Wins for me today: Duke over Virginia, a game of San Juan and two games of Dominion. There was also a game of Carcassonne, but I got second in that. That’s a lot of win.
Amanda told me this morning that she wished she had the waffle maker she got for Christmas then promptly forgot at her parents’ house. I told her to call her mom and invite her down to Wilmington for breakfast, but Amanda said her mom was eating with her grandparents this morning. So I said, “Well, let’s go there then.” Amanda said, “Really?” and I said, “Sure, why not?” So we got Milly up and had a classic country breakfast in Beulaville this morning.
Considering she hardly ate before we left, Milly did pretty good on the ride to Beulaville. We got there before Karen, and Phil came too. He had a busy day ahead of him, but he wanted to see his granddaughter.
Milly didn’t really eat all that much, but she loaded up on some of her great-grandma’s strawberry jelly. She had me or Amanda put some on part of a biscuit then she’d poked her finger to it and suck it off her finger or just lick the biscuit. I eventually just started putting a little bit of it on a spoon for her. She probably would have had the whole jar had we let her.
It was well past naptime when we headed back to Wilmington, and Milly had been fussy before we left. She was alright in the car, though we’d forgotten to bring a paci and picked one up on the way out of town. We did get the waffle maker, so I expect we’ll have some Friday or Saturday.
We saw something pretty heartbreaking on the road today. On the way there, near Chinquapin I think, we saw a large black dog on the side of the road, obviously hit and probably already dead, and another large black dog sniffing at it and wagging its tail. It was like it was saying, “Hey, what’s wrong, buddy? Get up.”
On the way home the one dog was still lying there and the other was just a few feet away, sitting and waiting. It was so sad.
In nicer news, Amanda’s brother, Michael, called and asked if we’d mind him and Jenn stopping by to play some Carcassonne. I only played one game, which Michael won, because the Duke game was coming on and I wanted to see how they bounced back after the loss to Florida State.
I was extremely agitated about it for the first half. Duke got down, at Cameron Indoor, mind you, to a Virginia team that is not very good, by as much as ten. They finished the half down six.
From what I’ve read, Kyle Singler gave one of the most epic halftime speeches ever and Duke stormed back in the second half to win the game 76-60. Nolan Smith went off for 29 points and Andre Dawkins had several huge threes. Mason Plumlee didn’t do much in terms of scoring points, but he had 16 rebounds. My boys just couldn’t shoot in the first half, and honestly they had me worried.
Michael and Jenn left at halftime, and after the game I told him he was never allowed back in this house during a Duke game.
Milly had several basketball-related firsts, including saying “Coach K” when I pointed him out on TV, “Andre” when I shouted Dawkins’ name after he hit a consecutive threes and “travel” when I questioned the TV about what I saw as a walking violation on Virginia that went uncalled. She’s coming along nicely.
The whole Warkentien clan came by a little later. We adults tried to finish a game of San Juan while the kids played and spaghetti cooked, but it went a little long and we had to put the cards up for a while. We finished the game once the kids went to bed and I won, though once again I didn’t think I would. I hardly produced any money the entire game and had the fewest buildings, but I made sure to stick a point on my chapel every turn.
I’m sure that made very little sense to 95% or more of the people who read this. You probably won’t get the next little bit either, if you’re one of those.
After San Juan I won two games of Dominion. I thought I had the first one pretty well in hand because we were playing with a Thief card and I lucked out a lot of the times I used it by being able to play it twice with the Throne Room. I was able to take a lot of money that way without ever having to buy any of my own. I also lucked out in that I happened to steal some of the more expensive cards when I did it, which hurt other players all the more.
I wasn’t as sure about the second game. We played with the Witch that time, and I think I was able to play my Witches the least. Fortunately, I was able to discard a lot of the resultant Curse cards in the last couple of rounds.
Nerds, yeah I know. As always, we had a good time hanging out with Nick and Amy.
Zach Dotsey