Jess and I went out to the coast for a night for our anniversary. We stayed in a little beach house in Jenner overlooking the mouth of the Russian River. We watched seals swimming around, but apparently didn’t take any pictures.
We drove inland to Duncans Mills and looked at the shops and ate dinner. Jess bought some tea and candles.
A cat found us and led us down a trail at sunset.
I had been trying to come up with something to do for my birthday, but not finding anything exciting when Jess discovered there was a circus in town–Venardos Circus! They weren’t performing on my actual birthday, so we went to see it the day before. It was just down the street from us–couldn’t have been any more convenient. We drove over and ate lunch and then got in when they opened the doors so we could get pretty-much-perfect seats.
It was a small circus, which I think I liked better than a big production. No matter where you sat you were no more than ~30 feet from the stage so you got to see everything really up close. You could see the performers’ muscles shaking and watch the expressions on their faces showing how difficult the acts were. It felt more personal than a big production with hundreds of seats where everything is perfectly polished. I think the group perfectly embodied the concept of the traveling circus spectacle.
They had a juggler, a modern concept of a clown, acrobats, trampolines, lots of energy, and lots of fun. I highly recommend it and would be happy to go again if they come through town in the future.
The next day, I took the day off of work to enjoy my birthday. Had a lazy start to the day and did some reading. For lunch I wanted to sit somewhere quiet, so we took some sandwiches out to Brushy Peak Regional Preserve and sat at a shaded picnic table. Watched some rabbits or hares hopping around the landscape. It was nice.
There’s a rabbit in the shade under this picnic table:
After lunch we played the first scenario in Tales from the Red Dragon Inn. A game which I got for my birthday last year. I have too many campaign games waiting to be played. No buying more campaign games until I’ve played the ones I have. We were victorious (it’s intended to be a casual, light-hearted dungeon crawl, so winning should be pretty easy).
After getting the game cleaned up it was time for a surprise from the girls–my very own treasure hunt! I started by visiting the Library of Secrets and receiving a clue from the librarian. And from there I was sent all about the house until I had assembled the components of a computer and typed in the password I obtained along the way.
Completing the treasure hunt naturally unlocked my presents as the prize, which I opened next.
And from there it was dinner time. We went to BJ’s and it was decidedly disappointing. But there was a delicious cake waiting when we got back to make up for it.
After eating cake we went up the hill at Cayetano Park and watched the sun set. There was a cloud bank over the western hills, so it was a bit anti-climactic.
On Saturday I finally got around to painting the 4th miniature from “Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.” Only 4 years and 2 months after I painted the first one!
This one is the Demolitionist. Smallest of the four with lots of detail. I spent a little over 3 hours on it. I’m extremely pleased with the painting, but then fumbled the finish by spraying on too much top coat. Now the surface has a goopy appearance and much of the fine detail was lost. So that’s annoying. I even managed to write “BYE” on the left gauntlet! I used the end of the eye on a needle to do that as I need something that, when it touched, wouldn’t bend and smear the paint. Even so it took a few tries.
And the whole gang! In order of when I painted them: Voidwarden, April 2021; Hatchet, November 2022; Red Guard, January 2025; Demolitionist, June 2025.
I guess now I can finally play the game.
Jess started a new medication which only comes in liquid form, in fact it’s a cough syrup that enhances another medication she takes. To help her remember to take it I designed and printed little bottles to put in her pill case so she sees them when she takes her regular pills.
I modeled it using SolveSpace in like 30 minutes. Pretty happy with how it came out. Here are some of them with the original bottle:
I gave Jess the game Hardback for Mother’s Day. It’s a small box with a bunch of cards in it and some bits and pieces. I found someone designed an organizer for the bits and pieces that looks like a hardcover book. So I printed one of those. However, when I printed it I found it didn’t fit aligned in the box with the cards. It was too wide by ~2-3mm and would bow the box. Rather than try to adjust the model and reprint it I decided to augment what I had with an organizer for the cards so they don’t slide to the bottom when you take some of them out.
So now the bits-organizer sits perpendicular to the cards with room next to it for the game-modifier cards (Fanfiction Cards) with dividers for the other cards to keep everything in place. I’m quite happy with it. Also designed in SolveSpace. I spent a few hours on it partly because I made one design and then decided to scrap it and start over with a different approach.
No new games this month, so I won’t spend time describing any of them again.
Played Creature Comforts a couple of times. Jess won both times.
Played Kodama. My tree made the tree spirits happiest.
I gave Jess Hardback for Mother’s Day. We’ve played 5 times since then. So far I remain undefeated.
Introduced a friend to The Guild of Merchant Explorers while Jess was off at Six Flags with Heather’s orchestra. I won.