That Time I Won A Bet

I recently won a major bet with my husband.  We spent all fall betting on each and every NFL game, whoever ended up with the most picks right was the winner.

I had a rough start.  It took me about 6 weeks of losing to finally give up on the St. Louis Rams and the poor Colts.  I also had an unfortunate tendency to let my feelings interfere with my brain – thereby picking the Patriots to win and the Jets & Cowboys to lose every week.

Nathan had an even rougher start, so in an effort to catch up with me he began employing a strategy he phrased “The Coin”.  He flipped a quarter for every game and left the outcome to chance. (Incidentally, his coin even predicted that Kansas City would beat the undefeated Packers – even with repeated coin flips - but he opted to override that one).  Surprisingly, this strategy worked wonders and up until the last two week of the season he was beating me.

However, I got my act together and lo and behold, I was the winner.  Being us, we had not actually established what we were betting on, and he told me to pick whatever I wanted.  So I declared that as the loser, he had to read the Hunger Games!

I read this book in October and had been trying to talk him into reading it ever since, but I married a stubborn man! His answer over and over, was, “I don’t like to read”.  Which if you know me, is not a good answer.  Plus, I knew he would like this book!  (As will anyone who has not yet read these books.  Buy them now! They are worth your money, you will so thank me later).

So, I was shocked when Nathan grudgingly agreed to read the book.  Even more surprised when he stayed up past his usual bedtime one night because he didn’t want to stop reading (although I was secretly glad that I was no longer the only one in this house guilty of doing that!).  And very surprised when yesterday, after less than a week of reading, he finished the book and sent me this text:

“Peeta’s dumb. Now I want to read the second book.”

Oh, how he makes me laugh.  And I laughed even more when I came home and he explained to me all of the reasons why he hates Peeta.  It’s a very extensive list.  I did try to defend poor Peeta (and all of the girls out there with websites devoted to the guy), but Nathan will have none of it.  He is Team Gale all the way.  I love my husband.  He may hate Peeta, but he was not too proud to lose a bet and read this book.

And speaking of bets, I just realized that I am a Super Bowl pick away from winning the playoff version of our bet.  What do I want next?  Hmmm . . .