July 2006 Archives

I was out for my usual Sunday bike ride when I ran into problems. My rear tire started feeling "squirley". However, I ignored the warning signs and truged on. And then I started to feel the bumps from the road and I knew it was loosing air pressure. Since I was at the halfway point, I had no choice now but to try and make it home. Unfortuantely, it went flat soon after that. And I started walking home. I made it to 1460 and Westinghouse and headed South.

Thankfully, someone stopped and offered me a ride! It was a couple who saw me while driving north and turned around to stop. And they could not be more inconvenienced. They were on their way to Church, they had groceries in the back of the Surburban, and they had a sleeping child in the car. But they stopped to help me. And I really appreciated it. We had to struggle to fit the bike in the back but we finally made it.

While we drove to my home, we talked. And I learned that the husband was a biker and had an experience where there was a crash of many bikers (one with a broken jaw) and noone stopped to help. I also learned that they lived south-east of Hutto but went to church in Georgetown (quite the commute).

It was a little depressing when I was walking down the road and a pickup truck beeped at me as it passed. I was as far as possible against the edge of the road (when I would be a little further out when biking). So I didn't think that was the problem. I wonder why they did it... My guess is that its that car equivalent of the Simpson's bully "ha ha" laugh.

At Cat Hollow park, I noticed this tomatoey looking plant hanging on for dear life next to hole 2. Could it be a wild tomato plant? I will keep track of it and see if any of the fruit survives...

On hole 6, I had my best approach shot so far. Close enough to putt... When you drive from the tree you have a small area with trees on either side of the tee box. You have to then angle the disc high over a clump of trees to the right. The disc should then fall back to the course (in front of a very large oak -- you guessed it -- tree).

Jon had a pretty far drive on hole 18. The goal is located next to the road and is protected by two lines of trees. There is a small hole for a path, but not much else. When Jon threw it, he knew it was going far. We didn't believe how far it went until we found it on the street! Wow!

For lunch we went to Extreme Pizza. John and Adam were going to Tim's to play games. Jon and I were going home. But then John suggested we play Tichu over at Tim's. And that was enough to convice both Jon and myself to play!

And wow did the opposing team have problems today. Their first four Tichu and GrandTichu calls were reasonable. But we were able to set them. Then they started calling desperation Grand Tichu calls. Jon pretty much forced Adam to call it when he picks up his cards. And Adam did not have any luck in getting control cards. See my above hand when Adam called the second to the last Grand Tichu call? Easily settable...

During our game of disc golf at Old Settler's Park, we came across a license and bank card sitting right next to the tee for hole 8. It must have dropped out of someone's bag earlier. I picked them up and took them home. I tried looking up the address online, but was unsuccessful with Google's maps and Mapquest. So, I tried calling, but no one was home. I ended up putting them in an envelope and mailing them. Hopefully, the post office knows where that address and they will arrive.

John tries to ignore me as he putts... He keeps making me move farther away whenever he throws the disc... I must have strong mojo...

Antike

Tonight was Smart-Mike's last day in Austin. He is on a quest to become smarter by going back to CMU for some amount of years. I wish him luck in his endeavour. Too bad he is leaving, Tichu will become harder to play...

We started out with Antike. We had six people which is a good number for Antike. Everyone knew the rules and played quickly... well, everyone but Smart-Mike who did a lot of Ashley-Rollmaning...

I was pretty much left alone during the game. At one point, John decided to attack one of my cities. He was getting squeezed by Mike, Adam, and Marty. So he decided to venture into my territory. Unfortunately, he did not have quite enough to take over the city he wanted. I spent a while kicking him back out.

Mike was agressive and took a risky expansion strategy which paid off for him at the end. He was able to win the game. We did a new rules variation where if you have researched all of the technology, you can get a victory point (choose from any card). Chapel was mean and took the card I was going after... hehe... oh well.

