Magic Monday...

I'm all caught up with invoices, which is a plus on any day of the week.

Technically, with the submission of some letters of recommendation this morning, my plate ought to have been considered clear, except that I had two hours of EVA interpretation training scheduled at the NBL tomorrow. Still, that's not much work. Fortunately, I've just landed another assignment that ought to keep me busy for a couple of days, although it's not due until after the New Year.

When Galina and I went to visit various garage sales and thrift shops this past weekend, I indulged in the purchase of some interesting, yet cheap books to read "someday" in my spare time. During today's bicycle ride that took me through part of Friendswood (and past the Friendswood Library, which was having a sale of surplus books, etc.), I made a tall stack even taller. So far, the list of purchased tomes includes:

Boswell's Life of Johnson

Hobbes' Leviathan

Shakespeare's Cymbeline

Fielding's Tom Jones
all of which are Oxford editions, with loads of footnotes and annotations, and in pretty good shape

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

If You Can Talk, You Can Write

Great Scenes from the World Theater

The Poet of Tolstoi Park

Nine Parts of Desire

Point of Origin (Patricia Cornwell)

Sky of Stone (Homer Hickam, who wrote October Sky)
with the following bought today in Friendswood:

All Our Yesterdays (Robert B. Parker)

Typee (Herman Melville)

Eyes of Prey (John Sandford)

Chosen Prey (John Sandford)

Naked Prey (John Sandford)

A Boy and His Tank (Baen Sci-Fi)

Conversational Power

What to Ask When You Don't Know What to Say

I mention these mostly to hammer home the idea that I've accumulated a pile of books to read in my copious spare time, and that I should probably nix any serious ideas of buying any more recreational reading material for a while.

Thjis afternoon, while Galina went to get the tires rotated for a possible... no, probable trip to Pagosa soon, I walked around the shopping areas on Bay Area Boulevard on the east side of I-45, ending up at the Barnes & Noble and intent on not buying anything more literary than a double-espresso at the Starbucks in the store. Outside, I noticed that a chess game was going on. Eventually, I sat in and played a game.

The good news, I suppose, was that I won. The better news is that after a nearly five hour interval, I was just able to reconstruct the game from memory. The bad news is that I was lucky; I misplayed the opening and probably should have come out of it with both positional and material disadvantage, but my opponent - a guy named John who apparently takes his chess seriously and was willing to play me and another guy simultaneously, except that he had forgotten his extra set at home - did not capitalize on my mistakes. He mentioned that chess is a happenin' thing outside the B&N almost every night, but especially on Fridays and Sundays. (BTW, add an analysis of today's game to my "someday" list.)

There's no need to run off to bed, but I think I'll lie down and, ahem, do a little reading.

Cheers...

Sicilian struggle, coffeehouse style...

Nothing like starting on "someday" right now. :^)

(These are initial notes, made without actually setting up a board or analyzing variations.)

[Date "2006.12.18"]
[White "Alex"]
[Black "John"]
[Result "1-0"]

1.e4 c5 2.f4 {The McDonnell Attack.} Nc6 {2...d5 3.exd5 Nf6, the Tal Gambit, is considered by some as Black's best response.} 3.Nf3 d6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Bc4 Bg7 8.O-O O-O 9.Be3? {What was I thinking?} Ng4 10.Nd5?! {Else go down meekly.} Nxe3 11.Nxc6?! {Trying to keep things mixed up and my opponent off-balance! I can tell from his body language that he did not expect my 10th or 11th moves.} 11... bxc6 {It was better to take the Queen on d1, as in the end, the attacking strength of White's knights isn't what it might look like on the surface. Then again, "false evidence appearing real" comes into play, here, and is one of the reasons why anayzing one's own games is valuable.} 12.Nxe3 Bxb2? {I think Black would be better served looking to his backward development.} 13.Rb1 Ba3 14.f5 Bc5 15.Qf3 Bxe3+ {I think this is a bad move, as it relieves the pin for no good reason.} 16.Qxe3 e6?? {Fatal. Opens a hole that I exploit immediately.} 17.f6! {With this move, I threaten mate in two. I see no salvation for Black.} Kh8 {Forced.} 18.Qh6 Rg8 {Forced.} 19.Rb3 {Heading for the h file.} Qf8 {Forced.} 20.Rh3 Qxh6 {Forced.} 21.Rxh6 d5 22.exd5 exd5 23.Bd3 {23.Rf4!} c5 24.Rf4 Bf5 {Black has no counterplay.} 25.Bxf5 gxf5 26.Rfh4 {1-0}

Cheers...