Now that my daughter is a little older and life is a little less fraught I find that I have enough free time to go out and game on a fairly regular basis - about once a month, sometimes twice if I'm lucky. So what with this being a blog and all I figured it was probably about time I actually used it like a blog and do what all blog writers do and bore you to tears with irrelevant and pointless observations about the minutiae of my daily life. Or at least do this after each time I go out and get some gaming in. I know this is "just" a blog post rather than a custom-written front page article but I'm sticking it on the front page anyway for two reasons - firstly as a heads-up to everyone that I'm going to be posting these things once or twice a month and secondly because I have the power to inflict my inane ramblings on you lot at the click of a button so I'm damn well going to use it. I love admin rights.

The in-laws left at the crack of dawn this morning. Or maybe it was 8:30 am. Anyway it was before I woke up. The Man had to go to work - awww. But the Spawn and I slept until 10.

So far we've had a very productive day.

• Watched SpongeBob Squarepants
• Ate cookies
• Assembled gingerbread house
• Ate candy
• Watched iCarly marathon
• Fed cold cuts to the cats. Actually, we didn't do this on purpose. It's just what happens if you leave the lunch stuff unguarded on the kitchen counter.

We have a busy schedule for the rest of the afternoon. Some of the things that we are considering doing:

• Get dressed

The good news is that we are finally home.

The bad news is that the car is still in Lancaster and will be there until the end of the month.

I just want to say thank you to all of you who offered help and support, and who expressed your concern after the accident. We are all okay. We were able to borrow a family member's car and made it home safely. The car wasn't totaled, however I have a three page list of parts that need replacement or repair, and the car won't be done until the end of the month.

So the bad news is that we will be making the long trip to PA again at the end of the month to pick up my car.

The good news is that we may be avalible for some gaming with KingPut and friends on Labor Day weekend, or the weekend after that.

Also, just because it is so funny when the people keep pulling the really crappy event cards, the car we borrowed made it all the way back to CT, and then totally died in our drive way. AAA just towed it away to the repair shop.

We went out to dinner, and I had a blue Margarita. Also I had flan. It wasn't particularly good flan. It was probably frozen or someting. The good flan is at the payaya place on the other side of the city. This was the slightly crappy Mexican place down the road. The Margarita wasn't particularly good either. But it was really big and blue. So we are going to watch Firefly instead.  

the weather was so nice, we decided we should do something outside. We decided that we could  spray paint WoR figures outdoors. But we didn't have any paint. So we went out to buy paint. We went to a few stores, but we couldn't find the paint we wanted. So we came home and ate dinner.

One of the first questions I always get once someone finds out that I am “Into” Board games is “What is your favorite game?” The last few years my answer has been, without hesitation, Matagot’s Kemet.

The latest in "What the hell does this guy like?" series. My current favorite party game is Cash N' Guns (2nd Edition).

A couple of things I read this week.

If cooking forums discussed cookbooks the way geeks discuss RPG rule books from WIRED.

Mr. Bistro's Wild Ridefrom gameplaywrights.

What the F-k is this board game?

Tonight I finally got my Euro-loving friend to play La Citta. It has a map, and a bunch of little dudes, so, despite the fact that Rio Grande Games is clearly printed on the box, since I'm the one carrying the box and saying "Let's play this," it must be some kind of Ameritrash game. It's not. It's a city building game, kind of like the first few turns of a civilization type game, when you are are trying to build up your cities and population, but before you start building your military units. The little dudes are the people living in your city.

So anyway, after months of PR to convince people that the the dudes won't invade their city and blow it up, we finally play.  About 3 turns into the game my friend declares, "I like this," with a shocked and slightly puzzled look on her face. The shocked and puzzled look because I'm the one who wrestled the game to the table.

About two-thirds of the way into the game, my friend declares, "This game is really thinky. How come you play this but won't play Caylus?"

Well, because La Citta is nothing like Caylus. Seriously, don't people think that maybe a few of those games that I haul around to game club, the ones with a bazillion little bits and cards and 40 pages of rules, maybe require few functioning  brain cells  to play? They're not all Thunder Road.And why is it that as soon as a Eurogamer discovers that you do have a few functioning brain cells, they immediately want to sit you down in front of a Caylus board?

I shouldn't give a damn, but I think I have a reputation, and it may be messing with my ability to get even a Euro like La Citta on the table.

The description of a game is supposed to entice you to buy it. Sometimes it is over the top stupid. Sometimes it is boring. Sometimes it is mistranslated and you get "reap the seeds of victory" But sometimes it is just WorseThanFail.

Digital game available now!