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Long Beach Is A Long Way
Let's cut right to the chase. At the Long Beach Invitational fencing tournament, Rae came in sixth in women's épée and won her national rating. National fencing ratings run from A to E; Rae is now rated a D. Most fencers are unrated.
The tournament was held at California State University, Long Beach, a large and beautiful campus in that Southern California port city, about 45 minutes south of Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades, about 8 hours (with a dinner stop) south of Orinda.
On the way down on Friday, we stopped at a truck stop (formerly Burns Brothers, now TA), and had an edible meal. On the way back, we stopped at the Harris Ranch near Coalinga and had a darn good meal, featuring, well, steak. As we entered and left, we got a good whiff of what you have to live with if you grow beef cattle for a living. Whew!
We checked into a modest hotel close to campus at about midnight on Friday, and Rae had to register at 7 am for a 9 am start. We had breakfast at Denny's (well, it beat Jack In The Box. By a little).
Saturday was mixed épée, which means men fence against women. Is this fair? The first eight finishers in this event were all men. Rae fenced a man in his 60s.
After her first round of direct elimination, we drove to Pacific Palisades for dinner with her grandmother, Lynne, who was kind enough to give her a 44-year-old hand-made Spanish flamenco acoustic guitar that Lynne no longer plays. We installed email at Lynne's house, although I'm not sure she's using it yet.
Sunday, it was women's épée. Rae did well in the qualifying round and won two direct elimination bouts, before being defeated in the third round. Her sixth place finish means she did better in her bouts than two other girls in the round of eight, and it also meant she won a lovely crystal trophy, which has roses in it as I write this.
I hate long drives, but I love giving Rae a chance to compete. She's looking forward to the Duel in the Desert in Las Vegas, and is seriously considering the Honolulu Open in February (Hello Harrison!)
Prop 13
I was hoping for some response to my call to action to revise Proposition 13. The response was, curiously, muted.
War News
Craig Reynolds checks in:
This 'blog offers "factual, no-nonsense information about the tension between liberty and security during wartime."
"get your war on" a recently launched cartoon strip, is a little too raw for my tastes. Yet I have to say I really enjoyed this strip.
Blatant Plug Department: Targus For Airline and Overseas Power
If you fly a lot (like I used to), you sometimes end up in business class, where they have those cigarette lighter outlets you could use to power your PC, if you had an adapter. The very best adapter in the world is made by Targus, which also makes a bunch of cool international power conversion stuff, if you travel overseas a lot.
Anyway, their $135 auto/air power adapter has "power tips" to match your PC. You can't plug them in backwards or upside down (unlike, say, Radio Shack power tips), and they appear to be precision machined. Anyway, they send you a free one every time you switch portables, which I have done four times. No questions asked, and they send it out priority mail the day you call or email them.
Hurrah for old-fashioned customer service and a very useful product. |