Credit Mobilier

Mike Chapel brought a new game for us to try out called Credit Mobilier. The production values are pretty low and look like pre-schoolers designed and built it. It is a somewhat quick dice game about trying to make money by moving goods from one side of the board to the other. The fatal flaw in this game is the five dice. These dice determine what actions you are allowed. If you roll horribly, you are hosed. And if you continue to roll badly, you really hate playing this game. There is a general fund (colored purple) and 4 company funds (colored red, blue, green, and yellow). For each share that you purchase, you get payed off a dollar from the company coffers. Due to the setup of the board, some shares look more promising than others, so you try and purchase their shares. But you must roll the color of the company on one of the five dice. Are you starting to see the dice problem? When you build track (again having rolled the color) or move goods along a track (rolled of course), money is deposited into the different company coffers. If you are lucky enough to own shares in a company, you will want to initiate a payout. But you have to roll the color of the company AND an orange color (adding to the general rolling problems).

I don't think that I would recommend this game to anyone. But I thank Mike for having taken one for the team and purchasing this game for me to try out...

Mike Chapel made this motivational poster... Amusing.

Paris is sexier link via

The oil we eat link via

BOB is a hybrid home of the future link via

The most complicated Chinese character link via

Flamosapien link via

Converting a Canon EF Lens into an Astro Short APO link via

Human space invaders link via

When a turrent fires link via

Electronic Dice link via

Valve's Portal link via

The Big Lebowski - F_cking Short Version (NSFW, unless you work at HBO) link via

The sidewalk SUV link via

A porch and flowering meadow, 6 floors up link via

Tonight, I cooked a 1" thick cut of beef tenderloin. I was inspired by the Good Eats show Tender Is The Loin I. In it, Alton buys a P.S.M.O. ("Peeled", as in of extra fat, and "Side Meat On") of vacuum packed, wet aged, beef tenderloin. I checked and Costco has them for around $85. I haven't bought one yet. After all, that is a lot of meat. So, I just bought one steak at H.E.B.. And then cooked it acording to his recipie.

What was surprising was just how big of a fire ball the 1/6 cup of Hennessy V.S. Cognac produced. I turned off the flame. Poured the alcohol in. And lit it with a stick lighter. And looked up in awe at the huge ball of fire. It seemed to be going up the cupboards and reaching the ceiling. Of course, the fire alarm that went off was not helping matters. When it finally settled down, I poured in 1/2 cup heavy cream and started to look around. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any damage. And I do have a new fire extinguisher.

Next time, I will skip lighting the thing on fire...

We played at a newly built course today on Sam Bass road and Chandler road. Williamson County built a big park out here. The disc golf course was hard to find (I had to wave down a park employee). And it is a pay-per-use course ($1 a day or $40 a year). Hrm... I'm not so happy about that. I think that the rest of the park was built from our tax dollars, so why charge for disc golf? Supposedly this course will be well maintained. We shall see...

This group is starting to grow too large! Three strangers joined the mailing list and they played today. Also, Doug played again after a 6 month haitus. And we started really late. John showed up late from construction delays around Ikea. Curt showed up even later. And Steph and Nick showed up much later. We finished an hour later than usual. Sigh.

On the 4th, I was in no mood to take pictures of fireworks. It was also raining. So I was happy to learn that the fireworks were going on today. I didn't read about it in the paper or see it on the television. But, in a lucky coincidence, I saw them setting up for fireworks when I played disc golf.

So after Pilates, I ran back home and grabbed my camer gear. I stopped by Taco Bell for some quick food and headed to the park. People were already streaming in. I forgot my lawn chair, but was able to use a cloth tarp that I carry in my truck. I walked over to the hill that is part of hole 14 and set up. And the fireworks started right away. Perfect timing! Although I had to rush around to finish setting up.

During the show, I played around with the aperature setting. I was using a tripod and a remote shutter control. I guessed at the timing. The LCD screen would inform me of what the shot looked like. It is surprising just how much light a 2.8 apterature will let in. For the same time as a f/22 stop picture that looks like pitch black background, the f/2.8 will look like early dawn.

After the show, I decided to hang out and watch Curious George from across the street. At that distance, the movie screen was the size of my 17" TV set. And the sound was a decent volume. It took an hour before the traffic jam had cleared. Which is when I headed home.

