Some days, I think I'm a pretty good bridge player (I never think I'm world class, but some days, pretty good). Last time Therese and I played, we had better than a 60% game and won. Last time I played (with Tom Lang), we came in first in our section (2nd overall), which isn't a bad score although it's not as good as first overall. I didn't exactly have a lot of confidence when Therese and I decided to play on-line today, but at least I thought we had a chance. Nope. One board over 50% and dead last overall. We had a couple of miscues (although our one above average board could have been even better if Therese had kept her mouth shut instead of doubling when they screwed up their bidding), but overall, it was just a lot of little things. I missed a chance to splinter--which might have let us bid the grand slam instead of the small. I didn't cash an ace, which would have held them to one overtrick instead of two, that kind of thing. Sometimes this game frustrates me to pieces. I REALLY don't like coming in last.

It was a beautiful day here in Dallas. Karen and I walked out to the post office to mail our taxes (come on, refund). Later, we walked to the park where we looked at birds (Karen loves looking at birds but isn't good at spotting them which has got to be almost as frustrating as being the world's worst bridge player). There was a beautiful Snowy Egret sunning himself, a couple of cute baby ducklings, and the usual ducks, grackles, pigeons, white wing doves, etc. We heard downey woodpeckers but didnt' see them (see what I mean). This evening, thunderstorms rolled in, but rolled right back out--not bad at all.

I'm going to make COUNTERFEIT COWBOY by Robyn Anders the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. A pretty barmaid dreams of buying land in the country and re-creating the farm her father lost. The sexy cowboy looks like he's living her dream and seems to like her--but Kevin Sullivan has a secret that seems certain to doom their relationship. Only $1.00. Available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat PDF, eReader/Palm Reader, and Microsoft Reader formats. Here's the URL: http://www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/count_cowboy.html. Here's the cover (cover design by Jane Graves):

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