I was supposed to get married yesterday but that didn't happen.
No, don't worry, this isn't going to be some melodramatic broken heart story, we just decided to push our wedding to next August because, you know, Covid. It was most definitely the right decision for sure- not everyone would have been able to come and the people are the most important part of the wedding!- but it still felt strange to think throughout the day what our day could have been.
M and I already live together so I'm not sure how different our everyday lives will be once we get married but it's the principle of the thing. We were set up and ready to take our next big life step but were quickly snapped back and it's another year of procrastinating wedding planning, much to the pure anguish of my mother. We were planning on buying a house once we got married too, and that's also pushed back a year or so.
But ah well, what are you gonna do? Life's like that sometimes but we're both still here and healthy and that's all that matters in the end. To celebrate this fact, and our would-be wedding day, we decided to take the day off and have a fun day out.
About a year ago M proposed to me on a sunset jazz cruise around Boston harbor in a surprising feat of spontaneity and romance on M's part- M said he'd been carrying the ring in his pocket for days looking for "the right moment" and we started the day with our only plans being to walk the Freedom Trail. We picked up random activities throughout the day which included an arcade trip and a visit to Nightshift Brewery at Lovejoy Warf (highly recommended) which is where, after a suspiciously long trip to the bathroom, M asked me if I'd like to take a cruise. Next thing I know, my mom's nagging me to plan my wedding.
Anywho, for our wedding day take 1, what better than to return to where we decided to give it a go in the first place? This time though, we decided to take a smaller boat...
Yup, yesterday we took some kayaks out on the Charles River! It was a beautiful not-too-hot-not-too-cold day, perfect for kayaking (or getting married). I already knew I loved kayaking but it was amazing to be able to paddle around with the sailboats and duck boats, checking out the Boston sights from a new, amazing perspective.
We found a super-calm area of the river called the Storrow Lagoon where we could check out the Charles River Esplanade, an oddly idyllic park in the middle of Boston, while getting mildly harassed by geese.
That's the Longfellow bridge which connects Boston to Cambridge.
Check out the Museum of Science! I didn't realize it was directly on the water like that- were were able to get right up to it. Now I really want to visit the Museum again (the inside that is), it's an excellent one if you're into that sort of thing.
The rental was for 3 hours and we easily used all our time without getting bored or overtired whatsoever. I admit, I was nervous about kayaking around various boats and more open-feeling water but though we did ride some wakes at times, as long as you stick to the sides mostly, it's not scary or dangerous feeling and something I'd even recommend to someone who's never kayaked.
We capped our day off with dinner and beer by taking a short walk to Cambridge Brewing Company which we've been to before and have yet to be disappointed. Guess which beer I got...
If I couldn't get married, I'd say this was an ideal alternative. Cheers to more adventures, someday actually getting married, and many years of totally rad togetherness.
Enjoy a little Charles River tribute before you go!
The past few days were unseasonably chilly; we had highs in the mid 70s (21C) and it was gloomy and rainy. I'm sure to many that's bad news but it just so happens to be some of my favorite kind of weather and the most conducive to one of my favorite kinds of activities: cozying it up at home. That can mean a lot of things but in this particular home, it probably means I change into my comfy pants and then...
G A M E S.
I'm still in a game playing mood from a few days ago I guess so even before I left work- no- even before lunchtime I was texting M to see if he wanted to play something. When I'm in a serious I'm-willing-to-abandon-all-other-plans-and-responsibilities game playing mood, chances are I'm gonna want to play Eldritch Horror.
Eldritch Horror is a pretty complex cooperative H.P. Lovecraft inspired board game. You choose characters and battle monsters and subsequent other-worldly events while completing various set task... hopefully without going crazy, getting killed, or running out of time before the Ancient One comes for you...
In the base game, there are 12 investigators to choose from, 250 tokens, and more than 300 cards of various purpose- this is no quick game as it takes as long to set up as others take to actually play. M being a big fan of the game and a completionist, has all currently available expansions as well (there are 8). We played with the Mountains of Madness side-board this session.
I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not sure if I would ever have attempted to play this game if it weren't for M. My patience for instruction reading is pretty low and there's quite a bit to read so it's helpful that I was taught this by someone who had already mastered it and could fill me in as we play. Don't let that discourage you though- its a fantastically involved game, interesting and different no matter how many times you play it, and I like the (admittedly somewhat gruesome at times) game art a lot which, though it doesn't necessarily affect the game play, always improves the experience for me.
Oh it is frustrating at times too, I have to say- we'll occasionally quit a game if we're getting beaten so badly we're absolutely positive we won't win because at that point it's like you're playing Monopoly when you don't get any of the properties you wanted so you'd just go around the board basically giving all your money to the other players (man, I hate Monopoly). Regardless, I'd 100% say it's still a super good go-to if you want to dive into one big, long, glorious game session.
Oh and another thing- if you don't have a decent sized table, this game will be a serious hassle to play. We have to put 2 extra leaves into our dining table to accommodate the whole game. To the right in the above picture is an extra side-board you play with one of the expansions as mentioned above so I guess you could save space by not doing that but it's still a table-filler for sure.
