Hannah, Conan, Ryan & Me

 I had a very special treat yesterday as Hannah took me on a Daddy-daughter date as fulfillment of her Christmas present to me. We drove up to Hollywood and Burbank and went to the taping of the Conan O'Brien show at Warner Bros. studios. To her great delight, Ryan Gosling was on the show, so she was giddy all day in anticipation. In spite of her school-girl giddiness, I am amazed at how grown up she is as she finishes her senior year and gets ready for college. The show was great and a lot of fun, I don't think I had been to the taping of a show since Happy Days when I was near Hannah's age. Here are some shots of the show, with a Ryan close-up for Hannah:

We had a great time, after we checked in we drove around the area, down Bob Hope drive and hung out for awhile at Johnny Carson park. We also got a look at the various studios, and even checked a view of some of the back lots. This shot is of the airplane crash scene from the movie War of the Worlds, it was bit cold and windy up the hillside. While waiting for the show we even got in a game of Lost Cities. After the show we went out to dinner before we made the long drive back home. The best part was being with Hannah and talking about her goals and the things that she wants to do. I am sure she will be happy pursuing her dreams (maybe not Ryan Gosling though).

Medieval Times 5-6 Jan 2013

We have our annual tradition over the holidays of making graham cracker houses for Christmas, and then when New Years comes we stage a large battle scene with fire and soldiers to destroy them. This year we had a Medieval theme for which I built a castle that ended up pretty cool, and others gave it a more castle-type theme. Brittany & Matt were down for the holidays, and even my son-in-law  made a miniature Minas Tirith from LOTR. The fire that rains from the sky (napalm in our army scenarios) we determined was dragon fire and flamed ordinance from catapults. In reality we use a lengthy piece of plastic to drip the flame down from a ladder with a zipping sound - our whiffle bat worked quite well and we also mixed in a plastic sand shovel. An old set of Weapons and Warriors that we were going to throw out served well for our red & blue medieval soldiers, and the catapults and ballista added a nice touch along with some trees. We didn't use any fireworks this year, but Hannah, Jonathan, Caleb and Sarah all got to drip the fire to cool effect. The fire raged pretty quick and my castle was reduced to complete rubble and few soldiers survived. But with the glow of the flames I captured all the carnage with my camera.

Check out the complete slideshow:

Click here to view these pictures larger

Battles with the Brother

 It has been awhile since I have been able to play games with my brother Randy, I would like to more often as we approach games in a similar way and it is always fun. We got to dig into some decent two player games that I have not been able to get on the table, so I was stoked to do so. The first one that I have been dying to play but pretty much would only play it with Randy due to the historical nuances to it (he is a history buff), is A Few Acres of Snow. It is actually fairly simple to play, a card driven war game, but each side has their own unique set of cards, units and even abilities. I played the British and Randy the French. As the French he had better alliances with the Native Indians and income from fur trade, while I started with more money and cities with abilities. Once he started raiding my towns I went into defensive mode, fortifying my positions and cutting off his paths. We only had three city sieges in the whole game, and none were successful. As this game has a deck-building component, I spent energy thinning my deck and upgrading my towns until I won in a whimpy way by camping and protecting. It is a pretty cool game, although not much variety, but I would play it again.

We also played the Civil War game Battle Cry, and just set up the first simple scenario. It is also card driven, but more limited in your choices. I made a rash bold move with my artillery and Cavalry at the beginning of the game that cost me both of them, and was on the run from there. I battled back with some hit & run tactics, but ended up having 4 flag bearers on the run and it was just a matter of time before Randy picked them off for the victory. The picture below shows my stupid artillery charge in blue on the right that led to defeat:

We also got in a game of Jab:Realtime Boxing, but I had the clear advantage of having played before. It seems I can only win that game when I play someone older than me.