Where the hell am I? :: stuff - watches - Seiko SNM009K1 White Samurai

The Samurai watches by Seiko have been on my "short list" since they were introduced in 2004. The titanium models were first available, then the stainless steel. The two have their differences, including hands and crown guard (a lack of one on the SS). The hands on the Ti models are really better, IMHO, than the SS, however now owning one of the stainless they're really not that bad. The dial of the watch has a great pattern, and I love the look of the bezel. I like it, yes I do.

Flashback to Thursday afternoon (Oct. 20), about 3:45 PM. I had just sat down to rest for a few and check out the latest Blender magazine, having just had a shower after a 3.5 mile jog. While thumbing through the magazine, my phone rang; by the ring I knew it was Mandy. She had a physical therapy appointment after work and I assumed she was letting me know she was on her way home.

"You have two choices tonight," she said, after I answered. "We can go visit Hailey (her niece) or we can go to Whorley (aka the Coeur d'Alene Casino)."
"Whichever, I don't care."
"Well, grab my Player's Club Card and come and pick me up and we'll decide." She was on the way to Walt's, our mechanic of choice for some work on her car. I found what I needed, loaded up the truck and headed out, the whole time thinking that we'd end up in Hayden visiting 19 month old Hailey.

So, when I arrived and Mandy got in the truck, she asked, "So, what are we doing?"
"Whichever you want," I responded.
"Well, let's go to Whorley then." So, off we went.

A half an hour later we were entering the casino doors. Mandy asked if I had any cash and I stated that I did not as I didn't have time to get any before I left to get her from Walt's shop. She handed me two $20 bills out of her winnings stash (she's been playing off her winnings recently). We hit a few machines here and there, me playing penny machines and Mandy $1.00 machines. I cashed out one at $19.98 and another at $25.00. By the time we went to dinner I was up $9.98.

We ate a wonderful appetizer of baked garlic cloves with feta cheese and thin, toasted french bread slices, and we split a steak sandwich with fries. Good, good stuff (although our bodies would both pay the price for the garlic the next day...ugh...). (I bought dinner since Mandy popped me the $40 to play). Then it was back to the slot machines...

My plan was to put $10 in an Aliens machine and play max bet($2.00) per turn, which failed miserably. Lasted all of 4 minutes. Next I went to a Men In Black machine with the same idea, I put in my $19.98 ticket and three minutes later was done. Crap. Last chance.

I went to a machine that Mandy had won on in the past and put in my $25 ticket, playing $2.00 per spin. I went down some, and up some, and down, with just over $13 left I hit the bonus of 15 free spins! Yes!! Now, how well will it do? I figured that I'd be lucky to hit $50 on the bonus, although Mandy had done as well as over $350 on the bonus on this same machine. Much, much to my pleasure, after the bonus was done, my bonus winnings were $154!! With what I had in, that gave me $167!! I promptly cashed out, went to the cashier and changed my ticket into a hundred, three twenties, a five and two ones. My wheels started spinning - what watch can I get with this $$????

I found Mandy, playing her dollar machine ($5 per spin!) and watched her get up to, and cash out at, $450, which put her up $50 for the night. She asked, when I first got there, if I had lost already. I was smiling when I answered that I cashed out at $167.

So overall, we had a good, fun night. We went home and I promptly checked the Sales Forum, only to find nothing I was interested in. All through the day I kept careful eye on the forum, serving a dual purpose of Admin and shopper. As it turns out, the 8 hours I watched it today were probably the slowest in Forum history. Well, there's always eBay...but what to look for?

I went through several searches with nothing grabbing my interest. I was drawing a complete blank! I knew there were watches in this price range that I had wanted before, but I struggled to think of one. Finally, about 1:30 PM a new search criteria came to me. I typed away, clicked search and found what I was looking for, with just over an hour before the end of the auction, and at a price within my range. I put in a max bid of $167, my winnings total (ignoring the $15 shipping charge) and confirmed my bid. Seconds later I found that I was high bidder, with a current bid of $152.50!! Sweet! I waited out the next hour and fifteen minutes, thinking the whole time that my phone was going to beep with a new "you have been outbid" text message. Instead, on my way home, I got a text message with the good news that I won the auction, with my bid of $152.50!! Add shipping and you get, yes, $167.50!! Only fifty cents more than I won the night before. Sweet.