Wow, I haven't posted in ages. I was out of town for work, back at work, spent last weekend at Carnage Con playing boardgames and, unfortunately, catching the flu. Friday was fine, Saturday afternoon was okay, Saturday evening I was a little *koff koff* "I don't feel too good." Sunday was fever, chills, body aches (which felt like someone took a baseball bat and beat every part of my body), Monday was just as bad as Sunday, but with added coughing, runny nose... You know what? Let's just say Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I was a mess. Today I can actually dress myself and put on real clothes. Which is good because I remembered last night that I have a car appointment this morning.
Damn youse, Carnage! [shaking fist] Damn youse! Next year I'm either (a) not coming, or (b) wearing a SARS mask the entire time.
Nice, I checked on the status of the custom game cards and FedEx says they should arrive tomorrow. I'm hopeful but... they left the printing facility in Hong Kong this morning. And they should arrive to my house tomorrow? Oh... kay... I really hope so- I would like to see the cards before I leave for DC on Sunday.
Also, a couple new games are coming via UPS tomorrow. An expansion for Shadows Over Camelot (which I am running at Carnage) and a new sheep game called Wool Rules. Another sheepy game. I actually did a search through BGG and there are lots of games with "sheep" and "wool" in the title. I'll have to collect them all!
I'm finally crossing things off my list. I spent the weekend doing nothing but playing waste-of-time games on Facebook: Farmville, Cafe World, Rollercoaster something-er-other, Bejeweled blitz. It was awesome but now I have to pay the price: unwashed dishes, unfolded laundry, unclean bathroom, etc. Siiiigh.
I finally have Dollar's and my Carnage pre-registration choices and check to mail off. When are they going to make this registration process available online? I would like to be able to fill out an online form and pay via Paypal. Dude, I would so get my registration in first, rather than having to... you know... handwrite stuff and write a check and mail it with, like... postage and stuff. What is this, the 1890's?
And the super-good news is that I finished making digital custom cards for a game I am running this year. They've been uploaded to the printing website and should arrive via FedEx next week.
Alas, I will be in DC next week. Which I'm not really feeling too thrilled about. I've got to figure out what knitting to bring. Or crochet.
Crochet, you say? I may. Actually, I did start this Catherine Wheel Scarf with some sock yarn in my stash. It's coming out very pretty, although I might use it as a table runner if it doesn't feel good around my neck.
I know I haven't posted pictures of Murderface in ages. He's fine. There's been construction going on in the street in front of my house that vibrates the entire house. So Murderface spends his days hiding out on the stairs or in the basement, staring fearfully at the ceiling or the backhoe outside. I don't know what's taking these guys so long. They started this project well before I left for Germany and the street has looked post-apocalypic ever since.
One last thing- a knitting retreat that was supposed to take place Nov. 13 - 15 at the Comfort Suites in White River Jct. has been cancelled but Lois at White River Yarns is planning on making her own Holiday Knit In that weekend to replace it. I will be there running one or two sheep/wool themed games. The hotel will still be offering a $99/night rate (including breakfast) for the weekend. Things will be taking place at her shop, as well as other rooms in The Junction Marketplace.
Cold weather is here and I think it's here for good. Reports were coming in yesterday from all over Vermont- snow. We got a wee bit of slush mixed in with rain. No snow. Yet. But this morning my car was covered with thick frost and I had to pre-heat.
Dinner last night was a very simple but yummy salmon, potatoes and asparagus. I use filets, rather than steaks. It's so easy and I love that it's all done in one pan. Tonight I have plans to make bacon wrapped scallops; we were at a wedding this past weekend where they were served but they were gone before Dollar had a chance to have some. So, these will be for him (xoxo).
I'm totally procrastinating on sending in my registration for Carnage Con. We probably won't get our first picks for games. But for the first time, I'll be running two games this year!
Spinning is going well. I have 4 bobbins full to start plying- some purple-gray merino and some black alpaca. I had a little set back this weekend when the leather strap that connects my right treadle to the footman broke mid spin. I bought some new, pink leather trim to use. Anything to make my spinning wheel more girlie. And now I have spare on hand in case it happens again.
