Gonzai Gallery

Nor rain or Frankenstorms, shall stop gamers from, well, gaming. Not ony did we have Alphabet Soup today, it was fairly well attended, 16 people I think, which is a few more than usual. I guess we needed to get it out of our systems before a forced three day shutdown.

If the wind is blowing, I haven't heard it. It is raining steadily now, however. No word on work, although the unofficial word is, call the office, if you get a busy signal the power is out so stay home. I'm not sure what we're doing if the power is ON, the TPTB are so sure the power will be out.

Went to Soup today, only played 3 games but finished with 2 wins and a 2nd (out of 5 players). Even the rest of the gang is wondering who took my place for the day. Beats me...

Confused because my mother and my dog are not only getting along together but being rather affectionate with each other. If the ground seems cold, that's why.

Just came home from gaming at Soup, somehow managed to play 5 games in 5 hours, which doesn't happen often, and managed to win one of them. A pleasant afternoon.

Alphabet Soup time again, I finally learned to play Blokus and came within one play of winning Settlers of America. But then we watched the Bills/Steelers OT (aaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!) and the first half of the Ravens/Bucs game instead of gaming. I listened to the 3rd quarter on the radio coming home and it sounded like the Ravens were getting screwed by the officials, but they pulled out the win.

Unfortunately, I told Mom I'd be home "between 6 & 7" and that I'd eat dinner at gaming. At 6:45 she called wanting to know why I hadn't come home.  I said I told you between 6 & 7, first she said I hadn't said that, then she said it was now after 7. When I came in the house, she complained that she had waited to make dinner until I got back and that I never said I'd be eating at gaming. Meanwhile, as the Ravens were on at 4 on Fox instead of 1 on CBS, I not only told her that, but left a note on the television with the game time and channel. She claims I never told her, then said I should have put the television on Fox for her. 5 hours before the game. So then I got the silent treatment all evening. I don't know what I'm going to do about this.

And feeling very fortunate. One of my fellow Soupers, who had parked about 30 feet away from my car, had his car broken into during Soup. It's not a particularly new or expensive car and he had nothing in it, which really made me worry about my poor little car, but no, Baby Blue was left alone. Close call. And one of the few times I'm glad I haven't gotten around to cleaning up the back seat. Dog hair does make a car less appealing to a thief, I would think.

Indoors, I learned Puerto Rico and didn't finish last; and nearly lapped the other players at Ticket to Ride: Europe. The tickets just fell my way, as it were. Successfully made banana bread for the event and it was well-received. Now to putter about a bit before bed.

Saturday is the annual Balticon after-party/picnic, and Sunday is Alphabet Soup. I haven't cooked for Soup yet, and my banana bread is very much in demand at the Balticon shindig, so a couple weeks back I bought a half dozen bananas and set them out to ripen. They need to be brown for banana bread.

Well, Mom decided they were TOO brown and put them in the fridge. On the edge. Balanced against the door. Yeah, you know what happened. Or maybe not. Did you know that ripe bananas explode when they hit the floor? The kitchen was a mashed banana party. The good thing about having dogs is they'll happily help clean up the floor. But there's no way I can get ripe bananas in the next two days, so I have to figure out something else to make in a hurry.

(Come to think of it, given the present hot and humid weather...and banana bread requiring the oven...maybe my mother actually had a plan when she put the bananas on the edge...)

CJ woke me at 6am, again. Grr. Finished building the new media shelf and moved all of the DVDs onto it. Then tried, for an hour, to teach Mom how to use the DVD player. I've been trying to teach her for over a year now. You'd think I'd learn. I gave her Tenspeed & Brown Shoe for Mother's Day and she really wanted to watch it, so I tried again.

Then went to Alphabet Soup with Dave, where I went 11 for 12 on names. For me, that's really good. Game-wise, lost at everything. And except for Settlers, lost badly. The only new game I got to play was Rumis, not exactly a hard learn, but played Underground again and have a good grasp of it now. Went back home to find Mom managed to bollux not only the TV/DVD, but also the computer. Took half an hour to get the computer back to snuff, although the TV was an easy fix. Watched Who and SNL w/ Betty White (another item for Mom) before passing out.

After a hellish time trying to get out of the house (which included smashing my head into a kitchen cabinet), I managed to go to the wrong hotel. Then I discovered, after I was there, that there were no concessions at said hotel. You bring you own (which I hadn't) or go to Chili's. Not a big Chili's fan. But at least I got a big, caffeine laden soda out of it.

Also failed to play much, with most folks opting for the 3+ hour mega games and/or preoccupied with the silent auction. I had a list of things I wanted to bid on; 2 didn't make it to the auction, and all but one of the others were also targeted by BSFS, so I didn't want to bid against them. Since I play their game sets at Alphabet Soup, it is to an extent bidding against myself. And I was sniped on the one non-Hal Haag game, a Star Wars game I thought the nephews would love. Final tally? Qwirkle. That was it. Did snag some GCOM swag, pretty purple dice and assorted accessories, and I'm picking up the original Settlers of Cataan tomorrow, but in the end I didn't spend nearly what I expected and my hands are much emptier than I thought.

Did at least get to wrap up the evening by finally playing some games I like (Ticket to Ride & Stone Age) with people I knew. I think that one day of Game Days may well be plenty for me, but we'll see how I feel next year.

Made it down to Alphabet Soup, almost for the entirety this time. Problem was, I was taught Stone Age - and it took 3 hours. Followed by a round of TTR Europe with the world's slowest player, which made it a 90 minute game. I skeddaddled on home but too late to catch Rick on his way back home, so no visiting. Mom is rather depressed from visiting Jim, his whole right side is paralyzed and he can't talk. It didn't go very well, apparently. But she's back safe & sound, which, given the weather, is a plus. Watched a couple movies last night - 'Spiderman 3' could have benefitted from a few *less* villains, I think; and 'Dreamgirls' wasn't what I was expecting, I thought it was just about the sixties girl group and didn't know it was going to cover several years worth of their lives. And the lip synching was painful. Going to knock off early tonight, as Roxie kept me up half the night last night. And back to the grind tomorrow.