Parentheticals

This week Alison has felt pretty good most of the week. We even got the entire house cleaned on Saturday for the first time in a long time. It was nice to have the house clean (even if it doesn't last very long.) Our gardens are starting to grow wonderfully. We stole some lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, chives, and other various plants from Sheila and Scott (they had some extra that had volunteered from last year). The raspberries died, and so did most of the lettuce, but the strawberries, mint, and chives transplanted like champs. We got a weed whacker last week, and tried it out this week (a little bit). It worked well. I still need to whack most of the weeds in the front yard. The funny thing is that the more weeds that I look at the more edible plants that I am finding in the yard. As of yet we have lambs-quarters, mallow, henpeck, alfalfa, blue mustard, shepherds purse, nettle, and I am sure that we will find other varieties edible as we look more. We have also found...

Monday night Rea taught family night with flannel board people to act out the story of the brother of Jared.  She told it very well and remembered a lot more details than we expected.  The girls had fun moving the characters, although it was frustrating to try to keep Timmy out of them. Tuesday was Sara's date night, but Alison also had to be at a Stake Auxiliary Training meeting, so Mike took her to get ice cream right after dinner and then came home to be with all the kids while Alison was gone. Thursday evening we decided to have a fire and roast marshmallows.  We've had S'more supplies since June, so it was good to use some.  We all enjoyed the fire, and Timmy was pretty good about understanding that it was hot. On Friday, we went out to go to the park with the homeschooling group, and the car wouldn't start.  The kids had turned on the dome lights and Alison hadn't noticed to turn them off, so the battery was dead.  Our jump box battery was dead,...

Monday through Wednesday we mostly just packed and fixed the most recent 3d printer problem. Apparently we were having hysteresis, which with a 3d printer is either the stuff heating up slower than it should, cooling slower than it should, or moving slower than it should (for us it was it moving slower than it should). Apparently I had a slight amount of delay between the time that it started to move the head and the time that the head actually moved. Thursday morning when we were supposed to be leaving for our trip to DC and North Carolina our keys got stuck in the ignition of the car. We were later to the airport than we would have liked to be, but we did end up making it on time. Either way it was very stressful. Once we get home we will have to figure out what to do about the car. The kids were pretty good in the airplanes. We had a layover, which is why it is airplanes plural. We spent a few hours in Denver sitting in the upper floor of the airport and playing and wat...

This week we had more sickness. There was a persistent cough that many of us got, and Timmy is still producing eye mucous. We went to the Poulson's house for three days as Mike and Alison went to SaltCon. Our main purpose was to present my games "Moar Moai" and "Hungry Oni" to the judges for the Ion Award. After I presented on Thursday we attended the convention and had a generally fun time (though my voice all but gave out after I presented on Thursday). On Saturday at 5:00 the awards were announced, and I did not win. We went to a bunch of panels, talked with various publishers and gamers and played a lot of games for the first time. The games that we played for the first time include: Tokaido, Tsuro, Seasons, Kingdom Buider, Toc-Toc Woodman, and get bit for Alison. We also played Moar Moai and Above and Below. We traded some games and got some new games during the convention. Probably you will hear more about them soon. We got three new expansions of ...

On Monday Sara was still a bit sick. The doctor was closed for president's day, so we didn't take her in to get help. She cried most of the day (Sara, that is). By Tuesday Sara seemed much better, so Alison didn't take her in. We had a missionary meeting in the evening, which Sara cuddled through while Rea played quietly. They were all very impressed (the other ward missionaries/ward mission leaders that is) at how well behaved our children were. This is (of course) in comparison to the last meeting, where they were running around talking loudly and giving out liberal bloody noses (one bloody nose which bled very liberally was the extent of the liberal bloody noses). On Wednesday, the girls had a get together at Amy's house, and our daughters got to see Great Grandma Yoder for the second time. She game them wind up cars (which were very popular). In the evening I took all of the doors off of the cabinets in our kitchen in preparation for painting them white so tha...

