Rare sightings of Anna social in the wild!

[annathepiper]

This is a few days after the fact at this point but I wanted to do a shout-out post on behalf of a couple of very nice encounters I had last week.

First, I had lunch with two of my old coworkers from the Times, Kathy and Adila, and that was great. Conversation and tasty sushi were had by all, and we vowed to do this again. For general reference, local-to-Seattle peeps, Sam’s Sushi in Queen Anne is good tasty lunch-type sushi.

Second, solarbird and I had the pleasure of a visit from the Schrams (mathmuffin and frostmuffin), two friends from the East Coast we hadn’t seen in ages, who were traveling through these parts with their daughter xelona to visit their other daughter Fiona (whose LJ, if she’s on LJ, I’m forgetting). We had very tasty Thai food on Friday night and then adjourned to the Murk to play Mah Jongg. Dara and I hadn’t played Mah Jongg in AGES, and despite the fact that I completely lost track of where our cheat sheets were, I managed to remember enough to still keep score. Amy nudged me about how much various tile combinations were worth, and that was more than enough to get us through an entire set.

It was great fun, and Dara and I quickly decided we really need to play more Mah Jongg again. If any local peeps want in, let us know!

Meanwhile, it was wonderful to see the Schrams again. Amy and Erin and Sharayah are on the way back East again, and get to stop at Mt. St. Helens and at other nifty spots on the way. I envy them the whole Traveling Across the Country thing.

On Saturday, the Murkworks descended en masse to The Burninghand, where kathrynt and llachglin were hosting a “yay jessicac is having a baby!” party. Lots of tasty snacks and lovely conversation were had, and most notably, tasty cupcakes! Lillian and Moira were very, very three years old and four years old, respectively. And were quite adamant about asking Dara and me to come into the backyard and play with them. This was to involve pretending to be on the bus going to Disneyland, although I apparently weighed too much and was to get off the bus before they got there! (Gee, thanks a lot, Moira, I’m down 25 pounds, whaddya want, kid? ;) )

This week has been kind of crazy-making at work, but in the sort of challenging “trying to solve particularly thorny QA problems that are driving QA, Dev, and IT collectively crazy” kind of way rather than anything really, y’know, bad. So it’s nice to have had some relaxing social encounters.

And there definitely needs to be more Mah Jongg. Especially since on Saturday morning, spazzkat produced the cheat sheets!

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Comments

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

“trying to solve particularly thorny QA problems that are driving QA, Dev, and IT collectively crazy”

You too? I was working on pinning down one repro case all day today and figure it'll take most of tomorrow as well from the way it was going. Just about the time I'd think I had it watertight, I'd walk back through the way I'd written it out... and get a completely different- and also unexpected- result. I think I've exposed seven or eight chained bugs, but I can't categorically pin any one of 'em down yet.

[annathepiper]

AUGH! I hate it when that happens. :)

Our situation was more like "thing A, B, and C are all happening in production but NOT in QA, what the hell, hey wait prod's running an older version of PHP but wait nothing in the recent changelogs SHOULD have impacted these things but let's update PHP on a prod server anyway OH LOOK thing A got fixed what the hell?"

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

OMG Squee! (Sorry, been absent from LJ for a long time)

I LOVE Mah Jongg. Are you playing one of the traditional versions or the American Mah Jongg League version with the cards of acceptable wins that changes every year? The ladies I play with play this version, and I really want to learn the more traditional versions!

[annathepiper]

We use the rules of the Michigan State University Mah Jongg Club, which are in turn based off some fairly traditional rules. :)

Also, hiya! Glad to see you about again!

[mathmuffin.livejournal.com]

We reached Mt. St. Helens National Monunent on a rainy day, so the mountain itself was hidden in fog, but we walked around the devastated landscape to see nature reclaiming it.

Today we are in Thermopolis, Wyoming, and Frostmuffin is soaking in a hot mineral spring at the motel itself for the one hour before we pack up and head out to camp in South Dakota.

I purchased Jane Lindskold's Thirteen Orphans and Nine Gates and finished Thirteen Orphans. Thus, I am getting a glimpse of even more traditional Mah Jongg rules than the MSU Mah Jongg Club rules. MSU rules seem to have eliminated some limit hands because our doubling rules made them hit the limit anyway.

[annathepiper]

Yay, hot springs!

Glad to hear from you on your trip; did you like Thirteen Orphans? Sounds like the rules mythos it's using is interesting, anyway; how was it plot-wise?

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

MAHJONG!!!! MEEEEEE!

I promise to be a good loser! :D