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Today 79 years ago, the war started for the USA. Pearl Harbor was attacked in the morning without a declaration of war.

My morning started at 6ish. I had a meeting at 7, so the morning was rushed. I had many meetings today to bring focus to deliverables. Status meetings will start again on Tuesday. I helped here and there but spent most of the time listening.

Susie headed to Zerida today for hair, nails, and so on. It is her normal spa day. She was picked up at 9.

Lunch this morning was Mexican from Victorico’s Mexican Food, and I made a mistake and ordered for 10AM delivery! On GrubHub, you need to specify the time before your order is placed. Otherwise, it is set to ASAP. My lunch was a bit cold but still good when I ate in 90 mins after it was delivered!

More meetings and a few crises of the moment filled the afternoon. The meetings ran late today.

Today was the virtual book signing day for Ready Play Two at 5PM. The book I am currently reading and was signed by the author and delivered to me. Today I was invited to a Zoom meeting with Ernest Cline, the author. The interviewer for Ernest Cline is the author Blake J. Harris a writer about the recent history of technology.

I learned that Ernest tries to write a story that would interest him. He believes unless you find it interesting, then the reader will not be interested. Ernest also has two Deloreans in his garage, and he believes you need to recharge with familiar things that make you happy. He loves the 1980s stuff.

Mariah was also at the virtual signing, and we were texting what we thought as the interview went on. Mariah had told me about the virtual signing, and I was happy to share the experience online and Zoom.

I made dinner while listening and made chicken Cordon Blue, fingering potatoes, and green beans with almonds and butter. I was rushed this evening as I had Dungeons and Dragons tonight at 6:30PM. I managed to get dinner ready for Susie and me. Susie was resting and had her dinner later.

I managed to get on to Roll20 in time with dinner and rally the five players tonight. Roll20 has a complete implementation of the monster-sized adventure called the Mad Mage’s Dungeon. We have been playing it for about six months and have completed only a small part of it. Today the players were lost for a bit on the tenth level of the complex and tried to find the next level down. They finally found their way but hit the main challenge, evil elves, on the level. We had an epic battle that lasted about an hour on-line and ran us over by 30 minutes today (I am late on the blog now). The evil elves were finally defeated, and the players’ characters all survived.

Today was busy. I even was putting laundry on hangers during one meeting this morning!

I read today the first-hand account of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, from the man who leads the air attack, Captain Mitsuo Fuchida. It is important to remember what happened. The account, from 1952, was re-released by the US Naval Institute today.

Today the reports are that more than 1,530 people in the USA died from the virus.

It is Well With My Soul, just seemed to work today.

I started this morning late, getting going only just before 10ish. I was tired, and Susie was up at 4ish and 7ish, and so I just fell into that dark sleep one gets when sleeping after disturbed sleep. I awoke just before 10!

I did the mass of dishes from last night. As usual, my Instant Pot cooking and prep looked like Julia Childs went mad in my kitchen. It took me about an hour to get the mess gone and also to start the laundry.

And I then cooked a quiche for lunch–Susie loves quiche. I first stripped the last of the good meat from the ham we had since last week. I froze the remains and added a few cups of ham, cut small, into a bowl. I grabbed a frozen pie crust from the freezer and pre-heated the oven to 350F. I added to the bowl four eggs, a cup of cream, about a cup of shredded swiss cheese, added Herbs de Province, and stirred until well mixed and poured into the frozen pie crust. I then baked it for 45 minutes. Done!

I am working on the figures for the dwarves faction in the board game Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea. I have managed to get the flesh color and some red on them now. I packed away the paints, brushes, and figures as Evan was coming over to play board games. I use the same space as it is with quick calling distance for Susie. I will get them out again later this week.

Susie and I both had two pieces of quiche for lunch. I then slipped in a piece of The Cheesecake Factory Keylime Cheesecake. I bought a whole one (it is too big–don’t do it!). We had no plans for today, we put on Disney+ and watched the animated Beauty and the Beast.

Evan came over, and he and I played a very close game of Concordia. Concordia is an elegant game that plays well with two or more players. It is set in Roman times.  In the game, you are playing a family trying to build a trading house, the best in the world, as are the other players. There is some competition for resources. Most turns, a player juggles the resource constraints of funding the building out your trading houses to new places and collecting resources to do the building. You are usually short of money, resources, or already did the action and having to wait until you can reset again.

BTW: Concordia is re-implemented by Concordia Venus (buy that one).

