Monday, August 21, 2017

8.21.17 - Tichu Day (and solar eclipse)

Today was awesome.

First of all, any day that I take off calorie counting in the middle of a long bet feels like a mini vacation, and that was today.

Second, I enjoy when my newsfeed is filled with statuses about the same topic, especially when that topic is something pleasant like today: the solar eclipse.


And third, the main thing, we had Kale, Doug, and Henry up for a tichu day!



We planned this about a month and a half ago after the WallBQ in the bay area, and I've been looking forward to it. We had a nacho potluck (gluten free) and got in two full games of Tichu, which, if you know anything about Tichu, is kind of a feat. It's a long game.



It's a 4 player game and it was perfect that there were 5 of us (the three guests, Jack, and me) because that leaves Jack and me to rotate and take care of hosting and taking care of Jane (Clara was with Beth). And Jane was extremely cooperative, falling asleep just before the guys arrived, staying asleep for the first full game, and only waking up just seconds after we finished. Then I nursed her, she hung out with us for an hour or so, then she fell asleep in her swing again and is still asleep even as I type this, a few minutes after everyone just left. So Jane was pretty perfect.


So last night and especially this morning Jack and I cleaned pretty much the whole apartment. It usually takes guests for us to get it to this level of clean but it feels so good when we do. We even clean the back rooms even though they are very unlikely to go back there. Jack actually did most of it, so I'm grateful for that.


The solar eclipse was happening just as the guys were arriving and Jack tried several times to look at it, all with painful and slightly funny results.


Also I got Sarah W's Ravenclaw quilt for Jane and it's beautiful.


The guys arrived with fruit juice and cherry Coke and chips and gauc and salsa and sour cream. We already had the rest of the nacho ingredients: chicken, black olives, yellow corn, black beans, bell peppers, and of course a ton of cheddar cheese. Oh and Henry brought some pretty excellent flaky Parmesan too.


Jack sat in a few rounds while I made the nachos and visited from the kitchen (advantage of a small apartment: cross-room conversations aren't much of a feat). Once the nachos were in the oven I took a turn and we switched on and off for a while. Jack and Kale were losing at first and then we turned it around while I was playing, so that was fun. I even got a decent exciting moment on camera (Jack mad Doug made his Tichu), which I usually miss in Tichu games.


We also had time to talk a bit of politics and relationships and other things, and that was pretty nice. At one point Doug said he thought I gave good advice (in a particular story) and I thought that was flattering. And of course it's easy to make all three of those guys laugh, but especially Kale, and I love that. I sipped half cherry Coke half Diet Coke the whole time, and it was delicious.


Overall a relaxing and fun day with friends I don't get to see much but pretty much always enjoy when I do.


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