Due to the willingness of Chris the foil fencer (who had been in a 5K run the day before and did very well without training) and KidLazy (who passed up an epee tournament to come), we actually had 15 for the open sabre, but because we didn't have enough ratings it was only a D1. Meng thought it was a 3:00 tournament but we called him and woke him up, so he made it in.

I had Kiersten, Nick, Ben, KidLazy, Donna, and Anthony Giunipero from the USNA in my pool. My goal was to lose no more than two. I lost to Nick 4-5 because I didn't go back enough in the final touch, and to Anthony 3-5 because he was going fast and waving his blade around (he hit me on the butt, the back, the hand, and the crotch at various points in the bout). However, he was a good guy and wasn't being a jerk about it, so I didn't take it personally--he said they don't get much coaching.

My first DE was with Kiersten and she was being a little wild so I mostly just made her miss and hit her. I had a little talk with her afterwards; she is intimidated by me and shouldn't be, because she fences me all the time. Donna does so well against me because she works really hard on figuring me out.

KidLazy had a hard time with another USNA fencer, Joe Cuschieri, and ended up losing, though he managed to keep his sabre U thereby (he has the ambition of being highest unrated fencer in the Sabre Khan). I was a little disappointed because Joe is a foil fencer (yeah, an epee fencer lost to a foil fencer in a sabre bout -- where's that at?) and not real complicated, and I had been looking forward to fencing KidLazy again. Joe beat me 15-14 by basically forcing through my parries, par for the course when I'm fencing an uncomplicated young man. However, it was not a bad bout. I needed to step back on my parries--I got too many of them without stepping back, and I was tired, so I over-relied on that. Joe was very nice about it, too.

There had been an upset in the Nick-Ben bout, with Ben winning 15-14 (lots of 15-14 bouts) but Jessi1 defeated Ben (15-14 again) and Ahren defeated Joe Cuschieri. The final was between Jessi1 and Ahren, and Ahren won 15-9. Joe Cuschieri earned an E, so it was nice that we had 15--at least someone earned a classification.

Everyone wished me good luck in France. I am already grouchy and surly about it, which is par for the course with me and peak tournaments. Kiersten asked me what the matter was, and I said I was overweight, getting older, everything hurt, and everyone has been improving since I fenced them last. "Sounds like someone needs a nap," she said.

I'll fence tomorrow. Jessi1 said she would try to make it in if I was there by 7:00 even though it's Rosh Hashanah. That would be nice, as she is very much the kind of fencer I'm likely to run into.

Ahren brought in a couple of USA patches from Marx for my knickers in case the faded insignia (they faded right after I got them stenciled last summer) cause any problems. I'll bring a needle and thread with me just in case.