Here's a fun game from my session with Jeff Fiszbein earlier today.

Jeff won the session three games to two, and scores a Triple-Triple in this one before getting stuck with two Ts at the end.
TNT

Sometimes it doesn't matter how many good decisions or how many good plays you make in a Scrabble game. If you make one horrific one it's like crossing over the yellow line in front of an oncoming Mac truck, and you can kiss your ass good bye.

Such was the case for me in Sunday's Flint late bird tournament. Playing for the championship, tailskid goes first and opens with PACTInG.* I hesitate, but let it go, and then he bangos on his next turn with the other blank. It's game over, just that quickly.

When someone makes a mistake, you have to make them pay. Otherwise, it becomes your mistake.

Anyway, it was fun to be playing some meaningful games again this weekend. I didn't fare quite as well in Saturday's round robin, where I was 7th of 8. But that's a little misleading. If I won my last game over Steve Knapp I probably finish second in that one, too. I had a big lead in that game, but he bingoed late, and then made what I thought was the play of the weekend to overtake me at the end. I'll try and get that up later tonight or tomorrow for all of you to see. You can see the position now, if you like, in amongst my latest Facebook photos.

By the numbers -

Tournaments: 19
Wins: 3
Rated games: 195
Wins: 106.5
Win Percentage: .546
Spread: +793
.500 record or better: 11
Rating coming in: 1652
Rating going out: 1741
Peak: 1741
Prize Money won: @$1,300
Average performance rating: 1728

Highlights - Winnning the inaugural February Fury match play championship, and making it to my native town of Chicago for the tournament to benefit literacy. Posting a winning percentage of >70% at both the Northville and Flint clubs.

These numbers are similar to 2008, where I played 192 rated games and won 107. The big difference this year was in prize money, due mainly to the $1k win at the Fury, which is my largest cash ever.

I had hoped to include more stats this year, but alas, I am not a very good record keeper and c-t doesn't have my back when it comes to individual game scores. Those slacking bastards.

So, I can't figure out why this box keeps popping up on my Mac. I don't want to access idisk, and don't pay the $100 annual fee to be a Mac member. I don't know the password, if there ever was one. I hit the cancel button and it pops right back up. I hit the cancel button again and am given five minutes of peace before the routine starts anew. Any suggestion on how to squash this nuisance would be much appreciated.

So my wife is sick. Confined to the upstairs, throwing up sick.

This has left me as the lone soldier in a house with three young, energetic children, and stoked once again my admiration/sympathy for single parents everywhere.

At day's end the house looks like a day-old battlefield, except instead of dead bodies there are clothes, toys, dishes and an empty pizza box scattered across the landscape. It will take three days, minimum, to get everything in order, and I don't have particularly high standards.(Three days at the rate I move, and even then only if the kids are out of the house and not getting in the way.) Come to think of it, cleaning up a few dead bodies would be easier, if only I wasn't so squeamish.

The kids in bed, I was going to start at the cleanup by taking a jug of bleach to the upstairs bathroom and disinfect Little Round Top, where Joni had waged her battle with the flu bug during the day. But she talked me out of it, worried that our positions would be reversed in a day or two, and that she would then be holding the short end of the stick. I think her exact words were, "Are you sure you don't want to wait until I can do it? We can't have you getting sick, too."

That's all I really needed to hear, but I pretended to seriously ponder the danger.

"I guess you're right," I finally commiserated, before heading straight to the computer, dishes be damned.

In other news, I've got tentative plans to make plans to go to Chicago for a one-day Scrabble tournament next Saturday. It's a done deal if someone offers me their couch for a night. I could use some time away, and who knows, our house might be clean again when I get back.

Great night for me at the Northville club, as I went 4-0 +465 or so.
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I don't know who was singing, or what song it was, or even how I happened to hear it yesterday - but this gets my vote for corniest song lyric of the year, so far:

If you were my diet, I'd put on forty pounds
And still not eat anything.
You are just a dream.

Yes, I'm playing Fenton this weekend. Both days. Here's your chance to study up on my game, if you're going to be there.

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We met the women who will be teaching our kids at a school open house Tuesday, and am glad to report that I'm very happy with their teachers, both as people and as educators.

My oldest is entering the 2nd grade, and it is from a poster in Mrs. Weaver's room where I cribbed the following:

( 10 Reasons to Write )


Good luck to those of you lucky enough to be playing in a Scrabble tournament this weekend.

I saw men wearing shoes without socks.

I ate great food.

I had a miracle win and an unbelievable loss among 31 games of Scrabble.

I pretty much covered my expenses with poker winnings in the after-hours room ($100) and at the casino ($300).

Yes, I'm glad I went to Dayton.

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