Europa: 1945-2030

So I decided to be social and go to Games Club, which this week was held at Gaylord’s apartment. Only six or seven people showed up, which was just as well, since that’s just about the right number of that apartment. We only played one game: Europa: 1945-2030, a nifty political boardgame about building the European Union. (Note: There’s a whole series of “Europa” wargames from Game Research and Design, none of which I’ve ever played. This game, from Eurogames Descartes, doesn’t seem related to those others.) The voting mechanic encourages a kind of coalition-building (with back-stabbing growing more common as the game progresses) that seemed very evocative (to this American) of European parliamentary political maneuvering. I came in second, and would probably have won if I hadn’t made what turned out to be one terribly bad decision late in the game.

UPS tracking weirdness

That’s really odd. Around 6 PM yesterday (June 21st), I looked up the UPS tracking info on the seekrit painting, and found that it was listed as having arrived at UPS’s Rockford Illinois hub at 8:16 AM. Today I look, and it says that it arrived at the Philadelphia air hub at 8:15 AM yesterday, departed that hub at 1:53 AM today, en route to Rockford, and has not yet arrived there (or at least not been scanned).

Walking home

About five years ago I tried to walk home from City Hall, across the Brooklyn Bridge. I couldn’t do it; I got as far as Atlantic Center and wimped out. Today I tried again, starting from Chinatown (where I’d just bought a green apple shredded ice green tea drink with tapioca pearls, because I’m turning into a teenaged Japanese girl), going down Lafayette to City Hall, across the bridge, stopping off to buy a Coke, walking through Fulton Mall, turning onto Flatbush, and on to home near Grand Army Plaza. About four miles, which isn’t actually all that much more walking than I do on the treadmill on the days I don’t lift weights. My feet don‘t hurt much, but my shoulder is killing me from my bag dragging on it. I really am in the best shape of my life (so far). Go me!