We now have blocks cladding both sides of the steel beam:
Each of these blocks put into place across the steel beam required several cuts with the concrete saw, some as many as 10 cuts per block! I asked the masons after they had cut the blocks, but before laying them all in "are you tired of cutting block yet?" and they said "YES!". I think they are looking forward to grouting this bond beam and then enjoying the work of mostly laying block rather than constantly engineering block.
Also, you can see that because of the 16' wide impenetrable steel beam, we double-up on our soffit steel where we can penetrate the wall across some length: at the shear wall.
With good weather expected, we're going to let the mortar in these blocks cure one more day, grout the bond beam on Friday, and then we can begin in earnest the building of the walls up to 24 ft. There are a few small complexities on the way (which I will of course point out when we get there), but nothing like what's been happening at this level.