Sometimes, you just get lucky...
by
, 03-27-2012 at 08:59 AM (2638 Views)
While attending NERAC last weekend, I never had a chance to purchase any raffle tickets that day. A friend of mine named Kathy offered to loan me $20 cash since they only accepted cash or checks. With her assistance, I was actually buying my tickets as they pulled the first ticket. I bought $10 worth of $1 tickets, and got 12 green tickets. Then I spent $10 more on the $2 tickets and got six red tickets.
I quickly separated the green tickets and tossed them in the community bucket. Any ticket pulled gave you the option to pick something from the counter top covered with dry goods. Magazines, test kits, bulbs, additives, foods, and more were up for grabs. Then I took my six red tickets and dropped a couple in each light fixture box and the Mp40 Vortech pump.
Surprisingly, six of my 12 green tickets were pulled out of the big pile. I went up each time and got something different. Here's what I brought home. Calcium test kits, some dip strips, Super Glue Gel, Sea Veggies, black silicone, a scrubby pad, some foods and additives. I even grabbed the mermaid figurine on my sixth trip since I had a feeling there would be grumbling.
Then they moved on to the red ticket items. The first prize went to the guy that was running the raffle, but he didn't actually pull it so no-one complained... too loudly. The next ticket was mine! I won a nice LED fixture to put over my next tank. It's got a locking power cord and allows me to dim the blues or the whites as desired.
How cool was that? This never happens. In the end, seven tickets out of 18 were winners.
I also came home with this adorable Reefbrite Mini LED fixture so I can see the suncorals during latenight feedings. I secured it under the overflow box with velcro right above the frag tank.