Cross-posted to my other journal, so apologies to those of you who are on both.

This post has nothing to do with Scrabble other than drinking the juice may actually increase your brain function. :) It's actually a Mona Vie recruitment post, so I'm sorry to be cheesy, but please do read on.

So, I've started working again after a year and a half. It feels really good!

I am working for myself, so I can still spend all day in my jammies, and that is even better. :-)

I signed on to become an independent distributor for Mona Vie. It's an incredible fruit juice packed with 19 exotic fruits, the main of which is the acai berry. I've been doing it a few weeks now, and I've signed up a few people and am already making a commission. It's easy and frustrating at the same time, because I don't want to be a nuisance to my friends and family, but at the same time I'm SO EXCITED about this product and the business that it's hard not to bug them.

There are only a few really high producers in Canada, and the energy drink is going to be launched here at the end of the month, so that's another product I can add to arsenal. I WANT to be one of those high producers, and I WANT to help all my friends get there, too. The high producers in this company get amazing bonuses, not the least of which is $1,000,000 in cash!!! Only a handful have reached that level though, but it CAN be done, and *I* want to do it!

I need to know more people.


There are people that I have spoken with personally who have had amazing results just by drinking this juice. One guy with MS who could not use his hands to mow his lawn is now mowing his lawn, and his neighbor's lawn as a thank you for introducing the juice! This is my cousin's neighbor.

One lady with Crohn's disease was so backed up and having problems with an inflated belly and also diabetes. After two weeks on the juice, she was able to go regularly, and her diabetes leveled out. In fact, most people with diabetes that drink this juice say that their levels spike a little in the beginning, but then even out better than ever before. This is the mother of one of my upline guys.

One girl with Lupus went into remission after 10 months of drinking the juice. This is a friend of the upline that I work most with.

And, me personally, I have been drinking the juice and noticing MUCH more mobility in my knees, and MUCH less pain than in the past year and a half. IN fact, I was feeling completely better until yesterday when I yanked one, but now I have faith that it's going to feel better again soon.

I dunno. It just seems like a no-brainer. Four ounces of juice that give you the antioxidant properties of 13 servings of fruits and vegetables. Something good to put into your body for a few bucks a day. Shrug.

Well, I will pimp the juice now and tell you to look at http://monavie.com. I wish you all lived near me so I could just have you come over for a tasting and watch a couple videos and you would be convinced. It's hard to convince someone to try something in type. :-)

So, it turns out the Scrabble weekend diSaronno / wine diet followed by the return home box of comfort brownies actually makes a person gain weight.

Huh. Who knew?

I take SERIOUS issue with people who borrow money and then go tooling around to tournaments, Hartsman style, without paying that money back.

For the love of God, pay your damn debts before you spend money on your HOBBY.

I know of at least TWO Scrabblers who have done this, one who decided they were never going to pay the money back. Geez, what the fuck?

This goes for people in life, as well. I know someone who borrowed $1,000 from someone years ago and has never paid a penny back, yet goes on living and doing fun things and even vacations. How is this justifiable? Even $20 a week is better than nothing.

I could never in a million years behave this way. It turns my stomach.

A Comedy of Errors or Injecting Personality into a Mundane Post

Cast of Characters:

* Jason Ubeika - Juju
* Jason Keller - Not Hector
* Terry Kang Rau - TK
* Rob Robinsky - Binsky
* Joe Bihlmeyer - Dempsey
* Brad Whitmarsh - Goldfish
* Chris Lipe - Lipie
* Jim Huges - Jimbo (my creativity is tapped)
* Denise Mahnken - Denise (see?)

I'm here in Dallas and hoping that things go a little more smoothly for me over the rest of today. Yesterday was, well, interesting. I had scheduled a cab pickup at 1:00, and at 1:10 I called the cab company to see if they were on the way. I wasn't too worried, as I had allowed an extra half hour in my planning to get to the airport on time, hoping I could check in early and grab a window seat. Somehow they had no record of my pickup, so they assured me a cab was on the way and would be there in 10 minutes. I told the lady that if he wasn't, I was leaving with my car. Eight minutes later I got a call saying the cab was there. I was standing at my door looking out my window at my empty driveway as I answered this call, so I called them back again and the lady assured me that the cabbie was on my street.

