September 2026 Wrap-Up

  

Every year I forget how exhausting the month of September is for us or maybe this one was just particularly busy. Christine and I started the month of right by seeing Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle, and Starset live in concert and what a show that was. The kids then started school after Labor day on the latest possible date, giving them just a little bit more summer than usual. After that, we had plans pretty much every weekend day on top of trying to get back into our routines. Just to pile on, there were some various doctor's appointments and school events that ate into our time even more. Then there were a handful of work events including the 2026 Delaware Healthcare Workforce Summit, of which I was co-chair of the planning committee for and is our biggest event of the year.

I did enjoy the somewhat rapid descent into fall weather, in part from the nor' easter that ate up the beaches throughout the mid-Atlantic and northeastern seaboard. Of course the day I am writing this it's going back into the 80s to start the month of October, but the trees have lost a lot of leaves and the nights are getting chilly as we enter my favorite time of year.

Blah Blog Log

Just the one post in September, just too busy with work and the beginning of the school year.

• August 2026 Wrap-Up - One final summer vacation, some great theatre, a TikTok account that I just can't stop watching, and the best party board game that I've ever played.

Bored Board Games

September had the lowest number of plays in a single month so far in 2026. That being said, I still did a lot of gaming compared to the average gamer. Between a couple of meetups, some online plays, and a few games with the kids, I ended up with 64 plays across 24 games, with only 1 of them being new to me. 

• The 100 Games 100 Plays List didn't gain any members but a couple might make it before the end of the year.
• I didn't make it up to Days of Knights to get store credit by the end of the month for the second straight month, but before I do that I've been considering a larger purge so we'll see.
• I got lucky at Goodwill recently and found three games that got added to the collection: a copy of Codenames that I'll probably just trade or sell, Sobek: Two Players, and the new art version of The Tower expansion for Carcassonne.

This month's highlighted game is Galaxy Trucker, which I finally played for the first time in August but then got to play a second time in September. 

Galaxy Trucker is "a tile laying game that plays out over two phases: building and flying. The goal is to have the most credits at the end of the game. You can earn credits by delivering goods, defeating pirates, building an efficient ship, and being the furthest along the track at the end of the flying phase."

The building phase is done in real time as players scramble to uncover tiles and decide if they want to add them to their ship. Once they're on your board, you can't move them so you have to be strategic in your placement of the different pieces you'll need to survive the trip each round. If that wasn't hard enough, once a player has completed their ship, they flip over a timer and the remaining players only have about 30 seconds to finish. Once building is completed, and ships have been checked for errors, the flight begins. During flight, cards revealing different events and opportunities are resolved one at a time and players interact with them in order. The ship that makes it through each flight successfully and gains the most credits after three rounds of increasing ship board sizes is the winner.

This game has been around since 2007 and I've always wanted to give it a shot, despite not usually loving games with a real-time aspect. I do get enjoyment from the rush of being on a timer so the building portion is fun, but the flight portion can be excruciatingly brutal even with a fairly well designed ship, as the dice gods may not be shining upon you. All in all it's a fun game but one I personally would probably not keep if it were in my collection. Though I am happy to have access to play it and would likely not turn down a game.

Enjoyable Eats

A new farm-to fork restaurant called The Farmhouse opened up in Middletown that's committed to sourcing many of the their ingredients locally. It's part of an established restaurant group and is the third location of this concept. We waited a few weeks for them to work out the kinks and stay away from the crowds that overwhelm new businesses in our area. The interior is beautiful, with high end finishings and comfortable upholstered chairs. Between that and the concept, it should be expected that this is more of a special occasion place to eat, although not everything on the menu is that expensive.

We opted to share some appetizers, a side of fries, and one of their pizzas to get to try more of what they had to offer, rather than ordering two entrees. Complimentary skillet cornbread arrived at our table after ordering and it was a nice way to start our meal. The fries were hand cut and crispy and the Garden Grove pizza was a nice change of pace from our usual Friday night selections. It comes with basil pesto bechamel, mozzarella, zucchini, summer squash, red onion, bell peppers, mushrooms, and fresh herbs. For appetizers we got the garlic steak bites and the Chesapeake spinach artichoke dip which is topped with jumbo lump crab and served with toasted baguette. It was a nice meal that tasted fresh and definitely made us want to return soon.

I'm Watching 👀

Rather than a TV show or movie, I want to highlight the band, Starset, that we saw during the show Breaking Benjamin was headlining. We saw them perform a few years ago in Reading, Pennsylvania, also at a Breaking Benjamin show but with much closer seats and a different stage set up, watching them perform their self entitled "demonstrations" was something to behold. Their lead singer calls them a science and sci-fi band, "On one side of the coin, we use sci-fi narratives to show various dystopias. On the other side, we represent science. I like the way  we speak to science in a similar way that a Christian band speaks to Christianity."

They wears sci-fi uniforms, and screens play story videos about a rebellion and a fictional world, while featuring heavy laser lighting, cinematic intros, and theatrical pauses with countdown clocks. They also incorporate string instruments like violins and cellos throughout their set. The music blended with immersive visuals is something I haven't seen much of before and had me engaged despite not knowing their music all that well. I hope I have more opportunities to see them again live.

Reading Ramble

I didn't do a ton of reading in September so I'm still need to finish Pillar to the Sky and I didn't get to crack into the third installment of Lone Wolf series yet either. Finding time for both of those will be tough because I start the annual Solotober board gaming challenge today and the hockey season for the Avs started last night, so I'll need to be strategic with my free hours at night if I'm going to get to other books on my to-read list.

Sweet Chain Music

As predicted in last month's post, I was able to play the course at Killens Pond State Park during the annual employee appreciation picnic. It's a very technical course that's mostly played in the woods. Given that I don't play all that often, I was mostly happy with my performance despite missing at least one very makeable birdie putt. The thing I was most proud of were some great over hand rollers that skipped along the leaf lined course, as I attempted to get out of some bad drives. If I don't make it out to a course this month, I was thinking of at least going to the sports fields at the school in our development for some driving practice.

Whatcha Snackin?

For the first time, a drink is being featured in this segment. Yes, one could argue that a drink is not a snack but this has the around the same amount of calories as a snack I might have and I do consider it a treat since I don't typically drink anything aside from water and unsweet iced tea. I'm a big fan of apple cider, but still don't even drink that even once a year. So when I saw these four packs of sparkling apple cider at Aldi, I thought why not take a chance and boy did they not disappoint.

I tried the first can right after mowing the lawn on a particularly hot day and it really hit the spot. Wanting to make sure it wasn't a fluke from just wanting something really cold at the moment, I had another on a much cooler, rainy fall day later in the month and found it very comforting. I did buy a second box and might grab a third, but it'll likely take me until the end of the year to finish them.

Wrap It Up

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