Weekend Update

Sometimes I miss the "safe space" that livejournal provided to create locked blog entries. On the other hand, being prohibited from creating "tell all" entries online due to a lack of a protected forum in which to do so means that I must share these details in person with friends I lean on, bringing us closer together in ways that chatting online never could. Also, I know on some level that the "safe space" that lj afforded was merely an illusion- as evidenced by the repeated times that trust was breached by readers.

So I will just vaguely express my feelings on the series of events I experienced last week in a simple summary- people can be pretty crummy and when you focus your life on what is right and good it turns your stomach just a bit when you have close encounters with others who don't share this focus. A mixture of revulsion toward what they are embracing and sympathy for the life in Christ they are forgoing. I also want to reiterate that being a grown up means you don't do necessarily what you *feel* like doing, but what, after careful evaluation, you deem to be the best and most practical course of action.

In other news,my cherished cell phone/pda (Sprint ppc 6601) that I've had since my Congressional employee days was stolen on Thursday evening. I had to get a replacement phone, and since it was on my own dime, a cheaper one of course. I picked up a cute Katana II and it's pink! Pink! Tres adorable.

J and I spent the weekend wrapping Christmas presents. We are almost finished with all of our shopping and are trying to turn the focus of our time and energies to remembering the reason for the season. Christ, of course.

Another fun activity I was pulled into this weekend was researching my ancestry. My father sent me several emails with pieces of our family tree from his mother's side of the family [The Laraques] so I started to put it all together and found a great free tool to do so from myheritage.com. It wasn't long into creating my tree that the software reported to me that 2 other people had trees overlapping mine. How exciting! I got in contact with both of them- distant cousins [we share grandparents 4 or 5 generations back!] -and we started some great conversations. In the process of my research I've been able to go all the way back to 1613 and found 2 important people in history among my grandmother's line so far. One was a man who is held up highly in Haitian history for his work in the Haitian independence movement. Another was also a well loved man (Sylla aka "Tom" Laraque) by the Haitian people- so much so that he ran for president of Haiti in the 50s and had a good shot to win but was basically forced into exile to Mexico by the U.S govt who did not appreciate the fact that a Marxist might become president. (That's right, I've got a bloody Marxist in my heritage). I'm excited to continue the trace backward as far as I can go with my paternal grandmother's family and then I will move onto my paternal grandfather, my mother's parents, and then Jonathan's family.

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 a...

Board Game Review: Obsessed with Obsession

I'm completely obsessed with Obsession! I received a review copy of the updated second edition along with all the expansions (Wessex, Useful Man, Upstairs Downstairs) and from the moment I took everything out of the boxes, my excitement was over the top. Actually, that's not even the half of it - I remember I was already quite excited before the game even arrived. I'd wanted to get my hands on a copy as soon as I learned there was a game that brought the lifestyle that we all fell in love with watching Downton Abbey to the gaming table. Back in 2021, I was having a great time at the Dice Tower Summer Retreat and a new friend Bonnie sang the praises of Obsession. She had seen me eyeing the box on the shelf and gave me a summary of the game mechanics as she owned the first edition. She explained that the theme is centered on running an estate in Derbyshire and competing against others to have the best home, reputation, gentry guests, etc. Based on her enthusiasm and descripti...

Board Game Review: Expeditions Gears of Corruption

L ast year I reviewed Expeditions and ranked it #1 among all Stonemaier games on account of the challenging intellectual puzzle it presents. This year I have played my way through the new expansion, Gears of Corruption , and I’m delighted to let you know that it makes the base game even better. That the expansion so cohesively builds on the base game should not be a surprise to anyone who closely examines the original box for Expeditions. All expansion components perfectly fit in that box including the 2 new mechs that nestle in the placeholder cubbies clearly made for them. That can’t be coincidence. There might a few features rolled into Corruption of Gears that were developed as a result of consumer feedback on the base game (I’m looking at you, wild meeple), but my theory is that Stonemaier did a Lord of the Rings maneuver with this game and its expansions, designing the entire game with most of the additions integrated up front, and then breaking it into base + expansions fo...