Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak...

It only took six months to get this way!

I'm back.

Or at least, I'm back for this one post at least.

What in the world happened to me for the last half of last year? I wish I could point to monumental happenstances which prevented me from making entries here. Sadly, that is simply not the case. I've been at my computer almost daily, as is my wont, yet none of those days led me to this corner of the Internet. Part of me feels guilty about this, but a larger part of me refuses to beat myself up about it. Let's face it: most of what's put out here is just me screaming or whispering into the void in any case, so the person I first aim to please is, quite selfishly, me. And "me" has had other, mostly mundane, things going on.

So, let's spend a moment catching up with where I left off since my last entry in June of 2019, shall we?

Summer breaking

This summer saw Number Two Son moving in with us in order to begin his journey through college. It also saw us procuring a car for him, that car being involved in a wreck, and procuring ANOTHER, VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL car for him. If he hadn't actually been there when the wreck occurred, I'm not sure he would have believed the cars were different.

Number One Son was also involved in that wreck as well as an accident with HIS car that required repair. Thankfully, neither of the sons was hurt at all during any of the above. We're sincerely hoping that this has gotten both of them past the statistical portion of accidents while driving.

Fall beginnings/ends

Fall had Number Two Son enjoying his first semester of college. He says he enjoys it more than high school. I think it has to do with him being able to set his own schedule a little better as well as not having to get up early any day except Monday. He even went to a couple of social things, although I don't think he's actually hanging out with anyone regularly. I remember having similar experiences my first couple of years of college. Then again, I always had a girlfriend back home, so I didn't spend much time actually *living* while I was there.

Meanwhile, Number One Son finished his final semester, graduating with an Associates of Applied Science in Web Design and Development. Garrett was really worried that he wasn't going to be able to find a job, given the ratio of applications he was making to responses he was getting. Then, over the course of about a week, he set up an interview, had it conducted, and accepted a job with a company called Revature. He's now preparing to head off for their three-month-long coding boot camp in West Virginia, after which he'll be placed with a client to begin a two-year contract (with Revature, not the specific client). I'm all emotions wrapped together for him -- excited, proud, anxious, happy, sad, freaked are the most dominant currently. 

Mostly, I'm coming to grips with the fact that Garrett is, in fact, all grown up, and about to be off on his own. Gabriel is right behind, living mostly independently from Tanya and I even though he's right upstairs. It really does seem like the virtual blink of an eye since they were toddling around. I'm reminded of that daily by some picture or memory of them from the past, primarily via their Contact pictures on my phone (which are, of course, from when they were little bitty) juxtaposed with two men, both at least as tall as me, and sporting beards I could never grow.

I'll stop here, but encourage all of you to cherish EVERY moment of your life, especially those shared with people you love. Each moment is completely unique and will never occur again in all of existence. Ultimately, they are the sum total of who we are.

Autumn Vacacay

We took an Autumn trip to Minsk and Spain and have a zillion pictures. I REALLY considered blogging about those as they happened, but was very focused on other things at those times, like being *IN* those places instead of looking at them in third person. I'm glad I resisted the urge and remained (mostly) disconnected from reality for those days.

Suffice to say that I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Minsk in the fall, and was finally graced with some proper weather (gray, slightly rainy, and chilly). Leaving Minsk and arriving at Tenerife in the Canary Islands was a culture shock of another kind, and was breathtakingly gorgeous, marred only by the fact that driving (and parking) there is painful. A day in Barcelona wasn't enough, but we saw enough of the city to say that we've been there. It was a trip worth taking.

NaNoWriMo

I wrote another book. It was a return to the world of Aether, and I actually finished it, all the way through. Most of it is, as usual, crap, but there were at least a few scenes in there that make it worth editing. The next step will be to go back through it and start writing the first draft of a REAL book. I might not dump too much, as Tanya will be better than I am about identifying what things are interesting versus boring.

This makes for a total of four books I've written: one that went through a couple of rounds of revision, two that weren't worth finishing, and another that is to-be-edited. Add to that a handful of short stories and a ridiculous haiku collection, and I suppose I have to consider myself to have an actual hobby.

And before you ask -- no, I never picked up the other hobby (drawing/playing an instrument). I didn't have that much extra energy.

