Update

At last we got some dry weather on Friday, but the rain returned during the night. The only creatures enjoying the rain are the mosquitoes. Down in Southeast Texas Jefferson County has the Mosquito Control District. It is a year round battle to control mosquitoes down here. I checked the Denton County web site to see if they mentioned mosquito control. I did not find one word. I don't think anything is being done to control the mosquitoes around here. The rain is causing problems with the man-made lake we in our subdivision. Last year it was so dry I didn't think I would ever see much water in the lake. I would like to find the government agency who should be doing something about the mosquitoes.

 

On Thursday I did manage to go to Sam's Club and get resupplied. I did not have to go without my breakfast orange juice. Thursday afternoon I went to the quarterly board meeting of the Frisco Lakes directors. Not much happened. I did get to hear the new board president. I did not go to the meeting that was held Tuesday night to introduce him because of the rain. He is new on the job and has a lot to learn.

 

Thursday evening I went to the camera club meeting. There was a fairly large turnout. I think in time the camera club will be an interesting group. Our chairman was not able to make his planned presentation because there was no Internet connection in the room where the computer projector was set up. Three of us who went on the trip to the Fort Worth Zoo showed our pictures.

 

I am continuing to read a chapter a day of the Bridge for Dummies book. I am going very slowly and making sure I understand what I am reading. I do think it is helping my play. I hope my fellow bridge players agree. I think after I finish the book I will read it a second time.

 

I am continuing to walk on the indoor track. I increased the number of laps I walked yesterday. My knee is not bothering me. If the knee starts to hurt, I am not going to keep walking. I learned my lesson on that matter.

 

I bought a spindle of DVD's at Sam's on Thursday. I did a complete image backup of the computer. I want to back up my personal files to DVD's before I format the external drive to NTFS. The Windows Vista backup program requires that the drive have the NTFS format. Then I will do both the file backup and image backup to the external drive. When I accomplish that, I will feel safe in installing iTunes.

Not Desperate Yet, But. . . .

I am out of orange juice, and I finished my last carton of yogurt yesterday. The rain continues. I thought I would go to Sam's Club today no matter what, but now I am having second thoughts. Frisco Lakes and my house are just fine. We are on rather high land so there is no danger of being flooded. My worry is getting caught in a downpour and having to drive on flooded streets. In Beaumont I knew where to expect flooding, but I do not know what streets are prone to flooding around here. In Beaumont there was a grocery store exactly one mile from my house. There is an Albertson's that is fairly close to me now, but since I am unwilling to make a left turn onto FM 423 I have to drive much farther to reach Albertson's when using my avoid left turn route.

 

Yesterday a nice lady from the Beaumont area posted comments on this blog. She offered to send me something from Beaumont if there was anything I wanted. That started me thinking. I decided there is something from Beaumont that I miss, but it can't be sent to me. I would like a good fresh seafood platter at one of the very good restaurants in SE Texas. This area has many fine restaurants, but they just don't have that combination of fresh seafood and Cajun seasoning that abounds in SETX.

 

Guess what! I have finally found something about Vista that I like. Yesterday I read an article about Vista recovery strategies. The article mentioned a tool called Reliability Monitor in Vista. The Reliability Monitor keeps track of Windows crashes, application failures and hardware problems. The author of the article said his computer had a 7.95 out of ten reliability index. I loaded the utility and found my computer has a 7.65 reliability index. What I really liked was a graph that plotted problems by date. There was a red X on every day that my computer had a problem. Clicking on a red X opened a window with a description of the problem. Every one of the abnormal shutdowns that has plagued my computer has been plotted. All of this information is being send to Microsoft. There is also a problem report section in Vista, and it alerts you to updates and patches from third party vendors. On the surface Vista is very similar to XP, but these new tools are a definite improvement. More updates were installed on my computer yesterday. The first time it was restarted after the installation it did not establish a WiFi connection, but It was able to do a complete shutdown. When I started it the second time the WiFi connection was established, and there have been no more problems.

 

I went for my walk yesterday morning and used the new tally counter. It is a little larger that I like, but I found a way to hold it in my left hand so I can punch the lever with my thumb each time I complete a lap. I will go back tomorrow morning. I am going to stick to one mile, three times a week for two more weeks. Then I will either start walking a longer distance or start walking five days a week. Several years ago my right knee started hurting after I over did the walking. It put an end to the walking for several years. Now I am being very careful.

