Buying a house.

So, um...yeah.

We're buying a house.

I'm still in shock just a little, I think; couldn't get to sleep for a while last night. Not that I'm particularly anxious about it or anything. It's just that it's such a huge step.

We started checking out open houses last weekend (9/16-9/17). We looked at 3 houses that Saturday. Sarah's parents met us for the last two, and Sarah really liked the last one we saw, though it didn't do anything at all for me. Sarah's parents took Elizabeth for the night, and then Sunday Sarah and I looked at 3 more houses or so. One of them was a cute little house in Apple Valley that I loved and Sarah liked as well, and so when Sarah's parents brought Elizabeth back up, we had them meet us at the house so they could look at it.

The next weekend, we got preapproved for a loan, so now we knew more what our price range was -- which eliminated the first house that Sarah had liked. We looked at a few more houses on Saturday (9/23), but we kept comparing them to the house in Apple Valley -- and none of them stood up to the comparison. So we decided that it must be the house for us, and we'd make an offer on it.

So on Sunday (9/24) we stopped by for a third time, and presented our offer, which was accepted! The current owners are an old German couple, and the woman said that she hoped we'd come back, because she liked us and thought it would be a good house for our family. In fact, we found out that the intial offer they gave us was better than what they were offering most people! Personally, I feel God must have been saving this house specifically for us; why else would it not have been sold already? It's really the cutest house, which has been kept in excellent condition, with a beautiful yard and a big public/almost-private park right behind that.

So.

Today, I think, Sarah will be calling their agent and figuring out where we go from here. We won't be moving in until January, when Sarah switches to her new job. The current owners will probably be moving out in the next month or so, which gives us around a month and half to move stuff over and get stuff painted up (not that anything needs any painting, but Sarah wants to redecorate.)

I'm not looking forward to the longer commute to work (and the friends we still have up here in the Golden Valley area) but we'll be close to our church now, and our friends from church, and closer to both our parents, and our dentist and eye doctor, and we've always loved the Apple Valley area -- I grew up there, and Sarah did some substitute teaching there).

It's going to be a really exciting time.

Books read: Grail Quest trilogy.

The Archer's Tale
Vagabond
Heretic

My brother read this series by Bernard Cornwell sometime last year, and had been pestering me to read it ever since. I finally ran out of other stuff to read, so I gave in.

Wow.

The trilogy is set during the Hundred Years War, and follows the adventures of an English archer named Thomas of Hookton, who eventually gets caught up in a search for the Holy Grail.

But this isn't "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" or anything; the Grail Quest is more or less just background in what amounts to a long series of battles. But it's done very well. Cornwell has done a lot of homework for this. There's a lot to learn about medieval battle, and archers in particular. Especially impressive is the first book, where every battle (except the opening raid) is based on a battle that actually happened in history, with a number of the major and some minor characters having an historic basis as well. The battle scenes really throw you into the thick of the action, and Cornwell is very good at making sense of everything that's going on on the battlefield. There are a lot of battles, but they're so gripping that it never gets old.

I really have only two complaints with the series. The first is that there's a slight discontinuity between books, mainly to do with the on-the-side love story: the main love interest in the first book seems forgotten by book's end, only to reappear in the middle of the second book (another love interest has come and gone abruptly in the interim) and that thread comes to a sort of resolution (a rather weak one, I thought) in the second book. The third book begins a third love interest, and never (to my recollection) mentions the first ever again. Not anything that really detracts from the story, it just stuck out to me as being a little odd.

My real complaint involves a scene in the second book that I won't detail so as to avoid spoilers. I read this scene and my first thought was that Cornwell was being clumsy -- the importance of that scene seemed so obvious to me -- and now I knew how the trilogy would end. It bugged me for a good chunk of the second book, but by the time I got to the third, I had pretty much forgotten about it. Then I get to the last 5 pages in the final book, and there it is, just as I predicted. Nothing wrong with it, plotwise, but to see the end of the story coming from so far away was just a bit disappointing.

