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Been a busy holiday season, so far...
Dec. 30th, 2015 07:08 pmOn the 21st, my parents got home from a couple weeks of cruising in the Caribean.
On Tuesday the 22nd, my sister, brother-in-law and my two nieces (now 11 and 8) got in from Golden (BC), and I had dinner with family at my parents' house.
Wednesday the 23rd, another dinner with my parents, then acro-yoga at Carleton, then picked up Jenny (my other sister) at the airport around midnight. She'd flown in from Dawson City (Yukon). Apparently, it takes a couple days to do that: Day 1: Dawson City -> Whitehorse. Over night. Day 2: Whitehorse -> Vancouver -> Toronto -> Ottawa. That's quite the expedition.
On the 24th, the temperatures were in the 15C range, though windy. I managed to find one person who wasn't either out of town, or committed to family/holiday stuff and did get out climbing at Home Cliff. It was wonderful. Then, I rode the motorcycle to another family dinner.
On the 25th, I spent the day at my parents with family. We ate lots of goodies, and turkey, and opened presents. I got a couple board games (Five Tribes, Lewis and Clark), a nice bottle of Port, some chocolate, and a few other little things.
On the 26th (Saturday), I hosted board-games, with a focus on getting at least one longer, more serious, game in. That longer game was 1830, which we called after a little over 4 hours as a win for me. After dinner we played a shorter game, Saint Petersburg. And, switterbeet came to gaming for the evening, which was awesome!
On the 27th, ironphoenix hosted his (formerly, traditionally) boxing day gaming. I played a bunch of games: Five Tribes, Patchwork (fun 2-player game), Piece o' Cake, and Alchemists. Alchemists is an interested worker-placement and deduction game, but it is computer/app mediated, and I don't know how I feel about that. 1830 (played on the 26th) was originally published in 1986 (almost 30 years ago), Ricochet Robots (which I play often) was published in 1999 (16 years ago), El Grande in 1995 (20 years ago). Will there still be an app, or a platform that will run it, 20 or 30 years from now? Will that limit the playable life of this game?
The 28th was my birthday, so I shopped for, cleaned up for, then threw my usual birthday party. A lot of people showed up, including winter.
On the 29th, winter not realizing the party was over, continued to party for most of the day. I braved the streets, and only got a bit stuck once, and went out climbing with rottenfruit and little O at Altitude. Then, had dinner with my family and Jex at Ayara Thai restaurant, for sort of a birthday dinner (my treat). Afterwards we went back to my parents' place for tea & dessert, and I shared my rock collection with Randy, and Jex showed Cathy a few neat beading things & tricks. Also, I got a birthday present: Tzolk'in The Mayan Calendar.
And, finally we make it to today, and I've played a game of Antiquity with Antra who is spending a week in Ottawa and staying at my place, as well as getting a lot more of the party clean up done. Yeah, it has been a slow clean-up. This evening I'm headed off to play a board-game with metawidget.
So, it has been lots of friends, family, and board-games plus a bit of surprise climbing.
On Tuesday the 22nd, my sister, brother-in-law and my two nieces (now 11 and 8) got in from Golden (BC), and I had dinner with family at my parents' house.
Wednesday the 23rd, another dinner with my parents, then acro-yoga at Carleton, then picked up Jenny (my other sister) at the airport around midnight. She'd flown in from Dawson City (Yukon). Apparently, it takes a couple days to do that: Day 1: Dawson City -> Whitehorse. Over night. Day 2: Whitehorse -> Vancouver -> Toronto -> Ottawa. That's quite the expedition.
On the 24th, the temperatures were in the 15C range, though windy. I managed to find one person who wasn't either out of town, or committed to family/holiday stuff and did get out climbing at Home Cliff. It was wonderful. Then, I rode the motorcycle to another family dinner.
On the 25th, I spent the day at my parents with family. We ate lots of goodies, and turkey, and opened presents. I got a couple board games (Five Tribes, Lewis and Clark), a nice bottle of Port, some chocolate, and a few other little things.
On the 26th (Saturday), I hosted board-games, with a focus on getting at least one longer, more serious, game in. That longer game was 1830, which we called after a little over 4 hours as a win for me. After dinner we played a shorter game, Saint Petersburg. And, switterbeet came to gaming for the evening, which was awesome!
On the 27th, ironphoenix hosted his (formerly, traditionally) boxing day gaming. I played a bunch of games: Five Tribes, Patchwork (fun 2-player game), Piece o' Cake, and Alchemists. Alchemists is an interested worker-placement and deduction game, but it is computer/app mediated, and I don't know how I feel about that. 1830 (played on the 26th) was originally published in 1986 (almost 30 years ago), Ricochet Robots (which I play often) was published in 1999 (16 years ago), El Grande in 1995 (20 years ago). Will there still be an app, or a platform that will run it, 20 or 30 years from now? Will that limit the playable life of this game?
The 28th was my birthday, so I shopped for, cleaned up for, then threw my usual birthday party. A lot of people showed up, including winter.
On the 29th, winter not realizing the party was over, continued to party for most of the day. I braved the streets, and only got a bit stuck once, and went out climbing with rottenfruit and little O at Altitude. Then, had dinner with my family and Jex at Ayara Thai restaurant, for sort of a birthday dinner (my treat). Afterwards we went back to my parents' place for tea & dessert, and I shared my rock collection with Randy, and Jex showed Cathy a few neat beading things & tricks. Also, I got a birthday present: Tzolk'in The Mayan Calendar.
And, finally we make it to today, and I've played a game of Antiquity with Antra who is spending a week in Ottawa and staying at my place, as well as getting a lot more of the party clean up done. Yeah, it has been a slow clean-up. This evening I'm headed off to play a board-game with metawidget.
So, it has been lots of friends, family, and board-games plus a bit of surprise climbing.
