This is the travel log of the intrepid yet odd lad from Seaside known as Michael.  All the events enclosed involved said person and his travel to the land known as Germany, his first trip off the North American continent.  This being said, he's not the most logical of creatures and as such, not everything inside actually makes sense.  Why am I warning you ahead of time?  Because frankly, I would've liked some warning before I left unwillingly on this trip as well and I wouldn't want to be rude to not offer the option to you.  In any case, you've read this far, might as well read the entire damn thing, you poor, deluded soul.

(These sentiments have been brought to you by the voices in Michael's head and do not represent the opinions of the actual writer although they're still pissed off from the lack of sleep inflicted upon them by the strange lad and as such, are biased as hell and shouldn't be listened to.  Michael)

 Now, actually it's just the ramblings of an American on holiday that just happened to play in four constructed tournaments, two sealed deck tournaments, none of them were made before leaving the continent over a three-day weekend before traveling back home after the whole Sept. 11 incident.  In any case, enjoy your reading and if not, might as well tell me why.

1) Why on Earth you'd Travel 6,000 miles to go to a ST Tournament?

 Normally, I wouldn't.  It's not as though I have anything against Europe per se but I'd rather go to DecipherCon, possibly to win enough money to pay off my loans, have the adulation of thousands, the groupies to go with being World Champion (unfortunately, not enough of them are female but I have charm, awesome looks, dazzling intellect and of course, modesty to win them over) and a free trip back which just racks up more frequent-flyer miles.  Then there's the fact that most everyone there would speak English which would, of course, make me quite more comfortable with the notion since after all, I can speak English on occasion enough to fool most people (although I fumble on words like inadequate, hits too close to home or something.)  Also, no need to get a passport (which I sorta slipped by with to get one, but we won't go into the details of that, let's just say that there was a frequent flyer card, a state ID card and rubber gloves involved.)   All said and done, DecipherCon was the place to go.

Then DecipherCon was cancelled.

 Bummed out royally (I was looking forward to the groupies), I cancelled the hotel room and tried to get my money back from the airline (Northwest via Orbitz, $239 roundtrip) but alas, that wasn't going to happen.  However, I could exchange it for the cost of a different flight but there was a catch - it had to be used before December 1st.  Now, if you know anything about me (and if you do, you should let me know, so I know where you got that information from), you know that I don't get out much.  And I don't play Star Trek much either, at least not in person.  I hadn't played Star Trek since U.S. GenCon and I was looking forward to playing some more.  So I decided to get as much ST playing in as I could.

 Scouring through Decipher's tournament pages, I realized that I had two options after a while.  1) I could essentially fly to Orlando and literally criss-cross the continent for about a week, playing in constructed tournaments from Orlando to Oregon like a traveling samurai, laying waste to all I see before me (or at least trying to), sleeping on Greyhound and traveling via said service for those days.  Now, I don't have a problem with Greyhound, I just would rather not have to sleep sitting up, if at all, while dealing with Ed, the Grease-Stained Pilgrim on my right.  2) I spotted the Grand Prix in Germany which would have 5 Constructed tournaments and 2 sealed decks that I could take part in, the main prize of the main tournament being 9 tournament foils, which would essentially pay for the trip itself right there and as such, would be damn cool.  The drawbacks being someone to help get me to there to begin with (If you've ever heard stories about German train schedules, they're not exaggerating, it's like translating Hebrew with Japanese) and of course, not knowing any German.  So I asked Kirsten (whom I shared a hotel room with at DCon last year) if she was interested in attending and lo and behold, she was going to attend since DCon was cancelled, so naturally I asked if it would be possible to attend with her.  Now I had a place to stay on the cheap and a translator for my sorry, American monolingual abilities.  I was set for the great adventure that can only be me traveling.

2) Airports, Airplanes and the Rest of the Funness

 Applying the ticket to the eventual airfare, it only costs $300 roughly for the trip, which was fine by me except for one minor inconvenience - I didn't realize just when this was.  Trying to tell your mother that it's okay to travel over Thanksgiving, that my plane won't be blown up as symbolism and that having it a day ahead of time won't kill her (of course, she ends up trying to kill herself by finishing an entire mall's decorations in one day but that's besides the point).  So, the intrepid explorer known as Michael makes it to the airport, determined not to lose his wallet like he did on his last trip.  He makes it to the ticket agent, gets everything taken care of, he goes to the currency exchange office, gets some Guilders and Marks (I had two layovers in Amsterdam, I might want food or some souvenirs or something), buy a book at Powell's and make my way through security, take a look at a book cart to see if they had the first book of the Wheel of Time (they don't, of course) and make it to the section of the airport that's for me.

 This is when I'm glad that they said to get to the airport three hours early because somehow, my passport made itself lost on this walk for it wasn't on me at this point, which was surprising as hell since it was in my inside jacket pocket.  So I walk through all of my steps, then go to the Lost and Found, inquire with Security about a half-dozen times and on my third re-tracing of steps, I find it at the book cart on the floor.  How it made it there, I will never know.

 There's a few things that I can't travel without - Lots of pens, my ST cards, a camera or four, a pad or several pads of paper and at least two books.  Luckily this time I was smart to bring a walkman with working headphones.  I do get tired of being searched by people though.  Each airport except for Hannover frisked me, searched my one carry on (which apparently weighed about 16 kilograms or about 35 pounds) and emptied my coat (where I keep most everything).  I apparently fit a profile of psychotic plane bombers with my good looks, huge carryon (I *hate* checking luggage, more on that later) and bulges coming out of me everywhere (keep the mind out of the gutter, unless you're cute, female and single in which case by all means, join me in the gutter).

 The flight to Minneapolis was pleasant - No one in my row of seats, which I savored as much as humanly possible as I started to write my notes for these ramblings that you're reading before you.  It wasn't until I got to Minneapolis that I realized that my luck on the previous flight was just not going to happen.  Because I was searched just before I was going to board, I had to go to the back of the plane to put my carry-on away while I sat near the middle of the huge DC-10 with its 9 people per row which made getting to anything on your chair arms difficult at best, like the nightlight.  Translation: The plane sucks.  Wedged in the middle of the middle row, my claustrophobia would normally click in but I was too busy focusing my mind on trying to make decks.  The movies (you get two on Northwest flights from Minneapolis to Amsterdam and vice versa) were Down to Earth (Chris Rock remake of Heaven Can Wait) and Tomb Raider (which sucks on a wide movie screen like this airline, made everything seem heavier than they really were and not in a good way) so I was offered little distraction.

