Parentheticals

We missed writing last week. Certainly stuff happened, but I can't remember all of it. I can recall making a cheddar, and practicing my presentation a lot. This week I practiced my presentation more, started making a game called "Doge City", and also started printing Dominion Adventures tokens on my printer. We spent a lot of time outside (it was certainly unseasonably warm out in Utah, perhaps global warming finally caught up with us.) We spent a few hours on Saturday fixing up all the bikes and preparing for Alison to take three kids on extended bike rides. Alison has been reading a blogger called " Mr. Money Mustache " about having a better life by buying less, and one of his big points is how much better bikes are than cars. She is eager to try it out. (Warning: the MMM blog does include swearing.) Our first chicken started laying again, so we have about 8 eggs so far. Hopefully the others begin their laying regimen soon, otherwise we will have to sell...

This week has been much less busy. We didn't have plans most evenings and, although Alison and the kids met Grandma Julie and Cousin Ellie at City Creek and the zoo on Monday and Tuesday, Timmy was sick with a cold for the second half of the week so not much happened. Timmy points to anyone with a beard and says "Ho, Ho, Ho!" meaning Santa Claus. This is ironic when it's actually a picture of Jesus. His speaking is improving every day. He now makes 2 word sentences. He also says "Daddy" instead of "Dada" Hurray! On Friday we were invited to a Financial Fitness class with some other couples in our neighborhood. We are more financially fit than many people, but we still got some good advice and enjoyed the time with friends. We are slowly working through the homework, which is very detailed and takes a while but has some good discussion questions. Mike has been spending a decent amount of time preparing for his Ion Award presentations. This nex...

This week two of my games were announced to be ION Award finalists. Last year I had two finalists as well, however neither of them went on to win the competition. Perhaps this year I will have better luck. In order to prepare for the presentation of my games, I am hosting the first ever  ION Award finalist showcase . I know one of the other finalists personally (he comes to our design meetup), and I have met an other a few times, so I got them to agree to presenting their games to the public as a practice. Anyone is invited, so if you are interested we would love to hear your feedback about our presentations. I have also been really enjoying preparing for SaltCon proper. I always love participating in the math trade, and enjoy planning how I am going to be spending my time during the convention. This year the Sandy Board Game Design meetup group is going to be meeting at SaltCon to do some play-testing, and I am also presenting a game at prototype alley. Timmy started "readi...