The discussion on this book was great, since we were able to talk about the world in general as well as the story. There were lots of discussions on the characters and the writing style. The disparate beginnings confused everyone, but we all agreed it came together well in the end. The Anderson character was interesting, in that you start out being able to identify with him, and he might be a little mean. In the end he ends up being a monster that gets his just deserves. We also talked about the manipulation of animals and people. I thought it wasn’t feasible for the changes to be such a step function. I would expect some people to have smaller improvements, and not fully reworked genomes. I look forward to the next discussion as well, and I’m a little surprised that people agreed to read the books on religion.
Steph and I had brunch at Andrew’s place, then we started drafting. Steph came along, and once Debby got there they started their MTG matches. My games went decently well, but I wasn’t able to cope with the removal that Kevin and Andrew had. Adam also beat me, but those games were much closer. I could have beaten him, but I misplayed right at the end. I still had a really good time.
After MTG Adam and I went to a castle in the hills that was for sale. It was really adorable, but not very finished. I liked the property, but it was also really hard to get to. They also had a broken down trebuchet.
We then went to dinner at a tapas restaurant, and followed that up by the movie “The Lunchbox” which was a very strange movie.
Steph and I had planned on a lazy Saturday morning, and it was exactly as hoped. We stopped by Milk Pail, Target, and then went to the park to play some tennis. She wasn’t as good as I had expected so we played some in the small square. After that we played some modified wall ball tennis, which was interesting. It worked surprisingly well, and we could get some pretty good volleys going, even thought I was hitting it kinda hard.
We went back and had a long soak in the hot tub. It was a windy day and one of the pool umbrellas had been knocked into the deep end of the pool. I went in and managed to get it out, but it just blew back into the shallow end, where I left it.
That evening went to Lee’s birthday part and played a great game called Drawful. I really enjoyed it, and it was very similar to what I had been trying to do with the Jovios system.
Steph and I went to Andrew’s place for some Steak and Poker. The steak was really tasty, and the company was fantastic.
After that we started playing some poker, and I just couldn’t get any good hands. I hit a decent hand a few times, but had others come over the top with amazing hands. The end of the night saw me down about $22, which wasn’t bad overall for the table that night. Leyan was the big winner, with some monstrous hands, a few of which hit on the river.
Stephanie and I joined her parents on a day trip to Half Moon Bay. We walked along the sea cliffs for a while, and stopped by the Ritz. We had lunch at one of the best restaurants in downtown and then walked around for a bit. There was a great olive oil bar across the street that we stopped into, and I got some garlic olive oil, and an herb vinegar. They both were very tasty.
Adam, Tina, Andrew, and I played a game of Mage Knight on Saturday 9/26. It was a great game, and I had a very interesting build. I had taken a lot of learning cards early one, and so my deck was getting massive with extra advanced actions. The issue was that we were doing single large assaults and I couldn’t go through my deck fast enough to make it useful. I ended up just making life harder for myself. Tina did the units strategy, which worked great for the single huge assault. I think I understand more about the game now because of that.
We played the newest expansion and it was pretty bland. The differences between the factions weren’t pronounced enough, and the final bosses were just strange.
The company did an offsite in Tahoe for a few days and it was a great time. We left Wednesday afternoon and go to Tahoe just before sunset. The first thing a few of us did was to go down to the hottub. We were then split into teams for the weekend, and I was on the Silver team (grey is boring). That night we went to the casino there, the Montbleu. I did very well, with +$25 on slots, +$50 on roulette, and +$100 on Blackjack. I was by far the biggest winner that night. There was a large group playing craps, and having some fun doing that. I didn’t join them since I’m not familiar with the way craps works. We had dinner at a nice steakhouse there, and pretty much everyone got the filet mignon. The food was delicious, the wine was tasty, and the conversation was excellent.
We got back to the house a little later, and played HOTS until very late. We managed to get a 5v5, as well as a few 4v4’s, and 3v3’s. The 3v3’s were interesting and fun, since we all went middle lane.
The next day we had a big breakfast and went to the lake. I brought my dive gear, so I was the only one able to swim for any period of time. That also made it a lot easier to do the tubing, since when I fell off I wasn’t freezing cold. We had lunch in Emerald Cove, and I swam over to the island there. I hiked to the small house on top, then swam around the base of the island looking for crayfish. I found a few, but only managed to catch one. I ended up letting the one go since he wasn’t enough for a meal.
We got back and had a big cookout, some board games, and a serious discussion. For the board games I was part of the group that played Puerto Rico. I got in a tough spot and lost pretty badly. I don’t really care for Puerto Rico anymore. It was fun at first but once we figured out that whoever sits to the left of the person who produces wins, it became a waiting game.
The next day we went up the gondolas and got a great view from the top of the mountain. I got some alone time at the peak while most everyone else was zip-lining.
Darren and I had a great couple conversations on the way home, and I look forward to future such discussions.
Steph and I participated in the Hunger Challenge, and it made me think a good bit about how I look at food. Food broke down into 3 big categories when I was doing my analysis, Caloric, Enjoyment, and Nutritious. The breakdown of costs wasn’t exactly as I had expected. I expected the Caloric < Nutritious < Enjoyment. What I found was that the Enjoyment < Nutritious foods in most cases. If I wanted some chocolate, cheese, or hot sauce, it would cost about a dollar and I would get a decent amount of it. If I wanted a head of broccoli, asparagus, bell peppers, spinach, etc. I could buy some for around a dollar, but it wasn’t very substantial on its own. Carrots were the exception to that, being both cheap and decently nutritious. The meats I bought were pretty terrible, and I don’t think I’ll be doing that again soon. I found that the vegetarian options weren’t that bad, and that they could be tasty if spiced right. Rice and beans is delicious if you have a half dozen different ways to spice it, for when the mood hits. I had cheese, hot sauce, peanuts, ginger and garlic, soy/fish sauce, and meats if I wanted to add something to it. I bought way too much food, and am still eating some of it.
The bag ‘from’ the food bank did make a huge difference, since it added a lot of variety and healthy foods to the diet that wouldn’t normally be in the budget; mainly fruits.
We went to Sonoma with Kevin, Andrew, Debby, and Lindsay. It was a great time staying at the Airbnb that Lindsay got, and we had a delicious dessert for the end of the hunger challenge. It was the brownie in a box, and cinnamon cake in a box that I added an egg to and baked. It was pretty tasty. We then played some Scattergories and some Presidents. I wasn’t doing too well at either, but got really lucky on the Presidents and ended as VP.
The next day We went to get Mani-Pedi’s The guys enjoyed it, and played MTG while waiting to start.
We also got brunch with Adam and Brian. 
The wedding itself was a ton of fun, and they had great music, great food, good drinks, and a Philz coffee truck. We danced a ton, and had a great time doing it.
The next day we had brunch again, but in downtown Sonoma, then went to the Larson Family Winery. The ladies got tastings, while the gentlemen were still recovering from the previous night. 
When we got back we had dinner with Roy and our newest roommate, Jimena.
All in all a fantastic weekend.
