A little known affliction that many bingo players suffer from is “dauber arm”; recently, scientifically named “alea balbutio armo-poena,” by the University of Sciences on Bingo Physics.

When someone says to you “You’re just getting older and can expect to have a few sore muscles,” you can tell them your malady is real and has a name, ‘Alea balbutio armo-poena’ (I bet you can’t say that 3 times fast).

Using one arm repeatedly to go up and down all the rows of your cards and putting pressure on an extended arm with each number daubed can play havoc with the muscles in your arm as well as your wrist, elbow, shoulder and back, especially, if you have done nothing to prepare your arm for such a workout. I have also heard many bingo players complain about pain in the armpit.

If you play bingo often, or only once in a blue moon, and do nothing to prepare the muscles in the arm you use for daubing, it is only a matter of time before you will suffer the soreness of bingo arm.

I personally play a lot of paper and give my arm one heck of a workout. So having experienced this problem a few times, I did some research and put together a few simple and proven exercises that if done on a regular basis will strengthen BOTH arms.

Soon you will be able to daub like the wind.  Your bingo buddies will wonder what you are taking to give you such speed, dexterity and endurance. If this Bingo Babe can save just one other bingo player the pain and aggravation of a problem that so many bingo players endure in silence, than I have done my job.

There is no need to go out and buy special equipment. Everything you need can usually be found around the house.

I like to start off using two 5-6 oz water bottles or cans of soup. Any basic Campbell’s soup size can will work.

I just happened to have 2 cans of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and still use them as part of my daily routine.  Zephyrhills brand water bottles are easy to hold because of the indentation in the middle, and you have the benefit of drinking the water when you are done.

After a few months you can increase to ½ gallon milk or juice jugs, and add a cup of water or sand to the jug each week to add weight as you build strength.

Of course you can always go to Wal-mart and buy a set of weights, but the money you spend could be used to buy extra bingo cards.

This Bingo Babe wonders why someone would go out and buy weights when all you have to do is find something easy to hold around the house, and pick it up.

If you are not exercising because you really need to know how much something weighs, then you are making excuses and deserve to suffer from bingo arm.

Let’s Get Started

The first thing you MUST do is stretch.  It is important to stretch before each time you exercise and make it a habit to stretch just before you go to bingo. By warming up your muscles, you are much less likely to get sore.

Stand straight, with feet shoulder width apart. Lift your left arm out to the side and stretch it up slowly and reach over your head to the right. Hold for the count of 5 and then stretch your arm (slowly) back out to the side and down.

Now switch to your right arm and lift it up over your head and stretch slowly to the left. Hold for the count of 5 and back out and down.

Alternating from left to right, do a set of 20 (10 left and 10 right). Move slowly and deliberately.  The idea is to stretch and warm up the muscles, not work up a sweat.

The next stretch is simple.  Extend your arms straight out to the sides, fingertips pointing straight out. Carefully stretch like you are trying to touch the wall on both sides of you. Then slowly, and keeping your arms extended straight out, bend only your wrist, turn your fingers up to point at the ceiling and palms to the walls for the count of 5 and then point back to the walls for the count of 5.

After Warm Up

Now that you have warmed up, here are 4 very simple dauber arm exercises.

Even very small changes in muscle strength can make a real difference in function, especially in people who have already lost a lot of muscle.  I have learned that when you play a lot of bingo, you develop mighty muscles in your butt, which enables you to sit for long periods of time. The rest of your body is often neglected. So start your routine off slowly. Try to do 10 to 15 repetitions for each exercise. Think of this as a goal. If you can’t do that many at first, do as many as you can. You will be able to build up to this goal over time.

Breathe regularly. Breathe in slowly through your nose and breathe out slowly through your mouth.

Challenge yourself a little, but listen to your body. If you feel any pain during or after these exercises, you are doing too much. None of these exercises should cause you pain.  Remember to do all the exercises slowly.  The only place we need speed is in the bingo hall when we raise our bingo dauber arm high in the air and yell BINGO!

Hand Grip

1.  Hold a tennis ball or other small rubber or foam ball in one hand
2.  Slowly squeeze the ball as hard as you can and hold it for 3-5 seconds
3.  Relax the squeeze slowly
4.  Repeat 10-15 times
5.  Repeat 10-15 times with other hand
6.  Repeat 10-15 times more with each hand

Wrist Curl

1.  Rest your forearm on the arm of a sturdy chair with your hand over the edge
2.  Hold weight with palm facing upward
3.  Slowly bend your wrist up and down
4.  Repeat 10-15 times
5.  Repeat with other hand 10-15 times
6.  Repeat 10-15 more times with each hand

