Weekend downtime
I keep intending to do a bunch of backposting on the weekends, but then I get done with all the other stuff and I'm just tired.
I took a break from work around 4 on Friday with every intention of going back to finish off some things after an hour or so, and then a bit later my brain informed me that no, it needed more of a break than that. So Jerry and I played some It Takes Two, which we have been enjoying together. And then I got a text from Joe and Bill asking if anyone wanted to play board games online. And they answer to that is always yes, so I joined them and we played a couple rounds of Kingdom Builder on BGA. I think I had played this long ago (maybe even with a physical copy?) but didn't remember anything, so I lost the first one by a fair chunk but did much better the second time around. I like it; it's got a good luck/strategy balance. Then we played 7 Wonders: Architect, which is new. It doesn't have the drafting aspect of regular 7 Wonders, but otherwise has a lot of the same feel. Floyd hopped on and joined us for a final round, which was excellent. And it was very nice to see friends I haven't seen in a while, even if only over video.
Yesterday we went axe-throwing with Matthew and (differnt) Joe. I was doing terribly for most of the two hours, but then the others were tired and I got to just throw over and over with no pauses for a couple minutes and all of a sudden I was good at it. So I think I need a dozen or two throws in a row to be able to calibrate power and range, and then I can actually do it.
Afterwards we grabbed some snacks from H-Mart, went home and walked the cat a bit, and then went over to Matthew's to play board games. We started up a game of Charterstone, which seems like it will be fun. I won, but I think I will have some catching up to do next game. We also played a game of Quarriors, which I enjoyed a lot more than the last time I played it. It's kind of deckbuild-y, but you can't get too invested in combos because you have to both draw the appropriate dice and have them roll correctly for that to happen. This time I was just opportunistic and didn't think too much about it, and I had a lot more fun. (And also won.)
Today was training day. Jerry has started teaching Matthew kung fu, and I have been joining them. I am still awful at learning physical movement things, but I had the realization that I can do just fine if I'm not actively trying to learn or remember anything. If I'm just following along and mimicking the motions, I can do it. And weirdly, some of it does end up sticking. I still have to have Jerry show me moves over and over, but today we did kicking and I remembered more than I expected to about how the pieces come together. (Like, for a back-leg roundhouse kick, you have to turn your lead foot first, and that kind of automatically gets your pelvis moving which translates into bringing the rear leg up and around, and once I remembered the bit about the foot, I had the rest of it in place.) I can't remember the names of any of the moves, and I think my ability to use words degrades significantly after the first half hour, but show me and I can follow along.
This afternoon I went grocery shopping and realized that I had made the tactical error of going to the store shortly before Superbowl time, because it was very crowded with people getting chips and suchlike at the last minute. But I checked the clock and realized that the game was starting soon, so I just filled my cart at a leisurely pace and by the time I was done the rush had subsided, so that made me feel clever.
I'm going to make beef stew because I realized that I didn't need to find sorghum or buckwheat groats to substitute for barley to make it gluten-free, I could just use wild rice and that should be fine. I chopped up all the veggies and browned the meat and threw everything in the crock pot and put it in the fridge, and I will do the actual six-hour cooking tomorrow. The new ceramic frying pan did a lovely job browning the meat. I'm still getting used to it, but it seems like a good replacement for teflon.
I took a break from work around 4 on Friday with every intention of going back to finish off some things after an hour or so, and then a bit later my brain informed me that no, it needed more of a break than that. So Jerry and I played some It Takes Two, which we have been enjoying together. And then I got a text from Joe and Bill asking if anyone wanted to play board games online. And they answer to that is always yes, so I joined them and we played a couple rounds of Kingdom Builder on BGA. I think I had played this long ago (maybe even with a physical copy?) but didn't remember anything, so I lost the first one by a fair chunk but did much better the second time around. I like it; it's got a good luck/strategy balance. Then we played 7 Wonders: Architect, which is new. It doesn't have the drafting aspect of regular 7 Wonders, but otherwise has a lot of the same feel. Floyd hopped on and joined us for a final round, which was excellent. And it was very nice to see friends I haven't seen in a while, even if only over video.
Yesterday we went axe-throwing with Matthew and (differnt) Joe. I was doing terribly for most of the two hours, but then the others were tired and I got to just throw over and over with no pauses for a couple minutes and all of a sudden I was good at it. So I think I need a dozen or two throws in a row to be able to calibrate power and range, and then I can actually do it.
Afterwards we grabbed some snacks from H-Mart, went home and walked the cat a bit, and then went over to Matthew's to play board games. We started up a game of Charterstone, which seems like it will be fun. I won, but I think I will have some catching up to do next game. We also played a game of Quarriors, which I enjoyed a lot more than the last time I played it. It's kind of deckbuild-y, but you can't get too invested in combos because you have to both draw the appropriate dice and have them roll correctly for that to happen. This time I was just opportunistic and didn't think too much about it, and I had a lot more fun. (And also won.)
Today was training day. Jerry has started teaching Matthew kung fu, and I have been joining them. I am still awful at learning physical movement things, but I had the realization that I can do just fine if I'm not actively trying to learn or remember anything. If I'm just following along and mimicking the motions, I can do it. And weirdly, some of it does end up sticking. I still have to have Jerry show me moves over and over, but today we did kicking and I remembered more than I expected to about how the pieces come together. (Like, for a back-leg roundhouse kick, you have to turn your lead foot first, and that kind of automatically gets your pelvis moving which translates into bringing the rear leg up and around, and once I remembered the bit about the foot, I had the rest of it in place.) I can't remember the names of any of the moves, and I think my ability to use words degrades significantly after the first half hour, but show me and I can follow along.
This afternoon I went grocery shopping and realized that I had made the tactical error of going to the store shortly before Superbowl time, because it was very crowded with people getting chips and suchlike at the last minute. But I checked the clock and realized that the game was starting soon, so I just filled my cart at a leisurely pace and by the time I was done the rush had subsided, so that made me feel clever.
I'm going to make beef stew because I realized that I didn't need to find sorghum or buckwheat groats to substitute for barley to make it gluten-free, I could just use wild rice and that should be fine. I chopped up all the veggies and browned the meat and threw everything in the crock pot and put it in the fridge, and I will do the actual six-hour cooking tomorrow. The new ceramic frying pan did a lovely job browning the meat. I'm still getting used to it, but it seems like a good replacement for teflon.