The Choctaw Casino ... good meat loaf, the best pea salad and memorable money.

Hi. Miss me? I took a two-day break from posting here for no particular reason and therefore apologize if any of my regular Howdygramsters have considered rioting or mass suicide. And I mean this sincerely.

As I get older I’m learning how to deal with unexpected weirdness, loss and general crap. After a semi-sleepless night on Friday, during which I amused myself at the computer Googling names from the past, I found a current home address for a friend from 25 years ago when I lived in Dallas with my first husband. Last night when I sat down to write Judy a letter I Googled her name one more time to double-check the mailing address and WHAM, up pops her obituary from March 2012 “following a brief and intense battle with cancer.” I felt like somebody kicked me in the gut. But as I continued reading I learned quite a lot about her family during the past two and a half decades and felt considerably less lousy afterwards. Judy’s three children — who were in their teens last time I saw them — all grew up to be educated, successful and fertile. They gave her 16 grandchildren. SIXTEEN! I found an address for Judy’s youngest daughter in a small town east of Dallas and might send her a note. I’m hoping Katie remembers me.

Sam and I had a lovely weekend that included a drive in the country and a pointless trip to Baskin Robbins in Rockwall because THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY MORE SUGAR-FREE ICE CREAM. Not one to be discouraged, however, I immediately moved on to Plan B ... hot dogs and fries from Five Guys.

Even though this looks like every bad decision you ever made, a Five Guys hot dog is AWESOME and they let you add as many toppings as you want for free. And just when you think it can’t get any better, the hot dog is GRILLED and the bun is TOASTED. Glorioski!

Sam took a day off work today. It should come as no surprise that we used it for a fun little junket to the Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma. We arrived around 11 just in time for the lunch buffet — featuring good meat loaf, the best pea salad in the world and sugar-free pie — and then proceeded to win memorable sums of money from our favorite penny slots (Cash Wizard for Sam, Rembrandt Riches for me). We’ll probably go back in a few weeks to celebrate my birthday because I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do.

I’d better start making some decisions about dinner. Thank you for reading this.