PREPARING FOR THE TRIP - Tuesday, July 15.    Today is our day off and I am washing clothes and beginning to pack for the trip.  Last night, Sam and I went over our bidding system and tried to iron out any kinks we have in our respective understandings.  This is sometimes done with smiles and sometimes with some rather serious discussion because we do not always agree, but as long as we can agree not to agree on the less important things, all will be fine.  I am going to the store to get a few things today that I want to take on the trip since we will be there for over one week: a small coffee pot and coffee; snacks for in between sessions; cokes that we will put in the cooler to save the $2.00 per coke charge on each floor, and other miscellaneous small things to ensure convenience and comfort.  .......... I remember the first time I ever went to Las Vegas for a national bridge tournament in 1976.  I was 8 months pregnant with my first child.   The convention center at the Las Vegas Hilton is huge (I have never to this day, seen anything like it in my life), and the entire room was full of it seemed like thousands of tables and 4 chairs, guidecards, section posts throughout the room with things like Section RR or Section WWW throughout so that we could find our section after we purchased our entries.  It truly felt like something big and very special.  I had just started playing bridge the year before so I was overwhelmed but very excited about being there.  I had never been to Las Vegas before so the bright blinking lights on the strip casinos, each seemingly trying to outdo the neighboring casinos to attract attention was quite a sight to behold for a young Texas woman from Midland.   I laughed so hard at Bob Newhart and was taken to far, far away places by Wayne Newton's spectacular performance.  It was entertainment at its very best.  I learned to play blackjack and craps on that trip because on televisions in every room, they gave lessons.  I didn't know what I was doing when I actually played the games but found the dealers to be extremely friendly and helpful so that inexperienced players do not feel intimidated.  Of course, they WANT you to enjoy it. :)) ......In any case, I am off to do my shopping...and take Spikey to the groomer.  This evening, we discussed our system more to make sure we are on the same page and Sam is making the agreed upon additions and treatments to our card.  And, I am now working on the website before I go to sleep.  NOTE:  the Daily Bulletins will be on the link below.

The Day Before We Leave - Wednesday, July 16 - Woke up this morning at 8:00 after going to sleep at 1:00 last night.  Sam continues to discuss the system and his analysis that he is running on the computer of how often it is right to balance in the balance seat when his left hand opponent opens 1N.  He has told the program this:  1N hand holds 15-17 points, and the balancing hand holds 0-25 points.  It analyses how often the 1N opener will make 1N (164 out of 300) and how often it is beneficial to balance.  All this, and I am still trying to get my sleepy eyes open.  He is so excited about the trip that he couldn't sleep last night, so he is happy, excited and full of energy.  Ah, finally, I get my first cup of coffee and am able to awaken my brain from its deep peaceful slumber.  I notice that I am feeling a little anxious and overwhelmed at all the things I want and need to do before the trip and am now beginning to run out of time since I have a game with Lori this afternoon and Paul this evening at the Club.  Oh well, I guess I will just stay up all night.  But, an angel appears on my telephone...Virginia calls and needs a partner for today and I think this is my opportunity to get everything done before the trip and not have to be up all night.  She is playing with my wonderful partner, Lori, this afternoon.  I notice that the stress I feel has subsided as I am allowed more time.  I am still planning to play tonight.  I will miss the Club and all the fun club activities but am thrilled about going to the National.  I remind myself...that successful players have steady emotions...neither up nor down, neither excited nor sad, not overly exhilarated nor are they down-trodden.  They play on an even keel and concentrate.  They are good partners.  I remind myself of my own checkpoint.  "I want to play this game today the way I want my life to be...organized, disciplined, friendly, fair, and encouraging with love in my heart," and I feel a sense of peace befall me.  This is the mode I am in, in my successful games, as compared to being stressed, anxious, pressured, angry, disappointed, which for me, produces poor performance at the table, and for that matter, in life itself.  ....Back to work getting prepared for the trip.  Why do I always overpack? 

