All New

Last Friday I went to see Art in Bloom with friends. Michelle offered to drive and when we got to lunch, not wanting to possibly scratch her beautiful car, I barley opened the front door to slither out between the next car. As I did my glasses slid off my old chain around my neck and fell on the ground. I only realized this had happened when I stepped on them and broke them.

I think the average life of a pair of glasses is a year with me and my chains last about six months longer. I hate when I have to replace them because it never fails that the pair I had and loved has been discontinued.

This was the case with my Eyebob half rims. They have the frame, but not in tortoise and I am not interested in turquoise. So I went to Amazon and found both new chains and new glasses. I ordered two of each.

The chains came first and in a big improvement came with a second set of the rubber connectors for the arms of the glasses. They even made the way they are attached to the chains a lobster clip so I don’t have to get needle nose pliers to repair them.

The glasses came today and were only $14 as opposed to $95 for Eyebobs. They are a good substitute, especially for the money.

I am thankful that the internet existed before I started needed glasses. If I had to go to a store every time I broke a pair of glasses I would double the number of stores I visit in a year.

I am going to try and keep a better eye on the chains and make sure they are not getting too lose. It will be easier now that I have replacement parts.

That’s the thing about getting older. You don’t always need a whole new thing, sometimes you just need a new part.

A Nicely Worded Letter

Yesterday my friends at the Food Bank gave me a nice bouquet to thank me for creating and running a Fundraiser for them in the Mah Jongg Tournament. When Harry brought the flowers out to me as I was picking the car I thanked him and said, “Don’t do that again.”

It was such a nice gesture, but unneeded by me. I am perfectly happy with a nicely worded letter. (Which he also gave me in a card.)

I know that some people love a thank you gift. I am not someone that needs one. If we make a donation somewhere, I don’t need recognition. When NPR asks if I want the premium I always say no, but I also have never been called to say we won the trip to Paris.

When I have worked on campaigns, even as a chair, I do not want a gift acknowledging that I was part of the campaign. It often irks me when I go in the home of someone who “volunteered” to be part of campaign, but never actually did anything, and see the Simon Pierce commemorative bowl proudly displayed in their house giving the impression they had something to do with the campaign.

As I used to tell Carter when she would ask me what I wanted for Christmas, “Just write me a nicely worded letter.” I don’t want stuff, but I would always want to know how you feel.

Don’t thank me with a thing I have to think you for. Just tell me “Thanks.” I will enjoy these flowers, but they were not necessary.

Tournament Day!

Today was the big day—The first Mah Jongg Tournament to benefit the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC.

In spite of the last minute people who were unable to make it, we had a very successful day. Thanks to all the players who came out for a fun day of play and lunch.

We played three rounds, players changing tables at each round so they got to play with different people at each round. In the end Debbie Murray was the big winner, followed by Vicki Witte and Laura Raynor. I was so proud at how well everyone played.

None of this tournament would have been possible without my friends Christy and Deanna who came today to help me. Deanna also helped me borrow the card tables we needed for the set up.

The Food Bank Staff, especially Kristin, Kendra and Harry who did and outstanding helping me with all the details, like setting up and organizing lunch. Speaking of lunch we had a yummy meal from Sassool.

Before lunch I gave the players a tour of the food bank on the way to lunch where Ashley the new CEO of the Food Bank gave a little talk and got to meet the players. It was a good chance to explain why the Food Bank is important to me and the community.

Since this tournament was such a success we will certainly have another one next year. We will hopefully make it bigger and better.

No Rest for the Wicked or the Weary or Both

I think I qualify for this, more weary than wicked. Usually weekends are my recovery days. This weekend was the opposite. I had that big plumbing morning yesterday. Our friends arrived in the afternoon and we had so much fun with them staying up much later than I should have.

When we all went to bed Russ was out as he was only half way into full repose. I, on the other hand, stayed up and wrote my blog, played a game of Catan online and could not turn off and go to sleep until well past one. My extrovertedness was on full speed ahead having our friends here.

I woke up at my normal early time, despite needing at least another two or three hours sleep. Russ made our family special slow eggs for all of us for breakfast. While he stirred away on those he and Doug talked business in the kitchen and Penny and I enjoyed the warmth of the sunroom, lulling us into believing it was a perfect spring day. (It looked good, but felt crazy cold.)

