May 2026 Wrap-Up

Boy was May an insanely busy month. It started with a trip to my mom's house for a meal and time with family before driving directly to Philadelphia to stay the night near King of Prussia Mall, where we went to Netflix House for Grace's birthday experience. Then we celebrated Grace's birthday a couple days later, followed by Ben's Spanish Immersion night. That led into a movie and dinner on Mother's day and the first of three straight weeks of concerts/performances on our normal date nights. The kids and Christine went to a K-POP Demon Hunter's dance party in Wilmington, Christine had her birthday, and the Duck Creek Library kicked off their summer reading challenge. We had to split the family up one night because Ben had his drama club performance as the Cowardly Lion in the The Wizard of OZ and Grace had her band concert at the same time.

If all if that wasn't enough, there was still the kids' gymnastics classes each week, a couple of game days for me, and a whole bunch of work events including a conference, three outreach events, and an all day training for a new work task that's been assigned to me. I was also up late watching a lot of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs almost every night until my Avs got swept in the Western Conference Finals. After all of that I've decided I need to work on my sleep schedule, start reading more, and also find some more time to relax when possible.

Blah Blog Log

May was too busy for additional posts, so it was just the one.

• April 2026 Wrap-Up - more gaming, another bad birthday, and a lot of great food.

Bored Board Games

May had an incredible amount of gaming due to my favorite AoE streamer being gone for almost a month. I ended with 262 plays across 34 games, making it the second highest amount of plays in a single month ever. The 100 Games 100 Plays List did not have any new additions, but there is currently one in the 90s and a couple more in the 80s so perhaps next month. Three sales offers for games came in so a few more went out, but I quickly invested most of that money into a new version of an old favorite and three clearance games from the Barnes and Noble's Memorial Day clearance sale. I still have a bunch on the for sale/trade list and really should do another sweep through the collection to see where other cuts can be made. This month's highlighted game is a spinoff of one of the best selling hobby games of all time, Wingspan:

The game Finspan came out of fan requests for more Wingspan content using different creatures. Not wanting to just reskin the original game, the publisher made a deliberate decision to make a trilogy of games with different complexities. Think of Wingspan as medium, Wyrmspan (it's dragon themed counterpart) as slightly heavier, and Finspan as slightly easier.

From the publisher: "You are a marine researcher seeking to find and observe an array of aquatic life in the colorful Sunlight Zone, ghostly Twilight Zone, and pitch-black Midnight Zone of the world's seas and oceans. In Finspan, the fish you discover over four weeks will generate a series of benefits as you dive deeper into the ocean.

Each dive site specializes in a key aspect of expanding your research: Grow your collection of fish, Discover freshly laid eggs, Hatch eggs into young and consolidate young to form schools. The winner is the player with the most points gained from fish, eggs, young, schools, and achievements."

Very much like Wingspan, I enjoy being able to plan multiple future turns without much disruption. There is some randomness with card draws and "everyone plays" actions but those are optional. While I own Wingspan, I've never played my copy and have only played the game a small handful of times, which is odd because I really do enjoy it quite a bit. Maybe it's the theme that doesn't really capture me. Conversely, I really like he theme of Finspan and thoroughly enjoyed my one play so far. I definitely would like to play it more often and have added it to my wishlist.

Enjoyable Eats

We actually had our first two trips to First Watch in May, once in Philly before going to Netflix House and then again on Memorial Day in Dover. We were all pretty impressed with the upscale diner style menu that offered "healthier" options but a lot of spins on the breakfast classics. I know they're a chain with over 600 locations, but they're new to us and I see why they've opened so many, so quickly.

During our first trip, I got the Chickichanga (pictured above) which is a signature brunch dish featuring whipped cage-free eggs, spicy all-natural chicken, chorizo, green chiles, Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, onions, and avocado. It is wrapped in a flour tortilla, topped with Vera Cruz sauce. It came with seasoned potatoes and a fruit cup that wasn't mostly melon. It was a great way to start the day and did a great job holding me over until a late lunch. We'll definitely be frequenting the Dover and Middletown locations, but it'll also be good to know that it's a place we can stop at while traveling that everyone will enjoy.

I'm Watching 👀

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen is a horror miniseries on Netflix that is full of twists and turns that had The Duffer Brothers of Stranger Things fame as the executive producers. It follows an engaged couple whose wedding is derailed as increasingly chilling revelations of family lore test the couple's relationship. It's a really unique theme that ties in some horror tropes, sci-fi, and some quite graphic imagery throughout. We only have one episode left and can't wait to see how it ends.

Reading Ramble

This segment is back after a couple months hiatus. As mentioned in the beginning of this post, I want to start reading more again. I recently bought a few books, while also adding a bunch of new ones to my Wishlist/Christmas list. Not everything I read will make it into this space, but I couldn't help but share the book I'm currently reading. It's not because I think it's particularly good so far or that I even wanted to read it in the first place. In fact, it was gift that I received in response to something I did that my therapist even gave me kudos for.

I'll be the first person to say that I'm not nice and often refer to myself as an asshole. That being said, I just find the way that this book made its way to me to be rather humorous. Initially, I was fairly annoyed about it but since I'm nothing if not petty, I decided to actually read the book. I'm a few chapters in and while there may end up being a couple of helpful tidbits by the end, I haven't connected with any of the examples so far. It's clear that the gifter didn't actually read any of the book and was just going for shock value. It's funny because right from the beginning the author mentions that if you're buying this for someone else that you might, in fact, actually be a dick. So, I plan on finishing this soon and who knows, maybe it'll start my healing journey towards being less of a dick...but by even posting about it here I'm guessing I have a long way to go.

Sweet Chain Music

A friend made a very poignant observation about the lack of any mention of disc golf in this month's post when it originally went up. The same friend gave my first 3 discs last summer, shortly after I played for the first time last May during my trip to the Castle House. After some brief consideration, I've decided to add a new segment to celebrate my newest hobby. I've mentioned a few courses on here as I've played over the last year, but it's been a little while. Last month, Grace and I played the Whole-In-One course at Connection Community Church in Middletown.

I didn't get out to a course in May but have done a ton of putting practice in the backyard, often with some combination of the kids joining me. Just yesterday, James and I spent a couple of hours chucking discs (pictured above) from all over the yard and had an absolute blast doing it. Disc golf is another hobby of mine, like board games, that the kids have really embraced. We're all looking forward to playing a few courses this summer, especially when traveling back to Syracuse and down to North Carolina.

Whatcha Snackin?

While at one of my many outreach events during the month for work they provided snacks for the vendors and I came across these Sweet Street Chewy Marshmallow with Brown Butter & Sea Salt. I'll partake in a Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treat when available but these blow those out of the water. They're so much softer and the brown butter gives them a slight nutty flavor that's enhanced by the sea salt. I snagged an extra one to go and kept it in my desk for about a week until I couldn't help but feed my craving. Oddly enough, I noticed them for sale at the register of First Watch after trying them for the first time.

Wrap It Up

Please comment below with any thoughts or comments on anything I've covered. Thanks for reading!