Celebrate with a night out

Before I swam the Distance Dare, Greg promised that if I finished the 5000m in the 2 hours, he would take me out on a "date." So, tonight was date night. We had a babysitter and Greg & I got to have a night out on the town. We went out to dinner at the Kadena Marina (I forget the resteraunt name), but it was a fancy steak and seafood place. Greg had Filet Mignon and lobster tail. I had fish & chips. It was very good food. Then, we laughed because we went to the BX and ran into one of my friends from work. She, too, was out with her husband (with the kids at home with a babysitter) while we spent a Saturday night at the BX. I hope her night got better, ours did! After the BX, we went down to one of the big Pacenko Parlors down near Naha. The noise engulfed us as soon as we got off the elevator. A nice worker showed us how to play one of the games. When the balls were gone from that machine, we moved over to a different set that was an underwater scene. These games are like slot machines, but much louder and more complicated. I had a run of luck and we walked out of the Parlor (once we could understand what we were to do) with over $400 in cash. Well, actually it was in yen, so we had over 40,000 yen. Not a bad night! My winnings more than covered what we spent at dinner, at the BX, and on the babysitter. So, Greg says he will take me to the Pacenko Parlor anytime! I think we should stick with the beginners luck. Besides, I decided that the fish gods were paying me since I had become one of them last night. **By the way, the results were posted today. Not only did I set the record for my age-group (which had been set in 2002), of the 10 masters that participated, I came in 2nd place. I beat the head coach (Coach Matt, his time was 1 hour 38 minutes), but lost to the younger (21 year old) assistant coach, Coach Paul. His time was 1 hour 21 minutes. He only beat me by 6 minutes. Next year, I will have to swim harder! I will try for first place next time!