EXPRESS MONOPOLY

The winged feet are to show that I invented and wanted to share with you a speedy version of Monopoly.  You know how Monopoly can go on 6 hours. Now, some people don't have 6 hours or 5 or however long it takes for you to spare time playing the fun game.  So, I invented a game that shaves time off of Monopoly.  The best aspect of my invention is that Monopoly gets a lot more interesting when there are actually players with MONOPOLIES!  Before that it's not all that eventful.  So here is what you do.  Players (whether you have 3-5 players) get properties at the beginning of the game as follows:  

3 players Monopoly Portfolios




Portfolio 1
Purple monopoly (eg. has Baltic & Mediterranean)
Orange monopoly (eg. has New York and others that are orange)
Park Place
Get Out of Jail Free card
$2,800


Portfolio 2
Baby Blue monopoly (e.g. has Oriental)
Violet monopoly (eg. has States )
Boardwalk
N. Carolina Avenue
$2500


Portfolio 3
Red monopoly
Yellow Monopoly
Pacific and Penn. Aves.
$2200


4 players Monopoly portfolios (EVERYONE GETS $2,500)

Portfolio 1
Purple monopoly
Boardwalk
Marvin Gardens
2 RR2s (1st & 2nd side)


Portfolio 2
Violet Monopoly
Park Place
Ventor & Atlantic Avenues
2 Railroads (3rd & 4th sides)


Portfolio 3
Baby blue Monopoly
N. Carolina Ave
NY & St. James Aves.

Portfolio 4
Red monopoly
Pacific & Penn Ave
Tennesse Ave.


5 players portfolio

Portfolio 1
Purple monopoly
Boardwalk
Marvin Gardens
$2,400
Portfolio 2
Violet monopoly
4 Railroads
$2800



Portfolio 3
Baby blue monopoly
Park Place
Atlantic & Ventor Aves.
$2,200


Portfolio 4
Red monopoly
Utilities
N. Carolina
$2,400

Portfolio 5
Orange monopoly

Pacific & Penn Aves.

$2500


Rules
1. The Sky is the Limit” as far as how many hotels you put on a . You get to put as many hotels as you want.

2. Corollary to Rule 2 You cannot buy 2 hotels (on 1 piece of property) until every player has passed GO once. You cannot buy 3 hotels (on 1 piece of property) until ever player has gone GO twice. Once that has occurred, Rule 2, above, applies

3 “You snooze you lose!” If someone lands on property you own, if you don’t ask for rent he doesn’t have to pay.

Monopoly trivia:  Over 30 years ago, those who lived in the former Soviet Union (what is now Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhistan, and other areas), were forbidden to play Monopoly as it was against the values of that Communist society.  People in North Korea and Cuba STILL are not allowed to play it !

random thoughts

I'm really trying to save money.  I'm no longer living with my ex-wife (MB), because she is inheriting & also working on financing the place that her late father lived.   I am also trying to finance and buy out MB's share of the condo.  I learned, however, that it will not be easy.  Yet, there are solutions.  I have:

• turned the air conditioner so that it's not used as much;
• cleaned the bedrooms and picked areas that have been a bit overlooked.  Now, there is no blaming or criticizing about areas of the condo overlooked.  Yet, with the kids sometimes not at the condo, but over with their mother in the house, I can throw away things that need to be taken out, dust, sweep and vacuum;
• we were very fortunate to have such nice neighbors.  One of Ted's good friends is Jake who lives next door.  His father gave us the very topline Dyson vacuum cleaner which I have put to good use;
• I had to go to MB's house, and I did not want to spend any money on expensive gas, so I biked/walked the 2 1/2 miles.  The first half of the trip, I biked west on the Cook County Forest Preserve bike trail.   I then hid my bike into the forest where people couldn't see it and walked the rest of the way.  Maribeth's tenant, Sal, was kind enough to give me a ride to approximately where my bike was.  More on Sal at   http://25mi-swchicago.blogspot.com/
• On the same night, Ted, my 2nd son, was concerned about me, because I had lived by myself for 2 days with no kids around.  "Are you ok?", he asked that twice ! !  What a good kid ! Then when he knew that I walked over to save money and not burn any gas driving my car, he gave me $3 !
• I broke the news to my kids that we don't need or are required to have cable anymore; Cable is basically entertainment, and we could rent a few movies per month at a much cheaper price.  We will still have about 20 channels anyway through digital broadcast.  The kids were strong and took it in stride.  I was going to get ride of my landline phone too. But the problem is that I would use my cellphone more, go over the allotted 300 minutes and then have to spend more money on my cellphone bill.  I don't need to do that. 

We have to be thankful for what we have.  There has to be an effort to continue to find better opportunities either working at a hospital again, finding a better law firm or a combination of staying at the same law firm and working at the hospital.

& here's  a picture of Ted; I'm very glad he decided to get his hair cut !  The 3 boys decided at Nate's birthday party to have frosting on their face.  That was the cool thing to do !  Now, can't you see that's cool (lol) ?