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Ice Skating: Wednesdays continue. Two weeks ago when I showed up with everyone I went to get skates and Sean, the guy at the counter, just looks up and says "oh, hi" and goes and gets me men's size 7 hockey skates. Same for last week. Last week, too, since I'd run into some of the regular skaters at the Bulls game on the 17th, it was weird, Marc didn't go with us for the first time ever but I was still saying hi to everyone. Marc knows everyone by name, I don't, but it's still familiar. There's a guy who skates there who is the SF Bulls mascot, and he offered to see if he had an extra pair of skates around that might fit me. It's weird to feel like a "regular" somewhere and I would have never guessed an ice rink would be it for me, but there you have it. I'm still not a great skater but I definitely have improved over the months. Chris noticed last week (after not coming with us for like 2 months) that "you're skating circles around me! you don't even touch the walls anymore", and I tried this week to do quicker skating -- usually I do skate-skate-glide, this time I was going for skate-skate-skate-skate-glide, things like that.
Ping pong: I have been playing ping pong regularly again, finally, with the guy who's VP of Engineering for one of the other companies in our building for the last month or so. He's also left-handed and pretty good, but not so much better than me that it's unfair or unfun to play. So I'm getting good games in, our games are usually really close and I win about 1/3 of the time, and am actually working on technique for once which I rarely do. It even actually feels like exercise, and it's also nice to hang out with someone who DOESN'T work for Tagged, and he's pretty cool.
Games: I had FOUR days of games last week! Eclipse on Monday the 18th which was a disaster as mentioned, game night at our house on the 21st which was great, Games Day at Darby's place on the 23rd, and then more Eclipse on the 24th.
The 21st was really good. I skipped a work party to be there. Apparently MC Hammer showed up to our work party (and got arrested later that night). Weird. Mark and Cooper also showed up, but other than that I don't think I missed anything. I went to get dinner with Debbie and Sarah, who are puzzle friends of mine -- Sarah lives in Boston but was visiting SF for a week. So we went to Chow and talked about various puzzle stuff. Then, games night at my place. Besides Debbie and Sarah there were also several other new/rare people -- Gwillen showed up, JC showed up for the first time and Charles brought a friend named Casey. I played Innovation with Gwillen, Charles, and Casey, and it was fun. Much better with less experienced players and a lot of "OMG WHAT DOES THAT CARD DO" moments. The other table played Seven Wonders.
The 23rd was also good. I was a little late since I'd spent the afternoon on a walk with my ex-boyfriend, and of course there is a little bit of weirdness around this group since it turns out they are mostly all part of a big poly group (I didn't know this when I started hanging out with them; I met Darby and Ryan through Puzzle Hunt, and it turns out I met Tom like 15 years ago in Pittsburgh). Anyway, I showed up and the first thing I got into was King of Tokyo. Not really one of my favorite games because it is just a lot of silly dice-rolling, but when faced with a big group of people I don't know that well I tend to start off being more timid and less opinionated about games while I get the lay of the land. So, I don't even remember who won the game (I think it was Jess). After that we got out Kingdom Builder, which I know I played with Didi, Devin, and Gwillen, and I totally won with 78 points because I managed to really kick all of the side goals really well -- horizontal lines, contiguous buildings, spaced out over all 4 quadrants. I just had something extending way across the middle of the board. Then there was a game of Innovation with me, gwillen, Didi and Dave -- who turned out to be Dave Reilly, the PGSS alumni association president. How weird is that? I was like "I've been getting emails from you for like 4 years!" But I'd never met him before. So that was kinda random and cool. I felt bad for being someone who had never donated money (because I was a poor English teacher in japan) but I did help get a ton of people onto the mailing lists (because I TA'ed for 3 years and stayed in touch with a lot of people). So, eh. I don't even remember who won this either though I think it was Dave. I was close though, I finally got a good score pile towards the end. Oh well. The last game I played was called Agents of SMERSH, which was a weird spy-themed game, with Darby and Tom and gwillen. It took FOREVER! Had I known it was a cooperative game I might not have started (although Glenn was my ride home so I was kinda waiting for him anyway). Some of the scenarios were amusing but in general, we just felt like we were fighting a losing battle as airports kept getting closed and spy info kept disappearing. I dunno. Still, lots of games.
