Another nice weekend in the books.

Friday night, Iwan and I headed up for some poker at our local card house. I've lost the last couple times I've played (which was a while ago), so I was ready to win some back. Unfortunately, we both got our asses handed to us, though neither are quite sure how it happened. I'm definitely still in the black, but it was kind of a bummer.

Saturday, Diana and I went for a nice walk through a local nature preserve that we'd never been to before. It was hot, but not too hot, and it was great just to be outside and have the chance to talk and spend some time together. We walked up to where the map said there was a "waterfall", which was really just a little more than a rapid in an otherwise calm stream, but it was fun. There was a couple there already, so we sort of sat nearby and ate lunch. They were constantly yelling at their dogs, who were just sort of wandering around, not harming anything, but the woman really wanted them to just sit there quietly. At one point, she yelled at the top of her lungs "YOU ARE RUINING MY RELAXATION!!!!" I found this quite hilarious.

That evening we headed to the 90th birthday party of an old babysitter/nanny of Diana and her sister's. Great to meet her, and it was neat to see how happy she was to see Diana and her folks. I was impressed at how spry and on top of things she was for being 90 years old! She definitely was sharp and keen, and certainly up and about and greeting everyone at the party. Very impressive.

Perhaps the biggest news of the weekend is I ascended for the second time in my life in Nethack. A second Valkyrie. (This is going to lead to more "Diana the Valkyrie" hits on my blog. Do a webseach from that when you're not at work sometime. :) Anyways, I was very pleased with myself. I've played that damn game off an on for so long, and finally beat it just a few months ago (April 25... I just looked it up), and now a second time. Anyways, good stuff. The game started with an altar in the first room, and after a few sacrifices I got Mjollnir. At some point, I found a magic lamp, got a wish for grey dragon scale mail, and the rest just sort of wrote itself. I ascended with 3 wishes left on the only wand of wishing I found, as well as a second blessed magic lamp that could have been used. I had a little problem with Pesitilence on the Astral Plane, but ended up not being much of an issue. (I love talking Nethack to people who don't know what I'm talking about. It must sound so out-there. :)

The only other important point (relatively speaking, I know) is that I played the whole game (except Sokoban) using the hjklyubn keys for moving, rather than the arrow keys. So, j is down, k is up, h is left, l is right, etc. A really non-intuitive way to move (compared with arrow keys), but once you get used to it, a much more efficient way to play. More importantly, good training for playing on a laptop or something without a number pad.

That all, combined with a fantasy football win already locked up (with T.O. still left to play!) and things could have been a lot worse this weekend.