My Life Since Friday

Saturday morning I again went to the village center and walked a mile on the indoor track. I really do need the tally counter to keep track of the laps. I thought I had counted correctly and completed a mile. When I checked my pedometer, it said my distance was only 0.84 miles. I walked some more until it said 1.08 miles. The tally counter was received in the Dallas Post Office on Saturday so I should receive it today.

 

Saturday evening I went to the Flix and Mingle gathering at the village center. The movie was The Prestige. I checked the Internet Movie Database. The Prestige received an 8.4 out 10.0 user rating. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I was in absolute misery as I watched the movie. I would rate it as one of the worst ever. I don't think the user rating at Frisco Lakes would have been more than 1.5 out of 10.

 

I really, really miss listening to podcasts on my iPod. Yesterday afternoon I began to wonder if Microsoft's music player called the Zune worked with Windows Vista. It costs $200, and I don't like the idea of spending that much when I have a perfectly good iPod. After I read some reviews of the Zune I realized I would not be happy with one after using the iPod. I then looked at Apple's web site and saw that Vista was now listed as a supported Windows operating system for iTunes 7.2. I read the tech. notes. The only problem Apple now mentions is with computers with SATA drives and Nvidia controllers. My computer has SATA drives and the Intel controller. I then did more Google searches and read reports of iTunes 7.2 working, but the users were also upgrading to a new version of the Intel Matrix Storage Console.

 

I then reread the article in the Sony Knowledge Base. It said to check with the music player application publisher for a Vista compatible version before installing. iTunes is now Vista compatible. I then called Sony technical support. The tech who answered my call spoke perfect English. At first I thought I was talking to someone in the U.S.; but as the call progressed, I could tell he was not fully understanding my question. He asked me if I wanted to upgrade to the new version of the Intel Matrix Storage Console. I told him I was reluctant to do so. He said he agreed--he used the phrase, if its not broke--don't fix it. I asked him to search the database on the latest information on iTunes. He did said so, and he said there are reports of it now working. He gave me a case number and asked if there was anything else. I thought I would go ahead and get it documented in my record about the problems the PC occasionally has with not doing a complete shutdown or hanging when it is put in the sleep mode. He said there is probably some program still running that conflicts. His solution was to run Windows recovery which would lose all of my data and put the computer back in its original state. I said no thanks to that. This computer shipped with the problem originally.

 

To my dismay, this morning Internet Explorer stopped responding. That happened all the time when I first got the computer, but Microsoft's patches had, I thought, fixed that problem. I finally hit control-alt-delete which brings up a multi-choice screen in Vista. I just chose cancel and was returned to the desktop. IE 7 then shutdown. I thought it would be a good idea to restart the computer. It had a normal shutdown. When I started backup it hung during the loading of Vista. This was a first. I waited and waited. I finally, with much reluctance pressed the power button. The computer shutdown. I then started it again. It came up with a strange new screen that said "Windows Resuming". The bootup completed very slowly, but finally things appeared to be normal. I then did a restart without powering down. The computer rebooted and so far so good.

 

It is frustrating to have spent so much money for a new computer, and then have to contend with these issues. The only thing I can do is hope that the bugs will eventually be removed. In the meantime I keep backing up my data.

Computer and Shopping

Yesterday my computer hung when I tried to put it in the sleep mode. When that happens, I have to hold the power button down until the computer powers off. I hate to do this because I fear that something will get corrupted. At last I finally have a clue as to the source of the problem. I noticed that when I clicked the Start button to put the computer in the sleep mode that the line that says "All Programs" had a a orange-brown glow to it. Some times the buttons in the task bar take on that shade. Anyway when I tried to put the computer to sleep, it hung. I have not had the problem since then and every time I click on the Start button the background of "All Programs" is white. After I saw this I started searching Google. I found user forums where others were having similar problem with Vista shutting down or entering the sleep mode. They were pointing at Nvidia graphics adapter drivers. Bingo! My computer has an Nvidia adapter. This is really good news because now I have hope that eventually there will be a new driver that fixes the problem.

 

The mailman delivered my Bridge for Dummies book from Buy.com yesterday. I started reading immediately. The book is easy reading and makes sense. It seems to be just right for me. It is not too elementary nor too complicated. In the back of the book there are references to Internet web sites where you can play for free. When I finish reading the book, I am going to check those out. I think this book is going to help me more than the lessons.

