Thanks DV. The ibuprofen protocol never quite worked for me though, plus this is complicated by the knee's history of injury. In any case, it's back to its baseline level of mild pain now, so I'm good, relatively speaking, I guess. I also saw that the fish oil isn't particularly effective, but hey, that stuff's cheap and and low-toxicity, so I figure, might as well throw some at myself. AFAIK, the chondroitin/glucosamine is, like the fish oil, also not particularly effective except as a placebo: the proposed mechanism seems to be that the molecules will travel to the site of cartilage defect and heal any lesions. This is of course unlikely given the poor circulation to cartilage, meniscii, and tendons and ligaments of the knee. A PRP/ABI injection seems like a much better way to deliver the molecules to the site of injury, but I'm not 100% up to speed on that literature except for a quick review when one of my friends had it done. Will take a closer look if the pain ever gets to the point where it chronically hurts my lifting, which fortunately has not been the case so far.
So the knee's fine, but my traps, erectors, abductors, and quads are smoked, so no training today. Okay you got me. I could have worked through the soreness if I had really wanted to. I missed training due to....drumroll...game night!
I tried Dominion for the first time, and was horribly disappointed. The game itself is fine, a neat little deck manipulation abstract, but the big heavy box covered with pictures of knights and castles made me think it'd be much more than that. We were all kind of bummed by the bait and switch, and then
a miracle occurred.
Two of the people in the game were girls I had never met before, here at Cancergirl's invitation "so that I'm not the only girl again!"; well she sure knew how to pick'em because they were the 1st and 2nd hottest computers scientists I have ever met, and certainly not the kind of girl generally found hanging around a sausagefest "board game night" full of geeky boys and one smelly (without even training!) lifter, but there you go. Anyhoo, one of them put her cards down with a sigh and said, "Ehhhhh this is getting boring. Can we play a different game?"
The 4th person in the game, who himself likes it and who had suggested it in the first place, was disappointed but eager to please the new folks, so he pointed them to the pile of boxes he had brought. The two girls ran over to look, but then one of them, the one who had put her cards down, turned around and frowned. "I don't know any of these games.
Next time, can I bring my Dungeons and Dragons stuff?"
Come again?
The other girl perked up at that. "Yea that'd be fun! Do you guys know what that is? It's not that good with two people since it's just her reading a chart and me talking to myself, but if a few of you are down, then we'll have a team. Any of you guys played before?"
I raised my hand slowly and managed to spit out, "Uh-uh I-I-I used to play a little about 10 years ago. You're talking about the new ones, right? With the d20? Not the stuff from the 70's?"
"Yes the new stuff. So are you in?"
*stupefied gaze*
"Yes? No?"
"Hmmm? Oh! Yes!.......Yes! Oh wait I said that already. Heh must be low on caffeine or something."
"Okay great! We can start next week."
WHAAAATT??? HIGH SCHOOL FANTASIES DO COME TRUE! Gentlemen (and everyone, really): If you don't love nerdy women, just kill yourself.
Dear God (Abrahamic sky-wizard or otherwise): I know we haven't had the greatest relationship since I stopped going to church when I was 10 and started this whole agnosticism thing, but I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for letting me know that you exist and that you think I am awesome.
If this log abruptly ends next week, you'll all know that I'm probably at Cancergirl's house, surrounded by beautiful women and gloriously trying to d20 that imaginary 280kg squat up. "He's on to his 3rd attempt and has yet to register a good lift! Can he pull it out of the fire with this last saving throw?!"
We also managed to play my favorite game of all time: Tikal! Jealous, Idlehands?
This is Tikal
^Best game ever
It's a surprisingly thematic Eurogame where you race the other players to excavate the Guatamalan jungle for treasure, pulp magazine style. How awesome is this game? Let's just say if I had to choose between being stranded on a desert island with either this or a squat rack, barbell, and plates, it'd be a veeeery tough choice.
But again, hopefully my only game will be naked DnD from here on out. Will keep you goobers posted.