Goings-on

On Saturday, September 13, we are leaving to go to Phoenix, Arizona for three days and two nights. I won this small vacation from a sweepstakes that I had entered. The prize includes hotel, airfare, rental car, baseball game tickets and $200 per diem. The sweepstakes was sponsored by Fox Sports Network and the theme is major-league baseball. For our prize, we had to pick an "away" game to attend played by our region's home team. The Cincinnati Reds is our home team, and they play the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday. I am not a baseball fan; really I don't get into any sports at all, but my husband is excited about the game. I'm just excited about going someplace out-of-town. What I am really looking forward to is the scenic drive we'll be going on while we're there. It's called the "Apache Trail". It is a very narrow, steep, winding and unpaved road of 40 miles. We were in Arizona last year and I really had a great time going on drives out in the desert. I am not at all disappointed that Arizona is where we have to go as our prize, in fact, I am very happy to return, as I feel a deep connection to the deserts and scenery of Arizona.

Two days ago, the FedEx man rang our doorbell with a package for me. I thought it was the package with our tickets to the baseball game, as they were going to send them via FedEx to my house. I opened the package and there was news that I had won yet another sweepstakes, this time the prize is $10,000 from Better Homes and Gardens. Five-thousand dollars will be in cash and the other half will be in furniture that I choose from their catalog. I am happy that half the prize includes cash because I'll need some to pay the taxes on this prize and the vacation that I won. The rest of the money I'm using to renovate the guest bathroom in my house.