On Friday, I went to Brett's and played prototypes of games, something we're trying to do about twice a month. Fridays work well for me as Laura's off riding horses. I found another Madison designer on the Board Game Designer's Forum who's a psych undergrad here at UW, so he came over as well. Todd and Jimi rounded out the group. First we played my Ultra-Violets prototype; there's always one or two more things to tweak before I think it'll be finished, but I'm happy with how it works now. Jerry had some ideas for a word game with blind bidding that worked out well, and Brett's Bonfire was smoking while Todd and Jerry tested out Gene Pool for me. I really like these meetings, as you can only make so much progress on a game by thinking, there needs to be lots of "doing" and playtesting to watch how it works in motion. We'll meet up again next in March.

(Laura) While Mark was play-testing games, I went horse-back riding. I must say that I prefer the warmer weather to the cold when I ride- loosing feeling in my hands and feet makes it a bit hard to perform to the best of my ability. I got to ride Copper again- which I really enjoyed! I have always had trouble with my right ankle- by the end of a lesson it hurts like pins-and-needles. My instructor, Andi, noticed that I was turning my right foot in, putting more weight on my ankle, and by the end of the lesson, my ankle was feeling sore but okay. She said that if you sprain your ankle, it gets weaker and tends to turn into the horse. It was nice to have that bit of knowledge! As for the lesson, we did the serpintine pattern, which is an exagerated snake-like pattern to work on turns and body position. It was fun on Copper, but by the end, we were both a bit tired of snaking in-and-out.