The morning was a struggle as I was up late coming back from a Broadway Show last Friday night. I managed to do the needed things and use the last of the instant coffee, Maxwell House. I headed to the Saturday version of 1 train, and folks are less masked on the weekend. But, I still felt safe, so I managed to be 30 minutes late, but there was no wait at the hospital security. They put my image on the sticker, and the sticker states which floor(s) I am allowed; there is a place for a round sticker saying that my vax state is good. Surprisingly, they were out of stickers. Nobody noticed as I have a separate sticker for vax status. Again, security knew me and asked me how Susie was.
Susie was not dressed but had finished breakfast. So we are back to Anne O as Susie’s nurse over the weekend. We all agreed that Susie should get dressed in regular clothing. So Susie spent the day dressed.
Susie had a rest day with no treatments or tests. So we found something to put on the TV and relaxed a bit. That means I fell asleep in the chair a few times.
I also received some laundry to do. This Sunday morning (when I am writing this) was another laundry day.
Susie and I tried a few games of Solitare together to have something to do, and it helped Susie a bit. We won one and lost one.
I also did my newest mentalism card trick that I picked up at the magic store in NYC, Tannen’s. I managed to not botch the trick as the cards are new and slippery. Susie loved it. I prepared two versions of it in my passport holder, so I did it twice for Susie.
I headed out 4ish as I had to meet Kat in a new location, Magnolia Bakery. So I headed to Columbus Circle to discover a big party was ramping down. Two streets were closed off, and a gal was belting out newish rock. So I found a cup of coffee and a table to wait for Kat.
Kat showed soon, and we purchased excellent banana puddings, Kat’s fav, and took the Q line from 57th station to Upper East Side. A decidedly cleaner train than the 1 train I ride. We reached the East Side with surprising dispatch and walked a few blocks to our target, Natasha and Jason’s place.
Kat knew the rituals with the doorman, and soon we were on the 15 and found TJH (Tash’s and Jason’s House).
Dinner was grilled on the roof community space with an excellent view of NYC. The steaks were perfect, as were the sides. TJH is the best steakhouse I have been to in NYC!
I then taught, and we played a game of Concordia. This is a fav and Kat had played with me when she was in Oregon a few months ago with her parents. So Kat had a handle on the game. This is a resource and worker placement game using a deck-building mechanism to allow the player more options. Each turn, a card is played, and the action(s) on the card is done. For example, the placement of trading houses over the Roman times and managing resources for that would be a good game, but adding card purchasing and super-powers in the cards makes it an excellent game. The scoring is based on how many Roman providences you trade-in, how many non-brick trading posts you have, and how many different types of items you trade. This is multiplied by the kinds of cards you have at the end of the game.
I explained the game using the board as my starting point. I have taught this game a few times, so I covered what is needed to play. The scoring at the end-of-game is too complex to cover (it needs to be experienced), but I ensured that Natasha and Jason were building trading houses that would score well. Natasha figured it out beat us, and Jason followed next in scoring. And Kat knocked me to last place. I am not sure who was teaching whom!
We finished the puddings after I tried out my mentalism trick. I managed to hold it together, and they were surprised by the ending, which has a neat double punch. B Wave deluxe is an excellent purchase from Tannen’s. It is a packet card trick for those who speak magician with the original known as Brain Wave before the last revisions.
Kat and I traveled back to our lairs. I transferred trains to the West Side at Times Square. And managed to get back about 2ish. It is a hard start on Sunday. Laundry.
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