I spent most of my July 4th Holiday over in Canada. Really what was behind it was the need to just get away for a change in scenery. So other than hanging with my family over there, I did do a couple of things on my own. The feature being my little wandering around the Woodbine Race Track. It's in Rexdale right by Lester B. Pearson International Airport and has been a fixture since the 50's.



This is what it cost to fill up My uncle's Nissan Maxima starting with a 1/4th tank. Mind you I filled my up car with 1/4 of a tank for $60 in the US of A.


If you Can't be a real good golfer, at least look like one...









For the most part the track is largely under utilized as there are 5 levels. The frist floor is the Casino and most of the horse betting activity is on levels 2 and 3. I went up to 4 and 5 somehow through using the stairs and I felt like a kid exploring into places that I should not have been ;-)

What an ass kicking day on Wall St. Although, in all I had the best day I ever had owning individual stocks. So for the most part when the Red arrows are all over the place, I'm happy and if Gold & silver counters by going green, then I'm ecstatic. This shit is only to get worse, not better. My advise is to get just buy precious metal stocks/mutual funds if that is something you can do.
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On another note I just discovered

I Can't Believe I'm Still Single

on Showtime tonight. All I can say is I DO NOT WANT TO END UP LIKE THAT GUY! Yea, I do see some similarites between Scott Baio's "Scott Baio is 45 and single," but WTF??? It makes me want to get married again just for the sake of getting married again, even though I realized that it was a horrible decision to make just to avoid being some weirdo like this Eric Schaeffer guy.

He's not a bad guy at all and is totally misunderstood, but unfortunately he does not have the balance to counter his shortcomings. If you are going to be a socially oblivious guy that comes off as a prick you need to be more of a bad influence "the kind of JERK that women love" or be a total man wuss to be successful in relationships that you are seeking. Being a socially oblivious prick or at least appearing so does not get you any sympathy from any woman. The decades of him not being with anyone just drive this home.

I have to hand it to Showtime for just being the kind of premium cable for shows these days. It will be a show that I will be watching regularly to make sure that I extinguish the shit that I have in common with the guy, because honest I do see some of my self in him and it FREAKING SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME!!!

This article kind of irked me today Basically we are all going to chip in to bail out people that are under water in their mortgages. Frankly I think it absolutely sucks. Let's reward people that took on irresponsible risk by saving their asses at your expense. Here I though this was Capitalism and for taking a chance at profiting you also accepted the possibility of losing. So as a guy that is just saving his money to maybe, "PUT DOWN A DOWNPAYMENT" I have to watch my tax money go to people that gambled and LOST. I mean if you're a Real Estate Developer and you lost you should not come to me to recoup your losses.

The sad part is that's it is criminal what say the Banks have done with people's deposits. Here is a Freaking Fine Example I seriously want to know what they were smoking when they though of that project. Here is my guess, (1. Real Estate only goes one direction, that is Up 2. We can always write this off 3. There will be some government bailout to help us out, so if the bank goes under FDIC Insurance will cover it.) Seriously the amount of money that is swishing around is just astounding.

Now we have people on people calling for serious restrictions on Commodity and Futures trading. This is the blame for the run up in Energy Prices. Look no one really cared for the last 7 years when Housing prices ran up. People were actually cheering when it was going on, "Flip that House, Flip that House, Flip that House" on A & E. There was never a cry for "Win fall Profits Tax" or the People that were banking the dough in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada were not going to SHARE THE PROFITS WITH YOU WHEN TIMES WERE GOOD! Then again, that's the coutry we live in now Privatize the profits & Socialize the Losses. It's OK to take a chance and lose money, but if you take a chance on a house it's not your fault. After all is it really too much to ask when you BORROWED MONEY & PROMISE TO PAY IT BACK? !?

Just think now in a couple of years as the 'Burbs unwind the Slumlords that have been sitting on property in the City for decades are going to be rewarded now that people won't be able to afford the white picket fence. Are they going to spread the money around as they start to say Cha-Ching after they can actually sell their stuff to people that are actually going to live there instead of flipping them to some "investor" on Craigslist that just can't pass up a bargin of a $25,000 house? I don't think so. We're just going to throw money down a hole on declining McMansions in the suburbs & exSuburbs as they turn into say Red Cross Offices as the Mansions on Delaware Ave did decades ago as the cost of keeping up those structures up just became too burdensome.

(e:jason) I think we may have found our answer to that problem...



;-)

I just had a really start to what should have been a lazy Sunday. So what I ended up doing was just taking a Sunday drive of which I could just get away for a few hours & still come home at a reasonable hour. So I thought, heck why not drive down the 90 to check out the newest casino or in this case Racino (racetrack & casino) Presque Isle Downs Erie, PA.

Well I only lasted there 1/2 hour. The place was absolutely packed as the parking lot was just full. Once inside my friend got ID by security who then proceeded to ask questions about Seneca Niagara, since he has a room booked there next week or so. We basically told him that it was nice & if he wanted to try something different he could go to the bars on Third St. But Yea, The place was wall to wall people. You could not find a machine that was not occupied. The one aspect of the place that made me run was the smoke. Being so progressive in Canada and New York State it just drove me bonkers. I really wanted to check out the thoroughbred racing, but I just couldn't wait until then. So all in all we spend about 1/2 hour in the place. Although I have a few pics to prove it.






One more thing. How the stock of the parent company Moutaineer MNTG is only $5 I just don't understand. This place is going to be a goldmine. On the stupid shuttle bus I heard some slot players comment that the place was not this jammed packed when it had it's grand opening. Casinos in Pennsylvania are just going to be "CHA-CHING!" Yea, Mountaineer is going to some some people from Pittsburgh that are going to play at the Meadows & Wheeling Island, but all I can see for Presque Isle is Expansion. The people that mobbed this place today came from somewhere.


So other than just seeing this place, we went shopping at some mall in Erie & ate dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube. For the most part I just had to check the place out before they open up on Transit Road where Don Pablo's once stood in front of the Regal/Imax. I just had the wings with the cheese/bacon/scallions fries & it was pretty descent.