Game Night has become a regular thing, and it's too bad I'll be in Portugal next week when Tuesday comes around. This night started out with just Matt L and myself, with Laura studying late, so I pulled out Cathedral, a quick game with some distant similarities to Go. Your pieces are pentominoes that you try to place and block your opponent from placing their pieces. We traded games back and forth and Matt won the last one from behind, as the first player seems to have a slight advantage.

I then picked out Attika, a good two player connection and building game, when we were joined by Kathleen and Mike, and then Laura. Since Attika only goes to four players, Laura volunteered to sit out and help everyone defeat Mark ;). Mike won with a sneaky shrine connection while we were all concentrating on building our own empires or thwarting other plans.

We wrapped up the night with a quick game of Balderdash, the game of making up word definitions and trying to fool other players to vote for yours. It was harder than I remembered to write convincing definitions, maybe because I haven't played the game in over four years. I went for the funny definitions sometimes just to see if the reader could pull them off without a laugh (usually not) ;) In a twist of irony, both Matt and I knew schadenfreude, and he's still bitter because I read it off his blog. :) Game night will resume in two weeks when I return from Portugal for the ILP conference.

It had been a while since we got to go to the farmer's market due to the wedding and other to-do's. We splurged on cherry and peach scones, delicious white button mushrooms, and oodles of silver king sweet corn. Yum! We also had the chance to cook- which we haven't done it a long time. The courses were Mark's famous cooked meatballs, a tasty greek pasta salad, and a yummy pasta dish with Bertolli sauce and mozzarella layers (a lasagne I actually like). For a sweet treat I made Mollasses spice cookies from Best Recipe, which turned out soft and chewy. I also cooked up some chicken breasts for curry chicken salad next week.

My one true love in the food area is beef ribs. Don't add the sauce- make them Texas style- and I am your best friend for life :) well not quite so melodramatic, but beef ribs are definately my favorite food. The best part is that you can eat them with your fingers- definetely a fun messy adventure! When I came to Wisconsin my mom and I went out to eat barbeque and found the meat soaking in sweet repulsive sauce- even scraping it all off didn't restore the meat flavor. Every time I go to TX, I look forward to TX barbeque.

Mark had never had beef ribs, only those pork ribs that Chilles made so popular. So we headed out to Tony Roma's for ribs without any barbeque sauce- He really enjoyed them, and so did I! It was a great meal with mozzarella sticks, salad and potato, not to mention wonderful ribs. We got all sticky and used wet naps for clean-up. What a wonderful adventure!

Matt A showed up first this week, so he and I pulled out my prototype for Gene Pool. The tweaks on this was have been much less noticable than others, but they have improved it leaps and bounds. It was a close match after the first round, but Matt quickly outpaced me with many 5 point scores to win the game. In the middle of our game, Matt L showed up, so he and Laura played Lost Cities, an "exploration" game with set collection and lots of math.

Laura was off to study, so Matt, Matt and I got in some more playtesting on Ultra Violets. Matt went for his "stay in one deck" strategy, and it seemed to work out for him. It was a smoother run with the new deck, and I think the redistribution of cards makes it more competetive for getting the cards you want. We chatted after the game about some strategies to try next time, weighting of points, how you can't really collect an even number of plants without a huge penalty, so there are some tweaks to make before the next run.

It felt good to talk about strategies and effects of different points and actions instead of trying to fix broken parts of the game. I'm also hunting for a new theme that might be more appealing than African Violets, but I'm not sure how far that will go. I'm getting closer to having two working games ready to submit to the Hippodice amatuer game design contest later this year.

Our friend Ben, one of Mark's college roomates, used to be near Washington DC, in school to become a lawyer. He just recently got back to Wisconsin and drove over for a visit, with free time now after the recent Bar Exam. We started playing a short game of Trias, a game of migrating dinosaurs and continents in motion until that fateful meteor strike at the end of the game. It went quickly, with some conflict over island control, and lots of dinos going for a swim.

