Steph and I took a short drive down to Monterey to do a scuba trip there. The Pier is a fun place to dive as you never know what you’ll find and this time was especially interesting. We saw a crab wearing a beanie hat. The crab was a Sheep Crab or Spider Crab depending on how you want to call it. The hat was decently stuck to it, and it was happy with the hat. The video below is from one of the other groups that was there that day, and we got a screenshot in case the video goes down (like what happened with the urchin smashing).
Steph and I wanted to get out of the house for a bit, but do so safely. We decided an outdoor set of excursions would be a good plan, and staying at a no contact airbnb. We went to Moss Landing where we stayed on a small sailboat. We went to the nearby beach that evening and saw the sunset. The night was spent on a very small bed with some knocking on the dock, but we made it through. We brought our electric kettle and backpacking meals and that worked perfectly.
The next morning we slept in a bit, and then went kayaking in Elkhorn Slough. We saw tons of otters and harbor seals.
We then had a takeout lunch in Santa Cruz on our way to Halfmoon Bay. The waves were too big to make it to the outer rocks where the sea urchins are, so Steph wasn’t able to collect any. We did have a good time walking along the beach.
We headed back to the boat and had another decent night. I really like the warm cozy area with the outside so close and cold. The boat was so cozy and it was nice cuddling with Steph while she played games on the switch.
We didn’t make it diving the next day due to sleeping in and the waves being so large. The kitties were so happy to have us back when we got home.
We had a decent sized group head to Adam’s new place in Kanab, Utah for the week of Thanksgiving. Paul and Yutong came and picked Steph and me up, and make the 12 hour drive. The other car, Tim, Amit, and Tina, headed out slightly after us. We had all been self quarunteeing and got Covid tests before leaving. Some of the results hadn’t come back by the time we left, but by the time we got there we had the results, negative.
The drive was pretty uneventful, but took a little over 12 hours. We got in a little after dark, and brough in all the food and games. The other car arrived a few hours after us, and we settled in. The house is very nice. Steph and I were in one of the top floor bedrooms, with Paul and Yutong in the other.
Behind the house was BLM land, and the second day we went up the mountain behind his house. I made it to the second from the top cliff with most of the group. Amit and Tim, being the climbers, made it part way up the top cliff. We came back to the house and people were cooking and playing games.
Some of the great meals were had over the week were dumplings made by Yutong, mac and cheese by Steph, fesh pasta and meatballs by Yutong with a nice white sauce by Adam, A pot pie by Tina, a turkey by Adam, butternut squash curry, sourdough by Tim, cornbread by Steph, devilled eggs by Yutong, and breakfasts by Adam.
We played a lot of board games. One play of Mage Knight, three times through Terraforming Mars, and two plays of Feast for Odin. We also played a lot of party games like 25 Words or Less and One Word. The One Word game was especially good, and we played it repeadedly and in different ways.
We went on a few hikes, all of which were nice. We headed up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and did the highest point there. It was a cold windy day, so we didn’t hike for too long. We also walked aroundt he lodge, which was closed for the season. Another hike was through a small, easily accessable slot canyon. We also climed a second mountain near where Adam is living. On that hike we saw some petroglyphs and dinosaur footprint fossils.
It was an amazing time, and Adam was a great host. It was so nice to get to hang out with people again
During shelter in place there hasn’t been much going on in my personal life.
Professionally, I got a new job, which I love. The latest game I worked on came out on PSVR.
I’ve been playing lots of games on Boardgamearena.com and Tabletop Simulator. I’ve enjoyed playing there, but it isn’t the same as in person. I’ve continued reading a lot and breezed through the latest Stormlight Archive from Sanderson.
I’ve been doing a lot of gardening, including putting in a trellis with a wisteria. I plan to grow the wisteria up to the top of the trellis and put a bench underneath.
I’ve done some chores around the house I’ve been meaning to do like changing the locks on the gate and cleaning the solar panels. The panels especially needed cleaning after the heavily ashy days.
I’ve been playing a lot of VR games and enjoying them. Nothing has stood out that much recently. I still like the basics of In Death and Beat Saber.
