Codenames - Boardgame review and game night report

A couple of years ago, I was introduced to the game Codenames. When it first came out it was all the rage and was getting a ton of buzz. When I heard the initial descriptions of the game, I was a little skeptical and wondered how it would catch on with my normal gaming friends, family and other groups of gamers since we don't often go in for party-style guessing games. Once I finally tried it, I decided it was worthwhile and wanted to introduce it to my family. It was a quick hit. Everybody really enjoyed it and was excited to play both as a guesser and as clue givers.

That winter I was going to a family holiday gathering with extended familiy and was asked to bring games. I packed Codenames. Knowing that there would be younger kids there, I went out and bought a copy of the Disney version to bring along. Once again, I was a little skeptical as to whether or not it would go over well and work with younger kids and once again I was pleasantly surprised. Just this past month, I was selected by #Tryazon to be a participant in a Codenames party night showcasing Codenames Disney and Codenames Marvel. I got a copy of the Marvel version and sent out invites.

Blogging catch up - The year 2015 in review

Since I haven't done a very good job of posting regularly, I guess it's time for another "year in review" post...this time about the adventures of my family and I in 2015.



Similar to my previous catch-up post, we had a lot of family fun attending "geeky" conventions this past year. Winter (January) and Fall (September) we went to the Salt Lake Comic Con and had a ball meeting and greeting celebrities, checking out all sorts of fun art and geek/nerd memorabilia and just having a good time all around. I volunteered in the fall at the Board Game demo tables which was a fun and interesting experience. Sadly that meant I didn't get to go to as many panels or see as much of the convention, but it was still fun.

For the Winter "FanX" convention, they brought in 3 guests from the modern Doctor Who universe (something that the whole family has been enjoying). We went to a panel and listened to Billie Piper, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as they all just sort of hung out and chatted on a couch on stage. Then later we stood in a very long line to get our picture taken with them. My dear sweet wifey and her aching joints were dying by the time we got to the front of the line so she was a little woozy and out of it and doesn't remember once. The photo experience was pretty funny. The five members of our family got situated (very quickly) and they prepped to take the picture...Matt Smith "struck a pose" with his fingers up in a sort of peace sign or something and in so doing he poked my oldest son in the chin...as a result, my son is sort of glaring a little confused at Matt Smith (who also sort of half squatted down so he's a little covered by my daughter). So, we have a fairly hilarious picture with a laughable memory. The kids also had a lot of fun dressing up in costumes as well as seeing the panels from Studio C (a sketch comedy group) who were just as funny and silly live as they are on TV.

Catching up on nearly a year in review of blogging

Well, once again I've been a slacker of a blogger over the past few months. Not only have I not posted any personal/family updates for 10 months but I haven't even kept up on my semi-regular book/movie reviews. I can't promise any long term changes towards posting regularity but at the very least there will potentially be an influx of posts over the next days or weeks. *grin*

So my last "personal" blog post was from last summer and basically summarized the events of the spring of 2014...which means I basically have one full year to catch up on. Away we go....not entirely in chronological order but combined in a way that makes sense to me. :-)

First, here's the "year in review" slideshow that Google automatically made based on some of the photos I've uploaded. I figured I'd start out with that and then drill into some of the events specifically (not sure how well or whether the Google slideshow thing will work, but it's worth a try).

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Happy Halloween time

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The latest in my irregular blog updates

Row, row, row your blog, gently through the Interwebs.

So it’s been another couple of months since my last posts. Real life just keeps getting in the way of fun hobbies and pastimes. Sorry about that.

Here’s a 30 second list of highlights and lowlights since my last posts:

• Youngest child turns 10 years old amid some celebration…but sadly we’ve still been too busy to have a birthday party for her (though she did just get a cool new bed and a fresh coat of paint in her bedroom)
• Oldest son hospitalized with RSV and Pneumonia compounded with crazy Allergy and Asthma flare up
• I spent a couple of days learning new games and just solidly board gaming at SaltCon (Northern Utah’s board game convention)
• Celebrated my two boys earning their next rank advancements in Boy Scouts
• Watched a bunch of “end of school year” programs and concerts as my kids finished up another successful year of classes
• Enjoyed the fun art at our city’s “chalk art festival”
• Reveled in the joy of years gone by at the Utah Renaissance Festival
• Hiked around the foothills of our community
• Took the boys out for our annual community Father and Sons campout
• Repaired a bunch of sprinkler heads and otherwise started cleaning up the yard for summer
• Watched highlights of the road to the World Cup…Goooooooalll!

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Merry Christmas to all and to all a Macarena

Here's wishing you and yours a super fabulous Christmas and a wonderful holiday season overall. Best wishes!

