27 July 1998: Seafaring

Monday, 27 July 1998:

Seafaring

I forgot to mention yesterday that I had some actual, tangible proof that all this biking is paying off: I tightened my belt a notch! And not just sucking in my gut figuring I could bear a tighter notch until I'd gotten even more exercise - this was motivated by the fact that my shorts were too loose!

Gee, and this was after only a few weeks of regular riding.

Tonight I got together after work with some folks to play The Settlers of Catan with the Seafarers expansion. It was pretty cool: Rather than settling one large island, we each start on one or two of five smaller islands (since it was a five-player game) and create trade routes to the other islands. This introduced some interesting strategy, trying to block others' trade routes, in addition to the usual land-based maneuvering.

I ended up winning almost on a fluke; I happened to be in position to win in one fell swoop, but hadn't actually done the math to realize it (you win Catan by amassing victory points). So I was waffling back and forth whether I should do it or not, since building that last settlement would cost me some abilities that might come in handy later. Imagine my surprise that suddenly there was no "later"! I was pleased.

People seem to like Catan. Next week, I hope to get us together to play RoboRally with the Radioactive expansion. And then we might go back to railroading games, which one of the folks is lobbying for.

And yes, I biked in again today. It was about an average ride as far as difficulty went. Rode home in the dark again, which was not too bad, despite having to go through an intersection with construction in it.

Since I'm taking Friday off to go down to Chicago for a long weekend, I'll only be biking twice this week. I might try to get a couple of walks in during the weekend just to give my muscles some work. I don't think they'll like having me sit on my butt for five days.

Oh, and Tracy came back to work from her vacation today. Her boyfriend Bill and my cow-orker Mike played a practical joke on her: Bill had acquired two gross (that's 288) small plastic ducks, and yesterday he and Mike put half of them in her office. And they gave one duck to each member of our team, for us to give her one at a time during the day. Bill came in to face the music with her before joining me for gaming, but earlier today he'd put the other half of them in her apartment. It'd have been great to have seen her face when she went home!

As practical jokes go, that's pretty harmless - and funny! (The word of warning, I guess, being to be aware of the mischievous side of anyone to whom you give a key to your place!)

Michael Rawdon (Contact)