Chad and Robyn's Wedding

The other main event to our Missouri visit was the wedding of Chad Fitzgerald to Robyn Crews. Chad is our son-in-law Ryan's brother, and we have enjoyed getting to know Robyn on camping trips last summer. Bill volunteered to take some pictures at the wedding.

And, since we don't have many opportunities to catch all our fam cleaned up and spiffy, I took some pix of Ryan and Jennifer and our grandsons, Rieley, Brandon, and Jack, also.

Ain't family great! We love all our daughters and sons and grandkids. And, welcome Chad and Robyn to that group!

Taking care of Business

So, one of the reasons we needed to rush thru the snow to return to Missouri, was that Bill and partner Ralph Britton had a date with the North American Pairs competition in St Louis, where the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) was being held.

  

There were 4 sessions, beginning with 72 pairs of bridge players who were chosen at the district level by competition with their peers. The first day, we played two sessions, afternoon and evening, about 3 hours each. Ralph and I made the cut on day one, and were one of the top 28 pairs who played the next day for the President's Cup awarded to champions in Flight C (0-500 masterpoints, non-Life Master). We finished the last session of the day placing 11th. Hey, it ain't a gold medal, but we're like Jamaica in the bobsled race, and we're happy we did this well. If you're interested in more detail, here's the process below.

North American Pairs (NAP)

Date: June 1-August 31

Masterpoints:

• Club qualifying games 50/50 red and black at sectional rating
• One-session unit qualifying games sectional rated red
• Two-session unit qualifying games include percentage of gold for overalls.
• District finals award gold for section firsts and overalls. Flight C is 25% gold for overalls. Other masterpoints in all flights are red.

Flights: A (Open), B (-2000), C (0-500 Non-Life Masters)
District winners in each flight recognized on web site
Final: Spring 2014 NABC
A highly prestigious "grass roots" event, the North American Pairs starts at the club level in June, July and August. Club-level qualifications may be earned at any club in any unit in any district. A player may qualify as often as desired and with as many different partners as desired. Unit-level qualifiers are optional and held after Sept. 1 and before the district final, which may be held after the unit final until the third week in January. At the district final, both players must have qualified at the club level and must be members of the parent district. A fixed amount prize will be awarded in all flights as follows:

1. In districts with three qualifiers, the 1st place qualifiers will receive $700 per person and the 2nd place qualifiers will receive $300 per person. The 3rd place qualifiers will be invited to participate in the national level finals, but will not receive any prize.
2. In districts with four qualifiers, the 1st and 2nd place qualifiers will receive $700 per person and the 3rd place qualifiers will receive $300 per person. The 4th place qualifiers will be invited to participate in the national level finals, but will not receive any prize.
3. In the event of a tie at the district finals, the qualifiers will receive the total of the awards for the tied places, divided by the number of players involved with the tie.
4. Invited defenders will receive $700 per person.
5. No individual may collect two concurrent prizes.

Return to Winter

So, we thought the "taste" of snow that dusted Sedona was winter's last hurrah. NOT.

But at least it's all DOWNHILL from here to St Louis, our home base. It'll all be melted by then, right?
Well, here's what our house looked like!

13 1/2 inches, total, the record for this date back to 1912. At least it is pretty!

Makes a nice top for our Japanese lantern, don't u think? Eyes of Oreos (what a waste!) carrot nose, and crouton smile, courtesy of our grandson Jack. 

Not to be outdone, I had to do the mailbox!