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Thanks for 17 amazing years!

Seventeen years ago today I became the luckiest man in the world by marrying my best friend forever. She's had to put up with so much lameness and garbage from me over the years and she always loves me and supports me and helps me however she can.  She understands my quirks and eccentricities.  We help each other learn and grow and make the most out of life.  She's helped raise 3 fabulous children with great values and standards. She deals with the drudgery of housework, yard work and other tedium like a champ. She makes me smile when I'm down and helps me see things clearly when life gets muddled.

I love all the wonderful happy memories we've created over the past 17 years and I look forward to making many many more memories to last forever.

Thank you for loving me. I love you forever and always.

Happy Anniversary Sweetie! xoxo

Life In Review - A Catch-Up Post From a Slacking Blogger

Greetings from a blogging slacker. Over the past few months life has just been hectic and so sadly my downtime (when I can find it) has consisted of sitting very idly playing mindless games or watching mindless TV (*shudder*). That's not to say that all I've been doing is a bunch of mindless activities. I've had a lot of things going on that have been very entertaining and productive. But during the moments of free time when I might otherwise be doing creative writing or updating my blog, I have been adverse to doing anything that takes any real effort.

So consider this an effort to turn over a new leaf. I've got a number of friends/family blogs to catch up on. In addition, I need to be blogging more and doing more dedicated creative writing, book reviews, movie reviews, etc.

To start off…here's today's post. A "personal" post catching people up on the lives and happenings of myself and my family over the past many months. It's been a while since my last personal/family post. For those who aren't interested in the "human interest" side of blogging, go ahead and skip the rest of the post. For the rest of you, keep scrolling and enjoy the quick blurbs and pictures from recent and semi-recent adventures. I actually haven't done a recap of activities since last fall. So you're in for a treat....maybe    ;)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Wishing you a Happy St. Patrick's Day from my family to you and yours.

May your life be lucky and filled with magic. :)

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from my family to you and yours!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous December, a wonderful Christmas and a thrilling holiday season. May you all be happy, healthy and have a wonderful New Year.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Here's wishing everybody a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Take some time to remember all the many wonderful ways you are blessed. Even in our hardest times there is always something to be grateful for.

I am so thankful for my wonderful family. Even when I'm grumpy or geeky or otherwise annoying they still put up with me and love me and stand by me. They truly bring me more joy than I can express. I'm grateful too for my extended family and the fun and support that we share.

I am thankful for God and the gospel and the wonderful peace, hope and joy they bring to my life.

I am grateful for a wonderful home to live in and keep us safe and comfortable. I'm grateful for a great neighborhood, city, state and country to live in. I love the beauty and abundance available all around us in this world.

I am grateful for good friends and neighbors that are always ready to help share in joys and trials. I have so many fabulous people in my life.

I am thankful for the many ways we can be educated and entertained. I love that we have so many ways to learn and experience knew things and become better people.

I am grateful for the many talents I have and the chances I have to share them and grow.

There is so much to be grateful for. I'm thankful for Thanksgiving day when we can sit back and take a moment to reflect on the many blessings in our life. And I'm grateful for every other day of the year and all the blessings and joys that they bring.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a fabulous year.

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Enjoy the following cheesy JibJab Thanksgiving video from my family to yours.

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Happy Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween from my family to yours. Enjoy some silly jib jab videos and zany images stolen from various places on the web.

Have a great Halloween!

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Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas!!!

Our Christmas festivities this year were a little different in terms of scheduling, but still a lot of fun. Lynette went in for her second hip surgery less than a week before Christmas, so we knew ahead of time we'd have to do most of our "out-and-about" activities well before Christmas itself.

As per our normal tradition, we set up our decorations and trimmed the tree on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Both Lynette and I have a bunch of ornaments from our childhood as well as dozens that we've collected in the 15 years we've been married. Then add to that those ornaments chosen by, given to, or made by our kids, and we have a hodgepodge of decorations.

We have no set theme on our tree...rather, it's a jumble of old wooden ornaments, new plastic ornaments, glass globes, paper trees and stockings, Disney rides and figurines, Hallmark pop-culture decorations, and much much more. It's all over the place...and very clearly ours. I love it.

During the first week of December, we had a fun filled windstorm in our community which delayed a few of our pre-Christmas activities, but mostly gave us a nice teaching lesson for the kids as we worked together as a community to help and serve others.

We then made our trip to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square and the plaza. I still think there are fewer lights than there used to be, but that's probably just the crotchety old man in me talking. The lights were gorgeous and we had a nice time walking around and taking in the sights and sounds.