Today, I went to play disc golf at Old Settler's park and was in for a surprise. There were trucks parked in the shade where hole 18 is! When I went over to investigate, I was told that they were getting ready for fireworks tonight. And they told me that my truck would be towed if left there (I would be leaving after 90 minutes and well before 9pm) and we couldn't play disc golf on this side. They had also fenced off the area on this side of the lake. This meant that holes 1,2 and 3 were out of action.

We started off at hole 4. Hole 5 was missing again (it seems that they use that field for parking for the fireworks). On hole 9, I got my disc stuck high in the tree. John and I spent a while throwing rocks and bottles at it in an attempt to knock it down. It was stuck pretty well. But it finally dropped! I was determined not to loose another disc so quickly!

We aborted after finishing hole 13. It was really hot out and I wanted to stop by the Mexican ice cream store for some cold fruit water before Pilates.

Apparently, fireworks is a news-worthy event...

Exxtra

Wow, was my luck horrible in this game! It was definately my most unluckiest Exxtra game eva! Every time that I rolled above 70 (at least 5 or 6 times), it was knocked off. Argh! The only satisfying thing about the game was the end. Doug was poised to win. I, wanting the game to be over with, rolled and placed on the board. Marty, decided to try and stop Doug. He failed and lost one point. Which then tied him with me (for third). Doug won.

Forum Romanum

John bought this rare game on ebay and brought it here. I was definately willing to play the game again. It has simple rules and offers many tactical options. This game is much better than Die Dolmengötter.

I was in the lead for most of the game. And only very briefly lost the lead to Francesca. By the end of the game, I was twice as far ahead as everyone else. I need to start looking for this game on ebay...

You can see in the picture above, that Doug (yellow) was pretty negative at that point in the game. He made progress during the game and moved into positive territory. So when the end game scoring was calculated, it was a surprise that Doug moved to 2nd.

Modern Art

Ahh, this classic Knizia game was brought to the table. This game didn't have that much competition for artwork. In fact, besides the five required to end the round, there wasn't much other art on the table. In the last round, I offered a two pair collection which Doug (to my right) jumped on. He then ended the game by putting out another two pair of the same artist to bring the total to 5. There was only one other artist on the table at the time. I was in the lead, so I didn't mind at all. Just surprised me...

Easy Come, Easy Go

When we were playing this game, I was talking to Marty. So I was a little distracted. However, I won, so it was not that detrimental. ^_^

Daimant

Another quick filler game to end the night. I lost my gems on the first couple of mine disasters. So I had to push my luck. On the fith, and final mine, it was me and Adam left. Adam dropped out when he figured that he had enough to beat Mike. I pushed my luck. The next card that was turned was the 15 card! This was more than I needed for the win!

This is the 500th entry on my blog. Over three years of posting dull, boring, and inconsequential posts. Expect more of the same in the future...

I started weblogging when I saw Russ Williams create one (but he gave up on Movable Type and went to livejournal). What started out as web links, moved to picture phones, expanded to cooking, board gaming, and disc golf.

Etch-A-Sketch art link via

180,000 handmade clay figurines link1 link2 via

Super TV-B-Gone with 90' range link via

Positive proof of global warming link via

Billboard sundial McDonnalds ad link via

Age of Steam boardgame for sale link via

Canon lens plant tour link via

Full bellows function for Canon EOS cameras link via

A visualization of the 2006 World Cup final showing "the passes from every player to those three team-mates he passes to most frequently". link via

Bakuten Domino link via

I went down south to see the Wu Dang Monks perform. They played at the Akins High School Performing Arts Theatre on 1st street south of Slaughter Drive. Which was right next to this course that I have not played at before.

Apparently, some a-hole stole the goal for hole 16. People are selfish, destructive, and ignorant for most of their life...

The holes here are very short. Short enough to be called "an ace rich area". There were many holes that were less than 200 feet.

