Today 8Feb2023: Crazy Wedneday

The morning starts at 6AM with my alarm and this time I woke a few times at night and was a bit tired when I started. But I was not exhausted like a few days ago; I just thought 6AM was f**king early. I started the coffee water and then did all my exercises (after checking that there was no emergency at work) and stretches. I was reading emails (mine and the shoe company’s), Slack messages, and the news. The loss of life in Turkey is beyond imagination–7,000+ killed and uncounted folks homeless in the winter (due to poor adherence to construction standards despite having revised them after the last disastrous earthquake). I mostly ignored the love/hate news about President Biden’s speech. I soon was out of time and showered and dressed. I had coffee and a banana for breakfast and took the rest of the coffee to work in my thermal mug.

I left at 7:30AM in Air Volvo but still managed to play connect the school bus a few times. So I did arrive before eight and started my ninety minutes of status and update meetings. During the meetings, I would multi-task, read emails and Slack messages, and make updates. It is a hectic time.

I managed to slip near 11 to see Susie. Susie was delighted to see me after a short trip on the highway. The exit before mine on 217 was blocked by an unmoving truck. Folks were trapped in their cars on the off-ramp that was more a bridge than a road. I was happy to reach Susie without incident as I had a meeting with my boss at 1PM. We managed to call Susie’s mother, Leta, and talk to her for a while. We also reached Dr. Peter Koper, our former English professor from CMU, and had a lovely brief chat with him. Soon, I needed to leave. Susie did not want me to go but understood it was a workday, and I had appointments to keep. I stopped at Chipotle and had a rice bowl. It tasted fresh, and I enjoyed it. I think I would rather have lettuce than rice. I had chips and a Diet Coke.

I rushed back, and my boss was ready for me; not my planned meeting, but a crisis to resolve. I spent the afternoon communicating with folks and trying to find resolutions for the various issues. I was busy all afternoon on this issue. I had to also keep covering the other crises that were popping up. So I was going non-stop all afternoon.

I left near 5PM and enjoyed slow rush-hour Beaverton traffic. I stopped at Dave’s Hot Chicken as it was on my way, and wanted to try it. The portions are enormous, and the medium is a fried chicken strip of white meat encased in a tar-like spice crust which was interesting. I can’t say I did not like it. It was more than I wanted to eat, and I had to throw some out. I had a chocolate shake with it, and that was quite good. So I am unsure about the place; mild is on for next time, and just one chicken strip. I can’t decide if I hate it or if it is unique and I should like it.

After the dinner experiment with spice-encased fried chicken strips, I headed to First United Methodist Church in Beaverton, just beyond Old Town. I met Zophia to play games while her mother, Dondrea, practiced in the church band. Tonight Zophia first struggled to learn Wingspan, a new game. It takes about three plays to get it all down, as there are a lot of concepts to take in. Wingspan is an elegant competitive game where each player builds a bird sanctuary. Birds, represented by cards, are collected and assigned a place in the player board (the sanctuary) by providing food. The sanctuary is executed and brings in new resources with bird cards providing superpowers when played, activated as part of an action, or tripped by events. Unlike my favorite types of board games with easy turns, Wingspan (and Terraforming Mars) have complex turns that run engines built by the players. Therefore, you need to plan your turns out to be efficient.

Aside: On Facebook Dave’s Hot Chicken is not an allowed place name. I was trying to post a pic of my food and could not place it at Dave’s. Unexpected. I then tried to create a place and got a message that the name was not allowed–weird. No post from me.

Wingspan plays fast, and we managed to play two games even with all the stops and starts. Zophia started to get it in the second game and was only a few points behind me. The game comes with little plastic eggs, and Zophia’s cards (birds) were covered with eggs (each a point at the end of the game). She said she liked it and was happy to learn a new game.

We played cut-throat Azul after that until it was time to leave. We split, with me winning one and Zophia winning one. We score differently than most, giving one point for a pair, zero for a single tile, and the rest as usual. We don’t score easy stuff. We would often also play one extra round.

With the games done for tonight, Zophia is tasked with picking a game for her birthday:

Architects of the West Kingdom (with subsequent holidays and events to get the various add-ons).

Brass: Lancashire (gaming chips to follow at another event)

Windspan

Vindication (it should be on shelves again soon)

Scythe (base game with holidays for add-ons)

Terraforming Mars (base game with a few add-ons to improve the base game, which is too cheap to play) **Not played yet**

Concordia (with more maps and add-ons available for more events and holidays)

Chess set

War of Whispers