Splendiferous Zeppelin Escapades

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. We didn’t go anywhere or do anything really super special, but we did go to a friend of ours BBQ. I got a few good pictures there. So, here they are:

Have I mentioned that my baby can sit up now?! He’s such a big guy. I can’t believe how fast (and sometimes how slow) the last 6 and a half months have been.

And Spencer took his first ride in a swing at this party. I’m not sure he liked it all that much…

We got a new look! (It’s about time too). We are really excited about it. I have been wanting to redo it for a while, but I had been afraid to do it since it seemed hard. Well, a few weeks ago I had a friend ask me to design her header and background. I said yes wanting to practice my designer skills, and it turned out pretty well.

Click the picture to go see it.

So, I wanted to do ours too. Only this time I was able to use all my fun scrapbooking stuff (since it was my personal blog). I used Peppermint Creative’s Rainbow Joy Elements and Papers, and various other elements. I also used Pamela Donnis‘ Whirly Curls and Circled Frame.

ANYWAY, leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Ok, right on the heels of the last post is about another “board” game called Race for the Galaxy.  It is actually a card game about expanding your galactic empire by Exploring, Developing new technologies/establishments, Settling new worlds, Consuming goods to earn points towards victory, and/or Producing new goods for consumption later.  Each player (from 2-4) plays out/builds their own empire mostly irrespective of the other players’ empires.  They aren’t completely independent, however, because the game can be ended by any player and you have to be sure to have your strategy finished in time.

Jessica and I played it for the first time last night (bought it yesterday!), and it played through in a little over an hour (including most of the learning time), so it plays fairly quickly.  It seems like it will give just enough time for you to decide (quickly) on a strategy and either finish it or come really close.  In our first game, Jessica tried for the settle-a-ton-of-worlds strategy partly for lots of production and consumption.  I went mostly military by building up government programs to have enough force to take over some rebel worlds.  Jessica ended the game before I expected, and after I threw a tantrum because I didn’t get to take over the rebel homeworld, we tallied up the score.  Turns out I had amassed more points (not by a large margin), so my tantrum was a bit embarrassing in hindsight.

All in all, it was a good game.  We kind of wished there had been a little more interaction between our two empires, but it was kind of interesting to be so immersed in my own that I was able to get into the theme of it.  Also, any game that illicits such viral responses as my outburst at the end is a good game indeed.  We’ll see how it plays out in the future, but for now, we’re glad to have it.

In case you hadn’t heard of it, Jessica and I have a board game that we quite enjoy and just finished playing: Lord of the Rings.  It’s a little more complex than your traditional Monopoly or Risk type of game, but it plays pretty quickly in about an hour.  Its main distinctive trait is that it is a cooperative game in which all the players play their hands individually on the same team against the board.  The board controls Sauron, and each of the players plays a hobbit.  The hobbits try to make it through all the main locations in the trilogy while dealing with all sorts of troublesome events like you find in the books.  They must work together to make it to Mt. Doom and throw in the Ring.

I just thought this deserved a mention because our reactions to it while playing are so unique.  Inevitably, as we are finishing this game, the mood gets really tense as we make our final plans to avoid meeting Sauron.  When we die (lose), we yell (yes, yell) out in frustration, and when we chuck the Ring we yell in triumph.  Yep, it’s that engrossing.  Anyway, if you want to learn more, click here.  It’s a bit expensive (brand new $50, used off eBay maybe $35-40), but we’ve quite enjoyed it.  It’s our first game venturing into the expansive board game world (see http://boardgamegeek.com for more), and I’m looking forward to getting a lot more of these types of games.