After breakfast Doug and Penny had to go and it was sad to see them leave. The greatest thing about having fun guests is you totally forget all the stuff you should be doing. Suddenly it hit me I had a lot of work to prepare for my Food Bank Mah Jongg Tournament tomorrow. Then I was off to Raleigh to teach Mah Jongg to a new group of young women.

As my Apple Maps was guiding me to the house I realized I was going to a house three doors away from a house I taught at this fall. I asked the hostess if she knew her neighbor. She didn’t, but when I told her she was also new Mah Jongg player she vowed to go meet her. I sometimes wonder how long it will take me to blanket the city of Oaks with Mah Jongg as I so often am teaching at multiple houses on the same street.

I got home just in time to meet my cousin Leigh for an overdue visit. After she left I hit the wall. Finally too many people caught up with me. I am crashing by 8:30 tonight.

When Old Friends you Love Come to Visit

At the beginning of the week I had my favorite plumbers at the house to fix a running toilet and a leaky kitchen faucet. My plumbers resemble the Smother’s brothers in both looks and attitudes. The shorter one, John said to me, “We are not taking on any new customers because we don’t plan on working long enough to train them.”

“I hope you consider me a well trained customer,” I replied.

“Yes, you know exactly what to call us for and what not to call us for.”

This morning I woke up early to clean the kitchen in preparation of our good friends the Soder’s to come and spend the night on the first leg of their North Carolina vacation. Russ was still in Boston and wouldn’t be home until lunch time so I had a long list of chores I had no one else to pawn off on.

As I was standing at the kitchen sink pulling out the hose that the faucet was attached to I heard a pop. Water started spraying all over the kitchen. I shut off the faucet, but not before water came pouring out from the cabinet beneath the sink. So much for washing the kitchen floor first thing.

Although I had been carefully trained not to call my plumbers on Saturday morning I felt that this was an exception. John answered my call and I apologized but explained the situation. He came right over and looked at the hose. The prognosis was not good was the gist after a long tirade about how this country is going to hell with the loss of quality.

The new hose was defective and there was no way to obtain another one until next week. “My dear college friend and his wife, who used to work with me are coming to spend the night. I need water in the kitchen.”

John went home and found the old hose he had taken off my sink on Monday. He Mcguyvered a part from the old hose which he was able to use to fix me up. He thinks he has me trained, but I have him trained.

At lunch Russ arrived home and the house was clean. By four Doug and Penny were here and dinner was prepped and we had the best time catching up, telling stories and reminiscing.

After dinner Russ did the dishes and the kitchen faucet held up fine. Thank goodness my best plumber knows that when I tell him some really good friends are coming to spend the night that is important to me and he helps me out. Of course he felt bad that the part was defective, but I don’t hold that against him. I’m just glad he answers my call at eight on a Saturday morning.

See when old friends come to visit you want to have water. When friends you adore come to visit you want water. So when old friends you love come to visit you must have water. Thanks John.

Art in Bloom

I love going to Art in Bloom, the flower show at the NC Museum of Art that has flower designs inspired by different works of art for a week every spring. I have attended a few times and the anticipation is always great.

This year I went with my friends Michelle, Kathi and Christy. We made a day of it going to lunch at Bella Monica first. (Thanks to Holly for the recommendation.) As we are all Art and/or flower lovers it was a fun group to go with. I was surprised everyone had not been to see Art in Bloom before so it was a check in the bucket list.

Art in bloom assigns different works of art to be inspirations for each flower designer. Some art is harder than others. This year I felt like there were fewer spectacular arrangements, but perhaps it could have been thanks to the works of art they were given.

There was also the theme of “film and movies” for some big works and they were more consistently hits to me. One large piece we all loved was an imagining of a film projector and a TV screen together. You can see from our picture that we were reflected back in TV screen mirror.

One of the most colorful and large installations came from of all places Trader Joe’s. One of the designers was there and I had a chance to talk with him about his piece that was on the theme of music on film.

Another favorite of mine was a piece that was all white on one side and an explosion of color on the other. I like bold colors and greens. I was not as enamored in the black, brown and caramel colored flowers used in many pieces. Brown roses do nothing for me so I didn’t take any photos of them.

We did have fun making our own art by standing in front of a camera that reflected us as a mosaic imagine. When you were looking at it in real time it was harder to see yourself, but taking a photo of it stopped the action and you could really see each person well.

Overall I feel like a few pieces were too literal this year as some used too many non-flower elements to represent symbols in the art. I know that making these works is a great art unto itself and perhaps I am too critical as I expect to be wowed every year. Nonetheless it was such a fun day to spend with friends.

