Christmas Bonus

I know there haven't been a lot of reports on gaming sessions recently, partly because of weather, but that should change very soon. I will say that I spent quite a bit of the last 10 days trying desperately to figure out all of the rules holes in Fields of Fire. Once I get some time to myself (in the next few days) I plan to give it a good try now that I've gotten my BGG group game over with (or at least as far as I was willing to continue with it). I'm also running through the rules for Unhappy King Charles!, which looks like a winner in many ways. It's so funny to read rules for games that came on the same day, and see one that makes perfect sense and the other, well, doesn't much of the time. It's frustrating, but if you are at all interested in the concepts that FoF presents (command structure which contains almost all of the decision points, combat and enemy action are all done more or less by the AI), it's worth the work. If you can't tolerate very loose and conceptually poor rules, you may want to wait a few weeks until there's a FAQ out to fill in the gaps. Man, there are a lot of gaps. 

It appears that we may actually melt out of this sloppy snowy mess we have here in Portland in the next few days. I can't imagine how many retail stores will go out of business as a result of what was essentially a weekend and a half of dangerous road conditions, and another afternoon of perhaps the worst traffic snarl in Portland history brought on by a decision by the state (ODOT) to deice a major section of I-5. We walked right into it, which necessitated a 2 hour trip from one side of the freeway to the other so that I could get a prescription filled. After observing the behavior of people, I'm pretty sure that when civilization collapses we'll all be eating each other. 

In the words of the immortal Steve Jobs...

"Oh, just one more thing..."

I am, as of Tuesday, December 23rd 2008, at 2:15pm, a grandfather. Lylah Michelle Grace Madosik, weighing in at 7.1 lbs, 20 inches. Mother and child are doing very well, but I'm still getting used to the idea that my genetic legacy is breathing on her own. Only two more years until she understands enough English to play Dominion...

Best Christmas present... ever!