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Today started early at 6ish. We had an all Nike Zoom call with the CEO, and his direct reports at 7AM local Portland time. The layoffs and re-orgs will continue. Management is happy with the new leadership and plans. I have nothing to say about laying off my fellow employees during a Covid-19 emergency.

I then had hours and hours of meetings and trying to help get something moving. It was a hard push to lunch. I ordered Mexican, and it was delivered hot and on-time from Victorico’s Mexican Food (Tanasborne) by GrubHub.

I was very frustrated yesterday, and I wrote some directive notes to people today. I was happy to see my boss and other appreciative of my efforts to try to bring some conclusions to complex issues. We had yet-another-meeting at 4PM that when to 5:30, but we finally closed off the problems. An update was sent at 8ish, and I agreed to it about 9ish.

Nobody was ready to make dinner, and I was running late. I got pizza from Papa Murphy’s Take and Bake Pizza. We got a stuff Chicago, my fav, a New York for Susie, and Evan was here and got a veggie pizza.

As we all know, what goes must come down. The USA stock market remembering that it is September, crashed a bit today–a form of gravity finally working. Tesla is down 20% in the last three days. Other tech leaders are also taking losses. Option chains are exploding, and shorting is widespread. Even gold is down. I am just watching.

I began painting my Scythe items now that I have the bases masked. It takes three coats to mask the bases. I finished the last coat between meetings when I had a meeting finish a few minutes early.

Today the reports show about one-thousand people in the USA lost their battle against the infection today.

I did not know this one: Baba Yetu – Stellenbosch University Choir. Baba Yetu (Our Lord) is the Lord’s Prayer sung in Swahili and was originally a theme song for a video game.

Today started a bit later as I was tired this morning.

Work was Zoom meetings. We had some process breaks and design hiccups that left me frustrated.

I am not happy with the clarifications I received from leadership, but I do like to be paid, so I will try to make it work.

The highlight of the morning was, of course, lunch. I managed to try Subway. I know it is not glamorous, but I wanted a tuna fish sub sandwich with lots of veggies after the frustration. I had it delivered, and it was perfect–well for Subway.

I had a short break and then more and more meetings. Tonight I was back online at 8PM, dealing with more frustration; the Nike laptop failed to update emails for a few hours.

During one of the meetings this late afternoon, a very long presentation on the process and decision processes, I cut up the locally grown heritage tomatoes and onions. I then cut up pork boneless ribs to made goulash using the tasty recipe in my German cookbook. I then baked the fingerling potatoes, also locally grown heritage, to go with it. During the meeting–between cooking–I did ask some questions. I needed to get dinner started as it takes more than an hour of cooking, but I had to pay attention too.

Aside: Luckily, I had no questions directed to me while I was cutting up the onions in the meeting. I was a crying wreck from the way too fresh onions!

Migraine headache migration happened today. The morning put the headache on the left side. It then moved to the right for the afternoon. Aspirin, coffee, and water have softened the pain. I suspect Friday is the cure for the headaches.

As you can read, today was lots of meetings and emails and trying to fix problems.

Susie was up a bit later today and just got to riding her bike. We both agree she needs to ride it twice a day. She is riding it at least once a day.

I put the AC back on today as it broke over 90F again and will be hot for the week and the holiday.

I started the painting of the Scythe board game items from the secret content of the Fenris add-on. I plan to finish them up this weekend. I was going to wait for the spare set I ordered, but it is not likely I will play Fenris this weekend, so I will paint them now.

I have been reading the rules for WW2 Deluxe: European Theater. I plan to try it this long weekend, solo. I discovered the designer, Jon Compton, is one of the designers of military wargames for the USA military. I am reading a new book on wargames and he is mentioned. I was in the Kickstarter for the update of his WW2 game and I like the rules already.

Today the stock market ignored the rule that September is always down and rocketed straight up.

Sorry, this is short today.

The reports are that another eleven-hundred people in the USA fell to the virus today.

