Middle kid got this for Christmas from Aunt Jess and Uncle Jeff and fam and REALLY wanted to play it on Sunday so we broke it out. Only got to play one game with Jerrod and middle kid, but we had fun and the game was very close: I had 31 at game end, both Jerrod and Middle kid had 30. Great game.

Got to play four games of this with Brett on Friday after we finished with 7 Wonders. I had been telling Brett that we should play this sometime as I knew he played and I had never really played face-to-face before, only online or against an AI. Brett brought over two decks, a green heavy deck with big hitters and an artifact deck that brought a whole lot of crazy to the table.

A lot of the time was spent with Brett re-teaching me the rules (a lot has changed since I last played), but it was a ton of fun once I groked everything. Looking forward to playing this in the future… now to get Kel hooked…

Played with Angie, Brett and Kel last Friday. First time playing for all of us and we all really liked it. I can see why this one is so popular. The different boards give each culture a slightly different feel and there are several ways to get victory points. Played two games, won both.

(via TheOatmeal.com blacked out in protest of SOPA / PIPA - The Oatmeal)

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet (by Fight for the Future)

ELECTROSHOCK (HD) Brilliant Short animated Film from ESMA Students (sub titles) (by MadArtistPublishing)

Almost forgot to post these, going to post one entry for all the games played over the last few days of which there were about 8, all with oldest and middle kid.

Middle kid has been really into Pokemon ever since a friend at school gave her about 10. Definitely not enough to play with, but more than enough to get her really interested. She had been reading Pokemon books (though they’re still a bit above her level), and had been given a handbook and a few booster packs as a gift earlier this year. Sooo… Santa brought her a 100 pack of energy cards (so she can actually play with her cards) and a trainer kit that included two 30 card decks that you can learn with, but can be combined into one standard 60 card deck.

Reading the directions I thought the game was a little too confusing at first, but our first time playing “on our own” (not using the guided directions), everything was really easy and the game flowed really well. We quickly realized that one of the trainer decks vastly overpowers the other (due to it’s pokemon’s weaknesses), so I quick whipped up a deck using some of the other pokemon she has… And now, god help me, I think I really like this game and have been finding myself wanting to play it more and more: I *need* to tweak that deck I created.

Couldn’t really care less though as I’m having a blast playing with my kids.

Played with Kel, Jerrod, and Mike after the kids went to bed on Saturday (but before Santa came). First game of this for Mike and I think he liked it. I played the Zombies while the others played two humans each.

The Humans won, but not after I was able to kill off one of Jerrod and Mike’s guys. We laughed at first when somebody found a walkie talkie as they’re usually useless unless somebody else finds one: two more were found during the game. They were used to their full advantage with one human getting 12 actions on one of their turns. Really fun game though, and tons of tension as usual.

Oh Dex… Really gonna miss you.

We found out about a month ago that Dex had cancer. Last night he took a significant turn for the worse. We put him down earlier tonight. He was such a great dog.

African Bull Frog ant crusher (by KoreanFrogMania)