Day 330: Saturday

Working backward today.

I signed-out of work at 9:15ish after started back at 8ish at night. This is working India time. Our team is partially in India, so we are starting in their morning. So far, they don’t need my help.

We ordered from Saigon Bowl some Beef Pho and spice noodle items. Susie was tired, and so I delivered peanut butter toast and a glass of milk on a tray in the bedroom–snack in bed. As usual with Pho, you get a huge soup of broth and meat. The noodles, and veggies, and spices come in different containers to mix and match. We got out our largest bowl and made the usual messy but good dinner. I used Door Dash.

We had tried to order from other places, but they were all closed this Saturday night.

Evan came over, and we played three games. We could not finish Architects of the West Kindom as I had to return to work, and it is hard to eat soup and play a game and not make a disaster. So I surrendered to Evan. I was ahead when we stopped, but Evan has pulled off some sudden extra point combination and taken the game before. We play with the Age of Artisans add-on and a few promo cards too. The revisions make the game just a bit better and more fun to play.

Evan and I played The King Is Dead, Second Edition game twice today. I won both games, but it is a hard game to get your head around. You are trying to collect support for one of three possible pretenders to the throne: Scotts, Brits, Welsh. You try to manipulate the supports in the various areas and France. You have eight actions to take. It is tough to set the stage and then let it play-out while your competitor is trying to do the same thing. We did not yet have a good understanding of the game, but it plays fast, and it is easy to understand. We played two learning games.

Before that, we play Concordia for a few hours. We played using the large Europe and Mediterranean map, adding in the Forum from the Salsa add-on. I managed to pull ahead and stay there. The cloth cities were close to Rome, so I abandoned my normal run away to my own corner plan and instead built-up right in the center of the board. I was then able to easily harvest resources and use them to keep expanding. Evan also had luck as he pulled the Weaver and Vinter card before I could snag them. So it was a busy game of building up trading empires in the old Roman empire. I had some amazing luck on cards and how the board random city assignments aligned.

We had to put Concordia on hold and pop over to Golden Valley Brewery to get snacks for the Super Bowl tomorrow. They also had a special on wines, so I got two bottles of Intrinsic for 50% off. We opened one for tonight. Evan said it was great, and I thought it a very nice wine.

Concordia is a fav, and I thought a link to a review of the game would be good for those wondering: Shutup Review. This group, Shutup & Sitdown, reviews lots of games, and I recommend them–they are fun to watch.

Before Evan got here, I was online in Zoom meetings. We are still having some issues that will run into the weekend. I started about 7:20ish and was dressed and ready for the first meeting at 9ish.

18,895 people received the vaccine in Oregon yesterday. This number will likely increase as it takes 72 hours to collect all the data. Our county, Washington, is now above 8% vaccinated.

2,730 people are reported to have died from Covid-19 in the USA today.

Who can’t love a song with a title like this, and it seems to fit my day: New Heaven & Earth – Epic Song of Revelation.

It has been an epic day!