I am writing this Easter morning. It is another pollen-filled, sunny, blue-skied morning. It is Sunday, my last day on the local spring break. I will have to write two blogs today and again at night. I return to work on Monday.
Saturday started with me sleeping in and missing the sunrise. I started writing the blog in the office. I also collected the fleet of 1/6000 WWI ship models and sprayed them with transparent dull coat spray to protect them and to balance the colors. The inks and tone paints are shiny, while the regular paints are mostly flat; this evens that out. Metalics lose much of their shine, and if heavy spraying of a dull coat is applied (I use just a misting), the target changes colors. Silver is white, yellows pale, and bright reds burning bright. I am careful with this stuff.
When doing the ships, I also sprayed some figures I painted a few months ago but waited until it was warmer (cold is not good for spray can products). All looked better without the uneven, shiny areas. Perfect.
The blog was done in the mid-morning, with the interruptions of spraying and making breakfast, which was coffee (thanks, Kramers, for the excellent coffee) made in the French Press, cottage cheese, and 1/2 can of peaches. I dressed and contacted Evan. We agreed to meet after 1PM at Rogue Ales in Portland, SE.
I nearly canceled as I was enjoying writing now. With the figures and the ships finished, I returned to a Dungeons and Dragons adventure I wrote years ago for 4E and was converting to 5E. Grammarly was again working inside Word and helping correct the mostly stream-of-consciousness writing. Finding a Broken Sword is my first published book, and some crazy people even bought a couple on Amazon! I found a used copy for sale at a high price at Powell’s! I plan to play it and even republish it someday.
I had lunch at the lunch carts in Aloha, where I picked my usual India-style veggie food: Bombay Chaat House. While I ate the delicious food and sat in the tent on a near-perfect day, I had my laptop open, and I was revising more of the adventure. This seemed better than driving to Portland and playing board games inside. I found the focus to close the laptop, get in Air Volvo, and travel to Portland and Rogue Ales.
I missed my turn while chatting with Dondrea on the phone while driving through Portland, so I am fifteen minutes late. Evan is waiting for me inside, and it is even colder inside. I am wearing my sweater instead of a coat. Rogue bartenders now carry a handheld and take your order instead of opening a tab at the bar. Soon, I have an ale (I am back to 154 again–beer seems to be good for two pounds), and Evan picked The Lost Ruins of Arnak to play today. He selects regular characters and an advanced add-on research board. The game recommends using the new characters with the new items. The track is difficult, and we do not complete it in the game.
I play by exploring and defeating five monsters (25 points) and buying cards. I eliminate all my fear cards (-1 point each). I do mostly the nearby (three compasses) sites and only one distance (six compasses) site. I am not sure the distant sites are worth twice as much as the nearer ones. Evan researches more than me, but I won by eleven points.
It was a quick game, and soon, we were playing chess—I kept a travel set in Air Volvo. I managed to make a mistake after mistake. I lost my knight at the start by getting ahead of myself. I play the development and mid-game at a disadvantage. Approaching the endgame, I chased Evan’s king all over the board and nearly won, but again, I got ahead of myself. I did not move a pawn to stop the king’s escape. Next, I forgot, now that Evan’s queen is not busy protecting his king, to protect my king even after I looked at the risk, and Evan got an easy checkmate from me. I did not move a piece to cover my king but instead exchanged rooks. I was playing three moves ahead, but you must do the moves!
We said our goodbyes after sharing a nacho plate. Evan had something gummy and was high and hungry (he also had a burger), so I headed to Guardian Games PDX. It was warm and sunny now. The Air Volvo was warm, and it was a trip. I did my usual tour of all the games, but I just bought some paintbrushes named Insane Detail and Psycho.
Air Volvo arrived at Richard’s without issue. We are playing Dune Imperum Uprising, which is new to me. This is the highly-rated rework of Dune Imperium to be themed, I think, closer to the material. The rework took a good game and made it excellent. This is a deck-building and resource management game with a track in the same family of games as Arnak. Cody joined Richard and me for the game; Cody is undefeated. I was proud that I had a couple chances to win, but there were some changes to this version I did not know, and I missed my chance. I tied Richard’s score when Cody remained undefeated. I would say this is an excellent game, and I look forward to playing it again. I might buy this one, but I can now always play Richard’s copy.
Notice Cody (blue) two sandworms in the combat area and his score of 11 to our 8.
We called it an early night, and I returned to Beaverton in Air Volvo. I arrived at Safeway without any adventures and did the Easter shopping. The Easter Bunny got Corwin, a chocolate bunny. I was missing Susie as this is our first Easter apart. I managed $230 in items and got the stink-eye from old white guys as it was 10PM, and I monopolized the only checker. They refused to use the DIY checking for their three or so items. I ignored them.
I unloaded the goodies after Air Volvo got them to the house. The frogs sang, and a tree frog was on the wall by the door. Spring! I got the laptop and put on a Batman animated movie; it was the first computer graphics version and looked painted. I put away the groceries, microwaved a potato, and covered it with butter and sour cream for a late dinner and snack (I need to take my pills with food). I then got the last of my dirty clothing and washed them. I did the dishes and two more loads and left one set for the morning to finish.
Corwin returned from his food deliveries. He said he made more than $100 tonight, and there was a bonus for later deliveries, so soon, he was headed out again. I congratulate him.
I shower and head to bed after the last loads are set in the washer and dryer.
Thanks for reading!
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 