Well... the first third...
Friday, 1 May 2020
Took a rest from the cycling. Got a bit of painting done.
In the evening Amanda and I had another go at Terraforming Mars.
I was mostly focused on putting greenery down... and did little else.
Amanda was focused on putting EVERY CARD IN THE GAME into play... and won by a landslide... again... I don't know how she does it!? She just seems to get ALL the right cards. I'll see cards that MIGHT be good... IF you get a particular card that may or may not ever show up... and never does... She just seems to get every good card in the game and the five cards that make them even better and gets them ALL into play. I think she was at +30 credits per turn by the end.
On a slightly related note, the BGG store reopened on Friday and we ordered some fancy, new, dual-layer trays - so hopefully marker cubes will be less likely to get jostled around...
Saturday, 2 May 2020
Another day without a ride anywhere... but we did spend the entire afternoon cleaning out the garage and shifting bikes about and swapping tires and doing some spring maintenance and checking to see which bikes still fit kids and such...
In the evening, I got Amanda to try a two player game of Power Grid. It was definitely less cutthroat than all the other games we've played - usually with 4-5 players! She won, in the end, powering one more city than me at game end... I'd definitely like to play this a few more times, just as a two player game.
There is apparently an alternate mode of play for two players. Maybe we could try that out at some point...
Sunday, 3 May 2020
Sunday I went out for another ride...
O took a few more pictures - mostly because it was a new (and longer!) route... 60Km - my longest ride since I bought my new bike computer three years ago. On one hand I feel pretty good about that... On the other hand, it makes me just a little sad... I used to get up and ride 100Km every Sunday morning... before NOON! Now 100Km would be an all day ordeal!? I just can't muster up enough... drive...? to go faster than 15Km/hour!?
A good chunk of the ride took me a long the north edge of CFB Dundrun.
Part of the road is a "summer" road - meaning it's not properly gravelled - it's basically a path just carved in the dirt. Some parts were a bit soft. a lot of it was loamy soil, blown over with some silt/sand from the adjacent fire road that ran around the border of the base.
Good thing the wind was at my back at this point!
Bees a-buzzing.
These cute little critters were a joy to discover!
I'd intended to get up and ride early in the morning. But when I got up it was just above freezing (+1°C - remember in last weeks report when I mentioned it was +30°C... yeah... Saskatchewan...) I waited until noon to leave - it was +7°C by then. It was 17°C when I got home.
Can you spot the deer?
(Maybe I don't have a future as a wildlife photographer...)
And then the God-Emperor of Mankind made the sign of the Holy Aquila in the sky and I knew I was protected!
After a bigger supper than I've had in some time, Amanda played Carcassonne with me (with Traders & Builders and Inns & Cathedrals)
Monday, 4 May 2020
Monday we rolled out to get some groceries. Amanda wanted to try out the cargo bike she picked up for herself last fall - it's a Yuba Boda Boda - a shortened version of the Yuba that I use for hauling stuff in the summer - she wanted to try it out with the Yuba bags to see if it fit. Despite that, I still had to haul all the HEAVY stuff!?
I'm still riding my winter hauling bike because the Mundo has a flat... and I'm just too lazy to fix it.
Also made a stop at the Dragon's Den (FLGS) to pick up a D&D book for Finnegan and... um... there was SOMETHING I picked up for myself... but I can't for the life of me remember what it was!? I know I'd inquired about the April White Dwarf... but that hasn't arrived yet...? paint...? Maybe it was just a bottle of paint...?
No, I remember now, it was bases - a box of Necromunda bases!
After supper we played a quick game of Splendor
Strangely Amanda usually dominates at Spledor and I almost always win Century: Golem Edition - but to night I was ON FIRE!!!
Tuesday, 5 May 2020
I didn't get outside at all today...
But I did get in a game of Carcassonne with Amanda. So there's that.
Wednesday, 6 May 2020
No games... I did get out for a longer ride though...
I really liked Sunday's ramble, so I did a slightly abbreviated version, which took me down a few roads I had not travelled before.
It was a nice late afternoon/early evening ride. Spotted some Sheepies.
And a great big Hawk on top of a power pole.
and found a new short cut past a trail I usually need to use to bypass having to take a busier road to get to the quieter roads south of town.
So many Canada Geese nesting under the South Train Bridge.
Thursday, 7 May 2020
Another rDay without games... I'm not sure I like this trend that's developing...
I did get out with a ride with #2, though, so the day wasn't a total loss.
We stopped and looked at lots of birds that were out and about along the way.
Took a long look at the Chappell Marsh.
I spotted a Yellow-Headed Blackbird - which I was pretty excited about. They're not RARE or anything, but certainly much less common than the ubiquitous Red-Winged Blackbirds...
Friday, 8 May 2020
It was bright and sunny when I woke up...
But it quickly clouded over as I got ready to go for a ride. The forecast had said the wind, which was out of the south would be switching around to the west by noon and then out of the north in the afternoon and grow to 30kph, gusting to 50kph.
I took a new route heading west of town to see if there were any quite roads to ride out that way - for when the wide was coming out of the west (best to head out into the wind and then have it push up back). Unfortunately the wind was already out of the north - and gusting to 50KPH - by the time I was heading west. so It was almost blowing me over one way... a killer head wind for a good section of the ride... and then blowing me over the other way.
Uh-oh... Goose Gang... be cool... maybe they won't try something... I could always just offer them my lunch money...
It turned out to be a nice ride on some pretty quiet roads. I'd definitely come out this way again.
Summer road. I like these. They're very seldom travelled.
Despite the grey skies and the wind - it was only lightly spitting most of the ride. It didn't start raining in earnest until I hit the city limits... and then it started POURING and I was very soaked by the time I got home... but it was only about 15-20 minutes of a 2.5 hour ride.
It started snowing in the early evening.
Saturday, 9 May 2020
Saturday we woke up to snow... ugh...
I went out for a longer ride later in the afternoon.
pretty much all of the snow had melted by then.
But it was pretty cold and windy.
though the skies were grey, it didn't rain at all.
Sunday, 10 May 2020
Mothers Day.
I did get out for two shorter rides... but they were just running errands.
After running said errands, Amanda wondered if I'd be interested in playing Terraforming Mars with her "for Mother's Day"...
We played on the Hellas board with Venus Next and Prelude.
She was playing Saturn Systems with an Aquired Space Agency and Society Support.
I was playing Phobolog with a Research Network and Mining Op.
We got considerably less settling and terraforming than previous games.
Amanda took all three milestones (Diversifier, Tactician, and Rim Settler) and two awards (Space Baron and Magnate). Despite all that, it was a very close game - Amanda won by a single point!? 102-101!?
After that the kids actually sat down for a meal with Amanda - it seems like a long time since we all ate a meal together. I mean, I often MAKE meals that everyone eats, but it'll be ready and everyone kind of comes and goes and eats when they want. Even when we've mostly all been home for the last month and a bit!?
After supper Amanda wanted to play again (I guess she didn't beat me by enough the first time around...?)
This time she played Vitor with a Metal Rich Asteroid and Ecology Experts.
I played Ecoline with Biosphere Support and Martian Industries.
Amanda won by a landslide. Again. 149-124.
I swear, it just don't pay to actually Terraform Mars in the game... I generally concentrate on trying to score points from Terraforming... Amanda sits back and lets me do that and just puts piles and piles of cards into play that do very little in terms of actual terraforming, but gain her other resources that allow her to put piles and piles of cards worth bonus victory points into play and wins with that...
In the second game I tried to do a little less of the terraforming... but that just made the game drag out longer and allowed her to put EVEN MORE cards into play!?
I have to admit, I'm getting a little tired of this game.
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Not sure really... Maybe another one of these updates...
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