Today's Bridge: We came out on top despite a shaky start - I ended up in 3NT when most of our power was tied up in hearts and misguessed the lie of the suit, then 2NT with only an ace in hearts and not enough winners. But the opponents had their own misfortunes - Jerry opened 2S when my hand was S K-Q-7-x-x H A-x D x-x-x C Q-x-x or so - Ken doubled for takeout, but I passed to convert it to penalty, and we scored a two-trick set. Finally, I got a 1NT with S Q-x-x H K-J-x D A-K-J-x-x C Q-J - really tempting to open 1D with that holding in the minors, but I wanted to kick things off after so many sets. Ken had S K-10-x-x H x-x D Q-x-x C x-x-x-x, which again leaves a few things to be desired. Somehow, though, the opening club lead ran to my jack, and a lead to the king of spades held, so I cashed my five diamonds and counted myself lucky. I finished the game eventually with a tricky 3S that came down to how I played my Q-x-x of diamonds facing A-10-x, then picked up the rubber in 4S with S A-K-8-x-x H x-x D A-J C 10-9-x-x facing S 10-9-x H K-Q-x D Q-x-x-x C A-K-Q. The opening lead was the eight of clubs, so I figured Dan H. had led from a doubleton if not a singleton. So I led the ten of spades, which unexpectedly held the trick. I followed with the nine, covered by the queen and ace, while Dan showed out as I'd expected. I decided to cross in clubs for the trump finesse, but Jerry ruffed with the seven and led a heart to Dan's ace. Had he led back a club, the contract was secure, since that would leave me a spade in dummy to ruff the losing club, but he opted for a heart. I crossed to my king of trump, then back to the last top club to cash the hearts, getting rid of the long club. The diamond finesse even worked for an overtrick.

Today's Work: I got in pretty late thanks to the window repair job, so it wasn't until the afternoon that I really got a chance to get back to what I've been working on. I still can't make the C++ and C# parts of the program work together properly, so I think my next step is to forget generating a key at runtime and just use a specific key. If I can make the two programs work together that way, then I can worry about the next step. If I can't, then at least I'll have a better idea what I'm doing wrong.

My pillow still isn't quite dry, but I'm going to try leaving the pillowcase off and putting it on a towel draped over a foam wedge. At least that should minimize how much bedding gets soaked overnight while I wait for the water to drain out. I tried sleeping without any pillow at all last night, and it wasn't very good. I'm almost two weeks into the reduced dosage of the anti-depressant, and I don't think it's having any effect.