What's next?

• The year-end reading challenge review is in flight. I'm hoping to add a couple of interesting statistics to it this year, but we'll see how that pans out.
• I've already mentioned the first real draft/edit of the NaNoWriMo2019 book, so that'll happen.
• Supporting Number One and Number Two sons.
• Trying to maintain good habits in health, fitness, work, and play.

I make no promises, but as of now intend to create more content here as well. I'd tell you to stay tuned, but that seems self-serving as well as disingenuous. Tell you what -- check back every now and then, checking the monthly post totals. If any of them have gone up since your last visit, have at them!

And I sincerely wish all of you all the best for this year!

Adventures In iPadding

Closest I'll get to the beach this week...

I recently replaced my home computer with an iPad. I can assure you that I’m as shocked about it as you are. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have a home laptop, and was severely skeptical about this idea when I first started playing with it a couple of months ago.

What could have possessed me with such a lunatic notion?

This all started when I recognized two facts:

1. The screen on my home machine (a MacBook Pro 13) was slightly icky. There’s a fairly well documented issue with the anti-reflective coating on them, but it didn’t actually affect me until after the warranty period expired. Beyond that, as I mentioned, it’s only slightly icky. The machine is completely usable, and in most cases I don’t notice anything about the screen at all. However, every now and then when I’m watching a YouTube video or sitting at just the right angle with a light behind me, I’d see little splotches of imperfection in the upper left corner or lower right of the display.
2. The things for which I actually used my home computer could all (theoretically) be done on an iPad. I’ve mentioned YouTube already, and there’s an app for that. Social media? Apps for those too. Internet browsing? Yup, apps exist. Writing and note taking? Again, apps. In fact, Scrivener (my go-to writing software) has a very well put together mobile app.

Even so, I was hesitant. It’s not like I needed a new home machine. I’ve already admitted that the current MBP13 was fine-ish — certainly fully functional. More machine than I needed, actually, as I’d moved to doing personal project programming on my work* machine.

Work* machine: a new machine for which the company paid half and I paid half but I actually own. That deal actually worked out really well for me.

Then, two other things happened.

1. I watched PubDraw and subsequently decided to pick up drawing as a new hobby. The intent was to draw on paper (and still is, to a large degree). But... if I had an iPad, I could draw using the Apple Pencil and stuff! It was an option, at least, that wasn’t surfaced in any meaningful way on my home computer.
2. Gabriel’s computer went kaput. Not just a little kaput, either. The SSD can’t be mounted, which most likely means that either there’s a legitimate hard drive failure or a motherboard issue. Either one is going to be pretty pricey to fix, and Gabriel uses his computer quite a bit for school stuff. Having to wait for a repair wouldn’t be the end of the world, but having a replacement computer ready to go would be better, if possible.

The decision was made: I would get an iPad.

So what’s it like?

I wound up getting an iPad Pro 11 with 256GB of storage and WiFi only. When I got it, it was priced at just over $900. I also got the Apple Pencil, but I did NOT get the default iPad keyboard. For one thing, it’s expensive (almost $200). For another, it wasn’t available when I placed my order. Instead, I got an IVSO keyboard, which has been really good so far. It’s backlit (although that drains its battery pretty quickly), and the keyboard itself has well-made keys that provide satisfying but not overly annoying clicks. It has a place to store the pencil and allows for recharging it without having to take the case off. And it provides a little protection as a folio, although I wouldn’t suggest throwing it on the ground to test the durability.

The Goods

Apps for everything!

As previously mentioned, there’s an app for everything I’ve wanted and needed to do. I’m most pleasantly surprised by the Microsoft Office apps. Outlook wasn’t a big surprise, as I’ve used it on my iPhone for several years now. Excel, on the other hand, is just fantastic. It works exactly as you expect it to. Word is also pretty good, although not perfect.

Good experience doing my normal things

In the first week of hard usage, I put the iPad through the paces as well as I could. The biggest test for me was Transformers Night, where I participate in a tabletop role-playing game set in the Transformers universe (from the old cartoon show, not the recent crap). The main apps I use are Evernote, Excel, and Chrome. All of that worked really well, although the Evernote app, just like most iOS apps, takes some getting used to. 

