Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Card 31 Wins!

Woke up this morning to many kind birthday wishes but the real question on everyone's mind, "did you win"?  Time to get scratching.
The other day, I went to see the cheesiest movie I could find for a friend date with the lovely Brenda Alvarez.  We saw Eat Pray Love.  It was actually pretty good.  Julia Roberts plays a travel writer who goes all over the world to find herself (nothing I could relate to of course:) ) but the best line in the movie?  She's in Italy and she tells the story of a guy who goes to pray to a statue every day, asking it "please let me win the lottery".  Finally one day the statue comes alive out of frustration to say "buy a ticket already!"

Well, if you plan to win the lottery, you've got to buy tickets, and I bought a bunch.
And at the very bottom of the stack we have today's card.  Number 31.  The birthday card.
Is it a winner?  YES!  Is it $20,000?  no.  only $2.  Bringing the total to $36.
I did say I was going to win the lottery for my birthday.  I didn't say how much.  I guess next time I should make my plans more specific!

Card 30 1/2 Winning in another state?

I got an awesome package in the mail today from Tracy, my travel buddy and bike and brew partner in crime.  It was for my birthday - you know, the one where I'm going to win the lottery?

What better present, than a chance to win the lottery not just in Washington, but in New York too!
It was interesting to scratch a different card, this one didn't have all the vowels in a row, no bonus word and it had a double prize letter!
 It looked pretty good half way in, I got the bonus G!
But in the end, New York was the state I was meant to win in.  Awesome present though!  Thanks Tracy!

Monday, August 30, 2010

Card 25-30 A quick recap

Tomorrow is the big day, so stayed tune to see how much I win for my birthday.  
In the meantime, winnings stand at $36.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Card 24 - how far would my winnings go in west africa?

After a bit of a rough streak, I decided to break out a real good luck charm... a Ghanaian Cedis coin.  What makes this coin special (besides that I picked it up in west africa of course) is how little its worth.  During my visit, a US dollar was worth close to 10,000 Cedis.  So this 100 Cedis coin was worth about 1 cent.    However, in 2007 the currency was revalued, they basically dropped 4 zeros and now the conversion is a little over 1 to 1 (but don't be mislead, Ghana's per capital income is about $1500/year).   This little coin?  Not worth anything, except luck.  So here we go:
(got to love a country that puts Freedom, Justice and chocolate on their coins)
And its a winner!  Four words equals two dollars.  $27 and counting!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Card 23 - Big money, big money...

OK, so that's 4 losing cards in a row.  No way this one can be too (at least not if the statistics on how many cards should be winners is correct).
And it's a winner!  Two dollars for four words! That brings the winnings to $25.  Hmmm...

Card 22 - puzzled

After the two card fiasco, I decided to go back to one at a time.
But I think I am a little distracted.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Cards 20-21

How to do two scratch tickets at once:
Clear some puzzle pieces off of the table.
Be careful to scratch the letters corresponding to the right card (oops!).
Decide to always to one at a time going forward, because these were both LOSERS!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Card 19 - Getting it done in the AM.

The funny this about this blog post, is that it's going up in the PM.   However, I started bright and early this morning at 8am.  I got up, made my coffee and oatmeal with a delicious cut up donut peach from Tiny's Organic Farms, poured some soy milk in both and sat down to win the lottery.
However, I looked at it with my American dime in hand and the word KANGAROO across the top and thought "where the hell are my Australian coins?"
I dug through the bank, lots of Euro's, Centimos, Soles, but no Australian coins.
so I grabbed the tiniest coin in the bunch, a little 1 centimo from Peru and gave it my best shot.
I couldn't help but think it was a sign that the first letters I scratched were AU. 
I ended up winning nothing this time.  I blame the coin.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Card 18 - thank goodness for small things!

Well, today was a rough day.  One of those, things just don't go your way sort of days.  And then I got home and thought "today would be a good day to win the lottery".
I broke out my Kiwi 20 cent piece, I coin that doesn't scratch well, but its from New Zealand, so it's extra good luck. 
About half way in, I got the EXTRA WORD!!!  I wait to scratch the prize though, to see what else I'd get.

Two words.   Not enough to win anything else, but I got $5 on the extra word!  Bringing my winnings to $23.  Sweet.  And my day was a little bit better:)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Card 17 - finally learning something?

According to tips I found on the internets, I've been doing this all wrong.  I should have gotten one card of 31 different games, instead of 31 of the same game.  I probably should have gone to the busiest gas station in the city to buy my tickets and I should have bought the newest games there are out there.  But really?  A strategy to winning the lotto?  I think my PLANNING to win is really just as good. 

And to prove it, I got out my next card:
 
And won!
Two dollars.  But still.

Now, some have you may be wondering, why does she never scratch all the letters?  There's still dollar signs left on the card!
And the answer is, all of the cards are poorly designed.  The letters under the dollar signs are spaced about a centimeter too high.

They did this to save room for the cash-in codes at the bottom of that scratch off section.  But I think they could have done a better job with that.  Maybe that's the reason it's recommended you try different cards,  so you don't notice these blatant design flaws.

Winnings are now at $18.  That's out of $62 spent, so still down $44 and over half way done.  If I wasn't going to win big by my birthday, I'd be concerned!

card 16 - guest scratcher Trisha!

For my middle of the month card, I asked Trisha to bring me some luck, and perhaps $20,000.
She was a little timid at first, what with it being such a skillful game:)
But after a few letters she was on a roll!
She had so much fun, I almost didn't have the heart to tell her she didn't win anything...

Monday, August 16, 2010

Card 14 and 15 - off to London or Easter Island?

This weekend I was camping sans internet so here's a quick update on my lottery exploits for the last few days.  The cards did come with me, but sadly, they stayed in my backpack the whole time.  They look a little worse for wear:
For Saturday's card, it was back to the travel bank, for a two pound coin from England.  The plan - go to England if this is the big one.  Albeit, $20,000 wouldn't last long there, but at least I'd finally get to see stone henge!
 The trip, quite literally was not in the cards though.  I managed to get 3 words on the board but won nothing.
So then, I decided I'd try for a more modest trip.  I used a Chilean Peso coin to scratch Sunday's card.
Two thirds in and it wasn't looking good.
In the end, I again got 3 words, this time including CONFETTI, which looked pretty impressive.  But sadly, still waiting for the big win.  Too bad, I was looking forward to going back to Easter Island if I won.  You'd think this game was rigged or something.

I preferred to think I was being punished for being a slacker.  The next card, that will be the one!

Card 13 -

Since moving to Europe didn't work out, I decided to go back to American money for this one. Maybe New Mexico will bring me some luck?

 






Two dollars!  Not bad.  That brings the total winnings to $16.  Not the big one yet, but hey, practice makes perfect, right?

Card 12 - Travel luck

In my experience while traveling, a little luck goes a long way - whether its a free place to stay from a stranger or catching a flight after you've slept in.  I travel a fair bit and have some pretty good luck, so I figure I'll try to bring that luck to the lottery table.  I broke open my foreign currency piggy bank (a london telephone booth) and grabbed the first coin to fall out - a 5 cent euro coin.
If you look on the upper left side of the board, you'll see the word MYSELF.  This word seems to show up on these cards a lot.  I wonder if somehow scratchers find this word comforting?
Two thirds in and its looking good for a prize.  I wonder which Euro based economy we should move to?
Luckily, we don't have to decide yet.  Only one word on this card.  Boo.