My street is not that long, and I live at 2385 in Unit number 16. Impatiently, I rolled my luggage up to the front of the condo complex thinking I could save a few minutes by meeting the cabbie there. Check left. Check right. It may as well have been a Stephen King movie given the eerie absence of just about anyone. Irritated and planning to take Beanie, I rolled back down and turned the corner just as the cabbie came in the entrance. Apparently he went to number 16. I didn't even know there WAS a number 16.

Anyway.

I was now 30 minutes past my pickup time, just the exact amount of extra time I had allotted. I hoped there would be no traffic.

I made it in time, but when I checked in I was told that the flight was absolutely booked, with passengers even on standby and that there were no window or aisle seats available. Greaaaaaaat. I went and had a sandwich, and played with Quackle until it was time to board.

I was squished in between two men who, while they seemed nice enough (one was ironically an accountant - I thought Juju would get a kick out of some guy talking to me about taxes on my flight), both used the armrests on either side of me, and fell asleep. I sat in between them with my laptop, squishing my boobs, left hand over right wrist, playing Scrabble with Quackle until my battery ran out. When they woke up the flight was uneventful, if not still too crowded for my claustrophobic tastes, and I uncharacteristically welcomed the 30 minute descent into nausea which landed me 5 minutes before schedule.

I had plans to meet up with Not Hector at gate D20 near the sky terminal so we could split a cab. I came in at gate 27 and my luggage was at gate 29, so I figured I would grab it first and then go meet him.

That shows you how often I fly.

It wasn't long before I realized I could not get back to my rendezvous point, and I sort of wandered around like a lost little puppy thinking about what I could do. I went up the escalator to the check-in terminals, and then back down the escalator. I went outside to the transportation stand and then back inside. I briefly considered making a run for it up the down escalator underneath the DO NOT ENTER sign, but the James Gandolfini looking security guard (I kid you not, I thought it WAS him until I saw the security shirt) changed my mind.

Finally I said "fuck it" and I hopped a cab and left. I tried to reload my pay as you go phone in the cab so that I could call Juju and have him call Not Hector and tell him not to wait for me anymore. At this point it was 6:40 and I had hoped that he had given up on me and headed to the hotel himself. Of course, I've only used the pay as you go phone once and I had no idea how to reload it, so again with the "fuck it" and fifty bucks later (note to Juju for cash receipts :P), I had arrived.

My main priority was checking in and getting up to the room so I could plug in my laptop and put my Juju to Not Hector plan in motion, so I didn't spend a lot of time taking in the beauty that is the Crowne Plaza. I had a sense of deja vu as I entered the lobby. It was palatial and highly reminiscent of the location that the Charlotte Showdown was held in 2006. As I waited for my turn at the check-in, I ran into Joe Bihlmeyer, who now looks a lot like Patrick Dempsey circa "Can't Buy Me Love". He should have grown out his hair long ago! (For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, which seemed to be just about everyone standing near me, I give you a photograph: http://dailyblabber.ivillage.com/entertainment/archives/McDreamy.jpg - reference the Dempsey on the left, add glasses and lose a few pounds. I'll have to get a picture of Bihlmeyer (ok, even *I* am having a hard time continuing to refer to him as Dempsey) for side to side comparison.)

A few ditzlike instances with Jean McCarther and a punch in the arm to Mike Eldeiry later and I was finally able to send my ASAP SOS to Juju. Apparently Not Hector was in the cab on his way, so I felt at least a little better about that.

Once he arrived, it was time for good eats, and I caught a little slack from Jimbo for choosing The Olive Garden out of all the available restaurants, but what can I say, we dont' have it in Canada, and I miss it! The four of us (Jimbo, Dempsey, Not Hector and I) headed there and had a nice meal and some good conversation. I discovered that I like portobello stuffed ravioli. Yay for trying something new!

The rest of the night was uneventful, though fun. I met up with TK, Binsky, Goldfish, Lipie, and a new guy named Derek (I hope I'm spelling that right) at the bar and we had drinks, lots of Scrabble gossip and some good laughs. I was first to leave as I wanted to wash my hair before bed and try to get a decent night's sleep, which I sometimes have trouble doing when staying in a new place and sharing a room.

