Well That Was Frustrating ... And Sad

So as I've said many times before, the main reason I went to Hong Kong was to see Grandmother.  I needed to say how well she was doing ... or wasn't doing.  Speaking for 15 seconds long-distance over the phone wasn't going to cut it anymore, especially if ... well, if things are winding down with her.

I was able to see her four times.  Only the first time did I know for sure she knew who I was.  There were two days where she carried on conversations with a tone that made me thing she knew who I was, but I wasn't sure.  One day she looked at me blankly.  There were times where she looked haggard and disconsolate; then she barely spoke to me and even looked like she was barely there.  However, in the times she seemed alert she seemed extremely anxious.  That is when she went back to how she was late in her time at home and at the nursing home -- asking the same questions, over and over, about information she should already know, like where in the United States she used to live, or what my name was.

Just called her now.  I didn't have to fight off those questions while I was on the phone before I saw her.  But in the first call I've had with her since returning as well as the longest call I have had with her, she did not just answer my regular question of, "Are you OK?"  She asked me who I was.  Then she asked me who she was, which is an extremely sad change.  And then she asked those questions over and over and over.  Grandmother didn't know who either of us was.  Is that a symptom of Alzheimer's?

Even though I felt assured that she seemed to be in good physical health, it was frustrating and sad that her mind is going.  The anxiety is one thing, the forgetfulness another.  But with Grandmother (and maybe with other old people hobbled like this, I don't know) consistently losing the basic information I told her minutes before, and then her feeling the need to ask me those questions again, was a blindside of aggravation and despondency for me.  I don't know how to react to someone who is slowly slipping away from me.  I can't have polite and easy conversations with her anymore.

But I have a sneaking suspicion about myself ... that a "normal" person would be much ... uh, sadder than I am now.  While I was trying to speak to her just now I kept thinking that another person in my position would be crying.  I am not.  Why is that?  Is it me?  Possibly.  Is it that I think she's in good hands with the nanny, who is a paragon of patience?  A lot of it is that.  Is it because her son and daughter-in-law are "taking care of it?"  That counts for a lot, too.

But I have to confess something: Ever since she started going backshit crazy on the family her last few months at home, continually asking me where did I take her money and shit like that, I kind of knew she was a goner.  With my fatalistic personality, a part of me thought Grandmother was already dead.  So, in a sense, I have sort of been saying goodbye to her the past several years.  This fucking goddamn phone call was just affirmation of my long farewell to her as she fades into the shadows of her dementia.

I feel obligated to try calling her again, but if all that's going to happen is shit like this, honestly, I don't even know if I should bother.  That might make me an asshole.  But I would be wasting my time with a human being who isn't Grandmother.  I truly believe that.

Should Be Less Busy Than This

I find it kind of ironic that ever since my parents went to Las Vegas, I've felt busier than I would have if they were still here.  In fact, I am blogging now because I'm afraid I won't be able to blog before the end of day today, even though my previous blog post was a scant seven hours ago and I like to space out my blog posts so that the latest blog post has maximum exposure on the top of Wailing And Failing.  I've been cutting it close, or at least too close for my comfort, the past few days, and since I'm up and not really dead tired, I figured it would be best to post now, even if I am being all meta and blog posting about, well, blog posts.

(I know that lately my blog posts haven't been substantial.  It's another consequence of being busy.  Sorry.)

I have a lot of things on my plate, however.  Have work.  After work today (Friday) I am stopping by home before going to the Golden Gopher baseball game at U.S. Bank Stadium.  Tomorrow there's the alumni club event in the afternoon and the Class AA Boys' State High School Hockey Championship Game in the evening.  Sunday I'll be free until the afternoon, when I'll be spending the rest of the day before and after The First-Ever Minnesota United FC Match at TCF Bank Stadium.  Then there's work, sprinkled with both going to the library to print out The Bracket and studying The Bracket over one evening early next week.  Then March Madness begins and I'll head out to watch the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament games before next weekend, where I will have to attend the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Championship Game Saturday, a Mensa event Sunday, and the Twin Cities Auto Show some time that weekend.

I have a massage the following Monday, a movie I can see on discount Tuesday (as well as the Tuesday before, which is Tuesday -- got that?), and then my parents come home the following Wednesday.  Man, this is a precious waste of my parents being away!

