I love the bracing cold, nothing feels better than warming up afterwards. We made great use of that this weekend, with quick trips to Float 60, karate, the new location of the Chicago Diner, Southloop Market, Pot Belly, and lots of warmup time with Beat Sabre, Rummicube and Roblocks. Thanks you two for being such smashing hosts. <3
Category: Gaming
Chicago and Perfect Weather
Didn’t think they went together did you? They sure as climate change did this weekend. Cara and I biked and walked all over the balmified windy city, doing yoga betwixt the skyscrapers on 100o F astroturf, getting my feet analyzed at Fleet Sports (and Cara’s new favorite footwear!), to Sweetgreens, through the Chicago Cubs fans exiting on a high (chanting “USA USA” suck it Trump), on to pure-lefty palsy-frisbee… Also: devouring Nepalese food and playing Roblox with Christian, and getting 100% down with Johnny Lang at the House of Blues. Whoo!
Holy game tech batman
SOLVED Rail Maze 2 Levels
Tree of Life (Level 27)
This was easy – once I figured out that you can enter the finish station from any direction! Ha!
Flower (Level 34)
Fun one!
Northeast (Level 37)
They keep getting better…
Most excellent Asheville weekend of whitewater rafting, rock climbing and divine eating
- So gorgeous
- All fun and games until someone gets wet
- That would be now – but still smiling!
- Pros by now
- Do they look happy or WHAT?
- More great food… and Trivial Pursuit!
We had a fantastic weekend, taking a 4 hour drive over to our favorite town in NC (and beyond), Asheville. We started with a tour of UNC-Asheville, currently Reiley’s top university choice – for lots of good reasons, including a brand new science building, small 20-student class sizes that are more focused on discussion than lectures, a great price, and a well-rounded liberal arts focus. And lots of perks, like an on-campus branch of Rosetta’s Kitchen, free bus rides to Asheville, and quidditch. After the tour we headed to our old favorite Laughing Seed for a meal that included vegan dishes from around the world. There was a drum circle that night, the whole center of the town was filled with dozens of drummers keeping the night jumping. Then off to Urban Outfitters for some late-night shopping with all the hipsters. The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to layer on clothing for our whitewater rafting trip, even though it was 45 degrees outside. The name of the site was Blue Heron Whitewater – I definitely recommend them. We got to the site with plenty of time to gear up more, with really nice equipment including wetsuits and gloves and neoprene socks, and lots of help from the great staff. And a nice hot cup of coffee, mmmm… We got a couple hours of whitewater rafting under our belt and had a delicious hummus sandwich lunch sitting on hot rocks. Then a few more rapids and we headed back to the site to shower, dry off and warm up. Back to downtown for more great adventures, including shopping, coffee… and Wrenny climbing three stories high on the rock wall across from Laughing Seed! Everyone on the street was watching and clapped for her at the end, nice one Wrenny! We headed to Plant, a totally vegan restaurant, for dinner. It’s just north of the town center, towards UNCA. We were 5 minutes early and the place was deserted, so we drove to a nearby park. It was small so we just headed back to the restaurant, went in, and even though the doors had only been open for 5 or 10 minutes, the place was packed – and fully booked! Buuuuummer! So we headed back downtown to Rosetta’s Kitchen. Best recovery ever – it’s a self serve restaurant with the most amazing vegan friendly options served up in huge portions. We had Pad Thai and BBQ sandwiches and miso soup and etc and it was delicious. A new favorite! And we drove back that night, for quite a jam-packed couple of days!
Happy Father’s Day means board games
In this case, The Hobbit and Carcasonne. Thanks gang for a great day!!
I <3 Psychonauts, Kickstarter and Double Fine!
The kids were pondering if there would ever be another Psychonauts, googled a bit, and found out plans had just been released for another game! We were all overjoyed. Then I ran into the full story when exploring Kickstarter – viva Kickstarter! viva the Internets! viva the people!
The next game by the Psychonauts creators will use a prepaid patronage model! I’m in! Finally someone is pulling this off on a big budget item! I’ve been ranting about this approach for years. Wish I had more time to work on it, my ideas are awesome… ha!
AND.. for my finale… I played Monkey Island on my Amiga before you were born!! :P
![Psychnauts ][ maybe](https://i0.wp.com/thedigitalmachine.com/images/blog/2012/psycho2.jpg?w=656)
The Amazing Race 19 contest
Amazing Race returns, and let the next contest begin!
- Pick the team you think will win, and pick the team you think will be eliminated next.
- If your winning team is eliminated, you have to pick another. Least picks wins!
- If your losing team is eliminated, you score, and get to pick another. Most scores wins!
The two prizes will be huge Trader Joe’s Belgian dark chocolate bars, or better if I get creative! Good luck, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!
| Team | Symbol |
|---|---|
| Andy & Tommy – snowboarders | S |
| Laurence & Zac – father/son | Z |
| Kaylani & Lisa – showgirls | K |
| Ernie & Cindy – engaged | E |
| Liz & Marie – twins | T |
| Jeremy & Sandy – dating | D |
| Bill & Cathi – grandparents | G |
| Justin & Jennifer – siblings | J |
| Amani & Marcus – married | A |
| Ethan & Jenna – survivors | U |
| Ron & Bill – domestic partners | P |
PICKS
| Viewer | Ep01 E/(G) |
Ep02 S/U&P |
Ep03 S/K |
Ep04 S/(T) |
Ep05 A/T |
Ep06 S/(A) |
Ep07 S/J |
Ep08 E/Z |
Ep09 A/? |
Ep10 |
Ep11 |
Ep12 |
| Larry | U/D | A/D | ||||||||||
| Jane | S/J | S/A | ||||||||||
| Andrea | Z/D | G/D | ||||||||||
| Mike | S/G | |||||||||||
| Wren | S/K | S/D | ||||||||||
| Reiley | S/D | |||||||||||
| Nick | U/P | S/K | S/D |
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Winning choice won this leg of the race (used for tiebreaker) | |
| -1 | Winning choice lost this leg of the race (pick again) |
| +1 | Losing choice lost this leg of the race (pick again) |
| +1 | Winning choice won, and losing choice lost – PERFECT! |
| -1 | * Selection change |
| -1/+1 | Winning choice lost and losing choice lost (double elimination!) |
Reiley throws a bash
Reiley had a very belated birthday party this weekend – 24 people total including Wren and Olivia – all playing Just Dance at the same time, whoop.
A really nice group of kids – they rode horses, we had a bonfire, pizza, ping pong, basketball, all under a heavy mist reminiscent of our days in Scotland. Even the parents had fun. :>
9.0 Zynga scrabble crack
I swore I would never touch Zynga again after Mafia Wars took over my facebook life (and RL). But I have a soft spot for all perversions of Scrabble on my smart device, dating back ten years to pass-off games on my Zaurus (man I loved that thing, so far ahead it was like I was from anothet planet). Gary and I have been having trans-city late night duels into the wee hours. Just what I needed, more Zynga crack… Continue reading “9.0 Zynga scrabble crack”