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Working backward today. I was just reading a new novel on my Kindle. I purchase most non-history books on my Kindle so that I do not add any more books to the house! I have purchased three more books on The Battle of Jutland 1916 this month, now in my three-foot tall now-reading stack next to the bed, and two books by John McKay that contain the plans for two historic ships. As a model builder, they are hard to resist. I had trouble finding a place for those books–they are in the garage’s modeling supplies now.

I needed some lighter after reading hundreds of pages of Battle of Jutland related books and footnotes. I have also read rules for wargames from the same period and their listing for the same ships. Something fun is needed!

The book I am reading is The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi. I have a couple of signed books by him, but I have only read a bit of his SciFi. I got a ding-and-dent cheap copy of a signed copy from Subterranean Press. I decided to read the first novel after enjoying a few chapters of the last book in the series! I love space opera. I got the cheap copy just to see if I would like the story. I am hooked.

In Burton, Michigan, Subterranean Press is a smallish publisher of special versions of fiction and special make-up versions. If you love real books and want numbered signed copy well-made copy of SciFi, horror, or mysteries, try Subterranean Press’ website. They often ship other publishers’ best stuff too.

Before this, I made dinner. Chicken Cordon Blu from Schwann’s again with corn from a can (emergency rations I bought in a panic) and Stove-top corn-bread stuffing. Schwann’s Cordon Blu is just OK. I strongly recommend their chops and pork roasts. Their hams are good too.

While eating, I updated my new project of reworking one of my 2004 Dungeon and Dragons adventure to the new version, 5E, and self-publishing it. I am still formatting more than writing. It will take a while, but the adventure already exists, so it is more about format and editing. Also, the versions of D&D D20 and 5E are easy to align. Most of the changes in 5E are in values and character creation information and not in environmental items like an adventure.

Moving to earlier in the day, I fell asleep at 3:15ish this afternoon and just could not get going. I was then back up late and back to work at 7ish approving items for the shoe company that I planned to read at 4-5ish during a long meeting on data flowing to legacy systems. Instead, I slept. I read on my Kindle, put it down for just a minute, and I awoke, and it was late.

I managed many crises of the moment, and as today was the end of the sprint, I was given minutes to read and approve some important items. Luckily, I have seen most of this stuff before, and this is more of a confirmation than an approval. I ordered lunch from La Provence today on GrubHub while being in Zoom meetings. I had 5 hours of Zoom only broken for a 30-minute walk that is now on my work calendar as out-of-office with a note not to book over it in capital letters.

Lunch was corned beef hash with poached eggs. Susie, who was up late this afternoon, had french toast with banana compote and walnuts–she ate 1/2 of it. I will have the other half for breakfast tomorrow. GrubHub had the wrong house number, and so I got a call from the driver, and I flagged him down on our street. That has happened before. I will check carefully next time I order that everything is in order. I had to quickly eat my wonderful and likely sleep-inducing lunch as I had a lunch meeting.

Lunch was filled with an American SAP User Group influence council meeting, ASUG. This was the Enterprise Architecture council and was a re-launch. I have chaired some of the ASUG meetings over the years, and many of my trips are covered partially by ASUG, so I try to help. It is also a good place to meet other SAP experts, not from Nike. Peter Keller from SAP and Todd from Goodyear ran the meeting. They are old friends.  We have presented together many times online, at meetings, and at conventions. It was good to see everyone and participate a bit. These were online events before Covid-19; the meetings feel a bit less forced than some of my other Zoom meetings.

The rest of the morning and even part of the afternoon was Zoom calls and texting to get alignment and status. It all started at 6ish and run fast and crazy. I drank most of a pot of coffee to get through it. I did manage to get my walk today.

I had more coffee to write this. I did slip a peeks at views Inauguration and updates on Facebook while working. I was drinking new Rain Forest supporting coffee in an Irish-styled mug to celebrate. I drank Mexican fair-trade coffee for the last four years as a protest against the previous administration.

Yesterday 8,570 people were reported so far to have been vaccinated in Oregon. Yesterday’s numbers were increased to more than 8,000 now. It takes 72 hours to get the complete numbers. Our county, Washington, is now reporting more than 4% vaccinated.

4,374 died from Covid-19 today in the USA, the second-worst day in history. The USA has a 9/11 number of deaths every day now from the virus.

I found this wonderful version of Lift Every Voice for today.