 Arriving in Amsterdam, the first thing I had to get used to was the annoying speaker system which kept saying, "Attention, Michael van *static*" over and over again every 15 seconds.  Overcoming that, I was almost tempted to go to the casino in the airport but my layover wasn't that long and I had someone to meet.  I have known Maike for a while now (couldn't say how long now that I think about it) and this would be the first chance I'd have to meet her.  Except for the tiny fact that she was on the other side of security and I wasn't sure if I could make it back through to see her on the first attempt, maybe on the way back.  But I will say this: Everything except the concourses themselves are quite modern and on my way back, I would be dazzled by just what all there is to see.

3) The Day Before the Grand Prix a.k.a Hannover, Heidelberg and Tourist Shopping

 I make it to Hannover in one piece although my stomach was dealing with the very bumpy flight from Amsterdam to Hannover in one of those turboprop airplanes, the kind that you could easily see being thrown to the ground by the right gust of wind.  It's not that I think I'm going to crash every time I'm in the air, like my mother, but it's turbulence that just drives me insane with fear.  I don't like situations in which I'm not in control; it's the control freak in me.  Kirsten is there, just on the other side of the security wall of sorts.  Apparently you don't have to check in or anything in Hannover if you arrive by plane, or at least not on my flight, which was kinda surprising.  We then walked underneath the airport itself to make it to the train system.  It's a good thing I bought currency before I left the US because I didn't see a single ATM on the way to the train.  Like every other train station in Germany that I saw, there was an automatic ticket dispenser that requires you to actually know what number route you wanted which was discovered on the large boards on the sides.  Assuming that you could translate them, you just slip your money in and type in the number, and then you get your ticket and your change.

 One of the things that it took a while to get used to was the paying of minor things (drinks, vending machine food, bus tickets, etc.) with just coins.  Every place I saw had a kinda indentation into the counter or tray or whatever just for the currency, some even had a movable tray that they took the payment in.  Compare to the US where there's no such thing and practically everything is paid for in primarily bills and you could see a distinct difference.  Wallets even had little extra clasps for coins, it was quite interesting to note.

 Once we made it to Hannover, we left the train and proceeded to a sci-fi store because of my shopping list.  There was a collection of things that I was supposed to bring back from Germany:  Star Wars figures with German writing on them, free stuff from Germany (matchbooks, doilies, etc.), 3 German Marks, a postcard, a magnet that says Germany on it and lastly, three beer steins.  I'm a horrid shopper when it comes to lists, especially when I lose the list.  In any case, on the way to the sci-fi store, I saw this jewelry store called Christ.  Now, I'm sure that the name of the store is pronounced completely different than the religious figure of millions but the spelling is exactly the same, which I couldn't stop laughing inside my head about.  "Talk about a hard act to live up to, being in the name of the Son of God and all…" but instead I said, "Um, why are they named Christ?"  She looks at me for a moment and says that she's never noticed the connection.  Weird, definitely weird.  Eventually we make it to the sci-fi store, which is on the other side of the underground store set, for lack of a better name, opposite a sex shop.  Star Wars figures are in multiple languages and, at least in this store, are quite overpriced.  Same could be said for their Voyager packs (4,69 for a pack, roughly $2.35 US, no thanks) although I probably should've picked up a couple of the The Borg packs (2,69 or $1.35) but oh well.

 Next, we went stein shopping.  Steins are created in Germany for the sheer purpose of selling to Americans.  I met lots of Germans on my trip and not one of them owns a beer stein.  Granted, I didn't go up to each and everyone of them and necessarily ask them, I was weird enough as it is, but judging from the stores I was in (department store-types), they just looked at me as the foreigner that I was, and tried to point us in the right direction.  Two stores later, we finally found them.  Ceramic, glass and metal, they were all represented and all rather more than I was going to spend.  I was trying to keep as much money in my pocket as possible so that I didn't have to use an ATM or anything along those lines to get more money.  I have a tendency to overspend on my trips, an annoying habit only when I get the bill.  In any case, the department store was just too expensive so we proceeded to hit the antique stores.  At least, that was the idea since it was so late in the evening that we only hit one but we got two from them for 5 Marks each.

 Eventually, we made it back to her place.  It's underneath a house with a small kitchen/dining area, on the right is her bedroom consisting of a nightstand, closet and bed and connects to a bathroom.  On the left is a separate room, where she has a couch, her computer and a wide assortment of music. ST cards and other assorted items.  Frankly, I was just happy to just have a place to set my bag down.  I was tired and I still had to make two decks for the next day since I couldn't expect to make them on the train.  So I said no to going to the pub where her boyfriend works and proceeded to make my decks for Friday, which were for the Klingon Civil War scenario and Team Tournament.

 After borrowing the cards I didn't have on me and my two Second Anthologies, I fell asleep like a rock, stopping only to attempt to set her Star Trek alarm clock to wake me up at a decent time.

4) The Shower, the Trip to Celle and Friday's two tournaments

 I'm a sound sleeper.  I sleep deeply enough to not hear an alarm clock that, apparently due to my super-powers in alarm clock setting, went off every 5 or so min after I messed with it.  I'm not the most coherent thinker in the morning, so I forget that I have shampoo in my bag.  I instead grab conditioner and shower with that.  One of the odd things about her shower is the fact that there's no stall door or anything that blocks off excess water from showering, at least not entirely.  Needless to say, I made damn sure that door was locked.

 Grabbing my stuff and making triple sure I had everything, we left and caught the bus.  It had snowed over the night lightly, which was nice, as I don't get snow where I live.  I was lugging a sleeping bag and sleeping mat along with my bag so as you can imagine, I took up a lot of room.  But eventually, after two bus connections and slugging across several blocks, we got on the train.

 We were going to have company on the train ride to Celle as Markus a.k.a European Champion Markus Russ.  He as well as the two of us were going to stay at Michael's place.  Odd first impression, I was reminded of Thor for no real coherent reason.  He's bigger than I am by a lot as I'm sure he could pick me up without much of an issue, blonde/brown hair mix with dark eyes and big hands.  I'm not really a handshake kind of person, I'm more of the polite, Japanese bowing kind of greeting but I adapt well, trying to give a firm handshake (I have weak arms).  He's a very personable individual and he understood me most of the time (I sound weird for an American) and I was doing a pretty good job following the conversation, as long as it was in English.  Once Kirsten and he went into German, it was as if they were under a time limit or something, it was that rapid.  Personally, I think it's because they have some of the longest words I've ever seen and they try to get through all of it in one breath, an admirable feat in and of itself.  But I didn't feel too out of place, all things considered.

