In which we finish off the Pups

I got a bit distracted by this and that the last few days. The downside of a DJ, I guess. Except that they do pay the bills, and therefore get priority. After that, there’s just so many hours in the day.

There isn’t much more to say about the Pups. I enjoyed working with the Paginator, who seemed to fit seamlessly into the process. There are a lot of aspects to working a tab room. First, there’s setting up everything correctly in advance, which is harder than it sounds. I’m hoping once again that there’s a room kerfluffle at Little Lex as there was last year, in a tournament set up by CP himself. Nothing makes one sleep sounder at night than knowing that Mr. Prime Numbers Is My Latest Excuse is imperfect too. Of course, I pretty much know by now how to provoke him to make snarky comments over my own imperfections, and the temptation to so provoke is irresistible because when it comes to s.c.’s, he’s the reigning champ. Anyhow, the second aspect of tabbing is to know what to look for as the tournament progresses. This comes with experience. The rogue bye, for example, or the wrong setup of MJP priorities. Some of these are hard to spot. Third, there’s the willingness to just do what must be done, however menial it may seem. Lots of the job is less than challenging, but it still has to be done. Then again, Kaz actually likes sorting ballots, and I have never once insisted that she hand them over to me. (She also likes the power-pairing screen, whereas in clutch situations I always go to the cards. Different personalities.) Fourth, there’s the ability to offer suggestions when the idiot running the computer (me) is obviously driving off a cliff. I will listen to good advice. Really. I am perfectly capable of learning new things and trying different approaches. As CP might say in a snarky moment, no one has more new things to learn than I do, so being alert to them is at least one positive in my favor. Anyhow, the Paginator filled all those requirements. Our only mistake working with him was repeatedly telling him how much we enjoyed working with him. If it goes to his head, he might start acting like me in the tab room. One of me is enough.

Otherwise the weather was delightful, the judge pools for the breaks were superlative, and we had a couple of nice tab dinners at the Tarry Lodge. On the down side, I was really knocked out by this one. I think I’ve finally caught up on my sleep. Watching the Pope’s homily in Spanish helped a lot. Not having anything this weekend helps too. My plan is to finish off Nostrum 3 (!) and meet with Kathy S, who has agreed to take over Sailor debate in light of the loss of the guy who just said no. Although I don’t know what I can tell her that I haven’t told her already. I guess she just wants my bullwhip, which I’m happy to pass along.