Thank you to Fred for updates here for Nationals!  I will be updating my own Scrabble blog (http://mridoutscrabbleblog.blogspot.com/) with my usual game-specific stuff before too long.  

The Fort Wayne experience was great!  The playing room was often cold on my division's side, but the blower white noise probably drowned any possible distracting player talk.  The lobby area's were cavernous and sunshiney with plenty of places to sit, strewn with Scrabble letter-embroidered pillows.  From the giant Scrabble floor-board to decorative tile-filled jars in the restrooms, the Fort Wayne folks truly worked hard to add fun touches, making us feel welcome and hopefully some less nostalgic for the larger cities in which Nationals are usually held.  It's perhaps not a city for the best downtown dining, but when you're with Scrabble friends, all meals are still great. 

 Overall, I hope more non-major metros get their shots at hosting us in the future.  I'd still love to get to New Orleans in 2017, but I can't say I'm looking forward to paying 30% more for rooms and 5x the amount for parking.


From my parents' living room in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, here's your club stats and standings update from this past Sunday's games:

					old	new		avg	avg.		final 2015-16
	W	L	Win %		rating	rating		score	bingos		rating
Steve	15	7	68 %		1701			432	2.13		1736
Will	52	13	80 %		1650			414	1.86		1580
Matthew	58	24	70 %		1615			427	2.08		1677
David	59	26	69 %		1480			404	1.61		1453
Ken	23	8	74 %		1427			412	1.45		1345
Victoria	67	51	56 %		1176	1185		372	1.64		1042
Betty	50	44	53 %		1168	1154		381	1.24		1136
Margaret	23	23	50 %		1093	1083		370	1.04		1090
Wendy	5	7	41 %		954			366	1.25		950
Lisa	5	8	38 %		896			346	1		907
Fred	16	24	40 %		701	730		364	1.45		515
Jan	28	77	26 %		669			331	0.41		778
Janny	25	62	28 %		566	558		314	0.2		479
Deborah	0	2	--		500*			264	--		nr
Jacob	0	3	--		500*			292	0.33		nr
Cheryl	8	46	14 %		306			282	0.16		336