 We had to switch trains at one point so we went to a supermarket of sorts to buy some lunch but I was feeling daring and decided to buy some gum and a soda of a quasi-Sprite/Orange variety.  I saw how much it was, I added it up and put the change in the tray-like thing.  She looks at me like I'm a freak.  I can feel my face beginning to blush so I put all of my change on the counter, which she then takes a part and leaves me the rest.  Mortified, I just take my change and find the two of them just getting their lunch.  I do find out that doughnut frosting in the US and Germany is quite different, much to my dismay.  In Germany, the frosting is quite brittle and hard whereas the US it's quite gooey, not sure why that is but it's the truth.  So if you like gooey doughnuts, I suggest to get the kinda hollow ones with the icing sugar all around them, they're soft and give you a kinda chewy, sugary texture you expect from doughnuts.  On the way back to the train, Markus said that one of his team members might not be attending because of illness so he asked what my rating was (1766) and that if it was okay with everyone else, I could be on his team.

 Eventually, the train arrived at Celle.  One of the things I immediately notice is that from the outside street, it's very easy to get lost here.  Random roads converging together in their narrow little way in a very non-square but more paintbrush kind of way.  These aren't concrete streets though but rather cobblestone/brick-like, which makes bike riding problematic, I'd imagine.  Michael Bruns meets us at the bus station and it's immediately apparent that he's the average German you'd find in movies: strong chin, short but round face, strong build with very full arms and legs, dark hair and eyes.  We walk back to his place, which is in as generic of a building as were any on that street, brick construction, three story, one entrance, etc.  Once you get inside, the stairs you go up are steep as I've ever seen them, it was as if going any direction but up was an after-thought.  He lives on the third story: Two bedrooms, a study (he's an architect or draftsman or something along those lines, I can't recall offhand), bathroom with a shower that made me feel like a giant as well as a tiny kitchen which offered a similar effect.  I can only imagine how it must make him feel, since he's also bigger and taller than I am.

 But we're running late, as it was 12:30 and the first tournament was at 13:00 so it was a quick grab of decks and off to the tournament, about 20 minutes walking from Michael's place.  It felt wonderful to unload all of that weight and to just take a sealed deck box so I spent most of the time listening to the German discussion and looking around, taking everything in.  Celle gave off the impression of being a small town but thrived off of local tourism with a variety of different stores, both novelty and traditional.  But there wasn't many people, or at least if there were, I was in the wrong area to take notice.  We crossed a bridge, which was just on the right of the train tracks as well as eventually underneath them as we made our way to a more residential area.  A few cross-streets and there was the hostel, a combination of light pastel colours that were distinctively out of place for the rather brick red/brown area that we just walked through.  There was a playground including a basketball hoop as well as a backyard.  It was much bigger than I expected, akin to the size of a modest hotel.  Making our way around the building, we made our way inside; the right side of the building was devoted to the dorms, the middle a sorta commons area, but all the activity was to take place in the left.  Down the brick hallway there laid the cafeteria, bathroom and the two playing rooms.

 Eventually, the event started.

5) The Klingon Civil War

 The Klingon Civil War has a few odd requirements - 1) Council of Warriors seeds for free and has to result for over half the points.  2) At least half of your personnel, facilities and ships must be Klingon.  3) Klingon Civil War, the card, is banned.  4) Mission and bonus points don't count anymore than the number of points earned from Council of Warriors.  Naturally, this would suggest that personnel battle and buffing up your personnel or Blood Oath emphasis to get more people into play or any number of other ideas.

   Me, I had the oddest notion that might not work anymore due to the rule changes in Holodeck Adventures for the Klingon Scenario. Use Captured/Prisoner Exchange with Luther Sloan and Fajo's Gallery to download 9 people, get out about 5 Bat'leth's, get the Gr'oth to download another person (Kras) and take them all out to a planet.  Then Devidian Door 10 Jem'Hedar with White-needs to the same planet and wait for my next turn for the White-deprivation to show up, forcing them to attack my Klingons, scoring 100 points in the process.  It's weird, I know but you know what, I'm rather proud of it.  All I needed to do was wait for a chance to go first and Capture their AMS personnel.  If they went first or were using the Great Hall, I had seeded Arandis and was planning on using her to special download Jamaharon to relocate a guy (like they were going to use many girls) to Risa, then use the Captured/Prisoner Exchange at Risa.  I had no problem sacrificing her for the good of the Empire.

 Round 1 against Michael (the person I was staying with) (rating 1590 now).  He has Homefront on Qo'Nos so the deck will work out well.  He downloads Gov. Worf so I use Arandis to relocate him and do my thing.  He kills Arandis of course but that's okay.  I let the deck do its thing and it works perfectly.  He gets the Arandis points but I get the win.  2 (+96). (1-0)

 Round 2 against Thorsten Wanek (rating 1622 now).  He had Caretaker's Array and the DQ Klingon ship seeded as well as Ancestral Vision combined with the Great Hall for lots of free reporting.  This is also when I found out that you can't use Arandis' special download for the relocation portion of Jamaharon (which personally makes very little sense to me).  In any case, I was somewhat concerned but when Kor was beamed down to Liberation to use the Ancestral Vision, Luther paid him a visit and the deck did its thing.  What had me worried was that if he had simply beamed down someone, the Jem's would've attacked that sacrificial Klingon and not my people (which would later come back to haunt me).  Instead, he blew up my IKC Gr'oth and I won 100-6.  4 (+190) (2-0)

 Round 3 against Roman Meyer (rating 1590 now).  He was going the route I expected the most:  Empok Nor for weapons, then Ops download a ship and draw a RRD for a matching commander.  What he found out later that he could only download one copy of each equipment in his deck.  Problem was, I couldn't get less than two Security alone over a planet location.  Eventually, I reported two AQ Jem'Hedar to the Husnock OP which prompted him to send down an Away Team which had less than two Security, letting me get my Captured/Prisoner Exchanges to work, killing his people and later my remaining Jem'Hedar for the win.  100-20 6 (+270) (3-0)

