01 May 2012

Third Week in April 2012

Monday at lunch I got out to the work track for run #6 in 2012, 2.10 mi (3.4k) in 20:50.7 (9:52.6 pace). It was way too cold. In theory I think I should be able to run about 28 minutes at lunch, but I ran out of time (and frankly motivation) on lap 17, three short of my goal of 20. After work I ran some errands, then came home and worked on processing pictures.

Tuesday after work Maggie and I went to (Omaha Jitterbugs friend) Jocelyn's senior year piano recital at Creighton.

Recital
Not a good picture, but a good performance.

Afterwards we went out to eat at Alvarado's. I ate too much, but that's no surprise.

Wednesday after work I went to RCIA. Came home and started cooking. Ben and Maeg were at dance practice and when it was over, they came upstairs and we talked for quite a while.

Thursday during lunch it was raining, but I ran anyways: 2012 running day 7 was a little different, three 0.5mi (800m) segments broken up by walking a lap. The totals were 12:56.3 / 9:40.8 pace. Half mile number one 3:59.5 / 8:01.8 ... fast! Half mile number two 4:12.9 / 8:28.8 ... not quite as fast. Half mile number three 4:53.5 / 9:50.4 ... um, at least it's under 10:00. The rain got pretty cold, and I eventually gave up more for the weather than for the running. In the evening, I worked on more of the photos from the reception.

Friday was the beginning of PretzCon and an active weekend of gaming and stuff. After work I headed to the convention, checked in, and played one game of Small World with several expansions mixed in. I didn't win (a theme for the entire weekend). After one game, I went home, cleaned up, and went downtown for the dance.

Saturday morning I headed over to Pretzcon for the start of all day gaming. The first game played was Fluxx. I actually won this game, but it was kind of a fluke, but with Fluxx, what isn't a fluke with Fluxx?

Next I sat in a game of Race for the Galaxy that Kaleb was running, two games actually. I chose the wrong strategy the both games, the first game someone else had the same strategy, and the second one I never saw an alien technology card after the first two I played.

The next game was Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights. Another non-win. I have fairly well decided I don't particularly care for Catan, I would say it is the amount of luck involved, but I certainly like many other games with high luck factors. It's hard to win when you lose three cities to the barbarians.

I left and went home for a very short nap, then headed over to Kaleb's for game night. Originally, there was a game of badminton planned, but it was too windy. So we stayed inside instead. We played a game called Cold War Agents, it is in development by some of Kaleb's friends. I thought it was a pretty interesting game, I was on the winning team for this game.

I then played a game of Qwirkle Cubes with Maggie, Tom, and Roslyn. Okay, I won that game, but it's fairly well expected.

Maggie and I left and went over to a martini party at Billy and Lindsay's house. I was horribly underdressed, and almost cared. We stayed for about an hour and a half and then headed back to Kaleb's house arriving just in time for the second game of Werewolf.

Beth ran the game, and I was the Spellcaster. The Spellcaster is able to 'silence' someone every day, and that person can not talk. I picked myself the first day to throw off the trail, and then started to pick people to have fun with it. I was able to use it to not get killed by just saying I was the Spellcaster, no one disputed me, the villagers left me alone and the werewolves looked for someone more important to kill. We won, so ... maybe I did better for the weekend than I thought I did.

Several of us went down to the basement and a half dozen of us played a fairly intense game of Around the World Ping Pong. Oddly enough, neither Scott nor Kaleb played. We were playing with the new modification about starting with a point for each win you get. Only one person did not win five games, it was Maeg, but I won't mention that because I don't want to embarrass her.

We came up and played two games of Cash 'N' Guns. I enjoyed it, but it might be a 'twice a year' game, too much of it is a bad thing.

The final game of the night was Cards Against Humanity. It was a fabulously horrible game not unlike Apples to Apples, but really twisted. I laughed so hard, probably partially because it was stupid o'clock. I did notice that they have an attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license on the game, good for them. It is really, really twisted, and as such, I heard people say things I never thought they'd say. I don't know about the replayability of this game, but for a one time play, it was as fun as it gets. Then home and sleep.

IMG_0998
This is what a room full of board game geeks looks like.

Sunday I was back at Pretzcon. The first game I played was Shadow Hunters. I got Daniel, but since I was playing with people who weren't used to the game, I didn't scream very loudly when the first person was killed. I almost pulled off the solo win, but really, I didn't know enough people at the table to have people try to kill me. The Hunters won, so I shared in the team win. The group played a second game, but I sat out so others could play.

Scott and I sat a table nearby and he taught me a very simple game called Castle Panic. Simple doesn't equate to boring, and I really enjoyed it. It's a cooperative game, probably little kid friendly, and fast paced. We won the first one game we played, were mostly winning the second one when...

...Kaleb broke out 7 Wonders. We played twice, I didn't do anything particularly spectacular in the first game, but the second game I developed a fabulous strategy ... and was foiled by a lack of resources. I ended up being more or less forced to pass my strategy to Tseyu, who took the cards I gave her and dominated the game. Sheesh.

In case you weren't counting, that was a dozen different games in 48 hours. It's not even a record, but it's a good start. I give PretzCon a big thumbs up, I can't wait until next year.

Next week: back to a quiet life.

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