Gonzai Gallery

Home from Game Days now. I skipped all of the demos and tournaments, somehow, and the only things I bought from the vendor were my pre-orders. But I picked up an assortment of card games in the used game sale, and learned 4 new games. One was a kids game, which I would reserve for playing with kids. The others were more complicated, but I'd be willing to play them again. There are other new games I'd like to try, but most of the folks I play with aren't really into a) new games; b) expansions to games we do play; c) card/abstract games that don't take long; and d) super long games. I'm not crazy about the d) group, but I'm willing on the first 3. One of these days...

Oh, and Pass the Dice? That's the name of a horse that placed in a stakes race on the Derby undercard. Must be owned by a gamer.

And so it ends, another year of Preakness-mania around town. Yesterday, my boss asked if it was true that the rapture was supposed to happen at 6pm today. I said in Baltimore, we call that post-time.

I am a bit annoyed that I didn't have money on either race, because I called both of them correctly. I'd have some cash now.

Yesterday I lost Stone Age by 2 points. Today I lost by...1 point. And the player who beat me today is the only one to beat my friend Henry all weekend. But then, in the semi-final, I was put in a group with my friend Eugene, who is the asst GM of Stone Age and the best player I've ever seen at the game. So I was toast, and finished 3rd behind Eugene and a nitwit who apparently entered the tournament to get more quality time with his Blackberry. Sheesh. Another 2nd in Settlers and another one in TTR Europe to round out the tourney. Also got waxed in Lost Cities and scraped out a 3rd in Endeavor in the informal tourney, and concluded the day by thoroughly bolloxing an attempt at a new game, 4 Monkeys. Probably a good one for  some people, but apparently not me.

Also had adventures with Mom, whose car was dead this morning and she couldn't remember what to do about such things; fortunately she called during the only few minutes I wasn't in the signal-challenged ballroom but rather picking up lunch. I walked her through using AAA and they took care of the car, phew.

Last but not least, another second, but not mine. I watched the race. OH, so close! I do think Zenyatta is one impressive horse, although I'm not as sold on her as some - she never raced on turf and except for the Breeders Cup, never outside California or against the boys. Basically, 17 of her 20 races were against mediocre competition. So, a great horse, but not the greatest ever. Would have been something if she'd pulled it off though.

Other than a small panic attack when I discovered that show setup started at 7:30, not 8:30, and discovered this AT 7:30, (and please don't mention this to any MD State Troopers, as I exceeded the speed limit by a LOT to get there), and some serious foot pain, the day was not bad. I had a sales goal and met it, barely. Moved some prints, for a change, all Dr Who or Torchwood, interesting event at a mundane show. Top selling ornament? Cincinnati Bengals. Seriously. Not a single Redskin, Jet or Eagle, but 6 Bengals. Had a ton of help for loading in and a kid to help load out, so both were much easier than usual. Neighboring booths were good neighbors and Mom hit it off with the couple on the right. Next year, I'm bringing my MP3 player. They hooked up an organizer's Ipod to the PA for the music - except he had a whopping 12 Christmas songs on there. If I never hear 'The Chipmunk Song' again...I have about 3 days of Christmas music on ITunes (including classical) so they'd have been better off having me bring the tunes!

Then to Hunan Manor for a first rate Chinese meal, served to us about 5 minutes after we ordered it(!) New record. And all reasonably priced and very good. Went to the Columbia Michaels but they have no more ornaments. Went to the Ellicott City store, they had 15. One shattered when the cashier picked it up, so make that 14. And home by 6:30, just in time to find out we didn't really miss the Penn State/Ohio State game (we root for Penn) but should have seen Navy/Notre Dame. Go Navy! Oh, and Zenyatta is indeed impressive. Too bad we'll never know what might have happened if she matched up with Rachel Alexandra. Clearly the boys are no match for either of them.

It's all about Rachel, no? Definitely picking the filly, mostly because she was just so daggone dominant in the Oaks. Although I could have, I'm not betting on her because let's face it, if she wins I'd get what, a quarter? Big whoop. Anyway, going with Rachel Alexandra, Mine That Bird and General Quarters, in that order.

And I was also amused to see a horse in an earlier race is named Ovechkin. Wonder if he's number 8.

They can go on all they want about this that and the other, but I think the bottom line came down to this: Big Brown went out there, and said to himself 'my foot hurts, it's frakkin' hot, everyone's slamming into me, I just don't feel like it okay?' I doubt there was anything wrong with him other than he simply wasn't into it under the circumstances. Hopefully I'm right.

Good on Da'Kara though. Wire to wire for a mile and half. Really impressive!