Monsterous Guesses

What's going on everyone!?

Tonight for the GaD Challenge I was able to get the whole family together to play some Macroscope and King of Tokyo!

We started with Macroscope which is a fun little guessing game where you slowly remove areas that show what the hidden object is. Dear ol' pops ended up being the winner of that one which was awesome to see happen!

Next up we played some King of Tokyo which was also a GREAT time. The game was going great with some tough competition but then, out of nowhere, my lovely wife took both dear ol' pops and myself out of the game! Before you knew it, our beautiful daughter ended up taking her out though and stole the win!

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim

Robbers and Trains!

What's going on everyone!?

Today for the "GaD" Challenge my lovely wife, dear ol' pops and I played Carcassonne and later on dear ol' pops and I played The Last Spike.

Carcassonne was a great time spent with them and I just LOVE playing this one and love the strategic element to the game so it was a win/win for sure!

After that my lovely wife had to get to bed so dear ol' pops and I played a 2 player game of The Last Spike which ended up being an amazing gaming session!

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim

Floored Sumo!

What's going on everyone!? Today has been a very cold day here. Not as bad as some places but cold enough for me! I spent the morning with Zelda and then dear ol' pops came by to stay the weekend. Later on, him and I both headed outside to the workshop to work on some projects and that's when the cold hit hard!

I've got a small wood burning stove that I made in the workshop as well as a small kerosene heater but even that just barely took the chill off our bones.

Later we had a chance to play some 2 player games that we haven't played in a while, Kamisado Pocket and Deck building: The Deck Building Game.

At Deck Building I ended up taking the win but the game is so fun to the two of us that it really didn't matter.

After that, we played Kamisado Pocket which is where dear ol' pops killed it by winning 2 out of 3 right off the bat!

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim

Balloons, Space and Virus's OH MY!

What's going on everyone!? Today was a busy day spent running to the store and then taking Trinity to the doctor's office for an ear infection. After waiting 4 HOURS just to be seen, we headed back home for dinner.

Right after I finished eating I was back on the road again to go pick up the antibiotics for Trinity and to go to the store again!

Finally, around 8 or 9 I was home for the rest of the night. Trinity and I played a couple dice games since it was getting late and we were both wore out.

First up was Balloon Pop! from TMG. This is a wonderful 5 minute or less game that has just enough to keep you playing. It's a press your luck dice game where you're trying to get certain colors and shapes but have to be careful, if you get too many of any one of them you POP that balloon and the round ends! After 3 rounds you add your scores and determine the winner.

Next up was another dice game, Space Invaders Dice! This one however, lasted a little longer than I thought it was but it was still a fun game. Our scores were pretty high but in the end I took the win. I was kind of rooting for Trinity to win this one as she was having a lot of fun with it.

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim

Day 2, bittersweet but still going!

What's going on everyone!? Today was a bit of a sad day as we had to take our son Damon to the airport to go back to florida. It was a blast having him here with us for the holidays for the first time since he was 2 or 3 (almost 18 now!).

For the "GaD" challenge today I taught and played some Final Act which is a tank skirmish game that I'll be reviewing in the next day or so. It was a GREAT time and I was so happy to play a game with my son 1 on 1. He actually WON the game so not bad for a first timer!

Next up as we were out the door to the airport we played a QUICK game of Gnomi which is on of my top "GOTG" (Gaming On The Go) games. It's a very quick card game that can be taught and played in UNDER 5 minutes which makes it a perfect game for travel.

I was out first but that was ok because I loved sitting back and watching my family laugh and interact in a somewhat sad time. The game was over as quick as it started and our son won again!

So that's it for day 2. 4 games have been played so far and more to come. I'm going to have to try logging my games on BGG or something. Normally I don't bother but I want to see the number at the end of the year, lol!

As always, thank you very much for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim

HAPPY 2018!

What's going on everyone!? It's a new year and with that comes some changes! Starting off, I decided to bring back my old "Game a Day" challenge for 2018 and this time it's going to be TWO different games every day.

"But Tim, why are you bringing back your "GaD" challenge?" you might be thinking. Well, it became an easy decision really. When I had last done the challenge it really helped open up my eyes and learn to just enjoy game time with my family. I didn't focus on who would win and who would lose but more so on the time and experience of the game and company involved.

On top of that, it also helped me make my family and friends that might not have known aware of my depression, PTSD, social anxiety and more. The reason this was important is that it also made them aware of those problems in general because someone they knew was suffering from them. So in a way, I felt that I did my part in spreading awareness of those debilitating ailments to people that may not have thought seriously about them otherwise.  



ANYWAYS... On to the games!

Tonight my family and I played Sushi Go! and Tsuro. Two great games that are easy to learn and always a blast to play. This was a factor this time as our son had never played either of them and I wanted to make the time more about fun and less about rules.

Turns out he ended up winning his first game of Sushi Go! which was awesome to see! In Tsuro my lovely wife ended up taking our son out and Trinity took out both her and her mother making me the winner!

In the next post or so I'll iron out some details as to what I'll be able to count as "Played" games so keep an eye out for that.

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim

Secret Santa!

This is  my secret santa gift to one lucky person but if you don't want to take your chances I'm thinking of taking pre-orders for 4 - 5 more to be made.

The reason for pre-orders is so that I can gather enough supplies to make these myself. They fit TIGHT in a medium flat rate box and just about perfect in a large flat rate box which I can also fit at least 3 in should someone want to order more than one but save on shipping.

Price is $50 via paypal upfront and then the price of shipping once I send you a confirmation number. Unfortunately these are going to be in the USA only for the time being.

If this is something that interests you, feel free to contact me and let me know. As soon as I hit 4 or 5 interested buyers I'll start a page for it in etsy so you can pre-order. :)

Happy Holidays!

 

  

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)
-Tim

It's been FOREVER!

Hey everyone! I know it's been dead around here and I appologize from the bottom of my heart for the absence!

Over the past few months there have been some very difficult times my family and I have had to go through which left me in a dark place where I felt very alone. I've been doing a lot of struggling with life and my physical problems lately but there is some light at the end of the tunnel!

On November 9th at 4:09am we got to welcome our little princess Zelda to this world! Zelda Marie Blackburn to be exact.

Right from the start we obviously wanted to hold her and cuddle with her but there was something that had the doctors and nurses slightly on alert. As she would breath she almost did a sort of grunting noise on every exhale. This was something they called "belly breathing" which wasn't horrible new but definitely not good news either.

So they had to wisk her away and do all sorts of tests on her to see what was going on inside her tiny body. Afterwhat seemed like forever they came back with the news. Her lungs had some fluid in them still which she did not expell from birth like she should have.

They also mentioned that her lungs were not working as they should to help pump air in and out of her. They ended up putting her on a breathing machine and an IV for antibiotics to help her breath and strengthen her immunity while she was in NICU.

After 4 days in the NICU they gave her the "go ahead"! She was free to go home and everything had developed just as it should, she just needed a couple extra days and a bit of help to get there.

So no, we've got her home and everything is going fine with her. Thankfully we have some amazing online friends that rooted for us and also helped out when we needed it.

So with all of this being said, there are still a lot of challenges we're facing currently but I wanted to let everyone know that you should keep an eye out for some new reviews! I can't wait to get back to work and show you some of the newer games I've been playing!

As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to stop and smell the meeples! :)

-Tim