Little America, Salt Lake City

500 Main St,
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Little America has two pools: one outdoor on the ground, and one on the second floor in the main building, which is half inside and half outside, which also have two jacuzzis.

In the morning around 7, I’ve the pool on the second floor all to myself. Oddly, it opens from 4am to 11pm. In the evenings, it can be crowded and noisy with kids, teens and women.

The lockers in women’s change room have digital locks but I don’t think they’re working. The change room has no shower.

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Bridge: Boston

Just learnt one more thing: Boston = bottom of something top of nothing.

Out of total 17 hands, I played 6: won 4 lost 2. Got two robbers with two different partners. Nothing too memorable except three hands, happened to be winning:

Hand 1: I’ve a grand of 4 hcp, which I should not have responded at all… but I did, to the calling of my P’s ♠️:

… the bid:

 R1    R2   R3
 My RH opens  P   2H  4H
 me  P   2S  P
 My LH  P   3H  P
 My P  1S   3S  4S

… Long story short, my parter made the contract of 4 ♠️.

Hand 2: forgot my own 1C contract… thought Spade was the trump.

Hand 3 – the last hand. All we need was 40 points, which meant 2C was just right. For some reason, I thought we needed 3C – 60 point. So I said 3C. Helllllloooo can’t you do the simple math? Guess NOT. Luckily, my partner ended up making 4.

大脑进水的一晚. 17手俺没有啥好牌, 不过打了6 手: 4赢2输. 四赢中的2手难忘

  1. 4分俺也敢出声 有木有搞错呀
  2. 叫了♣️, 以为 ♠️是主
  3. 最后一手牌: 我们只需要40分. 2C正好.不知怎么的,我以为我们需要3C—60分. 信誓旦旦那种. 喂,你算术还给老师了 – 不会摆掰着手指算一下吗?

天堂鸟 水墨画 别要求太高 俺去睡觉 避免祸害人类

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Looking at the ball

So, another lesson in serving, and the take home note:

  1. Left foot 45° to the baseline
  2. Make a box
  3. 2 seconds medication
  4. Toss
  5. Look up at the ball
  6. Rotate to face the net and hit

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A fall from my drop shot 小球

A winning day: Graham 5-3, Dave G 5-2. It’s my first time playing with Vijay who has serious spins, not much serve tho.

Bob took a fall from one of my forehand drop shots… I felt terrible … but at the same time, each player has to know his or her limit, (?)

I always utilize drop shot, especially backhand. But since I decided that I prefer forehand side of the court, I also practice forehand drop shot: it’s decidedly obvious, that my backhand drop is lower and better.

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Feeling good about my serve

Isn’t the court looking beautiful? … eeehhhr … the irrigation has problem.

A 3-0 day: w/ Graham 5-3 & 5-4 (Denny said they want a rematch), w/ Denny 5-4. Didn’t get to play with Alan – we were all pretty tired.

For the past two matches, I felt pretty good about my serve.

… and a few forehands, and backhand

 

 

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The Tennis Partner, 1999

“The Tennis Partner is the second of Abraham Verghese’s books. Published in 1999, when he was a physician practicing internal medicine in El Paso, Texas, this is an autobiographical memoir, and Abraham Verghese writes of his experience moving to El Paso in the midst of an unraveling marriage. Once there, he meets and eventually becomes a mentor to David Smith, a medical resident at the hospital where Verghese worked and a brilliant tennis player recovering from drug addiction.”

Abraham Verghese (1955-) has an interesting journey: born in Ethiopia to Orthodox Christian parents from India. His elder brother, George Verghese, is an engineering professor at MIT and his younger brother, Phil Verghese worked at Google as a software engineer.

His books:

  1. 1994 My Own Country
  2. 1999 The Tennis Partner
  3. 2009 Cutting for Stone
  4. 2023 The Covenant of Water

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Ok, serve again

Played with Glenn 5-3, w/ George 4-5 and, with Brad 5-4: we came back from 0-4.

As for serve, it’s been over a year but I’m still working on it. … the wet mark is from my bathing suit – just climbed out of the pool.

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A diamond night

We played a total of 17 hands; my scores was 6-11: played seven and won six.

The grand slam was under bid 3D, due to laziness.

~I’ve 19 hcp: ♠️A, ♥️Q43,♦️AKQJ742, ♣️K7.
~ My P has 11 hcp: ♠️KJ10 5, ♥️K, ♦️653, ♣️A9853.

Since we only have 3 aces, I could only go for a slam, if I were bid. Because of 3♦️ bid, my L played ♥️10 who has the ♥️A too. My P’s singleton in ♥️, rendered her ♥️A useless.

 

 

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Crazy 8

The second pickleball tourney of the year.

The format: 8 players a group, round robin, playing 7 matches; rally scoring to 15, win by 1 point.

The top four players with the highest points, go to play off: round robin, 3 matches, rally scoring to 11, win by 1 point. The score points decides #1, #2 and #3.

I won 3, lost 4 matches, finished 7th in total points: coach put me in Tier 2 – I’m at Tier 3 level – who kept saying don’t think about tennis … think pickleball -:)

My seven matches:

  1. w/ Joyce, 8-15 to Roni, Kathy V
  2. w/ Roxanne, 13-15 to Roni, Lori
  3. w/ Angela, 8-15 Roni Roxanne
  4. w/ Cindy, 15-14 Angela Lori
  5. w/ Lori, 15-14 Roxanne Angela
  6. w/ Kathy, 8-15 Lori Cindy
  7. w/ Roni, 15-13 Joyce Angela

八人一组 轮流 打7场
共四层次, 俺是第三层次
教练硬是把俺升到第二层… 然后俺的得分倒数第二 [Lol]
就没有然后了

哪层次都无所谓
只是俺从来都不练球
怎么和高手打呀?
教练一直说 忘记网球 想皮卡球 [偷笑]

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The deodorant queen @ Rouen Open

So, the British tennis player – wild card – Harriet Dart (1996-; 2015, $2,891,681) becomes overnight sensation due to her comment on her opponent Lois Boisson (2003-; 2021?, $127,741) at R32, “… Can you tell her to wear deodorant, … she smells really bad …” @ 2025 Ope de Rouen: she lost to the French, 0 and 3.

Rouen is a small city on the Seine river, in the NW corner of France, population 116,331. It’s a WTA 250 tourney (April 14-20), winner takes home $275,094, which is far better than the Sarasota Open.

The sunrise

Ok, back to my game today, w/ John, Kurt and Ken: 0-5, 5-3, 4-5

~ 0-5: I lost 3 tie breaks
~ 4-5: we were 4-1 … then at the last point, I double faulted … the two courts certainly adds uncertainty

Seriously?!? 💩 deodorant woman

她告诉裁判员 她的对手需要用除臭剂

这28岁的🇬🇧网球员终于出名了

昨天我吃了一🥚
0-5, 5-3, 4-5
挺郁闷的
… 0-5 输了三个tie break
… 4-5 从4-1 开始… 然后最后一决胜负的俺发球是 double 😹🙀😿

不过这28岁的除臭妞应该更…

这大妈的心眼也忒坏
别人遭殃她开心 [Lol]

 

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