We then ordered complex pizza from our take-home-and-bake Papa Murphy’s Pizza. We got a New York for Susie, and we made a 1/2 and 1/2 for Evan and me. I had a cowboy, and he a custom veggie pizza. We baked them and continued our second game, Pandemic: Reigh of Cthulhu. The olive oil in the Evan version smoked a bit.

Pandemic: Reigh of Cthulhu is a rework of the original Pandemic game, the game that re-introduced me to board gaming years ago, with the dark themes of Lovecraftian Horror replacing the familiar theme of exploding pandemics. In this game, you try to shut down the four eldritch gates filling the world with horrors before the world ends, or you all go insane, or the cultists overrun you, or the monsters overrun you, or you run out of time (not likely as everything else will likely get you first). Like all Pandemic style games, you are working together and can help each other. The game system makes it harder, and bad things happen faster and faster. These Pandemic games are quick, have a complex set-up that creates growing tension and is easy to teach. I also have painted the figures and added some third-party enhancements to make it better fit the look.

I have been reading Ready Player Two and have a 5PM Zoom meeting on Monday with the author hosted by our local book store, Powell’s.

It was a quiet day.

Today the reports show that 1,070+ people in the USA died from Covid-19.

I went with I Saw Three Ships for our song for today. I could never sing this.

One of the reasons I bought Disney+ was to watch Hamilton. I have only seen a few short bits and looked forward to seeing the movie in the theater. Then Covid-19 happened, and Disney did not release the movie except on Disney+. Susie loves Disney, and since the purchase, we have watched a lot of animated movies. It has been a good deal. We watched the animated movie Ratatouille earlier today–it is one of my favs.

Tonight the Smith’s and the Wild’s had a viewing party. We used Facetime to talk, and we arrange a Disney+ group watch. This meant that either side, Smith’s or Wild’s, could control the movie. We enjoyed Hamilton together. And that is why I am a bit late getting this blog done.

Before this, I made dinner with the Instant Pot. It was not a success. I tried to make a Chicken Tikka Masala, and while it looked right, the taste was quite flat. I had a C8 again on the pot but was able to restart it. I am not sure that this ruined some of the flavors or if I just need more spice. More to learn, I guess.

Going even further back, Susie was up before 11, and she took her pills and had some toast. We then decided to head out in the bright sunlight for lunch. Lockdown lunch was eating Taco Bell in their parking lot. Three other cars were doing the same.

We then took a round-about drive to the Washington Square Mall. The parking was packed with not all folks wearing masks. We called The Cheesecake Factory and ordered a whole Keylime Cheesecake delivered to our car. I was not going to buy just a few slices for all the trouble.

I did not manage to do any figure painting today. I had to clean my painting tray. I had to let some rubbing alcohol soften the waste paint dried to the tray. I then scrubbed off the paint and now can reuse it.

I received a few texts today, and I have read a few reviews that the Prophecy of Kings extension of the massive board game Twilight Imperium 4 is causing some chaos. I was told that the game length is extended and that the factions all seem over-powered now. This fits with what I saw in my reading the rules. Like the other 4X game, Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea, a lot is going on now. You have to pick a focus, and you can’t build everything. Also, the decisions are now harder as the game is more random, and this new randomness (exploring, relics, new planets, and so on) means that how to decide what is right will be difficult, if not impossible. It is an interesting change to a solid game.

The number of deaths from Covid-19 today in the USA is over 2,250.

I turned right to Lord of the Dance today. Methodist Hymnal #261.

I finally received my signed copy of the SciFi book Ready Player Two. Mariah pointed out that Powell’s, our local bookstore that sells new and used copies on the same shelf, has a virtual meeting-and-greet with the author, Ernest Cline, next week. I have “tickets” to it, a pin that matches the book design, and, as I said, a signed copy. Mariah picked hers up at the local Powell’s and has been reading it already.

Today started at 6:15, and I was dragging. Susie has been going to bed late, and I am averaging five hours of sleep during workdays. I had to rush as we had a meeting with Front-line at 7. These are the folks who get the support calls–the front-line of support, to start the turnover of our system to support our go-live this December 27th. Yes, when you finally get done, you give it away to support. That is how IT works!

BTW: Nike’s front-line folks are cool under pressure and hard to upset. They have already done most disasters. I remember a car accident in Beaverton, knocking over a telephone pole and ending all connection to Nike’s computers except in the computer room. That is a bad day for them—”a serious outage.” A bug in a program is nothing; they can create a ticket and get it fixed and install the fix without getting even flustered.