I also used Scrivener pretty extensively in preparation for our D&D game (yes, I’m involved in more than one tabletop role-playing game. You want in on this action?). The app itself is full featured and fantastic, although I missed the ability to get between two docs in different parts of the tree with a single click.

Drawing!

I’ve already mentioned this a little, but drawing on the iPad is actually quite a lot of fun. Adobe has a free version of their Illustrator app (called Adobe Draw) that provides more than I can use right now. And before you ask: yes, I’m still terrible at it. That’s ok though. I’ll improve with research and practice.

The Apple Pencil is pretty fun as well. It works exactly as advertised, pairing seamlessly, responding to double-tapping, etc. The only critique I have of it is that it loses its charge pretty quickly. Luckily, it regains it even more quickly, so it hasn’t been an issue thus far.

Games

There are at least two games that I love that aren’t really playable on the iPhone but are nearly divine on the iPad: Terraria and Final Fantasy VII. Both are complete time-sinks and totally worth it. There are also a collection of OTHER games that I used to play on my old iPad that I’d forgotten about. Dang it, now I need to find more time for games...

Miscellany

Watching videos on the iPad is good in and of itself, but I was surprised at how often Tanya and I watch clips from Stephen Colbert or Seth Meyers in bed. Doing so on this as opposed to the iPhone is very satisfying, despite the higher required dexterity. Depending on usage, I only charge the iPad once or twice a week, which is a marked difference from the computer (which I left plugged in almost all the time for some reason).

The Bads

Accessing files on cloud storage

By default, the iPad doesn’t allow you to easily access any cloud storage device except iCloud. This is unfortunate, since most of our shared files are either on a Google drive or Dropbox. Installing both of those apps helps, but still doesn’t make it easy to maintain files stored in those media. Some apps are better than others with integration, which is a life-saver. Scrivener, for example, has a Dropbox-backed location built into the app.

I understand why Apple made this decision, but it’s pretty frustrating nonetheless.

Fonts and printing

You can’t just download and install fonts from the Internet on the iPad. This was a surprise to me, the fact that there’s no default (or at least, accessible) font manager. I found a free app that seems to do the job, but it’s not very straightforward. Even after downloading and installing the font, not every app (I’m looking at you, Google Docs) will let you access them.

Printing is also slightly challenging. The convention on the iPad takes some getting used to. You have to “share” whatever it is you want to print, and then navigate the Sharing dialog until you get to the printer selection. The good news is that lots of printers support AirPrint (including ours), so the main challenge really is finding the printer selection. And, as with so many things on iPad, how you get to that area is completely up to the app.

Copy/Paste

Most apps don’t support the notion of “Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V” for copying and pasting, which is taking quite a bit of getting used to. Some apps (I’m looking at you, Microsoft Office) have special icons for copying/pasting, which is something you have to be aware of. Most of the time, using the screen’s touch-centric copy/paste features works, but becoming adept at it will continue to be challenging for me, I suspect.

App Store

Let’s face it — the App Store is simply not as nice as being able to install something from a website or from the command line. And there are quite a few things that work perfectly well in the browser on a computer that don’t work very well in the browser on the iPad (I’m looking at you, Blogger). A lot of these things have iOS apps, but they also tend to cost money. Again, annoying, as my general rule has been: if you can’t get it for free on iOS, it might not be worth getting. And yes, I know this is a ridiculous rule, and I don't even follow it, but for some reason still find myself hesitating to shell out $0.99 for an app that I will use daily for the rest of my life... I'm weird.

Verdict

Despite the Bads list above, as of this writing, I have to rate my experience with the iPad quite highly. I don’t feel like I’ve lost anything irreplaceable during the switchover. Gabriel inherited a machine that will hopefully last him a while and that he’ll leverage more heavily than I was. I spent a fair chunk of money, but not as much as I would have for an equivalent MacBook Air. I'm genuinely enjoying messing around on the iPad, and am very glad I got it!

Cabin In The Woods, Pt 4

I woke up early the next day in order to call the kayaking company. You see, the quality of the kayaking is heavily dependent on the river authority and how much water they release from the nearby reservoir. Strangely, the recent rains hadn't raised the river level very much, and I was worried that the river wouldn't be high enough to boat on. Luckily for us, they had released a little water, and the river was good enough (according to the proprietor).

As such, we were off for our kayaking adventure!

Day 5: Kayaking

There are *lots* of kayaking companies in the Broken Bow area. After researching, we decided to go with Yippie Kayo Kayaks. We had a good experience with them. If you're ever in the area and want to get out on the river a bit, you should definitely look them up.

There was another family in our launch, so the van was quite full on the way to the river. You might say we were crammed in there like sardines, but I'm pretty sure sardines are saltwater fish. Is there a tiny, tight-schooled freshwater fish?

Sorry, back to the actual story. We had high hopes of high adventure as we entered the river.

...except Gabriel, full of trepidation.

What a great day to kayak that was. The temperature remained in the 80s or below and the sun was occasionally obscured by clouds. The river itself wasn't very high, which was good and bad. In the area we kayaked, if the river gets too high, the rapids become... more challenging. As it was, we only had a single waterfall to go over.

Tanya was our official photographer, by the way. The following picture was taken after we all successfully made through the rapids (most of which I had to walk through, since my boat dragged the bottom) and then over the falls.

Those are the falls, under the arrow.

I had water cooler duty.

Water cooler duty

You see the cooler? It's full of bottled water. It also happens to have a small bottle of bug spray in it. It's lashed to my kayak by a single, small bungee cord. Given how I've described the river, you'd think that would be good enough to keep the cooler securely fastened. Not so much, as it turns out. There were a couple of spots where the kayak went up on its side or completely turned over (hey, it happens even on simple little turns or rocks -- for the record, I had to get out and right the kayak or move it past rocks several times).

The reason I bring this up is that even though the cooler's lid was super-tight, the cooler still got river water in it. In addition, the bug spray bottle must've leaked a little, because at the end of the trip there was a very delicious lemony smell expelled from the cooler as we opened the lid. Needless to say, no bugs wound up drinking from those water bottles...

At one point, a bald eagle put on a display for us... a display of confusion. We were paddling along when this majestic creature swooped out of a tree, diving straight towards the far bank of the river. It grabbed what looked like a rock, started ascending back towards its tree, but dropped the rock about halfway over the stream. The rock landed with a less than thrilling splash as the eagle resumed its perch.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

Our best guess is that the eagle had grabbed one of the turtles from the water near the far bank, and then either instinctively dropped it in order to crack its shell or was getting snapped severely enough by the turtle itself that the eagle decided it wasn't worth the effort. In either case, we couldn't figure out why the silly bird didn't make a grab at the fish that we could clearly see splashing around all over the river. Maybe it's a turtle-tarian?

I was surprised to learn that everyone actually enjoyed the kayaking. I had doubts about whether or not the boys would think it was fun. Photographic proof follows.

Gabriel approves of not getting sunburnt

Garrett and I try a tandem experiment. It failed.

Tanya makes me take a picture without goofy sunglasses. I smiled despite myself.

Victory! Raise your paddles for a job well done!

I've got to let you guys in on a secret. I've saved the best part of the experience for last. Are you ready?

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.

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SPACE PANTS!

Space Pants!

And if you're wondering, these are *not* mine, they're Tanya's, but yes, I absolutely want a pair.

This was the last of our adventures on the surprise summer vacacay. It was unexpectedly enjoyable. If you ever have a hankering to rent a Cabin In The Woods, indulge that hankering. And get out on some zip lines, and onto the river in some kayaks. If you can avoid or embrace the thunderstorms, you're bound to have a grand ol' time!

Cabin In The Woods, Pt 3

After a day full of fun, we figured that Day 4 would wind up being a chill day. The rain helped dampen (see what I did there?) any ideas of outdoor activities. Chill day was ON!

Day 4: Roku To The Rescue

We actually managed to sleep in, which is a particular achievement for me. We didn't roll out of bed until 9:00! After breakfast, we set up the Roku and figured out what our viewing schedule would be. First up was Last Week Tonight, which we all enjoy.

Weekly, 30 minutes, MUST SEE TV!

If you don't make a habit of watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, you should. Even if you decide not to watch it on HBO, you can see the main stories on their YouTube channel.

After a little TV, we did individual activities. For me, that included reading and drawing. And no, I'm not going to post any of the drawings. They're just sketches and not all that great. Maybe, at some point, I'll post a couple. Trust me when I tell you that they're nothing special at this point... :-)

After lunch, it was time for another board game. This one was Roll For The Galaxy.

Colonize the Galaxy!

This is another of our staples. It's pretty easy to pick up, and easy to convince everyone to play. It's one of the few games that actually takes as long as the box says it should. These games are typically pretty competitive as well, but it usually turns out that Garrett or Gabriel wins. This time, Garrett claimed the mantle of Conqueror of the Galaxy. Gabriel came in second, again. Actually, he and I tied, I think, which is a pretty solid showing for me.

You'll notice that Tanya did *NOT* win this one. I wonder if she was still hung over from the Catan win...?

A little downtime followed, then we fired up the Roku again and watched My Hero Academia.

Anime with angst! That might be a redundant description.

This is another show that we watch regularly. We are typically behind in watching it, because we (Tanya and I) like to wait for the voice actors to dub the episode instead of reading the subtitled version on release. The boys have absolutely no problem reading the subtitles. In fact, I'm pretty sure Gabriel has read at least part of the manga as well.

Finally, dinner time rolled around. As I mentioned the the last post, we went back to the Blue Rooster. I ordered the same main course as the previous night, but we skipped the fried pickle slices this time. I had to save space for the fried pie for dessert while remaining at least somewhat comfortable in my pants.

Our final entertainment for the evening was delivered through a viewing of Ghost in the Shell.

2.0, because adding a little CGI warrants a new version

Tanya, as it turns out, had never seen the original. The boys had seen parts of it, but not the whole thing. If you have only seen the live-action version from earlier this year, you should make time to see this one as well. It's a different story than that told in the new one, and quite a bit more cerebral, in my opinion.

After the movie was over, we went over the plan for the next day (which was to get out of the cabin and go KAYAKING!). Grumblings were heard and summarily ignored.

What happened next will BLOW YOUR MIND! Wait, I just said it was kayaking. I guess it won't blow your mind all that much after all... ;-)

Cabin In The Woods, Pt 2

So... who won the Catan game? What happened on days 3 and 4 (and 5 and 6, for that matter)? WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU LEAVE US IN SUSPENSE LIKE THAT, RUSTY?!

Sorry about that. I'm trying to pace myself. Gotta keep the post count up somehow... 

On to Day 3!

Day 3: Zip-lining... or Thunderstorms, and Catan pt 2

Our planned activity for Day 3 was zip-lining. Unfortunately, Mother Nature made other plans. We were scheduled to go before mid-morning, but we woke up to thunderstorms. I called the zip-lining company, and they had decided to not even send crews out to check the lines and that all morning sessions were cancelled. We were bummed, but then remembered that we had a game of Catan waiting for us!

Do you want Wood for your Sheep?

We got back to the game. Tanya was in the lead with Gabriel a close second. Garrett was third, owning all of the favorable exchange ports. I, as usual, was bringing up last place pretty solidly. For some reason, I always pick a pretty common number, and then we never roll it throughout the game. I think that 9 was my nemesis this time...

We finished by lunchtime, with the final standings as they were the night before: Tanya was crowned Lady of Catan, with Gabriel as the next largest land holder. Garrett had the largest army, and I had the biggest wheelbarrow of nothing you've ever set eyes on. Truly, it was magnificent to behold how much nothing I brought to that game... 

The good news is that the rain had cleared off enough to consider the zip-line again. I called the place, and they were indeed open and had a spot for the four of us. We went up there after lunch for zip-lining greatness!

The adventure was courtesy of Rugaru Adventures, and the guides were all fun. We went with another family of three and a single adventurer, so our party was decently sized.

Proof we all went outside!

The course had six zip lines to go through, and we kept a brisk pace (as the weather was still somewhat threatening). I had never been zip-lining in any form or fashion, although everyone else had. Noob!

I think it's safe to say that the entire group enjoyed the adventure. Some of the views from the lines were pretty impressive, especially the one that takes you out over the lake. Oh, you say you'd like a picture of that? Don't worry -- Rusty will provide!

Does the line dump you into the lake?!

And yes, Tanya smiled the whole time. I think she was still glowing from the recent conquest of Catan.

Not to be outdone, Gabriel got a wave in to the camera while on one of the lines.

I'm zipping away! Bubye!

Even Garrett enjoyed himself. He typically doesn't smile for pictures, but I don't think he could help himself.

That's not a smile, Dad -- it's a smirk!

But honestly, do any of you think I would not claim the silliest picture pose? Hey, I may not be very good at board games, but I know how to ham!

Winky!

And then there's the group pose.

We could take a serious picture, but why?!

I'm really glad we got the chance to do this. The operation is well-run, fun, and definitely worth doing if you're ever in the area.

All that zipping around left us hungry. We decided to abandon all pretense of finding food that was somewhat good for us and went to The Blue Rooster.

There's also a blue metallic rooster in the yard.

The Blue Rooster specializes in fried food. This is where the wheels came completely off of my vacation sensible eating plan. We loved this place. We loved it so much, we went back again the next night. So much tasty-fried goodness! They even had fried pies for dessert! The first night, I had the lemon fried pie. The second night, it was apple (of course).

We were pretty lethargic by the time we got back to the cabin, so we settled in for a long winter's nap. Only, it was summer. And it wasn't a nap -- we just laid around chatting and reading until we started to fall asleep, then went to bed. See? I suck at poetry because I'm too literal... ;-)

Stay tuned for Day 4!

Cabin In The Woods, Pt 1

Cabin In The Woods!

Or, short summer vacacay, if you prefer. Originally, we had opted NOT to have a summer vacacay since the boys were going on a cruise with their mom and extended family, and I've got a longer trip to Hawaii in September. However, we just couldn't resist the siren call of the Oklahoma woods, so we booked a cabin and left on a Friday to spend a few days "roughing it" in the far reaches of Broken Bow in southeastern Oklahoma.

Day 1: Travel, Arrival, Dinner

The drive from DFW to Broken Bow was shorter and nicer than I expected it to be. I'd driven to Broken Bow once before, years ago, in the days pre-dating Google Maps. It took close to five hours that time, but this time the drive was right around three hours -- perfect for a weekend jaunt. It also gave me an excuse to play my favorite travelling music: "There Came An Echo," by Big Giant Circles. You should definitely check out ALL of his stuff -- it's all well worth the listen and subsequent purchase!

We made it to the cabin and settled in. After milling about for a bit, we decided to try to find somewhere to eat. A lot of vacacay is about eating, after all. The first place we tried was Rolling Fork.

This place is simply fantastic. They serve natural artisan foods... in the middle of Hochatown, Oklahoma. I can't describe how pleasantly surprised I was that Tanya found this place. We enjoyed it so much that we wound up going back again the next day to pick up a lunch to go.

The first day ended with relaxing at the home-away-from-home. We made sure all the electronics worked, entertained ourselves, and made an early evening of it. We had an active day planned on the 'morrow.

---

Day 2: Four-mile Walk, Catan pt 1

The day began with us hiking in Hochatown State Park. Tanya and I wound up making this trek alone, since both boys and "accidentally" stayed up really late and didn't feel up to walking through nature with us.

Trees!

The walk was really pleasant. There was some rain in the forecast, but it held off while we walked. The clouds kept the heat index down a little too, which was not quite refreshing. The humidity, after all, made us feel like damp washcloths pretty quickly.

I did manage to make a friend on the trail. Millipedes were all over the place. We first passed a dead one on the trail about five minutes in, and I saw about a half dozen more during our walk. This one, though... we were buddies. I called him Miles the Millipede. He didn't seem to mind.

Promises to keep, and miles to go...

Strangely enough, I managed to get flea-bitten on the ankles, even though I was wearing long socks, pants, AND bug spray. Apparently I didn't spray my ankles adequately. Perhaps I've learned my lesson... but don't count on it. Fleas gotta eat too!

Dinner on Day 2 was at The Moon Tower Bar and Grill. This was another place I liked very well, and the only restaurant we went to in the direction AWAY from Broken Bow (and towards Arkansas).

