Sometime last year I re-discovered a fun childhood past-time, playing board games. My re-discovery (in fact this was my second re-discovery, but that is a topic for another day) unearthed something I did not think I would find: there are board games for adults! Like most Americans my age I grew up playing the usual Milton Bradley games, and I had a blast, but as I got older they lost their appeal. To my joy I found there are games that appeal to my adult mind, offering complex strategies, intriguing mechanics, and above all fun.

Thanks to BoardGameGeek we have been exploring games we didn't know existed, and we have been having a blast. We have had a few game parties at our house, and we've invited many friends over for an evening of playing some of our games. One of my goals this year is to start up a regular gaming group among our friends (including family, for if family is not friend then it's not much of a family).

I have not [yet] made time to develop a custom theme for this site. On occasion I will browse through some ready-made themes for the software running this site, and if I am lucky I will see something better than what I have. Today I was lucky. With a little bit of editing I have now enabled a new default theme for this site. Let me know what you think of it. As usual you still have the ability to set the theme you want from a list of available ones in your own profile. I hope you like this new theme. It's closer to what I want to do.

The “bah humbugs” are about to begin, and my metamorphosis into Scrooge feels like it's coming on early this year. In an unexpected and crazy whirlwind of activity our home is beginning to take on the shape of a festive and lively abode for the good cheer of the season. Since we are hosting Christmas for both sides of the family this year we are feeling like we should make sure our home is cheery, festive, and painted.

The wall we took out is still not finished, though we are in the final stages. Before today we had the texturing left to do, then some painting, tacking down the ledges, and adding the trim work. We got the texturing done this morning, that is to say, we got most of it done. The ceiling still needed some mud work done to make it appear like it was a natural part of the ceiling, and not a lumpy, bumpy, cracked mess of wall compound. I spent more time on our step ladder bent over backwards, with my hands above my head, trying desperately to make the mud level and look something other than unnatural; I feel for Michaelangelo, though I'm sure he got to lay on his back while he painted.

This year's Thanksgiving was different in nearly every aspect of tradition. We had ham instead of turkey, there were only four of us (the older and the younger Barbers), and the usual activities were not to be found. For the younger barbers the day started off on possibly the most down of notes that could be found. We awoke to a broken furnace and wet wood that we had been unsuccessful at keeping lit. The house was a cool 54 degrees Fahrenheit and we had no prospects of making it warmer, ever. Thankfully Holly was able to get a fire going through perpetual fire-tending, and combined with the oven cooking our share of the family meal, we were able to get some heat.

Last night we invited five friends over to our place to play some games, eat some food, and possibly watch a movie. Since it was a Halloween-ish party it was decided we would all come in costume. If we had decided to judge the costumes I think I would have voted for Cheri, as her punk costume looked quite good, and rather authentic (thought I can't say I know a lot about punks). I decided to dress up as something I clearly am not, a handyman; I later had to lose the tool belt as it was too awkward to sit with it on, though I did briefly consider how many more snacks I could pack around.

It was a normal night about a year ago when calamity struck. Our new kitten preferred to play in his litter box, kicking the litter out of it and onto the floor. In an effort to keep the bathroom clean the litter box was placed into the bathtub where spills could be contained. Spills there were, and as he grew up his litter box changed. Now equipped with a top he could kick it up to his heart's content and it would all stay in the box. Everyone was happy, until we tried to clean the bathtub; the water wouldn't drain.

We are blessed to have 2 bathrooms in our house, and since we rarely use the bathtub we shrugged our shoulders, breathed a deep sigh, and resolved to fix it some other day. Those days came and went; our efforts at using consumer grade plumbing materials were not effective. We had but one path left and we didn't want to spend the money. We hoped the need would not arise until we sold the house, but we were wrong.

My in-laws were up for the weekend and good times were had by all, all except for the bulls. My father-in-law is a cattle rancher and I think it's safe to say he admires cowboys. In any event he is a fan of the rodeo and since there was a rodeo in town during their visit we took them to it. Much to my surprise my parents also joined us, and thus six of us spent hours upon a hard wooden plank watching men with more guts than common sense attempt to ride a thrashing bull for at least eight seconds. Most did not make the eight second limit, and while they lasted mere seconds the event lasted hours, some weird sci-fi twist of time I'm still puzzling out.

It was a hot and stormy night . . . at least that's how it ended up. It was a hot day, as it has been for a while, and as usual we had our bedroom window open with the hope of cooling it off (and it was frigidly cold this morning). Usually we have to endure the cats jumping on and off the windowsill, and at first that was waking us up, but now we have learned to ignore it. Tonight it was “Mother Nature's” turn to wake us up, and not because we had a glass of water before we went to bed.

Somewhere around 3:30 AM I awoke, and at first I had no idea why I was awake, but a mere moment later the sky lit up as if some crazed photographer was attacking my backyard with his flash, the accompanying thunder told me otherwise. My new sound system is powerful enough to vibrate the house in little bits, but this crash of noise shook the world. When the second pair of lightning and thunder came near simultaneously I had my reason for the extreme volume assailing my ears. When the power knocked out from the second blast (for only 5 seconds or so) I was not immediately surprised, though I do wonder if anything was struck.

Every time I sit down to talk with some french students, or even students from other countries, they all want to talk about the same thing. They want to ask me about the war and talk about it. I also get the feeling that all of them have the same mindset. So far all of them have told me that their news-media is telling the truth and that our American media is spreading nothing but lies. This makes me upset because how in the world would they know what is truth and what is lies? Also, they admit to me their lack of participation in viewing American media. So again, how do they know our media is spreading lies when not only are they not watching it, but they aren’t there watching the war unfold before their very eyes.

Sunday, 10 July 2005

We stayed at a youth hostel last night in the small town of Granville which is located on the coast. It was a nice place to visit with a large dock full of sailboats you could rent to take out in the ocean. The town was nice and the locals also seemed nice. One of the local bar owners was very nice to us, giving us free candy bars, but I think it was an attempt at getting one of the girls interested in his son. Later that night some of us went swimming in the ocean, it was a little cold but not as cold as the Oregon Coast, I stayed in for about 45 minutes. In the morning we got up and went to see where Christian Dior lived, I didn’t really care about it but he had a lot of nice flowers. I was actually more interested in the wharf we walked down to get to his place. The sunlight there was perfect for a morning photo-shoot which would have gone perfectly because there was a very nice Casino in the background as well as the beautiful blue ocean. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time and I left my cameras on the bus because we were going to a museum. We walked by a realtor and I noticed that the price of some very nice cottages was pretty cheap for that tourist town. I thought it would be a nice area to buy a house and rent it out to people, I bet it would pay for itself in a few years.