Nationals weekend.
I went to Nationals this past weekend, it was a blast, even if I still can win a match that means anything ever.
The car and hotel room crew was Bob Allbright, Severa, Lissa and myself. We took off from my house a little after 7 AM to get to MN by the noon grinders. I end up doing a totally terrible 1-3 in the 3 grinders I play in. Severa switches decks a couple times throughout the day and on the last grinder looses in the finals...frowns. At some point the crew of people I'm with wants to go to Ichiban's for sushi, now I don't like sushi, but everyone else wanted to go and I thought I could maybe get their hibachi which I love. But no dice, I try to excuse myself from the situation and let everyone else eat there, and Allbright steps up and says he'll pay for me, and I can just do the all you can eat appetizers (pot stickers and chicken wings). Turned out just fine, thanks again to Allbright. We head back to the site and run into Gaudenis, I loan him most of a deck for the next day. Then roll out to a bar with Zac Hill, Misha, Tflo, Lissa and myself jumping into Tim's new car (sweet ride sir). Have drinks and sweet geek discussion with the crew at a place called "The Loop". Lissa buys out of the credit card game, I win and get the cash while Zac is the loser. Good run for the evening, dinner purchased for me, up $20 in the CC game, and good times, nice to see Zac after a year or two. Head back to the hotel and get the "early" sleep around 2:30.
Next day lounge around the room for a bit then head to The News Room with Lissa for breakfast, then over to the site to sign up for our 2-headed giant event around 2 AM. We open an alright pool, but only manage a 2-2 record, one of our least impressive 2HG events in the illustrious Ben/Lissa 2HG history. We grab Adrian and head down to a BBQ place called "Market" that I had ate at last year during GP MN. Had some lovely food and drink and had a "Big Snout", 32 oz drink that was very worth of getting me a little drunk. We then meet up with Mr. Hill and Misha and head down to the News Room again to meet some friends of Adrians, we miss them but stick at the News Room, joined shortly by Kibler, many drinks and laughter are shared. Also have some fun banter with Kate via text as she's out having fun in Madison with Nicole and Wyatt. After basically closing down the bar we head back to the hotel, and up to Kibler's room, where Kibler and I attempt to teach Lissa how to play Ascension, after about 10 minutes it devolves into Kibler kicking my ass and Lissa passed out in a pile of his clothes on the floor, eventually we manage to stand her back up and get her back to the room.
Get up in time to roll out for the PTQ, which I open an OK pool, but manage to make a mistake that cost me a match, and go 1-2. Lissa's still in the PTQ so I need a 2HG partner. Enter Kibler. We sign up and proceed to smash face while running out to bars in between matches. That Serra's Ascendant card is some kind of good. At any rate we obviously draw poorly in our top 4 match and end up with a half box instead of the M11 sets we were gunning for...frowns. But still a fun enough day, we roll out around 10, and head over to a bar called the 1029, where it seems that a large portion of Nationals has descended upon. This bar quickly turned from terrible to great as the Jaeger Bombs and drinks started flowing. Highlights of the evening, Kibler doing Ice Ice baby, "White and Nerdy" with an entire barload of Magic players, the Chapin, Sam, Zvi, Zac dance off (I hope Mr. Neal comes through with some video of that), Lissa killing Dream On(in the good way), and the entire bar chanting "Zvi" for a solid 2-3 minutes to end the night at the bar. After the bar we take a walk over to Tflo's which is a hair farther than he thought. We give GerryT the heads up that we are incoming...spend another hour or so hanging out at Tflo's before heading back to the hotel with Zac and Sadin, and finally head hitting pillow around 4:30 AM.
Next day head back to Madison earlier than expected, but this does allow me to get back in time to take a nap for an hour or two then go over to Nicole's for her birthday dinner. Then was able to get some nice hang out with Kate time before heading to bed. After 3 of the past 4 weeks being short work weeks I think this week is going to be a rough one.... Good luck to all my friends in the GP this weekend and the PT the following.
