Enjoying home bridge
What kitchen tables are really made for
Bridge is a social game, but often we stress the game more than the social. Remember your parents and their friends playing at home? Going out for dinner and an evening of cards at someone’s house? Bring a dish to add to the pot luck supper?
Well, rejoice. Home bridge is not dead, and you can still enjoy it anytime you want. Just get on the phone, find 3 available couples and have a great time.
Last night, Danny and Linda Friedman did just that. They invited Bob and Nancy Munson, Heidi and Mike Lippitt and Gail and I over for dinner and bridge. We played three 8 board team matches, rotating teams.
Of course, one of the benefits of playing at home is that you can enjoy your adult beverages.
Heidi says this improves her game. Tastes pretty darned good, too.
The evening started with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres and conversation, then the first match of the evening. Next up was dinner:
Roasted parsley potatoes.
What can be better than sharing a meal with friends? Linda and Nancy put together tri-tips, roasted potatoes, green beans, salad and fresh baked bread. Danny served, I carved, everyone pitched in. Linda’s inner Jewish mother kept the food passing and the conversation moving. This is what dinner is supposed to be.
Then back to the cards for another round, and Nancy brought out a macadamia nut tart. One more match, and the evening was complete.
Of course, there was a prize for the winner–even without masterpoints we remain a competitive bunch. The pair who won all 3 matches, the undefeated stars, the glowing victors, went home with a bag of fancy chocolates. Modesty prevents me from naming this pair.
The victor with her spoils
And that’s how to enjoy a Saturday night without travelling to some tournament in a dim high school gym or Elks lodge or Moose lodge. Gather your friends, cook a meal and get back to the pleasures of being social. Thanks, Danny and Linda.
The Young Victoria
A moving story within a sumptuous film
When you think of Queen Victoria, I’ll bet you think of a prune-faced battle axe in her late 70’s, swathed in black and scowling “We are not amused” at any frivolity, humor or simple human pleasure.
The Young Victoria is the backstory to that image–the incredibly naive, utterly sheltered 18 year old girl who became Queen, and had to find her own way while buffeted from all sides by people who wanted to use her for their own purposes.
Then there was Albert. Born into German aristocracy, and raised essentially for the purpose of wooing and winning the young Queen, he proves to have a mind of his own, and the ethical standards to abjure the weasely backroom dealings, connivings and backstabbing that surround the British Court.
Emily Blunt brings life and vivacity to the girl who would be Queen, growing in maturity and self-possession as she adopts the mantle of power. Rupert Friend is Albert, all tongue-tied and moony over the beautiful princess then growing into full manhood.
Bridge player discount!
Among my many quirks, I’ve always been fond of stationery stores. It just seems like I could use everything they sell–even though I have no use at all for most of it. I can wander for hours trying to come up for a use for binder tabs and alphabetizers and any manner of whatnot.
Now the ACBL is trying to help, if not my addiction, at least the cost of it. There is an agreement with Office Max to give us all a discount on most of the things we buy there. You can see the details and print out the discount card here. Remember, they have school supplies for the kids/grandkids, too.
Pleasanton sectional results
One of the cool things about a blog is that I can write results of local tournaments in a timely fashion–or as timely as a native procrastinator like me can muster.
So last weekend was the Pleasanton sectional. Years ago we played this at the fairgrounds, now we have an elementary school. It’s always fun to watch the smokers have to run all the way out to the street to cop a smoke. Maybe someday the aptly named Ash el Sadi will be the healthiest guy around from all the exercise running outside every round. Maybe not.
I only got to play one session on Saturday because we were going to the ballet that night. There were only 13 tables, so we could only play 12 rounds (there’s a movement that would let us play 13 rounds, but it’s more work for the directors, so you know that didn’t happen).
The two session game was 3 sections of 11 tables–and the entire event was down 11 tables from last year just in this first session. Not because of the food, though. Livermore/Pleasanton is the smallest unit in the district, I think, but they manage to put out a very decent spread of goodies.
On to the results–which I’m just stealing summarizing from the ACBL results webpage:
99er Pairs
Faith Greenberg and Arlee Maier 1st in E
Carol and Mark Penskar 1st in F
Evening Side Pairs
Gregory Reichert and Rainer Rungaldier 1st in A and B
Patricia Perry and Shirley Rodenborn, 2nd in A and B
Bracketed Swiss Teams–an event I hope never to play in again. I hate bracketed teams–you play the same darned 7 teams over and over. The newer players get no chance to play better teams and learn. Masterpoints are given out essentially randomly. At least it’s easy on the directing staff……….
Bracket I
Grant and Terry were on the 4th place team
Bracket IV
Brian Eisenberg, Jean Heninger, Bee Sturmer and Sharon Tarpinian were 1st.
Bracket VI
Mary Quinn, Theresa Patterson, Joel White and Susan White were 3rd
Next up is the Chris’ Birthday Regional in Burlingame in 10 days or so. See you there.
Political grandstanding useless, as usual
It should come as no surprise to anyone, but politicians are more interested in pompous oration than they are in actual leadership.
