Frederick South 2/13/2010

Thought I'd post this while fresh in the memory. I started the day at the Common Market early with Veggie Annie's Chocolate Tasting class. I tasted 6 types of dark chocolate, an Aztec style chocolate drink, and made some truffles (2 came home with me). What a great way to start a day out.

While the parking lot did have piles of snow, and the store was quite busy, the Community Room was available from 1pm so we had a nice area to play games in. Jack Ridgeway and I, Leslie Barkley, were the only folks there so we played a few games.

First up was a favorite of both of us, Ticket to Ride, Jack won the first game 139 to 122, while I won the second 162 to 160.

Next came a game of Risk, the original, which had a good bit of back and forth until I grew tired of Jack breaking my continents each turn. I had some lucky card draws and so we quickly played through sets. Within a few rounds I played a set of cards and Jack conceded as he looked at 30+ armies massed to march through his single army countries.

Next up was San Juan, this was an open handed play while Jack learned the game. He won at 26 to 24 and agreed that while he understood the game play it would take a few more games to really establish strategy.

We then tried Big Fat Lies, a learning experience for both of us. This is a trivia type of game which ranges over quite a few knowledge areas. I won.

Blokus Trigon was the next game, with our most difficult part remembering which color we were supposed to be playing. We kept it straight, and I ended up winning this one as well.

Our final game for the evening was Mystery Rummy, Case File #4. This is the Chicago gang version, and I always enjoy reading the cards and learning those little tidbits of information they provide. We couldn't finish the game, but Jack played a shut-out strategy for the fourth hand and won 161 to 146.

If one of the more experienced bloggers wants to let me know how to link in the games and names I'll be glad to start doing so. Otherwise you'll just get my meandering rambling prose, well you'll probably get that anyways.

Hope all were safe and warm during the blizzards, look forward to gaming with you in the future.

Leslie Barkley