Category Archives: friends

West Texas Bound

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BillComingToMarfa.mp3

After a Labor Day Weekend in Galveston, shaking a fist in warning at the distant Hurricane Gustav, I will be heading to Marfa and area, and then to El Paso.

I’ll be getting into Marfa on Tuesday, perhaps sitting in with David at the Marfa Public Radio station, 11p – 1a. I don’t currently have any West Texas plans for a few days, so if you have any pointers, let me know!

In El Paso, a dozen college friends are descending on the town for the University of Texas football game against the UTEP Miners, as well as our friend Bret’s birthday.

Bret covers the Miners for the El Paso Times. So, while he may have to spend a couple of hours that weekend being professional, we don’t!

New Stove and More

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Recently, my friend Virginia O informed me that her sister Elizabeth was demolishing her house and had some last items for sale. Well, this sounded like a good opportunity, and I had some time, so I checked it out.

Particularly Virginia had mentioned a stove/oven. I have been needing a new one for a long time. I had wanted a gas stove, but the current connection was for an electric, and that seemed to be the easiest road to take.

stoveSo, I took the stove , it fit in the back of my Subaru no problem. When I got home, moved the old beast onto the back porch, did a 10-year cleaning of the area, and pushed the new oven into place, I found out that 220 volt plugs have changed in the last (insert correct number) decades.

I had to return to the house to pick up an entertainment center, so when I returned, I extricated the plug that was previously in use for the stove, and later installed it at my house.

It works great, and I first tested it out baking a store pizza on my long-unused pizza stone. Trés magnifique!

As mentioned, I also picked up an entertainment center. Mine works fine, but I’ve been using it for eight or so years, and it leads a bit to visual clutter, and also allowed a full cover of dust because of its openness.

wardrobeThe new entertainment center is actually a wardrobe from Mexico. Given that I live in an old house with a limited amount of closet space, it could actually be put to that use, if I wanted to. But, It works well as an entertainment center.

If my television was an inch less deep it would be perfect; as it is, it touches the TV when closed and doesn’t close perfectly.

I didn’t appreciate the full heft of the piece until I got Kevin and Conn over to the house to pick it up. It’s an extremely solid piece. We ran it into several things, with only colored markings to indicate what they might have been. The marks only add to its rustic charm.

Apparently the piece was hauled back from Mexico on the top of an Isuzu with great drama. I’m glad it made it and happy to have the piece now.

Donna

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So, when you receive a MySpace friend request from “Donna” who doesn’t have a picture, and lives in another state, and who’s only friend is “Tom”, what do you do?

No PhotoYes. And I was just about to delete the invitation, but I noticed some oddities. She wasn’t 18 or 21 or 26, like most MySpace spam, but 41.

And she’s in Geismar, Louisiana. That sounded vaguely familiar, so I looked it up. Suburb of Baton Rouge.

Hmm, I actually know a Donna of that age that lives in the suburbs of the Red Stick. I guess I’ll give her a day or two to put any identifying information onto her account.

But Donna, MySpace is so 2004. Where’s your FaceBook account?

Memorial Day Weekend: Friends, Beers, and Games

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A chronological list of my holiday weekend, with duplicates removed. It was over a week ago, but I’ve finally put it all down in writing.  I have included the ratings for the beers and the games (taken from RateBeer.com and BoardGameGeek.com).  The beers are ranked by percentile.  The games are rated out of 10, and ranked in order.

    AnchorPorter.jpg

  • Franziskaner Heffe-Weisen (90) – a fabulous summer beer, light and refreshing
  • Yspahan (7.5, 83, Sébastien Pauchon) – a fun and light game with wooden camels, and an interesting dice mechanic; a very approachable game for “non-gamers”
  • Unibroue Maudite (96) – a fabulous and dark complected beer, with riotous carbonation; i discovered this Quebecan gem when I was living in Alberta, and have loved it ever since
  • Hacienda (7.3, 151, Wolfgang Kramer) – take your cattle to market on the South American pampas frontiers; lots of bits, moderate difficulty
  • Lord of the Rings (7.1, 187, Reiner Knizia) – a co-operative game, where everyone is playing a hobbit, trying to help the ring be destroyed, quite a bit of variety, with multiple boards, we lost horribly
  • Dvonn (7.6, 69, Kris Burm) – one of the Project GIPF series (all 2-player abstracts), Woody’s son Mac happens to be very good at it and he trounced me
  • Anchor Porter (98) – my favorite beer is the next one I’m having, variety is the spice of life, and the variety in beer styles is what I like, but when pressed, this is the beer I call my favorite, it’s chocolatey goodness is unsurpassed
  • In the Year of the Dragon (7.7, 53, Stefan Feld) – this was a new “big box” release last year, and got a lot of play, though mixed reviews at last year’s BGG.con; i was slow to warm up to this game, but by the time my first play was over, i liked it
  • New Belgium 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale (85) – the lowest rated beer so far, likely because it’s not true to style; it is true to total deliciousness, and I have several friends who like this beer a lot, but aren’t really beer drinkers

