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It's been a busy week here in Lake Wobegone.
Thursday was Valentines Day and someone special had flowers, and a card, and chocolates out on the dining room table when I came up from the data mines for my morning break.
Then Friday was Kent's last day of work. He is now officially retired. I feel like we are underplaying this. There should be bands - with tubas - marching down the street. A huge party. A slew of cards and congratulations. Maybe a banner across the front of the house. Maybe sky writers. But instead he's heading for the monthly Old Chicago get-together this evening where ex-MCI employees down a few beers and chat. And I'm heading off to Phoenix for a Scrabble tournament. And Terry is savoring her avgolomono soup and hoping that she her stomach stops hurting over the weekend. We are so mundane.
It felt a little odd heading out all by myself for a weekend away at a tournament. Something like going to a convention, but somewhat different. I packed one tiny suitcase (just large enough for clothes and my super-duper custom Scrabble board), popped my iPad into my big purse, and drove myself to the Colorado Springs airport. This is one of those times when it was significantly cheaper (although significantly longer) to fly from the Springs instead of from Denver.
Uneventful flight, mostly, but I must say it bugs the hell out of me when flight attendants instruct people to put their larger-than-allowed suitcases SIDEWAYS in the overhead and tell people who have no suitcases to put their carry on items (purse, computer case, etc.) under their seat. Paying extra to check my bag shouldn't reduce my share of the overhead space.
I got rooked on taking a taxi to the hotel in Phoenix. The first taxi I got in to pulled ahead a couple of car lengths and then asked me for directions to my hotel. I told the driver that I didn't know Phoenix and he was supposed to know where things were. He told me he didn't know, had no way to find out, and that I should take a different cab. So I had to walk back to the taxi line, and they had a hard time finding a cab that would take me the 8.1 miles south to the hotel. A pleasant driver from Iraq finally took pity on me and agreed to look it up and drive me there, but apparently he decided to drive entirely around the airport and get on the freeway north and west of where I was going instead of just taking the closest entrance and going south. So 15 miles instead of 8. And Yellow Cabs have a monopoly at the Phoenix airport. They get to charge $5 for the first mile and $3 for each additional mile. I was not happy.
The hotel, however, was friendly and pleasant, if a bit old and frayed around the seams. My room was clean, but retro - looked like something right out of the 80s (including the TV - which I never turned on). I got about six hours sleep before getting up to have breakfast (free) and check in for the tournament.
This was the largest tournament I've played in. It had four divisions, and I was in the lowest with a starting rating of 657. That was third from the bottom of everyone in the whole room. My objectives were to use my clock correctly, not go overtime, to score accurately, and to remember to challenge ALL new side words created if I decided to do a challenge. I didn't expect to have much problem with the tally sheets as the winner fills those in and I didn't expect to be winning.
By Saturday noon I had learned that EVAC is not a word, even though I played it. That OUTAIDS is not a word either, but that I was savvy enough to challenge it off the board. I agonized over playing BLIAUT, but decided not to - which is good because it is not Scrabble-valid either, even though I have made one,
Had a quiet lunch at McDonalds (closest food and I wasn't walking too well) and then back for the second half. At the end of the first day of the tournament I was 4 and 4 - 4 wins 4 losses - with a positive point spread of 56. That put me firmly in the middle of the division, and was enormously better than I hoped to do. Of course I must admit that I got one win (and a plus fifty points) from having a bye. Still, I could have done a lot worse. Read for a while and then went to sleep with the firm conviction that I would do worse the next day. Kept hearing Han Solo in my head saying, "Don't get cocky, kid."
Did unbelievably well Sunday morning - which made me think I would tank in the afternoon - but at noon I was 7 wins, 5 losses overall, and number five in my division. I had one incredibly good game, and it was against a top rated player so the win counted high. I drew bingos for my first two plays - WRAITHS and EXACTING. And my opponent challenged WRAITHS! It was good, I -knew- it was good, but I went into the challenge wondering if Tolkien had made up the word...
I posted a Sunday evening play-by-play report on FB. "I honestly can't believe I've played sixteen straight games over two days. It's numbing. I ended today ten wins and six losses. That is amazingly better than I thought possible. I learned that SNORIER is not a word and was delighted to find that SPENCER is still a word, although DELOPE is not - you do end up with something from all those years of reading Georgette Heyer. My new favorite is JUGA, plural of JUGUM, from the Latin for yoke - thus CONJUGAL for those wearing the same yoke, and the JUGULAR vein is where the yoke would go if people were employed to pull ploughs. Four more games tomorrow and then I fly back to Colorado."