Returning to today’s story, I was really too tired, but I had a few more items to read and another status meeting. After that, I then just followed along on email. I slipped out for a walk before the last status meeting.

I managed to remember my mask and my scarf for this cold morning. Frost was still on the roofs and grass. I also managed to make it all the way to my marker. I made my full walk today. I was breathing very hard at the end and wheezing, but I feel a bit better today. No coughing. No wheezing when I lay down. 

My marker is the crazy man-hole cover that is unique to the Greater Portland Area. Is it strange to have a fav man-hole cover? Not in the Pacific Northwest!

Lunch was taco salad. I heated some taco shells and then broke them into bits. I put that over lettuce and cheese and then pour on chili from a can. A dollop of sour cream makes it really nice. 

This is how Susie thinks of me cooking in the kitchen (ever since we saw this): The Little Mermaid – Les Poisson.

I followed along a bit at work, but I took a nap as I was too tired to think straight.

Susie had her physical therapy today. Another new PT person, Victoria; they are having trouble meeting all their appointments and keeping safe. They are sorry to keep changing people on us. It is difficult to do PT in the community with Covid-19. Susie practiced walking with her walker and standing and sitting. Victoria also Susie try some new exercises. Susie was tired after this and took a nap.

I used the Instant Pot to make dinner. I found a recipe for an Asian-styled Honey Garlic Chicken. I undercooked the rice when I let it boiled over by mistake. I then had not added enough water back in and got the water back to a boil before cooking on low. Next time! The chicken, made from rock-solid frozen raw chicken, was good. 

I also started on the dwarf figures for Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea today. The bases are painted red. The red did not cover; I will repainting it tonight. I also did the dry brushing of white to bring forward the details. This is my new painting process for game quality painting with dark shading.

I managed to start Ready Player Two, as I said, even falling asleep once, but I already like it. It is light reading, and the book is almost a kids’ book, but I liked the zaniness in the first book, and it looks like the author is headed back that way. Looking forward to reading it.

The death rate from Covid-19 is still high: 1,270+.

I like this version of Oh Holy Night. 

This is the recovered text. The save and publish functions failed in WordPress for me yesterday. I have returned to their “classic editor.” I was on chat until past midnight trying to recover the rest of this article. It was finished, edited, and ready to publish. 

Talked to mom today as it is her birthday—another 29th birthday for her (80+). My sister took her out to get her hair done and all that. Michigan is also locked down. There are limited choices for celebrations. I sent Barb Wild an Olympia Provisions cookbook. Mom gets an Olympia Provision salami with it, and they signed the book.

I also finished my orcs today. The oil paint dried, and I cleaned off any black spillage on the base and then prayed them with a mat clean coat. I am headed to paint the dwarves next. They get dry brushing of white to bring out some detail, and their bases are painted rust red. This is their faction color in the game: Heroes of Air, Land, and Sea.

Returning to the beginning, I started today at 6:30ish and had to rush as I forgot I had a 7:00 weekly meeting with one of my teams. So I rushed this morning and found my way in time to be all clean and shiny on Zoom at 7. I had meetings run right into lunch today. I made smoky beans from a can with ham that I shared with Susie. A piece of buttered bread too. Very basic but not a bad lunch.

I had more status meetings and crises of the moments for the afternoon. I did slip-out to buy some paint for figures at the hobby store in Beaverton: Tammies Hobbies. They had the Chaos Black spray paint I like to use. They did not have the Mr. Super Clean UV protecting flat clear. It is like its name, very clear. I picked up something else and hope it will work. I have Mr. Super Clear coming from Amazon, but I was hoping to get a can from the local folks.

A few more meetings and a few crises of the moment after my return. I also slipped out for a longer walk. I am trying to get back to my mile walks every day. I was breathing hard, and I feel better even with the wheezing. I believe it is use-it-or-lose for my lungs at 56+.

I received my order from Olympia Provisions today. I bought a lot of sausage and pickles and even some bread. I cooked some brats and kielbasa on the grill and cut up cheese and salamis of various dinner complexities. More of a tapas dinner today. We had some pickles from Olympia Provisions too.

Mariah visited with her little dog. We agreed with the mess now that we would all wear masks except when eating or drinking. Mariah and I both had a porter. We watch the NFL, and it was not the game we expected. Today was Kansan City versus Tampa Bay, and the regular game was delayed because of Covid-19. Some of the team members had tested positive.

Today we reached a new record for deaths from the virus. 2,910+.

I found this song yesterday, and it was lost by the WordPress crash: On This Day Earth Shall Ring. This is a very old song.