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It's an Exciting World

The life and times of David Geisert

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Long Games at George’s

Stephanie, Adam, George, Tina, and I played some long games at George’s place.

We started out by making a fantastic brunch of bacon, eggs, bagels, mochi waffles, sausages, and oranges.  George did most of the cooking and the food was delicious.

The game we chose to play was Gloomhaven, and we played three rounds of it. We lost the first round, as everyone decided to take the difficulty up a notch.  The next two games I participated in, subbing in for George then Adam.  I had a good time playing, and the game can go very slowly if people take their time with turns and think through.  It is a slight flaw with the design, that there can be a lot to analyze.  We didn’t do great at refraining from that analysis.  The rules even recognize this, and say it should be avoided by talking about actions in vague terms.

After playing Lindsay and Kevin came over, and we sang some karaoke.  We also ordered in some pizza and Lindsay brought salads.  After karaoke we played two rounds of codenames pictures, and that went pretty quick and decently well.

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Skyline to the Sea

Stephanie, Adam, Tina, and I did part of the Skyline to the Sea trail.  We didn’t do the part we meant to but we did about the same length we had planned.  When we reached the trail from Big Basin, and then made a mistake.  We saw a sign that said ‘Skyline to the Sea’ and just went off in that direction.  We didn’t notice the sign went both ways along the trail.  This meant instead of heading to the ocean, we were heading up the mountain.  We made it up to the intersection of 9 and 236, but were unable to get an Uber or Lyft to come get us.  We managed to get a ride into Saratoga, and hung out for a bit at Cinnabar, a wine bar.

Later that day we got dinner with George and Adam.  The place was Adega and the food was pretty good.  My favorite dish was the duck fried rice, and I think the sangria sampler was even better than that.  It was a good day.

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Wine Train

Stephanie, Adam, and I went on the Napa wine train that goes from Napa City to St. Helena.  We got there a little early and decided to walk around the city for a bit after checking in for the train.  We found a coffee shop and a charcuterie, that we stopped by again later.

We then went to the train and got on.  The train was only half full at 15 of 30 spots taken.  We got a nice breakfast on the way to the first winery, Domaine Chandon.  They were a typical winery, and we got a nice tasting of some sparkling wine.  It was a place we could go hang out during a work remote day, as they had a massive patio.  On the way to the second winery we got a soup and salad.  The second winery, Hall, was our favorite of the three.  They were clearly about creating a good place to be, and it is a place we might go to hang out.  The only issue being that it requires a membership to be in their hanging out area.  They had art all around, with the most icon piece being a giant silver bunny in the front called ‘Bunny Fufu.’  Hall also had the best wine of the trip, by general unanimous agreement, 2015 hall terra secca cabernet sauvignon.  We had a nice dinner on the way to the third and final winery, Inglenook.  They had a lot of interesting old things: books, clothes, mechanical objects.   They had also built a cave into to house their wines as they aged.  We took the train back to Napa and had a nice desert.  The wine and food was generally great.  A few of the dishes and a few of the wines were fantastic.

We then went back to the charcuterie, and Adam got some food for Saturday.  We went to Grace’s Table for dinner as it was recommended by Michelin.  Adam drove us back and we went right to bed.

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Paint Nite – Jelly Fish

Stephanie took me to a Paint Nite as her Christmas gift to me.  It was at the Backyard coffee close by where we live.  We got there, and the walk was pretty chilly, so we both got big hot chocolates.  It was tasty, and I noticed Redwood Coast Cider was on tap.  We got started and I found some reference photos for putting some kelp in the background and for the jelly.  I chose the ones I’m most familiar with, the sea nettles that I see in Monterey Bay.

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Adam’s Welcome back Latkes

Adam put on a latke party at his place, and it was quite nice.  The only not so great part was getting in, as his phone didn’t really work with the intercom call system.  We managed to get everyone into the place and I had a few really good conversations.  We got in the hot tub for part of it and Yutong brought a cute Polaroid imitation camera.  There was plenty of good food and drink, not to mention tons of tasty latkes.

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Rock Band at Jeremy’s

We went to Jeremy’s for Rock Band last night and had a good time. I was so tired, but was still social.  I wasn’t up for playing any of the instruments.  The game style just doesn’t interest me and never has.  I do enjoy watching the others play and the karaoke element is always a winner.  Jeremy was nice enough to get a cake for Lindsay and we split it.  Since it was an Alexanders cake it was phenomenally good.

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Book Club: The Code Book

We had a pretty good discussion of The Code Book, which was a little surprising.  I had my doubts if the others would find it interesting or not.  I found most of it interesting, but skimmed over a lot of the in depth explanations I had heard before.  I find a lot of the implications of what was in the book to be fascinating more than the processes.

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Time with Steph

I’ve enjoyed having Steph back and we’ve gotten to do some nice things together.  We went to the Mayfield holiday party, she made me some tasty tasty ramen, and we tried a restaurant from some of the recommendations she tracks, Pausa.

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Karaoke and Board Games

George hosted a holiday themed karaoke night on Friday.  Steph and I joined everyone for dinner beforehand at Pho Vy.  We got there with George, Adam, and Tina.  Then the holiday spirit arrived with Debby, Lindsay, Kevin, and Andrew wearing horrible holiday sweaters.

After dinner we headed to George’s to start the karaoke.  I put on a few of my favorite Christmas songs.  I like that many of the Christmas songs are for baritones, making it much easier for me to sing.  The ones I ended up singing were, ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,’ ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,’ ‘You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch,’ and ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside.’

We also ended up pulling out some board games.  Adam, Tina, Steph, and I played Terraforming Mars.  I got a good start, but Adam pulled way out ahead with the milestones.  Kevin, Steph, and I also played a round of Mysterium, and did really, really badly.

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