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Excellent weekend! I thought it was going to be dreary all weekend long, and I stayed out late on Friday playing board games with John, Melissa, and Paul. John and Paul and I played Khronos (wherein I taught them how to play by soundly winning), Mhing (which was enjoyed by all), and Santiago (which was a hit, though I got crushed!). I didn’t wake up until 9ish on Saturday, and around noon I realised that it was really nice outside, contrary to expectations.

Hiking West Peak

I’d missed out on the AT hike Kevin & co were doing (since I’ve needed to have left around 7am to make the trailhead), so I went to my trusty West Peak around 1:30. I used my small Mountainsmith lumbar pack and Go-lite jacket (which soon found itself strapped to my pack, since it was so “hot” out), and the Marmot shoes I’d picked up over winter to deal with the rain and snow.

There’s this side trail off the main trailhead (the one that branches on to the road up the mountain) that goes steep up the cliff, and that’s the one I took. After a couple of rests going up the bluff, I found myself at the pavilion. There was a turned over, full sized propane grill inside of it (sans tank). I was pretty tired, and the sun was bright and the day was pleasant, so I just laid down on the rough mulch that’s been spread in that area and took a rest.

As I continued on my way, I found a number of logs and even full trees spread across the trail, presumably to hinder ATVs. I took the liberty of removing such obstacles as I found them and was able (some were simply too heavy for me to move alone). As I hit the trailhead to West Peak, I stepped partially in a stream and got my shoe wet. I didn’t think much of it (because of the hardy construction) but I did feel some seepage. I’m used to waterproof footwear, so I’ll have to keep that in mind for these guys.

The trail runs along the edge of the mountain, at the top of the talus slope. I heard some movement in the talus downhill from me as I was hiking, and I saw the body of a snake slithering through the rocks; it was about 2 inches thick!

As I continued on my way, I heard this noise coming from the forest. It was like a flock of geese or ducks. I moved forward curiously, and found that the small pond in the cleft of two rises alongside the trail was teeming with frogs, and they were chirping like there was no tomorrow. I sat there and listened to them for a while.

A short distance from there was the summit of West Peak. The day was beautiful – clear blue interspersed with clouds, a light wind, and the sun shining down on you. I took off my pack and just laid in the sun for a while, eating a Clif bar and sipping on my water. It was a wonderful day to be out. I only saw 4 other groups of hikers on my way: a couple passed me as I rested near the pavilion, a family as I approached the branch leading to East Peak, a trio as I rested at the peak of the talus slope, and a young couple with a dog as I made my way down near the pavilion again.

I took an inordinate amount of rest during this hike. It could be that I’m simply out of shape, but I think a contributing factor is that I was alone. It’s much easier to persist when you have other people hiking with you.

Saturday evening games

Mark Casiglio runs the Alternate Board Games group in Milford, CT once a month on Saturday. I got there around 6, and horned in on a 6 player game of Citadels. Keith taught the game while I watched Dustin and Mark play Galaxy Trucker (a game Alan had taught me like a week ago). I noticed that Dustin had defeated some space pirates, but then Mark didn’t have enough lasers to deal with them. I let that slide while they were playing, but as they were moving to the next round I mentioned it, and Dustin checked and found that he was playing it wrong, and did what he could to correct Mark’s position in light of that fact.

In Citadels, Keith was the whipping boy for the first half of the game. He got assassinated, stolen from twice (though the second time he had no gold!), and I stole his hand and gave him a single card in return as the Magician. He was quite put out (it happens sometimes in Citadels), but came back strong. I was in a pretty solid lead, and was taken down a peg 2 or 3 times by the Warlord. I was careful not to build any 1 coin buildings, but at least 2 of my 2 coin buildings got destroyed. I made a grave error near the end of the game by taking the Merchant (for that extra gold) rather than the King. I got assassinated, and couldn’t build on the last round, and that cost me a couple of points for sure (around 5?) – enough to take me out of the win (I finished with 31 points).

