ticket to ride

Day 81: Quality Time

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I had a little work to do today, then had a relaxing dinner with my family. We went to our favorite Salvadoran restaurant for pupusas, horchata, and conversation, which inevitably turned to how much we loved yesterday‘s amazing hand rolls at Kazu Nori. Yes, we love to talk about food while we’re eating.

After our meal, it was a few games of Zombie Dice and Ticket to Ride for more laughs and relaxation. I finally managed to win a game of Ticket to Ride; my stepdaughter’s a natural and she’s been crushing me and my wife since we started playing.

Food, conversation, and games. It’s what makes up my favorite Sunday Funday.

 

Day 78: Surf and Turf

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While my wife and I miss our girl when she’s at school, it makes us treasure the time we spend together during her breaks. Tonight we showed her how to play Ticket to Ride and Zombie Dice (she won both games, so college is already paying off), then went to the new Korean BBQ restaurant in our neighborhood. It’s an all-you-can-eat place and we happily indulged in several servings of meats, seafood, and banchan (side dishes like kimchi, daikon, radish, etc.) After we stuffed ourselves silly, the manager came by to chat and gave us some complimentary food.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll have family bonding time at the gym.

Day 69: Gaming Success

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride

I’m not a hardcore gamer. I have friends who are, but outside of the increasingly rare session of poker, I don’t play video games or board games or card games or dice games.

But the times they are a-changin’.

Confession: I have a like-new copy of Carcassone sitting in storage somewhere. Or maybe I passed it along to my stepdaughter; I don’t remember. What I do remember is that when I bought it 10+ years ago, I gave it a trial run or two and it didn’t stick. Back then my idea of game night was hours-long sessions of poker: limit and no-limit Hold Em, Omaha, Stud, Draw, Razz, Badugi, and other variations. You name it, my buddies and I played it into the wee hours of the morning.

Forward to today: I don’t play much poker, but now I’m wish-listing, buying, and playing games like there’s no tomorrow. The latest and greatest addition to my collection was Ticket to Ride. Back in January I bought Pandemic and have played it dozens of times, but only as a solo game. My wife played it with me once, but wasn’t really into it. No problemo, since it played so well with one player. But when I bought Ticket to Ride last week, I was a bit nervous. What if my wife didn’t like it? The only solo variants I found online didn’t sound as good, since it’s not a cooperative game in which roles could be shared by one player.

Thankfully, my wife enjoyed Ticket to Ride. Success! We played three games over the weekend and had a blast. I had read many reviews (and watched the TTR Tabletop episode, of course) about how elegant and simple the game was to learn, and it’s true. It only took a few turns to get the hang of gameplay and after each game we discussed strategies and other nuances. Not only has it been a lot of fun, but it’s also quality time with the missus: a win-win, obviously.

Day 63: Ticket To Ride

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Ticket To Ride

 

This arrived tonight: Ticket to Ride! Back in January I wrote about my purchase of Pandemic, which was the first board game I’d bought in years (at least a decade). I’ve loved playing Pandemic; even though it’s a 2-5 player game, since it’s a cooperative game, it plays well for one person. Nearly every weeknight, I’ve managed to play a game or two before going to bed.

My wife and I played one game of Pandemic and she didn’t take to it like I did, so I decided to buy Ticket to  Ride. Once again, I did my research on games for new gamers and Ticket to Ride kept coming up. Watching the Tabletop episode on the game sealed the deal.

I hope she likes this one because it doesn’t seem like it will be a fun solo game. I could go down to the game store or connect with some local gamers, but I’m more of a homebody these days and prefer playing games with family and close friends. Thankfully, my wife likes playing Zombie Dice. I picked up a copy and we went 1-1 the other night, with the rubber match still to be played.

So, three new games in the last two months. I still have a ways to go to have a collection on par with Game Haus Cafe, but it’s been fun stocking the games shelf here at home.