December 8, 2009

There's no There Here

Life continues to meander along. I don't have any nice, tidy blog stories. No ongoing drama to keep updating. It's a great change of pace!

Little tidbits:

Absolutely, totally dead at work. I updated my portfolio and resume today. Might work on my personal website tomorrow. Not because I'm afraid I'll get fired (there's PLENTY of work coming in January), but just to prevent total brain atrophy. I'm not complaining though! I've been waking up at 4:30 AM the last four nights or so and haven't been able to fall asleep until 6 AM. If I were busy at work, I'd probably just stay up and gut through the day, so it's been lovely to fall back asleep and gradually wake up around 8:30. Getting in to the office at 10 and leaving by 4:30 has also been lovely.
----
We had Lovey over on Saturday to make CRABCAKES. It's crab season and Whole Foods actually had steamed, cracked crabs for $3.99/pound. Lovey is a Baltimore native so we had a great time trying to figure out some Old Bay recipes. When I say 'we', it was really Lovey and Jrex going to town. Poor Dovey is in school and needed to study all weekend and I just hung out and chopped salad ingredients.
----
On Sunday night, we had a casual supper club. Pizza, wine and salad. The real purpose was to break open Civil Engineer's new game: Settlers of Cataan. It took and hour to set up (or that's what it felt like). Once we started to figure it out, it got interesting. It's an egaletarian, board-game version of Civilization. You get two settlements and two roads to start. Then you roll dice to determine who gets what commodities. If your settlement touches a hex shape with the number on it, you get the wheat, sheep, coal or brick pictured. There are knights, robbers and merchant ships. We all started to get into it, but then it was too late to continue. Next time we'll start in the afternoon. Has anyone else played? We still haven't figured out what to do with the ships and trading.
----
Jrex and I are sorting through the financial stuff. I think we've come up with a 'middle way'. Rather than splitting accounts and dividing up our income, we've set up a separate account for the stuff I spend money on: train, tithe, haircut, spending, gifts. That way, I'm not bleeding into money he had set aside to put in our savings account. And I can tell exactly what I have to spend without dealing with his massive spreadsheet method. (Me+Excel=misery) We just started on Saturday, so we'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping it simplifies things for both of us going forward.

AND last but not least: I can see SNOW from the windows at work! I haven't seen snow during ordinary life in three years now. It rained hard the other night and in the mountains that line the East Bay, the top elevations are dusted white. It finally feels like winter. (I know, I know, I'm not going to be getting much sympathy from most of you, but seeing snow makes me happy.)

3 comments:

OTR sister said...

We have Cataan, but an older, simpler version. We used to play it alot but then I got tired of losing all the time. I always lose world domination games. :)

Inkling said...

Settlers is one of our favorite games. It does take a while to get it figured out, but it's fun once you get going. The other game that's a regular one around here - also about dominating the world - is Puerto Rico.

I'm glad you have snow in sight. December just doesn't feel like Christmas without it, you know? But I have to admit that snow in the distance is actually a lot more practical than snow on your doorstep - at least for someone rather clumsy like me who is also still driving without winter tires. Snow + me = too many opportunities to fall on my rear. ;)

Mama Nabi said...

Wow. That sounds complicated - one of those games that last hours, tons of fun... sigh, I can't wait until both our kids are old enough to play something like that. :-D We even have this cool coffee table that opens out for board games. (Yes, we're anticipating lots of family nights with board games.)

Ah, I love having visitors who cook with (for) you. I don't miss snow yet... well, a smidge... but not the cold.