I started at 6 this morning. Tuesday after a holiday, which means early meetings and trying to fit two-days of status reporting in one day. And for those who understand these scary words, the sprint closes on Wednesday too! Ugh!

To make this day more exciting, the vendor replied to my incident at 5AM to tell me that I should just upgrade my software to get the fix. The incident I wrote says the purpose of the incident is that we CANNOT upgrade yet and need a fix for the older version. After reviewing the reply with the team, I sent the incident back to the vendor with the small hope of getting a fix. I waited more than a week for the reply.

I then wrote up all the custom fixes options and sent out this information as an email to the team. All of this while attending four hours of Zoom meeting in the morning. Followed by three more hours of Zoom meetings in the afternoon. I will likely have more meetings on this tomorrow. I will try to keep my focus and not get frustrated.

I try not to be negative in this blog. Oh my!

I did go for a walk today. I have blocked my calendar at 10AM every working day at Nike (at home) to get that first frustration-working-off walk in before the afternoon meetings start. It helps!

Lunch was Mexican styled food from Don Carlos delivered by GrubHub. I also had a pizza, salad, and 2-liter Pepsi delivered to my mother in Michigan using GrubHub–I just change the address and use her local pizza place. Mom Wild seemed a bit down, so she got lunch-dinner delivered and paid for by me. This brightened-up her day.

I did remember to set GrubHub back to Oregon!

Physical Therapy for Susie was today. I had to work that in a while doing all the Zoom meetings. Susie had quite a workout with Clare wearing a face shield. Clare and Susie are working on strength and balance. Susie does stepping with ankle weights that Clare brings. Susie also walked down the hall and back with the cane. Clare thought today was one of Susie’s best days. I ordered 2lb ankle weights for Susie to help build up her strength. It was a good day, the first in a long time!

I made dinner after the Schwan’s truck updated my freezer with food! Schwan’s truck is here every other Tuesday. I had pan-fried pork chops and green beans, all from Schwan’s. I also made couscous.

For cooking, I ran water over the chop to get them defrosted. I then fried them with pepper and salt. I add butter later and cover to finish them. The beans are microwaved. I also make some almond slivers in butter and salt (I use unsalted butter) and heated that up, dumped the cooked beans into that, and stirred off the heat. In another pan, I cook almonds in olive oil. I heat some stock from a box in the microwave. I add in the couscous and stir it all together. I remove it from the heat–except today, I managed to get some stuck to the pan—more cleaning.

Susie liked dinner.

I am a believer when it comes to Macs and PCs, and back-ups. I discovered today I was missing an old adventure I wrote in 2004. I found the back-up hard drive and recovered it. I keep the physical drive back-up of my old computers. I use a kit to turn them into USB drives when the computer dies. This adventure was written on my old Windows computer. I just plug in the USB, and I copied the old D20 D&D adventure to my newest Mac and will be revising it for the new D&D version 5E.

5,511 people during MLK 2021 received vaccination in Oregon. It is likely the number will be increased as the data takes 72 hours to be collected.

2,768 people in the USA died from Covid-19 today.

I picked the old song There Is a Blam in Gilead for today’s song–Methodist Hymnal #375.

 

Susie had a 9AM appointment with Zerida for hair, nails, toes, etc. I was up at 7:30ish, having ignored the 7ish alarm. I then made coffee and got something to eat. Susie was up and dressed by 8ish. Her driver here at 9ish. Susie spent the next couple of hours then with Zerida. I finished up some email and then dressed and printed out the Howard stories on my printer. I put the printed stories in a large envelope and addressed it to Mom Wild. She wanted to read some of Howard’s stories.

I took Air Volvo, bombed by the crows and looking well splattered, to the post office. It is MLK, but the machine that helps you mail was working. There was a line five deep to use it. All of us are masked and socially distanced. Some folks did not know how to use the machine, and some social distancing was put aside to show folks how to make the purchase by others. I was not going to get close to folks–sorry, come when the post office is open. I also noticed another person who took off his mask when not talking to people. He was packing a package and would take off his mask while working. I was feeling too safe and was happy when it was my turn. I got out the hand sanitizer, I bring my own, before and after using the machine. Nobody cleans the machine between uses!

I managed to get the item mailed and cleaned my hands again in the car. I will not be back to mail something!

I did the car drive-thru for spicy chicken sandwiches from Popeyes. I had to drive around again as there was room for one more car and two cars, and I wanted the next spot. I was not going to get in between people’s lunch! The post office was nuts; imagine the car line for lunch! No events, and I managed lunch.