We then broke out Mark's new prototypes of Schism and Ultra Violets. Ben had some wonderful advice on improving Schism which is still in its early stages; the costs need to be balanced, and there is definetely a runaway leader problem. Ultra Violets on the other hand worked well, and Mar thinks it's time for the new properly distributed deck. For dinner we had a nice 5 cheese pizza and heard about the challenges of law school. I am very glad that I am not having to study for the Bar exam- a tough and expensive adventure.

Irene and Ian chose Wyalusing State Park to have their wedding. They rented a shelter for cooking and events, and four cabins for housing guests. A couple weeks before the wedding, Irene and Ian put me in charge of decorating the reception area. (After having my wedding last year, I had a good feeling for the craziness and the pressing deadlines.) So I made lists for each of the four stores for supplies and got them the week before the wedding with Mark. Party Warehouse is great for cheap streamers, sprinkles for the tables and plastic table cloths. Walmart is great for the miscellaneous arts and craft supplies. The Scrapbook store had everything for their wedding memory book. The local Copps had a great selection of fresh flowers for the boquets. Everything was packed in the car (except for the fresh flowers) by Thursday night.

So Friday Mark and I got up really early to pick flowers. First there was the queen Anne's Lace behind where I live. Next large hosta leaves (from undisclosed location). Then Daliahs and gladiolas from Irene's plot. Next wildflowers, irish bells, clome, and sunflowers from my garden. Lastly hardy fern, white lilies, and small baby's breath from two local Copps stores. All this cutting took about three hours and then we were on the road to the wedding.

We only got lost once, which was fine since I was holding the map and naping most of the way. It really is very beautiful in Southwestern Wisconsin. And fortunately the entire weekend was without rain. Anyway, when we got there, we unloaded with the help of Ian's favorite Aunt. Next was planning the room. Mark and I talked through the setup and figured out a very spacious table placement. After approval from Ian, we got to work planning the layout of the tables. We came up with table patterns similar to our wedding, but fitting for rectangular tables (we had round tables). The base was cream table plastic, then since the tables were so narrow, we made diamonds out of the green plastic for the centers of the tables. On each diamond when three african violets (with at least the center one blooming). Lastly on the break between each joined table we placed a vase of flowers. The head tables were a little bit different- a bit smaller, using two green diamonds.

After setting up a sample and getting Ian to approve, we got to work on duplicating. I couldn't have done it without Sean (from the AI dept), Maleeha, and Mark's help. Fortunately we got most of the work done before the majority of the guests arrived for the evening. The last part was setting up the cake table, the drink table and the lights. On the cake table went the "baby" pictures and the photo memory book I made. Around the windows went folded crep paper (look like accordians) with red and white on the back two windows and green and white on the front two windows. For the front two windows done by Mark and Sean while the wedding party was outside practicing. The windows had white Christmas lights covered in dark green and sparkling cream toollie. There was an issue with electrical outlets not working, but that got smoothed out with our extension cord.

For the rehersal dinner, anyone at the park could enjoy rice noodles and thai sauce with greens and pasta salad. After eating the bridal party made boquets, corsages, and boutonnieres. Fortunately one of Irene's friends had made butonnieres for her wedding- we couldn't have done it without her. I had to leave occationally for an organizer meeting with Ian and to answer questions. Right around 10pm we were almost done, and Ian wanted the dishes set up in the room. Grabbing all of the people I could, I got everyone to place the dishes in the classical setting. Fortunately everything fit well! Around 11pm, Irene decided that she wanted to label the tables for everyone to sit. For the next hour, I sat with her and planned out the table arrangements- just after midnight I was spent and passed on the writting of names to Maleeha and happily went to bed. Meanwhile Mark and several other guys were playing boardgames in the other room. Starting with Ticket to Ride, they quickly moved on to Pit and finally a long game of Carcassonne.

Saturday morning we were all up at 8am. Emily and Amanda got a wonderful breakfast for everyone while Maleeha and I did our hair- letting Irene sleep in a bit. Then I did Irene's hair. This was only the second time that I practiced this pattern and It definately took longer than the first time- lack of sleep might have had something to do with it- or the many people who kept coming in... But I did it without hairspray and with one package of bobby pins. The key was making it immobile by crossing the bobby pins in an X shape. Using three ponny tails, it turned out very well. The addition of pearls on bobby pins that Maleeha and I made earlier helped to tuck in some of the stray hairs. In the mean time, the other bridesmaids were passing out the corsages and boutonnieres. Afterwards Irene passed out the bridal gifts. A handmade necklace, truffles and small handbag. After her make-up was applied by Min, we headed to the reception location to "hide-out" until the music started playing.