 

It seems like I have been doing a great deal of online shopping. This morning I ordered a tally counter from Amazon.com. I also ordered Senseo coffee so that my order was over $25 and qualified for free shipping. Since I am walking the laps at the village center the tally counter will help me keep track of how far I walk. I have the pedometer, but now I will have a check on it.

 

The rain is continuing. I don't know if it has rained this morning, but the sky looks like ti could happen at any time. Where is that low humidity that Dallas is supposed to have?

Thursday

Yesterday, UPS delivered my new Red Hat T-shirt. It is better than I expected. I don't think I will have to worry about someone else wearing the same thing. I doubt that too many would find a T-shirt at a place called Costumejewelrywholesale.com.

 

I just came back from my walk on the village center's indoor track. I wore my pedometer and also counted my laps. When my count reached the equivalent of one mile,I checked the pedometer. It said 1.05 miles. I am walking on the outside track. The number of laps that are supposed to equal a mile are probably measured from the middle track. I now have confidence in the accuracy of my pedometer.

 

Intel has posted what is supposed to be a final version of the Matrix RAID controller. It cautions that it should only be installed by very experienced users. That scared me. I am not going to risk messing up my disk drives in order to install iTunes. I am just going to wait for Microsoft or Apple to deliver the fix in a foolproof form.

 

We have been having light rain this morning. I was going to go to Sam's Club and stock up, but the weather is discouraging me. I looked at my list and decided I did not really need to go to Sam's. A trip to the new Wal-Mart store should take care of what I need for several more days.

 

I was hoping that the Bridge for Dummies book would arrive before the Friday bridge game. Buy.com sent me an email on the 18th saying they had shipped the book by the US Postal Service. The tracking information has not updated since the 18th. The post office's tracking data is very poor compared to FedEx and UPS.

Update

Monday I got a phone call to let me know that Tuesday's trip to Fossil Rim Park was going to be postponed until July. They were afraid it would be very muddy and unpleasant after all the rain. Of course, the sun was out on Tuesday, but the rain returned this morning. The trip delay is all right with me, but I am concerned that by July the temperature will be near 100. That will also be very miserable.

 

At last I did a little exercising at the Village Center. I walked on the track. It is some type of rubberized material which is a little kinder to the joints than walking on concrete. I prefer to walk outdoors, but there are so many mosquitoes after all the rain that I am rather fearful to be outside. After I got home from my walk, I found my pedometer, but the display was flashing which indicated it needed a new battery. I searched high and low for the operating instructions and finally found them when I was about ready to give up. I found the battery that the pedometer uses at Target. Later in the afternoon, I went through the calibration procedure so the pedometer is set for the length of my walking stride. I will got back to walk again tomorrow with the pedometer.

 

While I was out yesterday, I went to the two stores that carry Red Hat merchandise. I don't want to wear the same thing to every meeting. I didn't see anything that appealed to me. I came hope and searched the Internet. I found a T-shirt from a place called Costumejewelrywholesale.com. They had a Red Hat T-shirt that I liked. They have a fairly decent rating on Yahoo Shopping so I decided to risk placing an order with them. It turned out they are located in Houston. A couple of hours after I placed the order, they emailed the UPS tracking number to me. The package will be delivered today. That is very good service. I just hope I like the shirt.

 

I noticed this morning that Sony has modified their support website for my computer. They are now recognizing that they do indeed sell the notebook with Windows Vista Business. The update for Sonic Stage is now shown as being compatible with Vista Business. Their knowledge base also has an update on the iTunes/Vista problem with SATA hard drives with RAID implemented. Sony does not mention iTunes. They call it it a "third-party music player application." They say to wait for an updated compatible version of the music player application. Dell, on the other hand, has posted an update for the Intel Matrix controller for RAID. Since the Apple iPod wrecked Sony's Walkman business I am not surprised that Sony is dragging its feet on enabling its Sony Vaio computers with Vista to be able to use iTunes. I really miss listening to podcasts on my iPod.

