My brother and his wife came down from Minnesota this weekend. It was nice for me, Lisa and Collin to spend some time with them. My brother's wife is a nurse like Lisa, so they got to discuss the likenesses and differences of their jobs. My brother is just a bigger, smarter, funnier version of me. The only proof of the "smarter" aspect of that was the Big Brain Academy game on the Wii. He outscored everybody.
Along with my mom and her husband, we all went and watched fireworks Friday night out at Shawnee Mission Park. It was very nice and surprisingly not a lot of bug casualties. Today we went to Jack Stack for lunch and then headed out to the Woodlands for some evening entertainment and gambling. Even if you don't care for dog racing at all, it's easy to get caught up in the action after your first bet. The greatest, and possibly most famous, thing about this event is the announcer yelling "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere Comes Woody!" at the start of each race. Tonight, the guy sounded extra drunk. He talks about each dog before the enter the starting gate, but it doesn't matter. You can't understand him and nobody is really listening anyway. They are all waiting for the "Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere Comes Woody!" to set the tone. This "Woody" is a little stuffed animal bone that the dogs chase around the track. The dogs never catch it. If one every does, I think it's shot on the spot. (j/k)
My grandfather used to take us grandkids out to the Woodlands all the time when we were young. Both he and my brother have the "luck" gene. They hit trifectas left and right. What always made it worse was that they never even seemed to care about winning. Some people go to the track to bet it all on the long shot, hoping to walk away with a fortune. Both my grandfather and brother would go for the fun of it, and always walk away with more money than they came with.
Tonight wasn't too bad though. Lisa and I took turns better on each race. She got hooked right away. I told ya, it's easy to get hooked. Everyone had their system, whether it was sharing a birthday with a dog, or a funny name, or even a favorite number. My mom waits to see which dog pees before they enter the gate. She didn't do so hot tonight. In the end, I think my brother was the only one that came out on top, even if it was only a couple of bucks.
It was a good time. I think we'll go again some other time.
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I miss the Woodlands. It's all Jai-alai out here. No dogs, no horses, just guys with cesstas.
I learned a lot at the track with Grandpa. I used to study those race cards something fierce. My trick was to bet according to how many prior 1st place finishes the dogs had raced. I did okay. I remember once, Grandpa and I went in together on a bet for a superfecta, straight numbers, no boxing. We would have hit BIG had we reversed our 2nd and 3rd place dogs. So close. That's my big story. No luck gene here, though. It skipped me and went straight to Jake.
Since I'm rambling anyway, let me tell you about Jake's luck. The kid is the best 10-year-old Hold-em player ever. Jeff took him to an after-softball poker party at his coach's house. Jake took first, beat all the "men". He knocked Jeff out with a pair of Kings to Jeff's pair of Queens. Pretty impressive! He beat Dad last year, too. Next stop, VEGAS.
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