The Day has Finally Come - Thursday, July 17, 2008 - The house is clean, the clothes are washed, the system is ready, and we are ready...well, almost.  Sam told me not to pack for him so he is packing now.  We will leave in about an hour.  We are driving so Sam and I will be going over the system we play in the car, again.  I got up at 7:30 this morning, made coffee, and sat on my back patio and enjoyed the peace I always feel in the mornings when I do this.  I am letting Sam sleep until he is completely rested because we have all day to get to Vegas.  On my patio, I look toward the future, and ponder recent events.  I think of all the wonderful people I have gotten to know now who feel like family to me.  My life is much different than it was before the Ace of Clubs, but I am fulfilled and happy.  Life is good.  I also think about Alice Pierce, who so willingly is keeping the Club open and not going to the National to do just that.  I am thankful and I called her to tell her.  She has learned soooo much and is just exactly the kind of person we want on our staff at the club.  Well, Sam has given me the word..."Let's get going"...so I will write to you again when I get there. We have to stay at the Riviera tonight but tomorrow we move over to the host hotel, the Hilton....  I was out of touch with you on our trip.  We decided to take the scenic Prescott route to I-40.  (We missed our turn)  We stopped at a little Indian shop and I nearly bought the Club a hand carved bear, but decided not to.  We stopped in Kingman to eat at the Cracker Barrell, then continued our journey.  You should see the tallest freeway being built over Hoover dam.  It looks like it is complete except for the part that goes over the river.  It will divert traffic from the winding road going over the dam to a straight road over the dam and cut off lots of time on our trips to Nevada.  We get to Vegas, check in for our one night at the Riviera, have dinner, then sleep until tomorrow morning, our first event.  The Life Master Pairs.

The Life Master Pairs - Friday, July 18, 2008  We wake up fairly early; Sam had gone down to get us coffee.  We take our showers, pack up in plenty of time to get to the Las Vegas Hilton.  When we get here, there is a long check-in line.  The first people I saw that I knew were Barbara and Ron Bunnell...also in the check in line.  They are playing only in KOs the whole week, she said.  When we check in, we are offered an upgrade on our room, which we took.  The internet access is free with this room compared to a normal $12.99 per day charge.  The room is luxurious, with a large oval tub, 37 inch t.v., and pretty furniture.  I rationalize this upgraded room with...I need to use the computer every day, we don't take very many vacations, and we will be here for over one week.  We enter the Life Master pairs event.  The very first board of the event, we went for a minus 800.  Not a very good start.  We end up with 48.08% for the first session.  In order to qualify, we must average over 50%.  And, the second session, we had 59.8%, and averaged enough to qualify and have a small carryover.  We had a great time with our system that we have really only talked about at length and it was so much fun for the treatments on our card to actually come up in the event.   There were eight sections and we were in section DDD, e/w in the afternoon and n/s in the evening.  We sat around with our friends in the playing area after the game:  Adele, Larry Dunham, the Zapatkas, Jim Wang and Min Xu.  Jim and Min qualified in the 300 to 1500 Life Master Pairs, and were also leading going into the second day.  It was also great to see Fay Teal.  We have tentatively decided to play with she and she and her partner in an event after the Spingold (0-5000) is over with. This event begins on Monday. 

The Second Day of Life Master Pairs - Saturday, July 19, 2008..I slept great last night in that comfy bed and feel very good about today, the second day of the Life Master pairs.  Breakfast is included with our upgraded room so as Sam is going over our results in the first day of the LM pairs and I am updating my diary to you, we both prepare mentally for the task ahead, qualifying for the final tomorrow.  I am sure we will discuss the things we could have done better yesterday over our coffee and breakfast this morning. (ha, he is not waiting until breakfast...he is discussing as he peruses our card).  I don't know if you know this, but he is very intense in these events but a great partner.  We are both "on" and looking forward to today.  Will write more later today....
LATER, Saturday, July 19:  It is past midnight now...I waited and waited to see whether Sam and I made it to the final day of the Life Master pairs.  We played with computer scoring at the table and something got messed up and so I waited for an hour after the game for the results, along with all others who wanted to know.  AND WE MADE IT TO THE FINAL DAY!!  We had 48.11% the first half and 55.49% the second half and made the cut.  So we will do the best we can to play better tomorrow than we did today.  It is getting tougher as the field gets smaller.  You are finding this out before Sam because he got tired of waiting and went to play craps.  I am exhausted.  But very excited about making it to the finals.  We have some carryover but I am not sure how much it is.  Sylvia and Allan stopped by during the second half to see how we are doing.  We told them we were not sure.  Before the finals tomorrow morning, I have to register our Spingold team to begin play on Monday.  You have to pre-register so they can seed the field.  Adele and I chatted before the second half today.  She and Larry Dunham made it to this second day, but were not sure about tomorrow.  I hope they will be there too.  I had a hand the second half that looked like this.  My right hand opponent opened 1S.  My hand was VOID, AJx, A, AKQJT8732.  I chose to double first, and left hand opponent bid 2S, Sam passed and righty passed, and I jumped to 6 Clubs.  Sam's hand was Kxxx, Qxx, xxxx and 54 of clubs.  I wanted to take the heart finesse if I could but the only entry I had was potentially in clubs if the clubs broke 1-1.  But, of course they didn't so I made six.  I played a small heart toward the Qxx, lost to the K, and claimed, made 6.  If I had gotten to the dummy and taken the finesse, I still would have had a heart loser so it did not matter.  I am going to sleep now...talk to you in the morning. 