Unfortunately, the sound system didn't work as planned. But fortunately Mark's keyboard worked wonderfully turned on high. The ceremony went smoothly and the reception as well. Then there were pictures. Next were the toasts and then bread and cheese with salmon patte. For the main course I had a wonderful zuchini lasagna, pork with mushroom sauce and steamed greenbeans. Next was the cheesecake- three different flavors of key lime, chocolate, and plain with choices of three berry sauces. Mark and I waited for ours since we were replacing the empty trays of cheesecake with new trays. Then there was the group picture.

After that I was exhausted, after a quick change we took a nice 2 hour nap until we heard music playing. Mark and I both got to hear the last four or five songs from Ian's bluegrass band- an undiscovered love of ours. While we were away most of the reception room was cleaned up so Mark and I took a short retreat to see a waterfall in the woods by the cabins.

When we got back we organized what was left of the supplies and started packing the car for tomorrow's trip home. Dinner was shredded pork, hamburgers, baked beans, pasta salad and greens with Jaime's homemade ice cream for desert- I had one scoop of each of coffee (amazing with Johnny's roasted beans from Africa), rasberry, vanilla and chocolate. After dinner we gazed up at the stars for a bit and saw some of our favorites before heading down to the campfire where everyone was enjoying smores and songs. Around midnight I had to go to sleep- and a very nice sound sleep at that, while Mark stayed up to play Gene Pool with Rich, Joe and Sean.

On the way home it was nice to reflect, but I fell asleep quickly and woke just to go up the stairs to our apartment and went back to sleep. Weddings are always fun and exciting, but also exhausting and stressful.

So I have never been to (or had) a bachelorette party. Before I got married, I wanted something Mark and I could do together with our friends- so Irene organized a horse riding trip and picnic lunch at Governor Dodge State park- for a wedding shower to include girlfriends, husbands and future husbands. The week of our wedding Mark and I had a "bachelor-" party by playing mini-golf with all of our out-of-town and some in-town friends.

To begin, I misunderstood the invite from Maleeha (the organizer of Irene's bachelorette party). It said the theme was sexy lingerie- I thought that meant to wear lingerie to the party- but it really meant to buy lingerie for Irene. Fortunately I only worn nice sleepwear- one of the cute outfits Sarah got me for Christmas- which most people thought was a casual outfit anyway. While everyone else got presents like teddies, I got her some godiva chocolate- three kinds actually.

The games were definately different. No wonder guys don't come to these things, I was embarassed myself just to watch. There was pin the cucumber on the hunk- comes with its own inflatable cucumber and adhesives. The idea is to have someone spin you around and point you in the right direction- then you stick the cucumber to the hunk poster.

Then Maleeha had asked Ian questions about when they met and more personal topics. The idea was for Irene to answer the same questions and see what her answers were. Overall she got most right. The most surprising bit was the comments that Irene's mom made- she had us all rolling on the floor with laughter. Then there was the game "I never ..." one person reads some pretty outrageous and embarrasing statements out loud, if you have ever done any of the statements (eg. I never mix bring food into the bedroom) then you take a drink from your cup. This is a game to really let you learn about people you thought you knew.

Overall there were plenty of phallic symbols; just ot list a few not mentioned above: one phallic shaped container that Irene had to drink from, phallic shaped eclairs and chocolate cookies, and phallic shaped ice cubes. It was definately an interesting experience, glad I went and glad I didn't have one before my own wedding.

This week, I had a craving for something sweet and chewy- so I made oatmeal butterscotch cookies- using the recipe on the back of the package. Even Best Recipes says that there is little need to change the Nestle recipes and I agree whole heartedly. I served some of the sweet treats at the game night and they were a big hit! The butterscoch taste is an unexpected yet welcome suprise in the cookies.

