Well, aside from a bit of potential "radiation poisoning" AKA too much sun (my hubby can be a bit extreme on occasion) and a big L for the Bears it was a fantastic weekend! Note to self: Do not let your husband read the blog about him before publishing. Writing was briefly interrupted by a demand to google and read about radiation poisoning symptoms. Now back to the blog...
We started the day off with a good old Sunday breakfast - eggs, sausage, toast and some STRONG coffee! We watched the Bears game and Brian is playing a video game while I blog...I love Sundays.
On Friday evening we met up with Pat and Betsy to go down town to see our friend Nick sing with his band for a fundraiser. We had a nice drive downtown together and then realized that we had to try to find parking in Lincoln Park. The boys dropped us off after we drove around for a good 15 min. Betsy spent the next 20 minutes fearing for her car since she didn't think Pat could parallel park and Brian had a little buzz going already...everything turned out fine though and her lucky husband found parking that didn't even require parallel skills! that guy wins at life. I've never met anyone that gets that lucky all the time! We watched the show and got killed on beer - we are so used to the cost of beer from a grocery store - we forgot that city beer was like $5 a bottle. Betsy pulled out a ten to pay the bartender and realized she needed a bit more then that...I think we even overdrafted trying to pull cash out!!! It was still a great time though and it's always fun to see Nick sing/play. Our dogs were barking though - we didn't sit the whole evening and then had the 20 minute walk to the car...
We made it home and got a few hours of sleep in before we were up and moving for our big Saturday plan. Our FIRST trip to Arlington Park for horse racing!!! Brian and I met up with Betsy, Theresa, Brandy and Eric for a FUN day! Brandy and Eric met up with us a bit later which was hard for us since they were the ones who had been there before. The four us tried or best to understand exactly what was happening without a guide - which was mildly successful. We skipped buying a program at first, we didn't want to spend $2.50 unnecessarily. We returned shortly and coughed up the dough though when we had no clue what was going on. We sat in awe of everything that was going on for the first bit and when the Kosniks finally got there, they showed us how to place bets.
Well, we were sold after that! The girls waited in line to place our bets with a real person...the meanest woman in the world. She was not amused with our novice betting skills. We got our tickets though and went down the general seating to watch the first race. I was the big winner!!! I had placed a $2 bet on a horse to show (place 1-3) and she won! My strategy was to bet on any horse that had a cat in it's name - for example Cats Bells or Cat has Claws. I hit it big and collected a whopping $.60! The funny part is that Brian and I decided not to cash in our tickets until the end so every time we won we tried to figure out what we'd get based on the odds...needless to say we thought we were doing a bit better than we actually did...I mean, $.60 doesn't even buy you a soda at the park. We had a great time though! We got to go to the back and watch the horses parade around and decide who we would bet on, go to the machine, place a few bets and watch the race. Betsy ended up walking away with a $2 profit! Everybody else lost big. Brian and I decided to bet it all on the final race and then lost it all! We're not planning on jumping on a plane to Vegas anytime soon. We were glad that we finally made it to the park, especially since it closes for the season next weekend. We are excited to go back again next year.
The downside about Arlington was that although it was actually kind of a chilly day - 65 for a high...it was VERY sunny! You would have thought it was in the 80's...Betsy was in a tank top and the rest of us in short sleeves. Nobody had really even considered sunscreen...hence the radiation issues. Brian got significantly more sun than me...perhaps because I would frequently get up and go place bets? He had a slight burn and little to drink...so when we went to go hangout at our friends place later that night, he was struggling....he ended up going to lay down and thought he was going to puke. I got him home quickly and loaded him with water...he's doing fine now!
We'll continue with a lazy day - it's raining outside and seems like the best thing to go do is make banana bread and do laundry!
