After coming back from Austin, a group of 8 people (including me) went to the Alamo Quarry Mall to see Ocean's 13. The movie was entertaining and fun. I enjoyed it, yet it is not a movie I'd recommend.

After coming back, we had some wine and sparkling cider to celebrate Lizzy's 21st birthday. I didn't drink. After that, Chrissy, Jay, Rolf, Tyler and me played Sheepshead while Desmond and Linnea observed the match. I had an incredible run of cards and convincingly won the game with 16 points while second place had 5 points. Tyler had an awful run of cards and ended up with -19. Chrissy was learning the game, so it wasn't surprising that she ended with -11 (I was worse when I started). Rolf and Jay had 5 and 3 points (I think that is the correct order). I got extremely lucky with the deck and I am quite happy about that.

The highlight of the last two days was my epic battle of Ping Pong with Tyler. A couple of days ago he beat me 21-10, 21-19, 23-21. You can notice how I improved a lot as the game progressed. Today the scores were 19-21, 17-21, 21-12, 21-16, 21-14. The game was full of excitement and I was extremely focused. The best point was a point where we each slammed it three times whereas there were shots all over the court. I dove to hit his last slam but my shot went way out. It was extremely fun.

In other news, I've eaten pretty good. Today I ate tacos de barbacoa at Milagrito. I hadn't eaten barbacoa in a long time, they were delicious. I ate a burger in the "dinner with the speaker" at night.

I saw Amelie with most of the REU students yesterday night. This is one of my favorite films always making me feel great. I had a wonderful time.

I saw most of the Mexico-Guadalupe game (missing the last 15 minutes because I preferred playing Ping Pong). The mexican goal by Pavel Pardo was beautiful.

In cardgames, Jay and I won against Rolf and Willy in spades. The hand I remembered the most was one where Jay went nil and I bid six and we not only got our bids but set the opposition.

Tonight I played Sheepshead with Rolf, Nathan, Willy and Tyler. The ranking was: Tyler, Rolf, me, Nathan, Willy. I was hating the game until I got a rush of cards and manage to kidnap the second place position. Tyler began separating himself from me and Rolf and the battle for second place was decided until the last hand where Rolf actually had a chance to take it all. I noticed that Rolf made a mistake by starting the trick when it wasn't his turn, hence we had to redo the hand and I guessed he didn't have spades and managed to steal 31 points from the deck to get him to not only not get all the tricks but not get the extra points he gets if he forces us to be under 30. My good luck saved Tyler from losing first place to Rolf.