We are Royalty!

The end of the winter season in South Texas means a steady stream of parties as groups say good-bye until next year. We were attending one of those parties, when we realized that the weekly card bingo was about to start. So we hurried to the rec hall, and laid out five random playing cards in front of us. Around 100 other people were already there, and the bingo caller began turning over cards from his shuffled deck on the stage. The winner in card bingo is the person whose five chosen cards are called first out of the caller's deck. We barely had time to catch our breath when we paid our first nickel and the first game began. So we were certainly surprised when Denisa's five cards were called and she yelled a very surprised "Bingo!" But that is a special bingo, because the female with the first bingo gets to be queen for the entire evening!

After receiving her crown and the pay-off of the winning game in nickels, we settled down for the second game. Denisa's Mother mentioned that it sure would be funny if Mark won the next game. And guess what happened . . . wait for it . . . Mark's five cards were called! Since he was the first male with a bingo for the night, he was presented with the king's crown.

This led to a flurry of text messages to friends and family that we have played card bingo with in the past. Denisa's Mother wanted to be in the picture just to prove that she was related to such royalty. We didn't win any of the remaining 28 games that night, but the king and queen get another pay-out at the end of all the games. Our bag of nickels continues to grow as do our memories from the season.

The end of the season means that our projects must come to an end. We started some rock projects two months ago, and for some reason it took a final deadline to get them done. We collected rocks in our travels last year, and we put some in the rock tumbler two months ago. After tumbling with different coarse grits for close to 60 days, we found that they were smaller and shinier when they were finished. We poured them out on a towel, wishing that we had a similar "before" picture to go with this "after" photo.

We have also been slicing and hand polishing stones. Living in a motor home, we didn't make one of those lovely rock clocks, or polish up any sizable slabs. Denisa opted to make small cabochons that will fit into an interchangeable necklace mounting she has had for years. We learned a lot about how to use the rock club equipment, and which rocks take a shine. We also learned that a grinder that can shape up a piece of rock can also grind off a fingernail before you know it. This was our final inventory of new rock pieces that have become jewelry this winter.

Some of the stones are nice souvenirs of our travels from 2018. This is a Charlevoix, a tiny petrified coral we picked up on the shores of Lake Michigan near Charleviox, Michigan.

Similarly, we loved hunting for the larger petrified coral known as Petoskey stones that we found near Petoskey, Michigan. This is the stone that is a boring gray rock until it is wet (or polished) and the interconnected segments of coral can be seen.

We went on a rock hunt here in the Rio Grande Valley, and found this crazy lace Texas agate. We love the detail hidden inside these stones.

So with the end of the winter season, Denisa has some new jewelry to wear the next time the queen is dressed up for another royal engagement.