Anyone interested in buying Spiderman 2 or Spiderman 3 from me, brand new in plastic wrap and everything? Make an offer...would make a great gift!

I didn't tell you how the casino mystery shop went, did I? Not according to plan...

We showed up at 4:00 and started evaluating the different people we were supposed to. For the beverage server evaluation, you have to sit and play slots until someone offers to bring you a drink, then you ask them a question, yadda yadda. So we played slots and evaluated 6 of the 8 people we were supposed to. I couldn't believe how terrible the slots were. Let's see, I've gambled at a casino in Washington, one in Montreal, and twice at Turning Stone. All of those times my balance would bounce up and down, usually a little more down, but it kept me busy for a couple hours. On Sunday, I maybe "won" $4 en route to losing $50 (or losing $54, depending on your perspective) in a half hour (the terms of the shop said no penny/nickel slots).

I can't help it, even when they're paying me $75 for the shop, I still felt lousy after throwing away all that money, and so quickly. (btw, we spent $16 round trip on train fare) So although the gambling sucked, we at least figured we'd get a nice (ie expensive) dinner through the shop. The restaurant I was assigned was closed Sunday evenings, though. So we were like: ??? No way to rate the host and server if the restaurant is closed. So then we were even more disappointed. However, when we arrived at the casino and applied for their rewards card, they said that as a special for new members, if I returned after playing slots for a half hour, they'd have some coupons for me. And you know I love coupons, heh. So I went back and they gave me a $10 comp toward any of the casino's restaurants or retail stores. I didn't want to just get a discount on something overpriced; I wanted something absolutely free. The casino had a donut shop, so we got a half dozen donuts and a soda. They were pretty good donuts, like the biggies Wegmans used to have, so I actually left feeling much better about the experience.

And that's the story of how we got comped a half dozen donuts.