A game night first, our friend Ben drove over from Milwaukee tonight. He's been on the list but always has frisbee to play on Tuesdays (and never takes my advice to fake an injury) but the season was over, so he's here for game night. Mike and Kathleen arrived next, followed quickly by Matt to make six. We pulled out Sternenhimmel. Where did I get that game? Well, I like to visit the thrift stores on weekends and see what board games I can find, there's usually one that looks interesting and for only $1 who can pass it up? A few weeks ago I found a complete wargame, Desert Steel, in great condition. I knew I'd never play, but I found someone through BoardGameGeek who was interested, and had a slew of German games in his collection. Only problem was he lived in England, but the shipping plus what I paid for the game made it worth the cost to send it overseas, and so now I have a new game! Sternenhimmel is German for "Stary Sky," and it's a fun majority-influence / bluffing game based on constellations of the zodiac. The theme's a bit loose, there's lots of rules on how to break a tie, but it was a great game and made for interesting decisions; it will be back.

We noticed Alhambra could acomodate six, so it made its second appearance in two weeks. Matt pulled into a blazing lead with his row of brothels, and Laura once again focused on gardens, while I fell further behind each time. The gardens proved more powerful than the brothels in the end, and Laura eeked out a win. It's weird how you never know if you're going to be ahead in a building type, and there's considerable time spent doing point calculations after the game is through.

Finally, as Matt discussed the woes of the TAA, we played a round of Jenga (another thrift store find). Ben remarked that he always loses this game, and true to form, we built higher and higher until the fateful turn fell to Ben and Jenga came crashing down. It was a good games all around tonight, and we hope to see Ben more in the summer.