I played Troyes on Thursday game night with Adam, Tina, and Brian. It had been a long time since I’d last played it, and I had forgotten a lot of the mechanics. They also added in the expansion. I got a ton of money early, so didn’t worry about it for a while. At the end of the game I had to consider money again, but it didn’t really come up as a major issue. I didn’t get any specialized point cards, so I didn’t score very well. Despite that I got a close third. Adam won with his use of the expansion.
We had a pretty good time in Atlanta when we went to visit family.
We got the late night Friday flight and got into Atlanta around 7am. We went over to my parents house for a nice breakfast, after which we headed downtown to the Dragon Con parade. It was decent, but not as good as the previous time I had seen it, which was probably 4 years prior. We then went to Jeff’s and Steph got a much needed nap. Jeff and I went to pick up some fruit and tried to find some dry ice for an experiment I wanted to run, but we couldn’t find any at the Safeway near his house. We eventually found some at Publix, just a little further away. We got the fruit and dry ice set up, and then hung out until Steph woke up. At that point we went to the Mexican restaurant nearby Jeff’s place and were joined by The rest of the family. We didn’t really do anything that night. The next morning, I went to church with mom and dad. The new pastor was there and he gave a sermon on the amazing powers of Jesus to heal the blind and deaf. I thought about how amazing modern medicine was to heal the blind and deaf. Steph and I went over to the Botanical Gardens after I got back from my parent’s place. It was a really nice walk around the gardens and the orchids there are gorgeous. I really liked seeing the nature lady in her full glory, since last time I’d seen her it was winter.
We went to my parents for dinner, and got a bunch of delicious food. Jeff grilled up some steak, and we tried the fruit, but it wasn’t particularly carbonated. After dinner we stopped by Publix to get some more dry ice. We put the fruits in the containers with the dry ice and this time they did well. The next morning we went to Birmingham with my parents. Fred was having an 81st birthday party for Nana, and we joined him. Tila, Coleman, Karin, Brenda, Rodger, Cindy, Ben, Jacob, and Adriane were also there. It was a really nice time, and Steph was able to show off the diving and robot. I was glad I got to see everyone, as the age is starting to show for pretty much everyone but Fred. We went back to Atlanta and worked from home the next day. The flight back was late, but otherwise uneventful.
This was a great ending to the series. Since it has been a while since I listened to the previous two books I re-listened to those, then got into this. It flowed really nicely, and I really liked how the overpowered characters from the previous books got nerfed. The epicness being distributed among many characters made it a lot more real, and identifiable when there were problems. I was a little upset that all three empires didn’t get involved, but that also seemed more real. The great foe was defeated a little too easily for my taste, and he was a little too evil to be identifiable, which is hard to do with villains, but the best have it.
This was a fun bookclub week, and we had a hard time focusing on the book. Everyone brought a snack food that was either mentioned in the book, or something they liked, or something from their childhood. I brought the white cheddar cheezit’s since they fit all three categories. We all sampled the things we wanted to, including the lunchables, cheetos, and gushers. Archer kitty was very interested in the spread as well, and I had to hold him for a good bit of the discussion.
For much of the discussion he was just sitting and relaxing next to Liana.
There were a few heated points between David and Jeremy about the purpose of the book, and whether or not it should have been more harsh on the food industry in general. Everyone agreed that all the anecdotal parts were really soft on the people involved, but I can really identify with them. I’ve been feeling very much the same way as some of the people in this book about the company I work for. We had a lot of interesting follow up books to go through as well, for those more interested in the subject.
Steph had a seminar this past weekend so I had some time for a guys day. I biked over to Andrew’s place, and took a wrong turn onto Lawrence, making me about 30 minutes late. I was still there before many of the others. Brunch was fantastic, with some tasty pancakes from Lindsay, some eggs surrounded by sausage from Adam, and an assortment of other tasty treats from Andrew and Debby. I brought some nice croissants, and made some of the cheese filled crescent rolls that Steph likes.
After brunch some of Andrew’s workmates joined for a draft, and it was nice to do a 6 person draft instead of the 4 person ones we normally do. I lost some and won some. I had a really fun deck, that only needed a few more act of treasons to round it out. In the entire card pool there was only one copy, despite it being common, and I still got that one. I had a red/black steal and sack deck. There was one guy who somehow drafted a mill deck, and he ended up beating a lot of us pretty soundly.
After the MTG we went to Shabuway for dinner where Steph joined us. I had so many enoki mushrooms and it was gloriously delicious.
Stephanie and I went to Andrew’s place for some curry. Adam and George were also there. It was really tasty. We then watched an episode of Naked and Afraid, which was nice.
We had a lot of Facebookers come over to Games Night at Beachhead. They were mostly light gamers. Adam and I had one join us playing Caverna. It was a fun game, and I was doing great at farming. I neglected the caves and rooms to my detriment. I got a distant second. I biked there and back and it was a really nice bike ride.
Steph and I went to Kevin’s Birthday party and had a great time. The party was at K1 go cart racing. We got the package with 4 races, and managed to have a good time with few major crashes. Lindsay won the first race, with me getting a comfortable second. I won the second race by hanging back, and then taking a few really quick laps. The second and third races were determined by fastest lap. I got second in the third race to Andrew.
The final race was the main event, and this one was a true race, not a time trial. Andrew started in the lead since he had the fastest lap. I was second, and Steph was third. We started the race, and Andrew got a few laps without me being able to pass. Steph lost her third due to her cart not starting properly. I got a pass on the tight turn on Andrew, and the lap after that he spun out behind me, giving me a comfortable lead. Debby slowed me down on that same turn and George caught up. Steph had fought her way back to the third place spot, but couldn’t get past George for the last few laps. I managed to hold onto the lead, and got the win.
We then went to dinner at Mango Garden, and it was delicious. I especially liked the hot and spicy tofu. We of course had to get the roti with the peanut sauce, and I got a Thai ice tea.
We then headed back to Lindsay’s place and played some Poker. Debby brought over a delicious ice cream cake, and we all had a slice.
I didn’t do too well, and there were a few hands where I got a really good hand, but Andrew got a slightly better one. The worst was me hitting an ace high flush on the river, but Andrew getting his full house on the same card. Luckily at that point I was short stacked. Debby was kind enough to drop me off at home.
Steph was nice enough to join me for a cookout at Niko’s on Saturday. She met most everyone in the company, and got to chat with them about her robot. I got to say hi to Mike who is started today. I’m really looking forward to working with him.
It's an Exciting World 