I had to use my iMac's Photo Booth to snap a picture of the cat that has been staring at me all day from my page-a-day calendar:
Is the cat panting? Is it on ecstasy? I started out the morning thinking, "Hah hah hah, isn't that cute." Now I'm wondering what's wrong with it.
In Photo Booth, I had to take a couple of me, too.
These pictures are nice, I think. I don't know why my sister has to post such bad pictures of me on Facebook. Are you listening to me, Brahbrah? Take them down!
I had my birthday this week. It was very good. Except I think Murderface forgot. He didn't get me anything. Jerk.
Does anyone watch Dancing with the Stars? Hulu just started showing it and I am in love with this show. It's inexplicably entertaining to me. And inspiring and funny and impressive. I'm serious. I've actually starting spinning to it (I call it Spinning with Dancing with the Stars, or SWDWTS) and have managed to fill a whole bobbin just during the [3 part, 6 hour] season premier. This will be a good way to get through my huge fiber stash this winter.
Saturday my sister and I braved the chilly wet weather to attend the 2009 Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival, for the first year at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds in Tunbridge, VT.
The festival looked like a ghost town compared to the World's Fair...
But I thought there was a good turnout considering the weather...
Misty fog settled into the surrounding hills:
There was a sheep-herding demo (it looks like he's conducting the animals like a symphony... I'm sure one could find an analogy between the two):
Animals to visit:
Friends to see, bunnies to pet, yarns to buy, fiber to pet and then buy, etc... I wore my holographic handspun scarf and brought it to the Fantom Farm vendor to show. The woman there was happy to see it, saying, "We never get to see our stuff."
Feeling a little soggy and cold, we left after a few hours. I saw some people walking around in wellies with their jeans rolled up. Me?
Yeah. I'll get it right next year.
I hope that the festival stays in Tunbridge. It's a good arena (lots of buildings) and I like how close it is to me now. My only complaint was the food vendors. I think there were only three. I waited in line at the lamb vendor for lamb chili and I have to say, the chili wasn't even warm. Standing in line for 20 minutes in pouring down rain for cold chili pissed me off. Next year it might be worth bringing a cooler with homemade sandwiches and drinks.
When I got back home, I took a looooooooong hot shower and then got into bed. Later than evening, Dollar took me out for an early birthday dinner. First, though, he surprised me with a stop at a jewelery store and I picked out a couple pairs of earrings. Very nice of him. Dinner was sushi and japchae at Yama. I know japchae isn't the fanciest thing in the world but I love it and I can't make it at home, so it's my favorite thing to order.
I have more soba noodles in the cupboard than you can shake a stick at. After returning home from Germany (where some form of pork is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner), I wanted meat-free Asian meals. I went to Stern's for veggies and made:
I sauteed red and green bell peppers, asparagus, re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms and garlic in toasted sesame oil and added a generous splash of ponzu sauce. Boil the noodles and top with the veggies. Nom.
[misc] Next time, I expect there to be a flaming bag of poo.
AMY and DOLLAR, at home, relaxing upstairs.
Doorbell rings.
ding dong
AMY and DOLLAR look at each other and both go downstairs to the front door. No one is there. They look outside and see a police cruiser driving away, down the street.
Yes, it has been two weeks since my last post. I wrapped up my Germany trip with a visit to Heidelberg. I returned home, promptly fell asleep for 15 hours, then had a week of vacation. I did... nothing. I slept and watched TV shows and movies and slept and slept some more. Here's the last of the Germany pictures...
Heidelberg:
Here I am on the south side of the Nekar river, looking to the north.
After all that walking, we stopped at Vetter for beer and food:
The menu shows one woman with a platter of meat and one woman with beers. Here, let's take a closer look...
Our waitress did not look like that.
I got the cheese spatzl:
Mmmmm.
Auf wiedersehen, for now, Germany. I will come back for a proper vacation.
###
The flight home was fine. Frankfurt airport is a little stressful. I had three hours from the time I got there to my plane's departure and most of it was spent in a nearly-hysterical panic. I was standing in the wrong line, I didn't use the kiosk to get a boarding pass like I was supposed to, the kiosk wouldn't read my passport, my bag was over the weight limit, etc.