The 24th was a mostly impromptu Eclipse day with Drew, Gabe, and Chris L. Chris had never played before and this was my second game. It DEFINITELY went better than my first game -- partially because we only had 4 people instead of 6, partially because I had a better idea what I was supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, the turn I was like "I think I'll attack the middle next turn," Gabe attacked the middle, and then he had the 4-shot guns on his ships so, I piled a bunch of ships on to attack him but he basically blew me out within one turn. Oops. Oh well, it was still the idea that you should HAVE a big battle rather than just letting people walk all over the board. I don't think I did very well overall score-wise but at least I felt better about it in that I launched one of "those" battles. Yay? And it only took us like 4-5 hours which was also good. Afterwards played Qwirkle with Drew and Gabe and then walked back to Caltrain. Sigh, it takes so long to get there and back.
Hmm, I have a work update to do also but that's going to be locked for obvious reasons.
Ping pong: I have been playing ping pong regularly again, finally, with the guy who's VP of Engineering for one of the other companies in our building for the last month or so. He's also left-handed and pretty good, but not so much better than me that it's unfair or unfun to play. So I'm getting good games in, our games are usually really close and I win about 1/3 of the time, and am actually working on technique for once which I rarely do. It even actually feels like exercise, and it's also nice to hang out with someone who DOESN'T work for Tagged, and he's pretty cool.
Games: I had FOUR days of games last week! Eclipse on Monday the 18th which was a disaster as mentioned, game night at our house on the 21st which was great, Games Day at Darby's place on the 23rd, and then more Eclipse on the 24th.
The 21st was really good. I skipped a work party to be there. Apparently MC Hammer showed up to our work party (and got arrested later that night). Weird. Mark and Cooper also showed up, but other than that I don't think I missed anything. I went to get dinner with Debbie and Sarah, who are puzzle friends of mine -- Sarah lives in Boston but was visiting SF for a week. So we went to Chow and talked about various puzzle stuff. Then, games night at my place. Besides Debbie and Sarah there were also several other new/rare people -- Gwillen showed up, JC showed up for the first time and Charles brought a friend named Casey. I played Innovation with Gwillen, Charles, and Casey, and it was fun. Much better with less experienced players and a lot of "OMG WHAT DOES THAT CARD DO" moments. The other table played Seven Wonders.
The 23rd was also good. I was a little late since I'd spent the afternoon on a walk with my ex-boyfriend, and of course there is a little bit of weirdness around this group since it turns out they are mostly all part of a big poly group (I didn't know this when I started hanging out with them; I met Darby and Ryan through Puzzle Hunt, and it turns out I met Tom like 15 years ago in Pittsburgh). Anyway, I showed up and the first thing I got into was King of Tokyo. Not really one of my favorite games because it is just a lot of silly dice-rolling, but when faced with a big group of people I don't know that well I tend to start off being more timid and less opinionated about games while I get the lay of the land. So, I don't even remember who won the game (I think it was Jess). After that we got out Kingdom Builder, which I know I played with Didi, Devin, and Gwillen, and I totally won with 78 points because I managed to really kick all of the side goals really well -- horizontal lines, contiguous buildings, spaced out over all 4 quadrants. I just had something extending way across the middle of the board. Then there was a game of Innovation with me, gwillen, Didi and Dave -- who turned out to be Dave Reilly, the PGSS alumni association president. How weird is that? I was like "I've been getting emails from you for like 4 years!" But I'd never met him before. So that was kinda random and cool. I felt bad for being someone who had never donated money (because I was a poor English teacher in japan) but I did help get a ton of people onto the mailing lists (because I TA'ed for 3 years and stayed in touch with a lot of people). So, eh. I don't even remember who won this either though I think it was Dave. I was close though, I finally got a good score pile towards the end. Oh well. The last game I played was called Agents of SMERSH, which was a weird spy-themed game, with Darby and Tom and gwillen. It took FOREVER! Had I known it was a cooperative game I might not have started (although Glenn was my ride home so I was kinda waiting for him anyway). Some of the scenarios were amusing but in general, we just felt like we were fighting a losing battle as airports kept getting closed and spy info kept disappearing. I dunno. Still, lots of games.
The 24th was a mostly impromptu Eclipse day with Drew, Gabe, and Chris L. Chris had never played before and this was my second game. It DEFINITELY went better than my first game -- partially because we only had 4 people instead of 6, partially because I had a better idea what I was supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, the turn I was like "I think I'll attack the middle next turn," Gabe attacked the middle, and then he had the 4-shot guns on his ships so, I piled a bunch of ships on to attack him but he basically blew me out within one turn. Oops. Oh well, it was still the idea that you should HAVE a big battle rather than just letting people walk all over the board. I don't think I did very well overall score-wise but at least I felt better about it in that I launched one of "those" battles. Yay? And it only took us like 4-5 hours which was also good. Afterwards played Qwirkle with Drew and Gabe and then walked back to Caltrain. Sigh, it takes so long to get there and back.
Hmm, I have a work update to do also but that's going to be locked for obvious reasons.
