I read in the Chronicle that the original owners of one of my favorite restaurants (Gumbo's) were opening up another Cajun restaurant close to work. I just had to try it out. It is located near the Red Robin on Parmer and IH-35.
The recipes were slightly different. I wonder why. Perhaps there is a no-compete clause still in effect? They didn't have the garlic butter served with the bread. And the dirty rice was blander. Not as rich and dirty. So I will stick with the original Gumbo's.
We started out with a game of the new Dominion expansion. It is an okay game. I could see how some people might love it. For me, there are many other light filler type games that I would rather play.
Our real game of the night was the classic E&T. It took a little bit to refresh our memory on the rules. Thankfully, everyone was willing to play it again. In the first game I was able to come in second to Susan. During the second game, Wayne started an External Conflict between myself and Susan. Luckily, I had the right set of tiles to win all the battles (and Susan didn't). This propelled me into the lead. It also helped that no one picked on me after that and I was able to place tiles to round out my collection of cubes.
Unfortunately, I was quite mean to Jeff during the second game. He had three of his leaders out on the board only being supported by one common red tile. I needed to support my kingdom from external threats. So I kicked out his three leaders with one catastrophe tile and joined up the remnants of his kingdom into mine.
I saw a restaurant review for Terra Burger and it intrigued me. I liked the fact that they had sweet potato fries and gluten-free buns as choices (as well as vegan) and that they used organic ingredients. Unfortunately, this place is an outdoor restaurant. Which is not a good thing in the land of 100+ degree weather. Or rain or cold for that matter.
On the whole, its a meh. And I would be unlikely to go there again.
What a surprise, Mike actually played disc golf with us. At Old Settler's park. Somehow he was able to escape the babby.
Oh, noes, they cut down many trees on the hill around holes 8, 9, and 10. I wonder why. It not like they were oak trees and they had oak wilt. So sad. This course has very few trees to begin with.
We ate lunch at Chuy's. And there was this interesting motorcycle/car thingy. Fortunately, I caught enough of the name to find out that it is called the Stallion. Wow. $33K for an open air motorcycle that gets 45mpg? I'd rather buy a Prius.
For the first game of the night, we started out with Small World. This is a Vinci reprint. But with changes. Changes that, in my view, weaken the game. And make it lighter and fluffier. My tribes during this game were the Diplomatic Ghouls, the Forrest Giants, and the Seafaring Trolls. I initially started out scoring much less victory points than everyone else. Those Ghouls were perhaps not the best choice. My my next race did so much better. I was able to score a lot of point from the Giants and from the remaining Ghouls left on the board. This was enough to boost me into first place. I coasted into the end with the Trolls (playing only one round with them).
They have simplified the game, shortened the game, and have added a small bit of extra randomness with a die (concerning your last attack). None of these changes are for the better in my opinion. Though they will make the game more appealing to a wider audience.
We ended out the night with Roll Through the Ages. As a push your luck dice game, it ranks highly for me. It is very thematic. And it has some strategy to it. There are different paths you can take. Just keep in mind that this is a dice game.
Hrm, that is an Austin Police Car, yet it has a different paint job than its brethren... I wonder what duty it is assigned to?
This would be a pretty brutal place to live if it was real.
It seems that they are harvesting the local fields around here. I am pretty amazed that anything can grow in this environment. We have had the hottest 30 days in Austin's history. We are in an extreme drought. And somehow something can live for a short while.
And someone was out flying an ultralight. Which would be a cool thing to try someday...
We decided to go to Pease park today. So we met at a nearby Starbucks. It seems that they are working on converting the old Albertson's to a farmer's market.
Hrm, there is some odd trash lying about. Perhaps it was someone's bed? That would explain the shoes laying nearby.
On Jon's second throw to the hole, it skipped down into the ravine. I figured that this would be a good opportunity to try out the new iPhone's video capability.
The stream at Pease is finally dry. Only a small pool is left. So sad.