I managed to doze off just as Not Hector was getting in and I got a good few hours before I had one of those dreams where you think you're awake and getting ready to do the thing you're going to do when you wake up. Well, sort of. I dreamt that Not Hector and I were woken up by people talking and laughing outside our hotel room. They were lining up for their morning coffee (apparently the kitchen was right next to us), and as we got up we were discussing the 80's theme (Denise was talking to me about 80's night at the HO and no doubt this is how that got injected into my dreams), and I was saying I'd like to curl my hair and tease the crap out of it, and do like an 80's vampira thing and use lots of makeup and eyeliner and scare the crap out of my opponents, but lo and behold it was 8:17 and I still had to get dressed, have breakfast, and register for the tournament so there was simply no time.

At this point I woke up and it was 5:00 AM and a little flashing p filtered it's way into my consciousness. I suddenly realized that when I had set the alarm, I set it for 7:30 PM instead of AM and then Herbie, the hamster in my head, went nuts trying to figure out what to do. As Not Hector lay blissfully snoring, I contemplated trying to reset the alarm clock without waking him, but I figured I would make too much noise, so I came out into the adjoining room and thought about calling for a wake up call, but then I figured I probably wouldn't fall back to sleep anyway, so I started farting around online. But I was really tired, so I started looking for that stupid pay as you go phone, sure I had thrown it in my backpack inside the cab, figuring I could at least set that and maybe catch a few more zzz's. I couldn't find it and I didn't want to go grab my coat and luggage from the other room, for fear of waking Not Hector, who was still blissfully snoring away. I'm not sure when I'll realize that men who are snoring are NOT going to hear what you're doing while you're shuffling around, so you might as well just do it! I finally gave in and grabbed my coat and found my stupid phone and set the alarm and went back to bed. It was 5:30 at this point, and Herbie started writing this journal entry in my head.

I visualized shooting him with a tranquilizer dart and faded off to sleep.

Well, that's the way I WANTED to end this post, but in truth I gave up trying to sleep at 6:40 and just came out here to write.

It's 7:30 now and Not Hector just rolled out. Apparently he had set his own phone for this time, AND the alarm on the nightstand was set for AM after all.

I'm going to breakfast.

I am gonna book a flight to Dallas from Buffalo and hope my knee complies for driving. That's what cruise control is for, right? I'd go from Toronto, even though it's a little more expensive, but I worry about the whole citizen thing. I have a US passport from Canada to US and back again, and it clearly states you have to have a Canadian passport to go back and forth via airplane, so I guess I have to just do what I can do to do the DO!

I'm also gonna do Saratoga, which is drivable, so long as I get someone that lets me ride shotgun. I might be down for a 6 hour drive alone with some good tunes cranking, but again, I can't rely on my knee or my hands to allow for that, even with cruise control, so hopefully I get a ride!

I really hate this time of year. Pretty soon I won't see my husband again until late June, even though we live together. Well, I might get him to play in my May tourney, but it's not a guarantee. Damn tax season, I hate you!

Thanks for all the help with Zyzzyva. I've been cardoboxing for a few days now, and I like it.

Now if you guys could just teach me how not to HATE all these damn stemmy bingos that look the same and make my head spin, I'd be set.

It seems like every damn bingo I look at is a candidate for the Shelley Special (when you have a perfectly acceptable bingo rack, with a word that plays, and you make up a phoney anyway). Almost every one I look at goes along the lines of "it's not GOADERS, it's DOGEARS, it's not STONAGE, it's ONSTAGE". 10 bucks says this does *not* help with the Shelley Special phenomenon... :P

So, based on the replies you guys gave me about studying yesterday, it seems I should buckle down and figure out this cardbox thing. I think I just never bothered to figure it out because it requires daily dedication, and it was daunting. But I could make time for like 100 per day.

So, how do I set this thing up? Is there a cardbox for dummies manual somewhere?

What if you are feeling motivated some day and you want to add more? Do you then have to do 200 a day?

It almost seems easier to just keep bringing up my quizzes and eventually get through the end of them. Of course, in the 3+ years I've been playing, I've never actually completed a single set that I pulled into a quiz. Hmmm.

And what if, say, you are in the mood for 5s or 6s one day, but your cardbox is all 7s?

Decisions, decisions!

