More Christmas

Exuberance-induced shouting and running.

More Christmas

Christmas

House portrait 8 x 10"

with two detail shots

Weekend roundup

It was a pretty nice weekend. Friday was freezing rain, sleet, and snow, so some of the afternoon was spent sledding down the small hill in our front yard. 

On Saturday, Kim and the girls drove to Ohio for a cookie-baking-oriented outing with Mom at my cousin’s.  I worked on another house drawing while they were gone, but on Saturday afternoon I attended a “meet-up” at a house not too far from my neighborhood.  It was a board game meet up with some members of the Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers. I am normally averse to any sort of in-depth interaction with strangers, but I figured if I wasn’t going to indulge my passion for board games with like-minded individuals at a home not for from my own, I may as well write off being social at all.

The people I met were very nice, and I had a good time.  I stayed long enough for three games.  First, we played Dominion, which has been a hugely popular card game for eight years or so.  I’d been wanting to try it, and I wasn’t disappointed.  I only played one game, but I was impressed by its cool elegance.  I certainly will be (finally) getting it for myself soon.

Second, we played Shadow Hunters.  I enjoyed that, too, but I sort of felt like there was some little part of the game’s theme that wasn’t “clicking” for me.  I get that the game is “about” some players being supernatural monsters, some players being hunters of supernatural monsters, and some players being independent unaffiliated people with their own victory conditions—all of us stalking each other in the woods.  However, the  manga-tinged artwork,  the Euro-style wooden cylinders used as player markers and counters, and the player-fighting-player interaction all seemed like a slightly odd mix, and I felt like something was being referenced (a certain anime series? A movie? Fairy tales?) that I didn’t quite know about.  Regardless, it was a fun, fairly easy to learn game, and I’d play it again.

Last, we spend quite a long while playing Cards Against Humanity, which is by design a sophomoric, politically incorrect, limits-pushing card game in the vein of Apples to Apples.  Certainly fun with the right group of people (and if you suspect you are NOT a member of this “right group of people,” you are probably correct).  I enjoyed it, and I’d have fun playing it with certain of my friends, but I can’t see ever owning a copy.

And then I finished watching season 2 of “Game of Thrones” while eating Chinese take-out.

Thus passed my weekend.

Putting up the tree. Record snowfall for today's date. Secretly working to help finish off the girls' Halloween candy. Good day.

Snowball fight

I am being pelted

X-wing Miniatures match

I finally set aside some time today for space combat with my friend Paul and his sons. We played for probably 90 minutes before we had to break up for other appointments. No ships were destroyed, though some were badly damaged, due to players learning to maneuver, and the fact that these were sort of beginner ships with no heavy armaments. I look forward to another game.

Just mentioning

In case anyone wonders what kinds of things I wish I had, here are a few I can think of right now:

Practical:

A new garden hose

Impractical:

A pinpointer for the metal detector

Board and card games:

-Pandemic

-Space Cadets: Dice Duel

-Dominion

-Memoir '44

-Expansion for the Carcassonne board game, called Inns & Cathedrals

I am interested in four different expansions for the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures game:  TIE Expansion, B-Wing Bomber, TIE Bomber, TIE Advanced

Mice and Mystics on a rainy Sunday

Noisy fall

 I was walking across the parking lot here at work on a pretty day recently, when I noticed clattering from the small wooded area between the lot and the road.  At first I thought it was birds or squirrels in the trees, but after stopping to watch, I realized if was the noise of leaves dropping.  There was no breeze at all; the yellow and orange leaves were just falling at a steady trickle, and rattling through their unfallen brethren on their way down. As still and quiet as it was in the neighborhood, the noise was comically (to me) loud.

 

Homemade costumes: owl cat, and a "polluted lake"

Pen & Ink house portrait, with detail

Here is another house portrait done with black walnut ink.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to scan the drawing, and instead used my sub-par little camera. The detail shot turned out better because you can make out the texture of the line work.

This drawing is 11 x 15 inches on Bristol paper.

Necromancing with the stars

Sent from my Motorola Smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!

Jack-o'-Lantern Spectacular

Pumpkin number three from me.

Cross country course prep team on the go

I finally got to play Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures when I met up with Pat and Ed last weekend. I had been wanting to play for almost a year, finally got the game in recent months, and finally had the time to break it out.  Pictured are the three ships in the core set, but I have others for bigger battles.

We played on one of the tables at the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble.  The table was a little smaller than the recommended 36” x 36” field, but it worked out fine and did not feel cramped (except on the second table where we kept all the game pieces; that was crowded.)  After my X-wing took out the TIE that Ed was in charge of, we decided to throw in some reinforcements and brought in two TIE interceptors and an A-wing to mix it up a little.

We were still getting the feel for the rules, so it was a pretty easy-going affair, and I had a very good time. I am eager to play more.

Pen and ink house portrait progress

 

 Another progress photo. I think this is coming along quite well, and hope to have it completed in the next few days.

 

A note: I am having trouble getting this image to display horizontally.  If this picture is up on its end, then you know I didn't figure it out and gave up trying.

Rumble Through The Jungle photo 2

Rumble Through The Jungle cross country run

I like the panorama mode stitch twin blondes in the middle.