Saturday Quiet Day with Games

Sorry it has been a busy Sunday and then there was that nap…

Saturday started with me rising with the sunrise and then resisting, and finally rising. Coffee was required, and 1/2 a pot was made, Fair Trade, and consumed. Music was played after I did the usual updating in Quicken, quickly fixed my checking with a transfer, and read email. I have slowed my intake of news as it has been distressing as the war burns on. Deborah did send me The Late Show on No Kings Day, and that was all I could take of the news, but it did make me laugh. Battleship New Jersey had a spoof where they fired a 16″ gun (they had a flag with “Boom” on it, sticking out of the barrel for April 1st. Battleship Texas had a “photo” of the newly repaired Texas firing the guns. I reviewed the news in the New York Times, which had an excellent article on Cozy murder mysteries to read (only two had I read), which was more interesting than the war. I have the first one on my Kindle.

I finished The Fourth Protocol yesterday and liked the ending. Despite the claim that the British Labor Party was controlled by the Soviet Union in the late 1980s (hinting at the outrageous claims we would later see from Fox News), it was fun to return to the Cold War and a UK spy novel. The recent movie Bridge of Spies is highly recommended if you, dear reader, want a trip to the Cold War. Or if you want the sexy comic book version, Atomic Blond will do.

I spent the morning writing the blog and talking to Deborah. I next headed to Safeway and got some raw pork breakfast sausage made with honey and brown sugar (I usually go for maple syrup, but they had only one packet). I got some bananas (my potassium is always low) and ice cream (my weight is down to 225 pounds, and I could risk a bit of the good stuff).

I have no memory of what breakfast or lunch was when I typed this. It is always strange that when you write an accounting of the day, you have a blank moment. And then ‘pop’ the moment replays in your mind like an invader. “Oh, that is right,” you think. I took some potatoes and bacon, reheated them in the microwave, and had that wtih the end of the coffee. Yes, that was it.

I then tried to cross Beaverton and discovered that TV Highway is being reconstructed, and other parts of Farmington are being updated, too. Thus, there is no way around the closed lanes and long waits as lights take three passes to get you through. I try to dodge this, but soon I am locked into the slow going.

The gear shift, so to speak, on my EV — it has no transmission — is on the steering column, where the blinkers or windshield wipers are on more conventional vehicles. I still find myself reaching in the wrong place after 1,631 miles in the rental. I try to shift the cupholders. Still, I made it to Portland with only 15 minutes of extra time, only to discover a train was stalled in SE, but I managed to back up and out of the blocked street and drive around the train.

I would not recommend this, but foot traffic was actually climbing over the flat train car stuck at the crossroads. Kids and families. Yikes!

I found street parking a block away from Lucky Labrador’s and soon had Czech-like beer and a bowl of peanuts. There, I opened my laptop and returned to editing a Dungeons and Dragons adventure I used last Thanksgiving. This was my second revision, and it was starting to come together. I need to revise the maps and add some suggestion to make the last encounter more exciting. A paper golem comes to mind, but more on that. I plan to publish it on DriveThruRPG as a pay-what-you-want adventure. I was excited to get close to the end of the editing. I have another one to edit, and then I thought up a new adventure when in Utah involving stone structures and petroglyphs. It might be a solo adventure in the form of a quest for illumination.

I ordered an Italian Grinder. My tongue has taken some damage from various meds, and maybe an unknown battle with Covid-19 (I may have caught it without being aware), and I like things now with strong salty flavors. The sandwich took the edge off of my hunger, and soon I was headed to Richard’s.

XIA is a board game (here) that was designed in Oregon. It is not a favorite of mine, but I played better this time (still coming in last with some bad luck that had Laura and me fighting for last place as she experienced some challenges, too). This is a build your ship 2D space game where you trade, fight, or explore. Not really 4x. Kathleen and I both believe that Richard ran away with the game, as he had played enough to know the best choices, though Kathleen gave him a run (only a few points behind him). The game is arranged into a random universe of tiles. Getting your ship destroyed is possible, but that means respawning.

With coffee (I was sleepy from lunch, jetlag, and writing — plus a beer), terrible luck, and no rerolls or other useful advantages, I pushed on and enjoyed the game despite my bottom showing on the score. I watched Richard do his own thing, and soon he was too far ahead for me to imagine catching him, but Kathleen did scare him. The game is shorter than you expect, and you have to find a source of cash quickly (and not be bashed up by a nebula or killed by pirates) to get going. It reminded me of the board games Istanbul and Scythe, both racing-to-win games. A few more plays and we would start to get a handle on it, I think. I might have to get a copy. Hmmm. So many games, so few times to play…

We finished about 9ish, and I headed out to cook some sausages and get to bed early, 6:30 seems really early now. The trip back was not difficult. I got a call from Pastor Anne that her printer was not working and the Easter Sermon for Sunday was not ready. Yikes. After I got the sausage started, I contacted her, drove over, and found that you need to close the scanner to replace the ink cartridge (!?). With that done, the printer worked. The Easter Sermon was printed. Emergency over.

I went home, moved the sausage into a glass container, and set them in the frig on a heat pad (glass shelves don’t like sudden heat changes). I then closed my eyes and woke suddenly, I believe only minutes later, at 6:30. Ugh!

Thanks for reading.