Weekend in the Desert

We spent Easter weekend with Tim’s family in the desert. The federal witness relocation program has asked us not to post too many details, but let’s just say it’s somewhere in the desert not too far from some casinos.


The view from the road (if you can see through the bug guts on the windshield). (03/25/05)

We spent that first night hanging out with Tim’s family. Tim’s mom made us a really good pierogi dinner. For those not familiar with polish cuisine, pierogis are half-moon shaped dumplings with potato and onion filling. They’re boiled first, and then pan-fried until they have a golden brown hue. You eat them with sour cream, jelly and sometimes sauerkraut.

After catching up on America’s Next Top Model, Tim and I watched Minority Report on his new Qosmio. About 45 minutes into the movie, I fell asleep for about half-an-hour. Yet when I woke up, the movie still made sense to me, so I musn’t have missed much.


Grandma Jean, Tim and Aunt Gertie. (03/26/05)

The next day we met up with Tim’s grandma Jean (not the one in the hospital – that’s the other grandma) and her sister Gertie who is visiting from back East. We stuffed ourselves at the Easter brunch pot luck, which was held at the rec room in the senior community. Afterward there was an Easter egg hunt. We tried to find some eggs for Grandma Jean, but believe it or not, the senior citizens who live there were so fast at snatching them up, they left us in a cloud of dust!


The dessert table at the senior community pot luck. (03/26/05)

We love seeing Tim’s great aunt Gertie since she doesn’t come out to this coast very often. And wouldn’t you know it, she and I share a special bond in that we both love slot machines. So after brunch, Tim, Gertie and I headed to the casinos for a few hours.

I didn’t do too bad. In fact if you don’t count the $50 I gave Tim, I was actually up $5 by the end of the day (if you do count the $50 I gave Tim, we were down $45). Aunt Gertie didn’t do too shabby either. She was probably down $150 until she hit a $120 jackpot (and then called it a day).

We did some quick shopping after that where Gertie got a new pair of jeans, and we bought some bathing suits so we could try Tim’s parents’ new Jacuzzi. After picking up Grandma, the whole family got together for pizza and card games the rest of the night, which was a lot of fun (especially since I was the big winner all night).

Sunday morning the whole family got together, and we stuffed ourselves once again. Tim’s mom put together a fantastic spread consisting of ham, potato salad, fresh kielbasa, deviled eggs, pickles and rye bread. It was dee-lish-ous. After brunch, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to California.