Gambling on Minnesota

It's been a while since I made any updates here, so I thought it would be a good idea to change the blog template and make an post. I do most of my updates on Facebook these days. This past year, my boyfriend and I moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota, got a new house, and I had to find a new job, so that kept me busy. We caught the tail end of the horse racing season at Canterbury Park, so I posted a picture of that. We were just learning how to bet, so we are looking forward to the 2012 racing season.

We have only visited two casinos in Minnesota. The largest one, Mystic Lake, is only 4 miles from our house, so we have to make sure we don't spend too much time there. Being a very large casino, it's easy to get lost if you get separated from your partner. We usually like to go off on our own so that we can concentrate on finding a good slot machine, but at Mystic Lake you end up spending a lot of time looking for both a good machine and the person you went there with. For a better experience, I would recommend trying the Little Six casino, which is right next door. They don't have as many slots to choose from, but you are less likely to get lost.

The true spirit a Christmas

Christmas, What exactly is Christmas? What does it all mean?

It means a special time of year, in which we celebrate and connect with those closest to us.

Those people are our friends and family, people we love most. So its only natural that we place a lot of expectations on the holidays.

We find ourselves anxiously looking forward to the joy of the season: , and the treasured memories of the time we will spend with family.

For these are memories that we all imprinted into our mind and revived every year with the sounds and sights of the holidays. Since school is generally out for a few weeks Children just enjoy Christmas time and relish in all the fun. Of course they naturally look forward to all the cool stuff they hope to get, and all the great food and treats.

Presents are always wonderful to give and receive, but did you know the true nature of giving is really from the heart.

The real spirit of the holidays is a time to rekindle old friendships; making time to get together just to enjoy each others company,when otherwise you seem too busy.

Its about calling people you generally don't make the time for. It's a time to let by gones be by gones, and forgive and forget when it comes to your siblings, parents, or friends who have perhaps upset you at one time or another in the past year or so.

Christmas is more about remembering and sharing the good times together,

Its about remembering the birth of Christ,and glorifying in his love.

Its about laughing, singing and spreading good cheer everywhere you go.

Its cherishing the smiles of children, as they warm your heart with their laughter and excitements, while they unknowingly remind us of ourselves when we were their age.

So I'd have to say that the true spirit of Christmas is Family celebrating the birth of Christ ,

not only with the people you love, but with everyone, everywhere..

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy holidays

M.J.

Traveling tips when going Greyhound

Let's face it, when it comes to vacationing everybody basically wants one thing, and that's to be able to travel cheap, with as much comfort as possible. Unfortunately, Greyhound is about as cheap as it gets. However, needless to say, it isn't as comfortable as you'd wished it could be. For one thing, the buses are often crowed, and some of the passengers are forced to sit next to you, which wouldn't be a problem, unless they happen to smell as if they haven't bathed in months.

I have unfortunately had this particular problem happen to me a time or two, and believe me, it isn't pleasant. Then there is of course those passengers who unpleasantly take up so much room when they sit with you and rudely force you to end up being squeezed up against the window. Yes I agree, traveling by Greyhound can turn out to be a nightmare on occasions. But do not despair, because there are tips and ways to avoid these unwelcoming conditions and to make your trip a bit more comfortable and more enjoyable. After all, believe it or not, greyhound does have some good advantages verses traveling by air. For example; If the bus happens to appear not too crowded and you'd like to avoid a stranger from sitting with you, then here are seven methods that have always worked well for me.

• Don't ever look them straight in the face, when they are boarding the bus.
• When they are boarding, pretend to be reading a book.
• Pretend to be sleeping with your head against the window sill.
• Look outside as if your watching the luggage being loaded.
• Don't ever sit in the far back because everyone always goes to the back first.
• Never sit too close to the front because some folks don't like to walk to far down the aisle.
• Never sit by the restroom, passengers with kids usually try to get a seat close to the restroom. Plus, the restroom on the bus generally smells really bad, most of the time.

If however, the bus does become too crowded and you know you may have no choice but to allow someone to sit with you. Then, only make eye contact with someone whom you feel might make your trip not so unpleasant. After all, making your trip as pleasant and as memorable as possible is what traveling by Greyhound is all about.

Traveling by bus verses traveling by plane does in fact have its advantages. For example: while traveling on a bus, you can video tape or take pictures of beautiful country sides, on a plane this isn't possible. On a bus, you stop every so often and get to stretch your legs, buy snacks, and souvenirs along the way. On a plane, this wouldn't be possible. While traveling Greyhound, someone now and then shares a travel story about personal experiences while traveling, including the bus driver. On a plane, the only main concern is to get from point A to point B and no one ever sees or hears the pilot, unless something bad is about to happen.

Here is an interesting travel story which happened while I was traveling Greyhound. I was on bus 6911 and many things caused a chain reaction to happen on this day. It started in California, people were boarding to Phoenix and a car crashed into a tanker truck, which caused four more cars to crash. This made the bus four hours late. Then, the bus in Flagstaff boarded people to Mexico and a boy had a seizure and the EMT had to be called. The EMT's broke the door out to get on the bus. The passengers had to wait another four hours for a new bus. Then, after everyone got on the new bus, they were all forced to get back off, because of a bomb threat. The FBI had to search the bus. So, now its another four hour delay. The FBI discovered a female passenger had packed six M-80's in her luggage. So, now everyone can reboard, only now, the bus driver doesn't want to drive the bus any more. So, now they have to wait for a new driver. Needless to say, everyone eventually got from point A to point B, but it was one helluva trip to remember.