No Fucking Tonight

So I got one of the strippers who get down with me, *e***, a knockoff Michael Kors purse from the Temple Street Night Market in Hong Kong because she asked me.

I was going to drop by her place to give her the purse, but since my parents are away I felt frisky and parlayed that to an evening visit where I would get a little sumpin'-sumpin' from her.

That was supposed to be this evening, but when I approached the door, all I heard were voices by a girl and a man.  I left the front door with the quickness and texted (and eventually called) *e*** to see what was going on.  She was there, and she was home, but she totally forgot to clear her house so she could suck and we could fuck.

So, no sexual activity.  Hey, no loss.  If we can rearrange something for later, I will try and extract a couple extra favors from her, like digging her out without a condom, or making sure I cum in her mouth.  If not, hey, the knockoff Kors was only $20 -- no loss.  And *e*** said and texted that she loves it.  That makes me feel good, too.

Our Silent Treatment

My family has never done goodbyes well, or at least as well as normal families.  We don't really bid farewell to each other with gratitude and warm feelings, because, well, we don't have any.  In fact, I think that my parents and I (with some sprinkling in from my brother and sister) use the occasion to get one final shot at each other, via insult or passive-aggressive slight.  It's the best time to do it because the other side can't do anything because we're on vacation, ha-ha!

Such was the case yesterday (Tuesday) evening, when I was taking my parents to the airport.  We were pretty convivial with each other, although the rush to get through the metro area in evening rush kind of put any petty grievances we had with each other aside because we could miss the flight.  However, My Fucking Father, who did go through and invade my privacy by cleaning my bedroom, gave me his usual edict before leaving.  I didn't listen, per usual, but the last one got my dander up: "... and clean up your room, and throw away your bottles!"

I have saved a couple bottles which I have placed on top of my desk.  One of them is a big bottle of Surly Darkness which I waited in line to get.  It was full, but once I drank it, I liked the artwork so much (which I believe was done by a friend) that I kept it.  Another was a bottle from the famed New Glarus Beer Co., a Wisconsin-only craft beer outfit whose fable has become legendary on this side of the border.  I kept the bottle, given to me by my cousin who personally made the trek to New Glarus, Wisc., in order to enjoy the beer, because of that.  And I have a bottle from the Whistler Soda Co., now being made by Blue Sun, a pop soda shop that is not ten minutes away from me.  I like their pop, but I kept the bottles because I am going to go back and there and deposit the bottle in order to get a discount on the next bottle of Whistler.

So when I heard what My Fucking Father said, I couldn't believe it.  The invasion of privacy is one thing; that still hurts, but I knew when I went to Hong Kong that there was a possibility he would be all up in my business.  But I felt so foolish, so stupid, for not even realizing that he took away the bottles.  I keep my stuff around, but if I don't notice them, how can I say that they're important enough to me to keep them around?  The rearranging of the plastic sports cups onto the top of my desk (some of them were on my dresser) was one of the first things I noticed when I got back from HK.  But the bottles?  Nope, didn't notice.  And he caught me on it.

And so I was pissed from that point on through the rest of the drive to the airport.  Some bitch insisted that she cut in front of me as we went from 35WS to Crosstown East, even though I kept the gap between me and the car in front of me narrow and the space behind me was open wide.  If my parents weren't in the car, I would've sideswiped that woman to prevent her from getting in front of me.  That's how upset I was.

When we finally got to the airport and I stopped, they said thank you.  To which I said ... nothing.  Nothing.  I didn't even look their way.  I just hit the hazard lights, made sure the heat was going, and stared out the side window as Mother got up off the passenger seat and My Fucking Father gave her both of their bags through the passenger-side rear door.  And as soon as My Fucking Father was clear of the car, I took off.

I didn't intentionally do that.  I really didn't.  But I had to convey the anger and embarrassment I felt.  And the Silent Treatment, which leaves people wondering, "Are they in deep thought or are they mad at me?" is the only way I could get back at him.  My comeback to that is that whenever I go to the airport, I offer up hearty well wishes and am met with indifference, if not contempt.  Hell, I could say that I learned the Silent Treatment from them.  And I could also say that they were getting out of the car too fast for me to say anything meaningful.  Or, I could say that I thought they were mad at me, so why say anything?  But that's reasoning I use to not say anything around the house.

Whatever the case, my unplanned micro-aggression may very well have had its intended, instinctual effect: My folks, in particular My Fucking Father, may very well have muttered, "I knew he was mad after we cleaned his room."  Good.

