A Very Busy Weekend: Endgames, Appels, and More

[shannon_a]

Had a very busy weekend, which I knew would be the case.

Endgame Party. Saturday was Endgame's 11th anniversary party. I've been going to the parties since, I think the 8th. As with last year, this time I opted to stay the whole day, rather than rushing back off to my own RPGing, as I have in the past. So, I played lots of board games from about 10.30 in the morning until 7 in the evening. I got to play with some folks I don't game with much like Aaron (out from Boston) and Brad and Bob. I also gamed with my most regular opponent, Eric, a bit. The highlight of the day was a game of The Castles of Burgundy, which I don't play a lot because it runs in the 2+ hours category. It was a great game to play on a Saturday and a great game overall. I won with a crushing score of 260+. Very fun. (But it would have been even if I'd gotten skunked: terrific game.)

There was a bit of an afterparty after the party at a local Mexican restaurant. I was totally wiped out from 8(!) hours of gaming, but I revived after a bit of sangria, tamale, and nacho — all of which were very tasty. Some gaming started up, but I was definitely not recovered enough to game any more. So I listened to some conversation for a bit, burned off my one small cup of sangria, and when the buzz was gone, headed home.

Biking on a Saturday night through Oakland was a just a bit more harrowing than my usual Wednesday night or Saturday early-evening jaunts, because there were more people out and some of them looked skeezy. There was also one set of six or seven blocks of Telegraph that were particularly icky because the power was totally out!! Biking through Oakland on a Saturday night during a blackout turned out to me not my idea of fun at all. Still, not a big deal, and nothing that detracted from any of the partying. I made it home safe and sound, though I may consider BART in the future for a late Saturday night.

Family Visit. Since moving to Hawaii, my dad has been flying back to the mainland about once a year. He stays with my sister, then comes up to visit Kimberly and me, usually on a Sunday. Yesterday was that Sunday. We mostly chatted for the ~6 hours visit, though early on we also went out for lunch. That was at La Med on College, which Melody calls "fancy downtown". (I told her we also have "college downtown", which is Telegraph, and "real downtown", which is Shattuck. I guess I neglected "not quite as fancy downtown", which is Solano, and would have been hellacious yesterday due to the Overentitled Solano Stroll.)

As we got to La Med around 12.30 or 12.45, we discovered that they have brunch and breakfast menus! In all my years in Berkeley, I've never had either there. I ended up ordering a lox levant, and it was terrific! Mm-mm. One of the best things I've ever had at the restaurant and a nice change from a typical Med Plate

Generally, the visit was very nice, and it was good to see both dad and Melody (though sadly not fiancé Jared, who has been getting increasingly busy at school in the last year).

Construction. I haven't written hear about the construction in recent weeks. In one word: UGH!

Some time ago the nice old Asian woman who lived in the house behind us sold it (or maybe died, but in any case, the house at least passed on). It seems to have been bought by a couple who love screaming on their cell phones in the back yard. I'm hoping that won't be the case when they actually move into a furnished house. But the much more annoying part is that they've had construction going on on their house for like a whole frickin' month.

It started with the roof, and we figured: OK, we get woken up at 8am every morning by workers, but reroofing is pretty typical for a new house buy. But then the work just kept going on and on and on (and we keep getting woken up more mornings than not). Currently they're reshingling the whole house, and going slower than I thought human possible. It's like they shingle a couple of feet a day.

Last week (maybe the week before) was the worst, when we had two other construction projects start up. Across the street they started jackhammering up the sidewalk (a plumbing problem, I think) and across another street they started cutting down trees (a tree "problem", I think). There was a day where we had so much annoying white noise that I was ready to kill someone (everyone).

Thankfully those other two projects are done, but STILL the house work behind us continues. And here's the punch line: on Friday we started work of our own. Using the month's free rent we got during our refi and a surprise legal settlement from a class action lawsuit we're partially remodeling our downstairs bathroom with a new tub, new tub tiles, and new piping. That started on Friday when our fabulous contractor Ting had his guys rip out all evidence of our past bathtub area. There's just a bunch of wood there now. He quoted us 8 days total, which I think involves him working on another project simultaneously, as that seems to be how things are done when you're not working on a huge garage-rebuilding project.

7 days left.

The Rest of the Weekend. Not much time for rest in the weekend, sadly! After dinner (somewhat restfully, on campus, with Top Dog and American Gods) I decided to go for a ride up the hill — as I'd been eating too richly and exercising too little all weekend. I was hoping to do it partly in sunlight but it was mostly dark by the time I hit Lake Temescal. I continued up to Shepherd Canyon for my ~13 mile ride there and back which I've been hitting in ~75 biking minutes.

For the first time that I did one of these nighttime rides it wasn't foggy at all (perhaps because of the earlier hour) so I enjoyed the stars a couple of times. Up on the Canyon Trail I saw either 3 or 4 deer — 3 going up and 1 going down. At least two of them were still babies with big floppy ears. Totally cool!

Afterward I did something rare, which is collapsed for the evening (or what was left of it) with no typing on my computer (no programming or writing I mean). Instead I just read for 2 or 2.5 hours. Very nice.

Back to projects tonight: a review to write, an AP to write, and my (completed, first draft) Gamescience article to proof.