Hodge Podge - Volume 117

Lucky you...it's time for the weekly Hodgepodge! Answer the questions on your own blog, then 'march' back here tomorrow to link answers with the whole wide world.  It is a lot of fun and quite thought provoking.

1. Do you play games of luck/chance for money? Have you ever played bingo for money? Visited a casino? Placed a bet on a horse? Bought a lottery ticket?  When you read my answer you will think I need to attend Gamblers Anon.... I have gambled in Reno, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Biloxi, Louisville, Wetumpka, Shorter, New Orleans...you name it I have been there.  Honestly I have seen some of the coolest places in these gambling meccas.  Not just the casinos.  At Binons Horseshoe in Lost Wages Kat and I were held captive in our room because she was too young....we we had a princess party....ordered room service, watched the security guard watching the casino floor, went to the mall....I have been to these places because that is what happens when you are married to a gambler and are trying to make your marriage work.  I have pulled arms of one arm bandits, played black jack and roulette...maximum amount of money ever spent by me....40.00 for the duration of the trip.  I am not a gambler.  I do buy lotto tickets when the pot reaches over 100 million...I buy one.  You can't win if you don't have a ticket.  I occassionally buy a scratch off...for the fun of it.  I have been to horse races, dog races, pig races....and usually I read a book.  I have never played bingo for money.  I have played at school carnivals for prizes....and bought chances from students to help out whatever athletic team was selling them. Quick sad gambling story....once while in Biloxi with the ex husband (and yes...gambling was a big factor in him being an ex) I was on crutches and he sat me at a machine and left me to fend for myself with my 40.00.  I was winning when a man came and sat next to me.  I was playing a nickle slot...he was playing a dollar one.  He cashed his paycheck....and lost every bit of it.  He asked me if I would spot him 20.00 because the machine was fixing to hit.  I did.  He lost it too.....he went crazy when I would not give him more money....and security guards had to carry him out.  It made me physically ill.  He begged to me....asking me how he was going to be able to tell his wife.  I cashed out...found my husband...gave him the 40.00 he gave me to start with....and went to the room and cried, something I did many times during my marriage when there was no money to pay the power bill.

2. Will you be preparing and/or dining on the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage meal this St. Patrick's Day? Mashed-baked-hash browned-french fried...your favorite way to have potatoes?  I am planning on having corned beef and cabbage.  Frank makes the best.  As for potatoes....I love them anyway.  I am Irish....can't help it.

3. What's the last thing you felt 'green with envy' over?  My cousin Amanda's new kitchen and bathroom.  They are amazing.  Nathaniel did an awesome job.

4. What's at the end of your rainbow?  Eternal Life and believe me....I am looking forward to it.

5. March 12th marks the anniversary of the death of Anne Frank (June 12, 1929-March, 1945). Anne's diary detailing her time spent hiding from the Nazi's during the war ranks as one of the best selling books of all time. Besides your blog, do you keep any sort of diary or journal? Was this a habit you developed as a child or is journaling something new for you?  I kept countless diaries and journals as a child.  My bible study group knows where they are and are instructed upon my death to burn them all.

6. What's an item in your home or closet that contains every color of the rainbow?  My Emmaus Decolores sticker on my guitar case.

7. Write a limerick with you as the subject. You can do it!! Just remember this is a family friendly blog...don't make me get out my wooden spoon.  There once was a young girl named Karen.  Who lov'd flowers called the Rose of Sharon.  She would pick them each day, when she went out to play, til the bush out her window was barren.  (True story....my mom planted a Rose of Sharon bush outside of my window when I was 5.  When I was 7 it had a bumper crop year and I picked them each day.....til there was not the first bloom left on it. 

8. Insert your own random thought here. The limerick made me think about Cod Liver Oil.  Did your mom ever make you take it?  Mine did....and I learned how to hold it in my mouth til I got outside...where I would spit it on my mom's prize flame bush.  One day she noticed that the flame bush was dying...and could not imagine why....I told her that it was my fault....and that I was spitting Cod Liver Oil on it each day.....she did not get mad....she actually made me quit taking the nasty stuff.