Chess Genius & Rob Roy
This past Sunday night as we were waiting to take the night train from Munich back home to Budapest, Agi and I pulled out our travel chess set in the "Coffee Fellows" cafe we were at. I've played a whole lot more chess than Agi and she's probably played four times in her life total. We want to keep it up. You can understand then how impressed I was that after we both played intensely she beat me in about 40 minutes. My woman continues to dazzle me with--among other things--her intelligence and raw cognitive power. She also really shines with her organizational abilities. In many ways it's just like chess when she plans out 10 things she'll do in her day, always thinking steps ahead.
Also, this past weekend I finished off Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy. Despite some rough patches where I got bogged down in the Scottish vernacular, it was a fantastic, memorable book. The characters were adventurous, funny, sophisticated and tough. I think reading and finishing books is one of the best experiences you can have in life: your world is expanded, your thinking is challenged, what is good and true is reinforced, and a surprisingly good, intimate friendship is built with the author.