Arizona Board Game Society

I went to the Arizona Board Game Society meeting yesterday evening at Gamer's Inn in Mesa, AZ. Five or six people, mostly IT. Good times.

We played Dominion with the Intrique expansion. I misjudged when to switch modes to grabbing up victory points, and so was soundly beaten. I've played Dominion a few times now; it's pretty good. I tried to buy a copy of Dominion at Gamer's Inn but they were out of stock and didn't give me any confidence on when they would be back in stock, so I'll have to get it from Amazon.com instead. Convenient thing, that Amazon.com.

Then we played Power Grid using the France map. That game is great fun but as one of the other players pointed out, the end-game is disappointing in that there's way too much opportunity for players who cannot win to play kingmaker and take actions that choose a winner. Still, the gameplay of the game prior to the final round is compelling and I'll look to play this again.

The evening closed with a quick game of Family Business. It's a quick-playing card game with some depth. It reminded me a little bit of Gloom, but not a lot. I liked it. It's quick, simple, not too hard, but still has some redeeming value with some depth, especially if you try to pay attention to the social aspect and steer the balance and momentum to encourage the other players to eliminate one another.

I'd like to sell a vowel

Finally made my ItsYourTurn.com move. Too late to stay in my Jamble games with dad, unfortunately.

Beat Mystic Inn

I beat the computer game Mystic Inn this evening. It was oddly compelling.

Enough wasting time, though. Chores to do.

Flash game

A friend sent me a link to this Flash game in which I'm able to get a high score of 6.

Amiccis

Dined at Amiccis this evening with my dad, sister, her fiance, and his parents. Tasty. Good to meet people.




Earlier today Dad and I toured the Torsk and touristed around the city with Elizabeth, with Morgan joining for part of it. Good times.

It was Privateer Day in the Fells Point neighborhood, with associated costumes and partying. I got a somewhat satisfying pirate bender to play with, reminiscent of the farmer and chicken benders I had when I was working at Technology & Planning. Office toys.

We took a break from the piracy at Cafe Latte'da enjoying tea and mexican hot chocolate. Cafe Latte'da is enough to make me wish I were in the neighborhood more often.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, one and all.

Tremendously enjoying vacationing with the extended family in northern Michigan. One of the most fun advantages of getting together is it provides a critical mass of people for playing games. One of my cousins received Blokus, which is a lot of fun and has depth. Hit the Deck and Swap are mostly the same game but they're both quick and easy to learn. Upwords is a perennial favorite (and very Scrabble-like).

The Playstation 2 experience advanced this year to include Guitar Hero and some kind of karaoke game. My uncles crooning out songs was a highlight of the evening. Might have to get me one of those PS2 things.

Christmas dinner was, as always, tremendously delicious. The sweet potatoes were particularly delectable this year. After dinner we took a walk in the mud. This has not been a white Christmas. It made for a suitably muddy foodball game on the lawn, though. It turns out I can sortof catch and throw a football. Becoming slightly less Charlie Brown like.

Mayfair with a friend

I met up with a good friend this evening at Mayfair Mall, where we enjoyed the extended holiday hours. Those new iPod shuffles are indeed drool-worthy (no, didn't buy any, so don't get any ambitious ideas if you think you're on my holiday list, and no, please don't get me one, while I like drooling about them, I doubt I'd actually use it. I have a hard enough time engaging in the real world without music running in my head all the time to distract. But thanks, it was a nice thought). The pomegranate juice drink at BarnesBucks was interestingly novel. And the micro magnetic Scrabble-on-keychain game actually is pretty fun. Which just goes to show that fun is basically entirely in company.

And continuing birthday celebration! I may actually become addicted to these chocolate caramel truffles.

Turkey was great, the fish fry was worth trying once, the run this morning was an, um, adventure, but I'd say meeting up at the mall was a highlight of this trip to Milwaukee.

Thanksgiving Feast

I think my favorite is something we call "Grandma Clark's Salad", a cool-whip-and-Jello salad with celery and cherries. Very tasty. Sweet potatoes are a close second.

We missed Elizabeth this year. The first Thanksgiving where mom and dad and my sister and I were not together for the holiday.

After dinner we took a walk. Hales Corners hasn't changed much since last I was home. On our walk we met up briefly with a childhood friend of mine, Chris. He's married now and in graduate school and wow have I lost touch. I should do a better job of staying connected with people. Connections between real human beings are important.

This evening we played Word Thief, my parents and I. Lots of fun. I won both games, but my parents made them close games. I suspect if Elizabeth were home she'd have given me a run for my money.