In Honor of... Gin Rummy? ~ Day 13

Today was a busy day. Tomorrow will be worse, I just hope I have time to share. Back to today, because tomorrow hasn't even happened yet.

The county fair opens this week. Last year my two older kids discovered the novelty of entering items in the fair. I told them what a great idea this would be, because if they get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place, they get money along with their ribbons. They were definitely in. So last year Bryce won $60-some odd, and Ambri around $25. Of coarse they thought this was awesome because they didn't have to do that much work to earn that money. Well, they still had to do the work, but it was basically just going through the fair book and seeing what they had already done through out the year that we could gather and enter. So the same thing is happening this year. I don't think we'll have quite the success that we had last year, but I guess you never know. Today was the drop-off for the arts and crafts/hobbies stuff and tomorrow is the baked goods. We are affectionately calling tomorrow our "baking day". Wish me and my waistline luck, I'm going to need it.

So onto the title of the post. Tonight for FHE, we went to "Grandpa Ritchie's" house. If any of you are locals that read my blog, you may have heard of Harry Ritchie Jewelers. Well, it isn't Harry who is "Grandpa", but I believe it is his brother. Anyway, it is this really cute old man that Doug does landscaping for that we went to visit. He is so nice to our family, and he doesn't have any family that lives close. Doug trades landscaping for jewelry, and at the last contract renewal, he had beautiful gold bracelets for the girls. He didn't know how to spell their names, (who would, right?) but he wanted to get their names engraved on the gold plate part. Tonight we went to pick them up, and to take him some blueberries. We had a fun time visiting. While we were there, Doug saw a deck of playing cards on his table. Doug asked him if he played cards, and he said yes, he played Gin Rummy. (Oh no!) Doug promptly volunteered me to play with Grandpa. Doug asked if he was any good, and Grandpa, said "Yes!" I shuffled and dealt the cards. After the first game, he declared we had to play again (I won). We played again, and he won, but he didn't go all the way out. He said he needed to show me how to go all the way out (which I did the first hand, but he must have forgotten - I'm sure...) and I whooped him again. Afterward, I felt kind of bad. He told me how competitive he is, so I agreed to come back and play with him again. I'm not sure he knows what he is in for. I am certain he thinks that it was all luck for me tonight. You see, my Grandpa taught me to play gin when I was a teenager. I spent MANY, MANY hours playing gin rummy with him. I could even beat him once in a while. I'd have to say, I was schooled by the best! Way to be a great teacher, Grandpa, I love you!

In other news, today Doug also gave Chase a haircut. Hunh.