Flags are in. Probably game zero this Saturday.

The upswing in fantasy fortunes continues. Last week's victories came from having solid teams, this week I benefitted from breakout performances (two from players off the wire). I've learned to diversify my lineups, particularly on account of the players that are common to a few of my teams (DeAngelo and Portis).

LEG: 40 from Britt, 114-93 » 5-1-1 (2/12)
MeG: 47 from McFadden, 110-71 » 3-4 (8/14)
AFL: 39 from White, 125-90 » 2-5 (5/5)
SBH: Fail, 75-89 » 2-5 (4/5)

Of course, the winning must continue to recover from the rocky start.


I capped the month of travel with a weekend in dc. J and I played through Mario Galaxy 2 and Reach on legendary with some firefight. Virginia is rather colorful right now (above photo is straight off the camera), so we stopped by Shenandoah National Park to do some casual photographies. I didn't realize how dangerously close we were to West Virginia.

Zac's ridiculously awesome parents hooked me up with a ticket to the Raiders-Niners game. I walked from the Balboa Bart station to Candlestick expecting to, at some point, come upon a sports bar. Alas there were countless dives, a park, and a gorgeous Alfa, but no place to watch the morning games.


I spent most of the morning wading through tailgaters, occasionally catching parts of games from peoples' dish setups. The combination cooler-motorized scooters were a highlight.


I'm not sure either team could have played much worse, but it was awesome to see live. Our section had two fights that ended in handcuffs, and the dude two rows back worked on a pile of vom throughout the game. On the whole, the crowd (a 60/40 fan split) was spirited with only the friendliest of animosity towards the other side.


My first AFL win came at the expense of the only undefeated team, 1-5. In Supermassive Black Hole I improved to 2-4, and 89 points was good enough to rename Derrick's team. Without internet access on Sunday I couldn't bench Run DMc and that made the difference to continue the Medieval Gridiron slide to 2-4. And my League of Extraordinary Gentlemen rise continues, 4-1-1 but without DeSean next week.

Yesterday I suggested flag football to various channels and it's been met with considerable interest. On DEB's suggestion, rather than paying $900 to field a Vavi team, we're going to go grassroots. Two teams with our own equipment and rules. It offers so much more flexibility in terms of team attendance and play style. I'm drafting some rules derived from the proven ones that leagues use, but with some fresh complexity.

Friends and I stayed at the Riu Santa Fe on the east end of Cabo. It was considerably nicer than I expected with decent rooms and well-kept grounds. The walls were a bit thin so not being on the top floor was less than ideal. In fact, the top floor two-story suites looked pretty good so that'd have the be the accommodations on future visits.


The lunch and dinner buffets were above par (cruise ship), breakfast was kinda greasy. Of the numerous restaurants available for booking only one was had availability the three nights we were there, but it was quite good.


The beach at the hotel has a rough shorebreak so it keeps the tourists in the pools. I didn't make it out to the surfable Pacific side of the point.


We did a zip line tour an hour east of the hotel. It was pretty high and quick.


I dove the Corridor and harbor, unfortunately the Gordo Banks (nitrox, hammerheads) and Cabo Pulmo (mantas) were Monday trips. The dive shop was good although the trip wasn't without incident. The dive master gave me ten pounds when I wasn't sure how much weight I needed sans the bouyancy of a wetsuit. This was enough to keep me neutral with an empty bc and near-empty lungs, resulting in more swimming and breathing. He thought I was a complete noob and it wasn't until a much better second dive with twenty pounds that it went right.

The outboard broke down in between dives so we had a half hour to swim in 90F water while the boat driver flooded the engine and ran out the battery. Vis is about halfway between San Diego opacity and Hawaii clarity.

As expected, life and times got pretty exciting. The Cathcart breakdown:

NorCal visit; feather in the cap

I stacked some sweet Settlers pieces, Jon coached his football team to glory, there were turkeys in Ted's backyard, I got to see Shane and Brent was recalled to Sacramento.

Fantasy football; black eye Medieval Gridiron: 2-2
AFL: 0-4
Supermassive Black Hole: 1-3
League of Extraordinary Gentleman: 3-1
Two losses can be chalked up to Vick getting injured. DeAngelo is not doing well. But has been a very strange season so far, hopefully I can dig myself out of some of these holes.

NBC snf 'night vision'; black eye

Source.

Really? Wow.

DE filter repair; black eye

The backwash valve was leaking out of the handle at the very bottom. When the very corroded handle did not easily come off the diverter shaft, I opened the filter to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I guess it was a good opportunity to wash down the filter vanes.

I eventually removed the handle and found that an oring was missing. The nearest available part was sixty miles away.

JB weld shoe repair; feather in the cap

Still going strong after a couple of weeks, and I didn't even do much surface prep.

My neighborhood finally has a large man on a gixer; feather in the cap Finally!

Qc party; feather in the cap

Source.
Well I had soccer that night so I barely got to see any lasers and had to take it easy on the samosas. But I managed to get out without hearing any DMB (minus the 'B'). Cell phone photo.

Halo Reach; feather in the cap Did a Heroic coop playthrough with Ty. I'm glad they kept the set piece element of ODST and accompanying Forge mode. The space combat mission was unexpected but they kinda pulled it off. Jet packs introduce new tactics and skill. I'm sort of shocked the game didn't end with the requisite Warthog/Puma getaway, but it wouldn't have had quite the same effect.

Warfish; black eye

Source.
Fun, challenging, but I've failed miserably against Rob and Joe.

Civ V; feather in the cap
The changes all work for me. The game lacks polish in a few places, but nothing that diminishes gameplay.

• One unit per hex effectively eliminates unit profileration and adds tactics to combat.
• Self-defending cities.
• City-states. Totally fun, though they don't really disappear in the modern age as has been the case in history. In fact, one angry city-state captured my opponent's capital resulting in a domination victory for my side. Of course their primary role is for trade, gifts, and as an easy target.
• More wonders.
• The policy tree is a great way to customize and specialize. Most importantly, it rewards smaller empires to keep each match balanced.
• Uh, Giant Death Robots.

The new Sword album; feather in the cap

Source.
A very solid production in a bit of a different direction from their past two records. The album art is cool, reminds me of this.

Julian trip; feather in the cap

It was toasty and there were too many cagers, but fun roads nonetheless. And pie.

Kafka Halloween costume; feather in the cap(?) Possibilities: Shark, mouse, elephant, Sharktopus, Dogmeat and Vault Dweller, Imperial walker, Raiders Helmet...

Mostly harmless.

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