Labor Pains, Labor Day

Hello, dear reader. Now that we've run-off those fair-weather-friends who expect a post more than once a month, we can get back to basics.

When we left off, I was about to head up to Vermont with Ambush for LogJam. Vermont is still beautiful. However, it rained all day, both days on us and we were cold and pruney. Ambush won the tournament (after a couple of massive come-backs) so that was fun. Although, arguably not quite enough fun to justify 16 hours of driving and 16 hours outside in the rain in a weekend.

Shortly after LogJam I had to report to the Chicago suburbs for 3 weeks for new robot training. This time, I'm faculty, We had to work weekends. All the participants are fresh out of university. My job is to wind the key in their back, exorcise any tendencies of original thought and dampen their spirits. Objective achieved. I actually had more fun at school than I expected. I attribute this to the fact that many of the co-faculty and participants were international and I generally prefer the company of non-Americans to Americans.

I also learned what many of you already doubtlessly know: that I speak too quickly, too loudly and too frequently. I am now trying to work on this.

As a 'section room lead' I showed great restraint when i did not hang an 'arbeit mach frie' sign over the doorway.

Following the prison camp, I went with Ambush to beautiful Santa Cruz, California for the very tough, high level Labor Day tournament. We played Fury, Backhoe, Safari, Loose Cannon, Brute Squad and Godiva and lost all 6 games. Ugly. On the upside, we had awesome pickups from the CA area: Gulley, Lisa, Bossa, Puja and Mega it was great to play with you guys. Let me know when you are next in NYC. Also I had incredible burritos. CA does Mexican like you can't find in NYC. Finally, the fields, although in a desert were plush and green (irrigated) and on Mount Olympus. Seriously, the nature of clouds and fog and the view from the fields down to the bay made it seems like we were playing in the clouds. Red eye home was as much fun as you'd expect.

September is crazy house guest month: Seb and Tex, Aussies touring after worlds in Vancouver are staying with me now. Mama will be here this weekend for a week or so. Amy and Simon are also coming up from Caracus for a while. So yay! Fun to see everyone.

What does the future hold? Reply hazy try again later. Here's what I can tell you: Ambush has sectionals and regionals coming up, so once again I'll do that, though both the ankle and hamstring are functioning way below normal. I still haven't seen Sarah, or my parents or sister since returning home, so that is on the agenda.

Work wise, I am still 'unstaffed' and uncertain. I'm working on resolving that. I'll either be staffed in New York (+), London (+++), North Jersey (- - - - - - - - - ), West Africa (+++++++++) or any other conceivable location. Once I figure that out, I'll go there. So there.