Except ... after going to Buffalo Wild Wings and to My Favorite Stripclub (Non-Cover Edition), I frantically went home to, once he told me about the bottles, to find the bottles.  I looked in the recycling bin, although Recycling Day was last Thursday (they come every other week) and so it was very likely that if he cleaned up my room, it was before Thursday.  It wasn't there.  So I checked back into my bedroom, just in case ... and, well, there my bottles were, at the top of my desk, moved to the corner, but still there.  So, My Fucking Father didn't dispose of those bottles after all.

He left a small bottle of water in the backseat of my car.  Probably drank it on the ride to the airport.  I was so mad at him for doing that on top of taking my bottles from me (or so I thought) that, before I went back up to my bedroom, I put that goddamn bottle of water underneath his side of the bed in the master bedroom, just to piss him off.

Just in case he gets back at me for getting back at him for something I only thought he did while they're out of town, I'm leaving the empty bottle there, just in case.  Don't fucking litter.

Don't you hate it when you're typing something online, and the website you're typing on says that it auto-saves, and then your damn screwy wi-fi freezes and to unfreeze you refresh with F5, but then inexplicably the past two gorgeously-written paragraphs you wrote were in fact not auto-saved even though you slaved over them for half an hour so they had to have been auto-saved?

Well, that just happened to me when I was arranging my alumni club communique.  Man, I lost such good prose.  Hate that.  Spent another half-hour making it up again.  Crap.

So, About That Party I Promised I'd Go To ...

It's on Friday.  Promised *****e* that I would go there after she blew me off on a one-on-one a couple months ago.  I thought I was free then.  But two things happened.  First, I forgot that the University of Minnesota baseball team was playing its final games at U.S. Bank Stadium, and the only day of the three-game series I could go was Friday.  (Saturday's out because of the alumni club event; Sunday's game starts only three hours before United's first-ever MLS home opener, and as a season-ticketholder I'm not going to miss that.)  Second, I am back at the test scoring place, and I forgot that the 40-hour bonus is back in effect.  However, because we didn't get through testing today and I have to get home in time to take my parents to the airport, in order to get 40 hours I would have to have a full day on Friday.

Pushing my workweek into the early evening, then having a baseball game in the early evening ... it doesn't help that *****e*'s party ends in the middle of the evening.  I thought I would be able to squeeze in some HJ time (so to speak), but I need the money, and therefore this won't work.  Which means that, once again, I'll have to cancel on her.

One saving grace, possibly: Since I will have the run of the house for the next couple weeks, it's possible I could entice her to do a one-on-one at my place some evening.  Worth a shot.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Positive Numbers: Gopher softball (Two Weeks Ago: 0).  Wow.  Just ... wow.  While I was gone, the University of Minnesota softball program has just kept going.  After completing the Big Ten/ACC Challenge with a win over N.C. St., they took all five games in the Fresno State Tournament and swept through the LSU Tournament.  That means that they have started the 2017 season 18-0.

The last two games in this screening period are the most noteworthy.  They haven't necessarily rolled up this undefeated streak against a rogues' gallery.  They were taken to eight innings before defeat Cal Poly, and they have mercy-ruled California-Davis and Idaho St.  Finally they faced a good opponent last (Saturday) night against the hosts, ranked LSU.  And behind a nine-Strikeout performance from Pitcher Sara Groenewegen, they shut out the Tigers, 3-0.  This (Sunday) afternoon, they were behind Illinois St., 3-2, in the sixth inning before scoring five runs and beating the Redbirds, 7-3, in a game delayed 72 minutes because of rain.

Despite being undefeated, the Gophers, with stubbornness, have climbed in the polls, but only to around 10 or 11.  All I can recommend, however, is to keep walking, because so far, you're doing great, ladies.  They go to the Washington Tournament this weekend in Seattle.

#0: Gopher men's basketball (Two Weeks Ago: -1).  Shit.  If I were able to type up a WMNSS last week, these guys would have received the Pos #'s dap they deserve.  And they still deserve a lot of recognition now.  But they just lost to sputtering Wisconsin to finish the regular season at 11-7.  This loss, however, after they ripped off eight wins in a row (the last half falling during the two weeks that are the concern of this survey).  Like the U. softball team, this club hasn't gone through the Big 12 or the ACC.  The most important wins probably were the Overtime one over Michigan at The Barn and the 14-point beating they dealt to Maryland in College Park when the Terrapins had a weird off night.  Remember when this squad lost five games in a row?  This winning streak came right after that losing streak.

