Update

First a LJ-related comment. My work has done something to make LJ somewhat dysfunctional, I don't know what it could be as other sites work fine, and LJ still works fine from my home computer - but at work LJ pages take a good 10 minutes or so to load or refresh. So, I haven't been posting or commenting as much as I used to, but I am still reading what you fine people are writing (except for the twitters - I skip those).

So anyway, currently our lives are being consumed by adventures in flooring. We're ripping up the carpet and replacing it with wood. When the estimator came out we got the pleasant surprise that parts of the house already have hardwood, so we're getting that refinished and the parts that don't will get new (why a house that only had one previous owner has 3 different types of floors, and then covered them up with carpet, remains a puzzle). I picked up the wood the weekend before last and the installers are due to arrive on Thursday. Meanwhile we've been busy trying to clear our crap so that they'll actually be able to get to the floor. The poor kitty is already traumatized, probably convinced that we're moving. Once they're done we'll have the fun task of putting it all back which will probably takes us the rest of the month.

This past weekend I had a fun diversion with Games Club of Maryland's Games Days, games played will get their own post following.

Plans for next month include Free Spirit - I hope to see many of you there. I don't have any official duties this year so plan on spending most of my time relaxing (though if any FSG staff reading this are still short-handing in their dept. I could probably be talked into helping).

I'm also hoping to make to Celtic Fling due to their drool worthy musical lineup. Any one else I know going?

GCOM Games Days

Games played:
Bombay, Can't Stop, Dominion (11 times at least, twice with the Seaside expansion), Hamlet, Imperial (Asia map variant), Keltis (twice), Kreta, Lokomotive Werks, Mr. Jack, Nexus Ops, Poison, Race for the Galaxy (twice), Saboteur, Small World (twice), Ticket to Ride, Tin Lizzies, Web of Power

Dominion clearly the "hot" game of the con, usually a 1/2 dozen games of it going on at a time. Seaside is the 2nd expansion in the pipeline after Intrigue. Recommended for those that like CCGs but don't like the CCG investment (for me it makes me miss playing my CCGs).

On the new releases played: Small World is a fantasy themed version of Vinci. I was already a big fan of Vinci so it's no surprised that I liked this one, plus it fixes Vinci's endgame problems. Added to the want list. Bombay is a quick pick-up and deliver type of board game, might be worth it for the cute plastic elephants alone.

New to me games: Lokomotive Werks is a kinda interesting game trying to balance supply and demand, like many Winsome Game releases left me kinda meh - they often make for better simulations than games. Nexus Ops is a kind of game I don't usually play, a sci-fi themed war game from Hasbro, complete with plastic figures and using the Axis & Allies combat system, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, unlike similar games it is pretty fast-paced. Saboteur is a cute sort-of cooperative card game with a dwarves digging for gold theme, players are essentially on two teams, but you don't get to know who is on your team, also nice as it can handle large numbers of players.

Development of Tin Lizzies is going well, played with 4 and all enjoyed it, I still need to test it with larger numbers of players. Overall I'm pretty happy with the mechanics, though it could still use some way to trim down the playing time a bit, I might just chop a turn or two off. I also need to redo the graphic elements, but I don't know when I'm going to find time to do that.