While visiting my campsite on Easterover Weekend, I took in two swap meets. San Jose did not have much in chips but I found four tokens so the morning wasn't a total loss. I'm thinking of attaching earring studs to the Delta and Ponderosa, and giving them to Dumbo. "Here Dumbo, put these on your ears," and let's see if he can still fly while weighted.

Slow-going in Santa Cruz until I found a vendor of drop chips. He explained that he visits lots of cardrooms (especially the local Ocean View) and plays awhile and asks for a drop chip. By the looks of it, he is successful. Unfortunately, he left all of these out in the sun for too long; all are bleached on the reverse side. Still, you will see some gems that have never been reported to ChipGuide...

All was turning out joyfully as I returned home - got in around 7:30, took a shower, unpacked a little, began cooking dinner - took one bit and . . . hit by the most severe intestinal pain I've ever felt. Made it to bed, where I alternated between nausea and shivering and wimpering. Wrong side for the appendix - hernia? blocked intestine? malaria? My roommate got in at 11 PM and I told him . . . it was time to go to the hospital. Spent the next 4 hours in the emergency room, made bearable only after a syringe of morphine. Ruled out heart attack, blood found in urine, and finally CT scan revealed . . . a kidney stone. The doctor handed me a container and suggested that the next time I pee, I try to collect it so he could study it. Oh, great, a mineralogist!

This morning I awoke at 8:30 AM, puzzled as to how I could have slept - that morphine doesn't last that many hours? Took a pee and, voilâ, out came a bunch of blood clots and assorted gravelly gunk. Immediately felt better, so that was my first kidney experience, and I sure hope it's the last! Ordered off salt and sugar and to drink lots of water. Now I know how the Lord did away with all those First-Born Egyptians.