Game Night! Yay

So this last Friday night was our monthly game night... I had SOOO much fun (as always). The first game I played was Merchants of Amsterdam, this was the first time I had played this game and it was quite fun. I was actually doing really well, but in the last few turns I spent too much money trying to prevent other players from getting cards and ended up spending too much money (the player with the most money at the end wins). I believe I could have not spent any money and probably either come in first or second, but alas because of my mistake I think I ended up dead last... oh well, live and learn. I think the people that played with me were Eric, Rick Boring, Drewski, and Eric's friend but I don't remember his name...

After that a few more people had shown up and we whipped out another new game for me. Tikal. Wow, what a great game! I definitely have put it on my "to eventually buy" list, it won't pass Princes of Florence (my current favorite game) but it was a lot of fun. The players were myself, Drewski, Eric, and Justin. I figured this game out a bit quicker, and towards the end of the game I positioned myself to have a shot at winning. When the final tile was played and we calculated up victory points, I ended up having a winning margin of 43 points! Definitely will have to try that one again (and it's always more fun when you win, right?)

When deciding the last game of the night we had it narrowed down to Caylus or Carcassone, I requested that we play the "shorter" of the two so the last game of the night was Carcassonne: The Big Box. This is Carcassonne with 4 additional expansions. Shalisa and I own Carcassone:The Castle and I have played Carcassone regular before, so I am familiar with the game play, but this was my first time playing with the additional expansion pack. The players for this game were Rick Schnabel, myself, Drewski, Justin, and Matt. I started off pretty slow, Matt, Drewski and Justin had the early lead. Around mid game I scored a massive castle that was worth something like 40 points that vaulted me in to a pretty big lead (and put a target on my back). Shortly after that I think the clock caught up with Justin (he was pretty tired) and he conceeded that he wasn't going to win. I had built up a sizeable lead and was on an easy stroll to victory when the dragon was unleashed upon the area most of my guys were. I think I lost 2 farmers, 2 knights and a builder... it was devastating. I still had the lead on the scorecard, but I didn't really have any way to score many points when the end of the game came. On the last 2 rounds I got a few farmers out, and Rick got KILLED by towers shooting down I think 2 or 3 farmers. In the end I beat Rick by a few points, but it was a much closer game than I think most of us thought it was going to be before that dragon killed me.

All in all it was a great night, in hindsight something other than Carcassonne for the last game might have been wise (as we started at 10:30pm and didn't get finished until almost 2:30am) but we all managed (mostly) to get through it. It reignited my desire to play games with my family and friends more, so I am going to lay out some cash for some new, high quality games for myself (instead of just depending on Rick and Eric for most of the games). I think I am going to purchase Agricola, Pandemic, and Goa to help supply some new games for game night. Rick was also kind enough to let me borrow Ticket to Ride: Europe which Shalisa and I are learning together so we can play games with one another besides just Carcassonne: The Castle and Lost Cities (HUGE thanks to Rick for being so willing to share his games, we really appreciate it).

Hopefully in the coming weeks Shalisa and I can have some friends over for some Settlers, TTR, and other game action, I think the game bug has bitten me again! I can't wait until next month to get my game on.

Also, as a last note, to those reading on an RSS reader, I added a new feature to my blog from BoardGameGeek that will display the last 5 games I have played. It's fun for me to track what games I have and haven't played, and you can maybe see a game go buy that interests you, if you do I am more than willing to share my games (assuming the game I played is one I own :p)

Tropic Thunder Viral Video

So I have shown the preview for Tropic Thunder to several people, for some reason I have unreasonably high expectations for this movie. The whole idea of Robert Downey Jr. playing a white actor playing a black man who thinks he is acting in a movie but is caught in a real war just strikes me as hilarious... throw in Jack Black and Ben Stiller and I am hooked. I know, I am a sucker for cheesy movies.

Anyway, they released a viral video for Tropic Thunder, this made me laugh so hard this Monday morning. Enjoy:

Weekend Garbage

So it's been a good weekend. Yesterday I went and bought the last few pieces of wood we needed for the deck and a 5 lb box of screws, went to town on the deck and it is now officially finished! (except for the back steps, but those will come later). Then had a great evening over at the Dale's having some great fellowship, watching the kiddo's play, and then getting our Catan on.

Today has been a bit more relaxed, we got the fireplace all cleaned out, started a nice little fire and roasted some marshmallows and made smores. Been watching the NBA Finals for the last hour or so, but it is such a blowout that I got bored and was surfing the net, and ran across one of the most fascinating web pages I have ever read.

It's all about this garbage dump. But it's not just any garbage dump, it's a garbage dump TWICE the size of Texas. Thats a freaking huge garbage dump. Now you might be asking "where exactly is this garbage dump that is twice the size of Texas" and that is the most shocking part: it's a man made (out of garbage) island that is floating between San Fransisco and Hawaii!

This guy volunteered on a 3 week research trip out to the trash island, brought along his video camera, and journaled the whole thing. He posted about an hour worth of footage, but it is broken down in to 12 different 5 minute segments, so it is easy to digest the whole thing bit by bit.

I HIGHLY recommend people check it out, just fascinating all the way around. How many places on this earth are 7 days away by travel nowadays, it doesn't sound like much, but when you think it only takes 8 hours to fly to Hawaii, it puts in perspective how remote this patch of ocean really is.

Anyway, the link is here: http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308505

For Justin:

Weekend Project

First of all I have to say a huge thank you to both my parents and to the Hanson's for coming over and helping out with the deck building. I couldn't have gotten it completed without you guys!

Here are a few snapshots from the construction site:

Maddie ready to get building!

Grandpa Bob by the workbench.

Laying out the foundation for the deck.

Brad helped layout the decking while Grandma Sue tested the decking.

The (mostly) finished deck. Still have some stairs to finish, the last end board and facia to put on, and some more screws in the decking (we ran out, hence why it is only mostly finished, need to buy more at Lumbermens today). But the hard part is finished and we will be able to enjoy our deck for the whole summer now!

I look forward to having people over soon to test out the new deck (and hopefully there will be a new grill to go on the new deck, and some new deck furniture as well, shortly).