Memphis, Monday night
This was on the ACBL webpage!!! I'm famous!! Sort of.
There aren’t many photos of me on this blog, mostly because I’m the guy who takes the pictures. But somebody else took this shot, while I was dancing with Wendy Sullivan at the ACBL’s 75th Anniversary Party Friday night, and now it is in rotation on the front page of the ABCL Website. Maybe I should make it my new Facebook id photo, too.
Mike and I played Daylight Pairs today. That’s the event that used to be the Senior Pairs, until they realized that everyone is a senior and the idea was silly. So now they just have a game at 10 and 3 for anybody who wants to enter. Mike is getting up early tomorrow for his flight home, and Gail was getting in to Memphis at 5:00, so it was perfect for us–we could all go out to dinner after the game and enjoy a slow evening.
The game wasn’t exactly memorable, although not awful. We had a 58% in the first session and a 54% in the second, not enough to make the overalls but we still won a few points and have little to be embarrassed about. The field is not strong; I was pretty surprised to see virtually no one I knew, and not a single pro player. There were only 37 tables in the event.
I did meet one interesting person.
Diane "Perky Pants" Callahan
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This is Diane, the happiest, cheeriest, perkiest person I ever met. I told her she must have eaten a bowl of Perky Flakes™ for breakfast. She’s from Germantown, PA, and can’t play in Gatlinburg because it conflicts with the Masters golf tournament, which I guess means she has to stay home and watch all week.
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And that’s the story of the bridge game. Back to the hotel, say Hi to Gail and head out to dinner at McEwen’s on Monroe (that’s all part of the name). We walked in, and Gail looked across the room and saw her old friend, Velma.
Gail and Velma Rice Graham
Those two met at the partnership desk during a tournament in Monterey 14 years ago, and are still friends, although Velma has moved to Atlanta. The beauty of NABC’s ………………..
And then, while we were sitting at the table, who do we see walk by but Srikanth!! Mike and I had dinner with him last night, but he hadn’t seen Gail, so he came into the restaurant to say hello:
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More old friends.
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He stopped and chatted for a minute, and promised to come to dinner with his wife and 20 month old daughter.
Finally, with all this socializing out of the way, we ate. Dinner was very good–I had a pasta dish with blackened tilapia, Gail had the salmon, Mike had the sea bass. Instead of bread they had tiny biscuits–which we made them refill twice. A very satisfying meal all around.
Since we were close, and didn’t have to rush back to play cards, we walked down to Beale street to see the sights. Beale is the Memphis version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, anchored by BB King’s eponymous restaurant/nightclub/music scene/gift shop.
Things are sort of quiet on Monday night.
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Gail sure seems to hug a lot of people.
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There is only slightly less neon here than Vegas.
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That was about all the excitement we could handle for one day, so it was into a cab and back to the hotel. Tomorrow, the nationally rated Mixed Pairs.
Totally Unauthorized 