Thanksgiving Trip 2007 Day 1 and 2

One true test of friendship is the joint vacation. I’m happy to report that A and I passed with flying colors.

Tuesday was a rough day. A lot of deadlines and pressure at work and to make matters worse, J’s car died and we had to have it towed to the dealer for repair. “Steering wheel lock malfunction”. A warranty issue, so it will be repaired free of charge, but still no fun to deal with. I had to take the VRE into work and the metro to A’s house in the afternoon. J met me at A’s house. We had dinner with A and her hubby (R). Fantastic food- baked chicken, fresh asparagus and pecan raisin bread that J brought from Wegman’s. After dinner the four of us packed up A’s car and headed to Long Island for the holiday. Traffic wasn’t too bad and we made it to Bayshore in less than 6 hours. A’s parents welcomed us with open arms and lavished us with a spread of tea, honey, cheese, bread, and pate. Once we had our fill of treats, we hunkered down for a nice sleep and said ‘Goodnight’ to our first evening of vacation together.

Wednesday morning we headed to the local bagel shop for authentic Long Island breakfast ingredients- bagels and lox. A’s family is Russian and Jewish and their hospitality was over the top amazing. Every time we turned around they were feeding us. After breakfast and visiting with the family for awhile A and I kidnapped her mother for a shopping trip. We visited the Alight.com store (they’ve only 1 brick and mortar store in the U.S.A and it’s on Long Island) to shop for dresses. The National Chamber of Commerce party is coming up in December and both A and I need new dresses to wear for the event. I did not find a party dress but I did find a cute little spring/summer number that was on sale. A picked up a fabulous long gown and a few sporty shirts. It was so much to try on clothes and have 2 advisors. A’s mom was very helpful and at times blunt – “No, that one looks like a nightgown”. “Yes, that one is very very beautiful”.

Once we finished shopping at Alight the men called to interrupt and ask when we were coming home for dinner. We swung by a small market to pick up dinner ingredients and then a liquor store to get wine. The market was an adventure – the Long Island accents were out in full force and people watching proved to be very entertaining. A woman and her mother in the next aisle arguing sounded exactly like Fran Drescher arguing with her mother character on “The Nanny”. I picked up 4 pounds of wild Salmon to take back to Virginia since it was on sale for only $3.99 a pound. I was put in charge of dinner for the night so I gathered the supplies to make Marsala chicken. Back at the home of A’s parents, I set about making dinner with the assistance of A and my hubby J. During dinner, A’s mom told me that my onions in the chicken dish were perfect and that never had she tasted onions cooked just right. I beamed with pride. Did I mention that I love her mother? We talked politics with A’s father after dinner and that was enjoyable too. He’s very intelligent and it was a pleasure to discuss the finer points of economic theory with him. And of course the discussion was over tea and treats that we came to learn were standard guest offerings in the home. I worked hard to pick up bits and pieces of the Russian language as I could – A’s parents spoke it constantly with each other and with A as well. Our happy conversations continued well into the late hours until we finally decided to retire for the evening.

Board Game Review: Anno 1800

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a

Board Game Review: Hues and Cues

Last week we received Hues and Cues from The Op Games. We recently finished playing through Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion (a fantastic game in The Op Games catalogue designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim, and Kami Mandell that you should absolutely pick up to play with your family) and wanted to give another game from the same publisher a go. I picked Hues and Cues because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other “test whether our minds think the same way” games such as The Mind and Wavelength. In Hues and Cues , players gather around a large central board comprised of 480 graduating colors of the rainbow surrounded by an x-y axis and scoring table. White and black (which are technically not colors) are conspicuously absent as are shades (mixtures of color + black; e.g., grey) and tints (mixtures of color + white; e.g., cream). On each player’s turn, they draw a card with four colors and the x-y axis codes of those colors depicted and they select one. They are in the

Board Game Review: Brass Birmingham

Here’s a story of a lovely lady (spoiler: it’s me) and her pride and how it has led to the discovery of the single greatest board game I have ever played. It’s probably also a good primer for other reviewers on increasing your reach. At GenCon this year, I was perusing the wares of the various booths and my eyes caught a glimpse of two beautiful game boxes. Each had crisp metallic lettering with an old world feel and artwork that radiated European class. I made my way to the booth and waited patiently to speak to to the team manning it as there were many buyers lined up to purchase the games. I didn’t know anything about the games (Brass Birmingham and Brass Lancashire), or the publisher – Roxley Game Laboratory – but I knew I wanted to review one or both of the games. Almost every board game love story I star in in can be summed up this way: I am seduced by the artwork or theme and then I stay for the right mechanics. When the lead rep spoke with me, he gently rejected my request. He