Friday we learned that Bob and Helen – very good friends back in Ithaca – are having a baby boy in January! Yay for them! Like us, it will be their first. Now it will have to be "Check your neighbor. Check Bob. Check Bob's baby." when we play Civ.

Varied and different things this weekend:

Friday evening: culling books from our library – so far one box to donate, one box to sell via Amazon (two titles already sold), and one box of ancient undergradate textbooks from Shelley's biology classes to tear up for recycling (no place takes bound books, and they're way too old to be useful for shipping to China or other places as can be done with newer editions).

Saturday morning: 78-mile bike ride out around Simi Valley and back from Northridge; very good ride, not too much sun, no cramping.

Saturday afternoon: attend 10th anniversary party at the 18th Street Gym in Santa Monica to watch three three-round boxing contests and help decided a cook-off between two chefs. This gym is owned and operated by Shelley's boxing coach; one of the contests was between women; all the boxing was no-head-shots; mac-n-cheese with truffles is DELISH!

Saturday evening: gaming at Larry's; tried the Settlers variant of the Trojan War with only four players, and also played Goa (ended with an extremely close spread of a mere four points).

Sunday morning: World League Star Fleet Battles Online game, my Gorn vs. his Federation left the lizards listing and taking on vacuum after a six-hour bout.

Sunday evening: ate dinner out at the Brown Cow and then attended "Into the Woods" musical at nearby Knightsbridge Theatre; never seen a Sondheim musical before; was rather tired and seats not terribly comfortable, but it seemed to be a decent performance.



T minus twenty days.