    • YearOfTheDragon.jpg

  • Twilight Imperium, Second Edition (7.2, 794, Christian T. Petersen) – this 2000 game was superseded in 2005 (3rd Edition, 7.9, 27), last year I bought the 2nd edition w/ expansion for rock-bottom prices; this was the first real play I’ve had, it was very enjoyable, it would be great with 4 (we had 3), and yes it would take 6 hours or so
  • Tribes – hmm, a week gone by and I don’t recall this game
  • St. Arnold Summer Pils (36) – a good light but moderately hopped beer
  • Unibroue Trois Pistoles (99) – a dark belgian ale, another fabulous example from this brwery
  • Lindeman’s Framboise (90) – it seems that lambic variety has dropped in past years, Lindeman’s can always be found in the Houston market; this is their raspberry infused version; not as sour as tradition would dictate

    • TheReverend.jpg

  • Tigris and Euphrates (8.2, 4, Reiner Knizia) – a classic, and tough to get your brain around, such simple mechanics, such complex interplay, best with 4, very Knizia
  • Lindeman’s Cassis (76) – this may be one of my favorite lambic flavors, this one is black currant
  • Goa (7.9, 21, Rüdiger Dorn) – this one has sat in the box at Wimberley many, many times, and this is the first I’ve played it; it was a great game, i’d love to play more
  • Avery The Reverend (87) – a quadruple that was deliciously sweet and complex
  • Alagash Dubbel Reserve (87) – a taste beer from Maine
  • Hamburgum (7.4, 159, Mac Gerdts) – i wasn’t quite sure about this one on my first play a month ago (despite beer being one of the resources in the game), but playing it a second time I really came to enjoy, and grok, this one
  • North Coast Brother Thelonious (90) – a strong ale from California, named after the Jazz icon
  • Tripel Karmeliet (98) – a fabulous belgian tripel
  • Ra (7.9, 19, Reiner Knizia) – this multi-round bidding game is nearly 10 years old and a classic
  • Lindeman’s Pêche (79) – peach, a standard, but less common lambic flavor
  • Lindeman’s Kriek (82) – the classic version of the flavored kriek; cherry
  • Traders of Genoa (7.5, 76, Rüdiger Dorn) – we play this one fairly often at Wimberley, this time it was reinforced that the game play can vary drastically depending upon the opponents – there’s deal making afoot

    • Hamburgum.jpg

  • Recess! (5.4, 3643) – a kids game where you try to steal the lunch money from everyone else while not getting caught by the nuns, getting one of your boys to kiss one of your girls ends the game and earns a bonus
  • Keythedral (7.1, 131, Richard Breese) – a game I had to have for the octagonal pieces, generally enjoyed by all
  • Las Vegas Showdown (7.4, 116, Henry Stern) – a great build-your-own-casino theme, implemented with a bidding mechanism that’s not too threatening, mean new-comers always enjoy it; lots of fun
  • Wits and Wagers (7.2, 175) – a great solution to the party trivia game – bet on everyone’s answers; this one was in constant play last year at BGG.con
  • Pandemic (7.9, 29, Matt Leacock) – brand new and hard to find, this game is amazingly fun, even when you perpetually lose; well balanced, it’s a shame it maxes out at 4 people

Art Car Parade Prep – Allen OldiesMobile

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Whew! I’m still breathing hard. Just got back from the beer run for Saturday morning.

I usually have regular thursday night and friday night plans. I bailed on both of them. No thursday games with friends. No friday running sound for the Ringwalds.

I helped out Allen Hill in preparing the OldiesMobile for the Art Car Parade on saturday. Lot’s of starts and stops, and success and failure, as art cars are want to be. But I think we’re ready for the morning.

I borrowed a generator from our service department. It is built to support an ambulance, so it’s totally over engineered for running a band. Loading into my car with a fork lift was the first warning – this things gonna be heavy.

Thursday, Allen and I moved it from my car, tested it, it worked great. We moved it into the Mobile. Friday I get home, he’s in my driveway, we move it from the Mobile, it’s a no-go. We call Sir Henkel and with three, we 1) pick it off the ground to a table, 2) off the table to the hood, 3) off the hood to the roof. Job performed, Sir Henkel retreats. Continue reading →