You can see hole one from the tee. There were enough trees for me not to consider throwing a straight shot. Instead, I threw high and to the right hoping that it would fall back onto the course. It barely made it to the left of the course.

Sadly, Mark threw some discs in the tree. For the first time, we finally found the disc stuck high in a tree. As a bonus, Mark found another disc. The next time, we were not so fortunate. And we were unable to locate his disc.

On hole 5, my first throw landed close to the basket. And I was able to birdie the hole!

Hole 15 is on top of a hill. The goal is in the middle of the clearing at the bottom.

On the way out, I notice an interesting sign. Hill Country Aeromodelers apparently has a section of the park for themselves.

Went out this Friday again at the usual place. When I was throwing a couple of practice shots, I notice that my Star-TL disc flew farther than my Star-Wraith. The Star-TL is a fairway driver and is the brother of the Teebird. The Teebird-L is "longer" or "less overstable" (which means it flies straighter). The Wraith is a distance driver and, therefore, should fly farther than the Teebird. Right?

Apparently not! It went past the tree on hole 1. And it went close enough to the goal on 18 to make a birdie!

On hole 6, my second shot came pretty near the goal. Too bad I missed that putt!

At the Mexican Ice cream store, John told the lady to dump in his Lime ice cream into the large Agua.

Today I finally took my fire extinguisher in to be recharged. Unfortunately, I learned that they do not recommend getting models with the plastic heads recharged. Because they might leak. So I bought a new all metal version. With the inspection tags and everything! At least this one can be recharged.

The business did have a tiny museum inside. All kinds of fire related things. And an old fire truck sitting outside. Interesting...

Res Publica

This game has been sitting on my table, lonely and unappreciated for a while now. Thankfully, it was finally nominated to be played. Marty explained the rules to us. And we started playing.

This is a set collection game of two basic categories: towns-people (5 types of 12 each) and sciences (5 types of 12 each). You start out with 4 towns-people and propose a trade. The other people will propose the other half of the trade. You either accept or not. And then you draw a towns-person. Play then moves to the next person. When you collect 5 of the same towns-people, you lay them down with a 3 point settlement victory card on top of them. They will allow you to draw an extra science card. If you lay down 5 of the same science cards down, you take the top most victory card of the cities (starting from 9, 8, 8, 7, 7, down to one 4).

The meat of this game is in the trades. You can either propose a trade of a request or propose a trade of an offer. The other people will then propose the opposite kind (offers if you proposed a request). You name the specific type of card or the general type of card and an ammount. An example would be three Vikings, one Alchemy, or two people. You can also combine the request/offer with an AND or an OR. For example, one Goth or one Viking. Both sides must be able to fufil the terms and must trade the cards if someone is selected.

The dilemma, of course, is that you want to put the request and the offer together. But you must decide if an offer is more likely to get you what you want or a request will. I started out behind the curve with only one settlment out. But I was able to get my second settlement out with a jucy trade for the other person. In the end, I was hoping that Marty would not be able to complete a set. But Doug helped him out for the set he needed to complete. And because of that, Marty finished in first and Doug in second.

Mermaid Rain

Another playing of this game for me. Which makes me glad. I did travel to Tokyo and buy this game there. It is nice that it is finally being used.

I woke up this morning to news that there was a major accident on IH-35 northbound in Pflugerville. Seven 18-wheelers and three cars were involved in the collision. And, thanks to spilt fuel, 35 was blocked off. Now, in a perfect world, this would not affect me. Why? Well, I drive south and the northbound lanes are closed (stupid rubberneckers made traffic just as bad on our side). Or, the accident was at 5:30 in the mornine and I leave at 8:15 (they finally reopened 35 in the afternoon).

Sigh. That is one of the two things that I hate about where I live: the commute sucks!