One of the allowed activities for shelter in place is any outdoor activity with sufficient distancing from other people. Kayaking is one of the perfect examples of an activity like that, as I’m rarely within one hundred meters from anyone. Below are lines for the six paths I took.
Steph joined me on the red path. We saw many juvenile harbor seals. They were so cute.
The shelter in place has been going decently well for Steph and myself. We’ve gotten a good routine, and found some games to play together. Our friend group has been on Discord and that has helped a lot.
We’ve been playing a lot of board games in lots of ways.
Steph and I play in person
Larger groups play on boardgamearena.com
We play on Tabletop Simulator
We play with someone streaming Jackbox on Discord
We play on streams with cameras on the board and each person says what they want to do
We play on specific apps like Terraforming Mars on Steam
We play on MTG Arena
This has made socializing somewhat better. It isn’t the same to play on this online platforms, but what we lack in quality has been made up in quantity.
One thing that has been both quality and quantity is the food. I’ve been eating great healthy food, but too much of it. I think it is time to watch and limit the intake.
I’ve also been happy with my new workout routine, which is morning Ring Fit. It has a lot of different exercises and the game keeps it interesting.
The work routine has been a work in progress. I’ve found a good setup that is working on the back patio using a small folding table. I think this will be my work routine moving forward. It is especially nice with all the birds that come to our back yard and the kitties in the tent next to me. I’ve seen goldfinches, lots of hummingbirds, sea gulls, geese, and vultures.
Our garden is also coming in really nicely. The berries are actually going to produce, which is surprising since it has only been one year and we weren’t expecting them to yield berries for another year or two.
I decided to make a backpack mount for my folding kayak. This allows me to now bike to the dock with the kayak on my back. It wasn’t all that comfortable, but it was surprisingly functional. The bike lanes on the way there are extra wide so it more or less worked out perfectly. The wind on the way back made it a bit harder, but nothing that I couldn’t overcome.
Steph and I did an Omescape room that was completely dark for 90% of the time. The game was quite challenging, and we missed a few things that should have been obvious. We still made it out at 52/60 minutes. I really enjoyed the two person action, especially since there wasn’t any parallelization in this one.
Steph and I joined a large group for their yearly Vegas trip. This is the third time I’ve joined this group in Vegas, and I think it was my favorite trip. Steph and I flew out Friday afternoon and got to Vegas in the early evening.
Steph had booked a couples massage for us at the Korean spa that Debby likes. I had a really good massage with intense pressure. Steph said she didn’t get as deep a massage as she would have liked, but overall the spa was nice.
We met up with much of the rest of the group at a Cornish pasty shop. They were just finishing up so we had dinner as just the two of us. The veggie pasties were very good. We then joined them at the Velveteen Rabbit, which was a cute bar. They started turning up the music so we decided to leave. We went to a nearby beer focussed bar, and Steph and I decided to head to the hotel for some sleep.
Saturday morning I met up with, Myk, a colleague and we had breakfast at Bruxies, then walked the strip for a bit.
I then joined Steph and we went to the Shark Reef aquarium with Paul and Yutong. It was much better than expected, but our expectations were pretty low. They had a large variety of sharks, and a small variety of other things.
Saturday evening Steph and I went to the Zumanity show. It was an enjoyable performance, although not as good as any of the other Cirque shows I’ve seen. It was the perfect show for Valentines weekend I would say.
Sunday morning we went to Dig This. Steph and I got to crush a car using one of the large excavators. Then we got to play with the small excavators and dig a hole. They were fun to use and the power of the machines was impressive.
After Dig This we went to do two escape rooms at Escapology, Mansion Murder and Under Pressure. We got stalled at a few of the puzzles, but overcame that decently quickly. We escaped each room with about 20 minutes to spare.
Our flight was delayed so we had a bit of time to go to dinner with Adam and Tina. The food at the place we chose wasn’t great. They specialized in steak, so I guess that was good, but their veggie dishes left something to be desired. We got to the airport a little early, but the plane boarded before the delay suggested so that was a good thing. We got home to find the kitties timed feeders hadn’t worked, so they were so hungry. I felt bad for the kitties, so we gave them lots of attention and food.
It's an Exciting World 