§ Caroline and I had a very nice one-year wedding anniversary last Sunday. We saw the Takashi Murakami exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art and then ate oysters at a boat-shaped restaurant overlooking the lake.
§ Caroline’s birthday was on Wednesday. It was rainy for most of the day but we found a pocket of sunshine to visit the botanical gardens to see their bonsai exhibition. For dinner, we had steak at a restaurant aptly named “Steak.”
§ I secretly bought a Switch 2 on launch day and finally gave it to Caroline this week as a birthday/anniversary gift.
Mario Kart World has been a blast. “Knockout Tour“ is a great addition and is easily my new favorite mode. The new open world “Free Roam” mode also seems fun although I haven’t spent much time yet playing in single-player mode.
We also got Donkey Kong Bananza. It was made by the same developers as Super Mario Odyssey which never really worked for me. The early tutorial levels of Bananza had a very similar feeling—something about the camera movement, controls, and level design—which was initially disappointing. It started to click once I finally got into the main game and has been fun since. It is probably time to admit to myself that I like 2D platformers a lot more than 3D platformers, though. My biggest complaint is that I wish the two-player mode was as good as Tropical Freeze.
§ On Thursday, Country Maid Orchard opened for the season. Caroline and I visited it after work and picked up a bunch of blueberries, blackberries, cherries, peaches, cucumbers, and green beans.
§ We are now only seven days out from the Ireland trip. I got a few more loose ends in order including train tickets from Dublin to the west coast—which were surprisingly affordable—and a rental car to drive around the coast once we arrive which evened things out by costing at least triple what I expected.
I find what I’m about to say slightly hard to believe, but it’s true: next time you hear from me, I will be en-route to the airport.
