Friday, February 9, 2007

And Down the Stretch They Come...

Well, it wasn't really that exciting! But several us did have a fantastic time at the Lebanon Raceway last night. For those of you who know me, you know that I enjoy the horse races. I can definitely thank my friend Art Leone for that. Years ago he started taking some of us down to the tracks in the area (Lebanon, Turfway, River Downs) and gave us some basic handicapping skills. At least enough to enjoy an occasional win. So last night, as a part of my last "Mommie's Night Out", we [me, Art Leone, Becky and Bob Berardi, Lauren Boscia] had some dinner at our favorite dive bar, Kickers, then headed down to harness races at Lebanon. It was only 7 degrees last night so we couldn't believe that they were really going to run those horses! But run them they did. And at every other harness track on the East Coast (Lebanon has simulcast racing too). Lauren had the hot picks at Lebanon picking several winners which resulted in decent money for her and the few of us that were smart enough to steal her picks! As a group bet, we started randomly picking numbers at the Meadowlands. Not so good until another guy who was leaving gave us his facing form so we could actually attempt to pick a winner based on the stats. Which we did! For some reason, I got hot picking that track and we ended up winning several decent ones. Usually bet an exacta box and horse to win. First big win was the 6th race when Alittlemore Action came in first. You can probably tell why we picked that name! We hit just the win but that paid around $63. Enough for a few more rounds of beer! Then in the 7th we hit with New Dice Please. Unfortunately our second pick, Brancaleone (get it, Bank Leone?) did not. Still, paid nicely at $68. In the 8th race, unfortunately Fingal Hanover (Final Hangover which we thought was appropriate for our last hurrah out together) did not come in! The big miss though was in the 9th race. I had picked the 7 and the 8 horse, with the 7 on top for the win, but we missed getting that bet in. And guess what the race finished? 7-8-1. The payout for the win and exacta would have been around another $100. Anyway, we all went home with basically the same money we came with! You don't do that very often!

Well, I guess this should not all be about me. Natalie is down in Florida and having lost of fun. She had a chance to visit her Papaw's sister, Pat, over in Sebring. They went to the Children's Museum of the Highlands and Pat played grocery store with her. She has gotten to the beach in Fort Myers, and even though it was chilly her and gammaw braved the cold water. And she got a chance to talk to her dad on Thursday morning. It made her kind of sad and this was the first time she even acted like she knew that Tom and I were gone! But I talked to her this morning and she is fine again. We only have three more weeks before the family is back together.

All of the sea and air shipment boxes are out of the house and waiting to leave the University Moving warehouse. Of course, I have already found things that I forgot to pack. Like all of our DVD's! They are here today packing the storage items. They will probably not be done until Monday. Then Tuesday will be the loading day.

No comments: