Forbidden Front Porch

Speaking of games, some friends invited us over to dinner last weekend, and it was suggested we bring a few games. I grabbed Forbidden Island as one of the games, and after dinner my 9-year-old pulled it out to play with the other kids (our friends’ two sons, plus three of their neighbors).  I thought it unlikely to work out because I thought they would be too distracted and would prefer to run around. However, when I looked out onto the front porch a half-hour later, I was surprised to see all seven kids sitting beneath the porch light, crowded around the game.  They had somehow devised a 5-player game that involved the Diver giving piggy-back rides, but whatever, they were having a great time.

X-Wing Miniatures and Dominion

Lando and the rookie encountering an imperial entanglement in the asteroid field

The last wounded TIE bomber failing to shake the closing X-wing pilot

I met up with some friends for games today. First we played X-Wing. Aaron and Paul flew a TIE fighter and two TIE bombers; Paul 's son Connor and I flew an x-wing and Lando in the Falcon. It was a tough match. I, flying Lando, 'sploded but inflicted a lot of damage. Connor's rookie then mopped up for a Pyrrhic Rebel victory. Then we played Dominion, and it was my Worst. Game. Yet. Everyone starts the game with three victory points. I ended the game with three. Terrible. It was a very low scoring game, but still. I love the game, though.

"You Are Allowed to Eat A Burger For Breakfast If You've Been Up All Night Fighting Crime"

 I was visiting friends last weekend when I saw this piece of art hanging in their house.  I learned that their teenage daughter, Anna, created it--a combination of hand drawn work, photography, and digital manipulation.  Besides the obvious subject matter, it is also a depiction of her and her father.  Anna kindly forwarded the digital file to me to post on my blogs.  It's not the first time I've been impressed by her work.  I am envious of her creativity.

Lunch break walk

Things are turning green

Painting along Floyds Fork

16 X 20 inch acrylic painting on panel. I stood painting in the field for a few hours, and my neck is burned. I am glad I was wearing long sleeves and a hat. Bumble bees as big as golf balls kept swooping in to investigate, and a variety of spiders wanted to climb to my shoulders to chat with me, but I persevered.

Self portrait

Got a new phone. Still learning to use it. Here is a photo I accidentally took of myself as I tried to change a setting so I could snap a picture of the snow on my car.

Billy Joel: Live at the KFC Yum! Center

 Billy Joel: A Concert Review

An enthusiastic crowd of somewhere over 150 greeted Mr. Joel last night at the KFC Yum! Center.  Mr. Joel immediately gained bonus points for not saying what a horrid, crappy name "KFC Yum! Center" is, and instead complemented the venue based on size and neatness (or so I read into his comments.  I was seated approximately 1.3 miles away and 200 feet higher in elevation, so I may have missed some nuances.)

Speaking of venue and audience, I would also like to mention that all those people didn't smell that bad.  How do you cram that many people into a building, and not have a terrific stink problem?  I suppose that the ventilation system must be top-notch, but I think some credit must also go to Americans in general.  Americans are very good bathers.  This crowd was also very nicely dressed.

Mr. Joel played many crowd-pleasing favorites, and he played them just softly enough to allow me to hear the mellow, joyful voices of my wife and several thousand of our terraced seat-neighbors singing along with him.  The songs, in my opinion, got better as the night wore on.  Perhaps he was wearing me down? Or perhaps he was saving the best for last?

One of the evening's grand highlights was a belting performance of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" by Chainsaw, one of the road crew, with Mr. Joel on guitar. It was very nice of Mr. Joel to pause his piano performance for an homage to rock and roll, a genre for which he seems to have some fondness, though seems hesitant to venture into himself.

Despite my disappointment with the mysterious absence from the playlist of the theme song to "Bosom Buddies," the Tom Hanks/Peter Scolari cultural watershed from a generation ago, the evening was a delight.

Carlton Winwood opened for Mr. Joel.  I may be mis-remembering the name. I did not recognize any of his songs, but from a great distance his shiny leather jacket and hat looked dashing.

 

St. Louis from the Arch

I took a lot of panaromic photos, and this might be the only one that came out the way I wanted.