Having just gotten the time off from work approved for the Reno tourney, I mosey on over to cross-tables to print the flyer so I can start making hotel and flight arrangements. Not being on CGP, I’m clueless as to what appears to be years of pent up grievances that will now affect my vacation plans. Fortunately Cross-tables made it clear that this was now an unrated tourney. I email my director Mr. Pellinen to find out what’s up with that (though I had my suspicions that it was NASPA related). He clues me in.

My preference is still Reno, so I will wait a few days to see if anything changes. I care less and less about ratings (though I would like to remain in Div 1), so it strikes me as odd that I’m reluctant to attend a tourney simply because it’s not rated. I guess it’s ingrained in me that the games don’t really count if the outcome doesn’t have an official, numeric result.

Stuff is happening at work - I’m down two supervisors in an area that only has three supervisors, so I’m in the midst of trying to fill those slots. But I’m going to try to hold fast to the approved time off and not just skip the vacation time. I’ll likely check out Albany flights as a back up to Reno. Also still planning on Maine in September. I don’t see that director going rogue on the NASPA.

I keep promising not to make new flash cards and keep breaking that promise. I have all my flash cards stored in twelve 6-quart Sterilite bins. Each is about 1 foot long, so I essentially have 12 feet of cards (likely closer to 16 feet of cards, since I have them packed in sideways too). So I broke down and bought two more containers and will start working to fill them. I just like flash cards.

If anyone ever finds a deal on the old oak/walnut library card holders, drop me a line.

I am 35-53 in National Tourneys (not counting Dayton where I was 16-15). My first Nationals was Reno in 1988. I had played in a couple of tourneys and done well enough to have an inflated rating and was able to play in division one (I think I was playing up). I had never played outside of the Twin Cities and I’m not sure why I would have decided to play in Division 1. I had not done any studying. At all.

My only real memory of Reno was learning the word NEROLIS while having a beer in the bar with Dave Lockrem. Hindsight tells me I should know NEROLIS before playing in division 1. I went 9-18 and didn’t go to another Nationals until San Diego (2002?). The 14 year hiatus had more to do with child rearing than with avoiding another humiliation. 2002 was division 2, where I started with two recounts….a two point loss followed by a one point loss (12/19). But I still had fun.

Since New Orleans (14-16), Nationals haven’t really interested me due mostly to the locations. I was pretty set on doing Dayton again since I did like that venue and the nice little restaurant row on the other side of the tracks. But now with an email just floating by about Reno, I’m thinking a better plan might be to do Reno, maybe taking a couple extra days to explore (I’ve never seen Tahoe) and then do Joey’s Maine tourney with an extra week to do the Maine thing. Not as a way of avoiding Nationals (I guess Dayton is a Nationals now), but just to see more country.

Some of my favorite tourneys are ones where I don’t even know where I finished; Taking the train to Seattle and back (I think I did ok there) and playing at the Grand Canyon (where I know I did just horrible).

So maybe it’s Reno and Maine for me this summer.

Ira did a heck of a job. Bingos below - No phonies. 32 for me, 25 for them. Was blessed with good drawing the first half of the tourney, and gave away one win on Sunday to Scott by mistracking. Great seeing some folks I don’t see often. Go see {title of show} on Broadway before it closes…Only a few days left.

http://www.titleofshow.com/