So *that's* what a moon tower looks like...

This was one of those kinds of places that had an eating challenge. I can't remember what exactly it was... a 48 or 60 ounce steak of some sort. It sounded painful, and I didn't try to find any wall of champions. Still, our food was good, and I enjoyed the ambiance. It reminded me of... well, most of the bars and grills from around where I grew up in central Texas.

The final activity of the day was cracking open Settlers of Catan. This is a board game that we tend to play at least once a summer. This year, we added the Cities and Knights expansion, which made the game significantly longer for us. So long, in fact, that we had to pause the game and return to it the next day.

More on that in the next post!

Summer Vacacay p5: Drift Creek Falls

Just in case you doubted...

Good grief, apparently I never actually wrote an entry for our last activity during summer vacacay. My apologies, dear reader, for this ridiculous oversight. As usual, I have no sensible defense. I accept full responsibility for the lateness of this post. Leave comments if you feel remediation of some sort is in order, and I'll sincerely take them under advisement. :-)

Note also that I am NOT including an entry for our down day. I'll sum it up to say that we went for a walk on the beach, trying to get to Seal Rock. After two miles north, we came to a spot where it looked like we had at least another couple of miles to go, and decided to turn around. Garrett actually went with us; as it turns out, the cell signal was better on the beach than it was in the house! We played Pokemon Go the entire time. :-D

Our final hike during the vacation was to Drift Creek Falls. This one was unique in that it featured a suspension bridge that was really only wide enough for a single person to cross at a time.

The walk itself was really easy, which is a good thing since neither boy was all that enthusiastic about yet another hike. The trail was wide and well-worn; the trees were fairly dense but the canopy was high and thin, resulting in soft yellow sunlight with a faint hint of green tinge in places.

Least challenging limbo game ahead...

There were actually several trees that looked like they had fallen over ages ago. This almost made me feel as if the forest was experiencing infighting between its generations -- old versus new. Casualties on both sides were encountered.

Luckily, we dodged most of those fights. Before too long we found the construct we sought!

"Yes, I'll cross first, scaredy-cat!" says our fearless leader.

The bridge and the falls were worth the trip. Have a look at these shots from the middle of the bridge.

Falls from the bridge

Tiny people below!

For more perspective, we made the trip down to the river bed to become like the tiny people.

Tiny people above!

That slab of rock lying there fell off of the rock wall under the falls within the past few (50?) years. I wonder if it made a sound when it fell?

We wrapped up this day with a dinner at our favorite restaurant in Newport. Can you guess which one it was? If you said "Local Ocean Seafoods," then congratulations for paying attention to the other blog entries! :-) We discovered something VERY interesting at the restaurant -- Gabriel, the finickiest of the finicky eaters, actually thinks that calamari is OK to eat. It's not as good as chicken, but better than poorly done fish and chips.

As mentioned earlier, this was the last of our hikes. This entry will also be the last of our vacation entries, as travel days are generally uninteresting. I hope that you've been entertained at least, and perhaps even inspired to get out and about a little. Nature really is pretty fantastic, and you should enjoy opportunities to experience it as often as you can.

The next post will probably be back to book reviews, game dev, or other nerdy pursuits. Thanks for playing along with vacacay entries!  :-D

Summer Vacacay p4: Sweet Creek Falls

It's getting to be that part of vacacay where I lose track of the days.  I think this was day 4, so I'm going to move forward with that assumption.  Remind me to check before I publish this post, OK?  Thanks.

Today's trek took us to Sweet Creek Falls, which is about an hour-and-a-half drive from the house.  Before I get into today's adventure, I wanted to take a moment to tip my hat to Nature in general.  It constantly continues to impress me.  There's not a moment when we're in this house that the roar of the ocean isn't audible in the background.

I can hear the ocean, but I can't see it!

Now, about today's outing...  The drive itself was incredible.

An operational lighthouse, whose utility is on display today!

Siuslaw River on the way to the trailhead

The walk through the woods along the creek was surprisingly populated.  The end of the drive seemed to lead us to the middle of nowhere, and yet when we arrived at the trailhead there were about 10 cars overfilling the parking area.  Not only that, as we walked along, there were campgrounds on the other side of the creek that were all full.