Over Head Yelling ‘Bingo’ Arm Raise

1.  You can do this exercise while standing or sitting in a sturdy, armless chair
2.  Keep your feet flat on the floor, shoulder-width apart
3.  Hold weights at your sides at shoulder height with palms facing forward. Breathe in slowly
4.  Slowly breathe out as you raise both arms up over your head keeping your elbows slightly bent
5.  Hold the position for 1 second
6.  Breathe in as you slowly lower your arms
7.  Repeat 10-15 times
8.  Rest; then repeat 10-15 more times

Side Arm Raise

1.  You can do this exercise while standing or sitting in a sturdy, armless chair
2.  Keep your feet flat on the floor, shoulder-width apart
3.  Hold hand weights straight down at your sides with palms facing inward. Breathe in slowly
4.  Slowly breathe out as you raise both arms to the side, shoulder height
5.  Hold the position for 1 second
6.  Breathe in as you slowly lower your arms
7.  Repeat 10-15 times

Your entire routine shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes and you will feel the difference almost right away.  It is amazing how much doing just a little stretching will help.

The deep breathing you do along with your exercises will get more oxygen to your brain, helping you focus on locating the numbers you need to daub. Slowly you will build added strength in your arms, which will give you lightning dauber speed.  This is always a good thing when you are playing a gazillion cards trying to win that big jackpot!

If you have a quick and easy recipe you make for your family, one that gets you out the door fast and guilt free on Bingo night, please submit it. It might get posted on the blog for the entire world to see as well as published in the cookbook. All recipes will be tested in my kitchen and fed to my family, or an unsuspecting group of friends at Bingo.

It will be their decision which recipes are chosen. All appropriate leftovers and rejects will be fed to my dogs, DoriMay, Bentley and Baby Girl. (Baby Girl is a very fussy eater).
So just look for the recipe tab at the top of the page for more details.

Bingolicious Chocolate Banana Bread

Here’s what you need:

2 cups All-Purpose Flour
¾ teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoon Salt
¼ teaspoon Baking Soda
½ cup Granulated Sugar
2 tablespoons softened Butter
3 very ripe Bananas
½ cup Milk
2 Egg Whites
6 tablespoons Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup

Pre Heat Oven to 350 degrees F; Coat an 8 ½ X 4 ½ inch loaf pan with cooking spray, and dust with a little Flour.

1. In a medium bowl, mix together Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt
2. In another medium bowl mix Granulated Sugar with the softened Butter, then stir in flour mixture just until blended
3. Mash the Bananas, and stir together with Milk and Egg Whites ~ the batter will be slightly lumpy
4. In a small bowl mix together Chocolate Syrup with 2/3 cup batter
5. Pour plain batter into pan loaf pan
6. Spoon chocolate mix batter on top
7. Using a butter knife, make a few passes through the batter making a swirl

Bake 55 minutes to an hour or until pick inserted into center comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes, remove from pan; cool completely.

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing was going right?

Well I’m here to tell ya Babes, today, was definitely one of those days.

All I wanted to do was clean out my Bingo bag to get ready for Bingo. I always clean my daubers and make sure they are full of dauber ink before I head out the door. I have a simple routine I use to keep the mess contained…or so I thought.

I set a plastic wash basin on the counter next to the sink and put an old newspaper next to it to daub off the extra ink. I use paper towels to twist off the dauber sponge caps and clean the dried ink from around the edges of the dauber sponges. Under the sink I keep a box, which I toss almost empty daubers into.

Sometimes it’s fun to try and mix up different colors, but a word of warning Babes, you must be careful when you do this, because it is not a good idea to mix different dauber ink brands.

So anyway, I pulled out a bottle of purple ink and decided to mix little bit of it with pink. Carefully, I removed the sponge caps from both bottles, setting the bottles next to the sink. The sponge caps with the ink soaked paper towels went into the basin.

I swear to you, I only turned my back for a moment.

Just as I turned my back, my cat jumped onto the counter knocking over both bottles, splattering dauber ink everywhere. Ink flowed quickly over the edge of the counter, down the side and onto the floor. I scream in horror as the pink mixes with the purple in a stream under the table.

Tsunami (yes, my cats name is Tsunami) takes off with a tail full of ink…The dogs come running in and slide through the ink. Making a quick sliding about-face they proceed to chase the cat, who was now walking across the back of the couch shaking her ink covered paws in disgust.

I let out another blood curdling scream as my husband comes running in and slips on the ink the dogs had tracked all over the floor. Trying to catch my husband I jump forward, and…you guessed it…Down I go with him into a pool of ink. The dogs, thinking this is all great fun come bounding back wagging their ink laden tails to see what is going on. With all the excitement they start running around the house barking and trailing ink everywhere. Tsunami just sat down looking very amused at the whole situation as she swished her tail back and forth rubbing ink all over the back of the couch and the wall.

