Games Played

Long Games at George’s

Stephanie, Adam, George, Tina, and I played some long games at George’s place.

We started out by making a fantastic brunch of bacon, eggs, bagels, mochi waffles, sausages, and oranges. George did most of the cooking and the food was delicious.

The game we chose to play was Gloomhaven, and we played three rounds of it. We lost the first round, as everyone decided to take the difficulty up a notch. The next two games I participated in, subbing in for George then Adam. I had a good time playing, and the game can go very slowly if people take their time with turns and think through. It is a slight flaw with the design, that there can be a lot to analyze. We didn’t do great at refraining from that analysis. The rules even recognize this, and say it should be avoided by talking about actions in vague terms.

After playing Lindsay and Kevin came over, and we sang some karaoke. We also ordered in some pizza and Lindsay brought salads. After karaoke we played two rounds of codenames pictures, and that went pretty quick and decently well.

December 31, 2017 0

Karaoke and Board Games

George hosted a holiday themed karaoke night on Friday. Steph and I joined everyone for dinner beforehand at Pho Vy. We got there with George, Adam, and Tina. Then the holiday spirit arrived with Debby, Lindsay, Kevin, and Andrew wearing horrible holiday sweaters.

After dinner we headed to George’s to start the karaoke. I put on a few of my favorite Christmas songs. I like that many of the Christmas songs are for baritones, making it much easier for me to sing. The ones I ended up singing were, ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,’ ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,’ ‘You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch,’ and ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside.’

We also ended up pulling out some board games. Adam, Tina, Steph, and I played Terraforming Mars. I got a good start, but Adam pulled way out ahead with the milestones. Kevin, Steph, and I also played a round of Mysterium, and did really, really badly.

December 2, 2017 0

Long Games at Tina’s

Steph and I went over to Tina’s for long games. Steph was just there to hang out for a bit, and we all feasted on Thanksgiving leftovers. I jumped into a game of Feast for Odin with Adam, Tina, and Jon. I ended up winning with the pillage strategy, but there were lots of inefficiencies. The second game, Tina switched with Neta. Adam won that game by a lot, with a houses strategy. The third game I won by a lot with the Whaling strategy. We are still trying to figure out the limiting factor for the game, which makes it fun to play over and over.

The other table was playing a game called Spirit Island. After board games we played a bit of a multi-player puzzle game on a console, and they ordered pizza.

November 26, 2017 0

Thanksgiving morning I got up and got the turkey in the oven. I decided to go with Chef John’s recipe from Food Wishes; he’s never steered us wrong before. I had defrosted the turkey over the past 4 days, and made the herb butter. I got to use lots of the herbs in our yard for this including: thyme, rosemary, and sage. I also started up some of the potato and leek soup, another Food Wishes recipe. The turkey got 2 hours in the oven before we left for the Lee’s house.

I helped Mr. Lee with the TV, cleaning up the wires in the back and making sure everything was working properly. We got everything set up before heading to dinner. Jeff and Patty brought their baby, who was surprisingly well behaved. We had a nice dinner, and as it happens, the conversation tended to center on the baby. Stephanie’s cornbread went over really well. We managed to make it out of the house without piles of leftovers, which was nice, as we had a ton of food for the next get together already.

We got back and put the turkey back in the oven for another two hours. The drippings were more voluminous than I had expected and the bottom of the oven got a decent coating of turkey fat. We got everything cleaned up and set up, and got a little bit to relax before people showed up. We were joined by Lindsay, Kevin, Debby, Andrew, and Adam. Adam brought over some really tasty drink mixes. I want to make more of the ginger pepper mix in the future. It might be worth while to drop some ginger and pepper in a cider and see what happens.

The timing couldn’t have been better, as Andrew and Debby showed up as the turkey was ready to come out of the oven. It turned out much better than expected, and I would say it was one of the best turkeys I’ve had. I got the 16 lb turkey, and we ate about 2/3 of it. After dinner Lindsay had a great exercise in showing appreciation for each other, which didn’t go exactly as she expected, I think. It was still great to hear the appreciation that was shared. We played a special round of Scatagories that Lindsay planned as well, and it was a lot harder than I would have thought.