 Round 4 against Laszlo Karger-Kocsis (rating 1588 now).  When I originally thought about this deck concept, I realized that Scanner Interference to download Distortion Field would be a wise idea.  After all, if my opponent couldn't beam down to my planet of Jem'Hedar, then they can't oppose them and the Jem'Hedar can't attack them, attacking me instead.  It wasn't like my group of people were designed to make it through **gasp** dilemmas.  My missions, outside of the built-in OP's and Risa, were all chosen at a lark.  He was playing a deck similar to Roman's, which again, I had a hard time Capturing/Prisoner Exchanging against; after all, not going first the entire tournament makes it quite difficult.  So, I just reported my Jem'Hedar, thinking that I could try to get away with it just by killing one at a time, possibly two with a Bat'leth.  His people, on the other hand, had other ideas, eventually flying to Risa and taking out 6 Jem'Hedar for 61 points.  This is when I got lucky, for he reported Jadzia by herself to one of his built-in OP's, so I got Luther over there to do their thing and I got to wipe out the remaining Jem'Hedar for 39 points.  Having Intermix in play at the moment and not willing to risk my people at the moment, I said the hell with it and went after Wormhole Negotiations.  Imagine my surprise when I solved it on the first try.  He didn't have any Biology in play yet so the mission next to it (Fever Emergency) which happened to be his and therefore, dilemma-less, was just asking for me to steal it.  So he went to try and blow up my ship.  I stayed alive by one shield.  No tactics so no one died but my ship was damaged.  At this point, I saw that he had a Q the Referee flipped up.  "He's just gotta have Fair Play…" I was thinking over and over again as my ship limped over to Fever Emergency.  Cycling my own Intermix to my hand, I beamed down and attempted, thinking that if he did have it, I might as well get a decent differential. - Thopok had Biology, Kang was an Officer.  No Fair Play.  Stunned, I had just won.    100-61 8 (+309) (4-0)

 Needless to say, I won the tournament, netting a sealed Klingon 2 Player Game.  I was thrilled, kinda awkward by all the attention as there was a crowd of the late-comers and the other players watching my last two games, asking questions aloud during the games to each other but hey, it wasn't as if it was a serious game or anything.  It made me feel a little more comfortable with the notion that after not playing for more than two months, I hadn't lost my touch entirely.

6) The Team Tournament

 I end up playing on Markus' team, which was good for me because I knew what he was playing (Hirogen armada) and frankly, I didn't stand much of a chance against it.  In fact, I didn't feel all that confident in this deck to begin with but I shrugged that off to being jittery.

For the Team Tournament, I thought I'd try someone else's deck, a Romulan/Kazon armada deck which used Launch Portals and Ready Room Doors to get out matching commanders and Captain Log from Make It So to blow up facilities and opponent's ships, then solve missions.

 Round 1 was Michael again (which I have to admit was just funny).  I mean geez, we were even playing at the same exact spot on the exact sides of the table, how much worse could it get? ;-)  He was playing Hirogen, more of a mission solver than an armada, with a seeded Ancestral Vision, relying on Donik for those card draws.  I had a seeded Kazon Warship at the Array so I Defend Homeworld for Razik and got lucky to drop 10 and 01, Culluh and Karden on a Raider first turn.  Next two turns, I download with my Spacedoor another Raider (got Surat via Ready Room Door) and a Fighter.  Once I drew a Wormhole (another two turns later) I boarded the ships on the Warship, wormholed them to his OP mission which was where his Vision was located, eventually blowing up the OP in two turns.  Donik, having departed earlier with a lone, damaged Hunter down the spaceline, wasn't available for Vision draws, so Karden decided to do it instead while the other ships went after the Hirogen and resolved dilemmas at two missions for 70 points.  Meanwhile, he was stuck at Restock Supplies for a while, as he had to wait to report people with ships via my Array.  He had just finished getting through the dilemmas when he remembered that his Transporter Skill was his only source of Biology and he was on the ship above.  So, remembering my last game, my Kazon with the Romulan services of Lovok, beamed down a potential mission solving Away Team from the Cha'Joh there and, same as my last game, solved the mission for he had no Fair Play.  Lucky for me too because time was called about two minutes later.  100-0.  2 +100 (5-0)

 Round 2 was against Christian Cencic (1821 now).  War Council/Barzan Wormhole.  It's, in my opinion, the most powerful Alpha Quadrant-spaceline strategy in the game at the moment.  Combine it with potential DQSS and the fact that it's just so easy to get 4 Treachery out on turn 1, it's just obvious just how powerful this can be.  The only difficult part is coming up with the rares to do it.  I was close to stealing Wormhole Negotiations, I just needed one more turn to draw the appropriate Wormhole.  At this point, I had maybe 8 people compared to his 18 and knew that I wasn't going to make it through my missions, so I wanted to blow him up.  Grabbing my Wormhole, I relocated us to the AQ, using my three ships (Warship, Raider and Cha'Joh in Klingon mode) to harass his multiple ships.  I almost got to blow up one of his non-STP'd ships back to hand but he did something I didn't know that you could do, namely attack a ship that wasn't involved in the battle so as to stop that ship from attacking you after the end of the current battle.  In any case, I tripped one of my own Cytherians to earn 15 points but, in an attempt to earn more points, I went after one of my opponent's missions, not realizing that he had seeded an Edo Probe there, so I ended up earning 5 points.  The other interesting thing that I learned is that you can use Suna's download to apparently anywhere that has more Treachery than Honor present.  But with these two things, I couldn't find anything about that.  Oh well.  I lose 5-100 for 2 (+5) (5-1)

 Round 3 was against Lars Flitter (rating 1677 now).  He was playing a Mirror Terok Nor/Nanoprobe Resuscitation DQ deck with Ancestral Vision.  It went something like this: ISS Enterprise at Halkan downloads CE Scott, Defend Homeworld and Temporal Micro-Wormhole Overseer Odo to the ISS, ASP Tasha Yar to the Array-seeded Voyager, QIR and Home Away From Home Seven to Voyager, AMS Leah Brahms and Christopher Hobsen.  ISS Vortex's to Terok Nor, Scott goes to the OPU, Odo to Ops, s/d Process Ore.  Yar, the AMS and Seven board Voyager, land it at the Vision for the card draws.  You discard someone with Process Ore, Nanoprobe that person to Seven and then play people via the Array.  You draw 4 cards, report two people for free (Nanoprobe, Home Away From Home) and drop via Array.  And did I mention DQSS?  Needless to say, it was hard to deal with this.  Looking back on it, I should've gone to blow up Terok Nor but hindsight is 20/20 and all that.  I do like the deck design however.  In any case, I had a pretty decent opening hand and proceeded to make short work of his Nekrit Expanse on turn 2.  Hovering over his location with bare-bone ships, I had my main crew hit missions, hitting a grand total of 3 Cytherians, which I luckily made it through (one of them was mine), solving two space missions.  Unfortunately, The Big Picture showed up so I needed to solve a third space mission for the 140 points which gave him the time to earn 30 from Liberation and 50 from Assist Cooperative.  I should've seeded Dead End at Assist Cooperative, which I should remember next time since, as you'll find out, I forget to do often.  100-80. 4 (+25) (6-1)

