Hope ya like the new me

This is it...today is my final day living a normal life.

Wednesday evening, I will be winning the (currently) $178 million Powerball jackpot.

That's right. The wife and I bought ten (clearly a ridiculous amount considering that I'm sure whatever single ticket we'd bought would've won) tickets on Sunday as we drove back to the Cincy area from our hometown, and - as we always do - we began chatting about the "what would we do with the money".

I figure - since I'm a narcissist - that you'll care, so I'm gonna go through some of the highlights:

• First off, the house gets paid off (along with the newer siding loan, the cars, the fridge, the computers, all of it - no debt). Easy call.
• Then it's a million bucks for each of us to spend frivolously. The rest goes into an investment account to make huge bank for us the rest of our lives.
• Karlen's promised to buy a scooter - either a Stella or a Vespa and a hot sports car.
• I don't know whether I'd quit my job or not, but there are a few things listed below that might require me to drop the job. I really dig my job, absolutely love it, but I wouldn't want to do the crappy job that might be lead to if I took as much time off as the following wish list would require.
• I'd buy all the stuff off of my Amazon.com wishlist. Well, maybe not the chemistry stuff since I might not be teaching any more.
• Karlen says she'd buy a house on the coast near Boston. I dunno about buying another house. Maybe one in Gatlinburg because we go down there with friends every Presidents Day. I could rent it out the rest of the year to make even more bank - 'cause you can never have enough bank, right?
• I'm thinking that there's gonna have to be a tour of the four tennis grand slam tourneys. This is the one that would likely lead to me quitting my job. It wouldn't be something I'd do all in one year, but I'd see 'em all.
• And I'd have full-tourney good seats for the Cincy Masters Series. Good seats.
• There's a niece and nephew whose college educations would be paid for.
• I'd have a much bigger hardrive on my totally new, freakin' fast laptop. That way I could download just about any song I want.
• Just about any graphic novel or book that I want to read would be bought. Likely then donated to PLCH if I didn't want to keep it (and I probably wouldn't keep many of them - too much stuff in the house already).
• I don't know whether I'd get cable or not. It's not just all about the cash.
• I'd see more movies in the theater.
• I'd see Ryan Adams live. And Wilco, too - a lot. I just might call up Riverbend or Bogarts or the Taft and see what it'd take to get those guys to play in my hometown. And I'd see what it'd take to get U2 to play an acoustic concert at Bogarts - but only if I could get a soundboard recording.
• Karlen has said that she'd pay John Mellencamp to play at the Bluebird - but only if he'd play "Jackie Brown", "Jack & Diane", and "Key West Intermezzo" and not play that medley of "Authority Song / Land of 1000 Dances".
• Maybe I'd buy a plot of land in the southwest and drop in a tiny house.
• There'd be lots of charitable donations: to Wabash, to the LLS, to PLCH, to the DNC, to alternative energy sources, to PHS, to MTHS, to NAHS.
• That new computer would have some kickbutt wireless speakers that I could tote around the house to wherever I wanted. And the wireless router would have a way larger range.
• The tree we're taking down in our back yard would be replaced by a much larger tree than the one we're likely to end up buying without the lotto loot.