Though Mike and I were not hanging out together for Easter this year (He at Pax and me in CT) it was still appropriate to make a Lamb Cake!  Here are the highlights from the 2012 LAMB CAKE!  Click on a picture for a closer look!

A few months ago Mike and I had the pleasure of being invited to Lorien Green’s screening of Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary (http://www.boardgamemovie.com/).  Folks at the screening talked very highly of an annual Board Game Gathering called Unity Games.  So we decided to do it!

We paid our preregistration fee of  $12.50 and waited…

Yesterday was the day!!  Mike, Matt Hanson and I left Manchester around 9:00 am to make the trek down to the Hilton in Woburn, MA for a day of the unknown.  We had heard about this event before, but hadn’t been…

Upon arrival we found a great parking spot right out front and made our way to the 3rd floor ballroom.  There were so many games being played, it was great!  The room was made up of rows and rows of tables for gaming with one isle down the middle to get from one end of the room to the other with a Meeting Place smack dab in the middle of the room to start a game…to find people to play with…and just meet up!  Along the edges of the room were tables where individuals could place their piles of games with their names to let the other Unity Gamers borrow games to play through out the day.

Walking in we were a bit overwhelmed but found some friendly faces to play a low key mobster game: Family Business.  This was a fun game to warm up for the day.

I had a great time breaking from group of folks that I knew…finding complete strangers to game with.  I would periodically return to our group and play a game.  Over the course of the 13 hours I played 9 games (4 of which were new to me, 3 I taught to others and 2 everyone at the table knew how to play!)

These included (in play order): Family Business, Pastiche,  7 Wonders, Bohnanza, Kingdom Builder, Flash Point, Citadels, String Railway (Japan), and Can’t Stop.

Here are a few other pictures from the day:

Overall, it was a wonderful day of gaming and catching up with friends.  I look forward to attending the 19th annual Unity Games in 2013!!

As you may know, Elwyn is our cat and one of our dearest friends.  Since we don’t have kids…he tends to be our test subject for pictures and new lenses.  Mike got a new lens from my Dad that I used (50mm, how fun)!!

SUPER SCRATCHER!!

It is a really neat lens because it doesn’t zoom (what a concept!)  You have to position yourself (gasp!)

We are really looking forward to the New Year.  I have a head cold since Christmas Day and a moderate ear ache since (yes, I went to the doctor today, I never go to the doctor. I will be ok.) And am really looking to feeling better and normal.

I have been thinking a lot about my mom and continue to miss her everyday.  I still can’t believe it has been 3 years this coming January 2nd since she passed.  She helped me so much to be the woman I am today…I see so much of her in me.

My thoughts and energy go out to many of my family and friends going through challenging times with health, money, loss, distance and change…and would be interested in helping any way we can.

Hope that good things will come in 2012!  Best wishes to our family and friends in the New Year! See you all soon!

So, last summer we visited two of Mike’s good friends Steph and Matt who live in Schaumburg, IL. They had snails in their bathroom (who live there, who are supposed to be there). Now, I think this is the coolest thing…snails and moss in a glass container…and a grow lamp, in the bathroom!

Ok, this might sound strange to most folks…but how cool is that?

We went back to Chicagoland for Thanksgiving to visit Mike’s family and made a stop up to Schaumburg to visit Matt and Steph.  And again the snails were there!!

Steph decided to give me some snails to migrate back to NH with me…now was the dilemma of how to transport them on a plane.

She put them in two small ziplock bags alternating…in a plastic teeth mold case.  But, it began to leak…plan B.  Mike’s mom had a 1/2 cup tupperware container.  Then I got scared! 1/2 cup = 4 oz!  One oz above the approved volume for the TSA!!  I had to make a snail life and death decision…do I carry them on and risk the possibility my snails may be taken OR do I risk the journey to checked luggage?  I decided upon the latter. Mike’s mom found a small cooler back to assist in insulating the snail tupperware.

The snails have lived with us for about 3 weeks and are doing well.  There were initially 1 large snail and at least 2 small snails…they have multiplied!!  I was going to make them my bathroom snails too…but I don’t have an outlet near the place I would like them to live so right now they are living room snails.

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend (don’t worry I recently gave them more water):

Becca's living room snails

Baby snails!

Big snail and baby snail together...aww

I have always enjoyed doing crafts and being creative.  I dream of someday having my own space to set up crafty things and finally be organized.  Our spare room full of computery, officey, crafty, pod casting equipment for The C List Podcast/Fruitless Pursuits and the staging area for Mikes’s boardsandbeers.com.

This week, I decided to do it anyway on the living room floor.  For some reason we have been collecting wine corks for the past few years.  There was really no purpose to this…except they were stored in the kitchen basket hanging from the ceiling.  Until it fell down…ok about 3 months ago.

I stopped by Kohl’s and picked up a discounted square Halloween frame to create a trivet.

Wine, corks, glue and frame

I decided to pick out a few corks that had meaning or just looked really cool.  I had to trim a few down to fit the area of the frame.  There were only a couple that had be be a bit shorter to squeeze everything in.

Laying out the cork pattern...hey, who drank my wine?

Looking good!  I liked using Ommegang beer corks for the corners.  Then using Oliver and Sharpe Hill (a couple local wineries to places I have lived). The MB cork was cool too.  There were also a couple with quotes, adventure tools, neat designs (and some that just physically fit well).

Almost there...now time to glue!

The gluing process was, well, interesting.  I thought I would be really smart and use Gorilla Glue because it is strong!  This made it a little difficult to work with.  In order to use it the surfaces must be wet to create the super strong chemical reaction to hold the pieces in place.  During this phase some of the corks decided to fit very tightly and pop out of the frame and get Gorilla glue on the frame edges, the table and my fingers (remember water creates the chemical reaction, so it is very hard to wash off!)  It also bubbles a bit when it dries so now it can been seen in between the corks.

In retrospect I think hot glue would have been easier to work with…but potentially would need more maintenance down the road.

Trivet done!

Before I glued, I switched a couple corks around…and added some I found at the bottom of the cork bowl.  All and all, I really enjoy it!!

Today is the day of the unveiling of my halloween costume at Bill and Kate’s Halloween Bash.  I still have a few finishing touches to pull together this afternoon…it has been a lot of fun but quite a struggle to find the different pieces that I need without ordering exact replicas from over seas.  Overall I think it will come out ok!

Snow prediction 10.29.11

With that we are predicted to get 5-10+ inches of SNOW!  In October!  We are planning on staying over for an extended experience due to the weather!  Looking forward to it!