Pics!

Due to an interesting combination of Mac/PC incompatibility and internet malfunctions, I'm behind on pics. Wa-a-ay behind. I'll do the Derbys first. I attended my third KY Derby this past May (giving up an opportunity to see Tommy Karpency fight -- why, oh why, does everything I enjoy have to happen all at once?). Yeah, I know, only about five months behind.

We dressed for disaster that never materialized (at least for us). The thing over the shirt is supposed to be the dress I was going to wear. Instead, because of the gloom and fear of cold, I ended up going with leather pants, galoshes and a white shirt under the dress. I looked like Paddington the Pimp, but I stayed dry and had a good time. The people in the tent behind us took turns falling over by mid-afternoon. D/B also whalloped a trollup later. It was funny watching her say: "Get out of my face one .... Get out of my face two ..."

Sister won over $400 on the long shot horse, Mine That Bird. She cried when the ticket lady cashed her bet. LOL. My horse, Papa Clem, got shut out just as he was making his move. Mine that Bird went on to run in the WV Derby, my first time attending.

Same outfit, take two. This is Mine That Bird's trainer, just standing around and waiting to take pics -- a much different atmosphere than the high security KY Derby. MTB actually placed third in that race. In other exciting races, D/B chased down Gene Simmons from Kiss, took a pic of his mug and then ran away. Why Gene Simmons was there in the first place is equally funny. But it was like its own race, watching her white feathered hat chase his black mullet: "D/B is three lengths back, making her move around the outside, now they're neck in neck, it's going to be a photo finish ... a-a-and ... she ran away??"

Good times.

I also learned I don't really like casinos. I don't like the concept of putting hard earned $$ down on the chance you might lose all of it. I passed a man with 198 credits in a $1 pull slot machine. Somebody put 200 perfectly good dollars in damned slot machine?! There's no IRA that needs funded? No nonprofit that could use the cash? I'm not passing judgment. It just doesn't seem like fun to me, and the people doing it didn't seem like they were having fun either. They seemed tense and anxious and they liked to bang on the machines. Seems kind of stressful.

-- DV