Pretty decent drive from NJ to VA today. There were a couple spots with traffic, but nothing more than a few minutes and otherwise traffic was very light. I hope tomorrow is just as easy, but I take nothing for granted. We got to the hotel pretty early, around 3:15. I spent some time telling ChatGPT how disappointed I was with it (for some reason this felt necessary), did some crossword puzzles. Then we went to the Subway at the gas station for dinner, bought some snacks, played some Uno, called Billy. Now I’ve showered, watching some basketball, and pretty soon I’ll be off to sleep. I’m hoping to get an early start tomorrow. Arriving early enough to have time to relax before crashing is nice. Fingers crossed for another easy day. We’ll see. I’m ready for anything. Kind of.
Tag: game
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March 8
Billy mentioned that the Atlantic Sun men’s basketball tournament was happening here in Jacksonville, so on a whim we went to the championship game. It was Central Arkansas against Queens University and it was a pretty good game. When there were 54 seconds left, we all guessed how long it would take before the game ended. We were all wrong, because the game went into overtime, which added another 10 minutes. Queens won, which, even though they’re not from the borough of Queens in NY, I consider a namesake, so I’m down. I think I will also root for them in the NCAA tournament. Why not? I’m glad we went. There were maybe 300 people there. Traffic was a breeze!
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February 25
I’m a big fan of all the family time we’ve been having lately. Tuesday family game night has proved to be particularly awesome. It was my turn to pick a game tonight, so I picked Pictionary. Robin and I are kind of a dream team. You should have seen her picture of a harmonica. I have no idea how I guessed it. Magic, I guess.
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February 4
Tuesday is game night, and for the record, Christina is a sore loser. Draw 20 is the Uno No Mercy death knell and she fell into it. That nearly ended the game for everyone. But… Robin and I made it to the last two in the game and we went back and forth for half an hour before I finally defeated her. I think she was glad to lose, honestly, because that meant she could have her phone again. For a few minutes, anyway.
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October 1
We finally completed the last game in the Harry Potter expansion set, after months of effort. We had done it once before, but definitely cheated that time. This time we did not cheat, and it definitely felt a lot more fulfilling to win. It’s pretty fun, and definitely challenging! Nice way to end a Tuesday.
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August 23
Not a great picture. I give it a zero. We played Quiddler and I pulled it out against Billy in the very last hand. Alexa even played fanfare music off the scorekeeping app I have on my phone. Billy and Christina didn’t appreciate that much, but I did.
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April 13
Christina had a dance competition and did pretty well. Her production dance is amazing and got a couple shout-outs on stage from other performers. It won first place and a golden egg, which really looks a lot more like a chicken than an egg. She said it was a duck… either way, not an egg, but a nice nod from the judges nonetheless. I love how much Christina loves it.
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March 10
We had a really great day that ended with 30 minutes of yuck that kind of tainted it. Got a lot done – cleaned up the house, weeded the garden, went to the Game Haus and played Sorry and Scattergories, got ice cream, went food shopping, and had tacos for dinner in front of the TV while we watched Big Ten wrestling. Then at bedtime there was some snottiness, yelling, and then crying that had to do with messy rooms, peed-on sheets, and a sink clogged with black water with toilet paper crumpled up all around it. I finished the day with regret. Yin and yang, I suppose. I hope for forgiveness.
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November 3
Today was moody teenager day. Want to go out for ice cream, don’t want to go out for ice cream, go out for ice cream, want to play games, play games, don’t want to play games, life is miserable, can we just go home. Life is exhausting.
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August 13
Christina is both excited and nervous for the first day of school. Probably more nervous than excited. Worried about where she’ll go when she gets to her classroom, whether she’ll have any friends in her class, whether she’ll ever see Kiley again… I tried my best to ease her mind, but you know how anxiety is. At least we have table-top curling to take our minds off things. She was a little exuberant with her stones. This one went flying across the room.
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July 12
What else would we be doing except playing the Harry Potter game? Christina has been into it with us this time, which has been a nice bonus.
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May 27
Christina went to a friend’s birthday party at Main Event and they were so generous to extend an invitation to Robin, too. It was a fun party other than the fact that I go into sensory overload the instant I walk in that place and also that the party went on for almost 3 1/2 hours. Robin and I kind of went off on our own at the end and played this one game where you have to hit the lights as they light up. We cheated a little and ended up getting the day’s high score. Yay for the cheaters.
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February 24
More than anything, all I wanted for Christmas was the Harry Potter board game. Not so much because I’m a die hard Harry Potter fan (which I’m really not), but because I’d played it with my brother and sister in law and enjoyed it. Billy and I have spent hours and hours of our lives playing this game over the last two months and we have yet to win. We came closer than ever tonight and it was both exhilarating and depressing. I am going to need a day or two to recover. Also today: We went to the girls’ school this afternoon to watch their oratorical festival. They recited poems about all sorts of things that would make our governor want to vomit, which just made me so proud and actually brought tears of joy to my eyes. I am so thankful that they are still able to learn about people like Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. I don’t know how much longer that will be legal.
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January 17
Christina spent some birthday money on a new watch and a four-foot long cat stuffie, and they both arrived today while she was at school. We walked home today and Christina basically ran the last tenth of a mile to get to her package. I made her get the mail and wait for me to put away the garbage can and then started joking around that I hoped I could find my keys in my purse, taking my time ruffling around. Christina went insane and I finally gave in and pulled out my keys, only to find that I actually didn’t have my house key. The keypad for the garage door wasn’t working either. So we went all around the house trying to find a window to crawl through. Christina was in a rage, literally throwing patio furniture across the yard and kicking tables. We finally managed to pry the screen off the kitchen window and get in that way. Thank goodness, too, because I think I might have had to take Christina to the hospital if she had to wait much longer for her birthday gifts.
Year in Photos 