Kickback in Gatlinburg
This was my most fun hand of the Gatlinburg tournament. I was playing with MiniMeck and white vs. red, I picked up: ♠ T, ♥ Txxx, ♦ AJTx, ♣ AJxx. It’s 2♥ -X to me. Obviously, I bid 4♠, which is by agreement RKC Blackwood for hearts. LHO, who happened to be Barbara Heller, doubles, Matt redoubles, showing 0 or 3 keycards, pass and I bid 5♥. Hey, 6♥ could make opposite this if Matt happens to have AK and a minor suit K and a minor suit singleton, which is barely possible. Anyway, LHO, put to a guess about the proper level and denomination, opted for 6♣ with her ♠Axxxx, ♥A, ♦x, ♣QT9xxx, which was off 2.
Gatlinburg was, as it usually is for me, short and sweet with lots of bridge, beer, socializing, and driving crammed into a weekend. MiniMeck, Arjun, Ricoh, and I managed a satisfying 8th in A/X in the Sunday Swiss, which was my only notable result in 2.5 days there.
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#172 Banking is huge in Charlotte. Bank of America is based in Charlotte. They own the football stuaidm. Wachovia is also based here.Merial tried to get me to move to Atlanta and I used to travel a lot with Lucent to Atlanta. Dont live in Atlanta if you live on the wrong side of the highway it will take forever for you to get to work.My suggestions is simply check Wachovia, BOA, TIAA-CREF, SunTrust websites and also all the other job sites and talk to them. They will tell you what you can make.As a breakdown here is my NJ/NC comparison.NJ:House Worth 500K (27 years old 2,000 sq ft)Needed Roof, Pool Liner, Fence Replaced, Kitchen Remodeled.Taxes 6500 a yearCommute 1.25 hours each wayNC:House Cost: 257K 2.25 years ago now worth 315K its 2.5 years old. 3,067 sq ft, all new appliances, lake access, community pool. Taxes 2400 a year. 45 minute commute. Needed a fence which cost us 2500 I think?Car insurance is half the cost of NJ thats a no brainer.Living in North Carolina:Skiing 2 hours away. Not Vermont but ok you can always go to west Virginia which has some vermont quality to it. On par with small NY and PA ski areas. Remember we have the Rocky Mountains here.Scuba Diving in Lake and 2.5-3 hours to the shore. But there is rock quarry also.Disney is 8 hours, Florida is 5 hours away. We drove it.Six Flags No Gang wars that I know of.Water training park for white water rafting.Parks like you cannot believe like grizzly adams.Mountains galore with plenty of things for the kids to do. They love gem mining.Cruises out of Charleston, SC about 2 hours away we havent been there yet.No locals but when you meet one they are the nicest people most people you meet are from NY.NO SNOW although I saw flakes it didnt stick We do get ice.NC is the new Florida without the old people.Only complaint is for a Nascar area they cant drive worth squat but you can cut them off and they dont follow you home or even beep the horn.Little traffic and its because of the growth but road widening and new bridges are going in.I love the 4th of July it rocks everyone is blowing something off and were not talking itty bitty bottle rockets were talking boom stick baby. Seriously every direction you look there is fireworks.Everyone here is someone like you that just wanted to get out of the rat race and working to live instead of living to work.