It was a cold night. We bought some hot cocoa and cookies from a little street cart but even that didn't help warm up little Andrew enough and we had to speed walk through the last few hundred yards back to the car to get him home and warm.

The fairpark hosted a Dickens Festival again. I'm so glad they've decided to bring this back. I have fond memories of the festival from my childhood and I love being able to share it with my kids. While it is, to a large extent, a bunch of booths and vendors trying to fleece the public with overpriced gifts, there are still those diamond-in-the-rough treasures you may find. Besides...the entire thing is themed Victorian London.

So even though many of the booths are something you may find in a mall, they at least have that Dickens flair to them. And there are a few booths that embrace the authenticity both in their mannerism and their wares. This seemed especially true of the food booths and some of the clothing booths. Plus...they have Father Christmas...and he is amazing.

We also made it up to Ogden to see their annual Christmas Village down by City Hall. Once again, it was a cold night so we cut it a little short, but it was very fun. We love looking at all the cute little houses each decorated with a different theme or motiff by a company or community group.

About mid-month, we went to our local "care center" for the elderly. The primary was in charge of putting on a home evening lesson for them. A couple of their teachers gave talks and the kids sang a bunch of Christmas songs. I was caught a little off guard when Jason got up to sing a solo...so I didn't get a full video of him singing, but he did great. They all did. It was a very cute night and everybody had a good time.

We did manage to get out and visit grandparents and cousins, though sadly Lynette didn't get to make all the visits because of her surgery. The kids had a ball playing with their cousins and getting to open a few gifts prior to Christmas day.

Once Lynette had her surgery, we stuck with more indoor activities...making gingerbread houses, watching Christmas shows, relaxing and playing games and the annual reading of the Christmas story from the Bible complete with some impromtu costumes and acting from the kids. :-)

Christmas morning was a little more subdued than normal as we let Lynette hobble in first on her crutches and then the rest of us gathered around and opened gifts, laughed and played together. It was actually nice that it was more relaxed as that made it easier to convince the kids to get dressed up for Church. There were a few seconds of reluctance but I assured them their toys would still be there after we came back. So we went over to Church for a lovely Christmas morning program and then came home and just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company.

In the days after Christmas, we've played a few new board games, watched a few new movies and played with new toys.

Jason has recently taken a passion for Airsoft guns (hence his starring role in the "Christmas Story" Jibjab video I posted recently) and so he and I stepped outside for a little Airsoft war. I nicked him a few times in the cheek and gave him a couple of welts. He smacked me in the forehead really well once and left a little red spot. The kids and I also got out to see a movie (their vote was for the new Chipmunks film...definitely not my first choice, but it was a fun outing).

I have had a ton of fun these past few weeks spending time with family and celebrating our lives and our love. I love the Christmas season for its power to bring us together even more than usual.

I also love what Christmas truly stands for. I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and what He means to me and my family. I chatted a little with the kids the day after Christmas and asked for some of their favorite moments...I loved the answer Andrew gave about how excited he was to watch Jason open the present Andrew had picked out. He truly had the joy of giving. And I think they're starting to understand more about Christ and His role in our life and the world...His selflessness and love.

I hope all of you have had a fabulous Christmas season and that your lives are truly blessed.

Merry Christmas - Inspirational Videos

And as a balance to the humorous videos, here are a couple of inspirational videos.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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Merry Christmas - Humorous videos

Just in time for Christmas, here's some video fun from JibJab and other sources.

From my family to you and yours...Merry Christmas. :)


A Christmas Carol

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A Christmas Story

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Elves

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It's a Wonderful Life

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More Elves

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Let's take a Sleigh Ride

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A Calvin & Hobbes tribute



Phineas & Ferb



National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (warning - expletives)

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Davis County and the Blustery Day(s)

Well, the past few days have been rather adventurous. Last Monday or so, the meteorologists warned us of severe wind to come later in the week. Now, we've had windy days before…though it's been a long time since I even remember them treating it with the kind of warning they did this time and many years since I remember there being any prolonged wind of any significance. So, while we prepared a little bit, I certainly wasn't expecting the kind of storm we received.

Starting Wednesday evening and though about 10 or 11 AM on Thursday, we had HUGE sustained blasts of wind. I heard varying reports, but it seems the consensus is that the average wind force was up in the 80-90 mph range with numerous gusts up in the 100+ mph range.  Somebody already put up a wikipedia entry with some of the details.  :)

Before I had looked outside, I rolled over and called the school district hotline to see if school was canceled…according to the message, all schools were in session, so I started pushing the kids to get ready for school. Lynette, who had been awake a lot of the night due to the wind, was adamant that they were NOT going to school. Looking out the windows, it looked very blustery but I still wasn't convinced of the extreme nature of the storm.

