Well, we went down in a blaze of glory...

We did manage to advance to the round of 16, defeating the New Jerseyites but losing in a very close match to the Minnesotans. We were actually ahead of them after 24 boards, but they came back and beat us by 5 IMPs. The NJers battled back admirably from a 43-point deficit after 8 boards, and we only beat them by 12. But the Minners also beat them, so they were eliminated.

Last night we played against the team from Michigan. They were a six-person team, and that was a big advantage for them, because two get to sit out and rest some of the time. Plus we weren't (and mostly that should be read as "I wasn't") in top form. Traveling maybe took its toll, but we (I) made a lot of careless errors. The fact of the matter is that if we (I) had not made all the mistakes, we would have lost by maybe 4 IMPs. As it was, we lost by 47. And, okay, I'll give my teammates some of the credit for some of the mistakes, but I really felt klutzy at the bridge table.

Anyway, the pressure is off, and that's not a bad thing. I was feeling really tense, butterflies in my stomach. Now we can just play for the fun of it. We're going to enter a knockout this morning, and we'll see how it goes. If we don't advance, then we'll just play some pairs events til tomorrow night, and whatever happens, I'm looking forward to my trip to my upcoming travels.

I was hoping to post some photos, but the it was taking forever to upload them, so I guess I'll have to wait to get somewhere with a faster connection.

We're staying at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta. For a supposedly top-tier business class hotel, it's not very classy. The room is small, there is no fridge, food in the hotel is very expensive and they don't have anything past midnight, which is what time we finished playing each night. We did find a 24-hour diner two blocks from the hotel, so all's well.

To all who wrote back yesterday, either here or via email, it's good to hear from you, and thanks for all the good wishes. Sorry we didn't do a better job of representing District 19.