Sunday, the finals of the 5000 Life Master Pairs - July 20, 2008 - We got up this morning and sat around in the room talking about the results from the day before, ordered breakfast, relaxed and went down to the playing area to begin the finals of the Life Master Pairs.  The first half, to make a long story very short, WE TOOK A NOSE DIVE!  We sat north/south, started out fairly well, but about half-way through, the most unexpected happened after all of our system preparation.  We miscommunicated on a hand, we misdefended a hand, we overbid a hand...you name it.  The wheels fell off.  We were absolute bottom with a 40% game.  We dropped from 46th to 66th out of 72, which was 6 places and out of the money for the overalls unless we did remarkably better the second half.   And, we did!  In the final session of the 3 day event, Sam and I had an overall top across two final sections in the e/w field, and we got 9.84 Gold for that, then add the previous days, 5.31, we ended up with 15.15 gold points.  We moved from 66th place to 38th place and in the overalls.  They paid masterpoints to the top 60, so we were around the middle, after our disastrous afternoon round.  If we had been average this afternoon, it was possible for us to win the event.  But these things happen.  We had a very exciting 3 days.  Mayre, Lori, Roger, Sylvia and Allan, Kim Corbin, Adele, Jerry, Larry Dunham, Paul, Mary Lou, Sid, Jim Wang and Min Xu (who, by the way, were leading going into the second day of their event, and placed in the overalls today), Pat Riordan, Phoebe, Guy Bruno, Mike Kohler, Donna DePesa and some of my Houston friends whom you do not know are just a few of the many people I have seen here.  Of course, Mike Passell, Mark Lair, Zia, Meckstroth, Rodwell, all of those guys are here too.  I am hoping to see Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.  But, to my knowledge, so far, they are not at this tournament this time.  I will let you know if I see them.  Sam played the DONT PASS line at the craps table and in 30 minutes, made $700.  When the craps table is very quiet, I know he is doing well, because he bets the opposite way from the majority.  After he won his money, he placated me and sat beside me to play the penny slots as long as he could stand it, and then went to the room.  As I was sitting there, I received an unexpected big kiss on my cheek and when I turned to see who it was, there was sweet Sid.  It is bedtime now...past it!  Tomorrow, the Spingold with Adele, Paul, Sam and me. 