Treating airline fares like the stock market link via

Dust on car windows provides a canvas for artwork link via

The size of our world link via

Invisible sphere link via

Lightning photography link via

A group of monkey-masked kids decide to ride their bikes to the park for a pinic link via

Researchers have discovered that merely a picture of watching eyes nearly trebled the amount of money put in an honesty box link via

Anti-Ada remove program. One example: "rm -j *" Jerry Falwell option. In addition to deleting files, burn all copies of the Ada Reference Manual. link via

How many forum users does it need to change a light bulb? link via

Amazon's Mechanical Turk and the English Standard Version Bible link via

The Game Theory of Penalty Kicks link via

Wine glass only inverts red ink and not blue ink link via

"And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes." link via

An autoantonym is a word or phrase which "contradicts itself"; that is, has two distinct meanings, which are opposite link1 link2 via

Russian illustrations of movies link via

After 14 trades, Kyle traded one red paperclip for a house link via

Street legal jet powered beetle link via

Today, we took a road trip down south. We meet up at the Starbucks at 620 at the ungodly hour of 7am. Strangely enough, Jon did not double up on caffeine. John was kind enough to pick me up on the way there and to drive down south.

It was definately brutal for the Jo(h)ns. On hole 5, we had the bright idea of throwing to the high right over the woods and hoping that the discs would naturally fade to the left back onto the course. Jon lost his disc when it faded right and out of sight. And it keep going bad. I finished that hole 4 strokes ahead of John and 3 ahead of Jon.

Here John thumbs his disc (throws it like a baseball) out of the woods after loosing his disc when we lost track of where his thumb went.

Of course, we got discs stuck in the trees. That is nothing new for us.

Unfortunetly, Jon got his disc stuck in the top of a very tall oak tree. He was unable to make it to the main trunk to continue climbing up the tree and rescue it. So we called it a loss (Jon's second for the day).

It briefly rained twice, which was not fun...

Next, we stopped by the new Disc Nation store. It is situated between the Circle C disc course and the Mary Moore Searight disc course on Slaughter boulevard. They clam to have 10,000 discs in stock or 350 models to choose from. It was certinally the largest store that I have seen. And we definately bought some discs to stock back up on what was lost.

After that, we headed out for lunch at the Salt Lick. I notice that the fields next to the Salt Lick had grape vines growing. It seems that Texas wines is the hot thing now...

Mmmmmm, this way to great bar-b-que!

Next stop was to head off down south to Kyle. Which was relatively close... well a Texas-sized close of 20 miles. We had a hard time finding the disc golf course. We missed the turn off, but on the second time around we found it. It lead straight into the Steeplechase subdivision on Bluestem Road. After we found that road, we took Goldenrod Street straight to the park.

And boy is that city A.R. about warnings and signage. Yeah, these pebbly trapezoidal tee boxes are a real hazard... wink, wink, nudge, nudge....

They did spend some money on some great looking aluminum signs... using full color and professional graphics. A little confusing though. While they did have two tees for most holes, there was only one goal. Maybe they switch them around at times? I didn't know if the "A" or the "B" goals were in use. That golf course looking fairway was the artist's imagination though...

This sign is definately scary! Gah! I am definately alergic to poison ivy... But that didn't stop me from playing and trudging along. The other bad thing about this course was the thick and tall grass at places. You could easily loose discs in that.

The course tracked back and forth over the small stream. And they used an interesting bridge consisting of concrete tubes. Although at most spots, there was a lot of erosion from earlier heavier rains.

Back in May, we had wanted to play a tournament here in Kyle. But due to heavy rains, we were told that the course was under water. And I can see why. Most of the course is three or four feet above the level of the river that runs through this park. It certinally cannot withstand heavy rains like Old Settlers Park can.

Here is some poison ivy with some strange growth on the leaves. A plant virus?

And this explains all of the warning signs around here. One partially finished tee box. We used the other tee box. But I have to wonder, surely it would be cheaper to buy another couple bags of cement and some more of that pebbly aggregate and finish this tee box off, than to go around and install signs after the fact?

The creek was small but we did manage to dump a few discs into the water. The water was stagnant and murky. But we were able to find and rescue the discs.

What was strange here was all of the extra discs that were laying around. The person in front of us told us that he had left a couple of discs that he found. I think that there were six extra discs around the course. We each picked one one and left the rest for others.