There were so many little falls that I lost count.  Luckily, I think we took pictures of each one.

First falls

Second falls -- more impressive during the run-off season

Third falls

Fourth falls

Dad, do the falls ever end?

Nope! :-D

A pool from the upper viewing area

Our fearless leader!

We even ran into some locals on the trail, which means it's either a really good trail, or really convenient, or really easy, or some combination of all of those.  We choose to believe it was mostly #1.

And then, on returning to the beach house, this sunset...

I just can't even!

Despite all of this natural wonder, I think the boys might be tiring of our "outdoor" shenanigans.  Their faces lit up a bit when I said that tomorrow was an off day, where we're only planning to hang out, play games, watch a movie, and read.  I'm not sure what to think about that.

Given the above, I might not catalog tomorrow.  Tanya and I were considering walking up to Seal Rock as our only activity.  If we do, and it generates good content, I'll probably post something short.

And I double-checked -- today is day 4.  I haven't lost track of the days yet.  I'm tempted to say "yay," but I also feel like I might not be vacationing hard enough... :-)

Summer Vacacay p3: Interlude 1

Beach house!

The forecast for today said it was going to be cloudy all day with a good chance of rain. Combine that with some slight muscle soreness from yesterday, and we decided it would be wise to take it kind of easy today.  As such, we opted to stroll up and down the beach a bit.

This was the first time in our two-and-a-half days that we actually made it down to the beach, and it was pretty nice.  The breeze coming in off of the Pacific was refreshing, even invigorating.  The sand itself was very fine near the foliage, but fairly packed nearer the water, making the strolling pretty easy once we got away from the house.

Turning right, we made our way northward, keeping the ocean on our left and the treeline on our right.  There were a few spots where the surf was still running up the beach pretty well, making our trip almost adventurous.

Graceful as a lame gazelle!

Luckily for me, the boys were there to keep me grounded.

Srsly dad... are we there yet?

Dad, we need to talk about all this walking...

The sky gave us glimpses of blue, so we had hopes that there would be some sunshine today.

Tide pools and blue sky!

Unfortunately, that was the most blue we saw today.  Shortly after we got back to the house, it started sprinkling, and turned into an almost-honest rain.

The only solution was a board game.  We had purchased a game called "Cash n' Guns" a couple of weeks ago but hadn't had a chance to play it.  The boys thought it would be a good idea to pack it with us.  Their forethought gave us a pretty fun half-hour.

Nobody saw nothin', see?

It's a game where each player takes on the role of a robber, and they've (collectively) scored a huge heist.  The robbers go through the process of splitting up the loot over 8 rounds, only they manage to pull guns on each other every round.  You get to choose whether or not you actually shoot or just fake shoot someone every round, except that you *have* to shoot at least 3 of 8 rounds.  You can also choose whether or not to dodge the potential gunshots, in which case you can't grab any loot that round.  People that don't get shot and don't dodge get to share the loot.  The person with the most loot after 8 rounds wins.  Any guesses on the final scores?  Or at least who won?

If you guessed Tanya, then Gabriel slightly edging out Garrett, with me bringing up the rear in a distant 4th, then you should buy some lottery tickets tonight as well. :-)

Tanya and I wanted to have dinner in town at another well-rated seafood place.  However, neither boy could be convinced to join us, so... Mac 'n Cheese round 2 for them!  Meanwhile, Tanya and I went to Local Ocean Seafoods in Newport.  Tanya had the Fishwives Stew, and I had the Seared King Salmon.  Both were very good, but most importantly, we had two desserts: a homemade Lemon Cookie Ice Cream and a Shortbread Parfait.  If you are in the area and *don't* try the Lemon Cookie Ice Cream, YOU ARE A FOOL!  That ice cream makes me want to buy an ice cream maker and grow a Meyer lemon tree.

ZOMG!  GET IN MAH BELLY!!

The other thing I spent a bunch of time doing today was trying to wrap my head around the Firefly RPG rules so that the boys and I can do an Episode sometime this week.  Nerdy adventures await, people!  However, tomorrow we'll be back to the active schedule, so you'll probably have to wait until Thursday for outer space adventures...