Monthly Archives: May 2008

Disc Golf 05/31/2008

huge crowd

The disc golf meetup met today at Wilco. And it was very large. Too large. The first problem was that John had introduced bag tags to the group that you can compete over. You can only do this with singles. So no one wanted to play doubles today.

The other problem was how the group was split up. Or not as the case might be. Instead of just quickly making groups of four, or even randomly assigning groups of four, John decided that everyone should play at once until people’s score differentiated them into groups. I guess the losers should play with other losers. This is not very optimal. Everyone slowly walks ahead. There is confusion about who throws next, etc. Finally, after forty minutes, we split into groups at hole 4.

hole 12

But, even then, we still have a bottle-neck. The individual groups don’t wander ahead to different holes. So I decided to ditch the group and jump to hole 11. Even occasionally throwing multiple times, I was able to finish the course quickly. I made a birdie on hole 12. And I had fun.

protected bee

It looks like someone made a sign for the bee tree. I hope that this does not point out the bees to everyone and make them a target.

I Get 18 MPG

I Get 18 MPG

Wow. That monstrosity gets better gas mileage than my truck does! I should trade up. I wonder if they offer free gas cards as well?

Stuck toad

stuck toad

Mr. Toad loves to spend the night entranced by my Malibou light. Moths are attracted to the light and he makes a meal out of them.

The frackin’ neighborhood kids occasionally mess with the metal covers on the outdoor water shut-off valves. Why, I will never understand. Because they are there probably. And, because it was left off, Mr. Toad must have fell in. I let him escape on his own. But the next day he was still there. So I reached in and helped him out. I didn’t want him dying there…

Game Day 05/26/2008

Pear and Cherry Pie

I took a pie making class at Central Market last week and I just had to try making another one. It came out pretty well if I do say so myself. Mmmm, pie…

Game #1

Antiquity

Ed wanted to play Brass. I certainly wanted to play it again. But Jon was up for a game of Antiquity and I just had to play that!

Once again I chose to go for Santa Maria. I don’t know what it is about this game for me, but I always choose to go for the easier saint. Tom was new to this game and he did well. He didn’t die, he didn’t run out of wood, and he was going along. I stored food early in this game. Which was good. It kept me from having to take graves (both Jon and Tom were taking graves). The only problem was that I wasn’t producing wood quick enough. It limited me towards the end of the game. But I still won though.

Game #2

Catan Dice Game

Next, we tried the new Settler’s dice game while we waited for the other tables to finish up. It was okay for a dice game. Even though the dice were certainly hosing me this game, I didn’t finish too far behind everyone.

Game #3

Through The Ages

We finished off the night with Through the Ages. Strangely enough, we noticed that we got a rule wrong. You are supposed to discard two yellow tokens at the end of an era (previously, we were only discarding one). This makes the game a little harder.

In this game, I ignored my army completely. Which you shouldn’t do because it paints a huge target on your back. But I got lucky. I wasn’t attacked during the first and second eras. However, I noticed that Tom was getting quite aggressive. His army was huge. My spidey sense was tingling rather fiercely. So I took and played Ghandi as a leader. This forestalled a war that he was planing to use on me because he didn’t have enough red tokens. Both Jon and I could see that the game would end soon. I could only hope that my large difference in scoring would keep me ahead of Tom at the end. On the last turn, Tom was finally able to declare war on me. I could only get the difference between our armies to be thirty points. This gave Tom a good delta on me. But it wasn’t enough. I still finished ahead of him for the win.

Tom did get rather pissed off at Jon and I though for noticing how many cards were left. We do consider that to be public knowledge. However he thought it should be a surprise. Different game groups have different styles, I guess.

Pool message

pool message

I found this message floating in the community pool. Wow, what poor writing ability. I wonder if the message was delivered? It reads:

tell him that Keeke
leaf and she been gone 42 h
and she leaf he fone
and it not lyk her 2 leaf
her fone and ? when is
DA last time u talk 2 h?l

Hidden M.I.G.-21

MIG-21

I have been riding past this house when I bike for a while now. And I never noticed what was in the back yard. It looks like a M.I.G.-21! I should just walk up to the house some time and ask to see it…

Piper

This is the same route that goes past an aviation community with Cessnas in garages.

Detour Tree

And, of course, the detour tree. Mr road has no choice but to go around Mr. tree.

Lizards

Lizard #1

I wanted to take a picture of a lizard on the outdoor storage cabinet. But he was nervous. He ran off when I got too close. I did leave the tripod out and set up. But Mr. Lizard was having none of that.

Lizard #2

This one was a little better. Maybe because he had no where close to hide.

Game Day 05/22/2008

Game #1

Amyitis

First up tonight was Amyitis. This is an interesting game. But probably not one that you should play only once every year (or six months) or so. There are many ways to score. And it helps to keep previous playings in mind when you play this.

Tichu

Doug was getting all of the cards at the beginning. He made four Tichus in a row before finally being set.

Due to, not one, but two scoring errors we thought we were clawing our way back to victory. First, we called and made two desperation Grand-Tichus. The score was 910 to 990. We needed to call Tichu, make it, and then score at least 45 points. Which we did!

Sadly, that version could not stand up to the scrutiny of entering the score into the system…


05/22/2008 The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed
GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
MarkH & Jon DougG & MikeCh
 
65
    35  
 
125
  T+ 175  
  155   T+
345
 
 
265
  T+ 535  
  295   T+
705
 
 
355
  T- 645  
  355     845  
T+
510
    890  
 
565
    935  
  755 GT+  
1045
 
 
1010
GT+   1090  
T+
1195
    1105  

Rice shaker

rice shaker

I know that people put rice in salt shakers to help absorb moisture (How much moisture can a grain of rice absorb? Wouldn’t you need to change them occasionally?). But, seriously, this shaker has more rice in it than salt!