Birthday’s are always an interesting time… they either seemto go swimmingly, or they’re a complete flop in need of a set of jumper cablesattached to your nuts in order to change the mood.

This was an awesome year for birthdays for me.

I’m not going to talk about my birthday party, or birthdayday at the bar, as I have trouble remembering most the events (hey, I wasdrunk)… I AM going to talk about a new idea for birthday presents seemed tomake a splash for, not just me, but most everybody who attended.

Birthday/Christmas/etc presents are always fickled things…what do they like?  Should I just getthem a Best Buy gift card?  And, ofcourse, the “I can’t afford to get you anything right now.” Is alwaysacceptable… money is tight, then you can’t afford it.  Just show up for the party, and I’ll be happyyou came!  …to be honest, I have piles ofgift cards sitting around unused, I forget about them.

But this year?  Thisyear was different.

I’ve gotten into playing the lottery as of late, mostly whenthe jackpot is a little larger (most of the lottery players only play after ithits that golden 9 digit marker). Lottery tickets, as most people know, are $1.  I was hard pressed to find somebody whocouldn’t afford $1 for a birthday gift, so I got a lot of tickets.

That’s right, for my birthday, people bought me lotterytickets.  Mega Millions for the mostpart, although a few out of state individuals bought some for the Powerballdrawing that will take place tonight (got my fingers crossed).

The result was a pile of tickets on my desk ranging from 1number to 10 numbers per ticket. Generally speaking, I normally get 2 or 3 for the drawings… and I’venever won more than a few bucks.  Overallthis morning, as I pulled up the numbers online, I had more than 50 numbers tocheck against those magical balls.

The first news I read though, was that 2 people had won the38 million jackpot, and neither were from GA… So I knew I was shooting for a little less.  I did what anybody would do when slightlyhung over and trying to verify numbers… I blew the numbers up to be easy toread and held my tickets, one by one, next to them.

One ticket down, 2 tickets, 3 tickets… 10 tickets… man, Ihope I win at least $2 or something!  Can’tI at least get the Megaball correct on one of these?
…20 tickets… that last one was close, but 2 white balls are worth nothing.  You need 3 to make anything…
…more coffee… 30 #s and I haven’t even gotten the Megaball correct!  A 2 number here or there, but again nothingthat’ll win…
…last sheet of 10 numbers… *sigh*

By this time I was actually tired of reading the numbers. I’mnot sure if that’s because I was literally winning NOTHING, or if it’s becausenormally it’s a quick check of just a few combos and I can go back to routine.

8 left - still nothing, now I’m depressed.
5 left – (there was cursing at this time)
3 le…wait a minute…

And there it was!  4^thfrom the bottom!  4 numbersmatching!  7-12-36-48!!!

I opened up a new browser window and pulled up “Ways to Win”…I couldn’t remember how much I just won, but I KNEW there was money to becollected.

4 White ball #s matching is $150.

What a wonderful present, and what a somewhat fun idea!  I think I’ll use most these winnings onfuture draws, playing with the House’s money now.

…man, if that other white ball was matching, it’d be$250,000…