Why I do What I Shouldn’t

Why do I alway stop and read any article about having the best smelling laundry or how to keep my house dust free when I am the most busy? In the last 36 hours I taught five 3-hour Mah Jongg classes, drove to and from Raleigh twice, three of the four legs were in rush hours, answered 67 emails and 102 texts and still have a pile of work to do to get ready for visiting guests this weekend and a Mah Jongg class on Sunday and Mah Jongg tournament I am running on Monday.

Given how tired I am and all I have to do why in the world would I ever click on Instagram? That was my first mistake. When I did click I was immediately drawn into a Real Simple story about what Martha Stewart says about leaving wet laundry in the machine over night.

Apparently I do this so I have something to write my blog about. All kidding aside, I recently learned that humans do these mindless things as a way of giving our minds a break from the real work we have to do.

It is much easier to read than it is to write. So reading someone else’s article is easier than writing my blog. But I still don’t know why I need to know about laundry right at that moment. I rarely leave laundry in the washer so it’s not like this is a pressing concern for me.

There is something inherently human about the need to not do something we know we should do. I am fairly good at making lists and doing things in order. Except for gathering and organizing our tax information. I know for months I need to do it. There is no reason not to, but somehow it is way down my priority list. (I promise I’ll start tomorrow.)

I wonder what are the things you put off? Also what are your procrastination tools? I can’t be the only one who decides to look at Pinterest for 20 minutes when I know I should go to the post office and mail that package to my sister which has been sitting here for a week. By the time I finish with Pinterest and remember the package the post office is closed.

The only good news about my scrolling is my laundry is fairly good smelling, but I still have not actually figured out how to keep my house dust free.

No Time to Write

I left home this morning at 7:45 AM and got home at 9:45 PM. Teaching three Mah Jongg classes in a day leaves me little time to think about writing anything interesting, let alone doing anything novel. So I am posting photos of my evening class who finished their lessons tonight. We had lots of happy Mah Jonggs.

I want to thank the Cute Emily Warren who organized this group of wonderful friends to come learn. I think they have a lifetime of playing ahead of them.

I must sleep now because I have to leave again at 7:45 to go back and teach tomorrow.

The Most Difficult Question

Russ and I have been married 11,281 days, give of take a leap day or two. In that time the most often asked question has been, “What do you want for dinner?” This question is usually met with a puzzling look, like the idea of what you want to eat has never been asked of you before. What the hell, I asked you this the last fifteen days in a row and I will ask you the next fifteen. It should never come as a surprise that we are going to have dinner.

In all fairness, Russ keeps and fairly extensive list of dishes he would like to eat or that he would like me to cook. I know when I ask him this question he is tempering his answer with the thought that he wants to give me option of something that I also might want, or more to the point, should eat.

If I were someone who could eat anything and become a size six, Russ would just say “Pizza,”but he nicely does not mention that word knowing full well that Pizza is a special occasion food for me.

I am happy to cook anything Russ comes up with, but I am tired of coming up with the idea and cooking it. So all I ask is give me a hint what you feel like eating. I don’t even mind making you one thing and me something else, as long as I can make enough of yours that you eat it multiple meals. (Sadly Pizza is the multiple meal best choice as it is good for breakfast lunch and dinner.)

I guess that Russ and I could have another 11,281 days left in us. What I fear is that “what do you want for dinner?” Is going to be the most difficult question for the rest of our lives.

I am considering writing down every possible dinner idea on little slips of paper and just putting them in a jar. Russ would be able to add his own ideas. At the beginning of the week I will pull out three of them and just cook whatever it says. We basically eat Chicken, Salmon or some veggie thing every day so I would be certain to have the ingredients on hand. Russ likes most everything I cook so this could end the questioning all together.

What do you want for dinner will be changed into…This is what I cooked. I think it could be a game changer.

New Stuff Once in a While

I am usually anti-accumulation. I try hard to not let stuff rule my world. I know I already have too much stuff and caring for it takes up too much time.

Sadly there are categories of stuff I have a hard time withstanding. One example is needlepoint projects. I try and keep the amount of stash down by relegating it all to one large scout bag. It is amazing how much I can pack in that bag. Thank goodness it is opened topped.

In my quest to not add more to our house I try and discourage non-consumable gifts. Do you want to give me 12 rolls of Viva paper towels? I will be devoted to you. If you show up with a seasonal pillow I will be hard pressed to find a place for it. I already have more pillows than chairs.