I've got a couple more minor complaints: that the ending seemed to wrap up way too fast, that the third book is the weakest of the series because it doesn't really go anywhere -- but I don't want you to get the wrong impression. These are great books, and I highly recommend the series.

Saturday gaming recap: Cities & Cards.

(Can you tell I'm playing catch-up today?)

Saturday night, Lane came over to play some games. We had already played Tempus with him on Thursday night -- this time with all the correct rules, we think. The result of that was that Sarah won, I lost, and Lane came out in the middle. It is a great game; it'll be interesting to see how it plays with 4 or 5. I'm sure Matt will want to play it now that he's back from Germany.

Anyway: Saturday. First we played a game of Settlers of Catan, but with a variant I'm working on using my "metropolis" hex. I want to get it polished up for the Settlers scenario design contest, and the obvious next step was to actually play the variant. It really worked out well; the new hex changes some of the game strategies in interesting ways. I ended up winning with 13 points: on my final turn, I grabbed the Longest Road and built a settlement worth double points in the center of the metro hex. And the game itself only took 45 minutes to play. It'll be interesting to see how it plays with 4; I'm also wondering if the VP goal should be bumped up to 15...

After that, we decided to play a couple of quickish card games. First we introduced Lane to Die Fugger, a game about selling goods and influencing the market price thereof. I had forgotten how good a game it was, especially with 3 players. The final round was the best fun I've had playing the game yet, with a lot of cutthroat maneuvering as we tried to manipulate the different goods prices to our advantage. I won, followed by Lane, with Sarah a distant third.

We wrapped up the night with Res Publica, one of Lane's favorites, and one of the group's favorite end-of-the-night games. Sarah and I both took off early, building 2 cities quickly, while Lane struggled to build his first. Then Sarah and I alternated grabbing the first few monuments before Lane broke in on the monument-building scene. But I couldn't keep up with Sarah, and she won it in the end.

One. Game. Back. (Baby.)

So now the Twins are only 1 game out first place in the division -- heck, they're only 2 games back from having the best record in baseball!

Again, division-leading Detroit is playing the 3rd-place White Sox. Who to root for? If the Tigers sweep, the Sox pretty much drop out of playoff contention, virtually guaranteeing the Twins a postseason berth. On the other hand, if the Sox sweep the Tigers, the Twins (with a good showing in Boston this week) could take the division lead.

I rooted for the Sox last time this happened, and I just felt dirty. But then, I'd love for the Tigers to drop the next 3 games. Really, either scenario is probably good for the Twins, so I guess I'll watch what happens and enjoy the outcome.

Wot a weekend!

Well, it's been a busy week. This post was started on 9/11, but due to a busy week and weekend, I'm only just finishing it today...

Wow. That was an exhausting, but enjoyable weekend. Let me explain:

Friday (9/8)

On Friday, Tara came over to watch the kids while Sarah and I dropped Matt off at the airport and then went on our monthly "date night". We had 7:00 reservations at our favorite steakhouse, Steak & Ale. We'd been there earlier this year for both Valentine's Day and Sarah's birthday, but always in the company of at least one of our children (Alex wouldn't part with Mommy back in February.) This time, though, we were kid-free, and enjoyed it. We had Sarah's cell phone out the whole time, so we could keep tabs on the Twins game, as they were in the middle of a 4-game series with Detroit with serious playoff implications. The food was terrific, as always (I highly recommend the nine-pepper fillet.)

After dinner, we wanted to stay out some more, but a movie would be too late, and we didn't want to stick Tara with the kids until midnight. So we drove over to the Mall of America just to walk around. We hit the game stores, and in Games By James, I came across Tempus. I handed it to Sarah and told her, "Here it is: Civilization in 2 hours. Everyone's been waiting for it to come for the past year, and it's supposed to be really good." Sarah just hugged it to herself and said, "I want it," which was good enough for me.