 Round 4 - Thorsten again.  Practically the same exact deck as Lars was playing (they were on the same team, go figure).  Same problem with Dead End as before (must really have a bad memory or something) but unlike last time, I had a horrid opening hand (All Romulans and no way to report them as I had no ship).  My only points came from my own Cytherians.  15-100 4 (-60)  (6-2)

 Since our team had four people, I was the one that could be dropped but we still won (the other three did quite well), getting first place.  However, in an agreement made a long time ago for this, the "A" team and the "B" team split the prizes won between the 8 of us, so we all ended up with a couple of packs of Reflections and Dominion packs I believe.  I didn't get anything of importance or interest but that didn't really matter to me all that much.  I was more worried about the next day.  So, after a while, we walked back to Michael's place and, as usual, I was lost in my own thoughts.  Once back, I went over to my cards and just looked at them as if detached from the rest of humanity, squatted over them as if I could will them to create my deck for me.  Michael and Kirsten were plum tired so they went to sleep but Markus and I were still up.  I had a feeling that I was quite odd to him in the way that I created deck concepts, forming the deck concept and how to make it work on the first few turns but couldn't make it a concrete deck idea.  I spouted ideas ranging from Supernova DQSS to Cargo Running but eventually I used the Odd deck.

 I spend practically the entire night adjusting the draw deck size, the number of personnel and what personnel I could use, all these minor things that make all the difference.  Eventually the bloated 100+ card draw deck was created and so I dozed off in the chair I was creating the draw deck in, writing what commons I needed to borrow on the floor.

7) The Grand Prix

 I should feel drowsy or hungry at this point because I slept maybe an hour and I had two slices of bread with light margarine.  As usual, my kidneys are pumping too much adrenaline for me to pay it much mind.

 This is where I should explain just what I'm doing.  Basically, you commandeer Empok Nor on turn 1 and using Bariel (via TMW) and his special download of a Multi-Dimensional Transport Device, hop around different quadrants in the same region, grabbing all of the equipment that you've downloaded (50+ easily), STP that ship back into hand before attempting a planet mission, hitting the dual-dilemma Iconian Computer Weapon, sending all those cards to the discard pile and then drawing up the rest of the draw deck, say Devidian Door 14 times, using a Barzan Wormhole for 4 people and a ship and go solve missions from that point on.  It uses Goddess of Empathy to protect from Scorched Hand, Scans after the Goddess goes bye-bye and solves missions like no-one's business.

 Round 1 is against Marc Shuetze (1862 now, umlaut over the u).  Just like his teammate Cenric played against me yesterday, he's playing War Council/Barzan Wormhole.  First problem with the deck is I didn't take into consideration a Q-Flash swap at Empok Nor.  So his combo of Ferengi Infestation - Friendly Fire adds a Q-Flash to it.  I get lucky per se as Narik went into the Box and I didn't pay the 1 point for Narik the turn before.  Took over Empok Nor and downloaded the equipment but the next obstacle is the fact that he's seeded a dilemma in front of my dilemma.  Meanwhile, he's gone after Wormhole Negotiations, using the Dauntless' to get past Cytherians and Kes to avoid getting stopped on the Scow.  Eventually, he scores the mission for 50 points.  Here's where I make the biggest dumbhead move of the day.  I send people down to Qualor II and attempt, giving Dr. Farek a Padd that gives him Science (just in case the seed is Executive Authorization).  Its Dangerous Liaisons so I think I'm stopped and in fact, being stopped would be a good thing as I haven't STP'd the ship back into hand yet.  But Ty Kajada passes it by herself so I hit my self-seed.  With Science.  So I don't get to do my trick.  Sighing, I grumble to myself and have to go with plan #2.  Next turn, I play my Goddess and Masaka myself, doing what I wanted to do.  I go towards my Runabout Search and attempt.  Having Scanned the turn before, I know that I can pass through this relatively easily, but he Q-Flash's me yet again and it's because of that which we ran out of time during my mission attempt.  I would've had 45 points (40 from the mission, 5 from Mordock).  0-50  - 0 (-50) (6-3)

 Round 2 - Zoltan Keseru (1576 now).  He was playing a Vidiian/Hirogen deck, reporting people for free and through the Array.  I didn't get to my self-seed this time but after seeing him Masaka himself the turn before, I Masaka'd myself for the card draws, unfortunately losing Voyager to the shuffle in the process.  Praying that I wouldn't see a Scow or a ship that wanted to blow me up, my little Delta Flyer went after my missions.  Getting lucky with a Spatial Rift, he was stalled long enough for me to solve Negotiations and DNA Program.  He did solve Corner Enemy Ship however.  2 +60  - 2 (+10) (7-3)

 Round 3 was against Marcus Knopf (1684 now).  His spaceline was Liberation - Secure Station x4 - Hunt Alien, so just imagine what he's playing.  Combine it with War Council/DQSS and the fact that he fired his people at my dilemmas on turn 1, he was the typical Hirogen - Aggressive.  In fact, it reminded me of how Brad plays PNZ - lots of ships, red-shirting like mad.  He too seeded two dilemmas at Empok Nor and did the Flash swap but unfortunately unlike Marc, he did it Friendly Fire-Ferengi Infestation.  His Baliff grabs Bariel so I offer up the points only to have him snatched by the Penalty Box.  I couldn't pass Ferengi Infestation because I couldn't report anyone with Cunning of 8, that was my only problem so I was shut down hard.  0-100   - 2 (-90) (7-4)

 Round 4, I don't remember my opponent and I apparently didn't write it down, my apologies.  At this point, I figured that unless odd stuff happened, I had no shot to get into the final confrontation but the show must go on.  He was playing Federation DQSS but my deck finally worked like it was supposed to.  Again, I guessed wrong with the Dead End so it wasn't a total lockdown as he solved Liberation with a mission specialist.  100-35   - 4 (-25) (8-4)

 Round 5 I played Roman. He was playing your typical Ferengi 34th Rule/Empok Nor deck, attacking the poor Empok Nor for card draws while going through typical Ferengi funness.  After some conflicting opinions about persona exchanging, I get to commandeer Empok Nor but since he seeded it before I did, I had to walk all the equipment back to the ship, which took a while.  In the meantime, he had continued to attack my Empok, but he forgot the fact that I could counter-attack, damaging his Quark's Treasure.  Meanwhile, I finally got the equipment back but I couldn't get to my self-seed so I had to Masaka myself and did my thing.  On his next turn, he goes to download his own Obelisk and Masaka, which is my main worry for obvious reasons.  He looks through his draw deck twice as well as his Tent but he took it out of his deck.  I literally remember how to breathe again as I went through my next mission with little controversy; one lucky guy am I.  100 - 0    - 6 (+75) (9-4)