Is it paranoid of me to think that my May tournament is going to be a failure because it hasn't filled up yet?

I know it's only January and Scrabblers are more on the pokey side, but it's a 13 game in one day tourney, so it won't appeal to everyone. I indicated that there was only space for 60 people, and to date, I only have 10 that said they want to come.

When I ran my first one day tourney in this area with Craig, we filled up without any problem.

I guess I shouldn't worry too much. The hard costs are more than paid for right now with only 10 people, so no matter what, there will be some prize money. I may be just in the MOO frame of mind where I could give away thousands. Obviously this is a completely different situation, but I have to admit, I thought there would be a lot more interest in a hardcore Saturday.

As for me, I'm still wishing we could do the Redeye or Charlotte, even though I think it's silly to fly to a Scrabble tournament. The Redeye just seems like something worth doing at least once, even if you have to fly there. 29 games in 41 hours. I totally love that.

I even started looking at bingos in Zyzzyva while watching tv. I don't know how people can sit and do like 1000 at a time. I've been casually looking at them for 3 days and am on 450 of 1266 that I pulled (top 2000 7's). Even casually, it's totally tedious. I give all you studiers props. Big, serious props.

My rating has been on a decline for most of 2008. I knew 1402 was not sustainable given that the only time I really play Scrabble is in tournaments and I don't study. I figured 1300 was more realistic, and I fell down to that in Guelph in November. The Albany main event gave me a little boost to 1326, but that late bird with all the luck boxes killed me.

I learned much in the Albany main event, mostly that I play like a loo loo more often than not and I need to actually try a little harder if I want to stay over 1300. I don't really care about rating, but for some reason I care about that threshold.

I'm just really annoyed by it and now I want to play in every Scrabble tournament everywhere , EVER until I get better.

I suppose I should probably study though. Blah. I'd rather play World of Warcraft.

I'm trying to convince my hubby to go to the redeye. We'll see.

I give you: The perpetually perplexed look of Frank Tangredi



Pretty much sums up Albany New Year.

Better late than never, I finally just got around to importing all my pictures from my camera. This is a picture of Jason the day after Halloween at the Brantford tournament. He won the prize for best costume, impersonating the Director, Glen Dunlop, who is well-known in this area for his standard garb. He surprised us by wearing pants, but it was still a pretty damn clever costume, if I do say.

I got my first wave approval for Canadian residency today. That means I can apply for OHIP, and now I can go to Albany for the regularly scheduled yearly Scrabble tournament! YAY!!!!

I'M SO HAPPY!

Here are the actual final 5 from the MOO:

1st $3000 12–4 +881 SYKES, CHRISTOPHER
2nd $1000 12–4 +707 BOYS, DAVID
3rd $ 700 12–4 +619 WAPNICK, JOEL
4th $ 500 12–4 +500 PANITCH, MAX
5th $ 300 11–5 +594 VIJAYAKUMAR, SINNA

Vijay contacted me today and said that his spread was off by 100 from what was listed on the website. I manually re-typed and re-added it all and sent him my findings and we discovered that his score in game 12 was erroneously keyed in, off by 100 points! Neither he nor Evan noticed this 100 point disparity over the next 4 rounds, and as a result, the wrong results were finalized.

I felt sick to my stomach when I discovered what happened, as, of course, did Amanda. We are incredibly sorry for this egregious error. The NSA has been contacted and the official results should be updated in due time. I will present Vijay with his prize on Thursday at Scrabble club.

Wow. It's over! What a great time I had directing. I am already looking forward to the MOO TWO! First things first, here are the cash prize winners:

MAIN DIVISION

1st $3000 12–4 +881 SYKES, CHRISTOPHER
2nd $1000 12–4 +707 BOYS, DAVID
3rd $ 700 12–4 +619 WAPNICK, JOEL
4th $ 500 12–4 +500 PANITCH, MAX
5th $ 300 11–5 +550 LEAH, TONY

Class prizes: Players in groups 17-32 and 33-48 who finished highest above their seed

Group 1 $200 27th seed finished in 10th place: Jason Broersma
Group 2 $200 39th seed finished in 9th place: Andy Saunders

!!!!! Holy COW Andy, nice job! Andy informed me that he is now 3 and 0 for placing in the money at tournaments I run. I apparently bring him a lot of luck.

