Bonnie and the ponies

I was worried that moving to Kentucky might mean getting caught up in betting on horse racing. I just never thought I would be so involved in the racing of fake horses.

There I was, peacefully minding my own business, when my friend May came over to chat. Wham, bam, thank-you-ma'am, and the next thing I knew, I was spearheading Run for the Gold, a part of the Fort Knox OCSC's annual Gold Rush fundraiser. Get it? Gold? Fort Knox? I'm slow--somebody had to point that out to me.

Basically here's how Run for the Gold works. Twelve volunteers decorate little wooden horse cutouts, which are then auctioned at the beginning of Gold Rush (this coming Saturday night). There are 3 "races," in which the horses move according to the roll of a die. The first 2 races are the qualifying heats, with the top 3 finishers from each moving on to run in the big race at the end of the night. The owner of the horse that wins this race receives some fabulous prize (yet to be determined).

During all 3 of the races, the crowd is invited to "bid" on the horses using the chips that they get with their entrance ticket. Yours truly here has to do the math to figure out how much everybody wins. There is ALGEBRA in last year's after-action report. How horrifying is that?!

It looked for a while like we were going to have trouble getting all 12 horses farmed out for decoration, so I decided to take on 2 of them. I've been working hard on my horsies. Really. I have.



OK, so there's no photographic evidence of my efforts, but I have been hard at work. I'm decoupaging both horses, so I have been all about the tiny scissors and glue. (Given that I am our designated family photographer, there rarely are photos of me. I have often said that one day Fred is going to divorce me and submit the kids' scrapbooks into evidence during the custody battle. "Your honor, you can clearly see that this woman has had nothing to do with those children. Ever.")

I've been taking in other people's horses as they get finished, prompting Mike to ask: "Are we running some sort of shelter for these things, or what?" I think my horses are looking pretty cool, but some of the competition is STIFF! Here's a picture of a couple who are currently hanging out in my basement:



I'll post pictures of mine once Fred and Annabelle get them finished. I mean, once I get them finished.