Rob and Jaime Vanderbloemen and baby Freyja were waiting for me after my last game. We had dinner at Red Robin in Achatukee, AZ. Rob now has more hair than I've ever seen him with. I really like how he looks, but he says he's growing it as a fundraiser for his school. In the spring he'll let his students make donations towards cutting it off into his usual buzzcut. (Yes, BUZZCUT is a valid Scrabble word.) I was pleased to find that Freyja liked the long strings of fettucini from my plate better than the macaroni bits from her father's. Mem for the win!
plate
Monday morning I packed up my suitcase and stored it along the wall in the game room. I knew that I would be paired with the four top players that morning, and, listening to my mental Han Solo, prepared to lose my last four games with quiet sportsmanship. I lost my first game to the second ranked player, but the rest of the morning was not what I expected. 'Breaking news! In a totally unexpected upset Mem beats the third place player for a 421 to 356 victory in the second game of the morning. "I owe my success," says Mem, "To a last minute "X" draw and my knowledge of DEX." This places the visiting Colorado Springs Scrabble Club player at 11 and 7 with two games left to play.'
The third game was against the top player. I had played him before, and he was very good - although this was his first tournament. I opened the game with LOUTIER, just on the chance it might be good. Losing a turn at the beginning of the game really doesn't put you behind in scoring. David spent more time than he should have debating whether or not to challenge, and then decided not to do so. So there I was with a 50+ point lead at the beginning. We were close throughout, and I played NAOS on a triple word score (making four separate words) and again David lost clock time trying to decide whether to challenge, but did not. At the very end, I was a dozen points ahead when David played CITE for 6 points. He had been counting tiles and thought that this would give him the win with the penalty for points left in my hand. But he hadn't counted correctly, and when all was said and done I was one point ahead for the win.
Looking things up afterwards I found that LOUTIEST is not good, but has an anagram OUTLIER that is good. I think I'll remember that from now on. And NAOS? Yes, of course that's good. It's the plural of NAOI, the cella of an ancient temple. And I knew it because both are favorite plays for one of our local Scrabble club players and I had challenged both in the past. Vocabulary does make a difference.
I lost my final game by three points against the pleasant older gentleman with whom I had played my first match on Saturday. He's an experienced tournament player, but has been in the lowest division for a long time. I challenged SQUALINE off the board (the correct form is SQUALENE) but he came back with EQUALISE, which I challenged and lost. It was a tight game and he won it by three points to take third place in our division.
I actually came in 4th for the division, and won $50 for BOS! Now what's a BOS, you ask? I had to ask as well, thinking perhaps that I'd have to give a public display of dancing the Bosonova. However, it means Best Over Seed and is given to the person in each division who improves their ranking most over the course of the tournament. I went from 13th to 4th and my official ranking went from 657 at the beginning of the tournament to 792 at the end. I'm still a neophyte, but overall, it was a super experience, and I had boatloads of fun.
Thursday was Valentines Day and someone special had flowers, and a card, and chocolates out on the dining room table when I came up from the data mines for my morning break.
Then Friday was Kent's last day of work. He is now officially retired. I feel like we are underplaying this. There should be bands - with tubas - marching down the street. A huge party. A slew of cards and congratulations. Maybe a banner across the front of the house. Maybe sky writers. But instead he's heading for the monthly Old Chicago get-together this evening where ex-MCI employees down a few beers and chat. And I'm heading off to Phoenix for a Scrabble tournament. And Terry is savoring her avgolomono soup and hoping that she her stomach stops hurting over the weekend. We are so mundane.
It felt a little odd heading out all by myself for a weekend away at a tournament. Something like going to a convention, but somewhat different. I packed one tiny suitcase (just large enough for clothes and my super-duper custom Scrabble board), popped my iPad into my big purse, and drove myself to the Colorado Springs airport. This is one of those times when it was significantly cheaper (although significantly longer) to fly from the Springs instead of from Denver.
Uneventful flight, mostly, but I must say it bugs the hell out of me when flight attendants instruct people to put their larger-than-allowed suitcases SIDEWAYS in the overhead and tell people who have no suitcases to put their carry on items (purse, computer case, etc.) under their seat. Paying extra to check my bag shouldn't reduce my share of the overhead space.
I got rooked on taking a taxi to the hotel in Phoenix. The first taxi I got in to pulled ahead a couple of car lengths and then asked me for directions to my hotel. I told the driver that I didn't know Phoenix and he was supposed to know where things were. He told me he didn't know, had no way to find out, and that I should take a different cab. So I had to walk back to the taxi line, and they had a hard time finding a cab that would take me the 8.1 miles south to the hotel. A pleasant driver from Iraq finally took pity on me and agreed to look it up and drive me there, but apparently he decided to drive entirely around the airport and get on the freeway north and west of where I was going instead of just taking the closest entrance and going south. So 15 miles instead of 8. And Yellow Cabs have a monopoly at the Phoenix airport. They get to charge $5 for the first mile and $3 for each additional mile. I was not happy.
The hotel, however, was friendly and pleasant, if a bit old and frayed around the seams. My room was clean, but retro - looked like something right out of the 80s (including the TV - which I never turned on). I got about six hours sleep before getting up to have breakfast (free) and check in for the tournament.
