I had a great weekend. The weather was nice all weekend: cool and breezy. We quietly celebrated my birthday -- I got a framed painting, several good books, and a box with a tile-lid showing one of Phil's pictures of Lake Bo. I got in several nice walks with Plato. I did some quiet reading. Charlie and I played StarCraft with Phil a couple of times. Good quiet fun.
The students are streaming back. Next weekend will be the big move-in, but already the streets and restaurants are busy with returning students. It's fun to see familiar faces, even though the peace and quiet when the students are gone is nice too.
At the library, I picked up The Devil and Deep Space by 
Susan Matthews. When I started reading it, there was something familiar about the characters, but it wasn't until I was about a third of the way through the book that I was finally certain of having read a previous book in the series. I think it must have been Prisoner of Conscience. The context of the books were completely different and so it took a long time to be sure. Now that I know that, however, I can go pick up a couple more books in the series to read.
Phil and I played several games with Charlie, but we played one game with just the two of us against two computer opponents. I was nearly overrun a couple of times near the beginning but, with Phil's help, managed to hang on. At one point, Phil was ready to give up, but I was ble to start an offensive that took the pressure off long enough for him to come back and conquer. It was a good enough game that we watched the replay.