Reno Is Like A Donut

Good afternoon everyone.  I still have a little bit of a sense of humor...  I messaged my friend Ken before I came to Reno, and when I asked him about it here, he opened with that line - "Reno is like a donut..."  Ken was one of my high school classmates, and he actually lived here.  I really know very few people that have ever been here before at all
.  Ken explained that the center of the "donut" is comprised of Reno's entertainment and gambling element, and that the outskirts of the city are better for housing.

Back to my sense of humor, I figured that if I needed to look for a job (and wanted to live somewhere that I could readily bet football and play poker), I'd be better off here than in Las Vegas in respect to the size of the city, in that I don't have a vehicle to get around.  I found a great rental rate on a vehicle from Las Vegas to Reno through Enterprise, and the weekly/monthly places are supposed to be cheaper here than in Vegas.  I'm not going to get into all of the specifics right now, but having used Avis twice now in the last three months, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND renting from them, and I STRONGLY DISCOURAGE you from having any dealings with Enterprise.  This will be a future topic of discussion here, count on it...  Anyway, after the nightmare of dealing with Enterprise and barely getting my Avis rental vehicle loaded before the office closed at my place in Vegas (so that I could return the key), I drove to Reno on Wednesday night.  Other than the fact that I had to pay 3-4 times more for my last minute rental from Avis because Enterprise is a joke, the drive here was uneventful.  I got to town in plenty of time to scout out potential weekly/monthly apartments, and unfortunately Ken was right in that a lot of places didn't look very suitable to rent.  This observation was based at looking at them from the outside, as I was driving around town in the middle of the night.  Of course I want to be close to downtown if I'm here (for its proximity to the casinos).  Long story short, the place that I'm staying in for this week turned out to be more expensive than I had bargained for due to the size of the unit that they had available, and coupled with having to pay way more than I had agreed upon for a rental, I'm pretty much freaking out (mentally) at this point due to where I find my finances.  To catch you up, this is one of several places that I had contacted before deciding to give Reno a shot, and it's one of the very few whose location I'm comfortable with.  Anyway, again making the long story short, my finances are almost to where I thought they'd be after renting a place here for a whole month, due to the unexpected expense of the rental vehicle and not trusting he looks of the cheapest places here.  I figured that a month would give me plenty of time to find a job here (and even give me some money), and even if that didn't materialize, that would be a whole month that I'd have to figure out my next move.  Now I'm up against it, but at least I feel better after sleeping yesterday, after having been up for over 24 hours straight from Wednesday through yesterday...          

Anyway, so that's where I'm at right now.  I really didn't plan on getting into all of that yet, and just came here to give you some football picks.  Due to the fact that I still need to make a limited number of football bets, I'm going to keep this super short right now, and probably come back and edit Joey's and my records and comments about our picks here later.  And here's Joey...


Joey's Lucky Seven (2-5 Last Week, 18-29-2 Overall)

Northern Illinois (-13) vs. Miami (OH)
Iowa (+5) @ Maryland
Duke (-3) vs. Virginia
U. Mass. (-13) vs. Eastern Michigan
New Mexico (+12) @ Air Force
Western Kentucky (-5) @ Florida Atlantic
Hawaii (+9.5) @ San Diego State


Coach's Lucky Seven (3-4 Last Week, 24-24-1 Overall)

Colts (-3.5) vs. Bengals
Bears (-3.5) vs. Dolphins
Bills (-5.5) vs. Vikings
Chargers (-4.5) vs. Chiefs
Cowboys (-6.5) vs. Giants
Broncos (-6.5) vs. 49ers
Texans/Steelers (Under 45.5)


A couple of things here before I go...  The parlay cards here in Reno are much more limited in the college games that you can choose from.  Maybe half of Joey's picks are available on the card (and I'm using the odds from the Peppermill card).  Also, not much studying went into my picks (ha ha - watch them win this week)...  :)

Anyway, that's it.  I'm trying to figure out what to do since I've been about even on my gambling but still have to pay my bills.  If I have to work, I might as well be in Texas, because I'd be living in a much nicer place (my apartment and the state)...  :)  However, maybe I get super lucky this weekend...  :P  Well, have a good one and I'll try to come back and edit in the missing information regarding our picks.