A Gambler Wagers On Her Stomach

Hick took me on a guilt trip to the casino Tuesday. It was completely his idea. Lunch was apparently mostly on me. And he also stopped at two Goodwills, missing his turn for the third because he was yakking and sweaving over in the next-to-fastest of five lanes.

We left home at 10:35, and valet parked (Hick treats himself sometimes) at 11:40. Hick decreed that we would meet for lunch at Burger Brothers at 12:30. I couldn't decide on whether I wanted a burger, or the half-pound hot dog. Here's the menu. I am not a hot dog aficionado like Hick. I've seen him get one there before, though, and wished I had chosen it, when they didn't cook my burger right. I decided I'd rather have the sure thing instead of taking a chance on getting a mealy over-done burger. They're fantastic when cooked just right, medium, all juicy and dripping and slightly pink inside.

Anyhoo... while I was still deciding, Hick finished ordering, so I had to make a snap decision, which was the hot dog. Oh, my. What a hot dog it was. The pictures don't do it justice.

Yes, it was a foot long. I could have chosen the Italian sausage (with peppers and onions), which would have been a bit fancier, but I didn't want spicy meat. Hick likes the spicy meat, but not the peppers and onions. He ordered his hot dog with a side of pickles and not-cooked onions.

I think Hick was still adding onion and more pickles when I snapped this picture. The pictures don't make them look nearly as appetizing as the burgers, but these hot dogs were more tasty than the badly-done burgers we've gotten on occasion. You may think, "EEWW! Hot dogs!" But bear in mind that Hick and Val are simple people, with simple tastes. Which does not mean we are without manners. Well. One of us, anyway.

I used a black plastic knife to saw my hot dog in half. For better manageability. I even had a knife for Hick, which he declined, and chose to PICK UP his entire foot-long hot dog with pickles and onions. On the first bite, the bun came apart. Yet he still refused to cut it. I don't know why I expected any different from the man who, in another casino, sitting at a little bistro table next to the wrought-iron rail next to a major walkway, picked up his little bag of Lay's Potato Chips and tilted his head back and shook them into his mouth. At least he used his fingers on the onion rings this time.

I must confess that I ate that entire hot dog! I chose to dip it alternately in ketchup and mustard, rather than line the bun with it. I knew that bun would separate. I couldn't finish all the fries, though. Which I guess was a good thing, because look what I found in them.

Yes, that's how many I had left. Finding those rotten ones really had nothing to do with my loss of appetite. I was just full. But still, I was outraged to discover that I'd been served a bad potato! It doesn't really take all that much to outrage Val. Hick, on the other hand, turned down my offer of fries because HE was full, and said that the rotten ones were no big deal.

"What? I think the person who cut up the potato should have at least taken out the rotten part!"

"It was probably a machine that cut the potato."

"Well, a person had to put it in the machine! And a person had to fry it! You can't go serving rotten produce to people in a restaurant. Not even in a casino!"

Seriously! What if a squirrel head fell into the potato-cutting machine? Would they leave it in there with the cut fries? Would they fry a squirrel head and serve it to me? I don't think so!

Anyhoo... when we were paying, I used my $10 food credit comp. I also had $6.74 in MyCash that Hick declared, "Yeah, use that!" I didn't really mind, because to use it for free play, it's only worth half that, and you can't use an amount less than five dollars. Hick contributed $.92 in MyCash. Our bill came to $3.88. Hick had the debit card out to pay, but put it away and used cash. Heh, heh. That was probably gun-money profit from his Storage Unit Store.

I did enjoy my half-pound hot dog and some unrotten fries.
Tomorrow we'll talk winnings and losings.