On the plane, I was in an aisle seat in the 2nd to last row, in front of three Swedes in a continual state of alcohol-fueled ruckus and next to a deutsch-bag (a German douche-bag) who purposefully held up his newspaper after I tried looking out the window once. There were some screaming babies, a guy standing in the aisle with his bubble butt in my face, my chair wouldn't recline, I couldn't see the TV, the food was shit, blah blah blah, bitch bitch bitch.
The flight was fine. I made it home, that's all that's important.
How are the eats in Germany? Good. It has been a little hit-and-miss because I have a "I'll eat anything" mentality, but once the food comes and I try it, I go, "Yeah... If I had known what 'Leberknodel und Saumagen' meant, I probably wouldn't have ordered it."
The first day here, I had a salad with salmon, crab meat and shrimp (in a mayonnaise sauce). It was good- the greens are really, really good over here.
This is when I had the beer in the cool curvey glass.
The next day we walked the gardens and then ate at a brauhaus. I ordered something I didn't know off the menu (expecting a prezel, some kind of wurst and other stuff):
A pretzel sitting on top of a crazy amount of spiral cut radish, with a side of whole grain mustard. And brat soup. Right? Soup? No. A much more well-traveled person than I informed me (after the fact) that it's not a soup- just a way of serving the brats, in it's cooking juices, to keep it warm. But... I ate some of it like a soup. I mean, for crap's sake, it comes with a spoon! What am I supposed to do?
Anyway, I had beers...
This one was tres yum!
This one was still on the yum scale, I guess, but only if I was in the mood for beer that tasted like candy soda. It was very sweet.
We went to a tapas place for supper and I got a plate of fried mackerel (again with the not knowing what I'm ordering)... It was good, though.
The next night we had supper at the hotel, a fixed three couse meal. First the salad (I love you, vegetables)...
Then the main- Hungarian pork with caramelized onions and potatoes. The picture might not look appetizing but this is the best meal I've had so far- the pork practically melted in my mouth...
Tonight for supper, beers:
My coworker's is the darker one on the left, mine is the lighter one on the right. I ordered the Schofferhofer Hefeweizenalkoholfrei and as I started transcribing the name, I realize comes out as Hefeweizen alkohol frei. Yeah. Alkohol Frei.
SON OF A-
I ordered it because the name was so long, which, ha ha, is funny right? Ha haha... Joke's on me.
For supper, I ordered Bratwurst, Leberknodel und Saumagen mit Sauerkraut und Bratkartoffeln.
Okay, Bratwurst and sauerkraut sound good to me, but I didn't know what the other stuff was. Turns out, it's just more meat. Meat in a link, meat in a ball and meat in a patty.
I just google translated it and apparently I had "Bratwurst, a liver dumpling, sow's stomach patty, sauerkraut and potatoes." I ate the brat and potatoes. The patty was good for a few bites but then I was all, "What are these white bits in it?". And the liver ball didn't taste good from the get-go. I'm sorry, Germany, I hope I have not offended you. I love your beer and pretzels.
I went to visit Schwetzingen's Castle and Garden on Sunday and took 200+ pictures. The gardens were so, so, so impressive. We walked around for hours and miles. Every corner revealed something new an impressive. There were old stone buildings, a fine mosque, tons of statues scattered around, swans and ducks and carp, oh my! It was well worth the 4 euro fee.
Gutten Tag! I am in Schwetzingen, Germany for the week. The flight was relatively painless, I just didn't get enough sleep during the redeye. We left Boston around 4:30 pm and I landed in Frankfurt at 5:30 am. I waited for my coworker and a shuttle brought us to our hotel. I napped for an hour but forced myself to get up so that I can go to bed early tonight.
I went for a walk through town, checking out the sights. The hotel is very close to Schwetzingen Castle, where many swans and ducks hang around:
The buildings and streets are lovely:
Everyone is out walking or riding bikes:
It was a beautiful day:
The signs are funny to me. They basically say "Exit - do not block!", but I just like that the end with fahrt.
