Women are united in finale....NOT

Starting out the new year on the right foot, the Friends and Neighbors Hearts Club converged on founder and president Beth's house on the third Saturday of the month.  Expectations were not very high after the piss poor attendance figures were released for the December meeting but the traffic jam and valet parking gave indications that this month's meeting could break all previous attendance records.  After slipping a neighborhood kid $10 bucks to watch his car, Dan entered the arena house declaring "I didn't bring enough score sheets!" While attendance was at an impressive 15, turns out the excess number of cars that caused the parking problem was for an event at the school and not for the monthly battle to establish hearts supremacy.

Seeing there would be four tables, Mark knew that he would have to adjust his normal strategy that has led to so many past victories.  A seat at the victor's table via the tainted victory route was out and he knew it was unlikely that the stars would be aligned so that he could pull off the controversially legendary Super Taint ( http://lisleheartsclub.blogspot.com/2010/07/hearts-101-mastering-super-taint.html ).  Who knows what type of shenanigans this club is willing to accept? There was an unconventional three handed finale last month!!!

As the contenders were separated from the pretenders in the preliminary rounds, some of the also rans started to talk about how playing with other first round casualties in a meaningless game would be more enjoyable than playing for the coveted trophy.  "Poor Dan, he has to play for the trophy while we get to play with each other" (hey now!).  Sour grapes can leave a bad taste in the mouth boys.

The trophy was all but being handed to Sue as she built what appeared to be an insurmountable lead but in an unlikely turn of events, Jan and Terri appeared to abandon the "I am Woman hear me roar!" united front and throw the victory to Dan.  Not to worry though, a champ is only a champ for 4 short weeks and then the title is back up for grabs.