Party!

Today I hosted a relatively fancy birthday party for J, with the expensive Iconic Masters cards instead of the current set. We had 8 players, and D. was my partner. He's a very congenial partner - we easily agreed on the cards to take, and he gave me constant but low-key advice on how to play them. I ended up with a really awesomely cool red-black dragons deck, and he ended up with a really awesomely cool collection of blue rares in his green-red-blue wall deck. His cards were more valuable, but when it came time to split them up, I offered to let him have them so I could keep the dragons deck intact. We lost to J. and DG's team, when they were able to get the initiative early and then I got "flooded" with too many land cards. Then we lost to A&A when I wasn't able to get a second swamp in time. Still, the drafting part was fun, and J. appreciated the party.

Meanwhile, D's new passport had arrived in the mail only 11 days after our post office appointment, to my utter surprise. They had said 4-6 weeks! His birth certificate hasn't returned yet, but we can go get his driving learner's permit without it, because... he has a passport!