Then we dropped a bookstore, where I found 2 books I've been looking for for a while. I didn't pick them up, but I know where I can find them now. We also stopped by Nordstrom Rack and Sarah picked up a pink dress that is HOT. As in, too hot for her semi-formal company awards banquet or my brother's wedding hot. So actually, she's probably going to end up returning, what with no appropriate occasions to which she can wear it. I like it, though.

Saturday (9/9)

Saturday morning we went to meet my grandparents and Steve & Becca at the Minnesota Renassaince Festival. In the past, Hwy 169 has always backed up a lot, so to meet them around 1:00, we figured we needed to leave by 11:00. Well, we woke up after 10:00, and didn't leave the house until shortly after noon -- but traffic was so light we still made our 1:00 rendevous. It was a lot of fun, especially I think for Elizabeth. This was her first Ren Fest, and she enjoyed the food: she ate a whole giant pickle and gobbled down our smoothies, but what surprised me most was how much she liked my giant turkey drumstick. There was a place where you could pet snakes and other lizards, and she went nuts there. And later she even got to ride an elephant and pet its ear.

While watching Zilch the Torysteller, we ran into Sarah's brother, Jeremy. Later we met him again (this time by design) at the "King of the Log" game. The game goes like this: each player stands on one end of a large log, and is given a pillow with which to try and knock the other player off. You play best of 3, and the winner can continue to take on new challengers. Once you've beaten 3 people, you can come back at the end of the day for a final round. One of the first times I went to the Ren Fest with my parents (I was 10 or 11, maybe?) I played KotL and made it all the way. The prize was a free soda. Whoopee! Anyway, this time, I challenged Steve, and Sarah challenged her brother while everyone else watched. Steve and I had 2 veeeeery long matches that left me out of breath, but I finally beat him. While Sarah took on Jeremy, I went to the other side of the field and promptly dispatched some other kid; the second round with him, I took a single swing and knocked him down. I went back to watch Sarah and Jeremy finish their match, as I was to play the winner. Jeremy won, and then the judges awarded them another round where they let Sarah continue using her large pillow but gave Jeremy a teeny-tiny little bag. It was very amusing. Finally, Jeremy and I squared off, and I tried a little experimental spin-around-backhand move that almost made me lose my footing a couple times. I took the first round, then we both fell off the second round (tie), and I beat him finally in the third round.

By this time, Elizabeth was fascinated and wanted to try, so they let her come in for free and jump up on the log and try fighting Daddy. They gave her a kid-sized pillow which was still huge in her hands, but she swung it very well, and kept her balance atop the log. (I, of course, was given one of the teeny-tiny bags.) After some show, I went flying off the log in defeat. Then Elizabeth took on Uncle Jeremy and Mommy, and beat them both, too. So we came away with matching "King of the Log" awards (a plank of wood on a string to wear around your neck.) The saddest part was, no one brought a camera, but Elizabeth was so cute up on that log...

Sarah and I got to play Tempus that night, and she beat me 25-23, though we played a couple rules wrong.

Sunday (9/10)

Sunday we headed to the Metrodome to meet Sarah's parents and watch the AL Cy Young winner (like there's any doubt now) Johan Santana breeze his way through 6-1/3 innings with 11 strikeouts in a 12-1 rout of the division-leading Detroit Tigers. The game was an absolute blast, and the kids had fun.

I was uncomfortable all day, though, and it took me half the day to figure out that it was from getting whacked in the back with pillows for half an hour playing "King of the Log" on Saturday.

Sarah and I also got to play another game of Tempus, and this time I won, 29-24, only to find out later that we were still playing wrong.

No Buggy this week.

It was a busy (and short!) week this week, so I didn't get a chance to make a new Buggy strip. Hopefully, I'll have another done for next Friday.

Thursday gaming recap: Teubered with.

Sarah went to the Metrodome to watch the feeble-batting Twins lose 7-2 to the Tigers. Meanwhile, Matt came over to play some games.