Within moments there was not an inch of my house that wasn’t covered in dauber ink. It trailed down the hallway into the bedrooms, over my bedspreads. All the furniture was covered in paw prints. This was beyond just a little ink miss-hap.

Leaning on one elbow, my husband tries to wipe the ink off his face, but instead just spreads a purple streak from his nose to his hairline. I start to laugh as the tears roll down my face. The only one who could help us now would be “The Cat in the Hat”.

So I am asking all my Bingo Babe friends for help. If anyone out there knows the secret how to get dauber ink out of carpets or off of upholstered furniture, this Bodacious Bingo Babe really needs your help. Please Contact Me with your suggestions.

Is There Really a Secret to Winning at Bingo? 10 Ways to place yourself in the best position to win at Bingo. It takes a moment to miss a number and miss the win. Here are proven ways to can make sure you always win.

Secrets to Winning at Bingo

Let me set the scene… picture it… its Friday night, the Bingo hall is buzzing with chatter and the clatter of daubers. The next number flashes in the monitor. The Bingo Babe to my left asks her friend sitting across from her, “what was the last number called?” as she shuffles her papers around and roots through her purse looking for a candy bar.

“B-6 I think”, her friend answers as she tries to wave down a floor runner* so she could order some coffee, opens a few more pull-tabs*, lights a cigarette, grabs her dauber and looks at me hoping I have the answer.

I nod my head “yes” as I continue daubing and then glance up at the monitor to see the next number coming up. There it was… G-55 …the number I needed to Bingo. I raise my hand, and when the number is called I yell BINGO! I do my little ‘Happy Dance Chair Wiggle’ as I collect my money.

Cursing me under their breath, they ball up their papers and toss them onto the table next to the pile of candy wrappers and empty coffee cups.

These two disorganized and very distracting Babes had the usual statements to make about how some people have all the luck and how they wished they could just win just one game.

This breaks the 5th Rule of the Bingo 10 Commandments: “Thou shall not wish bad luck on thy neighbor”.
OK…now… Bodacious Bingo Babe has very strong opinions about this. You see, I play a lot of Bingo. I play a lot of paper when I play Bingo, and I take my Bingo very seriously.

Yes, yes, I play to have fun with my fellow Bingo Babes and to hear all the latest gossip like everyone else, BUT, I also play to WIN! When I heard the question, “Why does she have all the luck?” It got me to thinkin’…

“Is there really a secret to winning Bingo?”

You must first accept the fact that Bingo is a game of luck. There is no way to know what will be the next ball. But there are things you can do to make sure you put yourself in the best possible position to win, so when that ball does come up, you are ready.

Here are a few suggestions from this Bodacious Bingo Babe that I hope will help you.

1. 1st and Foremost ~ Be Organized
Get to your bingo hall with time enough to buy your papers and get them in the order they need to be in. Most Bingo halls give you a printed program of the games they are playing that night. Buy your coffee, get your daubers, snacks, tape etc., out and in order so when you need them, you know where they are.

2. Check All Daubers
I usually check my daubers at home. Make sure your daubers are not dried out. Wipe around the edges to keep them flowing smoothly. If they are dry, dip the little round sponge part into warm water, and then gently roll the dauber back and forth on an extra sheet of paper. I have seen Babes dip their daubers into their cup of drinking water because the game started and their daubers were dry. Dauber ink is usually non-toxic, but drinking green or blue water is just gross and the over moist dauber sponges then tend to splash ink onto everyone around.

3. Read the Program
Put your papers in order. (I know I am repeating myself here). Make sure you are familiar with all the games before they start. Mark (daub) anything that needs to be daubed ahead of time (such as the odd/even coverall, wild numbers, extra bonanza’s, etc.)

4. Tape it Up
If you are playing a lot of paper, like I do, take the time to tape your papers together. There is nothing worse than having someone sitting next to you scrambling to find all their papers, spreading them out, and then trying to catch up with the numbers they missed as their papers shift around.

5. Think Ahead
If your hall plays games such as circle 7’s or u-pick-ums, try to think about that the night before. Write down your favorite numbers on a sheet of paper (I use an index card) and keep them in your Bingo bag. This way you just have to refer to the card and it you won’t waste time trying to figure out your numbers at the last minute. And YES. . . all lucky Bingo Babes have a BINGO BAG for all their Bingo stuff. That is one of the ways we stay organized. There are many to choose from. I happen to be a BETTY BOOP fan and found a great Bingo bag with matching daubers and even a Betty Boop T-shirt to match at Giftapolis.

6. Train Yer Brain
Train your brain to first SEE the number in the monitor. The 2nd is to LISTEN for the number. The 3rd is to train your brain to do BOTH.

