sr_orangepants

Vote Daggett? Please? I'm highly inclined. He might be the one candidate who can genuinely offer real change for the state.

greatscott66 tried NUMBLE* on me in club tonight. It was insta-challenged. :)

It was an interesting weekend in Lake George. I think I played a little bit better than I have been recently. It seemed like, with the exception of maybe two games, I really had to fight through a lot. I fell into a few traps but finished strongly, and it was pretty satisfying for me in the end. I'm waiting for the official results to be submitted; I'm right around 1750 again.

( Sexy table! )

I think Essex will be my next tourney, and since it is my birthday weekend, y'all should come and celebrate. :)

Words seem to be sticking well, hoping to not have so many vision mistakes this weekend, but in the meantime, NAPPLES!

1. As with Monday in Dayton, I'd like it if you all would wear some orange on this Sunday. spherulitic, I expect the orange mankini this time. :)
2. I have fifteen singles ready to go for the weekend.

Happy birthday to dcpenguin and spherulitic! Huggles all around!

Since it seems that people are chiming in regardless of culinary skill, I might as well, right? I have a chicken meatloaf in the oven, taking a recipe from my aunt via my mom. There may be a picture going up later... I dunno. I have a feeling that at least nagekinoki is curious.

( Recipe, if you're interested... )

Happy New Year to those of you celebrating! I was tempted to post a recipe for something traditional to eat on Rosh Hashanah, but I think posting a recipe for apples and honey would be overkill. :)

There was a part of me that wanted to go Serena Williams (or perhaps cuzzakenji?) on some unfortunate soul in Philly, but I thought better of it. At least kangarau was there to bitch to, although I feel like we needed to talk more, and huggles more. She put it best when she said, "This doesn't make us [Spouse and her] want to play more Scrabble."

( Sexy table that would be sexier if I could have won another game or two... )

Just looking at a few games, I know I'm being pretty efficient. I want to correct two things that I saw: the occasional vision fail (can they just be corrected by taking more time?) and endgame play. Sometimes I can see what I should have done after the fact, and I'd like to actually have these thoughts come during the games, rather than after. Any suggestions?

Huge now, Serena Williams.

I realize I wasted a lot of good fortune early this weekend. I drew 31 out of 40 blanks. If I had played just a little bit better early on, maybe I finish the round robin 10-4 or 11-3 instead of 6-8, but I'm not complaining. (rafij52, teach me how to start strong at multi-day tournaments!) I was able to learn from my mistakes, and was also happy to recover and, without even expecting it, fall just short of 1750. I guess in the second half of the tournament, I fixed da Maine problem??

Congrats to the LJers who swept the top 5, and thanks to you all for the company, which was nice as always. And, since I feel like it... ( Big sexy table... )

I had a lovely day at the US Open yesterday. Perhaps I will go into more detail in another post, but the highlight for me was being on Court 11 to watch Shahar Peer wax Carla Suarez Navarro. Now I'm in Portland for the Maine Event. It's a shame it doesn't pay like the Main Event of the WSOP... Oh well. I'm a bit sunburnt and chilling, and I think I may start chanting "Shahar! Shahar! Shahar!" at certain points during the event. Here goes nothing.

I am watching What Would Brian Boitano Make? on the Food Network. goldfishbw, if you happen to see this before 1:30, his recipes in this episode all make use of bacon.

Last night, I told tailskid that Y.E. Yang would be hoisting the Wannamaker trophy this afternoon. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough, but this morning I searched for any article from a US sports media outlet that treated Yang as anything beyond a long shot who happened to be in the final pairing with Tiger Woods. It would have been nice to see at least someone comment on the potential global impact that might follow a Yang victory. Let's see if some of those pop up in the next 24 hours, or if the gut reaction will be "Tiger choked."

...to ftangredi and skin_it_mahatma. Now who would like to dress up as Marilyn Monroe and show up at one of their doors?

Personal Scrabble-related highlights:
- Being in the orange division for once. Whatever division I'm in should be the orange division.
- The good start. I led the National Scrabble Championship for a brief shining moment. Next time, I should let that moment come after the last round.
- I felt like I played well for most of the tournament, with the exception of day 2 (and still, even after round 8, I was hanging in the top 10) and my game against Kenji.
- I can haz another win over Jan Dixon!
- "I'm taking the Idalski route." - me, to stmonday, on how I was in the process of beating him
- Moving up the rankings to the #3-ranked Jason in North America! And I don't think getting to #2 should be so hard, considering who it is. :)

Non-Scrabble-related highlights:
- Boogeying down 5th Street with cheezchick.
- Group huggles! Individual huggles! Huggles huggles huggles!
- *whistles the theme from the Smurfs*
- Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake!
- Dinner with Connie Creed and frequent use of the word fabulous.
- Giving Chris Cree his baked potato.
- Winning a game of Volost, and having spherulitic challenge my rack on like, every turn. I don't think I can get myself drunk enough to ever fully appreciate it, but if I keep winning at Volost...
- Having a Red Stripe with dinner and having others react in shock.
- The play reading on Tuesday night. Everyone was wonderful, and I had a great time on stage with my castmates, baxwest, etheridge2, and Laura Scheimberg.
- Scrabble taking over part of Dayton Airport.

If you haven't seen it, I recommend Julie and Julia. Very nice movie, and it makes me want to get my hands on a recipe for beef bourguignone and start cooking.

I'm glad I finished well. I had a few nice wins, and to be in the middle of Div 1 playing mostly Div 1 opponents was a bit refreshing. I realize that I made a lot of mistakes over the tournament that I can work on trying to avoid, and will also hopefully not go through something like day 2, when my brain seemed to vanish midday. I was glad to have some different opponents across the board, and also some familiar ones, and though I would have liked a little more variety, I'm not complaining.

I was really sad to leave. It was nice that some flights were delayed so I got to hang with some Scrabblers for a bit longer, but I wish I could see a bunch of you more often. Looking forward to the next adventure!

So, yeah... Couldn't this tournament have ended after round 3? Not to say that my opponents didn't play well (with the exception of one luckbox), but I had a major brain cramp for like, most of day 2. I wish this would stop happening.

Alas. Had a great day and am just smiling, laughing, and oranging my way through the tournament so far. 5-2 after leading the tournament at 3-0 (at which I just had to laugh) and in nice position. I hope to see a few more days like this. That'd be sweet.