Ups and Downs
Sunday was an interesting day. I mucked around in Graeme Park for a bit in the morning then came home and de-mudded. After I successfully managed to make myself look like a girl instead of a mud monster I packed up my cookies and headed to Don's for my initiation into his "game day".
They say getting there is half the fun, but if I believed that I think I would have turned around and gone home. First, I had a little fender bender in my complex parking lot. Thankfully at idling speed and the only damage was a paint smudge so neither of us decided to worry about it. I then carefully proceeded into the city. Yeah, no one told me about the parade. I am not that savvy about getting around the city. I know where I'm going and how to get there...derail me and chaos ensues.
Every street I turned down was blocked. I had started to wonder if there was a terrorist threat IN Don's building. After the 5th blocked street had me passing the King Tut exhibit once again I called the boys to see if they knew what was going on. As they assured me they had no idea, and none of them had any trouble getting there Don gave me alternate directions. Right after I hung up I saw the Greek Orthodox Church float...it seems we were celebrating the 186th year of Greek Independence. I made it across the parade route and found a street I recognized. After that I was at Don's rather quickly.
I have to say gaming with Don, Ant, Doug and Sid was a lot different than gaming with Jill and her crew. These were more strategy games, and there was betting involved in some of them so I had a bit of a learning curve. I watched the boys finish a round of Boomtown, otherwise known as Fuck Doug, because, well, he was. Ant was great and served as my guide to rules and such, and Doug and Sid broke off to play another game while Don, Ant and I set up something simple for me to start with. As he was explaining how to play Africa I noted the instructions were in German...it seems at one point in his life Ant had a job translating game instructions from German into English. Color me impressed.
So Africa is about being an explorer and moving animals and nomads around while also discovering artifacts, minerals and doing research. The punning was horrible, as Don noted that "nomad is an island" and Ant ended up in "nomad's land". Having Don chant, "End it! End it!" was rather comical I must say. It made up slightly for Don's merciless plundering of my artifacts. I lost horribly and then we moved on to Verplixed...okay, I ended up with negative 30 as my score. Brutal!
By now Sid and Doug had finished their game and we regrouped for Milan: A complicated game of betting on which ships will get into port with what spices. Along the way you bid on who is harbor master, you can bet that they won't get into harbor, you can pay to be a pilot and nudge ships a bit, you can even be a pirate. I did a lot better with this one...primarily because it had enough rounds and I had time to learn. Ant and I tied for second and Don actually came in last for once. I am convinced it was the randomness of my playing that got me there, and that for some reason Ant and I ended up having similar goals enough that we boosted each other.
Doug headed home after that and the rest of us played another game of Africa after which I decided it was time for me to head out as well. It seems I must not have been too hard on the nerves as Sid now has my e-mail so I can officially be on "the list" instead of just having Don pass on the info. Of course, it could have also been the cookies. I'm sneaky like that.
On the way home I talked to Jill and Dan about some grumbly issues I am having and was almost home when I got the call about Drew...sigh. Not the best way to end a day. Once home I had 4 messages from Tom and one from John. After returning calls I did a shot for Drew and headed to bed.
So some sadness, but a lot of goodness as well. Bring on another week!
They say getting there is half the fun, but if I believed that I think I would have turned around and gone home. First, I had a little fender bender in my complex parking lot. Thankfully at idling speed and the only damage was a paint smudge so neither of us decided to worry about it. I then carefully proceeded into the city. Yeah, no one told me about the parade. I am not that savvy about getting around the city. I know where I'm going and how to get there...derail me and chaos ensues.
Every street I turned down was blocked. I had started to wonder if there was a terrorist threat IN Don's building. After the 5th blocked street had me passing the King Tut exhibit once again I called the boys to see if they knew what was going on. As they assured me they had no idea, and none of them had any trouble getting there Don gave me alternate directions. Right after I hung up I saw the Greek Orthodox Church float...it seems we were celebrating the 186th year of Greek Independence. I made it across the parade route and found a street I recognized. After that I was at Don's rather quickly.
I have to say gaming with Don, Ant, Doug and Sid was a lot different than gaming with Jill and her crew. These were more strategy games, and there was betting involved in some of them so I had a bit of a learning curve. I watched the boys finish a round of Boomtown, otherwise known as Fuck Doug, because, well, he was. Ant was great and served as my guide to rules and such, and Doug and Sid broke off to play another game while Don, Ant and I set up something simple for me to start with. As he was explaining how to play Africa I noted the instructions were in German...it seems at one point in his life Ant had a job translating game instructions from German into English. Color me impressed.
So Africa is about being an explorer and moving animals and nomads around while also discovering artifacts, minerals and doing research. The punning was horrible, as Don noted that "nomad is an island" and Ant ended up in "nomad's land". Having Don chant, "End it! End it!" was rather comical I must say. It made up slightly for Don's merciless plundering of my artifacts. I lost horribly and then we moved on to Verplixed...okay, I ended up with negative 30 as my score. Brutal!
By now Sid and Doug had finished their game and we regrouped for Milan: A complicated game of betting on which ships will get into port with what spices. Along the way you bid on who is harbor master, you can bet that they won't get into harbor, you can pay to be a pilot and nudge ships a bit, you can even be a pirate. I did a lot better with this one...primarily because it had enough rounds and I had time to learn. Ant and I tied for second and Don actually came in last for once. I am convinced it was the randomness of my playing that got me there, and that for some reason Ant and I ended up having similar goals enough that we boosted each other.
Doug headed home after that and the rest of us played another game of Africa after which I decided it was time for me to head out as well. It seems I must not have been too hard on the nerves as Sid now has my e-mail so I can officially be on "the list" instead of just having Don pass on the info. Of course, it could have also been the cookies. I'm sneaky like that.
On the way home I talked to Jill and Dan about some grumbly issues I am having and was almost home when I got the call about Drew...sigh. Not the best way to end a day. Once home I had 4 messages from Tom and one from John. After returning calls I did a shot for Drew and headed to bed.
So some sadness, but a lot of goodness as well. Bring on another week!
posted by Liz @ 10:29 AM
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