After Citadels, Chris was interested in playing Navia Dratp. Well, he was curious about the big box I was carrying the pieces in, anyway. I coaxed him into a game and soundly thrashed him. We then had Sarah join us for a game of Glory to Rome, which she won by a large margin. I was “shooting the moon” so to speak, with an early bid on the Forum and a patron client. Unfortunately, I never got it together, thanks to my big mouth (this was the first time Chris had ever played a game like this, so I was telling him how to stop me). Sarah finally used the “kill switch” of the game and built the Catacombs. This gave her the win (since I was less concerned about building and my Vault, and more about getting those clients!) by a fair margin. She had like 3 craftsman clients and the +2 hand size building built, and was spamming buildings near the end.

I busted out with Dead Man’s Treasure, where her elation was surely squelched. This is a quick Knizia filler, and it plays great. It has an unlicensed Pirates of the Caribbean feel going on. To play the game, you set 6 islands out. You set (Number of Players – 1) treasure markers randomly on each island; your job is to collect as many of these as you can be establishing a majority on the island. Each player in turn takes a card from their hand and lays it on the island of their choice face down. Each card is numbered 1 to 7, plus one “bomb” card. If there is already a face down card on the island, that card is turned face up. If a bomb is turned face up, both the bomb and the card used to reveal it are removed from the game.

There are also two pirate pawns that move about from island to island. One pirate is good (and moved clockwise), and the other bad (moving counterclockwise). The pirates move when a card is revealed on the island that they’re on.

The game ends when one of it pirates makes it back to his starting island or when the players run out of cards (the 8th round). The island with the bad pirate has all of it’s treasures removed from it (including the good pirate!). The good pirate counts as a 10 point treasure (the highest normal treasure is worth 7). Starting with the island to the right of the good pirate, the player with the highest card count (eg 7+5 = 12) gets the biggest treasure on that island, and so on, until all treasures are removed. Ties are broken by looking to the majority holder on the island to the left. The person with the most treasure wins the game.

It played much more quickly than I anticipated (maybe 12 minutes for a 3 player game), and we played 3 rounds of it. I think it’s a great light game with a fun theme. You can totally tell that Knizia designed it, as well.

After that, we got together with Star and Alan and Cam for a 6 player game of Sticheln. I got greedy at the end and it proved to be my undoing. I had a 14 and a 1. The 2nd to last trick the 14 was in the lead suit, so I could have lost my 14 there and lost the last trick as well. I decided to keep the 14 and take the last trick, where I took my 12 pain (guess who wasn’t paying attention). Big money, no whammies . . . stop!! D’oh!

The final game of the night was Die Kutschfart zur Teufelsberg. I taught this one. It’s got a fair number of different cards, but once the game gets going the mechanics are easy enough. Actually figuring out how to play it is another thing altogether. Both Mark and Alan had the bags but they weren’t trading them because they knew they’d turn into keys/cups at the end. Once I pointed out how they actually worked (again), a trading frenzy happened. Most of the game was characterized in people involved in contests with one another. I don’t think I won a single one (everybody ganged up on me!). I did get to draw a couple of times due to ties, however.

This one ended with Star proclaiming victory (in error), giving the victory to my team by default. Apparently Mark had deduced enough to able to correctly proclaim victory when his turn came around, however.

Sunday is for church

I woke up at like 9 on Sunday, so that put the kibosh on the 9am service. I went to the 11am service; worship was good, and pastor Will continued his “What if you only had a month to live” theme. He’d gone out and recorded himself speaking to strangers on the street and in offices. I was a little surprised to hear some of the responses they gave when he asked them what they’d do if they had one month to live. “Quit my job” was one I could sympathize with. “Make up with my mom” I can kind of understand, as a procrastinator. “Get saved” was neigh incomprehensible to me – why wait if you know you need saving? Don’t you know your life could be snuffed out tomorrow? God is merciful, though, and is patient and grants us time to repent (cf 2 Pe 3:8-9). But he also says:

(Luke 12:15-21) And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

After church I came home and since I had a runny nose I took some “Dayquil”. Yeah, right. I woke up around 5pm from my non-drowsy coma, and at 5:30ish I headed back to church for a night of praise and worship. I had a great time there, good worship. I was kind of bummed because God didn’t send his glory (it’s been a while!). The band called it quits at 8pm (though half the congregation was ready for more – myself among them). I’ll take what I can get, though!