Day 1141: Minneapolis, and here

[eve_prime]

So, J and DG are in Minneapolis for a big Magic the Gathering tournament. Today’s main event was a pro tour qualifier – hundreds of people each built a deck and played for something like seven rounds, each round being won by whomever won two out of three games. Then the top 32 were split into groups of eight, each building a new deck and playing up to three more rounds until the final winner of each group became qualified for the next Magic pro tour event – this summer in Barcelona!

J. didn’t do fabulously, but DG did. It went on for hours and hours, then he only needed to win one more game to get the final victory, but instead he lost two instead. The winner was some Magic pro whose name D. recognized, though I’d never heard of him. Then finally by around 1 a.m. they were able to get some food.

Meanwhile, while DG played these extra rounds, J watched and waited, nervously. Eventually it was 9:30 pm Central Time, time for the weekly Friday movie on Discord, which this week was Kindergarten Cop, which he hadn’t seen before. So he tried watching it on his phone. Unfortunately, he’d already told me that I could watch it using his laptop and his TV, which meant that I was logged in as him, and every time he connected it disconnected me, and I had to click on various things to reconnect. After doing this dozens of times, I messaged him and asked if he had any advice for me, and he realized what was happening and stopped trying to watch.

I started the day quite allergic – my scarlet oak tree has begun blooming profusely the last few years and now oak pollen is possibly my worst allergen, especially since the tree is right there in my own yard. I took an extra allergy pill, and we had an unexpected rainstorm mid-afternoon, and between those two things I felt much better by evening. Unfortunately, I also managed to slice my finger a bit, though at least now I have a better bandaid and can type again.

Comments

[kaishin108]

Oh no, your Scarlet Oak! It is awful when they are in your own yard. Like our Maple tree, and our Sycamore tree. Sometimes I wish I could chop them down but of course we need trees.

Hugs, Helen

[eve_prime]

Considering how much we've fussed over this tree over the years, you'd think it would treat me better. :P After we had our old, tall, cottonwood tree removed, I told R. (my ex-husband, who is a nurseryman) that I'd like a scarlet oak. He brought home a red oak. I said no, I wanted a scarlet oak, so he exchanged it and I planted it. It grew straight up, up, and up until it was 19' tall - then an ice storm snapped off the top two-thirds of it. So it tried again, with three branches going up, which was great until an ice storm snapped each of them too. The problem is that the tree doesn't drop its leaves in the fall like they normally do, so there's all these old brown leaves that add a lot of weight when they're wet and frozen. Anyway, it recovered and now it's healthy... and makes lots of pollen. Bah.

[kaishin108]

Oh wow, that tree! You really wished for it.
Pollen, bleck!

[eve_prime]

Ha ha ha, yeah, silly tree. :)