Rain

The rain is getting to me. It is so similar to what I experienced in Beaumont. The ground is saturated. Yesterday morning there were little lakes all around me. Tomorrow I am going to Fossil Rim Park at Glen Rose. All of my day trips this spring have been marred by rain. The rain coverage falls to 30 percent tomorrow so maybe I will get through the day without too much rain. I am going to take my camera and use the 70-300 mm lens again. I hope this time my pictures will be better than the zoo pictures. I will post a link after I return.

More Than a Week

Someone recently told me that time goes by much faster when you get old. It must be true because I was rather shocked to see a whole week has gone by since I last wrote anything for the blog. The week was filled with the usual canasta game on Monday and the bridge game on Friday. On Wednesday night the mayor of Frisco came to Frisco Lakes and made a presentation on the state of the city. In the late 80's the population of Frisco was under four thousand and now it is between 95 and 100 thousand. It is rather amazing how so much growth has taken place in such a short time. There is a lot that is very good about Frisco. The worst problem the city faces is building roads fast enough to keep pace with the population growth. Of course, the residents were very interested in what the mayor had to say about the expansion of FM 423. He indicated it would be 2011 before 423 is complete. That was something we did not want to hear.

 

On Thursday a friend and I were going to have lunch at Josephine's and use the gift certificate I had won as a door prize. I tried to make a reservation on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning. Both times I got a message that said to leave my name and phone number, which I did the first time, and they would call back. I got no call. When we got to Josephine's, there was a sign on the door that said they were closed for several days for remodeling. That was very strange considering that they are in a brand new location. I am wondering if I will ever get to use the gift certificate. Anyway we decided to go to the mall to have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory which is a favorite of mine. I had their lunch-size salad that was so large that I had them pack what I could not eat, and it was enough for dinner, too. We bought one slice of chocolate, Oreo cookie, mudslide pie cheesecake and took it home and split it. It is nice to have a thin friend who does not mind indulging in something so decadent.

 

Last night I went to the Meet Your Neighbor social. I really enjoyed this one. I am getting acquainted with a number of people through the Frisco Lakes activities. Although I did leave a half an hour before the function officially ended. The acoustics in the ballroom are very bad, and after an hour and a half of being subjected to the noise level, I began to feel light headed. This has happened two or three times at these functions.

 

This morning I went back to hear a nutritionist talk about nutrition for older adults. I can't say I heard anything that I hadn't heard before. I tend to eat canned vegetables more than fresh or frozen vegetables. I know the canned vegetables contain too much salt. I am going to try to switch and buy more frozen vegetables.

 

I am getting ready for the outdoor swimming pool to open. I got a new swimming suit, which I have not worn, last summer. This week a beach jacket and a swimming cap arrived. I got one of those old fashioned caps that is covered with rubber flowers. I also ordered a pair of flip flops which are back ordered, but they should be here in time for the pool opening.

 

This morning I ordered the Bridge for Dummies book from Buy.com. They had an offer that gave $10 off if you signed up for Google Checkout. Google stores your credit card and address information. When you make a purchase from a merchant who participates in the Google Checkout program you just give your Google login and the merchant never sees your credit card information. I listened to Leo LaPorte and Steve Gibson on Security Now. They seem to favor the Google checkout as a good security measure. Anyway I got $10 off my book order.

New Thumb Drive

The Sandisk 8 gb Cruzer Contour arrived yesterday. I connected it to the Canon AIO printer and read the printer manual on how to scan a document to an USB device. It was very simple--not very many buttons to press. The display on the printer told me it was safe to disconnect when the document was saved. I then connected the Cruzer to the computer and copied my document to the computer. Adobe Reader got an update yesterday to version 8.1 which is supposed to be fully Vista capable. I opened the PDF document that the printer produced in Adobe Reader. This is a much easier way to scan than connecting the scanner to the computer like I used to do. The computer has gone a whole week without any hangs or other problems. Palm will soon release a Vista compliant version of their Desktop software. If Apple/Microsoft/Intel would fix the iTunes problem with the SATA disk drives, I will be back to normal.

 

Amazon.com sent an email that said they were refunding $10.15 to me because of the Sandisk Cruzer Contour price drop. The credit has already posted to my credit card. I am very happy with the service I have received from Amazon.