It's a down year for the B1G.  But the U. has already done enough to lock in a tournament bid and, for the first time I can remember, receive a double-bye to the B1G Conference Tourney this week in D.C. as the 4-seed.  That's a hell of a turnaround for Richard Pitino.

#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Two Weeks Ago: Positive Numbers).  OK, there is trouble brewing in Mariucci.  They have split their last two series, home to Wisconsin and at Michigan.  Enough time has passed whereby both the Gophers and the Badgers have distanced themselves from the rest of the league and earned byes for the B1G Tournament.  But they have slipped down the PairWise from a 1-seed to a 2-.  And even though Wisconsin is enjoying a Renaissance season, the U. suddenly look very vulnerable.  Is the injury to Tommy Novak finally biting this team?  They finish up the regular season at home for two against Michigan St.

#-2: Wild (Two Weeks Ago: -2).  First off, the trade.  They traded three picks (including their first-rounder next year) and some minor leaguer named Grayson Downing to The Bastard Winnipeg Jets in exchange for some mid-level draft pick, Forward Ryan White ... and Center Martin Hanzal.  I appreciate that ownership and management recognize they have to put their chips in on what has shaped up to be an exceptional season.  Center depth has unraveled this franchise too many times in the past, so the grit Hanzal can provide might be the difference in grind-it-out series where low-level lines may provide the winning tally.  What may be just as important is that the organization is seen to have a really talented young corps, and General Manager Chuck Fletcher didn't have to trade any one of those pieces to get Hanzal and White.  So if the Mild come up short again this year, well, the future remains quite promising.

We may have to look at the long-term future, because suddenly, this team isn't looking so good.  They lost at home to Chicago, and in a loss in Columbus they were shut out on the road for the first time since early November.  Plus they had to go to Overtime to beat Los Angeles, and survived Winnipeg 6-5.  The Wild's place in the Survey was in doubt until the fate of tonight's (Sunday night's) game.  They defeated San Jose, 3-1, at the X, so I'll put them up here.  But now they're in a dogfight with Chicago for the division.

This week: Home to St. Louis and new Head Coach (and former Wild HC) Mike Yeo, then a Florida two-step Thursday and Friday that starts a five-game road trip that coincides with the Boys' State High School Hockey Tournament.

#-3: Timberwolves (Two Weeks Ago: -4).  I've been out of the country, so I have no idea about how this team is.  (Actually I don't know the state of any of the teams on this survey.  So sue me.)  I do know that the Timberwolves played five games while I was gone and went above .500.  They lost to the two good teams, Houston and San Antonio, and against the teams that aren't that good (Dallas, Sacramento and Utah), they beat them all.  And even though they sit twelfth in the Western Conference standings and three teams sit between them and the Denver Nuggets (two of the three being the aforementioned Mavericks and Kings), they are only three games back for the eighth and final playoff spot.  So because of that, I am putting them above all the other teams that have muddled through these past two weeks.

Tomorrow they host the last of the three teams standing in the Woofie Dogs' way, Portland.  That commences a three-game homestand that also includes the Clippers and Golden State, the latter of which will be played the day before the club travels to play the Bucks in Milwaukee.

#-4: Gopher wrestling (Two Weeks Ago: -6).  At first I thought it was a typo: The Gophers beat Iowa St. 40-7?!  In Ames?!?!  The Gophers, who have been routinely humiliated this year?!?!?!  And then I checked it.  Yes, back on February 19, the U. won eight of the ten matches, and in all but one of those victories they received bonus points for at least a major decision.  It was the first time in more than three years that they rolled up at least 40 points in a dual.  But to do it against the Cyclones, one of the proud blueblood programs in college wrestling?  And then I looked over the Intermat Wrestle rankings and, nope, Iowa St. is nowhere to be found.  I lament the fall from grace of the Gopher grappling program, but at least the squad is still ranked.  What the hell happened to the 'Clones, home to Cael Sanderson?