We started with a game of Elasund, the latest game in the Catan series. It's by far the most confrontational game in the series, and though it seems to start slowly, it's not a long game at all. I think our 2-player game took just over half an hour, and we've done 3-player games in around 45 minutes -- making it easily the fastest-playing Catan game out there. It is pretty strategy-heavy, though, and you have a lot of options each turn. Yet it also seems fairly dependent on the roll of the dice, especially at the beginning. I like the game, but I don't think it's quite as deep as a lot of people make it out to be.

After I won (by the way) we played 3 games of Nexus. Matt won the first one (as usual), but I caught him sleeping and stole the 2nd game out from under his nose by scoring a 10-point nexus. On the tiebreaker, we were both sitting at 11 points (we play to 12) when Matt drew a card to get him 3 points and win the game. My next card would have gotten me 3 points as well, making it probably the closest game I've played.

To end the night, we tried Starship Catan, a 2-player game in the Catan series. Matt had never played before, so it took a little time to explain. It's a fairly simple game, but there's a lot of pieces and cards, and the gameplay is fairly involved. I had played 2 games before with Sarah, winning both, and I beat Matt this time, purchasing 3 level-2 modules, taking the "Hero of Catan" VP card, and founding 5 colonies. I really like this one; the exploration is fun, trying to remember what planets are in which sector, and it's got a good money/resource-management system, too. Games seem to run a little on the long side (over 1.5 hours) but at the same time, the end of the game comes quickly.

Don't know how much I'll play over the next week; Matt's headed to Germany for a week...

A freaking waste.

A billion wasted opportunities for the Twins last night. Including, but not limited to:

• Gaining a game on the Detroit Tigers, who lost another game to Seattle. We're only 4 games back, but 3 would have been much nicer.
  
• Keeping our wild card lead over the White Sox, who won last night. We still lead them, but only by a half a game, now.
  
• Getting a win for Carlos Silva, who gave perhaps his best pitching performance of the season, holding Tampa Bay to just 1 hit and 1 walk in 6 scoreless innings before leaving with an upset stomach.
  
• Scoring more than 2 solo home runs by Joe Mauer and Rondell White.

Besides those 2 homeruns, and Justin Morneau's continued plate proficiency, the Twins' offense looked lifeless again. And the bullpen... Pat Neshek gave up the tying and winning homeruns to back-to-back batters in the 7th. Neshek has been lights-out most of the year, but he's been hit hard recently. And don't get me started on Juan Rincon; he's supposed to be one of baseball's best setup men, but I always take a steadying breath when he comes to the mound because if he always seems to get into trouble when we need him not to. Like last night's 3 hits in the 8th inning leading to an insurance run for Tampa Bay. (Which they didn't need anyway; great job, Twins batters!)

Ah, well. We're 4 games behind the Tigers, who come to the Metrodome tonight for a 4-game weekend series. We could do it. We really could; we could sweep 'em and tie 'em for the division lead.

But in order to do that, there's some steppin' up that needs doing.

Weekend gaming recap: 500, baby!

It was a long weekend, but not long enough. Couple that with me being sick yesterday, and I haven't gotten a chance to update in a while. But tonight's game night, so I better log last weekend games before that happens!

Friday

Lane and Sarah and Matt came over for french bread pizzas. Oh my, were those good. First I stuffed my piece of french bread with mozzarella, then topped it with sauce, pepperoni, pork sausage, pineapple, green pepper, orange pepper, green olives, mushrooms, more mozzarella, cheddar, and parmesan. So good...

After that, since we had 5 players, we played a game of Oriente. It's so much more fun with 5 than with 4. We definitely need to try it with 6-7 sometime. Oh yeah, and I won; mainly by getting the Shogun in my treasure stack with the Daimyo's ability (take a card off the deck -- I think that's Daimyo, anyway.) It's such a great game, though; it's now up at the top of my wishlist.

We debated a second game of Oriente, but decided to do a 5-player game of Seafarers of Catan instead. We played the 5-player "Oceans" scenario, but mixed my "Catan: The River" tiles into the mainland, which seems to have had the effect of limiting movement on the mainland. Matt almost got cut off entirely in the early game, only to come back and win with 13 points, including the Longest Road and Largest Army. I believe I came in last, having positioned my first settlements poorly, and getting very few cards all game long (and those I did receive often got stolen by my wife!)

