BattleBots in Long Beach and Las Vegas, Spring 2019

BattleBots in Long Beach and Las Vegas, Spring 2019

Team Valkyrie!

If you haven't seen the BattleBots show check out this 2 minute clip of Tombstone vs. Bronco.  We took a road trip with The Neighbors to see it taped live!  Amazing!  So. Much.  Fun.

I think this is the best sign, so if you see it on tv, we are right there!!

Team Huge!

We made the best signs!

We were in the front of the line to get the best seats!

Team Free Shipping!!

It was a super intense couple of days where we lived and breathed BattleBots and then went home :(  One guy used his whole 2 weeks of vacation to attend every taping-now that is a Life Goal!

I then I went off on a girls trip to Vegas

:)

We did a little bit of everything and ton of things I'd never done before.  

First off, I walked from the airport to the Hard Rock hotel.  This seemed kind of crazy and it took me three tries to get out of the airport complex to someplace with sidewalks.  The employee parking lot looked promising, but no sidewalks-boo.  Free shuttle to the rental car center, but it is on the wrong side of the airport and now I was 5 miles away instead of 1.2 miles away.  Finally I took the free shuttle to the long-term parking lot and was able to walk out to Paradise Blvd no problem!  Why would I do this?  I wanted to know if I could, I had the time and it wasn't blazing hot summer!  

We ate great food off the strip, which I have somehow never managed to do before? Why not?  Don't know!! It is soooo good!  First was some hot pot Korean.  Just head west on Spring Mountain Road and a ton of great food appears.

Saw the show Absinthe just outside Caesars.  Not for the prudish, cool intimate venue and amazing performers.  Tap dance?  Check.  Roller skates, check.

End the evening at the Bellagio

With a Manhattan at my favorite little corner bar.  The best people watching, cheese plate and a piano.

The Bellagio always has a nice display.

This is for Chinese New Year.  So many flowers!

The chocolate fountain at the Bellagio shops.

Chairs outside the chocolate shop remind me of those in Animal Crossing-too cute!

We take the little tram ride and check out the fantastic fountain at the Aria and the tiny Turrell art piece in the mall.

Breakfast is out and about to Babycakes.  Local (maybe?) Filipino breakfast chain where one should always add a fancy pancake to whatever else you want to eat.  Crazy good options like s'mores and peanut butter/banana.  Holy cow that was great!

Something I've never done is lounge by the pool all day

In a cabana. Where we really do nothing but eat and drink and chat with an occasional dip in the pool.  I thought I would get more reading done, but there was so much to do - lol!

One last decadent evening meal.  The Oyster Bar at Palace Station.  It is only a bar with ~20 seats and it is never not popular.  We wait in line an hour and a half.  And it is totally worth it!! 

Damn that was a good trip!

Games from Game Night

Games from Game Night

Some of the games we have played at game night!

First play of a new game, Junk Art

Indeed it is a 'stack oddly shaped pieces' game.  The twist is the different directives, the tallest, the fastest, etc.  I do like these type of dexterity games, will play again.

An old favorite, Dominion

Build a deck with the most victory points.  The key is building an engine that gets going before the end of the game sneaks up on you.  They put out so many expansions that there are still many new-to-me cards.

Villainous   So good!  Asymmetric play where everyone has different winning conditions, many involve messing with the other players.  You are, after all, a villian.

Want to play her again!

Stylish playing pieces!!

Codenames both a fun party game and hard-core.

Simple, get your team to guess the correct words in the grid.  For the words 'forest' and 'maple', give the clue 'tree'.  But what if they also guess 'swing' which gives points to the other team.  Much harder to play than it seems.

Railroad Ink is a roll (the dice) and write (on a whiteboard game sheet).  Below we have the same dice rolls for all, but 3 players have different transportation layouts.

Good amount of randomness. 

Professor Evil and the Citadel of Time  Good co-op game.  Almost all the games I've played have come down to the last turn and we win or lose by the skin of our teeth.

Trying to steal Professor Evil's treasures.  All you have to do is turn off his cameras, locks, lasers, and buzzsaws-yikes!

Will we win?  It is close..

Fail!

My logic puzzle loving heart can not get enough of Tobago!

Use logic statements to determine where the buried treasure is on the island, then go dig it up!

The longest treasure investment I've ever seen.  This treasure was next to the ocean, not in a lake, not next to a palm tree, near the biggest river, but not in the biggest river, beach, grasslands, jungle, lake, or mountains.

Tiny Towns Who will build the best tiny town?  

Everyone plays with the same building set, but different choices lead to different towns.  A bit like Railroad Ink.

Building meeples are cute.

If you want to build a cottage, simply place a yellow, blue, and red cube in the correct spots.  So easy!  Until it isn't...

7 Wonders Oh a classic!  A great game for a larger group, but goes quickly because you only pay attention to your 2 neighbors.  When we first played this game it was (relatively) easy to win by science but folks figured out how to shut that down.  What hasn't changed is that you can't win by war.

de Young Art Museum, spring 2019

de Young Art Museum, spring 2019

After seeing the Monet exhibit at the de Young we checked out the rest of the museum.  

I can't believe that I have missed the Turrell that is right here at the de Young!  

Now I will want to go back under different lighting.  

Whimsical outdoor sculptures

I love interesting patterns, both the item and the shadows.

This is so gorgeous in person - hard to capture it completely.

I love the whole room.  It is festive overall and each piece bring something different.

My favorite natural force is erosion.

So we had to hang out and watch this one work.  I love that this is a museum piece, it is so odd and strange, especially given that it is kind of old.  And what is up with the succulents?  Do they replace them?  Does someone water them?

Famous quilts from Gee's Bend

I've seen another piece from this artist....somewhere...makes me get up close and check out the details.

It's large!

It's sculptural - why does he want it off the wall?  How does he get it to stay that way?

The material is interesting - metal wraps from drink bottles.  All basically the same, but never exactly the same.

We got to talking about how hard it must be to put these large/awkward/fragile/expensive up and/or to move them around.  Shortly after there appeared this article about moving art!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/21/how-to-move-a-masterpiece-secret-business-shipping-priceless-artworks-art-handling?utm_source=Studio+D&utm_campaign=a8b1684f0e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_08_12_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_87ad4d4f13-a8b1684f0e-242723753&goal=0_87ad4d4f13-a8b1684f0e-242723753&mc_cid=a8b1684f0e&mc_eid=f8aaf58e68

Modern art pattern but reminds me of quilts.

Fans of the 18th century

We learned that the fans were basically a type of language-to let potential lovers know how interested you were.  Yikes!  Imagine not knowing that and just using it as a fan?!?  Sitcom set-ups of the 18th century :)

Wire sculptures by Ruth Asawa  I love these again both the item (on the left) and the shadow (on the right)!  She got a Google Doodle recently - yeah artists!