Munckins and evil scientists

Saturday night, planned as movie night with the bro, became another late night Munchkin night, when my brother read the rules and was actually intrigued. My love brought home another version of the game (Cthulu Munchkin) as well as an expansion, which made the game even more awesome! We played two games and were up til about midnight.

Today we helped the ‘rents with some yard work while they are away for the weekend. Refreshing to get a bit of sun and exercise, but now we are all tired and ordering out Chinese for supper. Mmmm crab rangoons are on their way.

Also, on Saturday we got it in our heads to post a fake Craig’s list ad, mostly my brother’s idea…

Mad scientist seeks female companion - 33 (Secret tropical island)

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Reply to: pers-702853181@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-31, 6:54PM CDT

Superbly intelligent, sometimes mad scientist, seeks female companion, age 20 to 25, to share my days and nights. Interest and enthusiasm in world domination and/or destruction required. Must be willing to seduce male hero types that may arrive on our island to foil my (our) plans. Must like ponies, monkeys, AND monsters.

After your in-depth background check is complete, you will sign a contract, including a non-disclosure agreement, and will relocate with me to an undisclosed location. Additional travel may be required.

Also seeking male henchman, fit, able to lift 100 lbs. and work independently. Disfigurement of physical appearance does not effect eligibility, and is in fact encouraged. Knowledge of firearms, explosives, and genetic engineering helpful but not required. Training available. EOE.

Please submit your resume and explain your qualifications to be considered for either position.

We intended as a joke, a possible for the best of Craig’s list, but we actually got some responses. I’ll let you know if anything turns up with that.

Apples to Apples; Monkey Pony Monster

First off, here are a couple of pictures of the cats:

That would be Raisins.

And Peanut.

Most of the rest of this post will be about a new game we played, called  Apples to Apples.

You can read through the rules here, but basically, it is about comparisons, and matching descriptive words with nouns.  A good vocabulary and knowledge building game, without the kids knowing they are learning.

Does this boy look like he is learning?

Or this one?

Here’s an example comparison (we only had 3 players, so the boys put down cards and I judged)…

What’s more scenic - an oil spill or a trailer park?

Are Flying Monkeys normal?

And lastly, there was the Genetic Engineering card:

The original subtext on the card was “What DO you get when you cross a monkey with a potato?” but I scratched that out and replaced it with What DO you get when you cross a monkey with a PONY?” in honor of the Jonathan Coulton song, SkullCrusher Mountain…

I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don’t like it
What’s with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don’t like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn’t it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?

Weekend of legos, curses, and corned beef

Just a quick update while the weekend is fresh on my mind.

Saturday - made corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot, with excellent results, along with mashed potatoes with green onions and homemade horseradish sauce.  Had a group of people over and played the Curses game again, which again was a great hit.  Also played Othello, at which I seem to be a grandmaster.   Stayed up til about 3 am!

Sunday - we took the boys up to Chicago for an expensive visit to the LEGO store, where the boys got some new Castle sets and custom mini-figs, followed by a quick stop at the Lincoln Park zoo where we checked out the lion house, snake / small mammal house, and primate houses.  Pics to come.  The boys spent the evening building their new Lego sets while we watched Dan in Real Life on DVD.  We weren’t terribly impressed with the movie but it wasn’t bad.  More a movie about making bad decisions (thou shalt not fall in love with your brother’s girlfriend and even if you do, thou shalt not pursue it) and lying, than about love.

Pork Roast Leftovers & An Awesome Game

By the way, we took the leftovers from the Lechon Asado, cooked it up with some homemade BBQ sauce, and threw it on some roasted onion topped buns for a nice BBQ dinner (with some cole slaw, chips, potato wedges on the side).  Brother and in-laws came over to dine with us and brought 7UP cake and cherry pie.

We played an awesome game I recently acquired called Curses!.

You have two actions in each turn of this party game, the first is to draw a challenge card, which will give you an action that you must perform. It could be a role you have to act out, a story to tell, or an opinion to explain. this really doesn’t have any direct bearing on the game. It is a means to get to and then play off of the second type of card you draw at the end of your turn, which is a curse card.

The curse cards are played on other players and force them to continually perform certain actions, such as barking like a dog whenever the player to the right reads a card or hold on to the card with both hands at all times. If another player notices that you are not performing your action, you “break the curse” and turn it face down in front of you. In fairy tales, breaking a curse is a good thing, but not in this game. When you break three curses, you are eliminated from the game, although you are still available to have actions performed on (such as “The other people in the room are electrified. Each time you contact one of them you get a big shock.”)

The last player with a curse remaining wins.

I recommend this for 4+ players for the most fun.