Monday, December 29, 2008
Christmas 2008 in the passive voice
We experienced a casual morning of hanging around, prior to the arrival of Jill's dad from Iowa City. Early dinner preparations were undertaken, courtesy of Jill and Gwen. Soon, the present-opening ritual was initiated. In time, the present-opening had concluded. Children were made happy, as were grownups. I received one (1) fleece, one (1) ID/card/money holder that is intended for front-pocket use, one (1) copy of Galaxy Trucker (joint gift), one (1) copy of Zooloretto (joint gift), and one (1) set of graphic novels -- the complete Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. I was made happy. Dinner was served, and (I believed) was enjoyed by all. Reminiscences and a reading from some Johnsen family Civil War letters transpired in the small moments between chewing and sighs. A bottle of Conundrum and another bottle of Festive Ale were consumed. The dishwashing was accomplished by a crew of two sturdy men, helmed by yours truly. Sleep happened to us all, almost without warning.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Holiday = Holly Day
Happy Christmas, Hannukah, or non-specified Happy Family Day! I know which one I'm celebrating...
OK, to conclude:
It snowed, it rained, it snowed again.
The roads remained crappy, but games made me happy.
On to other things.
I've had an awesome week of gaming, although I've just been playing the same 3 games over and over. I picked up Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries a few weeks ago, and it is a really quick and fun 2-3 player version. Yspahan is still getting heavy play. The biggest winner has to be Dominion, the new It game for the cognoscenti.
In Dominion, you essentially build a deck of cards as you play. You start with a mix of 10 Treasure cards and Victory cards, worth 1 each. On the table, there are Treasure and Victory cards of different denominations, as well as Action cards. These may be bought on your turn. You simply deal yourself five cards out of your deck, play an Action card (if you have one), and then purchase any available card that you can afford with the Treasure you have in your hand. Then, your entire hand (including all of the Treasure you just spent) and your newly purchased card go into your discard pile. When your deck is depleted, you shuffle your discard pile (now containing new cards), and deal from that deck. Thus, you don't lose the Treasure that you spend, and your deck gets larger and larger throughout the game.
You don't want to start buying Victory cards too early, since they are worthless until the end of the game. Since you get only five cards in any hand, you want mostly Treasure and Action cards in any given deal. Some cards let you draw more cards into your hand, give you additional Treasure to spend, or add to the number of action cards you can play, or otherwise allow you to alter the hand that you're dealt. It's incredibly addictive, and plays well with 2, 3 or 4.
Anyway, play it if you get a chance. It's the real deal. There's also a Zombie re-theme available on Boardgamegeek. I gotta go, as the whole Bradley family has appeared at the table here, and I'm being rude. Christmas rude. It's the worst kind.\
It's a very special Christmas photo with E, Stephen, and Christine
Be nice to each other. We miss you.
OK, to conclude:
It snowed, it rained, it snowed again.
The roads remained crappy, but games made me happy.
On to other things.
I've had an awesome week of gaming, although I've just been playing the same 3 games over and over. I picked up Ticket to Ride - Nordic Countries a few weeks ago, and it is a really quick and fun 2-3 player version. Yspahan is still getting heavy play. The biggest winner has to be Dominion, the new It game for the cognoscenti.
In Dominion, you essentially build a deck of cards as you play. You start with a mix of 10 Treasure cards and Victory cards, worth 1 each. On the table, there are Treasure and Victory cards of different denominations, as well as Action cards. These may be bought on your turn. You simply deal yourself five cards out of your deck, play an Action card (if you have one), and then purchase any available card that you can afford with the Treasure you have in your hand. Then, your entire hand (including all of the Treasure you just spent) and your newly purchased card go into your discard pile. When your deck is depleted, you shuffle your discard pile (now containing new cards), and deal from that deck. Thus, you don't lose the Treasure that you spend, and your deck gets larger and larger throughout the game.
You don't want to start buying Victory cards too early, since they are worthless until the end of the game. Since you get only five cards in any hand, you want mostly Treasure and Action cards in any given deal. Some cards let you draw more cards into your hand, give you additional Treasure to spend, or add to the number of action cards you can play, or otherwise allow you to alter the hand that you're dealt. It's incredibly addictive, and plays well with 2, 3 or 4.
Anyway, play it if you get a chance. It's the real deal. There's also a Zombie re-theme available on Boardgamegeek. I gotta go, as the whole Bradley family has appeared at the table here, and I'm being rude. Christmas rude. It's the worst kind.\
It's a very special Christmas photo with E, Stephen, and Christine
Be nice to each other. We miss you.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
OMG, Look Outside, You Guys, It's SNOWING!!!
Insert angry face here. More later.
Later...
