Holidays

[pbray]

Happy 2010 to one and all! Wishing everyone health, happiness and prosperity.

I've been busy since my return from Florida. Tuesday was a work day followed by a mass outing to see Sherlock Holmes. Then on Wednesday, Jennifer and Jonathan came down from Troy for the day. We went to the Lost Dog for lunch with jpsorrow, followed by an afternoon of gaming at my place. Josh went off to the gym, while we chatted some more, then wandered over to the Cybercafe where we ran into fireun. Had a nice dinner at Cybercafe hanging out just like old times, while Jonathan decamped to the Sunshine Room to read. Since Jennifer moved to Denver, I miss spending time with her. There are far too many states between Colorado and New York, and I'm fairly sure we don't need ALL of them. We ought to be able to just fold the country in half when we need to, so we could see each other more often.

Locals will be amused by the fact that despite living here for twenty years, Jennifer confessed that she wasn't certain she could find her way to the Lost Dog coming in from I-81--she'd only ever gone there from Endwell, so she'd have to drive to Endwell first and then navigate back. Taking pity on her, I suggested they just drive to my place, so I could chauffeur them.

Then Thursday it was back to work. Today I'm off but this weekend I'll have to work a few hours each day, and then on Monday I start the stretch of at least 12 consecutive work days, possibly 19, depending on how the year-end close progresses. As my nieces would say, Ay-yi-yi!



How I decorate for the holidays. Well, actually only the robot, Optimus ornament and cards are new--everyone else (including the Misfit Toys) lives there year round.


Jennifer and Jonathan were visiting, so naturally we invited Josh to join us for games. Max, my new robot friend, took my turn.



Jennifer and I at the Cybercafe--our old stomping grounds.

Comments

[diamondreads.livejournal.com]

It sounds like fun times! The folding the country in half thing sounds perfect. Do we have a physicist we can get busy on that project? I wonder if we could get a grant. I have an old friend (well, she's not THAT old) in Minnesota and it would be great to fold the country the other way sometimes, too.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I was going to consult Lex Luthor, but he objects to anything that might distort Kansas, so I think we need Tony Stark on this one.

Folding would be convenient, since we could drive, but I'd settle for a matter transporter. I'm not picky.

[diamondreads.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I'd settle for that, too!

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Just as long as you don't fold over Illinois. Because all my clothes would wrinkle.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Good point! And if we do develop folding technology, we should arrange for Illinois and New York to be adjacent, so you and I could hang out together.

Really it's such a perfect idea I'm surprised no one has done it before.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Jennifer comes East. Hooray!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It was very cool to see the migrating Jennifer. Shame she can't be one of those creatures that winters in the east and summers in the west.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fun time!

Aha! Do I see Ticket to Ride in the background? For some reason I was expecting Arkham Horror or Settlers of Catan, but I don't know why.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

You have keen eyes. There were in fact two sets of TTR, the regular (US) version and the European version. We wound up playing the European set with the 1912 expansion deck.

When we used to have game nights, Ticket to Ride was a favorite, though we did play a number of other strategy games, including Settlers of Catan.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

I've never actually played TTR, but my wife and I play various Catan games with a friend or two on a regular basis. Okay, more than just the Catan games, but they're our favorite, with Ave Caesar a close second. What do you like about TTR?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

TTR is a lot of fun. It's easy to explain to a newcomer, there's the right blend of strategy and luck, and you can play the game in about an hour, so for an evening of gaming you can play multiple rounds, or tuck in TTR at the end of the night when there isn't time for a longer game.

As you become more familiar with the game, you learn strategies to employ, memorizing the high value routes and learning how to recognize when your opponent is making a move for one of them, or when drawing more destinations makes sense and when it doesn't. My gameplay usually involves taking the game seriously for the first round or two, and then I devolve into making pretty patterns with my trains, regardless of strategic values of routes. Occasionally this has proven to be a winning strategy, much to the consternation of my more logical opponents.

Both jennifer_dunne and jpsorrow are TTR addicts-- when they can't find local opponents they play online, sometimes arranging play dates where they both log on to the server at a scheduled time to play against each other.

There are multiple versions of the game. The US version is a good start, but I recommend getting the 1900 expansion card deck for it once you know the rules. The European version is also fun, mostly due to the strange map configuration (nothing is where you expect it) and the German spellings of city names. Again there's an expansion card deck that adds routes to make it more interesting.

There's also a Germany edition which overcomplicated things by adding passenger rules, which I don't recommend.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've heard some not so great things about TTR Marklin, so thanks for that heads up.

The company that puts out TTR -Days of Wonder- seem to specialize in games that balance luck and skill. We've got a few of their games around, Memoir '44 and Mystery of the Abbey, and we like them a lot.

I don't suppose you've visited BoardgameGeek, have you?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I've seen BoardgameGeek but leave that up to Josh or Jennifer. They are in charge of finding cool games and then bribing me to play with beer and snacks.