Board @ Work/Home

Well, I haven’t really stuck to my guns and made this blog about what the title suggests, the subject of board games. Sorry, even though I love gaming, the excitement of a baby on the way wins out most of the time when I take a notion to post. Well, between playing a boatload of games yesterday and today, not to mention my visit to Beyond Monopoly! last week, I thought I’d post a few thoughts.

When I return to Maryland in August, I can’t deny that I am going to be very preoccupied with my new job, getting settled back into our house, and of course, taking care of a newborn. Regardless of all of that, I am going to want to get some regular gaming going, like I’ve had here with the club and some other friends. Typically this seems like it would not be a problem with all of my friends that I’ll be returning to. The catch there is that all but a couple of my best friends have all scattered and moved out of the state, some quite far. The guys that are still there, I’m sure, will be happy to get involved in a regular/semi-regular gaming group, but even within the state we are pretty well separated geographically.

I know that there is the Games Club of Maryland, which I will more than likely get involved with. But, from everything I have read about the club, it seems quite different than the one I have gotten used to over here in England. This brings me to my question. How hard is it to start one’s own games club? Would it be worth the time and effort, or should I be happy with the occassional/semi-regular private gaming group and the occasional visit to a GCoM visit?

Well, I’ve taken my sweet time posting anything about it, but we had Nicole’s 20 week ultrasound on Thursday of last week and discovered against all of our suspicions that we are having a girl. We should have known it when all we could come up with was a boy’s name that we agreed on. Now we’re trying on a few and probably have the first name narrowed down to one. The middle name will be easy after that.

Technorati Tags: fatherhood

While I haven’t been as diligent as I should be about posting, Nicole and I recorded the baby’s heartbeat this evening. So, I thought I would post it. The loud sound at the very end is the Doppler monitor picking up a quick movement, probably an arm or leg thrashing about.

In other news I have actually felt the baby moving a bit. This is nothing new for Nicole, but very exciting for me. Now, just a few days away from the next ultrasound, and we hopefully get to find out the gender of the baby.

Technorati Tags: fatherhood

So, one of the things I got for Christmas was a $50 gift certificate for Thought Hammer. One of the games I got from that was El Grande, which I have not played yet. The other was the 2006 Spiel des Jahres, Thurn and Taxis. The game is set in old Bavaria, where the players are each attempting to build the longest and most efficient mail routes. Yeah, I know, not the most exciting theme for those who get hung up on themes in games, but at least it is based on actual history and a noble family who truly did create one of the worlds first formal international mail systems. Nicole and I only got to play a 2 player game, but it could not have been closer. We actually tied, and she won on the technicality that she was the one who triggered the end-game condition. It’s a fast game, with fairly simple rules, and very fun and even tense at times as you hope that you can get your route to be just one card longer without losing the route entirely. A definite thumbs up, and well deserving of last year’s Spiel des Jahres. I hope to play it with the full table of four players sometime soon.

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Nicole and I were at the Toys ‘R’ Us in York last night looking at strollers. Actually, we were looking at “Travel Systems”, which are the stroller and infant car seat all in one. Who knew the things could be so crazy? Some are light, some are as heavy as a car. Some are simple to close and open, while others are absolutely impossible to close. I swear, I was breaking out into a sweat trying to get one of them to close.

One thing I am sure of is that there is no way I would order one of these things online without having battled with it in person at the store/showroom. This is one of those things that both Nicole and I will have to deal with on a daily basis, and something that takes over 5 seconds and triceps of steel to open and close is not in the game plan! I think we’ll be buying one while back in the States in February and eat the cost of shipping it back to ourselves. It will still be cheaper than the £ price.

Technorati Tags: stroller, travel system