Monday morning, SPINGOLD day - July 21, 2008 - Woke up this morning at 8:30.  Checked the website, the standings, the seeding for the Spingold and see that out of 100, our team is seeded #25.  We think that today we will be playing against 4 other teams and 3 will survive.  This is good, we have 3 chances to 1 that we will be in the Spingold tomorrow also.  Sam is still snoring away, but in his sleep, he says, "did you get us coffee?"  So, I go to the 24th floor "hospitality suite" set up by the hotel with our upgraded room, and get us coffee.  On my way down with my hair sticking out on the side, a tray of fruit, coffee and 2 cookies, I find myself in the elevator with Zia Mahmood, one on one....I would like to say he said "hi Linda, how are you?"  But actually, he was on his cell phone and never even knew I was in there too.  He was obviously going to his penthouse suite on the 29th floor, as I had gotten on the elevator going up mistakenly.  I worry that maybe I should maybe misspell his name here so that if he ever does a search on himself, he will not find this, but, he might even find it and write in the guestbook.  LOL.  And then tell all of his friends to check us out.  LOL.  This is making me laugh as I write it.  Ya just never know what will happen in life.  I love it.  It is now 11:00 and time to get ready for the event today.  Over coffee, Sam is saying "and what do you bid with.......and what do you lead with....what would you do if the opps bid X and you hold....  So I think my mind is prepared for the day now.  More later today....OOPS, Sam just got out of the shower and his first words are....You said we are going to be there in ten minutes.  And of course, I have to get ready now.  Later.....our team made the cut after the first day by winning our matches with both of the other teams.  It was a round robin event and lasted both the afternoon and evening sessions.  For this, we got 5.16 points.  Dale and Helen Sweetwood, Linnea Tow and Carol Gerlach, Priscilla Kelly and Sue Robinson are now here at the National also.  Linda Fracaro....well the group is growing and it is now impossible for me to list everyone.  I was very happy to hear from Alice (everyday), but yesterday, she said that everyone is happy the club has remained open, even though the games are expectedly smaller.

Tuesday, 2nd day of the Spingold - July 22, 2008 - Adele and Paul were a perfect half yesterday.  They are lots of fun and are playing very well.  I told them that they are everything we could ever want for another half in this event.  We may not win the whole thing, but it is fun and challenging and delightful.  Thank you, my teammates!  Sam and I are playing well and enjoying our system and it seems to be working out well for us.  I have been here since last Thursday and am beginning to feel a little tired.  I need to do something to energize myself.  Maybe swim or go the to spa, or heaven forbid, exercise.  Or stand on my head to get the blood flowing.  Maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning.  Hopefully, after I take a nice long bath, I will get back into the spirit.  On the Home Page of this website, I have those performances by Terry Fator, who won the million dollars on America's Got Talent and was also given a regular gig as a performer in Vegas.  Well, he is here, at the Hilton.  I would love to go see him but the games are over too late for me to be able to do that.  The afternoon games are at 1:00 and the evening games at 7:30, just like it used to be at all the tournaments, even local sectionals.  I personally prefer these times.  I am going to get ready for the second day of the Spingold.  Later...We just had a hamburger with Adele between the second day Spingold.  We are down by 5 at the half.  We are ranked higher than this team but they play very very well.  We have our work cut out for us.  I said it on the home page and I will say it again here.

OUR OWN MARY LOU WESTLEY and LINDA FRACARO COME IN 5TH OVERALL IN THE 0-99 OPEN PAIRS IN THE VEGAS NATIONALS AND GET THEIR VERY FIRST RED POINTS.  CONGRATULATIONS, YOU MAKE US VERY PROUD!!  YOU ARE UP AND COMERS AND WE WILL HELP YOU ALL THAT WE CAN ON YOUR WAY UP.  YOU WILL GET THERE. 

We were defeated at the end of the day today.  After the 3rd session of four, we were only ahead by 3 and the final session proved a mere, but tiny, swing the other team's way, and we lost by 11.  56 boards in one day came down to losing by only 11.  Oh well, we loved the day, our teammates, Paul and Adele, the challenge, the competition, even our opponents who were from the Pennsylvania area, just everything about it, except the loss, of course.  But, you know, you just cannot win them all! 

Tomorrow, we are playing with Fay Teal and Steve, from Canada, in the Compact KO's.  They start at 1:00.  And also with them in the Mixed Board-a-Match teams on Thursday and Friday.  This is a national event.  Fay tells me that Steve used to be on the Canadian national team.  Gee, I am tired.  Going to get some sleep now....   "see you in the morning"  lol.   Oh, thank you, Mary Rehfeldt, for writing to us in the guestbook.  It is one of the things that motivates me...to know that my friends are enjoying my Daily Diary.  I am glad to hear that you "heard it through the grapevine."  Thanks, Nancy.  I miss you guys....I have some good ideas for Club events I will share with you when I get back.  Hey, Jo Pittman, Bill Ahern and Jason Schroeder, ask Alice to show you the Diary at the club.  Are you watching it?  Have you gotten us a team for a week from Sunday, Bill?  How about Trudy and Bob again.  Thinking about all of you...as always. 