 Final Round, I played Dennis Kunze (1494 now).  He was playing Hirogen but without DQSS, just a simple report cards for free and attempt missions.  I get to my self-seed, which was quite helpful.  He wasn't helped out by my Spatial Rift, losing Decaren and Gann that way and I was on the other side of the spectrum, passing not one but two Borg Ship dilemmas with a Temporal Vortex and Hugh as a result of having to do a third mission.  Losing 18 points on a Higher the Fewer has that effect, but when 3 of my 4 Archaeology die on the DNA Program thanks to Neural Parasites, it took a combination of Negotiations, Runabout Search and Study Badlands to come up with the 100 points and the win.  100-0    - 8 (+175) (10-4)

 To be honest, I haven't a clue what place I ended up in although I was pretty high up there which made me pleased as I recovered in the end.  The deck did quite well, just had some hindsight flaws, such as the out-seeding issue and the Q-Flash swapping issue but I believe that it's possible to overcome that.  However, thanks to In the Zone, that'll be a moot point thanks to the limitation on Devidian Door.  I do believe that it's possible to modify the deck to get around the lack of Devidian Door usefulness, just not sure how yet although I do have my own ideas but I'll wait for the rest of the Holodeck cards to know for certain.

 After the final confrontations were finished (my first round opponent Marc Schutze won the Grand Prize of 9 tournament foils,) we got started with the second tournament of the day which made things far more relaxed overall.

8) Reflections Sealed

 We got four packs of Reflections, which were drafted and a Starter Deck II and we played sorta like Warp Speed in that we had two card plays per turn and we evened up, but outside of that, same kind of spaceline, same objective, etc.  Now, I'm not all that great at Sealed admittedly but I tried to improve.  I snatched most every dilemma that I saw but I couldn't get any decent personnel at all.  What made the deck for me were my 3 Q-Net's.  Combined with a rather small draw deck, it proved to be almost the most annoying card in this format if I got it out on turn 1.  Emphasis on almost.

 Round 1, I played Markus, who jokingly said that this will be a fun game.  He was right too ;-).  My first turn for me, I play two Q-Net's, one on each side of his Federation outpost.  It's after that when he "accidentally" shows me his Anti-Time Anomaly in his opening hand.  I literally moan but continue on.  He has a seeded AU Door and Q-Tent with cards in it, no less.  I go after Search for Weapons and I find out what those cards in his Tent are - Cardassians.  He has a Sleeper Trap!  But eventually, I overcome two missions for 60 points, even if he harasses me with Orbital Stabilities.  He's already used his ATA, then he shows "them" off.  He got Roga Danar, Kira and Julian Bashir foils, along with Spock.  He even has a Devidian Door, which is how he got Spock out to begin with.  I finally make it back to Warped Space when I realize that I only have one Klingon in the entire deck so I have to keep drawing cards until I get him (he was the last card in my draw deck, fitting).  However, I decked out and he had one card left and it was his turn so I was hoping for a timed win as I was ahead 60-50.  I had killed Spock earlier with Yuta and he couldn't get beyond a well-placed Q-Net.  I make the comment that "too bad you don't have a way to bring Spock back."  It was as obvious flash in his eye as he plays a Res-Q for Spock, then plays Spock as a card play, moves across a Q-Net and solves one more mission for a 85-60 victory on his part.  Now that was a freaky game ;-)  60-85  - 0 (-25) (10 - 5)

 It was at this point that my memory gets foggy due to lack of sleep so I don't remember who I played or the differential, although I do remember winning both of the next two games with pretty high margins because I was in the running for a final confrontation perhaps, if I won against Cenric.  Remember when I said that my Q-Net's were almost the most annoying card?  When I saw a mission in the GQ, it was then that it dawns on me: He has Wormholes.  So I seed my Micro-Virus there, curse my luck for not getting someone with Tal Shiar or Obsidian Order (the mission was Intelligence Operation), try to solve my outpost mission of Warped Space and fail.  Eventually, I was Wormholed to the Gamma Quadrant, cursed myself for not being able to get my Q-Net's fast enough and contented myself with again, a 100-5 loss to Cenric.  (12-6)

 At this point, it's 6 am and the Voyager Warp Speed Constructed was at 9 am and I haven't made a deck for it yet so Michael and I walk back to his place while Marcus and Kirsten stay with people at the hostel so they could attempt to get some sleep before the tournaments "tomorrow."  Trying to form my deck in my head before I made it back, I sorta drifted into a kind of zombie state on the way back.

 Voyager Warp Speed Constructed basically went Hirogen/Fed, doing Corner Enemy Ship and Prevent Annihilation although had the option to go do Heal Life-Form as well.  It had two means of reporting for free (Home Away From Home on my seeded Voyager and Hirogen Hunt s/d from the OP).  Combined with having the Delta Flyer reporting for free and two card plays, my small draw deck (28, 3 of which were gone on turn 1 with special downloads), went through it pretty quickly.

 I didn't sleep, I didn't have time.  I grabbed some more bread and eventually took my deck to the tournament and hoped that I could make an End of Days deck while I'm there.

9) Voyager Warp Speed Constructed

 My first ever Warp Speed Constructed deck and my first game, the deck was going great, I got my people out in a hurry, so fast I didn't even need to use his Array.  It was when I hit Prevent Annihilation and, more specifically, Volcanic Eruption, which cost me the game.  I only had two women in the deck, both Seven of Nine.  Seven of Nine hit the Eruption and, of course, after that, Matriarchal Society.  I couldn't get my deck to recycle fast enough before he slowly weeded through each of my dilemmas but I earned more points (80-60) than he, so the differential ended up as 0 -1 (12 - 7)

 The next two games were identical in all ways: Passed my OP mission on turn 2, Distortioned to my second space mission, solved that, Distortioned back to my planet mission, beamed everyone down to the planet, got stopped on Crisis, won on turn 3 while my opponent got stuck at their OP mission on either Clown: Behind the Mask or Spatial Rift.  Both were wins 100-0.  (14-7)

 The last game was against Thorsten for the third time.  He came in after my first round opponent left to play in the Return to Farpoint tournament.  He went first and proceeded to get stopped on Ankari Spirits.  I, realizing that differential at this point would've been pointless, decided to just go after my two missions.  I went after my OP mission on turn 2, hitting The Cloud.  Playing Distortion on the ship, I got onboard Voyager and solved the mission, then moved my ship to Prevent.  I then waited a turn.  He passed Secure Station but couldn't pass my dilemmas at his planet location.  I reported a few more personnel, left enough people to solve the mission on the ship before sending down an Away Team to solve the mission.  They got stuck on Kazon Bomb so the second team came in and finished it off for the win and the tournament.  6 +249 (15/7)

 Main criticism I had about my deck was the fact that I only had two women, so I'd replace Icheb with B'elanna but outside of that, the deck worked perfectly.  I won a foil Dr. Telek R'Mor and some packs.  Only problem was, the tournament had 7 people total, so it wasn't sanctioned.  There were too many people who were asleep that they didn't wake up in time.

