Daniel J Isom

  The  September 2026 Wrap-Up  post marked three straight years of writing about what has gone on in my life each month and posting it all for the world to see. Today marks the end of the series, meaning I will not be posting one for October. I didn't set out with any end date in mind when I started and had initially hoped to just keep writing them indefinitely. However, over the last few months the obligation (to nobody but myself) of doing them began to weigh on me. Like many other things I set my mind to and then complete (or not), I eventually lost interest in pursuing it further. Wrap-Up posts will join the list along with things like board game design and New Year's resolutions. It doesn't mean I'll never do any of these activities again, but I'll be perfectly content if I don't. I think that's really a good barometer for me when it comes to hobbies, goals, etc.  As I've written about on numerous occasions (and on the About page ), this blog has be...

What a month to start off the year. I was still fighting off the flu or some sort of respiratory virus that kicked my ass during the first week. Through that I had two new employees start and I had a lot of grant related work to do. Thankfully I was back to 100% before we took the kids on their first trip to Disney World over the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. I could probably write an entire post covering all the details but to sum it up:  We flew direct using Avelo Airlines out of Wilmington, which was the least painful airport experience ever. It also saved us a bunch of money both in airfare and parking. With the amazing help of my sister-in-law, we visited all four parks in 3 days. Ben and I did miss half of the day at Magic Kingdom because he was sick, but he bounced back for our last day at Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Rode a bunch of rides thanks to lighting lane passes. Grace and Ben are thrill ride seekers with Tron , Tower of Terror ,  Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic...

  December had spurts of slowing down a little and then lots all at once. We returned from Thanksgiving on the last day of November, so we went from that straight into our regular routine the next day. The first week was a little slow but then at least one person had something going on every single day during the second week. We got to watch Grace at her winter band concert and Ben at his winter chorus concert. The following week was much more chill. It started with some snow on Sunday that I used as the perfect day to do chili and cornbread for dinner. Then it was all about getting ready for the onslaught of people coming during Christmas week. That meant baking cookies, planning meals, and straightening up the house. It was nice having people in and out of the house, but everything just felt a bit off this year. If I had to guess why, it was due to scheduling changes so we didn't follow our traditional routine. As the month came to a close, I got sick with some non-flu, non-covid...

After the absolute slog that was the month of January, I felt like February kind of flew by. Sure the month is shorter than most, but the ending came so quickly despite not being that busy. We did have a small snow storm that dropped enough to give me a day off. The kids and I got out and played a couple of times since it was perfect packing snow for snowballs. We decided to visit the National Aquarium again in Baltimore before our yearly membership runs out. Other than that it was a lot of our usual schedule and I was thankful for some simple weekend days. Blah Blog Log There were a couple of posts early in the month and there may be more coming now that I'm inactive on Meta owned apps. January 2025 Wrap-Up  - TikTok ban, a psychological triller miniseries, and a board game I've wanted for many years. 100 Games 100 Plays  - A new long term gaming goal. Bored  Board Games I set a new personal record of number of plays in a given month with 220. While I was still doom...

2025 has started off with a bang. Things were quiet early on and then really picked up around the middle of the month. TikTok was temporarily banned, which has caused me to delete all Meta owned apps like Facebook and Instagram from my phone. I plan to stay inactive on all Meta apps until the fate of TikTok is decided. Once something is more definitive I'll make a decision on what I want to do going forward, which will include a post about my opinion the subject. That same weekend we were in NY to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday and had a wonderful time seeing so many family members all together again. The inauguration of President Trump and his subsequent executive orders set off a wave of discussions, especially at work. It's a very interesting time being a Libertarian who works for a state government but works on and is paid by federal grants. Overall, the mandates and expected changes have been a mixed bag. I'm excited to see the government become more effi...

  The holidays came and went and while there were some good times, December wasn't exactly the best month of the year. In an effort to not drag down the New Year energy, I'm going to focus on the good stuff in this last wrap up post for 2024. Blah Blog Log I snuck in a couple of year end gaming posts on the last day of the month to actually hit my resolution goal after months of not getting there. November 2024 Wrap-Up - New single month gaming record, my favorite breakfast, and a new snack. Top 10 New to Me Games of 2024 - These were my favorite new to me games in 2024. Deep Dive December: Under Falling Skies - A summary of a solo board game challenge Bored  Board Games Sickness ravaged my household so plays saw an overall dip. I ended up having to cancel all of the in person meetups of our local gaming group. I'm hoping we can pick right up in the new year. For this month's highlight, I'm going to share the game that has my second most logged games of all time:...

November tends to be one of my favorite months, year after year. There's so much to enjoy: cooler weather, hockey is in full swing, and we get to celebrate the best holiday, which means we get to eat well. We didn't travel to Syracuse this year but we did still go up to Pennsylvania for the day. Not wanting to miss out on two turkey dinners like I usually get to enjoy, I cooked a whole one from scratch in the beginning of the month. There's really nothing better, which I talked about on this blog when I first started it. I also did a lot of gaming online, pushing me far beyond my two goals for the year. I'm glad this year's November didn't disappoint.  Blah Blog Log October 2024 Wrap-Up - Solo gaming, PoeFest in Baltimore, and a "grotesque" TV show Eggs in a Frame: A Tribute - I share my love of a simple breakfast dish Bored  Board Games I thought that after a crazy amount of gaming last month, in part because of  Solotober , that November would see...

A year ago I posted the first of these month wrap-up posts and I'm proud of myself for keeping them going. Some months have been leaner than others with the content, but I like to come back each month and share what's been going on. I think the fact that I do these posts has affected my yearly goal of posting three times a month because I could do individual posts for some of these sections. However, I really like this format and it feels less like work which always makes me want to keep doing something. This October was the busiest between work and home of any month in years, but it was all really good.  Blah Blog Log September 2024 Wrap-Up  - Gaming and a delicious pizza in North Dakota Solotober 2024 - A recap of one of my favorite gaming traditions Bored  Board Games Between this year's Solotober challenge and my new gaming group, I had 142 plays across 48 unique games. *Spoilers* I was able to complete my gaming goals of 600 total plays and 150 unique games. Everyt...