This was the largest tournament I've played in. It had four divisions, and I was in the lowest with a starting rating of 657. That was third from the bottom of everyone in the whole room. My objectives were to use my clock correctly, not go overtime, to score accurately, and to remember to challenge ALL new side words created if I decided to do a challenge. I didn't expect to have much problem with the tally sheets as the winner fills those in and I didn't expect to be winning.
By Saturday noon I had learned that EVAC is not a word, even though I played it. That OUTAIDS is not a word either, but that I was savvy enough to challenge it off the board. I agonized over playing BLIAUT, but decided not to - which is good because it is not Scrabble-valid either, even though I have made one,
Had a quiet lunch at McDonalds (closest food and I wasn't walking too well) and then back for the second half. At the end of the first day of the tournament I was 4 and 4 - 4 wins 4 losses - with a positive point spread of 56. That put me firmly in the middle of the
Did unbelievably well Sunday morning - which made me think I would tank in the afternoon - but at noon I was 7 wins, 5 losses overall, and number five in my division. I had one incredibly good game, and it was against a top rated player so the win counted high. I drew bingos for my first two plays - WRAITHS and EXACTING. And my opponent challenged WRAITHS! It was good, I -knew- it was good, but I went into the challenge wondering if Tolkien had made up the word...
I posted a Sunday evening play-by-play report on FB. "I honestly can't believe I've played sixteen straight games over two days. It's numbing. I ended today ten wins and six losses. That is amazingly better than I thought possible. I learned that SNORIER is not a word and was delighted to find that SPENCER is still a word, although DELOPE is not - you do end up with something from all those years of reading Georgette Heyer. My new favorite is JUGA, plural of JUGUM, from the Latin for yoke - thus CONJUGAL for those wearing the same yoke, and the JUGULAR vein is where the yoke would go if people were employed to pull ploughs. Four more games tomorrow and then I fly back to Colorado."
Rob and Jaime Vanderbloemen and baby Freyja were waiting for me after my last game. We had dinner at Red Robin in Achatukee, AZ. Rob now has more hair than I've ever seen him with. I really like how he looks, but he says he's growing it as a fundraiser for his school. In the spring he'll let his students make donations towards cutting it off into his usual buzzcut. (Yes, BUZZCUT is a valid Scrabble word.) I was pleased to find that Freyja liked the long strings of fettucini from my plate better than the macaroni bits from her father's. Mem for the win!
plateMonday morning I packed up my suitcase and stored it along the wall in the game room. I knew that I would be paired with the four top players that morning, and, listening to my mental Han Solo, prepared to lose my last four games with quiet sportsmanship. I lost my first game to the second ranked player, but the rest of the morning was not what I expected. 'Breaking news! In a totally unexpected upset Mem beats the third place player for a 421 to 356 victory in the second game of the morning. "I owe my success," says Mem, "To a last minute "X" draw and my knowledge of DEX." This places the visiting Colorado Springs Scrabble Club player at 11 and 7 with two games left to play.'
The third game was against the top player. I had played him before, and he was very good - although this was his first tournament. I opened the game with LOUTIER, just on the chance it might be good. Losing a turn at the beginning of the game really doesn't put you behind in scoring. David spent more time than he should have debating whether or not to challenge, and then decided not to do so. So there I was with a 50+ point lead at the beginning. We were close throughout, and I played NAOS on a triple word score (making four separate words) and again David lost clock time trying to decide whether to challenge, but did not. At the very end, I was a dozen points ahead when David played CITE for 6 points. He had been counting tiles and thought that this would give him the win with the penalty for points left in my hand. But he hadn't counted correctly, and when all was said and done I was one point ahead for the win.
Looking things up afterwards I found that LOUTIEST is not good, but has an anagram OUTLIER that is good. I think I'll remember that from now on. And NAOS? Yes, of course that's good. It's the plural of NAOI, the cella of an ancient temple. And I knew it because both are favorite plays for one of our local Scrabble club players and I had challenged both in the past. Vocabulary does make a difference.
I lost my final game by three points against the pleasant older gentleman with whom I had played my first match on Saturday. He's an experienced tournament player, but has been in the lowest division for a long time. I challenged SQUALINE off the board (the correct form is SQUALENE) but he came back with EQUALISE, which I challenged and lost. It was a tight game and he won it by three points to take third place in our division.
I actually came in 4th for the division, and won $50 for BOS! Now what's a BOS, you ask? I had to ask as well, thinking perhaps that I'd have to give a public display of dancing the Bosonova. However, it means Best Over Seed and is given to the person in each division who improves their ranking most over the course of the tournament. I went from 13th to 4th and my official ranking went from 657 at the beginning of the tournament to 792 at the end. I'm still a neophyte, but overall, it was a super experience, and I had boatloads of fun.