Our shed doors had been blown open along with the new gate of our fence. The kids let me know that our tramp frame had been blown around and that our basketball backboard was blown off. I rushed outside to shut and secure the shed doors and the fence gate. The wind was definitely strong and made it hard to get everything shut up nice and tight. Our trampoline frame had scooted over a dozen feet and crumpled up a bit as it got caught up in our apple tree (which had shed apples all over the ground). As I was on my way back inside, I noticed that my car (or rather the tree next to my car) was being assaulted by someone's aluminum shed/awning/carport structure that had blown down the road.

Back inside, the power flickered a few times and then died completely. I conceded that the kids should stay home and that I'd stay home from work. A few minutes later, the school secretary called directly to let us know that school was in fact canceled, but due to the power outage, they hadn't been able to update the emergency message or send out a message on the emergency dialer program.

We snuggled down and rested for a few hours while we waited for the wind to die down. Once the wind died down, we surveyed the scene. We lost a bunch of shingles off of our roof as well as our basketball backboard (which had just ripped itself from the pole it was mounted on) but otherwise, our damage was negligible. The aluminum shed that had blown into our yard ended up whipping around in the tree until it tore itself into three chunks in our yard and our neighbor's yard (sadly, one of the chunks broke the window of my neighbor's car).

Wandering around it was quickly apparent that we got off lucky. I walked across the neighborhood, following the sound of chainsaws. As I did, I saw dozens of HUGE trees that either snapped or completely uprooted themselves. Most landed in yards or on fences, but there were a few that pulled down power lines and/or landed on roofs. Across the neighborhood sheds were destroyed, trees downed, fences pulverized, trampolines dislocated (one of them managed to fly across multiple yards, up over a roof and lodge itself in a tree at the end of the block). It looked like a warzone or (as one of the guys put it) a zombie apocalypse, especially once you added in a bunch of folks walking around with chainsaws and other heavy hand tools.

Following the chainsaw sounds, I found a group of guys with the right tools and we started chopping and clearing trees around the neighborhood…the initial goal just being to get them off houses, out of the streets and sidewalks and away from power lines. For the next ~3 days we cut and cleared over and over. And yet, in many cases, it didn't feel like we were even making much of a dent against these huge trees.

Thursday night, I gathered with a group of people and we started canvassing the neighborhood to check and make sure people had food, warmth and shelter. About midway through our canvassing, the power came back on…to much applause.

Unfortunately, there were still a couple dozen neighbors without power…and theirs stayed off until Sunday evening. Generators, camp stoves, and other supplies were offered to those without power…along with inviting them over to power filled homes for hot meals, warm places to rest, hot showers, etc.

On Friday, I had to go to an appointment across town and was amazed at the scope of the damage throughout the city.  Hundreds of trees uprooted.  Sheds, garages, carports, etc dislocated or destroyed.  Power poles, flag poles and other tall objects bent over or knocked down.  Lots of business signs just blown out.  Part of an apartment parking structure collapsed.  Just devastation all over.

Saturday night, the news came in that another wind warning was prescribed for Sunday night thru Monday morning. Up to that point, we had been stacking all of the debris along the park strips at the edge of the road.

But with another storm coming, those stacks of debris now became huge piles of disaster waiting to happen. We went to church Sunday morning and very shortly the word came to go back home, get into our "grubbies" and go move all the debris. Trucks and trailers came from all over the neighborhood and we started loading up.

Once again, due to the size of these trees, it felt like we would never get all of the piles moved in time. And yet through a miraculous effort we managed to clear out all of the major piles of debris from around our neighborhood. The line to get to the city dump was huge...I heard tales of waiting ~90 minutes to get a load into the gate (a video below shows a crew counting the ~400 vehicles they passed on the way out). The city/county had set up numerous emergency dumping areas around the city and we found ourselves part of a county-wide caravan to clean up the mess. The national guard was called out to help with the cleanup and everybody pulled together.

This morning, I was very relieved to see that last night's windstorm had been minimal comparatively. I didn't see any additional damage and the power was still on. I know there's still plenty of cleanup work to be done.

There are still quite a few huge trees that need to be chopped up…there are fences to be rebuilt…and shingles/roofs to be repaired. Hopefully we can get the major work done before the snow really starts flying.

The past 4 days have been an amazing example of what we can do when we all pull together and just get the work done. There were so many people out there helping and nobody was complaining or shirking the work. Everybody just did whatever they could to help their neighbor.

And we got it all done.

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