Wednesday, an unrememberable day at the National - Wednesday, July 22 - We are so tired, and we played today like we are.  We did play in the "practice" Board a Match teams tonight and were doing pretty well when I left.  After we lost the first match in the KO's, I asked Sam if we were going to be in the Consolation tonight, to which he responded, laughing "I think you have to win one to be in the Consolation!"  We did not even make the Consolation.  I should have slept in between the rounds.  Instead, to avoid the half a mile walk from the convention center to our room, I stayed near the site.  Sam slept.  I reluctantly ate one of those greasy, yucky hot dogs and felt nauseated afterwards.  I left right after the last round tonight so I don't know how we did for sure.  I am in the room now...writing to you before I try to get a good night's sleep.  Only one pair from Arizona qualified in the National Open Pairs - Gayle Quiros and Carol Cortez.  Congratulations!  I don't know how it went today for them.  We will check this out in the morning in the bulletin.  Tomorrow we are playing in the National Mixed Board-a-Match teams and I am hoping that I feel better tomorrow after getting a good night's sleep.  Bill, Charlotte Katz told me that we are playing with them on the first Sunday after we return.  Thanks.  Charlotte and Richard played in the KOs today also.  Dale and Helen Sweetwood, Carol Gerlach and Linnea were playing the same event that we were tonight and since Carol and Linnea had never played in one before, were concerned about the strategy.  It is a tough event, like Swiss, but played like a pair game.  You either win the board, tie the board or lose the board.  Overtricks become important as you try for the overtrick....I think it is one of our responsibilities as club owners and operators, to have these different kinds of events (Board-a-Match, IMP pairs, Individuals) at the Club so everyone is ready for them in the tournaments.  Sam just walked in and told me that we came in 10th in the Board-a-Match and placed.  That's good.  Oh, the most exciting part of my day today was getting a facial this morning.  It was very relaxing but it might have cut my competitive edge a little.  I was tooo relaxed.

Thursday morning, July 23, 2008 - I woke up early after a good nights sleep.  I immediately got into the wonderful oval bathtub with bubbles and aroma therapy oil and just soaked.  Ahhhh, feels wonderful.  With my wet hair, I stroll over to my laptop, and begin to write the first part of my diary for the day.  Let's see, from my room on the 4th floor, as I look out my window, I see the huge Hilton sign about two blocks away, the Hilton Suites to the right of my panaramic view, the Riviera, the Wynn, the Encore and notice how many palm trees there are in Vegas, very similar to where we live.  I have a view of the monorail that goes over all the traffic on the strip stopping from hotel to hotel.  I have not even been on it.  The car was valet parked the first day and has been in its spot the whole time because we have not left this beautiful hotel.  That will change today because Sam is running out of cokes.  We have a refrigerator in our upgraded room which is nice.  On the Hilton sign is a picture of Terry Fator and George Lopez, performers at this hotel.  The Hilton sign is about 10 stories tall and 30 feet wide.  It is huge.....  I am feeling pretty good today so far.  I wish I had my morning coffee but other than that...I am looking forward to the national event today.  I hope we qualify for the final session tomorrow.  Later....need my coffee!  It was nice to receive so many emails from so many of you yesterday.  I am up for this event today but as always, am becoming homesick for my routine and every day life at home.  I miss my little Spikey and Smeagle too. .....Later.... Ha!  I don't miss them so much anymore!  We just played the first of four sessions in the Mixed Board-a-Match teams and we are tied for 3/5 and got Platinum points.  Those are the ones you need to become a platinum life master and you only earn them in national events.  Fay and Steve played just great today and are a delightful pair.  They fuss at each other in the heat of the competition but play great together.  Sam has learned through the years to be nice to me no matter what I do to get my best game.  He is the best partner I have ever had, both in demeanor at the table and as a player.   We now discuss boards after the game, not during and we don't make faces at each other either.  Well, sometimes we grimmace but we try not to do that either.  I have a grimmace antenna up. 

