Another Day in Paradise

Besides recruiting 2 new Mah Jong players, I played duplicate bridge for the first time ever today and loved it.

But I may have trouble with the most important aspect of the game. That is to appear neutral.

My M. O. is to be demontrative and emotive. My facial expressions are remarkable, as many people can testify. Silence and restraint are not my strengths.

I met my partner Harvey for the first time just before our first game. We managed to exchange a few thoughts about our bidding style and then made the plung. We went along rather well until I completely stranded him at 1 diamond. Our opponents actually had all the diamonds and we went down 4, which the managers of the event suspected couldn't be true whent they compiled the final statistics. I did learn something from that mistake.

Our next remarkable goof was when Harvey renigged, costing us an extra 3 down.

But we bid and played a few terrific hands. My proudest was taking 8 or 9 club tricks setting our opponenets who were in No Trump.

Despite those two gaffes, we came in third. Our $100 prize had to be donated to any charity we wanted. I suggested the monkey project or Sara Foster the dog savior. Harvey decided on Sara Foster, who is thrilled.

Since I was able to use Bobbi's camera today, I'll mention a couple of projects I have been working on at our place. Since our cooking facilities are inthe garage through which Pam and Ray and their guests pass to get to the pool, Bobbi suggested putting up a divider. She pointed to a rack of wood and metal pluc gave me velvet curtains, which I decided to cut into strips to hang driftwood. I used a couple of the metal bars as a brace to supoort a long piece of wood with nails interspersed (if you want planss for this structure, just ask and I'll explain it all). Propped on the nails is a sign asking to protect our beaches. Hanging from the nails are pieces of driftwood, several pieces of art and 5 fish that are used as solar heaters for swimming pools.

Here is the entrance to our apartment, showing the butterfly welcomemat and the silk orchid in a pot of cuttings I am trying to root.

The refrigerator is one of my proudest accomplishments. It is pocked with rust spots, which was driving me crazy. So I covered it with blue painter's tape, which gave us the basis for our blue accents. The little white medallion is our Macfarlane family crest magnet.

Finally a look at the table on the lanai filled with seashells and some other once alive finds: a bird's egg, ehich was whole when I found it, but was eaten by something; a beetle and a crab shell; a wasp nest