It's 7:00 PM. Still snowing. I'm starting to be less angry, but only because it's probably healthy. More later.
Later...
9:51 PM. Still snowing. I'm coming to a sort of peace with the whole thing, since it's clear that it's not going anywhere for a long time. Jill's dad and his Debbie got stuck in Denver, and it's not clear if they're going to make it at all. They're planning to go back to Iowa City if they can't get a flight in a reasonable amount of time.
I'm not looking forward to the trip to and from work tomorrow. Blasted bloody buses. Why can't we have a nice, integrated rail system?
Later...
It's 7:00 PM. Still snowing. I'm starting to be less angry, but only because it's probably healthy. More later.
Later...
9:51 PM. Still snowing. I'm coming to a sort of peace with the whole thing, since it's clear that it's not going anywhere for a long time. Jill's dad and his Debbie got stuck in Denver, and it's not clear if they're going to make it at all. They're planning to go back to Iowa City if they can't get a flight in a reasonable amount of time.
I'm not looking forward to the trip to and from work tomorrow. Blasted bloody buses. Why can't we have a nice, integrated rail system?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Daddy's little soldier
Much like the first steps and the first cuss word, the first trip to the ER ranks among the milestones of parenting. Fortunately, our trip was relatively quick (in and out in 150 minutes), and we knew that she was OK.
For posterity...we were at a brunch that was hosted by my new boss, Larry. Elaine was playing contentedly with a toy on the floor, seemingly oblivious to all of the people milling about and the food that, quite honestly, was in easy nabbing distance for her little grappling hooks. I was standing nearby with a plate of food, and Jill was on the other side of the room, filling her plate. Abruptly, Elaine stood up and dashed forward, beginning to babble about something. I moved to put my plate down, keeping an eye on which way she went. She didn't get far. I guess she planned on just blowing past a group of three people standing to my right, but she ran into the back of someone's hand. I think that he was swinging it, as if to gesture, as she ran into it. He says that he was holding a plate.
He bent down and took Elaine by the shoulders, and then looked up at me and said, "I wounded her." I made him repeat himself, because I didn't see a plate or anything; I just saw her stop cold. He turned her around and then I saw the blood. She had a vertical gash in the middle of her forehead, about 1.5 cm long. By this time, her internal clock that gauges the appropriate interval between the instance of pain and the explosion of tears had expired, and we all heard her side of the story. By this time, Jill had arrived at the scene. We zipped her off to the bathroom, and Jill cleaned up the wound. Jill said that she saw subcutaneous fat, which meant that Elaine probably needed stitches. I knew that she was going to be fine, but we were worried about scarring.
Checking in
We disappeared pretty quickly for the UW Medical Center. Elaine had long since forgotten about the incident by the time we got registered in the ER waiting room. Once we finally saw a doctor, and confirmed that she did require a couple of stitches, both Jill and I started to get anxious. Suddenly! Two nurses came in and swaddled Elaine, pinning her arms. The doctor applied a topical anesthetic, waited a few minutes, and then injected a local anesthetic. Then he deftly sewed two stitches, applied some antiseptic, and slapped a bandage on. Through all of this, Elaine made a horrible, gutteral crying sound, her eyes bulging and darting between the unfamiliar faces that were hovering overhead. Tears ran out of her eyes, snot came out her nose, and she drooled so much, she was choking. When they finally released her, she practically peeled off of the bed, she was so soaked in sweat. Needless to say, it took a while to calm her down, and she pretty much just passed out for awhile. Jill and I? Yeah, basically traumatized.
When Elaine woke up, she was just fine. We went to Josh and Megan's place, and Elaine played with Madeleine and the other kids that were there. No problems. We changed her bandage this morning, and she just sat there in my lap, totally unconcerned. I wonder what, if anything, she remembers of the incident.
For posterity...we were at a brunch that was hosted by my new boss, Larry. Elaine was playing contentedly with a toy on the floor, seemingly oblivious to all of the people milling about and the food that, quite honestly, was in easy nabbing distance for her little grappling hooks. I was standing nearby with a plate of food, and Jill was on the other side of the room, filling her plate. Abruptly, Elaine stood up and dashed forward, beginning to babble about something. I moved to put my plate down, keeping an eye on which way she went. She didn't get far. I guess she planned on just blowing past a group of three people standing to my right, but she ran into the back of someone's hand. I think that he was swinging it, as if to gesture, as she ran into it. He says that he was holding a plate.