Heh. Fahrt.
This is that button to push for a walk signal:
And the beer here is so good...
I wanted to steal this glass. The bubbles effervessed up in a curvy manner. My co-worker talked me out of it, the party pooper.
People here have be been so nice and polite. The vegetation and temperature is very similar to home (I think we're on close latitudes).
I've seen 3 plies where people use variegated colors for 2 of the plies and a solid color for 1. This seems to give the yarn a more cohesive look, I think. I had 4oz of maroon merino sitting on a shelf next to this superwash merino:
I spun 3 bobbins- 2 of the colorful, 1 of the solid maroon. Plied together, they came out as:
I like it (although I generally like all 3-plies I see)...
But I'm beginning to think if I had it to do over again, I might choose a deep brown rather than maroon.
This will either become a pair of socks or a mitered scarf.
Yarn: Plymouth Royal Llama Linen (lighter red), Regia Silk (darker red, held double)
Needles: US 7
This scarf looks quite rustic and weathered but it's very, very soft. The only problem was that it was a pain in the ass to knit. I don't think I'll do another striped scarf for a good long while.
Labor Day weekend is winding down. The weather was so nice, I brought a new scarf I knit outside for pictures.
MF went kind of crazy on it. He's a good cat and completely ignores my yarn and spinning fiber. I'm not sure why he went crazy on this scarf. Maybe it was the sparkles? Here's the handspun I used:
The pattern is a simple one-row lace scarf. My handspun was a lofty worsted weight and I used US 9 needles (and cast on 8 extra stitches). I love love love this scarf- it really is soooooo sparkly.
A while back I got some Lorna's Laces superwash roving in a swap:
The colorway is 'Beverly', named after my swap-partner's mother (she works at LL). It's a great combo of blue and green. Totally makes me think of the ocean.
I spun it up into a two-ply, rather quick and uneven...
I got the Fall issue of Vogue Knitting and saw a needle felted stole that I just loved. The yarn called for is a bulky wool/acrylic blend held together with a thread. The article tells you to cut a few inches, remove the thread, form a circle and needle felt a bunch of circles together on crafting paper.
I had to do it. It was one of those "Must do it NOW" projects. I went out for the supplies:
Left to right: Pencil roving, needle felting foam block, needle felting tool, water soluble crafting paper.
I needle felted a little sample onto the crafting paper- a smallish table runner:
I love the little circles!
I went to wash it and it basically fell apart. The crafting paper dissolved nicely but the circles weren't felted together well. I was awkward moving the fiber through the water, afraid that I would be pulling the circles out one at a time. Here's it is post-wash:
So... sad.
I held it up to the window:
The circles are barely staying together.
Here it is on the table:
I'll wait for it to dry and try felting the circles back together. It functions, I guess, but I'm still calling the project a FAIL. Next time, I will make sure that the circles overlap each other more.
I have some pictures from a 4-player game of Small World. While I don't have a picture showing it all together (I did, but it looked confusing and perhaps overwhelming), I do have snapshots of the different components.
The sun shining on Small World. Here, you can see the board with race tokens placed on the various terrain spaces. There are victory coins in piles of 1, 3, 5 and 10. My two races are below the coins (the one on the right is in decline). And the black tray to the left holds all the race tokens...
Some races to choose from (from bottom to top: Fortified Halflings, Forest Orcs, Pillaging Ghouls, Diplomat Skeletons)...
The races. Here you can see Amazons on the hills and Humans on the farmland. There's a dragon token near the center of the picture- the Human special ability was "Dragon Master", so once per turn a human could jump onto the dragon and conquer any region in the world. Very powerful :)
The race tokens that look gray/dull have been turned over because they are in decline.
The game is very fun. The ONLY thing I dislike about the game is the token tray:
They are tough to get out and once you start putting them back, the first one or two can fall flat to the bottom, making it frustratingly difficult to pick them back out again. I need to find some new plastic containers or a better way to do this...
While in Portland, OR this past spring, I picked up a 4 oz bump of optim at Knit Purl.
Fiber by Chameleon Colorworks in the September colorway.
What is optim? It's merino fibers that have been mechanically stretched...
