Rowan Tree and Red Thread

Yesterday, a Sunday, an old friend came to visit from Dublin. wwhyte was in town to present a talk at a symposium here in UCC and dropped round to see us. It was great to see im and he gone on fabulously with Rowan. They share an interest in the can-can, apparently, and the sudden exposure of their navels. We chatted happily too, in the unforced way you do with old friends, swapping news and catching up as we went.

sammywol had prepared sushi, which ate with none of the gracious style I associate with Japanese cooking, but plenty of gusto and that's what counts.

After dinner I polished and buffed Rowan and sammywol settled her down for bed with some bedtime stories. Meanwhile some other friends (Marie & Utz) turned up and we started a quick game of TransAmerica. We didn't get to finish this game as the fourth friend (alaimacerc) arrived after the second hand, but I do know I didn't win. It was fairly close, but I think wwhyte and Marie were joint first when we wrapped the game.

Next we batted a couple of other game suggestions back and forth but eventually settled on Ra, even though this meant that sammywol didn't get to play. (She did offer to sit it out, so we weren't too cruel.) We opened Marie's copy of the game, its first play in fact, so there was som gratifying tearing off of plastic wrapping and sealed bags.

As ever, we had a good game with plenty of tough choices. It was wwhyte's first time playing but he got into the play without problems. Marie, our resident Ra champion, lost her groove and spent too soon in two epochs, leaving her out of the running for once. (She usually romps away with our games of Ra.) There was some tight play and, as usual, a couple of 'last sun left' attempts to run for big scores that didn't always work (I was screwed once in such a fashion. Greed doesn't pay).

Final scores were fairly close, with alaimacerc on 36, wwhyte on 34, me on 33, Marie on 31 and Utz on 28. A good game. Thanks Dr. Knizia!

Last game of the evening was a six hander of Apples to Apples. This doesn't get many outings in our house as at least one of our regular players doesn't like it, but he was persuaded this time. As ever it was a fun and very silly game. alaimacerc won again, which may soften him towards future plays of the game.

So in all, a good night for alaimacerc and a fun time had by all I think.