through North Kansas City, through the industrial areas, over the bridge . . . I don't know. As I was driving home I was thinking that this is the kind of thing I don't like to think about too deeply. The bridge over the river, especially. It's sort of like the momentary urge to sweep things off the counters in a store . . . what? Other people don't have those urges?

Not a compelling urge or anything, just the thought that without too much thought or effort I could drive right off the bridge. Get distracted, hit a slick spot, touch the brake. Obviously that's probably a crazy thought and Bob will never let me drive anywhere ever again.

For thirteen years I worked about two miles from home, straight down a mostly-residential boulevard. When I got the job on The Plaza, it scared me to think that I'd have to drive on the highway every day, but now it's no big deal. I actually enjoy it (yeah, part of that's the car). But it was just sort of spooky driving in the dark through an unfamiliar part of town. We took a lot of weird turns and curves and hit a bunch of odd streets, and I told Bob that I'd never be able to find my way this way again; I asked him if it was a short cut or a secret way, and he said it was. I suppose that will keep me from visiting the casinos on my own anytime soon.

I do know a way to go, though, where I can see a couple of them from the highway, so if I have the urge, I can fulfill it on my own.

When we got home, Bob got his birthday gifts from me--a four CD set of The Fourth Tower of Inverness audio drama, a copy of Bradleyville Basketball: The Hicks from the Sticks, the newest edition of Golf Digest's Places to Play, and a couple of t-shirts and a pair of shorts, and he bought himself a new golf bag, which came today, so he had a pretty good birthday. It seems like it was close to 1:00 a.m. by the time I got to bed, but I can't remember why. I was probably doing email or something.

Last night--Tuesday--I ended up going to bed about 9:30. I don't know if that was residual tiredness from being up late Monday night or not, but I was yawning by 9:00 and just decided to go with it. I took a book up to bed with me, but only read for about 15 minutes or so before putting it down and snuggling under the covers.

Tonight I didn't get home until nearly 7:00--I sat around on the deck with Eddye and Tracy and Dave for awhile after I stopped working--and then when I got home, Bob was watching Godzilla (the recent version), which I'd never seen, so I sat down and watched the end of that with him.

And that's the week, so far.