10) Best of Both Worlds Sealed

 Next was the Best of Both Worlds sealed where you got a Sealed Deck, a Warp Pack and an Enhanced Premiere sealed pack  Play was normal otherwise.  I was so hoping that I didn't get the Troi's, I don't like The Troi's but whom do I get?  You got it.  Again, I got lousy people.  Let's put it this way, I had one other person who had more than 2 skills and that was Scotty from the Warp Pack.  It was just poor.  Combine with the fact that since I didn't sleep, my eyes were literally on fire.  Kirsten just stared at how blood-shot my eyes were.  During each break, I'd look and just marvel at how bloodshot they were.  I'd dab them with water to see if it'd help the burning.

 Round 1 vs. Thorsten.  Four times we played each other.  I won twice, he's won once up to this point.  He got the Data/Picard pack and he drew Geordi, plus I'm sure there were more than that but the game was just horrid on my part.  Lousy people, lousy draw against his great draw and personnel?  No contest.  0-100  (15-8)

 Round 2 vs.?  It was a race to see who could solve Establish Relations.  The dilemma stopping us: Ancient Computer.  He solves it one turn before I do to snag an evil card in this format - Time Travel Pod.  This really was a funny game, making jokes every action or so it felt very loose.  I eventually solved two missions for 65 points and was on my way to Impose Order when he decided to use the Time Travel Pod.  I tried to slow him down by using a Q-Tent between his OP and the mission but eventually, he got through and eventually solved the mission for the win.  (15-9)

 Round 3-5 were just a blur to my memory and I didn't even write anything down, I just remember winning them.  (18-9)

 Round 6 vs. Zoltan.  I did my biggest bonehead move of the tournament, uncovering my own self-seeds at a space mission on turn 2, resolving all the cards there but obviously not solving the mission right then and there.  His bonehead move - Tripping his own Tsi Infection, removing Suna's Medical, wiping out his ship (except the people stopped, according to the TD, go figure), giving me a free mission, which I did solve.  His Pardek was relocated on the wrong side of a Q-Net, limiting his mission selection to one at the moment since he self-seeded underneath my OP mission.  I can't remember the score at this point but near the end of the game, I realized that I could've solved both Establish Relations and Explore Typhone Expanse on my next turn but I wanted him to clear out some dilemmas.  So I suggested that he attempt it, not expecting what would come next.  I have already decked out at this moment whereas he has 5 cards in his draw deck left.  Eventually, he attempts it with one Science who dies to Unscientific Method.  What does he hit next?  Iconian Computer Weapon.  How many cards does he draw up?  5.  Game ends with a tie if memory serves, I can't remember.

 Eventually the Return to Farpoint tournament ends and I haven't made my End of Days deck  Return to Farpoint format which has been a popular format in Germany in which you get through each expansion of the game, a couple packs at a time, building a new deck after each round as it were when you add new packs.  It would've been fun to play in but that wasn't possible for me, you had to win one of the earlier formats during the year and I obviously couldn't have done that..

 The End of Days scenario had its own odd requirements.  1) It was a multi-player format, with each person having their own spaceline and a "Black Hole" in the middle of these spokes, which cannot be closed.  2) Fair Play is banned.  3) At the end of every player's turn, one mission is sucked into the Black Hole.  4) The game is done when there's no more missions left to solve.  I would've played a Romulan/Vidiian mission stealer since there's no Fair Play but unfortunately the weekend was so long, this format takes so long to play and there was no interest at the time to do so, so we didn't do it.  Would've been interesting though.

 All good things must come to an end and this was no exception.  I was tired in every facet of the word.  Eventually everyone made their good-byes, a few of us made plans to have dinner at, of all things, a McDonald's.  We went up to Laszlo's room for Kirsten's stuff and I was surprised at just how small the room was.  It was even smaller than my dorm room with two sets of bunk beds and very little else.  But I'm sure that the room could've withstood practically a missile shot directly towards it, the walls were that thick of concrete.

 Eventually, we went back to Michael's place and we discussed on the way just how and when Kirsten and I were going to get me to the airport, since I left the next day.  Since Michael had work on Monday, we had to leave early that morning to catch the train to the airport.  At that point, I was doing good just getting my legs to walk in a straight direction, my visual acuity was that horrid.  I needed to close my eyes, which is exactly what I did when I got there.  I didn't sleep per se, or at least I don't think I did, but my eyes were immediately closed.  They showed their appreciation by stop burning similar to a frying pan over an open fire.

 I was still tired as hell but I made it up out of the couch and walked down to the McDonald's, constantly looking for an ATM because I was broke on German money and somehow I don't think they'd take Andrew Jackson.  So, I didn't get to fulfill my hope of not spending more than I came here with but at least I was close.  We get to McDonald's and… there's no one there.  The Hungarians must've changed their mind or went to the wrong place (which is easily possible, cab drivers must be insanely gifted to navigate through that) since they never showed up but Cenric, his girlfriend and Marc did.  However, McDonald's was closed shortly after they arrived so we went in search for a different restaurant, eventually settling on a tiny (I'm guessing Italian) restaurant.

There's nothing like trying to order food in a different language that makes you look like a complete idiot.  Going through the menu, I floundered through the different kinds of foods, not to mention trying to find anything that's kosher.  Sheepishly, I kept asking Kirsten what this or that was, eventually settling on a multiple-cheese only pizza and some Sprite-like soda as I attempted to order my food but I couldn't pronounce it so Kirsten had to order it for me.  The low light and the exhaustion tried to take control as I listened to the mostly German conversation.  I went to the bathroom and basically drowned my face in water.  After that, I was doing okay.  I know that they were trying to be nice, trying to get me able to talk and for that, I appreciate it.  Frankly, I just wish that I could've spoken German back.  Didn't seem fair to me.  After dinner, I basically collapsed into sleep on the floor at Michael's and I'm surprised that I even got the sleeping bag and sleeping mat out before losing consciousness.