"The stretching process— called Optim— was first introduced in Australia in 2002. It permanently alters the molecular structure of merino wool, giving it greater luster that, in turn, reflects dyed colors more brilliantly than the standard merino counterparts" (source)"
When I started pre-drafting the fiber, it was more fluid, wispy and light than I'm used to. I spun it thin, all on one bobbin, with plans to chain ply it. But... In the end, I decided to leave it as a single. And...
Wah lah!
It felted a wee bit during the finishing, which gives the strands a bit of a halo, but I prefer knowing the strands will hold. I was very nervous of it pulling apart when skeining it onto my niddy noddy.
I don't know the WPI's, but I think it's a heavy lace-weight...
The funniest part was when I showed it to my sister. She said, "It looks like your rice scoop."
???
It DOES look like my rice scoop!
Crazy.
So, I need to count the strands to figure out yardage. I'm hoping I have enough for a small lacy shawl.
I've got a skein of bulky, navajo-plied corriedale in a crazy-bright colorway:
Hot pink... lime green... nuclear orange... sky blue...
The original fiber looked like:
Fiber by Sereknity, colorway = Wildside.
The original plan was to try fractal spinning but it wasn't working out. Instead, I spun dk-ish singles and navajo (chain) plied.
Probably not the best choice because the color lengths are so short and the joins are fairly obvious. Click on the above picture to see the notes I added in Flicr.
But, I am interested to see what this yarn will look like when knit. It would make an interesting hat. For a clown.
My sister and I went down to Newbury, MA on Saturday to check out the Fiber Revival. I brought my spinning wheel, lazy kate, 2 bobbins of singles to ply and a niddy noddy. Did I actually do any spinning there? No. The 90+ degree weather doesn't inspire me to play with wool.
The location, Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm, is a National Historic Landmark with huge trees lining the drive:
There were quite a few vendors present (many to the left, just outside of this shot):
Happy people spinning...
A late seventeenth-century major house built as the country seat of wealthy Newburyport merchants...
There was a pen of alpacas, trying to stay cool:
I felt so bad for this hot little guy. He wasn't moving at all:
There was a larger fenced-in area for some of the farm's friendly animals: goats, a horse (I'm going to start taking pictures of just horse's asses. I don't know why, but I feel the need):
And a three-legged sheep:
I bought 2.5 pounds of fiber in various 4 ounce bumps, so I have LOTS of new colors and fibers to play with. Once the weather gets cooler.
And the games just don't stop. Last night I play tested a 4-player game of Shear Panic!. Yes, that means me playing all 4 players.
I've read. And reread. And re-reread the rules. It's complicated, yo. It difficult memorizing all the different actions one could take- Lamb Slam, Ewe Turn, Wool Rule, etc.
But, after a while I got it. Here's my flock once they entered Roger Ram's field:
Here's the blue player's control mat and the green scoring track depicting the different fields...
At that point, I hadn't reached the shearing field yet, where this guy wants to remove the sheep closest to him from the game:
The pieces are so cute.
So... The game is good. It's a complicated abstract strategy game, which sounds silly to me because it's just a game about a flock of sheep. But, the rules do make sense. Every so often, the sheep will panic (when they first jump off the truck at the beginning of the game, whenever the flock marker lands on a red space) and you have to roll a die to see which sheep panics and moves.
Also, if a member of the flock gets separated, there are rules on how to bring them back together. Because the flock always has to be together. Makes sense, right?
We weren't going to play any games last night but the mother of all rain storms came and we lost power for three hours- 8 pm to 11 pm. We played a modified 2-player variant of Blokus by candlelight, which was nice.
I've read many reviews that this is a great abstract strategy game for 4 players. It's uneven with 3 players. And it's not very fun with 2 players. When I first got the game, Dollar and I gave the 2 player game a go and... Yeah, it was wierd. Each player is basically playing as 2 players.