So when my sister sent me seven metal birds I was unsure where they were going to go. Turns out that flock of birds looks fabulous on my breakfast room table. The spring sunshine bathes them in a happy light.

Thanks Margret for your good eye and generous heart. Sometimes new stuff finds a home in my house. This means I am going to have to find something else that will have to go. Maybe a pillow.

A Slap In the Face

Until today we have had no winter to speak of, so I really should complain but… when I woke up this morning it was snowing. It wasn’t much snow, but to have the one-two punch of spring forward and snow on the same day seemed like a slap in the face.

We had a beautiful Spring all through January and February and right on time March brought us our coldest weather and a dusting of sleet and snow. I had to turn our heat back on yesterday when I have hardly used it in 2023.

Thankfully I did not succumb to the warm weather and put my vegetables in early. People had been asking me if I had done it and I said that we could still get frost until April 15 so no warm weather plants will go in before that. Secretly I was hoping to be proven wrong and just to continue the beautiful weather we had until now.

Of course this smattering of snow that collected on my windshield before church was gone by the time the benediction came. But it is still cold and rainy and dark all day. Fitting for the worse day of the year when we are robbed of an hour. Please let the government pass the law to not let us change our clocks. We are not the Almighty. We can’t give time or take it away. We are just moving it around.

I do find it fitting that on the day we think we control time, God says,”Ha,” and gives us snow. I know who really is in charge here and it ain’t us.

Oscars Without Opinion

For most of my adult life I have loved going to the movies. By the time the Oscars would come around I had seen all the nominated movies and plenty of others I thought should have been nominated. I would watch the awards and scream at the TV when movies I loved did not win and screamed when movies I did love won.

Then came the pandemic. Like all the world, I could not go to the movies. Then after a year, movie theaters reopened. I did not go. Now two years on I have still not been to a movie theater. Not that there are not movies I want to see, but the idea of sitting in a room with a bunch of other people to watch something that I could watch on my giant TV at home seems unappealing.

This year I had not watched one movie that is nominated. I realized this the other day so I watched The Banshees of Inisherin. I enjoyed it, but was not blown away. Today I had lots of house work so I decided to watch a couple more nominees. I picked ones that are free on one of the many streaming services we pay for.

The first one I watched was Elvis. It was very good, fun, but also not blown away. Tonight I am watching Women Talking. I find it to be my favorite of the three I have watched. But it is a small and intimate picture that probably shows well on a TV watched alone.

I am not sure if I am going to bother watching the Academy awards. I am sure the highlights will be enough. Then I can watch the winning movies.

If you had asked me forty years ago if I would ever stop going to the movies and loving movies and the Academy Awards I would say, “Not on your life.” This is probably one of the biggest manifestations from the Pandemic for me. It is not the worst thing.

Non-Mah Jongg Day

My friend Suzanne complained that I was teaching too much Mah Jongg and so my blog was Mah Jongg heavy. So today’s non-Mah jongg blog is dedicated to Suzanne who is probably not going to think needlepoint is any more interesting.

This was a day off for me and I did only fun things. First I went to lunch with my friend Lynn who I definitely have not seen enough of. Between my work and her Pickle ball we are on opposite trains on opposite tracks going in opposite directions. It was great to be with her in a Durham restaurant where I also ran into three other people I knew.

After lunch I was off to Chapel Hill Needlepoint for my monthly time at the stitchers table. I have a giant needlepoint project I have been thinking about doing for a while. I started planning it in earnest last month and purchased the 110 inches of canvas I need. Today I picked out my fibers and as soon as tomorrow I am going to draw my first canvas. I have the paints I need to paint it, but I might skip that step.

The project is to make seats for my four game table chairs. When I went to the upholster so he could measure the chair and make me a template I was astounded by the size. I have to stitch basically a 25 inch by 27 inch canvas.

One of my stitching table friends Lisa asked me if I was actually going to finish this project. Before I could answer Vicki declared that I would. At this point I will have to finish them because I will have such a huge investment in materials it would be a sin not to finish them.

I can’t start tonight because I still need to finish my ornament for one of my Christmas exchanges. I made the mistake of designing my own very complicated big ornament for my two exchanges. I have finished one, and have only done one sixth of the other.

This means my blog is not going to get any more interesting because when I am not teaching I am going to be stitching. Sorry Suzanne.