So technically the team has gone undefeated in this screening period.  But still I hinged this team's final placement in this survey (done after Sunday's games have been played, to be sure) on one particular match during this weekend's B1G Tournament in Bloomington.  The U. as a team finished an emasculating fifth (after finishing the first day in fourth place), but that was a foregone conclusion.  What was still in doubt was the fate of the best player on the team and the top seed at 197 lbs., Brett Pfarr.  But, no, he got upset in the class final, 15-11, to Ohio St.'s Kollin Moore.  So the Gophers finish this league tourney with absolutely zero titles for its players, further sending off this program in a wayward direction.  But hey, at least they went undefeated on the road (5-0) for the first time in four seasons!

Nine wrestlers will go to the NCAA Championships two weeks from now.  But will Minnesota win the title?  Fuck no.

#-5: Gopher baseball (Two Weeks Ago: -3).  I left Hong Kong just before the club began playing the first of 13 games at U.S. Bank Stadium, a celebration that this school can finally play games at home before April.  And the verdict?  So far, through eight games, they're 5-3.  Certainly not a way to hold on for your city, even if they did sweep Seattle in the first-ever series at Das Bank v.2.0.  Add that they lost at California-Irvine 7-5 Sunday the 19th and I'll slip them behind the above two teams because, hey, it's not Iowa and Oral Roberts are titans in baseball like Iowa St. is in wrestling.

Their homestand ends this week.  They have midweek one-offs against South Dakota St. and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  They then host Missouri St. for a three-game set, and I am poised to finally catch a game there, specifically Friday's tilt.

#-6: United (Re-Entry!).  History was made Friday -- the birth of the Twin Cities' franchise in the fifth professional sport in the United States.  And ... they got their asses kicked in Portland in the first game of the Major League Soccer season, 5-1.  It was 1-0 at Halftime, however, and congratulations to MNUFC lifer (but substitute for this match -- huh?) Christian Ramirez for scoring The First-Ever Goal For Minnesota United FC in Major League Soccer:



But by then the Timbers already scored the game-winning goal, and later the roof caved in on United.  Portland scored three goals in the last 11 minutes, the last two being a brace (that's two goals; I just learned that recently!) by Fanendo Adi in the 91st and 93rd minutes.  Look, since this is the club's expansion year, I don't really give a good goddamn if they lose every game.  They're not going anywhere this year, and they're not supposed to.  But should they be losing every match 5-1?  Uh, I hope not.

Next Sunday comes another milestone: The first home game for MNUFC at TCF Bank Stadium.  They'll be facing fellow expansion side (and fellow United) Atlanta in the afternoon.  This is one of the main reasons why I became a season-ticketholder for the first time ever.  On Saturday they visit Colorado.

#-Infinity: Gopher women's basketball (Two Weeks Ago: -5).  Well, they ended their regular season on a three-game losing streak via lopsided defeats to Purdue and Maryland.  Then they started what had to be a miracle run in the conference tournament to get an NCAA tourney berth by beating Penn St., which they were supposed to do.  But then they suffered a dozen-point defeat to Maryland in the next round, thereby ending their season.  Once again, Brenda Oldfield is the bane to the Goofers' existence.

They finish the season 15-16 overall, and if that doesn't tell the current non-existent state of this program, I don't know what does.  I really have nothing else to say about this.

Goodbye For Now, Grandmother And Hong Kong

So I could have done so many things better today, my last day here.  I could've waken up earlier.  I could've gotten to Grandmother sooner, except my uncle and cousin and I had dim sum and we took our time.  I could've been more patient with Grandmother as she kept asking the same goddamn questions 50 times.  Maybe I should've stayed for dinner.  And maybe I could've gotten gifts for everyone in my family and not just for the stripper who wanted a Michael Kors knockoff bag in the hopes she will be so grateful she'll suck my dick for free.

As I have said, I have stayed here long enough for some things to rub me the wrong way, and that seems like a great time to leave.  Six days is long enough for Hong Kong.  But shoot, a part of me is done apologizing.  This is the first time I've hauled my butt out of the country by myself, and I've done as much as a grandson, a family member, and a tourist as I think I could.  Maybe I could have stayed with Grandmother more, but ... well, I don't want to disparage the time I did spend with her.  Everything else I think I did as well as possible.

I am scared to see how bad Grandmother might be the next time I see her.  But I want to brave enough to see her anyway.  Hopefully it'll be the summer instead of, say, two years.  By that point I should be back to falling in love with Hong Kong again, instead of "standing" in love with it after six fascinating days.  And even if HK is nasty to me then, I still will have Grandmother to see.  And that's more than enough.

