John and I both "finished" work by five. (In other words, we said we're going to club, this stuff can WAIT.) Don't tell the kids, but we went to Burger King on the way, because I had not planned ahead and made nice healthy sandwiches. We had to decompress from various work and life things throughout the day, but fortunately DC has lots and lots and lots of traffic which made the commute long enough to do so. Ha ha.

And then we were at club. I have really missed it.

I start the night off with a phoney, which pleases me! PREBOrN. My biggest problem in this game has been nerve. I need to play things I'm not 100 percent sure of. So yay for phoneys! (It stayed on the board, which pleased me even more.) On the way home, some three hours later, the only solution to that rack finally occurs to me.

Honestly, there were very few strategic issues or major puzzles. It was just fun, mind-satisfying, good Scrabble. My time was a problem. I went down to the final seconds in two of the three games. I had to figure out a winning out-in-three in the second game, which was fairly tricky and involved setting up a blockable out-in-two. Okay, so that was a little strategic and if I am feeling motivated later, I may post that endgame.

I was so happy to see the people. Brief little catch-ups, bantering, minor kibitzing. I went 2-1.

It was good.