All I can say is I'm leaning to the negative in my feelings towards Hardware. First there were some obnoxious people in the place that night but you can get that anywhere. For the most part it was just some other girl with her friends being totally loud & screaming at very high pitches. The kicker is I'm really pissed off at the place that they now only serve PBR Pabst Blue Ribbon in Cans. Seriously I have gone there for years and enjoyed it in a bottle, now they don't even display in on the shelf you have to ask for it like some Vegas value special. The problem is that it's still $3 for a can. Why are you so ashamed to sell it now after carrying it for years?
So we went next door to Staples and enjoyed PBR in an actual BOTTLE. For the most part I have to say I'm leaning towards their selection of beers more than Hardware's. Plus I have to say I kind of really got into the bartenders there. I really couldn't believe that one of them had her 40th birthday there as she was pretty fine looking. Plus they just have this non-pretentious vibe as they're not the "hottest" looking bartenders, but they do have a pretty well put together style and they do make you feel pretty friendly and welcome.
Other than that I did go over early to Fort Erie and meet up with my Canadian horseball friends as it was Derby Day. For the most part I couldn't cash a ticket early on in the day from 10:30 until the around race went off around. The highlight of the day is my engenious bet, which was a Daily Double a bet picking the winners of back to back races. It was Race 10 & Race 11 @ Churchill. In the 10th there was this Brazilian horse named Einstein who seemed like a lock, so I ended up betting this ticket for $19.

Basically this is how the bet worked the #6 horse in Race 10 Einstein had to win or else I lose, then I win my bet as I have all 19 horses for the Derby covered. So Einstein did his part then I waited for 1 hours & 15 minutes. Well the best case scenario came in as the longest shot on the board for me in my Daily Double came in which Mind That Bird was in my case paying $304 for me as I only had it for a $1. The worst case for me would have been if the favorite Friesan Fire won the race and in that case I would have lost money. For some reason I knew when Einstein on race 10 I was into something really good as he only got my the other horse by 1/2 a head. But yea, what a rush especially for the fact that I normally don't bet longshots, but in this case I was pulling for one. The scary part is that unless you really were looking for it there was no way you would have known that the 8 is sneaking his way long the rail.
As Tom Durkin says "An Impossible Result Here"
The human element to this story is that my 2 horse buddies really had a bad day. They're not well off as the one guy that was a co-worker of mine back in the late 90's at a factory that I worked at in Canada is now working construction and kind of barely holding his head above water. The other buddy is his roommate who is in a wheelchair with no legs. So when I hit the double on the Derby they said "If we hit, Chinese food on you." So it did come in and I made a profit for the day after being down myself. What came after we hit his place on Hwy 3 in Fort Erie was a bit of a surprise, he said, "If you don't hit and take us out, we wouldn't have had dinner tonight!" It was kind of surprising to hear, but at the same time I was glad that i did have some luck to spread the good luck around a bit tonight, especially since I kind of had the seed planted for the double bet from him talking about the 10th race.
The other crazy thing was this other guy at the track hit the Exacta the 1st and 2nd place horse in exact order. He bet it for $5 and it paid well over $5000, needless to say it was interesting to see the stack of money he had being escorted to his car by security. I think only 3 people including myself cashed tickets at the track. But with horse racing as well as the financial markets, it's a zero sum game the losers payoff the winners. I got $300 because a bunch of other people lost their bets and if the favorite won I would have lost or cashed very little.
So yea, that's a bit of reality on Derby Day on how the game really works out along with a story about the people. It's not all hats and mint juleps...
thanks for stopping by, and thanks for posting the derby recap- I hadn't watched it yet.
first of all Happy Birthday to (e:jenks)
Second I caught the end of the Derby at the Bandits game, they had it on there.
Third in terms of places to drink I've never been to sample. I went to Hardware once. I liked it but it was so small. It felt like I could put one hand on the bar and the other on someone's table.
In terms of Diablo I haven't been there in like what seems like a really long time, it has been I think, I missed the last fetish show, but hopefuly I make it there for the one in June.
I'm glad you had a good weekend.