Do Nothing Day

The temperature finally reached the nineties yesterday; and of course, it was the day that we finally got to make our trip to the zoo. The zoo was packed with little children. In spite of the temperature and the children, I was glad that I went. I really do not like the Nikon 70-300 mm lens I bought for my camera. I have not used it very much. I shot all of my pictures with it yesterday. The lens needs to be absolutely steady which requires a tripod. I cannot hold it steady when the lens is fully extended. I only set my tripod up once. It was too much of a hassle with all the little children running around.

 

My camera is three years old already. I bought the Nikon SB-800 flash unit and 70-300 mm lens soon after I got the camera. I used the camera quite often during the remainder of 2004 and in 2005 until the hurricane arrived. After that, I was intent on moving away from Beaumont and I did not use the camera very often . At some point I created a wishlist on the B&H Photo site. It must have been in late 2004. One of the items I put on the list was a Nikon macro lens. Nikon calls them "micro" lenses. This morning I checked to see if my wishlist was still on B&H's site. I remembered my password and my list is still there. Maybe for Christmas I will get the macro lens. There were several items on the list that I still need. The 18-70 mm lens has a filter diameter of 67 mm. The 70-300 mm lens requires 62 mm filters. I have a 67 mm polarizer. I need a step-up ring so I can use the polarizer on the 70-300 mm lens. The step-up ring is also on the wishlist along with several other items that I still want. The wishlist saves me the trouble of searching again for the items I want.

 

I should receive the 8 gb USB flash memory drive from Amazon.com today or tomorrow. They have dropped the price $10.15 from what I paid. I sent them an email and asked them to give me a refund. I hope they are as nice about this one as they were with the printer.

The Frisco Lakes camera club went on a field trip to the Fort Worth Zoo yesterday. This is a link to my pictures: Fort Worth Zoo.

Update

I have now slept on my new mattress and box springs for two nights. The first night I thought it felt pretty good. Last night I tossed and turned a lot. It is classified as extra firm, and it was not an exaggeration. My old mattress was firm, but it was long over due for replacement and had lost much of its support. I think I will be able to adapt to the new mattress. Sunday afternoon a woman called from Macy's delivery service to check that I had received the mattress and find out if everything went well. When I started to tell her about the ridiculous amount of time that was wasted because the driver did not have directions and then how the crew rushed with the setup in order to make up for lost time, she hung up on me. Macy's must record those conversations because later that night a supervisor from Macy's delivery service called from Houston and apologized profusely for the experience. He told me they were going to check into it. I really blame Macy's management for expecting their crews to find addresses solely by GPS. If the software is not up to date, GPS is useless in new neighborhoods.

 

Yesterday when I pulled into the driveway I noticed a shingle was out of place on the roof over the garage. We had a bad storm last Wednesday. Sunday morning there was another storm that had wind and rain but was not as severe as Wednesday. I called my new customer relations manager, Gary. He said he would have a roofer come out and repair it. Yesterday afternoon while I was at canasta a second shingle came off the roof. I found both shingles on the ground at the side of the house. I began to worry that water would leak into the house. I am not strong enough to pull the ladder to the attic down. My friend's husband came over. He went into the attic, and I stuck my head up through the opening. Fortunately neither of us spotted any water stains. Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy. I hope the shingles are replaced today.

 

I managed to find enough ladies who are willing to attend the Red Hat luncheon so we will be going to the Abbey Grill today. I am going to insist we make a decision on the place for our next meeting so we can get the word out to everyone a little more efficiently next month.

 

The canasta group is growing so large that we now have to make reservations in advance. If the number who signs does not fill tables of four the last 1-3 odd people will not be able to play and will be moved to the head of the list for the next week. There is some kind of penalty for being a no show. I tuned the rest of it out. It got too complicated for me. Bureaucracy will follow me to the grave.

 

I checked my order status with Amazon.com, and they are getting read to ship the 8 gb Sandisk thumb drive to me. This is much sooner than they had estimated. I will now be able to scan documents by feeding them to the printer and letting the printer save them to the thumb drive. I will then copy them from the thumb drive onto the computer.

 

I watched a really strange new show on CBS last night. It uses claymation animals. It is called Creature Comforts. I thought it would be some kind of comedy, but it was really different. It was a series of clips on the animals being interviewed. Some of it was very raunchy. I am surprised that CBS would have a show like that at 7 PM.

 

The roofer just arrived. He is replacing the shingles.

