I had a pretty busy weekend. Yesterday, Mel and I went to Waterloo for the birthday party of the six-year-old son of a friend of hers. It was a nice party. We spent a couple hours at their house, watched her son open presents, and then had some cake.
In the evening, I got together with Captain Creative, the good captain's son, Homercles, Jason, and Scott, another friend of ours, to celebrate Captain Creative's birthday which was earlier in the week. We had dinner at the new Red Robin restaurant in town. They have pretty good burgers, and their selection is quite extensive. I had the Santa Fe burger which contains a Poblano pepper, guacamole, sautéed onions, crisp tortilla strips, and Ancho mayo on an onion bun.
After dinner all of us except for Homercles and Captain Creative's son headed off to Riverside to visit the new Riverside Casino. It was fun. I didn't gamble all that much money. The casino was really nice. The atmosphere was a lot better than at the Mesqwaki Casino in Tama. The space was a lot more open and it wasn't too smoky. There was a nice fountain on top of the bar area in the center of the casino. They also had a lounge act, which wasn't that great, but it was something to listen to. They had more table games than the Meskwaki casino but I didn't think the variety of slot machines was that great. Maybe that's because they only had four of the one slot machine I really enjoy, Wheel of Fortune. Also, I didn't see any that had progressive jackpots. There may have been some, but I didn't see them. I also had a hard time finding any nickle slot machines. I eventually found them. I did think that they had way too many penny slots.
When we left to head home, we stopped at the convenience store near between the casino and Highway 218. There I ran into some students I had taught when I was teaching at Highland Junior/Senior High School in Riverside. The cashier and another employee were students I taught my first year at Highland in 1999 when they were freshmen. There were a couple more students of mine getting cash from the ATM. They were seventh graders when I taught them my last year at Highland. Now they are seniors in high school. I thought that it was somewhat likely that I'd run into former students of mine when I was there. I'm just glad that none of them were the cocktail waitresses in the skimpy outfits at the casino. That may have been a bit awkward.
This morning, Mel and I went to the church that we have been attending the past several weeks. After the service, there we met with someone about becoming members. We got a tour of the building and got a lot of information about the church. It seems like a very nice place.
After eating lunch, Mel and I went to Iowa City and Coralville to shop for maternity clothes for Mel. Our shopping trip was successful.
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