Today I went back to hymns and picked one I like to sing, Crown Him with many crowns. This is Methodist Hymnal #327.

Yes, one-hundred seventy days of lockdown and still going.

The morning started again at 6ish with a quick spin through email as I had my first meeting at 7ish on Zoom. I continued in meetings on Zoom all morning. I then applied a patch, after getting special security access to apply it myself, all through lunch. I worked non-stop from about 6ish to 1ish. I then took a break and read for a while. I stopped a couple times to answer emails and text. I had a meeting from 5PM to 6ish.

I was not feeling that well; the pollen and pressure change from some weather fronts making me uncomfortable.

Lunch was a new selection, a bento box, from Mr. Bento Teriyaki. I decided to go with the old favorite: chicken teriyaki, shrimp tempura, potstickers, and rice. I also ordered some spring rolls and miso soup. It was expensive after being delivered. I will skip the soup and spring rolls–too much food.

The last meeting was a bit chaotic as I got a phone call on the house line and then a person looking for Corwin at the front door. I do not usually get all of this and a Zoom meeting at the same time.

Susie is a bit better. I think the trip to the Gorge and back with dinner in Portland cheered Susie. Susie was up at noon today, and she seems more aware of what is going on.

(Susie riding her exercise bike)

I was tired and not ready to make dinner. I did get a case of local veggies yesterday, but I not willing to cook again. Dinner out was not that appealing. So I drove to Taco Bell and got us a little dinner and brought it back. That worked out.

I finished a set of books today, Shades of Magic series by V. E. Schwab. It made me laugh as the characters say and do outrageous things in the fantasy books three of them, but I would have trouble recommending them. I found the characters, not that sympathetic. There is a lot of throat slitting. So try one before you commit to the series. Warning, once you start, you may not be able to stop.

I found out that Andrea Camilleri has two more crime-mystery novels to be published after his death. So I have one of those next. Also, the Naval Institute Press has published a new book on Wargame design that I have started, The Craft of War-gaming.

This is a three day weekend, and I have two more sets of Scythe items to paint from the campaign game. As these are part of the hidden content for the Fenris campaign, there will be no photos. No spoilers here!

Aside: Many newer board games have a campaign content that is hidden in cool boxes until a certain events call in the content, often thematic models that fit the game. Scythe has a hidden content system in the Fenris add-on. We, the crazy Scythe players, loved to buy another set of cool things to do with one of the best board games.

The stock market went up like crazy again. Nike stock is at a new high, again. I am just accepting all the good numbers.

More than eleven-hundred people in the USA died from the virus today. It appears that the death rate declined by 10% a week for the last month.

I stayed with Portland music as we seem to be in the news so much, just one hymn in a set of songs.

I started today about 6ish and dived into hours and hours of Zoom meetings. More designs were reconsidered, and we have some of the classic discovery of an idea by others that we presented months ago. Credit gets re-assigned—so typical frustrating day at work.

I did the laundry while I enjoyed the Zoom meetings. I also received the grocery order and got Susie off to Zerida for her Monday hair-nail-face-toes treatments.

I also enjoyed paying for all those stocks I sold. I sent a payment to the IRS today. I actually have an account with the IRS. It is the best way to know if they have your payments and return.

So it was a stressful and meeting enriched morning. I put in an order for lunch for a lamb gyro from Gyro House. I had a meeting even through lunchtime with a few directors, including my boss. I did not first notice that they got my note on my lunch. They miss me!

I used to order a Turkish Coffee and write on my Apple while I waited for my food at a table for one. They knew me, and I would take a baklava home for Susie. “It was for Susie,” I would tell them. They would just smile.

I had a few more meetings and emails and crises of the moment for Monday at home working.

This video could be us at Nike today. We keep jumping out of a plane: The Penguins Take Flight Scene

For dinner, I made Italian sausage, locally made from Olympian Provision, with sauce from a jar and pasta. It was good. I slice up the sausage and fry it until it is browned and then drain it and put that sausage in the sauce. I managed to pour out the water from the pasta without incident (I burned myself a few weeks ago doing that). I had more than one serving…

Susie got a flu shot today and is not feeling that well. That was my experience with the flu shot. I was extra tired the next day–Susie is already slowed down.