After we were through, we drove back north to Austin. We did stop off at Cabelas. The mondo 185,000 square foot travel destination. Two levels, aquarium, shooting arcade, fake mountain with trophy animals, restaurant.

John apparently wanted to set up some light-gaming church function rather than playing disc golf... Oh well. Old Settlers park was almost back to normal. The fencing was taken down. Although there were muddy tracks everywhere... which dried to a concrete-like consistency. We'll see if the buffalo grass recovers from that.

Hole 5 was back in place thankfully. (They should have oriented the number facing the tee). Today, I felt like I was throwing longer than average. Certinally, I would have been in competition with Gravitt had he played.

On hole 10, my first throw landed close to the basket. Sadly, my second shot just hit the basket. So close...

On hole 11b, I encountered another group of players who were going along a different route. When I talked to them, they said that they were playing the "winter course". Supposedly, you only play on one side of the lake and you play the holes backward. I guess, for example, from the somewhere near the goal of hole 12 to basket of hole 11b.

And of course they watched me throw. Thankfully, I threw my best throw eva there. It went over the trees and landed close to the goal. Close enough to birdie it!

On hole 12, my first throw landed 20 feet past the goal. Which was unexpected. I spent 10 minutes looking for it. On hole 13, my 80' approach shot hit the goal. On hole 15, it was even worse. My first throw miraculously threw through the big tree and missed hitting it (there are no trees, there are no trees, ...). Which was nice. However, I must have spent another 10 minutes trying to find a bright red disc in the middle of a light green bowl. I walked around for a while trying to figure out where in the hell it could have gone. Thankfully, I found it much farther to the left than I thought likely. After that, I skipped holes 16 and 17 and finshing with a par for 18.

In the Shadow of the Emperor

It has been a while since this game has hit the table. But I did remember a couple of strategy points. The first was that winning an electorate and ascending into the elector spot for the first time is what gives you victory points. Staying there after that only keeps giving you the power. Second, the purple electorates can be won as normal, but only single barons can ascend into the elector spot.

This was a tight game. Besides the mistake of not moving a married couple into the last free spot in order to go after Ed's spot, the only other mistake that I made was not trying to be Emperor for a turn. That would have given me some much needed victory points...

Tichu

What is this, Mike not only played Tichu again with us, but also suggested it? Is the world coming to an end? Is Mike turning into smart-Mike?

I'm a little dissapointed here. The camera was set up, the players willing, but trying to enter the data after the fact, I still cannot figure out how the cards were played. Part of the problem is that people would not play in front of them and orient their cards correctly. So there are ambiguities that I could not resolve. Sigh. Next time, I am going to be more strict. One picture per card group played and the placement matters!

This game was painful! For the entire game, our team did not once get more card points than the others... After 7 rounds, our team scored 120 points out of 700 points which averages out to 17%. Guh!

Other games that were played:

The game based on a painting: Siena

I stoped in at Ace Mart today to buy pastry tips after realizing that cake tips were not going to work. Of course, I had to look around. When I am building a home where money is no object, I would definately use a profesional stove, oven, and refrigerator; use stainless steel; and a fire supression system. But thats in the future...

Mmmmm.... a beer kegerator... too bad its $1000 bucks...

Jon was away for the past week in Florida, so when he came back he was raring to go. Of course, John and I went as well. Unfortunately, the neighborhood was celebrating the holiday at the park next to the disc golf. So the road was blocked off.

A fire truck was here. John told me that his kid, Clint, correctly wondered why they call it a fire truck since it doesn't squirt out fire but water. John replied that it should be called an un-fire truck because its job is to un-fire fires... The English language is just weird at times. Accept it.

Here, the fire truck tests out its hose by watering a tree at the tee off of hole one. Previously it was placed over the park and the firemen were throwing candies at kids. Our tax dollars at work...

And now it un-fires kids. Who gleefuly run under it. If I was up there, I would focus the stream, turn the pressure on full, and push those kids all over the place...

Apparently, yesterday's activities were too much for someone. He was sleeping it off on a bench.