For years now, we have been bombarded with claims that cell phone use was dangerous while driving–which manages to ignore the obvious question, Why is talking on the phone more distracting than talking to the person next to you? When I’m on the phone, I never need to turn my head to look at the person I’m talking to.
Notwithstanding common sense, state after state has passed a law against talking and driving, or requiring a hands free attachment. Has this increased safety? Have traffic accident numbers plunged? Not so you would notice.
The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), examined insurance claims for crash damage in New York, Connecticut, California and Washington, D.C., before and after handheld bans took effect and found no reduction in crashes.
Is there any chance that the bright light of reality will have any effect on the laws? Nope. Will common sense ever prevail? Not while there are votes to be garnered from fear mongering. You get elected by exploiting fears and promising salvation from dangers, real or imagined.
I’d like to see a politician try to get elected by saying we have too many petty laws with no purpose–he’d get my vote, if no one else’s.
Insanity continues
Sitting in the airport lounge waiting for our flight. Through security again–this time there was nothing suspicious about Gail’s sweatshirt. Why different rules in different cities? Either the usual bureaucratic incompetence or a calculated plan to keep the sheeple off balance and submissive. Take your pick.
Here in the lounge, the waitress insisted on carding both of us. Assinine bureaucracy isn’t just for government, I suppose.
Remember this
College was a long time ago, bit things haven’t changed all that much, I see.
This is the living room in Toby’s house. It looks just like mine did. His room is quite a bit neater–but he knew his mom was coming to visit.
Next year he wants to live with a group of girls, he thinks it will be better. Neater, at least.
Lunch at Ivar’s
There must be a thousand good restaurants up here, but I don’t know my way around. So we keep taking Toby to the same place for a meal–Ivar’s Salmon House.
Ivar’s is a local chain with a good reputation and a policy of serving only wild, sustainably caught fish.
I started with the smoked salmon chowder–a soup waaaay too rich for Linda B to enjoy but I thought it was great. This is the only place I’ve seen a salmon chowder, which kind of amazes me considering how good it is.
People who know me know that I don’t like mushrooms. I’m trying to grow up and expand my horizons, though. Lately I’ve come to at least tolerate chantarelles, those fabulous golden bits of wonder that grow wild in the hills. So I was willing to order the grilled king salmon over pasta with chantarelles.
You can imagine my disappointment and chagrin when the waiter plopped down my plate and said “we’re out of chantarelles. These are black trumpet mushrooms. The chef says they’re delicious.”
Well, maybe not quite. I ate them, they weren’t horrible like most fungi, but they sure weren’t what I had in mind. See how grown up I can be?
Still and all, we like Ivar’s and I guess we’ll go back they next time we come up to see the kid. But I’m checking on the mushrooms first.
Off to Seattle
We’re off on an adventure. Gail and I are going to Seattle to visit the kid at college (UW), take him and his girlfriend to lunch and come right home.
Thanks to southwest air and cheap fares, we can make a day trip out of it.
Not much traffic this morning, and no lines at all at security. Just minor hassles–my suspenders will set off the alarms, so they have to come off. Gail is apparently wearing a suspicious sweatshirt so she has to go through a pat down. I feel safer already.
It’s time to board. More later.
O wad some Power the giftie gie us
Okay, in more modern English:
And would some Power the small gift give us
To see ourselves as others see us
It would from many a blunder free us
And foolish notion!
That’s from To a Louse by Robert Burns,the great Scots poet.
He’s tonight’s subject because it’s his birthday–January 25, 1759, so he would be 251 years old, if he hadn’t died at 37.
To celebrate the big day, Gail and I went out with Mike and Linda, and Pam Katz, to Nibblers for their annual Burns night dinner.
We like Nibblers because they change their menu frequently, darned near frenetically, and look for any excuse to have a special event night, just like we do. Since the owner’s father is seriously Scots and even owns his own kilt, Burns night is a BIG DEAL to them.
To me, it’s just an excuse to get Bandler to eat haggis. Classically, this is strange meat mixed with oatmeal and cooked in sheep’s bladder. In Pleasant Hill, it’s venison, whole oats, whisky (note that there is no “e” in whisky), leeks and spices, wrapped in cheesecloth. Looks better, tastes better. Still makes Mike nervous.
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The big thing on top is the haggis. The yellow and white stuff is turnips and potatoes, or "neaps and taties"
The rest of the food wasn’t particularly different, but the names are cute–we had inky pinky (roast beef in gravy with carrots), clapshot (turnip gratin), rumbledthumps (potatoes mashed with cabbage), skirlie ( oats cooked into a creamy polenta with caramelized onions) and a scotch egg (a hard cooked egg coated in pork sausage).
Tonight we proved that the bagpipe is not an indoor instrument–or at least that it requires a much larger room than this restaurant. Wow, is it loud. There were Scottish dancers, too, and poetry reading in the original Scots.
We had a pretty darned good time. It was nice to see Pam Katz, who is getting along well and enjoying her 2 1/2 year old grandson, Aaron. And I can say I made Mike Bandler eat haggis.
Totally Unauthorized 