Today's Bridge: Mostly disappointing. It started when I was a bit too enamored of my first hand, S J-9-x H Q-x D A-K-x-x C A-Q-x-x, but not enough to open 1NT, so I stuck with 1D. Ken responded 3D, which I forgot meant only 10-12 and a fit, so I pushed with 4C, letting him know I had no stoppers in the majors. He bid 4S, skipping hearts as well, which forced me to 5D. With his S A-Q-10-x H x-x D 10-9-x-x-x C K-x, we lost two hearts off the top, and the contract depended on the trump split, which worked, and the spade finesse, which didn't. We eventually made a 1H with two overtricks, but the opponents made 4H and we were hard-pressed to take our three. I opened 1NT with the rather sad collection of S K-Q-x-x H Q-J-x D K-J-9-x C K-Q, and Ken responded with 2D, a Jacoby Transfer to hearts. I obligingly bid 2H, and he passed with S x-x H 10-8-7-x-x-x D 10-x C A-x-x. The opening lead was a spade to the ace, followed by a diamond back to the A-Q and a third diamond. At this point, I had two sure heart losers, and if I ruffed any lower than the ten, I was sure I'd be overruffed with the nine and lose the contract. Finessing against the nine was 50/50, but I thought I saw a better chance. I ruffed with the ten and crossed to my clubs, then cashed the king of spades and led a low spade for a ruff. Dan C. in the West seat threw a club, sadly, so when I threw my last diamond under the ace of clubs, he ruffed (with the nine) and I was off. Then Ken opened 1NT in the final hand, and with S Q-x-x-x-x H J-x-x-x D x C Q-x-x, I pushed to 2H, my own Jacoby Transfer, and when Ken bid 2S, I rebid 3H to let him know I had both majors. He corrected to 3S, and I left it there, since there was no reason to imagine we had game. It turned out that he'd underbid his 19-point holding and he had four spades to the A-K, so it was a perfect opportunity to jump to 3S over the transfer, which I'd have raised to 4 and accepted a set with favorable vulnerability if it came to that.

Today's Work: Looking for documents that I couldn't find, but I'll get them.

The sink stopped up again today, but it was only on the garbage disposal side this time. After all the drain cleaner I had failed, one plunge got it unclogged, and the sink has surprisingly never been cleaner. Pretty impressive. I hope that's the last of my plumbing problems, though. I need to get my car in for service soon, plus two doctor appointments next week, so I really don't want to take more time off to have plumbers in. At least, not right now.