Best Wedding Advice

I called my college BFF Suzanne today because her beautiful daughter Grace just got engaged to Paul and I wanted to discuss the whole thing with her. Suzanne and I were each other’s Maids of Honor so we have a deep wedding history together.

I am yet to have a chance to talk with Grace directly, so I thought I would share my best wedding advice with her here. As a brides maid 17 times, a wedding caterer hundreds of times and a wedding director at church many times I have seen the best and the worst of weddings.

Two things I witnessed at weddings make up the basis of my advice. The first came from a wedding of my childhood baby sitter. The name we all called her was Kimmy, but we came to find out at the wedding her real name is Lisa. Her Fiancé Alex was also a good friend of our family as he had helped us paint our house more than one summer and he hung out with my Dad plenty.

Alex and Kimmy got married at the Congregational church in our town. The minister, Dr. Bender, had a very strong German accent. When he got to the vows, he said to Alex, “Repeat after me, ‘I take thee Lissel.’” And Alex, imitating Dr. Bender’s German accent perfectly said, “I take thee Lissel.”

The congregation broke out in laughter. Dr. Bender asked Alex to use his own accent.

The second story comes from a wedding I catered early in my catering career in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I was staying at college over the summer since I was renovating my college house. I was hired by the parents of the bride in town who were willing to take a chance on a college student caterer. I am certain it was all about price.

The wedding was taking place in a church in town and the reception was in the fellowship hall. I had some friends helping me serve. It was a cake and punch kind of reception, with just some finger food and no alcohol. I wanted to get the timing right to put the ginger ale in the punch bowl just before the guests arrived since that was the big drink.

I went to go stand in the narthex to peek through the doors to the sanctuary to see how far along the ceremony was. Before I got to the door I heard a terrible sound of a man singing a cappella. I opened one of the doors just a bit and I saw the groom standing at the alter, singing the Lionel Richie part of the song, “Endless love.” When I thought it couldn’t get any worse the bride jumped in and she was no Diana Ross. It was without a doubt the most embarrassing thing I have witnessed and I only saw a bit of it because I had to run out on the sidewalk so no one could here me screaming in laughter.

My advice to all brides and grooms, use your own speaking voice and don’t use any singing voice. I am not worried that Grace and Paul might do either of these things, but you never know.

The Best Job Because of the People

I can’t think of a job I have ever had where I had so many happy people to deal with. Day in and day out I only have fun at work. Everyone I teach is glad to be there. They all have fun and so do I.

I wish every job was like this. I know that will never be the case. Someone I know well, when asked how work was usually says, “fine, except for the people.”

I am just the opposite. Mine is great because of the people. Thank you to all the people who make my job the best job I have ever had. I really do adore you all.

Working Out by Working

My workout for today is shoveling garden soil. I really like to be productive at the same time I am working out, like farmers everywhere do. Why just work out to work out, when you could build something, clean something, grow something and get the same amount of exercise.

I had five yards of special growing mix delivered this morning. I have made a small dent in it shoveling it into the wheelbarrow and moving it to my vegetable garden to fill my raised beds which have lost some dirt over time.

Shoveling is a good exercise. In involves squatting, lifting, turning and core work at the same time I am doing something good for my garden which will in turn do something good for me by being a place I can growth vegetables.

I know I won’t shovel that whole pile today and tomorrow, but I want to get the bulk of it done before any giant rains come. Shoveling dry dirt is so much easier than wet dirt, even though that gives a better work out. It just takes longer.

So here’s to working out by working.

Newest Mah Jongg Graduates

Sometime around Christmas I got a text from a woman in Charlotte who wanted to give her daughter Mah Jongg Lessons as a present. Little did I know she wanted to give her lessons for a whole class worth of her friends.

I got a text from her daughter after Christmas about scheduling the class. Turns out she was the daughter-in-law of another family I was teaching at that very moment. Mah Jongg is a very family friendly activity.

Tonight was the final class for this wonderful group of Raleigh friends who were lucky enough to receive the gift of the class.

Learning to play a fun game with your friends is just the start to a lifetime of enjoyable moments together. I hope I can teach these friends again.

Wishing you all a lifetime of jokers.

Back to Real Life

Some days I have to do regular-life boring stuff. After seven days in the Bahamas I have a backlog of chores that will take me more time than I will ever have.

