Holy cow, is tomorrow Friday already?
Indeed it is.
Well, it’s Maribou’s birthday today and so, this weekend, we’ll be spending it doing variants of “What Maribou Tells Me To Do”. I’ll be spending it studying during the stretches of quiet I’ve been assured are coming. So, no gaming, studying. Studying, studying, studying. What a drag. As such, I’m looking forward to hearing stories about fun! Or excitement! Or novelty! Or, heck, if you’ve got a boring weekend planned, talk about that too. It’s not likely to be more boring than mine.
So… what’s on your docket?
We did go out to dinner tonight to “My Big Fat GREEK Restaurant” (Where the ‘E’s have been replaced with “Sigmas” for some reason) and ate waaaaay too much and had food that was waaaay too good for being a cutesy chain. I had an interesting wine that was quite mediocre by itself but the moment you touched foot to your lips, it became superb. We need more of those!
How many glasses before you’re flexible enough to start enjoying it?
I was driving so I kept myself to the one. But I could easily see myself saying “THIS IS A GREAT WINE!” even if it were by itself somewhere in the middle of the 3rd glass.
FWIW, it’s not actually a chain. I mean, it’s only a chain in the Panino’s sense… there is one here and one in Arizona or something.
Yup. Studying.
The Wife got the Almost Five Year Old and I tickets to Saturday’s Mets game for my birthday last week. This will be my first game at Citi Field (getting from Jersey to Long Island is Teh Suck), and TheAlmost Five Year Old’s first ballgame, so I’m pretty stoked. Unfortunately, my daughter is absolutely insistent on (a) taking the train, which really means taking three trains from here; and (b) getting lunch in Times Square in between switching trains, meaning lunch will be neither cheap nor good. Sunday is a birthday party for one of her friends.
you could take her to lunch in corona and tell her it’s times square. she won’t know! 🙂
Heh – you would think that. Unfortunately for me, you’d be wrong.
If you get hungry, avoid the massive line at Shake Shack and head to Blue Smoke BBQ… the fried chicken sandwich is great. And they have an outpost on one of the upper levels behind home plate, so you can avoid the madness out by the CF pavilion. Which is actually a pretty cool place, especially if you want a micro-brew, but might be a bit hard to navigate with a lil’one.
I really enjoy CitiField, much moreso than the New Yankee. Getting to it is a pain, but if you know the trick about free parking and can convince the lil’one to abandon the train idea, it’s not so bad.
Thanks for the tips! Wait a sec…there’s a Shake Shack in the stadium? And a BBQ joint?
And what’s this I hear about free parking?
Agh… I’m late. Yes, Citi has good food and drink opions. And there is a lot over by the Marina… Park for free, tailgate by the water, and walk over. And a quick exit after the game… Jump right on the highway.
How was it?
Lain finally got the harness removed today! She has officially discovered her foot!
So, to answer your question, we’re going to learn how to handle a baby with two fully-functional legs. She has worn the harness since she was one week old. This will be a learning experience for everybody involved.
I should add, that it’s noteworthy that thing she did at her very first opportunity in this world do to so… is put her foot in her mouth.
She is her father’s daughter.
Space awesome.
Or maybe Jaybird’s, if she was drinking Greek wine at the time.
I don’t recommend a child start drinking wine until they are at least 3.
You’re obviously not Italian.
Or Jewish.
“…put her foot in her mouth… She is her father’s daughter.”
Pics or it didn’t happen.
Congrats to Laine. She’s getting so big!
So, like, crawling and stuff? Uh-oh.
Yay!
Lets see, Wifes birthday is Sunday, so dinner tomorrow night at fancy restaurant of her choice and Medeski, Martin and Woods at her old work Saturday.
That bachelor party I went to two weeks ago was the precursor to the Wedding Weekend.
So Friday we have nothing (praise God), Saturday morning is baseball, Saturday afternoon/evening is the pre-wedding BBQ (kid friendly) and Sunday Grandma comes over to babysit and Kitty and I go to the Main Event.