Matt and I played 7 more games of Give Me The Brain! afterwards, and though I don't remember the exact count, I won the majority of them.

Saturday

Sarah worked Saturday evening, so Matt came over and we played a game of Polarity. Matt made a fault early on, handing me a 2-point tower, and that was all I needed. I never made a fault, and cruised to a victory. I'm pretty sure I won a game against him a long time ago, but that still makes it only his third loss ever. It felt pretty good.

We then played 9 games of Give Me The Brain! throughout the night, with our first 3 expansions mixed in (as usual). Again, I took the majority, though the numbers elude me. The important part is that I logged my 500th game played of GMTB! on BoardGameGeek! Wow!

Much later (after Sarah got back late) Tara and our friends Mark and Tanya came over, and Mark and Tanya broke out Killer Bunnies (4 decks total), which the rest of us (minus Tara) had never played before. Sarah managed to get a lot of carrots, but it was Tanya who won at the end; she only had 2 out of the 20 carrots, but one of them was the winning one. Not a terrible game; I think the mechanic of laying your cards down 2 turns ahead of time (the "rabbit run") is quite interesting, and the rest of the cards are no more random than, say, Munchkin (which I enjoy), but the winning requirements leave something to be desired. How it works is, there are (with the expansions we used, anyway) 20 carrot cards that you try to buy throughout the game. The game ends when the last carrot is purchased, and the winner is whoever has the "magic carrot" -- the identity of which is determined before the game starts. So each carrot you buy has a 1/20 chance of being the winning carrot, and therefore the goal is to grab as many carrots as you can and thereby increase your odds of winning. But it's still essentially a crapshoot at the end. Our game (with 6 players) also dragged on for a long time, but mostly that had to do with (or so we were told) the fact that the Market -- where you buy carrots -- was closed for most of the game, making getting ahold of carrots quite difficult. Anyway, I'd be open to trying the game again, but it's not near the top of my list for games I'd like to play again.

Monday

Monday, Matt, Tara and Anita, and Steve and Becca came over for dinner. Before dinner, Matt and Sarah and I taught Anita how to play Give Me The Brain! We played with just the original deck for the first time in a long while. Sarah won.

Then we ate. Steve and Becca left shortly thereafter, and the rest of us sat down and played a game of Mamma Mia! Grande. Sarah won with 14 orders filled, while Matt and I each had 13. I believe Tara had 11 and Anita, 9, respectable scores for first-time players.

Once Tara and Anita headed home, the 3 of us (Sarah, Matt, and myself) played a quick game of Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue that I won with a shutout final round.

Thursday gaming recap: One-on-one.

Sarah ended up having to work Thursday night after supper, but Matt came over and the two of us (naturally) played some games.

We started with 4 games of Give Me The Brain! with my latest expansion ("On Schedule") mixed in. It worked out decently with 2 players, though I suspect the expansion will be more interesting with more players. I won 3 games, and Matt only 1.

Then I taught Matt Lost Cities; I pounded him the first round, and in the second round he made the mistake of starting another expedition far too late, with the result that he lost points and I was able to score more than I would have otherwise. Round 3 went far better for him, and poorly for me, as I made only 6 points. Final score: me, 85; Matt, 80. A lot closer than I was expecting it to be.

Next up was Nexus, our old 2/3-player filler before we got hooked on GMTB! Matt humiliated me the first game, and though I jumped out to an early lead in the second game, I lost that one too.

Luckily for me, we played 4 more games of GMTB! and I was able to win 2 of those, winning the series for the night, 5-3. That puts me at 486 logged games of GMTB! played, and with any luck I'll break 500 by the end of the holiday weekend!

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Tonight we'll be making french bread pizzas for supper, and hopefully I can convince people to try out my latest Settlers of Catan variant; I'd like to get it polished up for the scenario design contest.