Christmas Cruise Week
It was a "shortened week" for my handicapping as Monday afternoon Kim and I set sail with our son Brad, his wife Lauren, and our grandson on a Merry Christmastime Cruise aboard the Disney Wish - our first ever Disney cruise after YEARS of talking about it. Because (a) we were on vacation and (b) we would be at sea I opted to not handicap or play the races on the first two days of the cruise and begin the week with the stakes-laden cards at Gulfstream, the Fair Grounds, and Laurel on Saturday. I started off hot as a firecracker, winning five in a row after an off-the-board and two seconds. But through the rest of the day I was able to only win two-of-the-next-fifteen while running second on six more occasions1 But the day was largely salvaged by (a) my final win of the day coming with a $9.80 upset that allowed me to cash for almost $50 and (b) by a TwinSpires promotion that offered a 15% bonus on your winnings at the Fair Grounds. Fortunately for me I had four of the seven winners here, including the big priced one and cashed for well over $100 so I got over $15 bonus back. Sunday I could not cash a single ticket at Gulfstream, but as a special Christmas Eve promotion, Xpressbet offered a $10 bet-back if you ran 2nd or third with all the races from South Florida. I closed out the day with back-to-back-to-back near misses so I got back $30 of my money to somewhat salvage the day.
A special five-day holiday racing week kicks off on Tuesday which is Opening Day at Santa Anita AND Gulfstream will have live racing that day.
Social Media this week.....
Most of my online contact this week came with gal-pal and former weekend anchor for CBS-Miami Karli Barnett. Started off when she posted a photo of a gingerbread house she made - I replied and she responded back. Saturday evening I jumped on Karli's FB live chat for a bit and we exchanged comments about our just completed cruise. And finally on Christmas Eve she posted a photo of herself at the anchor desk and we exchanged Christmas wishes.
Lauren Pastrana reacted to my "we're back" posting which I sent along a good screen shot of her on the anchor desk Friday night.
My buddy from Cypress Bay, Jeff Nelson's cute daughter Chloe is a FB pal and it was her birthday this week so I wished her well and she replied.
Jayce Birch is the morning news anchor for Channel 10 and she posts pics of her fashion almost every day. Her Christmas post on Friday drew a response from me and a reaction from her.
Finally, my best-est gal-pal/former student Kimmy and I exchanged text messages when we returned from out cruise.
No comments:
Post a Comment