Batchin It

Macy was at a quilting retreat all last week so Baily and I were on our own.

Baily wasted no time establishing who was alpha.

I on the other hand made my meal specialties.  Here's one of my old Des Plaines days dishes...minute steak fried in butter fried onions and Worcestershire sauce, fries, and cream style corn.  A1 and Heinz 57 on the side.

Minocqua Bridge Tounament

Macy and I have been playing duplicate bridge on a regular basis with the Minocqua Bridge Club since last September.  This past weekend the club hosted its annual tournament.  It was the 75th anniversary of the tournament, the oldest sectional bridge tournament in North America.  Attendees were from all over the midwest.

The tournament had 9 sessions spread over 4 days.

Held at the Woodruff Community Center there was a good turnout for all the sessions.

We played against teams with fewer than 300 master points, we had 3.8 coming into the tournament.  We more than doubled our total and tied for 2nd place one of the sessions.  It was a lot of fun.

Tools of the trade, the bidding box.  You indicate your bid by pulling the appropriate card.  That way players at other tables don't hear the bidding...they'll be playing the same hands.

This is a Bridgemate, an electronic scoring device that connects wirelessly to a master pc.  At the end of the match the results are available immediately regardless of the number of tables.

A hand ready to be played.  The box facilitates passing the hand to another table.  The card underneath tells you where your team goes next.

Tree Time

Last Monday we had a storm with some strong winds.  A tree broke off about 10 feet off the ground and got caught up on two other trees over Artishon.  Beyond my chainsaw pay grade so we called in the pros.

Whenever Macy drove under the leaning tree she went about 70mph.

The break point.  It looked too unpredictable for me to tackle.

When you have the right equipment it's easy.

First they trimmed off a lot of the branches.

Lastly they hooked up a rope and pulley and lowered the main trunk slowly to the ground.  No opportunity to yell "timber!"

Restain

It's been 4 years and our builders recommendation was to have the house re-stained this year, took 3 days.  Baily managed to mostly stay out of the way.

Painters on the job.

Finished project, everything brightened up.