On our honeymoon, I taught Doolies to play chess. They set up chessboards along the sushi restaurant/lobby that led toward our room. One night, we sat down at the table, and Doolies informed me she had never played. I went through the rules and we played a few games.

I played chess a bit when I was younger, and I consider myself an average player. Average players usually do well against stark beginners. It doesn't feel right when, during our first game, we end in a draw as I fail to properly checkmate her king. It gets worse from there. While she never managed to beat me (I stopped playing when it was clear we were one or two games away from that occurrence), that she got so close so quickly was quite scary.

The sunshine left us today. I'm rather thankful for that today: I had hopes of bicycling to work, but when I saw the light drizzle this morning, I gave up those pipedreams and merrily drove in.