Totally Unauthorized

Mike and I have played in tournaments all over the country.  Often we go for a week while Gail and Linda only want to play a couple of days, so we are there when they fly in.

One of my favorite sights in the entire world is Gail and/or Linda wandering into a playing site dragging a suitcase looking for us.  I got to see it again tonight.

There she is. I've been waiting.

We were playing the semi-finals of the compact KO’s, our fallback position when we don’t qualify for the second day of the national event. Because today is the first day of the Vanderbilt teams, there were none of the top pro teams in our event, and we were in the middle of the top bracket. Our first two matches were not very difficult, but the evening would be considerably more challenging.

Sixty-eight teams entered the Vandy, and 54 of them got byes today–they have to pay their table fees, and cannot enter any other 2-session event except a special swiss teams just for them, if they wish.  The remaining 14 teams are playing off for the 10 remaining spots.  The formula for this is incredibly complicated, and they have a list of every possible number of teams to cover all eventualities.

In the evening session, we lost the first match, then played off for third or fourth.  The difference is small–third wins about 10.8 masterpoints, fourth wins 8.3.  Still, winning is better than losing, and we were glad to go home “victors’ with our 3rd place finish.  The cards were running my way; Tom and I bid 4 slams today and should have bid another.  I know that you have to be able to play the hands with no points too, but it just isn’t as much fun.

Dinner was at Blu, which turns out to the restaurant in the Marriott Hotel at 2nd and Jefferson.  Louisville has a skyway system, and we were able to walk from the tournament site to the restaurant 4  blocks away without setting foot outside.  Since it’s 39º and raining out, that was a blessing.

Dinner was good, and very nicely presented.

The amuse bouche, a goat cheese mousse on a dried apricot

My caprese salad. The fresh mozzarella was excellent.

Linda's sea bass

Pasta carbonara with salmon

Blu is a very open restaurant on the lobby floor of the Marriott, yet is still proper and elegant.  White tablecloths, heavy silver, nice crystal and attentive service make it a pleasant experience, and the food is the equal of the decor.

Our amuse bouche was a tiny dried apricot with a dab of goat cheese mousse. The sweetness of the fruit and the dry tang of the mousse were perfect together.

The dinner special was a lobster ravioli, which Tom had in a cream sauce and Micky had with a red sauce.  Gotta save your calories, I guess.

Linda enjoyed the sea bass, which was so rich she couldn’t finish it.  I wanted the pasta carbonara, but had them add an order of the grilled salmon so I would have something healthy.  This turned out to be a good idea, and I finished the salmon and left half the pasta. Carbonara is a cream sauce with egg and pancetta, and can be deathly rich, which is what makes it good but it’s a heart attack on a plate.

After all that food, dessert was out of the question, so we called for the check.  The service had been great up to that point, but it was a challenge to get our check delivered to the table, right when I was getting antsy and wanted to get back to the host hotel.  It took so long, in fact, that I didn’t want to have to rush and took a cab, which is silly for a 4 block adventure unless you are just out of time.

We made it back, played our game and won our points for the day.  Gail arrived.  She had room service for dinner, which was not bad, and now I’m looking forward to the Mixed pairs tomorrow.  Life is good.