💾 Archived View for rawtext.club › ~winter › gemlog › 2023 › 6-19.gmi captured on 2023-07-22 at 16:39:10. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-07-10)
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My partner's birthday was last week. For the next little while, we're the same age. Then, my own counter ticks up.
Her parents came in late last week for her birthday. We got ice cream on Thursday. My partner and her mom went to the spa on Friday, and then afterward we all went to a 50s-style diner in a nearby small town. Burgers, fries, hot dogs, ice cream, milkshakes. Our booth done up in vinyl and metallic red paint.
We had a BBQ with her folks and a couple of friends on Saturday. Steak (well done; my father-in-law won't eat meat if there's a hint of red), baked potatoes, a couple different kinds of salad, potato chips, Hawkins cheezies. Good beer for those who wanted it. And lots of games.
After the BBQ, we had a big game of 31. I was out pretty quickly, as is often the way. I like to knock aggressively. It doesn't always work, but I love it when people cuss me out when it does. We played two games of (6 player) Yahtzee; somehow, I won both, the first game with around 420 points (two Yahtzees!). We sat around and talked for an hour or so afterward. Our younger dog played with our friends' dog. Our older dog attempted some shut-eye. It was nice.
My in-laws left yesterday, but not before more games: Wizard, and Ticket to Ride: Europe. I managed to win the last of these, building on the two highest-value connections and aggressively building garbage as quickly as possible when I saw people draw cards late in the game. It was a gamble: I had only kept two of my starting routes. I knew I had to catch people with unfinished routes. And it worked. 123 points, everyone else hovering around 100. We play a lot of games, the four of us. I really like it, as it's not something my family does. My family will play Scrabble, but that's about it. My partner's family plays a lot of games, though more chance-y, less strategy. It frustrates me sometimes, but then, everyone wins around 25% of the time. I used to hate that, but now I grudgingly admit, there's a parent's logic there.
It was a good weekend. A nice way to spend time with her family. Relaxing. And she said it was a great birthday weekend, which is the main thing. Mid June. The hot months are ahead. The flowers are starting to look nice, the reeds around the ponds are turning green, and the blackbirds have returned. It really feels like the start of summer.