We went to bed at 1 AM after working on our puzzles. Up at 6:30 and went to the gym. Another beautiful day on the Mountain. Can't believe how perfect the weather is. Warm, sunny and we don't even need to wear jackets. Amazing.
At the fitness center I did my half-hour on the elliptical and Suzanne worked on the treadmill. Then we sat in rocking chairs on our porch and looked at the mountains while we drank our coffee. Following that we enjoyed breakfast with other WOW (Wonderful World of Words) folks and sat at the leaders' table, then out to the expansive veranda overlooking the lake to work on our puzzle packets.
At 10 AM John Williams spoke. As I said earlier he's the exec of the ScrabbleTM association. His presentation was hilarious and also informative. We learned that a new ScrabbleTM dictionary is out and the new words come into effect in 2006. One new one is qi which will make tons of people happy. It's always nice to find a new q word, but a two-letter one is a real gift. Qi is a variation of chi as in tai chi. Another new word is za. Short for pizza. I love that one too.
Afterward our friend, Dave, drove Suz and I into town so I could get some shoes, since you can't wear sneakers into the dining room for dinner. Found some fairly inexpensive ones, stopped at Starbucks and then made our way back to the mountain to meet everyone for lunch.
Will Shortz (puzzle guru for the NY Times) gave us some Mental Olympics in the afternoon and pitted one side of the room against the other. Great fun.
At 4 they had booksignings and I bought John's book. I already owned all of David's (except one). Will and Dan had signings too but there was such a crowd I didn't even really look at their books.
At 6 the speakers and guests were invited to Gloria and Larry's suite for tails before dinner. Really fun and most folks took lots of pictures (not me, I'd left my camera in our room).
Finally, after dinner we had Games Night which I absolutely loved. My table consisted of Jane and John Williams and Suzanne. We played Thryme. Every table played different games and the winner at the table got to keep the game. Let's just say there will be one extra box in my suitcase tomorrow. :)
Had drinks with Dave and the folks at my table, then went to bed around midnight. Another wonderful wonderful day at WOW. I present tomorrow morning. More later.
EDITING to say, I can't believe I forgot to mention Monk(Joanne) and Frank. They drove all the way from Queens to spend the best part of Saturday with us. It was so awesome having them here. Wish they could have stayed longer, but I know they'll be here next year.
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