Fancy Pants

It doesn't happen too often. In fact, it doesn't happen nearly often enough. But every once in a while, we get to don our glad rags and go to a Gala.

Oh, how I love a Gala.

We also got a new camera, and were doing our best to learn it on the fly that night.

Oh dear. The flash is on.

Here, let me try it.

Wait, how do you work this thing?

There. NOW we're talking . . .

Aw, there's my little Schleckah, in front of the Mighty Thames.

And then it was time to head down into the Belly of the Beast, to mingle with 2000 of our closest friends.

Thankfully, I had my dress. Earlier, when we'd arrived, Mistah and I slogged through the miles and miles and miles of casino from car park to hotel lobby. At the bottom of the escalator, Mistah's trousers and tie fell off the hanger into a puddle on the floor. He looked at the puddle, looked at the empty hangers -- hangers -- and said, "Where's your dress?"

I looked at the empty hanger, and turned and flew back from whence we came, and about half-a-mile away I saw a suspiciously familiar frock draped unceremoniously over the railing that separates the casino proper from the walkway. Someone saw it and picked it up and put it on the railing and saved my sorry ass that night.

Oh, look! Another mirror!

The Mohegan Sun, in all its glory. I am *not* going to go into my diatribe about casinos, and the many many things I find godforsaken about them, especially the lack of, you know, air, but I do find them befuddling, I really do.

It was *quite* the fanch-schmancy affair, though, and everybody had a ball.

Here's the photo that ran in The Day the next day. 2000 peeps is a lot of peeps, peeps.

After the party Mistah and I wandered around the strange new world we found ourselves in . . .

. . . we stopped at Cafe Americain to harass say hello to our friend Timmy in the kitchen . . .

. . . and looked down upon the Minions of the Sun. As I call them.

And then we did what any true-blue American couple would do, finding themselves overnight in one of the northeast's most popular and exciting gaming establishments.

We went to our room and took photos of ourselves in the mirror.