The guys and gals split after that; guys drafting mtg, and gals doing a kitty puzzle. We ended at about the same time and had another round of drinks and some pie. The pie was from Alexanders, and Debby was nice enough to bring them for us. We started playing some jackbox games after pie. We went through 5 different games, and it was a lot of fun. I didn’t win any of the games, but it was still great fun. We played another round of mtg with the cards we had drafted and it turned out almost exactly like the previous round. I was dealing a ton of damage, but I got focused down by everyone else.

It was a great evening, and I appreciated the great people I got to spend the day with.

Mage Knight at Tina’s

Adam, Lee, Tina, and I played a game of Mage Knight on Tuesday. The game didn’t start well for me, as I was handed starting cards 4, 5, and 6, insuring that I go last. The start saw me sitting back for Adam to leave the maze he was sitting on, then I got the only enemy I couldn’t kill. I ended up just sitting there most of the first day and doing nothing, putting me really far behind. Lee got into a few situations early on that gave him four wounds, which wasn’t great for him either. His bigger issue is he didn’t manage to recruit any good units, and the special cards he was taking had to do with healing mostly. I got some amazing spells and special actions, leading to me being able to take on a city earlier than anyone else. It took me a long time to defeat the city, but It worked out. I was still really far behind, and just ran to Lee’s city to finish the game. The scores pretty much said what we expected them to, once someone corrected Adam’s math. Adam won by a lot, followed by Tina. I was way behind Tina, and Lee was another large drop behind me.

November 24, 2017 0

Wednesdays at George’s

I’ve had fun going to George’s for Wednesdays. The board games have been fun, and the people have been good to spend time with. We played codenames with both words and pictures one week, then played terraforming Mars with an expansion the next week.

November 18, 2017 0

Terraforming Mars

I played a game of Terraforming Mars with Tina, Paul, and Liz. We were at George’s but he tapped out as he was doing some other things and talking to some other people as well. I ended up winning barely, despite my company not doing very well. I had the jovian company and saw very few jovian cards. I ended up winning due to being able to sneak out second or first in every award, despite not purchasing any of them. I also got one of the milestones.

September 29, 2017 0

MTG and Pho

I went to the Ixalan pre-release event at Game Kastle. Kevin organized, and Andrew participated with us. Lindsay, Debby, and Marily were there. Marily brought her nephew and friend. I got an amazing draw, with a very strong green and decent blue. Lindsay was nice enough to get Steph some marzipan pastries, and they were adorable. Unfortunately since I didn’t want them to melt in my pocket, Lindsay held them in her purse, but we both forgot about it by the end of the evening.

In the matches I played I lost the first 0-2. Then I won the second 2-0 when a little kid scooped as soon as I played the Carnage Tyrant. I also got the best mythic land, also green.

The final match I lost the first one, then won the second just barely. The third went really long as he was doing a ton of life gain, then I did a lot of life gain, then we just hit each other until one died, which was him. I gave the cards afterwards and the look on his face was great.

After MTG we all went to Pho Vi Hoa and had dinner. I got the lemongrass beef, and it as amazing. I’m finding that at pho places I prefer to get the lemongrass flavored meat. It is always spicy and well flavored, plus it isn’t a ton of noodles. I couldn’t finish, but Andrew liked it and helped me out.

September 24, 2017 0

Karaoke at George’s

Friday I had dinner with George and Adam S at Speedy’s Tacos. I couldn’t eat much but it was still delicious. We went back to George’s place and started up some Karaoke. Kevin doesn’t sing and doesn’t drink, so we pulled out Mysterium. It is a light board game that doesn’t require everyone pay attention all the time, which worked well in that social setting. I started as the ghost with Kevin and Adam S as the psychics. We did ok, but didn’t make it to the final round. Then Kevin took a turn as the ghost and we did better, but still didn’t quite make it. The with Adam as the ghost we made it to the final round, but lost badly on the final.