I started the day going to church with Russ. Thanks to so many commitments I had missed church for a couple weeks. Lent is not the time to not go to church. I was happy to be back today. It was obvious I had been gone by the greetings I got from friends walking past me after communion on their way back to their seats.

After church I did some grocery shopping. I was uninspired and only bought enough to make a cabbage and rice soup for dinner that was a Melissa Clark recipe in the New York Times this morning. After eating out for every meal for eight days I was happy to eat a simple soup.

I spent the sunny afternoon hours pulling weeds in my vegetable garden. I was cleaning up the raised beds getting ready for planting time. Tomorrow I need to order more soil for my beds as they have settled.

After gardening I changed the sheets with Russ’ help. Shay refused to get off the bed as we were trying to strip the bed, so we eventually had her wrapped in all the bedding and had to lift her off wrapped up so we could remake the bed.

Shay got over being put off the bed by riding in the car with Russ as we dropped my car off to be serviced tomorrow. Oh so many exciting things happened today and somehow I still haven’t unpacked or done the laundry. Tomorrow will be just as exciting I am certain since laundry must be done, and floors need to be vacuumed and, and, and…

Shay Reunion

Russ and I have no let down from leaving a wonderful place because we got to come home to our baby Shay. Nothing is better than having her run to us and literally jump into our arms.

Shay gets to spend time with her friend Mary when we are away. Shay loves going to Mary’s. She runs to say hi to Mary when we drop her off. When we pick her up she is exhausted.

Mary does take her dogs on long walks. I don’t know if that wears Shay out. Perhaps being around other dogs for nine days exhausts her, whichever she is happy to come home and snuggle.

There is nothing better than being in your own bed with your own puppy.

Last Day and Night

Lyford Cay Club has been good to us. We had our final day of class and I adored all my students. At our farewell lunch I sat next to Vivi Brown who had been in class all five days. Somehow at lunch we got on the topic of high school and she asked me where I went and I told her and she laughed and I said, “I went to Walkers too.”

Vivi Carrera-Justiz was in the class five years below me, but we had so many of the same teachers. We shared many Mary Nel stories. What a small world. I knew there was a reason I liked her right off the bat, as she is a Walker’s girl.

After all the farewell’s Russ and I had a great walk on the beach and went swimming in the crystal blue ocean.

It was off to the Holdings for one last boat cocktail party and the fun Nebraska girls came too. We could get used to this, but sadly we have to leave tomorrow.

One last dinner at the yacht club. As we waited for the transport back to the club, I said goodbye to many of the Mah Jongg group leaving dinner. Another couple rode in our transport with us. The driver told them all about how Mah Jongg had taken over this week, (he knew I was the teacher and was waiting for me to speak up.) Turns out the man of the other couple was the bridge teacher. I finally spoke up and he quizzed me about Mah Jongg. No rivalry there.

We got back to our room and I discovered a big bag of gifts from the club. All I can say is I will be happy to come back.

Learning Strategy Should Be Fun

Today was the start of a two day strategy class for Mah Jongg. It was a giant class. We had people from the beginners class decide to come join this one so we had five people to a table at eight tables. Since we weren’t playing, just doing exercises it worked out fine.

Most students were relatively new players so as I would introduce different concepts to them you could hear the light bulbs going off in their heads. The Nebraskans would laugh, “So you were actually a fly on the wall watching us play,” they said when I described mistakes people make.

Teaching people the tricks to be better players is so fun. But teaching people how to think is the most fun.

The manager came into to class at the end today and told me they want to book me for the same time next year. The students were already trying to sign up. The Houston girls told me they are in. I love having repeat students because then they turn into friends.

I guess I know where I’ll be in March 2024. Such a hardship, but someone’s got to do it.

Beginners No More

Today ended our first three-day Beginners classes at Lyford Cay. Both the morning and afternoon classes passed with flying colors. It was so fun to have class members from the Uk, Detroit, Houston, Charlottesville, New York as well as so many North Carolinians and Bahamians, even if just by adoption.

The addiction has already taken place in many of them and all but a couple are coming to the next two-day strategy session along with twenty more people. It is going to be a very full house.

Tonight my friend Ruth E; who set this gig up, had a lovely cocktail party at her beautiful house for all the students and their spouses. I had a chance to meet the incoming crowd from many varied places as far away as Nebraska. It should be very exciting, at least for me and hopefully for them.

I am going to have to tell some different stories and jokes tomorrow since the beginners have already heard my spiel. No matter what, it will be fun because it is a game after all. Now I need to rest up.