Goodbye for now, Hong Kong.  And goodbye for now, Grandmother.

Disappointed In Myself

Enough transpired over the day Thursday that made this trip go from perfect to, "Oh, this is a city ... with people."  Some jostling, some rudeness, some incompetence while walking.  (Won both of my soccer matches, though, and now I have a La Liga parlay going -- go, Athletico Madrid and Sevilla!)

But I feel more disappointed in myself.  I spent the day with my uncle going to The Big Buddha, a 34-meter-high statue of you-know-who.  I'm glad we spent that time together, and it was something I wanted to do.  But I could have done so much better.  First of all, I was supposed to call my unc at 11, and through a combination of laziness and looking up football betting tips, I got done showering and calling him at 11:30.  Things snowballed when, due to my micro-room, I couldn't call him until noontime.

I could have used that hour because I did not wind up seeing Grandmother this day.  I did call her, and she seemed to understand who I was.  But my stays with her have shrunk through the week, from three or so hours Monday to two Tuesday to 20 minutes Wednesday to a frickin' phone call yesterday.  My actions indicate that I do not want to see her.  I do, but ... actions, right?

I am determined to spend the afternoon with her.

Meanwhile, after dinner tonight (he paid, again) my uncle asked me if I wanted to have lunch with him tomorrow (well, this) afternoon.  I stammered out the truth that I thought of going to a place by myself.  And now I feel bad for not wanting to spend time with him.  The place I wanted to go doesn't seem so hot, so maybe I'll call him later and see if he does want to eat.  But I feel bad for rejecting him.  Heck, I feel bad for lying to him when I said I saw Grandmother yesterday afternoon.

Yeah -- people say a week isn't enough.  I think maybe it is.

My Stay In Hong Kong Is Beginning To Be Over

Honestly, it hasn't felt as if I just got here, at least not anymore.  In fact, it feels as though I've been here two weeks, which is the recommended length My Father recommended I stay here for.  I've now done everything I wanted to do: See Grandmother; see my uncle and aunt and cousins; go to places such as the Star Ferry and Victoria Peak; and, something I didn't realize I wanted to do until I got here, gamble.  I've done it all, and it's been enough.

So in a way, two days from now is a perfect time to leave.  I stay here long enough to get all the things I want to do done, but I don't stay so long that I don't miss as soon as I get back home to Minnesota.  Six days seem to be more of the perfect length to stay halfway around the world.

Nevertheless I need to mete out the rest of my days to make sure everything is in order.  I can start seeing the end of the tunnel, so to speak, when there are two days left.  I often recognize things I do as a routine on vacation, if that makes any sense, so when I am doing it for the penultimate time, I know that I have to do things such as pack all my stuff together, put my receipts in one place, and make sure I know where the most important things I have with me are.

When I was in my hotel room just now I got an e-mail from someone from the alumni association.  I have to fill out a survey for this important event coming up in a couple weeks.  I couldn't fill out the survey on my phone, or so I thought; I was going to the Internet cafe to blog post -- which I'm doing right now -- but now I had another reason to do so.  And then I realized that this is the second-to-the-last time I probably be at this Internet cafe.  Tomorrow night/Thursday night will be the last time because chances are I will try and go to bed early so I can wake up early to get to the airport.  And I'm sad.  Not because of the brusque customer service I keep getting (I am have not gotten off on the right foot with the guy, who may or may not be the same guy the past two nights -- God, I come off as so racist), but because for $10HK I can be grounded and do the same thing I would do if I were back in Minnesota.

But likely this will all come to an end very soon.  When I wake up it'll be the next-to-last day of sightseeing, of seeing Grandmother, of sleeping in, of not hearing any yap from my parents, of eating with my uncle, etc.  And then it'll be the last, and I don't know how to feel when that time comes.

---

Gambling update.  Eibar tied with Real Sociedad, goddammit, so $50HK down the drain there.  I spent this evening at the race track and lost $150 HK.  Oh, and I bet at the OTB on two more games, both of them recommended on online gambling tout sites: Bestia to draw versus Nantes (Ligue 1), and Villareal to defeat Osasuna on the road (La Liga/Primera Division).  Look, if my ideas can't make me money, maybe someone else's will.  Where's my damn money?!?!?!