board game weather

I love it when the weather sucks - as in too hot or too rainy.

Why?

Because it gives me the chance to do something I love to do.

Play board games with family and/or friends!

And it’s been rainy here the past two days which was a great excuse for pulling out a board game and giving it a go.

Been trying out a new version of Runebound, and it’s the best one so far - Mists of Zanaga.

Oh, if you are not interested in board games, then I apologize for this blog today which is primarily focused on them.

So, back to the bored . . . (I know - worst. pun. ever.)

Ahem . . .

Anyhow, the newest Runebound big board expansion (Zanaga) deals with completing rituals and awakening one of ten old gods - which are not happy to have their sleep disturbed. Very cool mechanic and fun to try and take the god down once it awakes though it is gosh-darn hard to do.

Another board game I just ordered for my B-Day is Defenders of the Realm. By all accounts it is just the kind of game I love playing.

Here are all the reasons.

It’s a fantasy themed board game. It takes, at most, about 2 hours to complete. Lots of cards. Lots of heroes (21 with the expansions). Lots of bits and tokens. Lots and lots of agonizing over the many choices your hero can take. It’s a co-op game of us vs the game. Lots of player interaction on every turn, even if it’s not yours. Boss battles. Magic gates . . . um, yeah, I am really excited about this one.

Oh, and I found out via the intertubes that both Runebound and Defenders can be played with a maximum of 6 players and not 4 as the boxes indicate.

This is a Huge plus for our gaming group which can be anywhere from 4 to 8 players depending on who is free on any given gaming day.

There - board game enthusiasm spent.

On to auctions.

No, I haven’t bought anything else this past week, but I did take a huge van load of stuff out to be auctioned off which puts cash back into my coffers for - what else - new board game purchases.

Now, do I get Battlestar Galactica . . . or . . . Elder Sign . . . or . . . Defenders of the Realm Dragon Expansion . . . or . . . yeah, I gots me a wee problem. ;)

Until next Sunday . . .

cultural nuggets

So, Friday night, I went into the big city with friends and got a dose of culture . . .

Yeah, been a long time since I strolled the streets of the big city, ate at a posh restaurant, and took in a show - not sure I want to hurry back anytime soon though.

Not that I have anything against city folk - hell I was one for a decade and a half - it’s just that I don’t fit into that environment anymore. Could be the age thing, or maybe it’s the I don’t care to try and impress my fellow humans anymore - And yes, I was wearing shorts and a T.

However, the concert we saw was darn impressive. I’ve been a witness to many, I state MANY, an amateur orchestral performance and boy what a big difference it is to listen to real professionals do their thing.

A little Mendelson, and a little Beethoven and I was good to go.

So, to change the subject, I was at this auction last week and, well, um, I got myself another set of WWII encyclopedias for dirt cheap . . . because, one can’t ever have too much information on that era of world madness, can one?

They were published in 1972 and have colour and black and white plates inside - lots of them. The 25 volume set of visual encyclopedias tops out at over 4,000 pages of WWII goodness. It will, of course, take me a few months to polish them off. If they are worthy they will be kept - if not, they go back to the auctioneer for someone else to buy and enjoy.

Also this week we finished part 1 of 4 of the D&D campaign I have been running - for the past 11 months.

Funny how a 32 page module can take 8 sessions and 11 months to complete. Of course we only meet once a month when feasible, so it is understandable. However, the next few months will see us playing big box board games for those not on vacation and such.

Come the fall one of our group has volunteered to run a Sci Fi game, and yet another has a idea for a short session of Call of Cthulhu. So, that said, I’ll be getting a break from DMing for a bit and get a chance to play myself.

As well, I managed to squeak in a game of Dominion and also a game of Tikal in the past couple weeks - both quite enjoyable and not really long games either.

Looking forward to more of that kind of thing in the months ahead.

Tennis - just a short note here. I’m doing well at toning down my game and finding myself playing better if not harder or faster.

And with the weather being what it is lately - summery - I’ve been getting out pretty much every morning and going for a long walk.

Supposed to be good for me . . .

Well, that’s it for this week.

Until next Sunday . . .

meh muppets

Nothing says "pure awesome" like the Muppets, right? . . . okay, maybe only I say that.

So, last night, we rented "The Muppets" and gave it a watch.

Um, okay, I see what they did there, but honestly, it didn’t do much for me.

Amy Adams seemed distant, like she didn’t want to be there. Jason Segal was better, but not a whole lot better. And Jack Black . . . um, just sucked in my opinion. A few cameos were okay but could not make up for the movie’s overall weakness.

I know the stars of the movie were supposed to be the muppets themselves, but still.