This division was so exciting to watch. I'm not 100% certain because I don't always pay attention to how hotly contested Division A is or isn't when I'm playing myself, but I just couldn't believe that the top 4 prizes came down solely to spread in the end.

LIMITED DIVISION

1st 15–1 +1534 $300 LAM, BEN
2nd 12–4 +652 $175 PALAZZO, MAD
3rd 11–5 +818 $100 FERNANDO, PRIYA
4th 10–6 +792 $ 75 LOBO, YVONNE

Class prize: Player 13-26 who finished highest above their seed

$75 21st seed finished in 15th place: John Apissoghomian

Way to take it home, Ben! Ben was Gibsonized after round 13, at which point he was still undefeated. Diane Wittman thanked me for giving her a chance to play him after she defeated him in round 14. I think every player in that division was gunning for him! He held his own quite well if I do say so.

We also had a buttload of word prizes. In the "things I learned by directing a tournament" category, next time I need to end the word prize sign ups at the start of the last round, because honestly it was so chaotic to try to find out who won what with all the ties at the end of the last round that I didn't even have time to write down who was getting what. We had 5 bananagrams, 2 t-shirts, 2 tote bags, 2 Diane's DefAalts v. 4, 2 SamTimers, 4 sets of SmoothTiles and 1 set of regular tiles to give away for all the various word prizes. Honestly, when you add all that to the entire table full of door prizes, it was prize overload. Next year that will definitely change. Cash is king, man! Cash is king!

I put out a MOO TWO survey on day two while people were out to lunch. I wanted to get a feeling for what people thought of the divisional split and the entry fees, and also give them an opportunity to add any other anonymous comments or concerns they might have. I got a lot of really good information that I will use when planning the MOO TWO next year.

The place turned out to be a really good venue for the most part. We did have a bit of a hiccup in the hours of availability though. The guy I rented from had a different idea than the guy who was actually opening and closing the place for us. Also, I'm glad we didn't get the full 100 people that I advertised we could hold because apparently we used all the tables during my event, which means we really would have only had room for 12 more people. For next year, I will have to decide to either limit it to 82 people and have less games to suit the hours of availability, or look into a hotel venue. I will probably hunt around and get some hotel quotes anyway, it can't hurt.

The constructive feedback that was received was limited, and for the most case actually given constructively, which was nice. The feedback that wasn't, was processed through my "accept this as constructive feedback filter", which worked out quite well, too.

One other thing I learned was that the Friend of the Director contest is NOT fun from a Director standpoint. It's funny because I can remember when I first started playing Scrabble, I used to wonder why the Directors were so anal if you forgot something like your player number or what have you. And then I did the computer entry for a tournament last year and the lightbulb went off. Players who have never sat behind the data computer have absolutely no idea how important it is to fill those forms out legibly and completely. I tried explaining it to a few of the people who gave me a hard time about paying the $1 fee, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. In one case, someone flat out refused to pay and I was not interested in arguing so I took their name off the list. The last thing I wanted to do was piss anyone off who was supporting my tournament, ya know? It was not meant to be something uncomfortable or argumentative, it was meant to be a fun way to ensure accuracy for the sake of Amanda, who had to keep getting up to verify information or stop her data entry flow to look up missing information. At any rate, the FotD contest left a very bad taste in my mouth. I do not want to chase people around for a buck, so I will never do it that way again. I will find some other way to run the contest, which doesn't involve collecting anything more from players who make the tally slip mistakes.

Overall, I am very happy with the way the tournament went. The things I learned and the information I gathered will be put to use and next year will be even better.

Thanks to Sam Kantimathi for donating 2 pocket SamTimers as prizes, as well as 2 sets of his new SmoothTiles. Thank you so much Amanda Hubble, for all your computer wonderfulness, and thank you to my amazing husband for all your hard work and letting me boss you around too much. xo

See you at the MOO TWO!

For those hardcore enthusiasts that don't want to wait that long, I will be holding a one day tournament with 13 games in May. You didn't read that wrong! We'll start at 8am and go past midnight! The flyer is up on cross-tables.com.

~ MOObeika out

Who will leave today $3000 richer?????

Congratulations to Ben Lam, who was Gibsonized in round 13. So far, Ben has not lost a single game - what a great streak!