The first game we played was Quinto, a Scrabble-like game with numbers, where your legal "words" are multiples of five. Mark found this one at our local St Vincent DePaul's, buried amongst three old copies of Trivial Pursuit and Win Lose or Draw. Matt, our resident Scrabble expert, protested quite a few times that this was nothing like Scrabble. With five of us (Mark, Laura, Matt L, Mike and Kathleen), it took a while to get back to your turn, and while there was a lot of tactics and number-crunching, there didn't seem to be much long-term strategy, and Mike was the eventual winner. Don't know how often this one will get pulled out, the first player (this time me) seems to have a large disadvantage in not being able to make multiple multiples their first turn.

When Burr and Natalie arrived right as we finished Quinto, we set up to play a large game of Settlers, 5 people + 1 team (Burr and Matt L). The board was rather cramped, and everyone was struggling to build things, but I successfully defended the longest road and made it to the win first. It seems like the 3-4 player version had more tight action, and everyone is involved until the end, where in this game, a few people were too far behind to be in the running after half-way through the game.

It was getting rather late after Settlers, so Matt, Mark and I played a quick game of Ultra Violets. I tested out some of the new rules changes and a new way to determine the maladies each round. Different strategies are starting to emerge, and there's competition for the end points. We'll have to test more players soon, since I've added enough tokens for 6 players (although not enough leaves..) There always seems to be more to tweak and test the more it gets played.

Ever since Christmas, I've been looking forward to seeing Taliesin, the country home of Frank Lloyd Wright out in Spring Green. Laura suprized me with the most wonderful gift of two house tour tickets for use this summer, and this weekend was the perfect time. The weather was beautiful for our drive to western Wisconsin. It made me realize that Wisconsin has some really nice scenic drives of which we should take more advantage while we're here.

The afternoon started out great, with a few subs from the local Big Mike's, we can't say how much we love them. When we move, we'll just have to open a franchise wherever we go, that or get the recipe for their bread. We found a picnic bench outside the visitor's center, and then headed in to see the gift store and register for our tour. There were so many books about his life and works, as well as rather expensive imitations of some of his famous designs. I especially liked some of the coasters and neck-ties.

The house tour would take about two hours, so we were reminded a few times to take a pit stop now, because we couldn't touch or use anything in the house. It is like a living museum, since they still have classes there and nearby at his Prarie School of Architecture, and there were plans out on his tables, but for us, we were just visitors. It began with a look around the outside landscaping and his personal vineyard; pretty much all the land we could see was owned by the preservation society, and they took care of it very well. It was one of the most serene places I've visited; everything was well integrated into one complete picture. Our tour guide told us all the history of when he built all the buildings we could see and the progression of his architecture style, and then we proceeded to his gardens. Since the house was built on the brow of the hill, thus the name Taliesin (as well as being Welsh like him), the garden was on the top of the hill, and it looked like the house was sunken around us.

We visited the inside of his personal reception area (he likes cramped doorways so you feel more open once your inside) with very tall ceilings. It was interesting to also notice the minimal staircases and hallways, since he believed you didn't really spend time there, you shouldn't need lots of space to feel open. There were many long corridors, where you could stand at one end and see all the way to the other end of the house, a section of the house which made you feel like you were up in the air, and short ceilings all around.

It was also very noticable how much the house was in need of repair (thus the preservation society). Many outside wall structures looked cracking, and some of the trees planted to give the house a nice feel, which they did, had grown such that their roots were breaking up the foundation. I guess they weren't supposed to grow, which is the main thing I've noticed about the house; it was made to be in tune with nature, but not to adapt or change as the surrounding environment inevitably would neccessitate. He's a great architect, but not so strong on structural engineering. All in all, it was wonderful experience, and we'll have to find some more of his places to tour around Wisconsin.

As I said earlier, Natalie gave me the inspiration to create a terrarium. After going over to their place and looking at her wonderful terrarium, I just had to make one (and I have always wanted to grow moss and ferns- both needing a terrarium environment). The most expensive part would have been the container, but fortunately when my neighbor was moving out, she gave me a large hexagonal aquarium sitting on her back porch (along with some other lovely pots and plants). With that solved we only had to buy the hood (which was the most expensive part).