FRIDAY, MIXED BOARD-A-MATCH - July 25, 2008 - WE qualified for today's final in the National Mixed Board-a-Match teams.  Out of 60 who qualified, we are in 24-28 place, the top half.  We played against people from Greece, Sweden, Iceland and China.  Frank Leonard and Phoebe Packer qualified in the National Fast Open Pairs #52 out of 160 pairs who qualified.   That is an excellent showing in such an event.  Priscilla Kelly, Sue Robinson, Lori Ortiz and Mary Sue Redding are playing in the semi-finals in their bracket in the KOs today and Lori Ortiz and Mary Redding are in a "double semi" on two different teams.  Their other half is Jean Whiteman and Roger Lundstrom in the Thursday-Saturday KOs.  Cliff Hudson is on a "foreign" team from San Antonio, Texas and Maryland and has advanced in Bracket 8 in the Thursday - Saturday KOs.  Bob and Kay Glantz with Bob and Diane Welch succeeded and advanced in their bracket in the Thursday-Friday KOs.  Dale and Helen Sweetwood with Carol Gerlach and Linnea Tow came in 5/8 overall in the "B" Swiss on Thursday.  Lesley Durkee's KO team in Bracket 9 is in the semi-finals today.  I am always so happy to see anyone and everyone locally do well in the nationals.  The nationals are so much fun but it is definitely competition at a different level as everyone meets from state to state and country to country to compete.  It is fun to me as I comb through the bulletins to see who has been successful when I look at people and teams from my home state, Texas and the best state, Arizona.  Texas is where I began my bridge journey, where I was very fortunate to have wonderful patient mentors, studied, did my homework, and learned to play this exciting game.  Good luck to everyone today.  I want to share with you something very exciting to me.  My youngest daughter, Susan, and her boyfriend, Buddy, want to learn to play bridge.  It warms my heart.  And, we will teach!  They are coming to visit the weekend of August 15.  I haven't met Buddy yet, although I hear so many good things about him. 
LATER...We played pretty well in the first final BAM round but only scored 11.5 wins on the 26 boards.  13 being average.  So we dropped to around the middle since we are average for all sessions.  Tonight, if we do well, we might finish in the top half.  If we do the same as we did today, we will be in the overalls.  Who knows!  It is really a tough event.  If we only win 9 or so, might not place at all.  But the experience has been just great.  I don't have any information to report on all the other contenders reported this morning above since we ate and came right to the room after the game.  We go back at 7:30 tonight for the last session in the finals.  This is bridge at its best at a very high level and I feel honored to have even gotten this far.  Oh, and on my way back to the room, I saw Mary Maddi and Anita Shipley sitting in the coffee shop.  I chatted with them for a little bit...and continued my journey to the room.  I missed it in the bulletins but maybe you didn't.  Buddy Marsh and Marianne Spanier came in 7th overall in the Senior Swiss last Monday, and Mayre Meyers' team won gold points -in their KO team, enough that one of the members of her team, the one from Tucson, made life master.  She herself now has over 20 + golds.  I am so happy to see players in our area doing so well and even happier when the players that play at the Ace of Clubs shine like a star.  Only two more days.   Keep up the good work!  I have done more walking in the past 8 days than I have all year.  The convention center is on one side and the rooms are on the complete opposite side and the hotel is probably six city blocks long.  They have little red scooters for rent for $100 for 5 days and toward the end of this tournament, more and more people have rented them.  It is quite a jaunt.  I have not succombed to the scooter yet, but I did give it some thought.  LOL.  I didn't want to look lazy.  I think I have actually lost weight with all this walking.  I notice I can breathe better, feel better, even though I feel agitated having to get my system in gear for the long walks.  But, when I get back home, I plan to continue walking with my little white poodle puppy dog, who loves to go for walks.  He barks and barks at all the other lucky dogs that get walked in the neighborhood and if I could get inside of his head, he must be flustered that he doesn't get walked as much.  Hope Castellanos sent me a forward that I think is cute.  On a walk, three male dogs spot a cute little white female poodle, all fluffed up with a red bow in her hair.  They race over to her and as she smiles sweetly at them, she says, "the one that will win my heart will be the one who can show intellect and intrigue with the words "Liver and Cheese."  The first dog, a German Shepherd, thinks and comes up with..."I don't like liver and cheese."  She shakes her and goes to the next.  The Golden Retriever says "I LOVE liver and I love cheese."  She rolls her eyes, and looks to the tiniest of little Chihuahua dogs, the one that you see on T.V., and he says as he looks at the other two male dogs, "LIVER ALONE, CHEESE MINE!"   
All I can say about the finals in the Mixed Board-a-Match is .....  they were tough!!  :}}  The only report I have is that Priscilla, Lori, Sue and Mary Rose Redding won their KO bracket and got 5.00 + gold points.  Congratulations to all of you.  Sam ate one of those greasy hot dogs and feels sick at his stomach now, just like I did a couple of days ago.  Bedtime.....

