This last weekend the Buffalo Bills got handed their guts back to them curiously of the Detroit Lions. I know, you don't care. But Ed and John and I could not help but to slip in 3 more games of Condottiere on Sunday night before watching 'Vampyros Lesbos'. The delight to play card game that replaces risk forever. Again, I lost ALL 3 GAMES. I SUCK AT THIS and still I must... play...

The film was of course, exactly as the title suggests.

For this weekend, Steve and Suzanne and coming down for game night!!!! Optimistically, bring suits for the inaugural hot tub dip.

In other news, I would like to thank Tom for his VAST assistance in getting both the theater chairs installed (Ed and Pritch and I did the 'bolting', but Tom was the brains), and getting the bar sink installed!!!

What a great party. Games, food, drink, and naked hot tubing. Long live the new flesh!  [Can you guess the movie?}

We stuck to Condottiere and Citadels as they were relatively new games. Condottiere left a bad taste in Tom's mouth, but Ed and I continue to love this simple card game. Tim and Michelle seemed to enjoy it also, but I have not solicited explicit feedback. comments welcome. Once again, I lost all games of Condottiere.

We then broke out 'Citadels'. At first, we were mystified by the point, then we played it again and still were not sure. Then on Sunday Ed and John and I played again just to play it now that we really get it. Now don't get confused, this is a VERY simple game. Each turn, you decide which of the 8 characters you wish to be. The you execute a simple turn of collecting gold, spending gold on buildings. The characters each have one or two special things they can do (like kill, or thieve, or trade hands, etc). The 'really don't get it' part I refereed to is in strategy. You can't seem to plan one. Everyone elses move simply throws you a new curve. And if they assassinate you, you can't even play until next round! It is one of those games where you feel yourself always planning two turns in advance, knowing full well that after this round, you throw the plan out the window anyways. The game is deceptively addictive, but is best with 4-6 players. 3 players seems a little weak. Again, a lot of the attraction is the SIMPLE set of rules. 'Did you even read the rules?' was the macro, since we kept missing small details in execution. (We have it down now though as of Sunday night.)

These small and simple card games are great, but I still want to show Ed "Prince of Florence" that we learned three weeks ago. A bit of the 'ole Medici plus.

I hope the 'women's round table' solved the problems of the world. Our spy, Tim, has not yet make his report to the 'men folk'.

After guests departed, naked hot tubing began. 'nuff said there.

By the way, movie night consisted of 'Phantasm'. The 'cool but completely incomprehensible plot' horror film from the 80s. We enjoyed the film, but I had incorrectly identified the soundtrack as having been performed by 'The Goblins'. This is incorrect as they did the soundtrack to 'Suspiria', the classic vampire movie. I guess we'll have to screen that on a future night. We are currently running amuck with horror films, let me know if you are interested. Ed currently has 'Hellraiser I & II' on order. I am looking to find a copy of Evil Dead I and II for under $25 friggin dollars each. DVD, the great gouge.

In the most bizarre scenario to date, Tim Wade showed up at about 8ish with his dinner in hand for game night. He works a mile from my house, so he just stopped on the way home from a Saturday workday. Ten minutes later the power went out. For good. Tim packed it up and left, and I stared at a dark wall for about an hour. Knowing there is little to do at my house without power, and Jacqueline already asleep, I decided to just go to bed.

Sunday, I did not feel up to much as I had this 24hr flu type bug. So, Jen took Jacqueline to the 'Renaissance Festival'. (She loved it). Anyway, at about 5 o'clock I figured to make up for yesterday and called Ed. "Let's do movie night early and play some games!". So as people showed up for movie night, we played Condottiere, and a new game [Taj Mahal] whose name suddenly eludes me. Ed will post it, but here is the skinny. You had a hand full of cards which represented your resources. So, use them too quickly and you have less for next round. Bid on the five commodities (but not like Medici) based on the cards in you hand. Try to win easy victories for lesser things when resources are low. When they look good, try to get the commodity items. At the end, highest score wins. Now there were more nuances then this, but not much more. The rules were an intimidating 8 pages (with pictures) but they took great pains to explain things well. Still, I think I would much rather play 'Web of Power' (simpler) or 'RA' (cooler). I will have to try it again for a better opinion.

The movie (Tom joined us this Sunday!) was 'The Defender' starring Jet Li. I have this to say... I am DONE with the Jet Li thing. (You can say Jet as in plane, or Lee as in General, but your not allowed to say the two words together). We heckled the first 45 minutes (we were funny too), but the 'action' scenes featured not action but rather 'slow motion' shots. "All the better to enhance with" said the Wicked Witch of editing. And Edit they did. Geez, how many times can a guy kick someone before he either has to touch the ground or reach the center of a tootsie roll pop. (answer: 3 apparently).

So, this Sunday leaves me in a quandary. Now that football season is upon us, Sunday night features a football game from 8-11. This sort of ruins movie night. We could do it on Friday night, but I have not solicited any feedback yet. I borrowed Evil Dead I&2 (I have 3) and desperately want to screen 'Any Given Sunday' this Friday night no matter what since the season starts on Sunday. So, what say you?

Game night remains open for labor day weekend. We could have it, or not. I am just waiting to see what everyone has planned or what ideas people come up with...