I can't wait..

The temperature today is supposed to reach a balmy 45 degrees. This should allow my brother and my dad to finish replacing the fuel pump on the truck he got. I hope. If not today, though, tomorrow's supposed to be even warmer. It'd be nice if I didn't have to drive the folks to Wal-Mart Friday, but I'm not holding my breath just yet.

I fiddled around with Aric's progression last night. I'm only sure of one thing right now: he's going to continue to level as a paladin next level. See, there's nothing for high-level paladins, except some minor spellcasting ability, and more "Remove Disease" and "Smite Evil".  Sadly, I'm high enough level now where it's not realistic to try for a prestige class that has a lot of requirements (such as Kensai, from Complete Warrior). However, there's only 3-4 max that I'm interested in, and Kensai and Sword of Righteousness are the only two that allow free multiclassing back to paladin. (Why can monks and paladins not even take a prestige class? That just strikes me as silly. Core classes are one thing, but a prestige class is a concentration of a theme, or so I thought.

Anyway, I've got about 4-5 different ideas floating around for how I could do Aric. Some of them seem pretty neat, but I don't want them to seem "contrived" or forced.

I work 6a-3p today, as usual. Let's hope:

1. The lottery tickets are working now.
2. It's not going to be the hassle I think it is.
3. I can leave work on time, instead of 15-20 minutes late.
4. I can fall asleep by 8pm tonight, as I have to go to work at 5am tomorrow, so - with taking my dad to work too - I'm going to have to get up at 230am. Ack.

All this and more...

...can be yours for two bits.

*shrug* I don't know what that meant. It just felt fun to say. Embrace your inner lunatic. :)

Ahem.. Work wasn't that bad today. How did it begin? Let's see. *snaps fingers* Ahh, yes! I began the end of day, and everything progressed smoothly. I saw that they never got the printer working on the lottery machine. I got everything done, albeit a little slowly*, and I went to check on it. Sure enough, it wasn't working yet.

I got the predictable call from one of the corporate folks asking if we were up yet. I told him I'd call them again (even though I'd already learned that they were getting to us as soon as we could, but had quite a backlog), and he thanked me. I know it's important to get these things going, but they are coming off as ignorant as possible. How hard is it to understand that the company that handles the lottery machines canNOT work any faster than it is? Sheesh.

Anyway, while I was at lunch, they got our printer fixed. I got back, and checked it out, and we were live. I activated our tickets, and we began to sell them almost immediately. And boy, did we? In an hour, I sold over $50 worth of tickets. No one was rude, and everyone waited their turn, so I'm happy about that, at least.

Right now, I'd say the best game to play is the $2 "Tennessee Treasures". It's got a potential payout of $25K, and an overall payout (including free tickets) of 1 in 3.95. Aside from that, I'd do the $1 "Tennessee Millionaire". It's cheap, pays up to $1000 instantly, and you might get an entry for one of the three $1000000 grand prizes that they're going to be giving away.**

So, after work, I bought 4 "Tennessee Millionaire" tickets, 1 "Tennessee Treasures" ticket, and 1 $5 "$100,000 Payout" ticket. (I didn't like the $5 ticket.. cost too much, and I didn't win anything.) I won $4 total from two of the "Millionaire" tickets. Not bad. I've set myself on a budget for them, and I'm not going over it. (Either $5 or $10 a week. I was leaning toward $10, but if I do the "Millionaire" ones, I could just get five of them each week. I've got to think long and hard about this.

Either way I choose, it was fun to play today. I'm not rescinding my comment from yesterday about the lottery, but they're improving their image with me slowly.

I'm going to bed now, since I have to be up at 230am to get ready for work. I love going in at 5am, especially since I have to take my dad into work. *sigh*

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* - I had to track down a $10.54 error on our Coinstar line. For those unaware, a coinstar is a machine that counts your loose change for a nominal fee. It's very handy, and very easy to use.
** - Note: Folks, if you gotta play, set aside a specific amount, use that, and stop. If you have trouble stopping, seek help. Please.