Frederick 09/20/08

A total of 10 people attended this Saturday's Frederick session, doubling last week's figure:

• Leslie Barkley
• Sarah Brockley
• Cynthia Lewis (me)
  
• Robert Martinez
• Jack Ridgeway
• Jim Sparks & his son Billy
• Russell Williams
• Louise Wolfe
• Ram (whose last name I did not get)

Two of our attendees, Sarah and Ram, had never been to a GCOM location before. Sarah was referred to us by Fran Lunney, a regular attendee, and Ram is Jack's coworker.

Sarah, Jack, and I started the day off with Dominoes. The final scores were: Cynthia 303, Sarah 280, and Jack 245. Robert and Leslie joined us and we all played another game of Dominoes. Ram arrived and we worked him in. The final scores were: Robert 414, Cynthia 280, Sarah 243, Leslie 237, Jack 197, and Ram 64. Robert's victory was amusing since he didn't seem to care for the game. He commented that if he were to become more interested in it, and learn more about the strategy involved, he would probably lose. Life *is* that perverse, I agree.

Jim Sparks and his son Billy arrived, bringing a delectable assortment of refreshments with them: tortilla chips, hummus, pepperoni, cheese, macaroni and potato salad, and little cans of cat food (er, pâté). Having not eaten breakfast or lunch, I was especially grateful for the snacks.

We broke up into two groups at this point, with Jim, Billy, Leslie and I playing two games of Pegs and Jokers and the rest of the folks playing Squint, Taboo, and hearts.

Having played Pegs and Jokers with Billy, I knew his tendency to focus more on messing the game up for others rather than winning or helping his teammate. With the exception of one perverse play that he made simply to be obnoxious. Leslie and Billy won the first game and I and Jim won the second.

I'm afraid I didn't keep track of the scores or the happenings from the Squint, Taboo, and hearts games.

Russell Williams and Louise Wolfe arrived. They are both regulars but had not joined us for a while, in part due to Russell's broken foot which has healed nicely.

I never quite realized how many house rules we have until I heard Leslie explaining many of them to the newcomers.

Ram left before we could drink the wine he brought.

Although I was better at keeping track of things this time so I could record them here, I find it distracting to try to take note of when people arrive, of who arrived and left when, what order we played what in, and even kept the score sheets. kept better track of scores, though too hard to follow multiple games. take leslie's suggestion and make turn slips in. I found it distracting to have to try to follow what other people were playing, let alone what the scores were.

That left Leslie, Jack, and I. After an 11 PM "dinner" break at Cracker Barrel, we played two games of Qwirkle to end the night. I do know the scores, but it would be impolite for me to reproduce them here, so thoroughly did I trounce my fellow players. :-)

~Cynthia

P.S. Our next Frederick session will be Saturday, October 11th @ 2 PM. The most attendees we have ever had at the Frederick location was 11, and that's about the maximum my little townhouse can accommodate. So if we do get more participants as a result of these posts or of joining the GCOM West mailing list, we may have to move to public location, most likely The Common Market. Because of this, I ask for RSVP's from anyone who is planning to attend, as far in advance as is possible.