Susie returned with a McDonald’s Happy Meal, her fav.

She rested while I met Mariah at the Golden Valley Brewery for a beer. Mariah sent me a text about getting a beer right after I got the sandwich. I asked her if it could be about 2. That worked.

The GVB is very careful, and I feel safe outside there. The staff wants GVB to work and be safe. It was a bit warmer today, and so I did not freeze like last time. I had a dark heavy beer, a light salad (I had a chicken sandwich already), and coffee. We talked about writing and getting through January. We both find the month hard so far.

Actually, I always worry about January-February in the Pacific Northwest. It is dark, and work always wants you to do six months of work in January and another in February. It is a hard month.

It is MLK, and sometimes all I can do is just get through the day. This year is like that.

Earlier on Monday, I signed up to be a content provider for DriveThruRPG. I want to publish my own adventures for Dungeons and Dragons. I have many old adventures I wrote I want to get published—time to start down that path.

To that end, I also contacted a local copy editor in Portland to get some help. I can use Grammarly to get close, but I would like perfect. So I will see about getting some assistance.

Being Monday, today was the weekly Dungeons and Dragon game I host of the online service Roll20. Today the adventures look into the evil elves, Drow, that were camped out. It was an illusion, and the players faced a hoard of zombies. Their cleric turned them to dust by calling down his deities purifying light on them—Poof (one was left–it did not last long). Not wanting to let something escape, the adventures discovered that a Drow mage was hidden in an illusion and a Rope Trick spell. He had made all the zombies and was a scouting mage. They took him, prisoner after he fell on to their wizard. The Drow was invisible but gave away his location by making too much noise (falling on the wizard).

The mage they captured, Orl, lead them out of the level to the next level. The Drow fortress is there, and they were invited to dinner (the joke was not lost on them). Before they left, the Behir found them. This is “he who speaks in lightening” that the trogs had warned them about. A fierce battle followed. This is a D&D monster that is a cross between a basilisk and a lightning dragon (blue). The fight went fast as the players overpowered it. This happens with “boss” creatures in D&D; the players have all those cool powers and attacks.

I was also sad that the figure I have once again did not get used. I get to run a Behir about once every two years or less. So here is me with the figure.

We will play again in a week or so. They have entered the next level to find it overrun with Minotaurs!

I made dinner before the game. I fried some hamburgers with cheese—baked beans from a can and peaches from a can but very fresh tasting to finish it out.

8,409 people were vaccinated today in Oregon. Nearly four percent of people in my county, Washington, have been vaccinated.

1,425 people died today in the USA from Covid-19.

I had strange dreams of looking for people, including Susie in a fantasy version of Disneyland that included endless buildings with corridors that never went where you needed them to go to. I awoke tired from wander for hours in the dream, with a headache and looking for coffee! I started at about 8:30.

I found that the mix for pancakes was twice or larger and bubbling. I had read that I could make sourdough pancakes with my leftover starter. So I followed the recipe, which seemed a means to grow even more starter. I then mixed in oil, eggs, baking powder, with salt. It looked like a heavy pancake batter. I fried it in butter like Dan Gray has me do for the church breakfasts, and they looked good.

The taste is sourdough, which to me did not improve with maple syrup, was well sour. Something should not be messed-with and sourdough and pancakes-ugh! Now, if you added some heavily flavored flour, some spices like curry leaves and onion seeds, and forget eggs and baking powder–it is something I have had for breakfast in India. The taste reminded me of fermented pancakes in India.

It was fun to learn something new. Susie had a pancake and suggested that they were OK. She also suggested that I do not need to make them again.

Susie was still resting when I connected to the weekly church meeting at 11AM today. It was nice to see everyone and chat. This is my first time back in months.

We talked about how to forgive your enemies. I think we thought it possible to have compassion for an enemy; it is hard to forgive or love an enemy. We also talked about how it is hard to love that next-door-neighbor that always bothering you or just being a problem.

Susie was up to watch ice skating this afternoon.

Evan came over for the afternoon. We played two new games and a fav game.