We ate lunch at the new P. Terry. Which was okay. At least they will cook a medium rare burger for you. The chicken burger was better than the cheeseburger.
It seems a restaurant finally opened up within walking distance from my home. Which is a good thing since my car was off getting its windows tinted. And it seemed much cooler out. I didn't sweat at all. What a different 10 degrees makes outside (from the 104+ days we have been having recently). Lunch was so so.
It seems that road work is still being done. And it looks like they are getting ready to repave a better job than they did last time.
I played Power Grid tonight. And it was a close game. I would have won if I hadn't have been so paranoid. Sigh. I knew the game was close to finishing. So I was considering hoarding enough fuel to last for two rounds. This way, I could not be hosed if people were to take enough of the coal away so that I could not power all of my cities. I was weighing this against the chance that I could connect to enough cities in order to end the game (and win). However, I didn't think that this was likely given the fact that my cheapest routes would be blocked by the other players (as they should do). Sadly, I spent my money on the coal. And then watched as the connections were in fact not blocked at all. Oh, well. Can't predict everything...
Mrs Pigeon apparently built a nest and laid a couple of eggs over the weekend. However, she picked a bad place to do it. In the middle of a parking garage and right where cars drive. I have always admired their courage when they keep standing when cars are driving past. However, they should have flew away this time...
We went to Wilco for some disc golf this morning. Out in the field was a medical transport helicopter on display. It seems there is some type of fair going on. I wanted to check it out afterwards but they had packed up by the time we finished a couple of hours later.
Some bored disc golfers made a rock sculpture for some reason.
We started off with a opening game of Dominion. At the end, I won. But, during the game, I sure did not think that I was in the lead at all. I guess that I believed my Jedi Mind Powers along with everyone else.
This is the first game that I have played Tichu with in a while (since March). Too bad I don't have enough friends willing to play Tichu with me regularly. Or at least consistently.
| GT/T | Team #1 | GT/T | GT/T | Team #2 | GT/T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MarkH & Ed | Jon & MaryM | ||||
|
95
|
5 | ||||
| 135 |
65
|
||||
| T+ | 435 | 65 | |||
| 445 | T+ |
255
|
|||
| 480 |
320
|
||||
|
565
|
335 | ||||
| 680 | T+ |
420
|
|||
|
765
|
435 | ||||
| 965 | 435 | ||||
| 1165 | 235 | GT- |
| GT/T | Team #1 | GT/T | GT/T | Team #2 | GT/T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MarkH & Jon | MaryM & Ed | ||||
| 0 | 200 | ||||
| 300 | T+ | 200 | |||
| 300 | 400 | ||||
| 500 | 400 | ||||
|
475
|
T- | 425 | |||
| 510 |
490
|
||||
|
565
|
T+ | 635 | |||
| 585 |
815
|
T+ | |||
| 735 | T+ | 865 | |||
| T+ | 1035 | 865 |
Today's high will be 107 and people are out playing either soccer or ultimate frisbee. I wonder how they cope with this heat?
I sometimes seem some interesting looking cargo being transported up and down IH-35...
I find it cool that I am able to connect to this machine remotely. I have no idea where it physically exists. Yet I can carve it up into virtual machines. Which, for all purposes, act like separate machines. All of this is very future-riffic and neat. Yet, when I install Linux on the virtual machine I am forced to interact with it in a very ugly and ancient way. Until I get the machine up enough for it to switch to a graphical install...
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During my bike ride in the morning, I passed someone fixing a trailer by the side of the road. I then noticed it driving past me. I thought that was the end of it until I saw it broken down again and passed it by again. After ten minutes or so, it off into the sunrise... Hopefully with no more problems.
I went to Wilco for some disc golf today. And I noticed that they cut down a number of trees due to oak wilt. So sad. I hope that's the last of it. Unfortunately, this course was packed today. I tried skipping around. But I could not find an open section of the course and kept being stuck behind slower players. So I aborted early...