It is reported that more than five-hundred twenty people in the USA today died from the virus.

I went with something Portland for the music: This is Me. It is not a hymn, but I liked it in the movie.

Today I just made chicken soup, baked scones, did dishes, and laundry.

Not very exciting, but it was what I wanted today. I read some books too.

Chicken soup is done by defrosting a large packet of skinless and boneless chicken thighs. I soaked them for all morning in water in a pan in the sink to defrost them. I then took the wet chicken and put it in a glass pan. I roast the chicken for about an hour with salt, pepper, and Herbs de Provence. Just on the “bone” side.

I then pour off the liquid and add a teaspoon of the chicken base from a jar and let that sit. It is my version of chicken broth. It is not salty enough for most and a bit bland. You can use chicken stock–but I was out. I then bake the chicken another 15 mins to dry out a bit.

I also made scones in the same oven. I was not thinking and mixed it all together and had to knead (I really confused the editing tool when I spelled knead as need!) the scone mix instead of stirring it all together. I was able to save it, and the scones are okay (I have made scones by kneading before). Scones only take 15 mins, so I slipped them in on the bottom rack of my oven and got them done first.

Aside: I was talking to Mom Wild while cooking. Mom was interested in the scones I was making for Susie. So to surprise her, I sent her a pastry cutter and two boxes of scones mix–Amazon. I use only King Arthur scones mix. King Arthur works perfectly every time (even when I make mistakes). I have an excellent pastry cutter that makes quick work of it.

I then peeled and cut carrots into coins. I chopped some celery with leaves. I chopped up 1/4 of an onion that we had leftover. I chopped up some almost ruined fresh herbs. I cooked the veggies in butter until they were sweated. I added a teaspoon of crushed garlic–called adding the pope in cajun cooking (I have a large jar of garlic I buy from the restaurant supply store). I then chopped the still almost too hot chicken thighs. I dump the base, chicken, and water and let it boil and turned it down, adding even more water.

Before all of this, I discovered that we had no egg noodles. I looked up the recipe online and said, that all? I got out my rolling pin and my rolling mat and made the dough and rolled it out after letting it rest for ten minutes. Next time I will cut the dough in half. I ended up with 1/4 inch thick noodles, as that is the room I had on the mat. Thinner next time! I cut the noodles and let them dry over a bowl that I put outside.

I added the noodles hours later when they were mostly dry. The soup was good if a bit plain.

I ordered groceries for Safeway for items we need to replenish. I also added an Olympic Provisions order as we are in the Portland delivery area for specialty items. We have locally made and grown food coming: A small ham, sausage, cheese, and a box of weird and heritage vegetables. As things are always weird here, you could not get toilet paper for months in Beaverton, but you could always get a heritage tomato and have it delivered!

I took a nap after the soup was served up.

I then took all the stamps I have purchased for my collection over the last couple of months and updated my collection. I still collect stamps, but I find it a lonely hobby, and so I just do it once in a while. Internet sales make the purchase and auctions more interesting now–you can see some very hard-to-get items for sale. It is about the price of a used car, but you can get a letter crisped by the Hindenburg crash, for example, on the auctions now. Prices are all over the place so I can get something special once in a while for an excellent price. For anyone interested in stamps, I just acquired a used USA airmail for a low price: C14. The link is to a retail website. This stamp is one of the few USA stamps that is worth more for a used than perfect unused mint version. I bought a nice used one.

I had to sign-on to work and approve a design that someone finished late on Friday. They are in India time, so this is already Monday. The world is flat!

Today the reports show more than three-hundred sixty people in the USA died from the infection. This is a reducing rate, finally!

I decided to head to Turkey for our music. A Dervish prayer: Come and Let Us Praise Allah.