Happy Birthday to the kid who made me a Nana!

The phone rang at 4:30, and I didn't have a clue what was going on. As I fumbled around for the clock, Rich looked for the phone and finally found it, but as he handed it to me and I hit "yes," the caller had hung up. I fumbled around and got the voicemail only to hear the unknown voice say "Hey."

Well, that got me up. I tried to go back to sleep but had no luck at it. So when the person called again at 5AM I was ready for him. He wanted to talk to Dee and wasn't in the least apologetic when I told him it was a wrong number. Hmm. I have his number and there are other 4:30s......

I didn't get onto the Internet while in Reno, but I was able to write some entries and my cache postings, so that when we get home I can send them.

Rich slept in till 8, which was fine with me. We had breakfast at the casino cafe and I played some of my nickels (most of the machines no longer take coins). I really like it when it goes into free spins or something, and I kept track... in the morning I had bonuses of 95, 123, and 57 nickels. When we left this morning, I was ahead. (It was a different story this evening, when all the machines were swallowing my money and not playing much.)

I had a pocket query in Sparks. Rich had a coupon for the Nugget, but forgot it in the room, so all we did in the Nugget was visit the rest rooms. Oh, and put in a little: I came out of it clutching 20 nickels.

Our first cache was actually in Lockwood, a tiny town about 5 miles out of Sparks. We found 3 of the 4 in the area. Then we came back to the Big City and worked our way first north, then south. We walked up a hill and didn't find that cache, and chose not to look too long for another at a baseball field. We had lunch at A&W. Then we went to a bookstore that I discovered 10 years ago, and I felt guilty enough to buy a couple of books. (This has been a pretty bad month as far as that goes!) Then on down to Victoria Square we went.

We only got one of the four caches I'd marked down there, BUT at last the museum was open. It was also a discovery of mine 10 years ago, but they fixed it up and then nobody was ever there... I was certain they had taken their beautiful junk heap and made it into an "interpretive center." Fortunately, they still have all the stuff! There's LOTS to see, though it's a bit much when Green Stamps are "history."

Then we went to visit Gerhard's father. It was a nice conversation, though Rich can't seem to say a sentence without reminding Dad how old he is. The new dog, Sweet Pea, lives up to her name and is a real joy.

The Kid can't get into college till he passes the math entrance exam, and apparently his mom is blaming Gerhard for scaring him about math. I remember Gerhard would be tearing his hair out that they didn't seem to think math was important. So, The Kid is living at home, has one drama class at community college, can't drive (is scared to learn) and his future is uncertain...this is a data point *against* home-schooling. I remember G. was thinking he should have high school somewhere like Jesuit. I guess his parents didn't work with a school district. Oh, well, between me (working with the estate) and G's dad (maintaining the trust), we were able to give him $100K: I hope he gets enough sense to keep it.

Then at dinner, I got a phone call from Bruce. Wait, who? My cousin doesn't have my cell number, and the one who was G's friend not only doesn't know we're here (and doesn't have the number) he also wouldn't care. Oh, I know, it's the cacher who needed help.

There was an earthquake? We were in Sparks at the time and didn't feel it. Apparently they've been having a swarm of them here.