Chess, Africa & a Wedding

I played in the KY Open chess tournament last weekend. I ate some good food downtown, Bearno's by the bridge, Z's Fusion, and Cunningham's. Laura's husband Dallas was working at Z's when I stopped in. That was the best meal of the weekend. I got a chicken stir-fry, but the vegetables tasted like they had been grilled first. The fish sandwich at Cunningham's for lunch Sunday was quite tasty as well.

The chess on the other hand was not good. The two games I won I should have lost, but held on and fought back. I lost the best game I played, then in the final round, I accidentally picked up my d pawn instead of my c pawn on the 2nd move of the game. It didn't cost me the game, but I wasn't playing the variation I wanted to play. In the end, I won 2 games out of 5 and beat the people ranked lower than me and lost to the ones ranked higher.

My cousin David went to Senegal and my friend Chip is headed to Kenya. Chip is probably about halfway through the 29 hour trip to Kenya. They're going to be on opposite sides of the continent, but it's unusual to have two people I know in Africa at the same time.

Finally, my cousin Kim got married last night. St. Brigid really isn't far from my old house on Oak St. The reception was at the Olmstead. The reception was very nice and I got to see a lot of family that I hadn't seen in a while. Also, I got to see Jessica's daughter Tess for the first time. As Emily's husband Brian said, if Max could get through the reception without busting his head open and if I could avoid a stomach flu the next day, it would be a successful reception. After Laura's (Kim's older sister) reception I picked up a stomach flu that had torn through the Clarks during the week leading up to Laura's wedding. That was one of the worst 12 hours of my life.