Poser Alert

                    Lately I've been doing a lot of posing.  This year alone, I've pretended to be

a fire fighter with the local volunteer fire department, 

a certified nursing assistant at a local nursing home, 

and even a snow plow driver.

                    This weekend, I've been able to pretend to be a chef at a real restaurant.

     I've been managing a restaurant up in the northwestern part of the Colorado Rocky Mountains for about 3 years now.  I love my job.  I get to chat with folks, serve good food and watch the deer, moose and bob cats outside the big windows.  But lately, we've been a bit short in the chef department.  My last chef left us to go be a rough neck for the oil wells of Wyoming. It is not easy to find a qualified person who is willing to live in the middle of nowhere for a very moderate income. This conundrum has allowed me to realized that I know just enough about restaurant chef-ism to keep the restaurant open and not kill anybody.  I've also learned that although I am able to do this job, I do not do it gracefully and I do not want to do it every day.  It is hard work! Luckily for me I have a great staff who help me when things get tough.
     Tonight, I surprised myself with a yummy special.  I made a chicken parmesan served over a bed of noodles with a garlic-tomato sauce.  I wish I had taken a picture or saved some for you to try, but you will just have to believe me- it was just like a real chef's special.

THIRTY-ONE

     This weekend at the restaurant, I was on a break and playing a solitaire game called 13.  A wonderful lady named Char was sitting at a nearby table.  I think she has a thing for cards.  She came over and wanted to learn how to play.  It was pretty easy so I taught her and she went back to eating her dinner. 

     After she finished she taught me how to play a game called 31.  We closed the restaurant and together with her husband Don and my friend Shirla, we had a blast!

     Today, I taught my daughters how to play.  Sarah has really been having a hard time practicing her addition facts.  She is pretty good at math concepts, but memorization is not her thing.  Well, we had so much fun that she didn't even know that she was doing "math". 

     Thirty one is a simple draw and discard game for 2-9 players.  If they can add to 31, they can play. Each player tries to collect cards of a single suit that get as close to 31 points as possible.  Aces are worth 11, face cards are worth 10 and all other cards are worth their face value.  Deal 3 cards to each player and the next card is placed face up as a discard pile. Only the top card can be used on each turn.  Player one looks at the discard pile and decides if he/she can use the top card.  If not, then she draws and again determines if it is a card she would like to keep.  She then needs to decide which card to discard.  You can only have three cards at any one time.

    When you believe that your hand has a greater value than your playmates you can choose to "knock" instead of drawing a card.  The other players have one last chance to get their hands up to snuff.  When the turn comes back to the "knocked" player all must display their hand.  Whoever has the lowest score must place a marker (each player starts with 4 - penny, bead or any other token) in the center.  

     Then the cards are reshuffled and it all starts again and continues until all players but one have lost their tokens.

     Some players call it sitting on the bus, 4 tokens and you're sitting in the back, 3 tokens and you're sitting in the middle, 2 tokens you are sitting in the front, 1 token you're on the steps getting off and zero tokens takes you off the bus and out of the game.

Examples:

K-8-5: value 23 (sum of all 3 cards)

Q-9-8: value 17 (9 + 8)

A-6-4: value 11 (the ace is worth more than the spades)

J-7-4: value 10 (the jack)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-one_(card_game)