Let me take a moment here to explain…

When the Bingo game begins, the caller will put the 1st ball in the monitor for everyone to see. This gives you the advantage to start daubing before the number is called. The second number will appear in the monitor as the 1st number is being called.

SO…You see the number 1st, then you hear it.

It helps if you have picked your seat carefully so you can easily see the monitor and hear the caller.
Don’t forget having a clear shot to the restroom is always helpful – regardless if you are training your brain, or not!

7. Play the Monitor
This can sometimes be confusing to new players because they see one number and hear another.

I personally feel the best strategy is to play the monitor. Staying one ball ahead, gives you the advantage to yell “BINGO” before the Babes playing by HEARING the number have the chance to hear it, find it, daub it, and check for a Bingo pattern.

This is important, because the faster you can yell “BINGO” and stop the game, the better your chances are of not having to split* the prize with anyone else.

8. Don’t Be Impatient!
Impatient Bingo Babes will just put down their daubers when they hear or see someone already has Bingo. Many times they have a Bingo too, but because you were a number ahead, and knew you had the Bingo, you were able to alert the caller* to stop the game before the other players caught up. This is always to your advantage.

Also…by playing the monitor, you can train your brain to ‘zone out’ all the other conversation going on around you. We will go further into Training Your Brain in another post. This strategy will also enable you to have a few extra seconds to check the game board in the event you are waiting* or set* for one more ball.

9. Check the Board
Let’s face it Babes, even the best of us miss a number from time to time. This is why it is so important to continually check the game board to see what numbers have been called and possibly catch a number you missed.

10. SHUT UP!
Now that brings us to conversation…When the game begins…Shut Up!! (I was going to be kind and say “be quiet”, but shut up is more to the point.)

Let the latest gossip or story about your children, grandchildren or husband wait until the game is over. All your concentration should be on seeing the number, daubing the number and hearing the number as you check for the pattern you are looking for. Unfocused Bingo Babes do win in spite of themselves.

Focused Bingo Babes win MORE!

And last, but not least…

Perfect your ‘Bingo Happy Dance Chair Wiggle‘.

This one little act will really add to the great experience of the Bingo win.
So that was some of this Bodacious Bingo Babe’s best advice. If you have any other secrets to winning at Bingo, don’t keep them to yourself. Share them here by adding your Comment.

* Floor runner… the person who answers questions, sells extra specials and PAYS you your winnings

* Pull-tabs… extra games you can purchase that you pull the cardboard tab off to reveal a prize

* Play the monitor… seeing the number in the monitor before the number is called

* Split… when more than one person wins, the prize is split between the winners

* Set… player needs one more number to win

* Waiting… same as being set, the player needs one more number to win

I love to watch the Bingo Babes that play what looks like a gazillion cards. With lightening speed they daub every number, very rarely missing one. These Babes have developed what I call Bingo eye. It is a technique that can be mastered with a little practice.

First let me remind you how organized they are. Their papers are all taped together and stacked in the order the games are played. Daubers, coffee cups and their personal chachkas are lined up neatly out of the way. They always locate themselves with a clear view of the monitor to quickly be able to check their numbers. These are basic practices that all Bingo players should use. I know I repeat this often, but these practices will help not only you, but everyone around you.

So now…Let me explain Bingo Eye…

First look at the Bingo Board. You will learn quickly which numbers fall under which letter.

• The “B” row are numbers 1 – 15
• The “I” row are numbers 16 – 30
• The “N” row are numbers 31 – 45
• The “G” row are numbers 46 – 60
• The “O” row are numbers 61 – 75

So as you can see, it is not necessary to look at all the numbers on the card because you know the number 32, for example, will always be in the N row. This is very important to know in speed games when the LETTER is not called.

We have been taught to read numbers from left to right. Your brain would see the number 32 and read it 3 + 2.
But at Bingo you will learn to read the numbers backwards.

Say you are looking for “N-32”.

As you go down the “N” row you should read the numbers backwards. Instead of looking at the entire number (3 + 2), you should only be looking for the 2. When you locate a 2, then you back into the number to see if it is 32 or a 42. It could only be one of those 2 numbers. You know this because the N row only contains the numbers 31 through 45 right? Just making sure you were paying attention.

It takes some practice to retrain your brain not to complete the task of reading every entire number, and to learn to skim over any number that does not end in a 2.

Research shows that playing Bingo keeps your brain in peek mental form. After a while you will have built in radar, and your Bingo eye will allow the number you are looking for to actually jump right up at you.

So don’t feel guilty about canceling your membership at the gym. Physical exercise will tone up your body, but the game of Bingo enhances your mental speed, observation skills and memory?

When you play Bingo you will not only keep your mind sharp, but you will also build mighty muscles in your butt that will enable you to sit for long periods of time. Ha! So even on the nights that you lose…You still win!