12
the big 1-2
T’s (pre) birthday celebrations out at Mom and Dad’s. everyone conked out early (even Tristan) except me and mom. played othello and boggle and talked until about 5. got up early -10 ish and dad made a yummy pancake breakfast. T and Chad doing wii until Ch’s arm stopped working. shopping for upcoming ND trip with mom. Ch and dad cut chimney jasmine. when we got back Trister had already set up agame with dealer determining cards in each seat. as he said, we hadn’t played poker in a while. I came in second, T first. we nearly tied, though he pointed out the 4 chips I’d donated as group ante is what cost me first. much teasing and joy and everyone on an even keel at the same time, enjoying each other’s company. mom and i relating about expecting respective biz’s to be slow this time-of-year, turning out equally surprisingly very busy –and other bits about a shared sort of ‘yeah, i know what you mean, i’ve been having really amazingly good days recently too’ –fewer mishaps, more synchronicity, friendlier people (everyone ‘at their best’ kinds of interactions)… think i see some major transition correlation here.. anyway another even more awesome day. talked with g-ma –analyzed w/ mom the odds of g-ma having figured out our surprise plan. prob last generation that could without an speck of doubt know that talking about such a surprise on the net will not compromise anything. g-ma and net do not intersect.surreal to think of seeing ND again after 18 years. but it’s late and i digress while i wait for dumb&dumber to dl so we can watch it in the morning -pt 2 having been much funnier than we had expected, T having not seen pt 1 yet, but cracking up over the same bit dad loves about the parrot getting old so his head fell off… got dark while playing poker. headed out all together to eat and play pool. T has gotten very good. played 3-ball, team 8-ball and 8-ball for a few hours. midnight b-day announcement for T 
came home, said bye to mom and dad. messed around on the net for a few minutes then decided to play risk, listening to Ch play bass in the next room. well, not a 3-turn game, but T was very deft in his annihilation of the american natives, smallpox doing a lot of the work, and he got Humphrey (the whale) on his side, so the game wasn’t too terribly much longer anyway. one lone greenlander almost icepicked his way into compass-heaven, and the evil underlords continued to eat their dolphin pellets made from the fallen natives. i almost, one turn, got a continent bonus 
but i think constantly rolling 1s is going to make me a better player –where have i heard that before– note: forsake south america, it’s all about the latitudinal spread. movie done dl. must get more than 4 hours of sleep/diurnal soon but not yet. sushi with T, Lisa, Angie and Ch tomorrow before they head back to Sh. told him he has to stay until 4:30, but we came to an official agreement that his b-day is 12-12 (officially his b-day even if he has to leave just before the hour). much Love T. words cannot describe