Fourteenth Anniversary Day

As anniversaries pass, and senility robs us of our wedding memories, we'll always have the photographic evidence to fall back on.

Other posts in this series: 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2023 album.

• Events
  • Visited the Ahlbins in Rhoadsville, VA, F 9/1 - S 9/2.
  
  
  • Took the kids to Volcano Island on M 9/4. Dinner with the parents (spaghetti) in the evening.
  
  
  • Date night at Local Provisions on F 9/8.
  
  
  • Maia did a trial dance class at Sterling Ballet Academy on S 9/9. Went to the native plant sale at Morven Park in Leesburg where we also met up with Aunt Carol and Uncle Dave on their anniversary.
  
  
  • After church on S 9/10, Maia and Rebecca went to the Cheesecake Factory with Elizabeth and Sammy for Aunt Carol & Uncle Dave's anniversary.
  
  
  • Maia started weekly ballet classes at Herndon Community Center, S 9/12.
  
  
  • Celebrated my 44th birthday at a Shannondale cabin with the family, Car, and Jordan, F 9/15 - S 9/17.
  
  
  • Went to the HOA meeting on W 9/20.
  
  
  • Went to Nathaniel's 4th birthday at the fire station, S 9/23.
  
  
  • Afternoon visit to the Smiths on S 9/24.
  
  
  • Rebecca and the kids went to Great Country Farm with Sena and her kids on M 9/25.
  
  
  • Solo dad dinner at Local Provisions on H 9/28.
  
  
  • Forest Grove Elementary School 20th Anniversary Event on F 9/29.
  
  
  • A visit my parents with the kids on S 9/30, then dinner with Grandpa Tom and Peggy in the evening (kabobs).


• Projects
  • Continued learning Spanish with DuoLingo (175 day streak).
  
  
  • Paid off my mortgage on T 9/12.
  
  
  • Removed the front yard maple tree with my dad on W 9/20.


• Consumerism
  • Briefly jumped back into Grim Dawn again before moving on to Starfield.
  
  
  • Enjoyed watching Righteous Gemstones and This Fool this month.
  
  
  • No amazing new music or books.
  
  

September's Final Grade: A, a great month!

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Mythic Quest, Season Three:
This season was hit-or-miss. Some of the characters become too Flanderized and there's not a lot of forward progress in the plot. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B-

Schmigadoon, Season One:
This show is about two people in a failing relationship who magically stumble into a musical and cannot leave until they find true love. The songs are fine and the feeling of musicals from the 60s and 70s is captured perfectly, but it just isn't very gripping. Everything they try here was already done better (and with more edge) in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I gave it 5 episodes then gave up. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: Not Rated

Drops of God:
This limited series based on a manga is about the death of a wine magnate and the competition between his daughter and his best student to claim the inheritance. The show bounces around between Japanese, French, and English, and has lots of fun wine-tasting imagery. It's a pleasant ride, and very different from the shows we usually watch. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B

Baldur's Gate 3:
Everyone is raving about this game based on Dungeons and Dragons, but I just didn't connect with it. I enjoyed the old-school fiddly nature of this game studio's previous games (the Divinity: Original Sin series) and can appreciate the high-quality voice acting and game style in Baldur's Gate 3. However, when a game offers you so much freedom that you can do anything, it paradoxically feels like nothing is worth doing. I would play for an hour or so and spend so much time fiddling with minutia that I made no forward progress -- it doesn't fit with my gaming pattern of wanting to complete everything before moving on. I shelved the game after about 6 hours. Maybe I'll come back to it someday when I'm retired and have hours of contiguous gaming time to devote.

Final Grade: Not Rated

Easy Photos Day

Maia is really into her educational math game, Prodigy, which she plays on her school-issued Chromebook.

Ian plays "Senor Don Gato" at Sully playground.

Ian and Maia go to a 4th birthday party at the fire station on Saturday morning.

Ian reunites with Abby at the Smith household on Sunday afternoon.

Tropical Storm Ophelia turns out to be a moderate nothing-burger, with only 2.5 inches of steady rain.

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Doom Guy: Life in First Person by John Romero:
The autobiography of one of the creators of DOOM is a little repetitive at times, retreading ground already explored by David Kushner's Masters of Doom. However, it's a pleasant, nostalgic trip through 3D gaming in the 90s.

Final Grade: B

Ted Lasso, Season Two:
The second season of this footballer show stumbles a bit. There are still some great, funny storylines, but the episodes get longer and longer and the character arc of Nate the Great isn't sold well enough for its payoff. The episode, Beard After Hours is a boring, experimental slog that would feel more at home on Master of None or Atlanta. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B-

Mythic Quest, Season Two:
Season two of this gaming company show isn't as perfect as the first but still has some great individual story arcs. The two-episode tangent focusing on C.W. was really well done. On AppleTV+.

Final Grade: B

Justified: City Primeval:
This is a lackluster appendix to the excellent seven seasons of Justified. It places the great character of Raylan Givens in a second-rate cop show without realizing that the draw of the original series was the character's interactions with everyone else, not the plot. Timothy Olyphant's real-life daughter plays his daughter on the show in a grating performance that calls to mind Kim Bauer versus the cougar on 24 (Thankfully, she exits the show after just a couple episodes as if the creators realized what a misfire it was). On Hulu.

Final Grade: D+