From: "John Pickels"
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 18:32:06 -0500
Subject: [BARGE] Trip Report (da pickle & kissitgoodby; John and Dianne)

We cannot express how wonderful our first BARGE turned out to be.
Neither of us drink enough to remember what happened so this will
be short.

Thanks to everyone for making us feel at home.  We arrived early
on Wednesday and went to the Venetian to ... we really did not know
what to expect.  It was all so easy and fun.  We stayed downtown
at the GN and that was just fine.  We rented a car from Hertz and
that was not expensive ($150 total for the week) but I just do not
like Hertz, at least in Las Vegas.

It is all really a blur, but we are excited about next year.  I
will take some notes and be better prepared.  I want to find the
Egg and I and other spots we missed.  I was told to just show up
for the CHORSE tournament and would likely get in.  I was lucky to
get into Team Jam but was disappointed to be the one that lost ALL
the money at the end.  Razz is such a fickle game.  Two hands, an
8 going down to a 7 and a 7 going down to either a 6 or the wheel
... I insist on forgetting.

Both of us were out rather quickly in the TOC ... but Dianne
(kissitgoodby) did knock out Bill Chen in the NL tournament.  And
we played about thirty hours of NL during our stay and left with
more than we came with, so it was a most successful adventure.

We were concerned that we would be embarrassed at the Calcutta as
no one really knew us ... but a team jam consortium of sorts (I
think) saved us and I gave them some of their money back.  (Next
year we will make a return on any investment!)  (Dianne is the power
player.)

Friday evening was a blast with the wedding.  I am sure we went to
bed way too early.  We were going to sing a duet, but again, being
new and all ... ... ... next year ...

I am amazed that such a group can get together and stay together
... the organizers are worthy of the respect and devotion that
everyone seems to show them.  We will be better "friends" next year
... and we will, hopefully, show any newcomers the same care and
feeding as we received.  (We vote for the Venetian, but will go
anywhere anytime.)

Thanks again to all.  (And for the geeks ... my law office still
runs WordPerfect 5.1 in a window in XP-Professional.  It is faster
and quicker for an experienced secretary than any other word
processor.  But that is just my opinion, I could be wrong.  My
technical expertise is old and runs to lasers and night vision
equipment.  I still have my engineering license to go with my law
licenses.  Ah, the stories left to tell.)  Thanks again ... it
cannot be said too many times.