I didn't post for on Monday first time in a long time. We have been a bit busy, but not that busy. For one thing, 1800Contacts is being bought out by an investment firm. People don't really seem to be too worried about it (apparently this happens all of the time with 1800Contacts), so I am following suit and assuming that it is business as usual. Sara and Rea have both been cleaning up the house since Alison is still feeling pretty drained of energy. They have been getting money to spend for their efforts (though Sara doesn't have any idea what to do with it). They both love Herd your Horses now, so it is a really popular game. We have two tapes of Veggitales songs, and Sara loves them so much that we listen to them at least twice a day. Mommy is getting sick of them, but what can you do? We went to an art exhibit and went out to eat afterwards. Rea was so excited about going out to eat that she wants us to drive down to Provo again just to go back. We have been...

This whole last week it feels like we have been preparing for our trip to California. I worked a bit on my games, and read a bit, but mostly we have been packing and cleaning and such. On Wednesday Alison took the girls to the wilderness with Max. Max wanted to play Jungle Book: The Wrath of Shere Khan, and Rea wanted to play Jungle Book: Friendship is Magic. They decided instead to compromise and play Jungle Book: the Power of God. Max was Shere Khan and Rea was Baloo. When Max wanted to pretend to fight Rea said that because she was nice she was stronger than Shere Khan since she had the Power of God. Saturday morning we begun to do a final cleaning of the house before we left. Andrea was offered money if she helped (a quarter a room.) She ended up earning over a dollar and very much enjoying herself. Saturday evening we had our brown family dinner, which didn't involve any game playing, but was pretty fun anyway. The best part was not having a long drive to go home ...

Rea and Sara have been on a midnight joke telling rampage. They stay up super late talking and laughing. Eventually Rea complains that Sara is out of her bed, and we have to tell them that they have to be quiet and go to bed. Hopefully this passes. Rea has also been drawing lots of pictures recently. She usually gets eyes, a head, and any important limbs (though her spiders have way too many legs). She loves drawing owls, bats, spiders, worms, snakes, trees, seeds and eggs. Rea has also begun to enjoy playing bats. She names us, and then we eat food and hang upside down from the monkey bars. If we are fruit bats the names are things like fruity, eaty, and batty. If we are vampire bats the names tend to be bloody, drinky, and batty (batty being the default bat name). Grandma Poulson took Rea away to do some shopping with her, and when Rea left Sara forced mommy to walk with her down the street to smell the roses. Sara is learning so many things, especially how to express herself. ...

This week I worked more on my MOAR MOAI game. I played a four player game at lunch yesterday and it was very good. I have to change the rules again. I am also working on a single player/multi player cooperative game entitled 'Roguelike'. It is not really ready at all, but I am still working on it. Aunt Katie is visiting us this week. Mostly that means that the girls' play room is also her bedroom. Apparently when you are training to be a teacher you have to teach students some time. We have been recently reading Peter Pan  (That is, Alison and I have been). It is very funny. Way better than the Disney version. I also read 'The Cyborg and the Sorcerers' a few nights ago. It is a short book about a cat. Ha ha! it is really exactly what it says on the cover. It was fun because I like books where people have to figure out loopholes in rules systems. One such situation was when he was talking to a computer that believed him to be dead and he said "Is there a...

I just started working on a new game about Easter Island. As I was playing a solo game (testing it out) Andrea asked to join in. I explained to her the general concept (these are your guys, they can get food and cut down trees and dig up rocks. you can only get these fish because they are closer to the island, and these ones are in the deep water.) After my explanation she said: "This guy will get fish and this guy will make bacon, and this guy will cut down a tree to make a canoe." I hadn't told her that there were canoes in the game, but apparently that was the reason for cutting down trees in her book. She is very smart. She also knew that killing a pig got you bacon. We also played a game of chess this weekend. As we were playing I told her that knights could defend 8 squares, and she started trying to set up chains of knights defending each other. Later during the game I explained to her how pawns advance and promote, and she decided that her pawns were goin...