The car and hotel room crew was Bob Allbright, Severa, Lissa and myself. We took off from my house a little after 7 AM to get to MN by the noon grinders. I end up doing a totally terrible 1-3 in the 3 grinders I play in. Severa switches decks a couple times throughout the day and on the last grinder looses in the finals...frowns. At some point the crew of people I'm with wants to go to Ichiban's for sushi, now I don't like sushi, but everyone else wanted to go and I thought I could maybe get their hibachi which I love. But no dice, I try to excuse myself from the situation and let everyone else eat there, and Allbright steps up and says he'll pay for me, and I can just do the all you can eat appetizers (pot stickers and chicken wings). Turned out just fine, thanks again to Allbright. We head back to the site and run into Gaudenis, I loan him most of a deck for the next day. Then roll out to a bar with Zac Hill, Misha, Tflo, Lissa and myself jumping into Tim's new car (sweet ride sir). Have drinks and sweet geek discussion with the crew at a place called "The Loop". Lissa buys out of the credit card game, I win and get the cash while Zac is the loser. Good run for the evening, dinner purchased for me, up $20 in the CC game, and good times, nice to see Zac after a year or two. Head back to the hotel and get the "early" sleep around 2:30.
Next day lounge around the room for a bit then head to The News Room with Lissa for breakfast, then over to the site to sign up for our 2-headed giant event around 2 AM. We open an alright pool, but only manage a 2-2 record, one of our least impressive 2HG events in the illustrious Ben/Lissa 2HG history. We grab Adrian and head down to a BBQ place called "Market" that I had ate at last year during GP MN. Had some lovely food and drink and had a "Big Snout", 32 oz drink that was very worth of getting me a little drunk. We then meet up with Mr. Hill and Misha and head down to the News Room again to meet some friends of Adrians, we miss them but stick at the News Room, joined shortly by Kibler, many drinks and laughter are shared. Also have some fun banter with Kate via text as she's out having fun in Madison with Nicole and Wyatt. After basically closing down the bar we head back to the hotel, and up to Kibler's room, where Kibler and I attempt to teach Lissa how to play Ascension, after about 10 minutes it devolves into Kibler kicking my ass and Lissa passed out in a pile of his clothes on the floor, eventually we manage to stand her back up and get her back to the room.
Get up in time to roll out for the PTQ, which I open an OK pool, but manage to make a mistake that cost me a match, and go 1-2. Lissa's still in the PTQ so I need a 2HG partner. Enter Kibler. We sign up and proceed to smash face while running out to bars in between matches. That Serra's Ascendant card is some kind of good. At any rate we obviously draw poorly in our top 4 match and end up with a half box instead of the M11 sets we were gunning for...frowns. But still a fun enough day, we roll out around 10, and head over to a bar called the 1029, where it seems that a large portion of Nationals has descended upon. This bar quickly turned from terrible to great as the Jaeger Bombs and drinks started flowing. Highlights of the evening, Kibler doing Ice Ice baby, "White and Nerdy" with an entire barload of Magic players, the Chapin, Sam, Zvi, Zac dance off (I hope Mr. Neal comes through with some video of that), Lissa killing Dream On(in the good way), and the entire bar chanting "Zvi" for a solid 2-3 minutes to end the night at the bar. After the bar we take a walk over to Tflo's which is a hair farther than he thought. We give GerryT the heads up that we are incoming...spend another hour or so hanging out at Tflo's before heading back to the hotel with Zac and Sadin, and finally head hitting pillow around 4:30 AM.
Next day head back to Madison earlier than expected, but this does allow me to get back in time to take a nap for an hour or two then go over to Nicole's for her birthday dinner. Then was able to get some nice hang out with Kate time before heading to bed. After 3 of the past 4 weeks being short work weeks I think this week is going to be a rough one.... Good luck to all my friends in the GP this weekend and the PT the following.