The real problem, I think, was that the script was weak, which pretty much killed it for me.

If I was to rate it out of 10, I would give it, at best, a 3 - simply for the nostalgia of seeing some of my old muppet favourites again.

Well enough slamming that movie - on to tennis.

I’ve adjusted my serve to save my shoulder, which has been bothering me lately. It’s a much more whippy serve action which generates good pace and saves my shoulder a whole lot of grief.

Did pretty well on Friday with this tactic. I still cranked my ground strokes but didn’t run down everything like a teenager. I have to say, two days later, I’m not in the usual pain so I may have found a good mix of play and body conservation.

And my old BBQ finaly died so I went and got another small one this week. I don’t do anything fancy on the Q so I just got pretty much the same thing I had before- the cheapest stand up model.

The old one lasted 14 years with the innards replaced once, so that is not too bad I’m thinking.

And books - I’m still smoking through books like a madman.

43 read so far this year.

Somewhere around 13,000 pages to boot.

I think a combination of Goodreads and my ereader have motivated me in this department.

Well, with the weather heating up like it is today, I’m off soon for my 45 minute walk before the sun turns into a deathstar with regards to my tolerance of its direct output.

Until next Sunday . . .

my dandy lawn

Whenever anyone asks how my garden grows, that’s what I say.

Yes, I have a dandy lawn, so just turn the other way and try not to step on it as you’re leaving.

I should really snap a picture of it and post it here, but hey, yellow is yellow and I know your imagination is up to the task.

My wife stresses out about it far more than I do. She feels twinges of guilt and shame - I feel, um, nothing much except despair that the human race is one effed up piece of work.

And anybody who wants to come down on me or mine for having a bunch of natural, tenacious and well suited-plants growing around my house can, well, bite me.

Don’t like it - don’t look.

Let me just say that one of the people in our neighbourhood was actually down on her knees with a pair of scissors trimming the edge of her lawn along the sidewalk . . . um, yeah, I kid you not.

Today, for the second time this year, I will pull out the lawn chopper and give it a whirl. I’m going to cut my lawn down pretty low this time. And hey, if looks are all you are after then after I mow it looks pretty darn good - for about a day or so.

Then, we are back to a dandy lawn all over again with me not caring and my wife worrying about what the neighbours think.

I try to reassure her that the neighbours are old and still stuck in 1950 when perfectly manicured lawns were all the rage after the completely chaotic war years.

Um, those days are like decades gone people.

I like to think of my lawn as about as far down the scale of things to get worked up about as oh, say, arguing over what shape a cloud really looks like.

I will participate in flower planting today though with my wife and add other colours, besides yellow, to our front lawn gardens.

People starving, killing each other, abducting and enslaving children, producing chemical weapons and high-yield nuclear weapons, physical abuse of animals . . . you get the drift . . .

All this to really be concerned about yet some people feel the burning need to scowl at weeds on a lawn . . . makes me just want to board the first alien spacecraft to land, and get the eff out of here . . .

Oh, and a Happy Mother’s Day too.

Oh and for a hoot check this out - it's pretty funny Tom Wilson

Until next Sunday . . .

super

So I finally got around to seeing the first Iron Man movie - which I thought was okay, but not wow amazing or anything.

I have yet to see Hulk, Spider Man 3, Iron Man 2, Thor, or Captain America . . . yeah, you could say I’m a wee bit behind when it comes to my Super Hero movie viewing.

And I am not going to see Hunger Games . . . likely, ever.

And as you can tell from the time stamp on this here post I was up way too early today. I did get a chance to poke my head outside though and get a look at the super moon.

I must say, it was pretty darn impressive. You could say it even glowed . . .

Also, scheduled for today, will be the first lawn mow of the year . . .

Not excited.

My lawn is looking so yellow you almost have to wear shades. I think it looks pretty cool actually, but I’m sure there are some neighbours around here wishing my house would burn to the ground with me inside.

Suck it neighbours!

Dandelions are plants too!

As for tennis, I played my first time outside yesterday as well. I forgot how annoying wind and sun could be . . . the older I get the more I appreciate those indoor facilities.

In the book department I’m sitting at a total of 39 read so far this year.

Yeah, that is a bit extreme, but hey, beats the crap out of staring at the idiot box.

But, if you want some entertainment on the intertubes, and you like board gaming with friends, I would suggest you check out Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop segment over on youtube.

Oh, you want me to get a link set up here . . . what do I look like - Google?

Well, short and sour today I guess with pretty much little else to share from this past week.

So with that I’ll leave off here for another week and maybe something really extraordinary will take place in my life between now and then.

Until next Sunday . . .