SATURDAY, July 26, 2008 -  When we woke up this morning, Sam still wasn't feeling well.  We pondered the possibility of staying and playing in the National Open Swiss (two day event), and decided that we were tired and ready to come home.  I turned my cell phone back on and listened to message.  Paul and Mary Lou played against Bill Gates.  Paul said that he talked to him for about 3 minutes at the table.  So we packed our suitcases up, called the Bell Captain to pick them up and take them to valet parking, checked out and started our trek back home.  The Hoover Dam area was pretty congested this morning.  I didn't mind because it gave me a chance to really marvel at the new freeway bypass over the dam.  It is history in the making.  I can't decide whether the Las Vegas hotels wanted to shorten the trip through the dam area...probably not...or, more realistically, the idea was borne shortly after 9/11 for security reasons.  A project like that would take many many years to plan, so it is possible that it had been planned for ten or more years.  To read more about this, go to http://www.hooverdambypass.org/  Sam slept for about an hour when we began, but when he woke up, we discussed some fine tuning of our system, and reviewed our wonderful trip to the nationals.  It was great fun! We think about our weekly schedule at the club, and see that we have scheduled an NAOP Qualifying game for Wednesday night.  And that Dealing Willie begins to make the four extra sets of boards for the Barometer game this Thursday night at 7:00, plus all the other boards for the week.  We are very excited to be back home and look forward to seeing all of you on Monday.  Alice reports that she knows of at least 5 swiss teams tomorrow (Sunday).  If you don't have your team yet, and need a half, she might have a list started of other halves.  Call the club and leave a message.  Monday, the workshop starts at 11:30 with pot luck lunch and game at 12:30.  Wednesday, we have the 2/1 class taught by Sam at 11:00, NAOP Wednesday night, Barometer, Thursday night, 0-750 mini-lesson and lunch at noon on Friday before the 12:30 game.  Everything that is on the schedule resumes and everyone will be back home from the national.  The following week, August 4 through 10, is STAC WEEK!!  All of the scheduled games at the Ace of Clubs are STAC's.  We are even opening our doors Friday night, August 8 for it is a "SPECIAL GAME ON A FRIDAY NIGHT".  There is an available STAC game at 7:00 that night (I promised we wouldn't miss anything special this summer).   And Sunday, August 10, we will hold a SWISS STAC.  As most of you know, STAC stands for Sectional Tournament at Clubs.  We compete with clubs throughout the entire western conference.  There are lots of extra masterpoints.  Check our calendar for all special events. 

Sunday morning, back home again!  July 27, 2008 - We made it safely.  I got up this morning, made coffee, loved on my little white poodle dog, who had two opposite emotions.  He was too happy to see us to be angry that we left him, but he would go sit on his end of the sofa and if I called him, he would not come.  But, if I ignored him, he would leap over to sit by me in my chair.  When I paid alot of attention to him, he would leave my side and retreat to his spot and glare at me.  Cutest little guy.  He doesn't like for his "mama" to leave him.  If he is lucky, he might get to come to the club with me tomorrow.  I started unpacking this morning and dumped the dirty clothes from the trip in the washing machine.  I then added water to the pool, and retreated to my favorite pondering spot in the whole world - a chair on my patio, with a fan pointed right at me, with my cup of coffee.  There is no more relaxing place in the world, for me.  It is great to be home.  I looked at the Daily Bulletins above to see what is going on in those Vegas nationals without us.  I see that Meckstroth's team got beat in the Spingold.  I will do a search to see how Bill Gates did and you can do that too.  When you bring down the Daily Bulletin site for the day, you do a search in Acrobat reader by putting in a name at the top.  It will jump right to the name if it is on the page.  

Thank you Alice and Bob for a job extremely well done while we were gone.  Everyone should know people like you.  We are so lucky.  It has been fun writing this diary for you.  Thank you for enjoying it.  See you on Monday.