After we finished the course, we headed over to Bone Daddy's. It is a Bar-B-Que joint over on Research Blvd. I noticed that there must be a Ford Lightning club meeting or something. Three Lightning trucks parked in a row. Cool!

Their selection of draft beer was not the best. But they did have 32oz mugs which were quite large...

Struggle of Empires

Wow, what a struggle it is to get others to play this game. I always thought that the whole point of long game days was to play long and meaty games. At least I was able to find four other players to play this game with me.

This game has a number of interesting components to it. First, there are battles (either against neutral chips or against others). You make a risk assessment against the outcome of the battle. At even strength, you have a 40% chance of success. At plus one strength, it is 60%. Etc... Second, there is the disposition of players to one of the two sides in a war. Both the player order and which players are on what sides are determined by a series of bids. And third, there are all kinds of special power cards that are available. Do you go for allies in specific regions, general bonuses for battle, or extra money in specific regions? Many possibilities for strategy there...

I started out in the colonies (East Indies, India, Africa, and South America) and the German States. Luckily, no one fought me or even invaded in the East Indies and Africa. I tried to gain a greater presence in the German States but the dice were not with me. Finally one person (Susan) tried to come into India. However, I was lucky. She could have done a sneak attack against me, but she decided not to. On my next turn, I quickly moved a ship and army in (I should have instead put a ship and fort in). Later, she fought and won against my army, but didn't have enough actions to kick my control markers out (which is all that count anyways). And she finally settled for a second place presence.

During the first two scorings, I was in the lead. But it was clear to me that I was slowly loosing ground. Carl was taking over some rich territories in Europe, but he was spending a lot of money trying to control who was on each side (I didn't really understand his motivation to put John and me versus everyone else. He never fought me). After final scoring, I was in third place, but when 1st and 2nd places in unrest moved Mike and Carl back, I ended up in first place!

All told, it took us three hours to play this game after the rules were explained. Which is quite reasonable, I think.

Crystal Faire

Another playing of this game and this time we found that we got a rule slightly wrong. During the adjustment phase, each player is allowed to fill the crystals back up to three. And then they can take either 0, 1, or 2 and move however many crystals are left. I think that it would make the victory point levels for crystals much more chaotic. We'll see...

I still am not completely likeing the trading phase. It doesn't seem crystal clear to me what people will offer or what I should offer (pun intented).

Tichu

What is this? Mike volunteering to play Tichu? WTF?! Not much unusual to report apart from that. Well, Adam did play the rare straight which included an unused bomb in it. On the last hand, I called Grand-Tichu blind and was smacked down by Adam for that. He had all of the controls and I had nothing...

With three days of disc golfing planned, we visited each of the three closest major courses to us. Today was at The Rivery in Georgetown and it was Adam's first time at this course. He did pretty well as a beginner here.

On hole 5, I got my disc stuck high up in the grape-vine on a tree. Without Jon here, I was forced to try and climb the tree myself. I got halfway up and decided that that was as far as I was willing to climb. So I started shaking the tree. But it wasn't budging. After trying to reach it with a metal sign pole (far too heavy), and a big rock (far too awkward in my left hand), I resorted to shaking the tree even harder. It finally fell down! And I climbed down hot, sweaty, and covered in stuff...

On hole 7, I was behind. But I had a lucky 40' putt to remain tied with Adam. Previously I had used a tree as a back-board to make another putt here.

Good Eats is the only cooking show on today that can inspire me. And after watching Choux Shine, I knew I had to try out making éclairs from a flour paste that the French call Pâte à choux. My problem was the icing tip. It was way too small. And even switching to the largest flat leaf one, it was still too small.

Sigh. I need to buy some professional ones at the restaurant supply store on Lamar.

They did come out all right. Tiny, little, miss-shaped, finger-sized eclairs.

For Saturday, another round of disc golf at Cat Hollow. No temporary fencing fortunately. I did notice that there is an aweful lot of beer drinking going on. 50% of the cans in the garbage seem to be beer cans...