Sure, people got cranky from time to time, but it was pretty much a big lazy get together featuring two holidays, food, shopping, TV, and games. For starters, I was introduced to a couple long-running TV shows that I'd never seen before, Ninja Warrior and Doctor Who.
Ninja Warrior is more or less a serious version of the Japanese show lampooned in MXC. In each competition (there have been 22 so far), 100 athletes and/or celebrities attempt to make it through a series of physical challenges in a quest for honor and glory. We watched competition 20, in which American free runner Levi Meeuwenberg makes it the farthest, but fails in stage 3 of 4. I don't think I get G4 under our current cable plan, but if I did this might prove a pleasant distraction from time to time.
The Doctor Who episode I saw was from the season with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. Despite this show being such a big deal with so many people, I had no idea it would be so funny. In the one I saw, our three main characters are teleported to the far future where they're forced to participate in sadistic versions of popular TV shows like Big Brother and The Weakest Link. Who's behind it all? The Daleks, of course. I don't intend to go too crazy with this, but it seems like something I can safely add to my Netflix queue and get to at some point.
On the games front, specialty card games were the games of choice. I finally got people to play Bohnanza with the dreaded Auftrag (Job) cards. It turned out to be much ado about little as they didn't change the game as much as some (cough, Meaghan) had feared. So it looks like we'll be using them more in the future. The big winner, though, was Killer Bunnies.
Meaghan and I have been playing this more and more lately as it's one of the few "strategy" games we own that works decently with only two players. She tends to prefer lighter fare, so it cuts out a lot of the more hardcore options that are out there. The big surprise was how much Meaghan's family enjoyed it. Her brother, Jimmy, liked it enough to give us the first two expansion sets (red & violet) for Christmas. I can't really imagine playing a game involving over 500 cards (all the expansions), but I'm sure it'll happen at some point. I'm happy with what we have for now.
On a personal note, it's with regret that I announce the conclusion of No-Shave November. It was all over 15 minutes after settling in front of the mirror Monday morning. Some pictures were taken down in Texas. I'll see if I can track some of those down if anyone is interested in seeing me at the zenith of the growing season.
4 comments:
Glad to hear that you're enjoying Killer Bunnies. Most of the people I've gamed with have found it to be far too light, but I thought it had quite a bit of entertainment value (perhaps that has something to do with being a pun-lover...).
As for No-Shave November, Jeff's office did something similar. I'd heard of it as NSID, but Google definitely supports November as the appropriate month to forgo shaving.
Yeah, the Bunnies are definitely not for the serious gamer, but we've had a lot of luck playing it with friends and family so far.
There's only so much Trivial Pursuit or Apples to Apples a guy can handle.
I can't believe you had not run across Ninja Warrior before. Back when I had extended cable I would get sucked into the four hour marathons of NW. They have both a men's version and a women's version, I think sometimes the women's NW is more competitive and entertaining.
Also...Dr. Who, who hasn't seen at least one episode of at least the old old Dr. Who.
Umm... me, that's who. I actually don't watch nearly as much TV as it seems. At least, I never just have it on and randomly flip around.
G4 is on one of the extended digital tiers up here, so Ninjas aren't going to be a temptation anytime soon.
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