Andrew hosted an Oscars and MTG night at his place. Debby printed out Oscar brackets and we guessed who was going to win what Oscar. I had some opinions on the major categories, but completely guessed at others. Debby had a bit of an unfair advantage since she’d be listening to the gossip around who was expected to win, which led to her winning. Surprisingly Andrew was behind her by only one correct guess (10 to 9). I was at a respectable 7 correct, but not that respectable since many of them were random. The one I got that was correct and purposefully chosen was the male lead in Theory of Everything. Stephanie got a sad 2 correct, which is significantly worse than random guessing for the whole thing. She made the mistake of only putting things down for the movies she had seen. About a third of the way through the Oscars, the guys pulled out some MTG and did a draft of Khans and Fate. It was a fun draft, and I won one out of my three matches. The other matches were really close, and I was decently happy with the way my deck played.
We watched the Theory of Everything at Brian and Kate’s place. I was a little late, but made it in time for the movie. It was a good movie and a great crowd, but the movie wasn’t my cup of tea, and since we weren’t interacting much while watching the crowd didn’t matter. I still had a great time.
Stephanie and I went to lunch with her extended Bay Area family for Chinese New Year. It was actually 2 days after, but close enough. We went to a nice restaurant and got some really tasty food. I invited Jeff and Patty to a Paint Nite and they were happy to join.
I played a game of Dungeon Lords with Adam and Tina, where Tina won by quite a lot. We did a lot of the expansion items, and I got a great room early on, the trap room. Some of the first traps I got were great, and made the fatigue step not happen. I was able to completely hold off all the adventurers for the whole time, especially since I had the long hallway in the second round. I probably should have been more evil so I could get the lesser paladin. I did some really stupid things, which made me not able to pay the taxes, and so I lost a lot of points from that. Adam got bumped out of a good number of placements and got destroyed by the paladins.
We spent President’s day as a long games day. We had a great time playing the expansion to New Era. It made the game much smoother, with a much better start.
We also played some Coup, Blood Bowl, EPYC, and Race for the Galaxy. It was a good time, even though I only won at one round of Coup.
Saturday morning Steph and I got up early to head to the airport. We were heading to Las Vegas to join a large group of people who knew each other in interesting ways. I drove since it was early, and we got to the airport in plenty of time. Once we got to Las Vegas It was time for lunch. We started by meeting up with Kevin and Lindsay, who were having brunch with Andrew and Debby so we could pick up our keys. We then head up to the room and I got all dressed up. Steph also had a lovely top, and classy jacket. We went to the Chihuly glass exhibit at Aria, then we went to a photo gallery nearby. We then went to the Faberge Egg exhibit at the Bellagio and noticed some silly animatronic goats that had been placed for Chinese New Year. There was a large amount of decorations everywhere for Chinese New Year, and almost nothing for Valentines.
We decided to head over to the Mandarin Oriental a little early for High Tea. It was a very nice experience, and the view was spectacular. It was the perfect thing for a Valentines day. After that we spent a little time with the others over a delicious dinner before heading to the LOVE show by Cirque du Soleil. It was quite good, and had a ton of references to British history, the Beatles lyrics, and greater history. There were so many I’m sure I missed a good many, but I did pick up a number that the others didn’t. I really enjoyed the show.
We got back to Aria and drank a bit in the lobby bar, where it was possible to hear each other. We had some great conversation and called it pretty early for Vegas.
The next day we got a delicious brunch at the Venetian, and then went back to the Aria where we hung out a bit. We went to the hot tub with Debby and Andrew, after which we went to hang out with Alana and Haru. We chatted with them for hours, and even stayed past check out. We managed to get back into the room, then headed out to the airport for the flight home.
I met Nick for dinner Friday last week, and we got some Thai food. I had a nice curry, and he got something that seemed fermented and had a good bit of shrimp paste. I liked the first taste, but the aftertaste didn’t appeal to me. We went back to his work afterwards and hung out for a bit while I waited on the next train. He was trying to set up an automated plug, but the network was too complicated. I made a 5 sided lego structure, and it worked surprisingly well.
Steph got sick this past weekend. She went ahead to the martial arts seminar on Saturday, while I stayed in and didn’t do much of anything, but cuddle with kitties. On Sunday, Steph stayed in while I went over to Adam’s place for some MTG. Andrew and Keven joined, as well as Debby being there just hanging out. We did two drafts, and I lost spectacularly at both. I tried some specific strategies, but they really didn’t turn out. I did misplay a few times, but it was more of choosing from two unknowns and getting the worse outcome. The draft was still very fun.
After drafting we went to a restaurant that Debby had recommended, JX Cuisine. Lindsay joined us, and we had some amazing food. I really liked the ma po tofu, and would definitely go back.
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We had a pretty good turnout at the first full bookclub meeting, and the response to the book was mainly negative, but it made us think. There were some really good and impassioned discussions around the different concepts discussed. The most contested was the institutional habits and whether that level of control that the company is exerting on the individual is moral or not. Steph’s baked goods were delicious.
We decided on A Fire upon the Deep as the next book, and I’m going to read it a few times since it was pretty good.
It's an Exciting World 