A weekend off

I played in the Sardinia Open today, winning the tournament with a 3-0 score. It was a smaller field than the October edition, and the other three players were rated class D or below. Nevertheless the games were enjoyable, and it was a lot of fun to play in a chess tournament again. I reached the position below in the last round against Antonio Cirelli; after 19. Rb1 Black is hard-pressed to stop Bg4+ Kb8 Qxc6. But his try in the game didn't save him.

19. ... b6 20. Qxc6 Qxa2 21. Rc1 Rd7 22. Qa8#

After a series of delays, I had my final supervisor evaluation on Thursday at the ambulance company where I've started working. Until now my shifts had been part of my "new hire" time, meaning I'd been assigned a field training officer with whom I would ride along while learning the ropes at the company. As my training time drew to a close, however, we hit a prolonged dry spell with virtually no calls, so I had to extend my ride time. I finally cleared on Thursday, though, which means I will be able to start signing up for shifts next week.

In other news, the series finale of "Monk" aired last night. I remember watching the series premiere, all the way back in July of 2002. And I wish I could say I watched the (entire) finale, but due to a misunderstanding with the DVR, I only saw the first thirty minutes. So no one tell me what happens!