Deal or No Deal

While shopping for Savannah's birthday present, I saw the game "Deal or No Deal." I've heard the observation, "Women purchase things b/c of the packaging." In this case, I think that's true. The game is in a miniature version of what the cases on the game show look like. It even has the black egg crate foam inside.

Last night I took the wrapping off all the cards, and started reading the directions. You lay all the $ value cards face down and then you put all the numbered briefcase looking cards on top. So you have 26 "briefcases" in front of you. Then you play just like in the show. Pick one case you think has the million and then go from there. You play either by yourself, and try to beat your best game, or with more than one person, you each play 2 games, and whoever has the best combined score wins. The "banker" is actually a stack of "Bank Offer" cards - so it's more a chance thing, than a mathematical formula, when you have to decide either deal or no deal.

I was just going to play by myself, but both of my parents saw me, and after I went twice my mom wanted to see if she could beat me. The highest bank offer card you can get is $400,000.00, which I took both times so my total was $800,000.00.

My mom got a total of $575,000.00 and then my dad wanted to see if he could beat both of us. His first game he went flying through and he actually got down to 2 cards. He decided to keep what was in the briefcase he set aside and got $1.00!! My mom and I laughed sooooooo hard!! If he were to beat me, he needed to get $1,000,000.00 (A MILLION) b/c the next lowest was $500,000.00 and I had $800,000.00.

Prior to all of this I was watching his fingers and eyes like a hawk!! I thought for sure he'd be like a little kid playing memory -- you know -- we all did it!! -- flip over a card, and when it wasn't the match turn it back over and take a "third" pick!!

Game one was over and dad has a buck to his name. There was a little confusion with the bank offer cards, so I went to look through the pile while mom straightened out the briefcase. I gave Dad the $ Value cards so he could shuffle and lay them out while I tried to figure out the other problem.

When everything was set up for the FINAL round, I sat in my chair eyes intent on the cards, wondering, could I lose this? Could he Really get the million dollar card??? He flipped over his first 6 selections, picked a bank offer card, said No deal, and then went on to start opening 5 more briefcases. He said, "I'm going to flip over this 6 here." He flipped it over and jumped out of his chair. "I Can't Believe it!! I Can't Believe it!!" I was laughing b/c he had flipped over the Million Dollar card and I knew I won. In the next second he was saying, "I Can't Even Cheat and Win!!"

W H A T ! ? ! ? ! ? ! :O

He was laughing sooooo hard my mom and I could barely make out what he was saying. (I haven't seen him do that in ages!) He was going to say, "I cheated" to my mom right before they went to sleep, but his plan failed. He had spotted the million dollar card while shuffling, and it was toward the top, so he counted the card, so he would know which briefcase it was under. He counted 5 cards, so he picked the #5 briefcase as his "Million Dollar Briefcase." He flipped over his #5 briefcase to see what he had Actually picked and it was the $100,000.00 card. In his haste he had only seen the 1 with all those zeros. What are the odds that the $100,000.00 card would be on top of the $1,000,000.00 card?? It was hilarious. I said, "Cheaters Never Prosper!" several times! ;) He kept playing - even though he didn't want to, b/c he knew he had lost. I talked him into taking the banker's deal of $375,000.00. Right after he said "Deal" I said, "so your total dad is $376,000.00!! How'd ya like how fast I calculated them there numbers!!!"

It was a lot of fun!! I would prefer the DVD version of the game though. It's not so time consuming to set up. I mean, ya sneeze and your whole game could be ruined due to "briefcases" flying off the table!

After the game, Mom took Dad grill shopping. He definitely got bigger and better. I'll post pictures later. That was his Father's Day gift.

When they got home from that we watched the movie The Couple. It was very good. A little slow, but very good. It was about an "Arian" couple who were servants to a Jewish man and his wife. The Jewish couple sold everything they owned their lavish art collection and steel industries w/its 3,000 employees to the Nazis in exchange for the safe departure of their family to Switzerland (I think). We had several phone calls while trying to watch this movie - but they were all important, so we kept pausing the movie. At 9 I finally said, we've been "watching" this movie for an hour and it's been an pause longer than play!! ;)

I'm also house-sitting this week. Busy, busy, busy!

Oh, AND I had my first chiropractic appointment in FOUR weeks!!! I was sooooo excited. I went 4 weeks without having spasms and yadda yadda. We scheduled an evaluation for Monday so I'm praying I will be healed to a point where I don't have to go anymore. :D Of course, I believe I'll still go in for "maintenance." Like today, she told me I had a rib out. ?? WHAT??? It's not like I play Rugby or something!! It did feel bad when she pressed on it, so I tried not to think about those CSI programs when they show the "inside" of the body as a bone cracks and .... well, I'm sure you can use your imagination.

The only thing left for me to catch up on, is the 4th of July parade our church was involved in. I have to bum some pictures off of Tim first though. What's a post without pics?? (well -- minus this one -- but I said I would post pics of Dad's grill later!)