He bent down and took Elaine by the shoulders, and then looked up at me and said, "I wounded her." I made him repeat himself, because I didn't see a plate or anything; I just saw her stop cold. He turned her around and then I saw the blood. She had a vertical gash in the middle of her forehead, about 1.5 cm long. By this time, her internal clock that gauges the appropriate interval between the instance of pain and the explosion of tears had expired, and we all heard her side of the story. By this time, Jill had arrived at the scene. We zipped her off to the bathroom, and Jill cleaned up the wound. Jill said that she saw subcutaneous fat, which meant that Elaine probably needed stitches. I knew that she was going to be fine, but we were worried about scarring.
Checking in
We disappeared pretty quickly for the UW Medical Center. Elaine had long since forgotten about the incident by the time we got registered in the ER waiting room. Once we finally saw a doctor, and confirmed that she did require a couple of stitches, both Jill and I started to get anxious. Suddenly! Two nurses came in and swaddled Elaine, pinning her arms. The doctor applied a topical anesthetic, waited a few minutes, and then injected a local anesthetic. Then he deftly sewed two stitches, applied some antiseptic, and slapped a bandage on. Through all of this, Elaine made a horrible, gutteral crying sound, her eyes bulging and darting between the unfamiliar faces that were hovering overhead. Tears ran out of her eyes, snot came out her nose, and she drooled so much, she was choking. When they finally released her, she practically peeled off of the bed, she was so soaked in sweat. Needless to say, it took a while to calm her down, and she pretty much just passed out for awhile. Jill and I? Yeah, basically traumatized.
When Elaine woke up, she was just fine. We went to Josh and Megan's place, and Elaine played with Madeleine and the other kids that were there. No problems. We changed her bandage this morning, and she just sat there in my lap, totally unconcerned. I wonder what, if anything, she remembers of the incident.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Random -vs- Chaos
An observation
When playing boardgames, I often run up against the rough side of luck. Perhaps the person to my left is taking all my s#!t, perhaps the dice are unfriendly, perhaps I only pick the bad cards...in any case, I am clearly the victim of circumstance. Obviously, the opposite is true when I do well at a boardgame. In this instance, bad luck has failed to impede my brilliant plans. I gain respect, and rise in the minds of my competitors. I smell different, and the ladies want my number. Too bad, ladies.
An emotional reaction
Hey, unexploded cluster bomblets of the world's wars, lying dormant but deadly in the countryside of Europe and Asia...you suck. Hey USA and Russia, nice going on NOT SIGNING THE STUPID TREATY TO STOP MAKING GOSHDARNED CLUSTER BOMBS.
I'm shaking my head in disbelief...
...at this editorial in the NYT. I mean, seriously, we haven't shared the most basic medical knowledge with these people? "This is sa-aa-alt with magical no-swollen-neck, no-retarded powder. Boogah woogah!"
(Zed)
Cluster bombs can GO SUCK AN EGG.
When playing boardgames, I often run up against the rough side of luck. Perhaps the person to my left is taking all my s#!t, perhaps the dice are unfriendly, perhaps I only pick the bad cards...in any case, I am clearly the victim of circumstance. Obviously, the opposite is true when I do well at a boardgame. In this instance, bad luck has failed to impede my brilliant plans. I gain respect, and rise in the minds of my competitors. I smell different, and the ladies want my number. Too bad, ladies.
An emotional reaction
Hey, unexploded cluster bomblets of the world's wars, lying dormant but deadly in the countryside of Europe and Asia...you suck. Hey USA and Russia, nice going on NOT SIGNING THE STUPID TREATY TO STOP MAKING GOSHDARNED CLUSTER BOMBS.
I'm shaking my head in disbelief...
...at this editorial in the NYT. I mean, seriously, we haven't shared the most basic medical knowledge with these people? "This is sa-aa-alt with magical no-swollen-neck, no-retarded powder. Boogah woogah!"
(Zed)
Cluster bombs can GO SUCK AN EGG.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Torn from yesterday's headlines...
"German Freezer Baby Mother Guilty"
First of all, I think that they could have afforded a few prepositions and perhaps a verb to make that actually work as a coherent phrase. Second, that's just not an image that I want in my mind at 7AM. I mean, it's an isolated incident, they caught her, case closed. Had there been a rash of baby freezer mother incidents, perhaps that would qualify as breaking through the filter to join the ranks of news items dealing with global recession, major political restructuring, genocide, anything to do with Michael Jackson, and skateboarding guinea pigs.
I'm sure that I'm leaving a few things out.
First of all, I think that they could have afforded a few prepositions and perhaps a verb to make that actually work as a coherent phrase. Second, that's just not an image that I want in my mind at 7AM. I mean, it's an isolated incident, they caught her, case closed. Had there been a rash of baby freezer mother incidents, perhaps that would qualify as breaking through the filter to join the ranks of news items dealing with global recession, major political restructuring, genocide, anything to do with Michael Jackson, and skateboarding guinea pigs.
I'm sure that I'm leaving a few things out.
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