Jeff Clark stopped by after the last round to let me know about an exciting game between himself and David Jones. After 5 turns, they had each scored 3 bingos (CATENOID, GRIFTERS, and QUAYAGES for Jeff, SELLING, BORNITES, and GARROTED for David) and had scores of 289-288 respectively. Later in the game, uncertain of the word, David decided against playing BANDORA, thinking he would win without it, but Jeff pulled out the victory 481-455. David is possibly looking at a consolation prize for high loss at the least.

For those who are inquiring about our 2 sudden byes in the tournament, George V got hit hard with some nasty bug and had to pull out of the tournament today. He was very sorry that he couldn't make it, and my understanding is that he has checked himself in to the hotel for another day to allow some extra time to recuperate before making the trek home.

Tina Totten King in Division B apparently got lost in transit and is back here now, safe and sound and resuming play in game 14.

I am sure I speak for both Tina and George when I extend thanks to our fellow players for their concern and well wishes.

Exciting times at the MOO! Five games to go, and it's still anyone's game. Joel Wapnick is up a game, and everyone tied for second place (all SEVEN of them) are all within a few hundred spread points of each other.

Ben Lam is pwning Division B (to steal an online gaming word - pwn = smushing face, owning, taking names etc...), currently undefeated at 11-0 with Yvonne Lobo trying to keep him honest.

It's much more fun to watch this unfold from a bystander point of view than a contestant. I think Sherrie Saint John is on to something.

http://shellstevens.com/moo/standings.php

Wow, we are 4 games in and already the High Game for the tournament is likely secured.

Jeremy Hildebrand was playing Matthew Tunnicliffe, or as Matthew put it, "I was the guy on the other
side of the board watching", and went on to score a 646!!!!!

Matthew opened with TUATERA, and Jeremy's first turn was a small play of VIREO, but next thing you
know, down comes BEETROOT, followed by a triple-triple NOBBLERS for 158. If that's not enough of a
Bingo-Bango down comes the Bongo with FINNIER!

Jeremy was a Bingo-Bango machine this game, ending the game with 2 more, DIPLOIDS and an outplay
of EDGEWISE, taking JFCVXOS, another 58 points off of Matthew's rack. Final score, 646-339.

I am impressed that Matthew got the 339. If that were me, I doubt I'd have broken 300!

Last night as Jason and I were setting up for the tournament, I started to worry when I saw there were no curtains on the windows on one half of the playing room I had visions of the rising sun wreaking havoc with my players, but alas, I should know by now that when I plan an event, mother nature will not comply. Rain today, chance of snow tomorrow. When I got married, my wedding day was sandwiched between two gloriously beautiful days, and I got the worst snowstorm of the winter. Well poo on you mother nature, this time you helped me! It's actually a little darker in the playing room than probably most would like, but it's spacious. We arrived at the venue this morning at the same time as Glenn and Merran Dunlop, a full hour and a half early! Now that's
hardcore!

We started getting the computers set up and realized we forgot a couple things at home. Luckily we had Chris Lipe and Jason Broersma staying with us last night and they were a little more on the late bird side of things, so they were able to bring the missing parts. We almost had a lynching when it was discovered that I had also forgotten the sugar for the coffee, but luckily my ever so helpful husband (let me tell you, they are handy to have around, those husband types) ran out to get some before we began. The hustle and bustle of organizing and planning and setting up and making sure everything is just so is so much fun to me, I feet positively energized!

A few people came around and tried to buy some of the prizes off the prize tables. Heh. Sorry, folks, you have to earn those puppies! We have SamTimers and Smoothtiles graciously donated by Sam Kantimathi, along with a couple of copies of Diane Firstman's DefAlts volume 4, Bananagrams games, Scrabble tote bags, and a couple of secret prizes that the players don't yet know about, shhhhh. Plus, there is a whole second table full of door prizes. I am a happy prize giver, let me tell you!

70 players are here today, the tiles are clicking, words are being made, and my co-Director and computer guru, Amanda Hubble is hard at work next to me. The air conditioning just kicked in and I am feeling fine! I even got my first 2 Director calls. This is fun!

Live coverage of the event can be found at http://shellstevens.com/moo for those
who would like to follow along.