Unbelievable

The mattress set that I bought at Macy's on Memorial Day was scheduled to be delivered today. I was told I would be called on Saturday and notified of the delivery window. I had not received a call by 4 PM. I looked at my receipt and saw there was a web address where I could check my delivery status. The website showed that my delivery was scheduled for 9:45 to 11:45. Around 5:30 I finally received a call with the same information. The trouble started about 9:45 this morning.

 

I received a call from one of the delivery men. He said their GPS could not find my street. I told him to go to FM 423 and turn on Stonebrook, etc. About a half hour later I got a call, and he said he had just got off the Tollway and was going west on Stonebrook. I had a hard time making him  understand that Stonebrook was not cut through. He would have to go west on either Lebanon or Frisco's Main St. in order to get to FM 423 in order to enter Frisco Lakes. He called two more times before he finally arrived. He wasted an hour getting here. I have had multiple deliveries from Sears and also Dillard's and never had a experience like this.

 

When they finally got here, they were in a big hurry. The driver tried to get me to sign the paperwork before I had a chance to inspect the mattress. Then they rushed around. He balanced the springs up against my dresser. I am very protective of my furniture and do not want it scratched. They rushed through the set up of the new new mattress and set the old mattress on the wet concrete. If anything had been wrong with the new mattress, I would have been in a bad situation because they had not treated my old mattress with any kind of care. I looked in the truck, and it was fully loaded with mattress sets. There are going to be a lot of unhappy customers today because that pair will be late with the rest of the deliveries.

 

After they left I made up the bed. I only have one set of sheets that has a deep enough pocket in the fitted sheet to go on this mattress. I will now be shopping for sheets. All the old reliable U.S. companies that produced sheets and towels have gone bankrupt. I checked Consumer Reports, and they said they found that all the high thread count information on the imported sheets is just plain wrong. They gave their top rating to sheets with the Sealy brand. I found that both Amazon.com and J.C. Penney's carry them. Next time I go to the mall I will go in Penney's and look at them. The world has changed, and I do not think it has improved.

 

Our Red Hat luncheon is supposed to be this Tuesday. The queen bee has been dealing with family health problems and has been unable to notify the group where we are going on Tuesday. She sent me an email and asked me to get in touch with the group. I sent out an email this morning and have called some of the ladies this afternoon. I arbitrarily said we need a minimum of six in order to hold the luncheon. I think we will have our six and hopefully more. We are going to go to the Abbey Grill on Frisco's Main Street. The building used to be a church. It will be fun to go there.

This and That

Yesterday morning I called the Frisco water department. The lady I spoke with said her computer showed they had received my payment on May 29, and my account balance is $0. She did not want to take the time to listen to me tell her how their Internet site was not acknowledging my payment. I checked again this morning and my payment still does not show. It had always shown my payments the next day after receipt since I first used it last September. I am going to quit worrying about it.

 

Last night I went to the camera club meeting. Barry, the man who works for Canon, gave his presentation on Photoshop. He used the full blown Photoshop CS2 so my problem with importing batches of photos from my hard drive in Photoshop Elements 5 was not addressed. When I came home from the meeting, I started reading the book I bought. It gave me an idea on how to import the photos. This morning I tried the idea, and it did not work. I fumbled around and finally tried File, Get Photos, By Searching. The searching command allows you to bring in a whole folder of photos instead of opening one at a time. I wanted to open batches of photos in the Organizer. I think Photoshop Elements is the most counter intuitive piece of software I have ever attempted to use. I have always been very good at tackling new software and digesting the command structure, but this program is something else. I am glad that Barry lives in Frisco Lakes. It is good to have an astute photographer and computer techie nearby.

 

The computer operated all day yesterday and so far this morning without encountering any of its glitches. If it had problems all the time, there would be hope that they could be fixed, but the random nature of the glitches is most disconcerting. On its good days, I really like this computer.

 

The rain stayed away yesterday but is supposed to be back this evening and over the weekend. The temperature is climbing. With all the moisture and high temperatures, it will be exactly like Beaumont.

 

I am washing my sheets and mattress pad so they will be nice and clean for the new mattress when it is delivered on Sunday. I hope I made the right decision. Picking out a new mattress is difficult.

 

This afternoon I am going to the singles bridge game. Last week eight people showed up. It was nice to have two full tables so we did not have to rotate in and out. I was very lucky and got very good cards. I doubt if my luck will hold for a second week.