We first played War of Whispers, my newest board game from Kickstarter, the deluxe version. This new version includes all the add-ons and includes some 3-D markers that make the game easier to play. The game is unique in that you play the spies trying to get different factions to win, do ok, ignore them, or help them fail. The game is that each player is trying to do this, and the factions ratings are randomly assigned. Thus both Evan and I, not knowing at first, were against the green faction. We both were happy to destroy it, but the Horse (brown) clan was my fav, and it was next to Evan’s fav clan, the Bears (blue). At one point, I had partial control of the Bear faction and had them make terribly bad attacks and lose half their armies. The Horse faction was no longer at risk from the Bear faction! Evan was wondering why I would waste the Bear faction armies against the Lion Faction (yellow). Thus, is the lives of us sneaky spies! I, having played the game against myself a few times to learn the game, used the special spy powers found in the cards you collect to fight back as, despite my control of the Bears, I was actually on the Lion (yellow) side. Evan will use the cards next time more. This was a learning game, and somehow we managed to tie the score. The game looks rather dramatic. The game is mostly played on the ring and not the cool map inside. It only takes about an hour to play once you have the rules down.

We next played the board game Vindication. We added pets to the game, but in the end, I got one pet, and it was great. Evan had no pets. Evan had some revenge in this game. He spanked me. He took most of the masteries and put to shame my last grab of owning four tiles on my last move on the last turn. It was not nearly enough. I should have fought more monsters; just one actually made it, not a spanking. I was not happy with my play.

We agreed to try yet-another-new-game. Brass: Lancashire is a rework of the old Brass game. I have been playing it as a learning game against myself. This time Evan wanted to try this hard and cut-throat economic game. Brass was one of the first ones made of this type and is the grandfather of other like games. This edition is colorful, and the rules and rule book is approachable. About 3/4 into the game, Evan started to get the rules and put a bit of pressure on me. I managed to just outscore him in this learning game. Evan seemed to like it, but he shared that he thought Concordia a more fun game.

We got Chinese food for pickup from Taste of Sichuan. I used to eat there for lunch, and my friend Will reminded me that their food is good. We picked-up an order. As it was a dinner order, I did not order rice. I quickly made some when we got home.

Evan left after dinner and the last game. I had to log-on to work and look at an emergency SAP Incident tracked by leadership. I am the owner of the ticket. I have been watching it all weekend.

12,781 people were vaccinated against Covid-19 yesterday in Oregon.

1,846 people in the USA died from Covid-19 today.

I found a musical version of The Lord’s Prayer.

I do not remember when I got up. It seems to be very bright and very hard to get started. I also remember I started playing the board game Lisboa that I had set-up last night. I had not played many turns when the morning seemed to be over!

I have to admit the massive game was interesting to play, and after two hours of playing, I was not spending half my time looking up rules, definitions and trying to find a strategy. I was playing a special solo version of the rules that gave me more rules. This game does not need extra rules! While I enjoyed learning the game again, I admit that other games on the shelf have fewer rules and are more fun. I was still happy to get it out today. I was almost as happy to put it away. I did not finish it as I wanted to play something else.

I ordered bagels with Lox for me while playing Lisboa. I made Susie a bagel when she got started. This time I remembered to freeze the rest so there can be bagels for breakfast all next week. All of this from DoorDash and Einsteins Brothers Bagles.

I took a break and took a short walk. The local church is leaving Christmas up. I have spoken to many people, and Christmas went up early and is staying. Trying to keep moving and push it. Use-it-or-lose-it!

I purchased some Folio sets from Decision Games on some famous naval battles. I was able to get out my Bismarck and Hood 1:6000 models, painted! The game is not designed for miniatures, but that did not stop me. I am also unsure that the Hood armor number is right, but I decided to play and learn the rules.

I managed to evolve the rules and feel to use my miniatures and make the hex and counter-based game work. I have been looking for a rules-light version for this battle for years to use the miniatures. This appears the answer. More on this as I played it. I also need to get out the smoke markers (painted cotton) and fire (red and black painted cotton). It still looked great.

I made dinner of broiled steak and fresh-made mashed potatoes. Well, fresh in a sense, I mashed them–the potatoes were aging poorly, and I had to peel them! A salad too.

Susie watched ice skating on TV and then read a book. We are keeping to a quiet locked-down holiday so far.

The vaccination rate of Oregon has been revised this weekend. The website suggests that this will not happen on weekends (sort of disappointing to read on so critical an item–but it appears to also be wrong). Thusly, 12,358 people received the shot yesterday. The next vaccine is moving to emergency approval, Johnson & Johnson, based on the successful Ebola vaccine model. One wonders if one could ask for both!

3,377 people died from the infection today in the USA.

I picked out an old hymn I have not thought of for a while. It is more a camp song, but I still like to sing it: I’m Goin’ a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing–Methodist Hymnal #333.