Which reminds me, I have to find my flask.
Like Patrick I will be at a wedding this weekend with my flask. My youngest brother is getting married to the best sister in law I could ask for in beautiful Ashland, OR. An attempt will be made to see some theater at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and I will be taking my son for his first tour around the old campus for a bucket full of memories.
“…the best sister in law I could ask for in beautiful Ashland, OR.”
Is this a compliment to your future SIL or a dig at Ashland?
LOL. She is awesome enough that I’m sure I’d like her more than people from other cities as well. There are a ton of big cities I haven’t seen yet, but Ashland is a must see for rural communities. I love them both equally.
Saturday is Game Day, so friends will be coming over to play A Game of Thrones: The Board Game. Beyond that, the weekend is pretty open.
Oooh. I’ve looked at that. (I picked up “the card game” and was disappointed.)
I will try to remember to post my impressions. This will be my group’s first time playing, but it sounds like a good time.
That was a rough game. It was the Lannisport Lions vs the Winterfell Puppies vs Dragonstone Deer vs the Pyke Squids. I was playing Lannisters. It was a bit of a slow start, with everyone being very defensive, and nobody wanting to attack anyone else. After a couple turns, Greyjoy finally decided to step out. The next turn, Wildlings attacked. The kingdoms were too stingy, so the Night’s Watch did not have the strength to hold them off. Everyone lost units, but Lannister was hit the hardest.
I did my best to fight back against the Squids, but I got no support from the other two houses. They wolves and deer just squabbled among themselves. After a few more turns of being beaten down, I only controlled King’s Landing. The squids only needed one more to have enough power to control Westeros. I made my push, attempting to take back Crackclaw Point, but Balon Greyjoy neutralized the Mountain, Gregor Clegane, and the army was not strong enough to take it back. The cuttlefish turned all of their strength against one of Stark’s poorly held castles, driving out the doggies, and controlling Westeros.
It was a fun game. Everyone at the table enjoyed it, and they look forward to playing again. There was not as much player interaction as there should have been. I tried to get help against Greyjoy, but no one did much. I also made some boneheaded plays that cost me. There was also a definite learning curve with this game, with little things that were overlooked by each of us at different times. I also think (and from what I read after the game, it seems to be a common opinion), it would be better with 5 or 6 players.
Is anyone here familiar with Vassal, the software for playing board games online? I have never used it myself, but it seems to be popular. Maybe we could set up a Mindless Online Gaming group or something.
Dude. If we do that, just send me an email and we’ll make announcements here.
I’m sure we could totally get games scheduled and played and enjoyed by all. Or, at least, two or three people.
I think it would be fun to try. The rest of the weekend has gotten away from me, but when I get a chance, I will take a good look at Vassal and we can try to plan this thing.
That sounds like the kind of thing that could rival Diplomacy for “strength of animosities produced”.
The wife and I keep thinking we have something that we have to do this weekend, but we can’t remember what, so we’re going to assume that we have ABSOLUTELY NO PLANS.
Which is just fine.
Saturday we’re once again hosting the NASA-wide Inter-Center Brewing competition at our house. Several centers have brewing clubs, and each year we do a videoconference of beer judges rating each club’s best, while the local club members all try each other’s homebrews and generally have fun while we wait for the results. This will be the fifth ICC (IIRC), and the styles are Pilsner and English Brown Ale. Jason brewed an awesome ale for the competition, but–What Bad Luck!–the two bottles for the club’s down-select were infected. Ah well, everyone will try his beer on tap at our house and think “Alas! We would have won with that one!”
Reggae Fest.
Zazzy can officially drive a car starting tomorrow, so I’ll be able to get errands done that take me beyond our town’s borders. Oil change, tire rotation, beard trim, returning some baby gifts. Sunday, poker and the smoker with the guys.
I’m in Hong Kong, jet lagged to all heck.
We have some vendor meetings tomorrow morning, then Saturday afternoon and Sunday free. I haven’t even thought of what I want to do with my free time yet. If the weather is nice I might go up for a hike.