11) The Way Home

 I enjoyed my sleep immensely, not dreaming but just sleep.  I managed the difficult task of still packing everything that was mine into the bag. Which is quite impressive, considering that it was packed full to begin with.  After breakfast, in which I showed them that I simply can't open a simple milk carton, I said good-bye to the two of them, thanked them for the wonderful time and proceeded to hurry out of there because we were late to reach the train.  Unfortunately, the train system was definitely late so our hurried state was for nothing, except for the spectacle I made of myself by spilling my milk carton on the table.  Big bag + klutzy American = mess.  In any case, we made it to the train and rode to Hannover.

 The trip was quite subdued as she was still quite tired.  When we got to Hannover, however, we tried to run through the train station because the train was late and the connection was on time but alas, it was not meant to be so we waited outside.  I saw the next arriving train and thought that was ours so we boarded it only to realize after we left that it was, in fact, the wrong train.  Luckily, it stopped at one of stops that the train we wanted stops at.

 My flight was early so when we arrived at the airport, I could check in early.  She was just exhausted so she just went home and I'm sure fell asleep like a rock.  It was here, however, that the evil of airplane travel arrived.  My bag was too heavy for the airplane according to the scale so I had to… check my bag.  Every single time I've checked my bag, I've lost it.  Now, this is the bag with practically every single ST rare I own and I don't have travel insurance.  But I had no choice.  I was hoping that, since it was one of the tiny planes, I could take my bag off when I landed.  Again, I was denied.  The airport security people wouldn't let me even get a chance to see if it even made it on the plane.  I was annoyed.

 I made it to the airport in Amsterdam and thought, "This is my chance to finally meet her, I have plenty of time, etc. etc."  Only problem was, I had no idea how I could even get out of the secured area, in fact I found it out on accident.  But when I got out there, no her.  So I decided to look around and I have to admit, I was marveled.  It was huge and I just had to look around.  I, wisely, ate at the Burger King while I looked for, specifically, an Internet connection.  They had those Net-Phone type interfaces that I've seen in other airports but for whatever reason, it wouldn't connect.  I found a business traveler computer center however, so I went online.

I have dial-up at home so imagine my shock when I was given a T1 connection on my nice flat-screen computer in front of me.  I needed it as I had to go through literally hundreds of e-mails.  Poor Yahoo account, it was up to 98% capacity when I got to it (it was at 12% when I left, just to give you some kind of idea) but thanks to the connection, I had over twenty minutes left, which was a good thing because it was just as I finished my computer time that I hear my name clearly over the airport intercom system.  I go to the information desk I had just passed and was handed a phone.  They said it was from my girlfriend, which I knew just couldn't be done for a variety of different reasons (such as not having one).  It was Maike on the phone, telling me that she was sorry that she couldn't meet me at the airport, etc.  We'll just try some other time and I made the comment that she didn't sound like I expected.  However, I was running out of time and I needed to catch my plane so the phone call was brief.  I ran to the music store to get some music to listen to and ran out, leaving my card carrier on the counter.  I'd like to think it was intentional just to talk to the clerk more (great smile, dark blue eyes and she thought I was funny, great combination, curse the lack of time) but in any case I ran down the corridor to my flight.

Now I know why this particular plane was crowded - several high school classes were on their way back to Minneapolis after spending who knows how long in Europe.  Bags and bags of carry-ons were searched as the very full plane was slowly boarded.  Eventually, I get my turn and since I had no carry-on luggage except what was in my coat, the officer asked me more questions.  After I told him that I was coming from Germany after playing in the ST tournaments, I was floored when he asked if I had a Dr. McCoy for trade.  Without missing a beat I told him that I had gotten only one from my Tribbles purchases but I did have the Vash that he was looking for, except that it was hopefully in the cargo hold of the airplane.

I made it on the plane and tried to relax but with the same kind of plane as the flight over here, comfort just wasn't going to happen, especially surrounded by lots of restless teenagers.  It just made me turn up the headphones more except that I had to turn it off before take off.  Then, because of the bad weather, we had to be taxied to another runway.  To add insult to injury, we had to add fuel to the plane due to the bad weather in Minneapolis and the lost fuel from taxiing.  For the hat trick, the refueling truck stalls right in front of the plane.  The plane was delayed by more than an hour at least.  Eventually, we took off.  I remember seeing The Mummy Returns but the second movie apparently made no impact on me since I can't remember it anymore.  Between me forcing myself to sleep and my listening to my new music (new Jamiroquoi and Miseducation of Lauryn Hill), I wasn't paying much attention.  It was only when we got close to Minneapolis that I hoped that I didn't miss my flight.  My original flight to Portland was late enough as it was, I didn't even want to think about the possibility of missing it.

When you fly back into the US, even if it's not your final destination, you still have to claim your luggage in the first place you land at and this was Minneapolis.  So I had to wait for my bag.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait.  It was over twenty minutes before my bag even made its presence known, leaving me exactly 8 minutes to get through the rest of customs, run across the airport carrying a 40+ pound bag.  Taking off my jacket and placing my bag in the x-ray machine, I was glad that the metal detector didn't go off.  My kingdom for a baggage cart, I thought to myself as I lugged my bag on my bad shoulder across the airport.  I was re-searched and checked at the gate, the flight was delayed due to snow, thank the Lloyd.  It took me a while to breathe again as my mild asthma had a few words to say about my running without warning but I made it on the plane in probably the most comfortable place in coach - the seat before the emergency exit.  I could extend my legs out to the farthest that they could and finally relax, which I did all the way back to Portland, a trip finally concluded.

12) Summary

 I ended up losing 11 rating points in Constructed, about 30 in Sealed but I had fun, which was the most important part.  I won two tournaments, unfortunately both were unsanctionable, won around two-thirds of my games, which includes sealed deck so I was naturally pleased with myself.   It reaffirmed that I could still play this game that I do enjoy, even if I make decks that sometimes don't appear like I want other people to enjoy themselves.  I do want to thank the organizers of the Grand Prix Con for putting up with my repeated e-mails and even more constant questions of "Huh?" and "Say what?"  I want to thank all the players that I met at the Con for the wonderful time, especially the Hungarians, which were just plain funny and made me feel less of an outsider.  Thanks to Michael for putting up with a practically never-unconscious houseguest, Marcus for his help on the main tournament deck as sounding board to a less logical being.  Most of all, I want to thank Kirsten for making the trip all possible for without her, I wouldn't have gone, because after all, even in English, I need a translator ;-)  Anyway, I'm done now and if you made it this far, I'm impressed ;-)  Comments always welcomed - theninjascot@yahoo.com.
.

Ciao for now,
Michael van Breemen