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.
