Your Priceless Surprise Awaits

I recently spent one of the more boring evenings of my life filling out index cards with Austin. Remember back in the day, before the internet, when you could mail in stuff and see if you had won prizes? Well, those happy days are back. Apparently IHG was running a promotion where you could stay at an IHG hotel, pay with a MasterCard, and then receive a random amount of points as a reward. Alternatively, you could mail in a handwritten (per the rules) index card with your name, address, phone number, email, IHG Club member number, first six digits of a MasterCard you owned, and your date of birth and receive the random amount of points. 

So we sat there furiously filling out cards and I think we got to around 30 each before we got insanely bored. Then we had to mail in our cards (but we could used printed envelopes!) and wait for an email from IHG. I've never been much for gambling, but this was a fun email. I got 30+ links to this little game where you click on stuff and the amount of points you win pops up: 

Kind of like a slot machine! Austin didn't submit as many index cards with his name on them, (slower writer I guess), so he got less links and won a total of 17,500 points. I won (earned?) 37,000 points. To put that into perspective, we can stay the night in Boise on the way to Austin's parents' house for 5000 points, or stay a night at a two bedroom IHG condo near Disneyworld later this year for 35,000 points. Not bad for a boring evening and around 35 dollars in stamps and supplies.