For the inside of the aquarium, Natalie gave me a list of supplies- the first layer was hydroponic clay pellets (1-2") which looked like chocolate candy. The second layer was CocoTek, which was 1" deep at the shallowest level. Aparently the husk of coconuts won't break down for at least 5 years -very cool stuff- and you buy it in bricks which expands to 8 times their original size. Now comes the shaping: Mark and I made two hills with a path for a stream flowing just off center.

Now we can add anything we want- the hardest part is not adding too much. We purchased three river stones and a crazy piece of african driftwood from Pet World. Natalie had some extra cushion moss we placed on top of the moist coco-tek. It really looks amazing! And there is almost no care involved. There only needs to be a very low strength fertilizer applied to future plants and the moss, and occational spraying of distilled water to keep up the humidity- much less care than my time-consuming african violets. Still thinking about adding a little sheep- on the hill grazing- just seems appropriate!

Tonight we had seven people for game night (Beth and Brian, Burr and Natalie, Matt L and us). We started with a favorite of Burr's- Fluxx, a game with constantly changing rules and goals. The first round went quickly, with Burr grabbing the win, while the second bogged down with lots of rules and many keepers on the board. Finally Matt won with the 10 cards in hand goal, picking up on the strategy of keeping your turn going as long as possible. By then it was time for something new.

Since Beth was going to Korea for a year, we let her pick, and she chose Cranium, the coffee house trivia/charades/pictionary hybrid. We split up into two teams of guys vs girls. Guys liked the datahead and word worm category, while girls choose the performer and creative cat, however we all liked drawing blind and playing with clay. It was a close battle all the way, but the guys were always on the inside track and the guys won in the end. We followed the game by several free rounds of drawing, humming, and performing, as this was the most fun part of the game.

Our last game was one Mark found on the internet called Werewolf, using a standard deck of cards to determine roles. Players are either werewolves or plain villagers, with both sides wanting to eliminate the other, however no one knows who the werewolves are. As the game progresses, people get killed at night, then everyone lynches someone during the day, until one side wins. With only 7 people, we let there be one werewolf. Mark started as the Moderator (since he knew what was going on), and Burr turned up as the first werewolf. He sucessfully made it the whole game without being lynched. For the next round, Burr was the moderator and Beth was the werewolf, but she was lynched in the second round. The third time, Natalie was the werewolf, and she was lynched on the first round, acting mighty suspicious. The game was very well received and we will probably play it again when there's more people- using 2 werewolfs it should be very interesting.

Tis the season to pick tomatoes! We picked two sacks full of tomatoes and there are tripple as many still green on the vines. Last Christmas I got Mark a tomato press, and today we broke it in. The idea is to cook the tomatoes for about 15 seconds to loosen the skins, then dice them in 1" pieces so the press can grab them easily. Scoop all the pieces up and put them in the top of the press while another cranks away to seperate the good juice from the bad seeds and skins. Last year we would take half a day to seperate by hand, now it takes just minutes! Can't wait for the next gift from our garden!

Last night we watched Hidalgo- if you love horses like I do, you can't help but love this movie. In the description about how the movie was made, they used over 800 horses- and each one a beauty (there were 4 Hildagos all spray painted to match). It was a bit hard to believe that a man encountering so much difficulty could actually do as well as our main character did (can't tell you what happened now can I). This morning we watched Hellboy- Mark had been wanting to see this one ever since he heard about it. I must say that all of the rave reviews were on the mark. Again, it is a bit hard to believe that the conclusion could come as quick as it did, but they are constrained by budget and time when making a movie...

Today we took a trip out the the Olbrich Gardens for one of their many plant sales. This time it was an iris sale, and there was every color under the rainbow with some a rainbow of colors. Mark chose "Toasted Watermellon," a rust orange bearded iris. I chose "Silverado," a very pale and delicate blue bearded. When we were checking out, we picked up two unknowns- I can't wait to see what they turn out to be!

