2018 World Cup wasn’t all that since the USA didn’t even qualify, and no one’s favorites seemed to have made it to the final, but it didn’t stop us from having a banging party. :-) Thanks everybody for making the trek to hang out – especially Rei and Julian riding out on the China Bus.
Cara and I discover Winston-Salem
Both before and after my good news, Cara and I had a great time discovering Winston-Salem. We stayed at the Historic Brookstone Inn, originally built in 1837 and converted into a beautiful set of suites full of character, tons of ancient brick and massive lumber and generously sized – we loved it. It has a bit of a brick campus, lots of nooks and crannies and pretty much all ours, with the exception of the resident cat.
Even parking lot geese deserve a little care and love
Paty my kind coworker called that a family of geese were in distress and I met her to see what we could do. The poor little goslings were too small to get up the curb next to where they were hatched. We got some tape and rocks and made it a bit better for them. Such cute little ones! But don’t get too close or dad will have a word with you. By the end we found that the most wonderful kid working in the Mexican restaurant was their guardian angel and brought them food and water regularly. The wildlife officer came and said there was no need for him to intervene, even though the dad looked like he had a sprained leg everyone agreed their best chance was to carry on. And that they did.
Chicago birthday party with Cara
Big break time! I took the weekend in Chicago for my birthday, a nice long Friday through Tuesday weekend. On the plane ride out I saw the biggest tablet I’ve ever seen. Envy….
Christian and I had so much fun creating and destroying universes in the Universe Simulator, shooting planets at each other and colliding galaxies. 
Just watch this guy lose his mind and you’ll have an idea of the fun. (Now I have it in VR too, unbelievable…)
Cara and I always have a beautiful time, just existing in the short time and space we have together. She found us a fantastic eatery, David Bowie approves. Heading out with Christian and Christina, we found a whole world of Chinese lantern art, some of it huge. We mostly own whatever city we are in, through walking.
On the plane ride home, I sat next to Melvin, who played football and trades stocks. He saw me coding AbetterTrader, and told me about his system and his “mentor”, Tim. They really have a good thing going – and they live in Raleigh, I’ll have to meet up with them soon.