BoardGameGeek to the rescue. I was able to find out that if you box in a smaller area, you can play the actual 2-player travel version: Blokus Duo
It was much more fun playing the travel version. I don't think Dollar's a fan of the game but I really like it. I was able to pick it up at Border's in West Leb with a 40% off coupon, so it was < $20 :)
###
They also had Wits and Wagers at Border's, which I've recently heard is a good party game. Amazingly, it's available in the Xbox Arcade and I had Dollar download it. We played a couple times and it's a good "trivia game for people who don't know trivia".
The questions are hard (How many miles long is the Mississippi River? What year was Frankenstein published? When was penicillin discovered?) but stupid answers from other players and good guessing/betting by you is all it takes to win.
Here was the last question Dollar and I had:
How many sheets of toilet paper are in a standard Scott roll?
Dollar's guess: 300
Amy's guess: 1000
Betting round... Dollar starts putting money on various guesses.
AMY: What are you doing? It's 1000.
DOLLAR: What?
AMY: Yes! I'm sure!
DOLLAR: I don't know...
AMY: I'm totally sure! That's the toilet paper I buy! Put your money on my guess! Hurryuptimeisrunningout!
*Ding* And the correct answer is...
1000.
Thank you, thank you very much. Dollar was appropriately impressed that I knew the exact answer.
Dollar and I have been playing the 2-player version of Small World. This is the newest game from Days of Wonder.
###
In Small World, players vie for conquest and control of a world that is simply too small to accommodate them all.
Small World is inhabited by a zany cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and even humans; who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth.
Picking the right combination from the 14 different fantasy races and 20 unique special powers, players rush to expand their empires - often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline and ride a new one to victory!
###
The funnest part of the game is seeing which special power comes with each race. It's random, so you might have Flying Halflings and Seafaring Giants. The next game you play, there could be Flying Ghouls and Commando Giants. This adds to the re-playability of the game, I think.
Last night Stout Ratmen was a combo a player could choose and I kept saying Stout Ratmen like it was some guy's first and last name. Hello, my name is Stout Ratmen. It could happen, right?
Oh, and scoring is secret in this game until the end, when players tally up all the victory coins they've collected. The first game we played was close: 87 (him) to 85 (me). The second game was 97 (him) to 88 (me). After we revealed our scores for the 2nd game, I started digging around the couch and checking the floor for a 10 victory coin token I "must" have dropped.
I'm looking forward to playing this game with more people.
In case you live in the area, there's an bi-weekly evening of open boardgames at Triple Play in West Lebanon (remember they've moved from the mall in Lebanon to the Glen Road Plaza, across from the Powerhouse). I went last night and we played Kingsburg...
###
In Kingsburg, players are Lords sent from the King to administer frontier territories.
The game takes place over five years, a total of 20 turns. In every year, there are 3 production seasons for collecting resources, building structures, and training troops. Every fourth turn is the winter, in which all the players must fight an invading army. Each player must face the invaders, so this is not a cooperative game.
The resources to build structures and train troops are collected by influencing the advisers in the King's Council. Players place their influence dice on members of the Council. The player with the lowest influence dice sum will be the first one to choose where to spend his/her influence; this acts as a way of balancing poor dice rolling. Even with a very unlucky roll, a clever player can still come out from the Council with a good number of resources and/or soldiers.
Each adviser on the King's Council will award different resources or allocate soldiers, victory points, and other advantages to the player who was able to influence him/her for the current turn.
At the end of five years, the player who best developed his assigned territory and most pleased the King through the Council is the winner.
###
I liked the game. I read some negative reviews at BGG and, yes, it is a luck-based game in that you have dice to roll and if you keep having crappy rolls, you're not going to be able to influence very powerful advisers. But I think making the best of what you roll is part of a player's skill.
The ending of the game was anticlimactic. The last battle was resolved, we were all victorious and... the player who had been in first place for a while won. Which was... I don't know. I prefer games where you can't see who the winner's going to be until the end, you know? I guess I've just gotten used to Zooloretto (plus all the expansions) where you have absolutely no idea who the winner is until the game ends and you add up all the points.
The winter battles were the weakest part of the game. I spent resources and influence on building a strong army when it really didn't matter. People who spent nothing on armies were still able to win battles, which allowed them to spend their resources on buildings. One the the guys there said that this uneven mechanic was going to be resolved in the future.