When we got home there was a message from Natalie to go Orchid hunting around town. I never new there were so many large growers just around Madison. We had a great time- Natalie knows so much about plants- and gave me the idea to create a terrarium.

That evening we watched the Bourne Supremacy with Burr & Natalie- we also saw Heather and Matt having a night out without their little one, while their parents were in town. A good movie, but a bit confusing since I hadn't watched the first movie in quite a long time, and shaky camera movement is always jaring.

We were not sure what to cook for the week and both of us were a bit tired. So it is time yet again to eat some rice and beans (and burn through some cans in the pantry). Mark with his favorite black beans, and I get my favorite ranch style beans. Another fun treat and quick cooker was my favorite of field peas, baby pinto beans, rice and bacon. Yum!

On the theme of not wanting to cook and getting a bit tired of bean by Wed, we ate out at the Angelic Brewing Company. I never would have thought of pub fare as good- but sometimes few dinners are better. I had lovely steamed veggies with chicken with a delicate cream sauce over wild rice -wow- and Mark enjoyed a chicken parmesan with penne pasta with garlic bread on the side. The best part was not having to do the dishes nor clean-up!

Tonight for game night we had Matt L and Matt A, quickly becoming the two regulars. We started with Samurai, a game about balancing influence set on the island of japan. Your goal is to end the game with the most of one category, but enough of the rest to ensure a win. It was our first time playing the game with four people. We decided to play with open holdings, and this caused the game to bog down at the end once we noticed Matt A had won and there was nothing we could do about it. He struck first getting all three categories at once with his samurai and never let up. Next time, definitely use closed holdings to cut down on analysis paralysis.

Next we played Matt A's, Ticket to Ride, a new game for all of us, and the winner of the Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year). The goal is to make connections between cities, with more points awarded for connecting longer routes. Everyone was very tense throughout, always worried if they would be able to complete their connections or be left with losing tickets. I played it safe with no blocking of train routes and purchased more tickets, satisfying all five. Yet Matt A still won with longest route ever, all 45 trains in a row. Next time, I am planning on blocking other people and going for the paths with 6s. Both of the games worked well and everyone had a great time; I can see why Ticket to Ride is a big hit.

This weekend we flew to North Carolina for our nephew Sam's baptism. It was wonderful to see Matt, Sarah, Will, and Sam all at the airport to pick us up- it is amazing how quick the little one's grow up. After a very filling dinner of fried shrimp (for me) and chicken and dumplings (for Mark- we will have to remember to try out cooking that one) at a great italian restaurant (with two lovely parakeets in the front Will enjoyed) we felt recovered from our flight.

We broke out Mark and Matt's new game Schism. It is a game inspired by the Reformation. Every person gets to be a "church" and create their congregation. Mark and I have been playing it at home, but we have discovered that it doesn't work well as a two player game (or two players each playing two players). Trying it out with four was a great chance to see the game in a better light, with Sarah becoming the most sucessful leader. After the game, we all discussed some of the issues: the ability of players to "gang up" on other players, the need for a summary sheet to keep track of the beliefs of each church. Overall the game worked pretty well and there was lots of positive feedback.

Saturday night, Mark and I got to babysit Will and Sam all by ourselves while everyone else set up for the baptism tomorrow. It was a bit scary being in charge of little people for even that short amount of time. Personally, I have never babysat on my own; I was a helper and then a supervisor for summer camps, but this was rather different. Will and I colored in one of his Veggietales books while Mark entertained little Sam with lots of bouncing and making funny faces. The only hiccup was when Will tried to tell me he wanted to color "Silly Songs." I know that he knew exactly what he was saying, but I just couldn't hear any of the S's. It really didn't make sense without the S's. During the famous Rich nightly ice cream treat, we all sat down to watch October Sky on TV, which Mark had never seen before- a great movie! Then Mark and I stayed up a bit later to watch the first Superman movie- it had been such a long time since either of us had seen it that it felt like the first time.

Sunday we all got ready for church and the baptism of Sam. The ceremony was beautiful and luncheon prepared by Cookie and Sarah was very nice. There was even a lovely cake afterwords (and the minister got the "God" portion just by chance :) ).