Shane and I drove up to meet Jama Friday night.
We went to dinner with her and Ed.
Shane did a remarkable job at dinner (especially for him). We were in the dining room for an hour and a half without any major incidents.
And that was after a two hour car ride!
No, he wasn't an angel. I'm still really proud of him. He ate well and behaved well. I told him so.
John swung by after work. Shane and I were out front looking for his car. We hopped in for dinner at Wegmans and a walk through Walmart.
It was already late in the day when we drove up and later still after dinner, so Shane had to go to bed afterwards.
I brought my laptop, so I was able to meet up with Carrie, Chris, and Genevieve online after he went to sleep.
The next morning, Shane and I did our usual NOVA breakfast run to Wegmans. It's like nobody else wants to be up and out at 7:30 AM on a Saturday morning.
We went back to Jama's to chat and play tech support before going on our next adventure.
A couple of months back I met a guy at a board game night John hosted for work. Only two people came we didn't know that first game day. Ken was the quiet one. He came for a game, didn't say much, and then left. I wasn't sure he had a good time, but Ken came back for round two. We talked a lot more then and traded emails. He went to the third meet-up while we were at beach week.
Ken and I talked over email and he invited Shane and I over. He had two girls, Caroline (age 9) and Josefina (age 7). He thought that they'd get along with Shane.
Shane and I went for it. Ken lives near the library, so it was an easy stop on the way to John's game day. The girls were more reserved, but Shane is Shane. He's gregarious, genuine, and over the top. The all hit it off.
Ken and his wife, April, offered us lunch. It was a pleasant surprise!
The kids were having such a blast playing hide-and-go-seek I was loathe to leave for the board game day! If they had offered, I would have been tempted to leave Shane behind.
The original reason for coming up was to support and see John, though. I got a text that John had set the Switch up for Shane to play already. We saddled up and headed out. Ken led the way in his truck.
John was working and didn't join any games. Ken and I sat down to a group about to play Arcadia Quest. It was a arcadey, cutesy-style, competitive dungeon crawl.
Shane went straight to Shovel Knight and Mario Kart.
Ken won the first game. I won the second. I had one character who rolled abysmally the first game, Spike. I had another who rolled fantastically, Zazu. I started to get a little in character. "Zazu is INVINCIBLE!" and "Zazu does not care!" and maybe some Zazu does not back down!"
Zazu turned out to be a complete stud. I would have won the first game if I had used another character for the attack, but I wanted to go for a story win. I rolled two melee hits that would have won if I was Johan. They did nothing for Zazu with the ranged Nova Blast.
It was okay, though. I upgraded Zazu and had some phenomenal rolls the next game (Chanting "Zazu is the best! Zazu is an animal!"). It was a win that had other people at the table laughing and cheering. It was all in good fun. I try to point out moves that other people do I think are clever when we play. I congratulate good dice rolls and commiserate when dice go sour. It's all supposed to be a fun, shared activity.
Things got a little dicey when Shane got bored of the switch. He came over to play with miniatures and ask a million questions.
Shane went back to playing the Switch right before Matt, Renee, and Aiden arrived.
They only stayed for a brief chat before errand running, but that counts for attendance! Matt and Renee are hard to catch up with outside of beach week. Aiden doesn't make it any easier.
John, Shane, and I drove out to Chic Fila A for dinner after he got off work. It was a tactical maneuver on my part. Chic Fil A has a food, play structure, and it was fifteen minutes west towards Culpeper.
Carrie was going to drive up to Culpeper and drop the truck off at a shop. Shane and I were going to meet her and bring her to Jama's. Sunday we were set to drive to Maine and meet Grandma and Grandpa for a week's vacation with them.
We hung out until we got the call. It was a short trip and there are a lot more people I want to see whenever we go north, but they'll have to wait for another time. Shane and I need to catch up with Matt G and his girls next time (Matt G and I talked on the phone on the ride up).
SIDE NOTE: I called Megan on Friday and left a message. She called back on Saturday in the middle of me juggling a few things and I missed the call. She texted later and I found out what she'd been doing. She'd gone to Steve H's funeral. He died the previous Sunday. It was possibly a suicide. It added a sad note to things. Carrie and Shane don't know Steve, but we bumped into him for a moment at church the last time Shane and I were in NOVA. I'd tried to text with him some the Thursday before he died. Steve's dad, Dan, is heart-broken, but he gave a moving message and testimony online and at the funeral according to Megan. It's not really related to our trip, but it was. I felt it had to be mentioned. Our prayers are with Steve's family and friends as they cope with his passing. I cling to Romans 8:28 in times like these, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose."
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