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A disabled Kirkland veteran who just won a million dollars in the state Lottery Raffle game would like to thank the 140,000 or so people who didn't buy a ticket.
"That really improved my odds," said 40-year-old Ralph Arnett.
Arnett bought the winning ticket Friday at Sami's Shell Station at 10801 68th Street in Kirkland. The Lottery Raffle game guarantees three million-dollar winners. The first was a 29-year-old legal assistant from Marysville. Arnett is the second.
"All weekend I had to babysit the ticket -- this little tiny piece of paper that was worth so much money," Arnett said. "I slept two and a half hours Friday night. I was just excited."
Arnett thought all weekend about what he'd do with the money. Paying off his small amount of debt is easy enough. He knows he'd like to keep his job at Center for Information Services and invest the bulk of the money. But in the short term, what? He knows he'd like to travel. But where? And how?
As far as dilemmas go, Arnett could do a lot worse.
"My dad says I should buy a sailboat and sail to Australia," he said. "Then my brother said, 'you've never sailed a day in your life.'"
Along with all those people who didn't get tickets, he's grateful to the area veterans' hospitals for the back surgeries and care that helped him recover from a couple years in Iraq in the early 1990s and will let him enjoy his extraordinary luck.
"It's great, at this point in my life, get to come up with some new goals," Arnett said. "This is, like, the most significant thing that's happened to me."
The third and final million dollar ticket has yet to be claimed. No. 103710 was sold at Tracyton Market at 5010 May Street NW in Bremerton.
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Posted by markit8 at 6/30/08 12:05 p.m.
Congrats to the vet.
RELAX! that is what you should do man!
Relax and enjoy the ride