Turkey Time

So, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?

I’ve got a 15 pound turkey in the fridge right now that’s not going to eat itself (and if it does, I’ll just go buy another one). I would be honored if everyone reading this right now would join us for a feast on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That’s this coming Saturday for the calendar impaired.

I don’t think anyone would deny that last year’s Thanksgiving was a big success. There will again be turkey and dressing along with gravy, green beans, rolls, and cranberry sauce in the shape of a can. We’ll probably even have at least one kind of dessert and a few things to snack on while you’re waiting for me to carve the bird.

You don’t need to bring anything, except Tony Foster who must bring 2 pumpkin pies – one for himself and the other for everyone else. If you want to bring something, by all means do, but you aren’t obligated. I’ll even make a pitcher of sweet tea for those who want something to drink besides water or juice.

See ya Saturday.

Tom Hanks?

I’m not sure how I feel about this: Hanks may lead ‘Da Vinci’ movie.

I just can’t see Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that Ron Howard is directing. There is a great quote from Howard in the article:

Tom is an exciting actor to watch thinking

Just what we need, a movie that lets us watch someone think.

Fun and Games

It’s amazing how much fun you can have as a kid. I remember making up fun things to do when I was young. Even when I was over at someone else’s house and didn’t have my LEGOs, I could always find something to do. I always liked playing games. I would play dominoes or cards with anybody who would sit next to me. I spent years over at the Foster house playing Dungeons & Dragons with Tony, Michael, and Geoff.

Even before we could afford to buy games we entertained ourselves with made up games. I remember playing with little green army men in James’ back yard. At first we would just line them up and say “I shot you!” This was usually followed by “No you didn’t, I dodged!” That got old pretty fast so eventually we starting using dice to see if we hit or missed.

The more we played, the more complex the rules became. The crouching army man was a little harder to hit and the army man laying flat was the hardest to hit. Somewhere there’s a 20-year-old scrap of paper with all of our rules scribbled on it. I’d give just about anything for that piece of paper today.

At one point I even thought about selling my own games as a career. I remember a time when you could buy simple role-playing games for a few dollars. They were printed on plain paper, folded in half, stapled, and stuffed in ziplock bags. Of course the older I got, the less games I played. Our game of army men and dice somehow evolved into army men and fire crackers. This was a lot of fun, but we eventually ran out of army men. Then computers came out and the idea of selling pen and paper games seemed crazy.

Fortunately, there are still people making up their own games and with the internet they can share them with everybody. It was actually one of these games that inspired me to write this post: 1000 Blank White Cards. This is just the kind of thing I would’ve loved as a kid.

The idea is pretty simple. Pass out some blank cards to each player. Everyone makes up their own cards and assigns point values to each one. Then gather up everyone’s cards, shuffle them together, deal, and play. When it’s your turn, take the top card from the deck and then play one of the cards from your hand either on yourself, another player, or on all players.

This sounds like a great way to waste an evening (or two). We’ll have to try this the next time a few people are over. Maybe afterwards I’ll play one more round of army men and fire crackers, for old time’s sake.

Catch Up Time

It’s been a while since my last post, so I’ve got some catching up to do…

First, the robotics team did better than ever a little over a week ago. We got the 3rd place BEST award. The BEST award is a combination of the team’s notebook, presentation, table display, spirt and sportsmanship, and the robot’s performance on the field. Unfortunately, 3rd place was not enough to go to state. Here we are on the field after we won:

The Team

I think I was looking at the wrong camera when they took that picture. There were actually three people taking our picture at the same time. I’m proud of all of those kids. I had my doubts at times, but they pulled it all together in the end and did a great job this year.

In personal news, I’ve gone over 3 weeks now without tea or Dr Pepper and I still feel great. I think I can stick with this for ever. The next thing I’m going to try to cut out is some of the red meat.

And finally, November 2 is election day. Don’t forget to go vote if you haven’t already. It seemed like lots of people voted early around here. I actually had to stand in line at the court house for about 15 minutes.

I’ve always heard if you don’t vote, you can’t complain about who gets elected. I started to ask if I could vote twice this time. I think I’ve done enough complaining for at least two people in the last year alone.