Wednesday Games and more Games

On Wednesday, I rose near 8. I had slept in without an alarm. It was all the breaking news on my watch that woke me. I have both the NY Times and BBC News on alert, so each alert is usually two. I rose, made coffee (thanks, Dondrea, for the coffee), and found my way. I am counting down the days until I travel to Salt Lake City on the 20th. I will meet Deborah there for her conference with us, headed to the national parks before and after (assuming the weather holds). I return to Oregon on 2 April.

Aside: I usually have games with Z on Wednesday night. Cat asked to meet on Wednesday night, but that fell through. Thus, I managed to have multiple cancellations on Wednesday and instead joined Doug J and friends (Mike, Dave, and another Dave) for gaming until about 2-10.

I sipped my coffee as I read the news (doom scrolling now with fireworks, both explosive and financially). I updated my finances, harvesting my parked funds in iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF to my banking accounts. I have house updates and medical bills to pay. I ignore the additional $30K in unrealized losses from the war in my IRA. I clean up email that mostly wants me to buy something or to give my money away (there is now, since the war, $60+K lost). Despite the news, I am feeling better. I have another trip, it is raining again, and the gray of the Pacific Northwest seems to say, “It is all relative.”

My letters, slightly revised and then again slightly updated, to the friends of First United Methodist Church are going out this week. Others and I calculate that the church’s giving is close to expenses, if we can pay off the roof loan. I have written letters to this effect to the church folks and hope they will help get a small increase and maybe pay off the roof loan early. Lent seems the right time to ask for some extra.

I write in my office, sipping my dark brew and recalling the day before, and assemble it into a narrative. The coffee gets me pounding away on the laptop, and its bitterness reminds me how far, much further than I thought only ten years ago, that we have to go to establish here in the USA Justice with Compassion.

I received an email from the Department of Justice on my Freedom of Information request that said the Epstein text redaction (something Jack posted on Facebook as an example of overreach in redaction in a single meaningless email) was appropriate, and my request to release the original email text and sender was denied.

Some of the text:

FOIA-2026-01756

Dear Michael Wild:

This responds to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the Jeffrey Epstein and/or Ghislaine Maxwell files.

President Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on November 19, 2025, directing the Department of Justice to produce, with few exceptions, all documents, files, records, videos and images related to the investigations and prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

….(just boilerplate execuses saying there was nothing to do and my request is denied)

If you are not satisfied with this Office’s determination in response to this request, you may administratively appeal by writing to the Director, Office of Information Policy, United States Department of Justice, Sixth Floor, 441 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20530-0001, or you may submit an appeal through OIP’s FOIA STAR portal by creating an account following the instructions on OIP’s website: https://www.justice.gov/oip/submit-and-track-request-or-appeal. Your appeal must be postmarked or electronically submitted within ninety days of the date of my response to your request. If you submit your appeal by mail, both the letter and the envelope should be clearly marked “Freedom of Information Act Appeal.” If possible, please provide a copy of your original request and this response letter with your appeal.

I will follow up, of course. I will sue if needed, a class action as required by the recent Supreme Court ruling. It is, in my opinion, a simple mistake, but it should be interesting. My way of protesting. I will call and write. More to follow. I see a trip to Washington, DC in my future.

I finished the blog late in the morning. Lunch was a salad with some of the bacon and hard-boiled egg I had made the day before. I forgot the croutons I made a few days ago. I ate this while I spoke with Deborah, who had finished work, and we talked about our upcoming trip and other topics.

I showered and dressed. Skyrizi, my new injectable solution for my skin rash, was delivered, and later I watched a video on how to inject it. I have read and listened to all the stuff on this medicine. I put the pen in the fridge, near the front, meaning it is not in danger of freezing, and verified my name on the label and that the liquid in the viewing window was not troubled by large floaters. All good.

I then headed to the corner market at 185th and TV Highway to get veggies for Jambalaya and a few additional items like bananas. Next, I head to Fred Meyer’s, and I find the sausage, kitchen bouquet, rice, and some South American wine, two bottles of a brand I used to love: Casillero Del Diablo. That is the Devil’s basement, with the legend that the winemaker hinted to folks that it was haunted by the Devil. He hid his best wines there. In the 1980s, the label sported an image of a devil, but now it is just words in Gothic-like script (about $13 a bottle, and there is a white, though I always go with a more devilish colored red).

With all my items returned in Air VW the Gray to the house and put away, I headed to Doug J’s house to play games. I was invited to their monthly gaming night. We were five, and I was surprised I was the youngest. This was a more casual group, and play was slow with friendly redos.

We played the learning version of Finspan, the newest version of the original Wingspan, and I found it an enjoyable game, easy to follow, and to play. This game, compared to Wingspan, is restructured to reduce competition and interaction during play. I collected my fish cards and then arranged them using resources that are easier to collect than in Wrymspan. The game, I soon discovered, had care sequencing to get the best results (much like when fishing), and I needed to plan turns out about two to three turns deep to get better results. I had a strange mix of easy-to-place and difficult-to-place fish cards, but many were high-value. My fellow players were working on hatching and sorting the fry into schools for extra points. I did that half as much, as I needed the eggs and fry to fill my board with high-value fish cards. The times I lost the most on Wyrmspan were when my opponents would play high-value dragon cards; seeing my cards were leaning that way, I played more and assembled schools less.

(the yellow on the cards are end-of-game bonuses; I had many, again my chance)

I have to admit the Finspan was an excellent game. I do not want another something-span game, but this one was nice. I won by about a fish card, and the last place was only two or three cards away. A close game.

Doug J and Kathy were trying out the mac and cheese recipe for the upcoming church lunch. It was great. The chips and salsa were great. The almond flour chocolate cake was lovely.

We played Dominion next, and I got lost in what I should do and ended up scoring in the middle. This is one of the original deck-building games and has endless alternative decks to buy. I like this game, but I always play someone’s copy and am always behind. In a gaming group, someone has invested. I recommend a game of Dominion. We had the Charlatan card, and this cursed us often. It was fun, and I recommend playing someone’s copy.

Flip 7 was out in our last game, and I scored in the middle again. No luck for me. I never got a multiplier card or plus value cards. It was fun, Doug J scored zero. His luck was endlessly bad.

With that done and I well fed, I headed home. The rain was now more like yet another river of rain (my backyard pond returned). I soon was reading more about 1929 in my PJs, started to nod off, and soon slept a broken sleep. I woke many times, but managed to return to sleep each time until 7, when I needed to get going on Thursday.

Thanks for reading!