The "Week 2 of Home Dialysis Training and Other Stuff", edition.

No music.  My routine has changed. I think after we finish training and I'll get an entire new routine.  But this is it for now.  This training is no joke. But then it's my life.  Ha!  5 days a week 4 hours a day. More or less.  The intensive part is setting up the machines. One is a cycler, which does the dialysis...removing the excess fluid and cleaning the blood. The other machine creates and holds the dialysate. This is the concoction that takes away the toxins.  Brian has to set this up every day and check everything. We also have to use aseptic technique.  Which means we wash our hands a lot and go though a lot of Purel, gloves and alcohol swabs. The needle stick is the easy part. Who knew?  Lol

So even with the training we still have stuff going on. Shawn went to Seattle and Brian and I took a road trip to Laughlin, Nevada.  For a chili cook off!  And we were not disappointed!!  The drive from Vegas to Laughlin was an adventure unto itself. Once we left Henderson, we were in the desert. We were in another valley and for as far as you could see was...nothing but desert!  And then we got to Searchlight, Nevada. Population, just over 500. With 1 gas station and a McDonalds. And 2 dive like casinos.   Never saw a house. Just trailers placed wherever. And the speed limit was 25 mph. Lol. And we slowed down. And further down the road was Cal-Nev-Ari, just as small, with the same housing, but only 1 divey casino.  Eventually we made our way to Laughlin.  

Laughlin looked stuck in  an 80s 90s time warp, but I think that was part of its charm. Anyway. We found our way to the Golden Nuggett and the chili cook off.  We made our way to the tent and got our tasting kit. The kit was a little cup, like a pill cup and a plastic spoon.  Cost $1.00 and we were off.  1st stop, Grandpa's chili.  The cook put out a spatula with a hole, just big enough to hold our tasting cup, I inserted my cup, and he put some chili in. Enough for 4-5 bites. Which really is enough if you're going to taste a lot of chili.  We made our way around the area and tasted a lot of chili..red chili, green chili, chili with corn, chili with elbow macaroni. No ground beef, but there was shredded beef, beef chunks and really fine beef cubes.  There was something I couldn't identify in the green chili....hominy?  We also tasted salsas. My favorite?  Chili with corn. Yes, I'm as surprised as you!  Lol. And yes, we got tired of tasting. Way too much chili!  Lol

After we voted for our favorite chili  we went into the casino, won a few dollars then noticed a down elevator.  Took us to water level and there was a water taxi!! We rode up and down the Colorado River. That was a treat. :)  the weather was nice.  And even though it was nice, 73 degrees, we questioned the people sunbathing!  We got that conflicting weather thing again ... sunbathers on the beach and the lady on the boat wearing a wool coat. Lol. Oh yeah. Lots of raffles at the cook off, including a tub of booze. No. We didn't buy any tickets!  

We left Laughlin and made it home before dark. Good thing we went Saturday. It rained all day Sunday. Rain in Las Vegas!!  Well that's it for today. Shawn left this morning. :-(  But Brian and I are on a new adventure. Life isn't stagnant and who would want it to be?  Have a great day. I'll be back...when I'll be back!!!  :-D    Photos of the desert. And 1 from chili cook off. Hey. I'm from the Midwest.