That's a little bit closer up picture of the main board. You travel the world in the course of the game, hopefully picking up new spells, items, or skills on your way to kill monsters and close gates to more gruesome dimensions.
We ended our first game early (we were goners for sure) but started right back up with a new monster and new characters. We're currently in the process of playing this game actually, my dining table is still off limits, and this is my character sheet: I'm Kate Winthrop, scientist.
Another detail shot- lots of tokens! Also, that paper is our current monster to be defeated, Antediluvium. I think I can conservatively say we're doing alright... though it's still early yet.
Oh and see that sweet Cthulhu dice tower there? If you're not familiar with dice towers, you drop the dice in the top and they come out between his tentacles because rolling dice with your hand like normal is not good enough for us. I had my brother in law 3D print it and I painted it for M for Christmas this past year. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out!
Creepy right? I love how the grey-green skin came out especially. M also has a ton of models for all the monsters in the game and I've been meaning to paint them but it seems like kind of an overwhelming task. Painting this guy confirmed that it would be quite the undertaking but also proved I would enjoy it, it's all a matter of getting started. Someday M, someday.
Well M should be home soon and hopefully we'll finish our game tonight (even though the weather is no longer gloomy and horror-game ideal). We've both hit a bit of a stressful time at work, M especially, and as anxious people its good to have something that can take our mind off things and allow us to relax a little.
Happy gaming everyone!
PS- I always accept any fun game recommendations ;)
Hopefully me apologizing for stepping away from the blog for longer than I meant to doesn't become a reoccurring theme but I am sorry and at the very least, I'm able to come up with a good excuse this time.
I mentioned some time ago that my grandmother died while I was visiting her in her nursing home. This past Saturday we were finally able to get all the family together (many had to travel which of course meant tests and arranging for quarantines when they get home), have a memorial service, and bury her ashes. I'm not a religious person by any means but I can't help but think that she's finally rejoining her forever dance partner, my grandfather who died in 1978 and who's spot she never filled, for a much missed spin around the dance floor, and that makes me happy.
Needless to say, I've been busy prepping for all the visiting, spending much appreciated- though brief- time with my family, and dealing with the strange feeling of directly dealing with the loss again after a two month break. It's all back to "normal" now as I dropped my family at the airport yesterday but I have to say, I've been feeling a little aimless since then. I guess it was such a whirlwind few days and a lot for me to take in and now that it's all over I don't know what to make of things. Luckily I had the foresight to take a couple extra days off to recuperate and here we are.
As I sit here on my porch (where else?) sweating bullets even though I'm only moving my fingers to type (its 93F/34C, why am I out here?!), I feel like I'm finally ready to enter the real world, despite all that. My morning was spent cleaning then watching, for reasons I cannot fathom myself, The Highlander TV show from the 90s while I sewed but I think this heat has me sweating out my shiftless mood and I can tell I'm starting to feel better and ready to engage in some sort of activity, with other humans even, and I think I know just the thing...
Yeah, the more I think of it, the thing I'm looking forward to the most today is the arrival of M. This is not just because I'm particularly fond of him (I agreed to marry him after all) but I know that no matter what kind of day at work he had, if I ask him if he wants to play a game with me he'll say yes.
And I just really want to play a board game today.
I've mentioned this before I think but though I've always enjoyed board/card games, I never knew how intense they could be until I met M who's a real enthusiast. Any and all types of games he's eternally, well, game to play and though I'm not quite at that level, its nice to have someone who'll play with you if you're say, in the perfect mood to engage with someone and get out of your head a bit after being home alone all day. Yup, like today.
As a testament to his love of games, here's a bonus picture of M getting crushed by me in a game of cribbage at Night Shift Brewing in Everett, Massachusetts:
But we still played another game right after that one.
How awesome are our Star Trek: TNG cards by the way? Oh and anyone in the Boston area that wants to drink their beer in a place that is not their house while being conscientious of the whole pandemic thing, allow me to whole-heartedly recommend Night Shift. They seriously go the extra mile ensuring everyone's safety, as does nearby Bone Up Brewing Co- they very politely reminded me to re-mask after I absentmindedly forgot to put my mask back on as we were leaving.
Anyway, GAMES.
The one I'm most eagerly awaiting M's arrival for is Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. I've linked you to the first box set there, but there are two others which were created much later. Not technically a board game per se but so utterly immersive that it's perfect for my weird brain today.
Essentially, it's a Choose Your Own Adventure style murder mystery game. You play as Wiggins, the head of Holme's street ruffian gang of assistants to help him solve murders by chasing different leads. However, the more leads you go to, the more points are deducted from your final score which is always compared to/based on Homes' always perfect score of 100. For each case, you are given a booklet which has the initial case information as relayed to you by Holmes himself plus all the leads, as well as a map, London directory, newspaper, and occasionally different bits of paper evidence. There are also "experts" you can visit (like the coroner for instance) that are the same throughout the game.
We're currently on a case in the box set pictured above which is the third that was created. Though you don't necessarily have to complete the boxes in any particular order, I wouldn't suggest starting with this one as it has extra long cases and some annoying typos- we had to look up some error corrections for this one but we've already established a deep love of the game so it didn't entirely put us off. If you're just starting out you might find that too off-putting. We started with The Thames Murders box and still have yet to do the Jack the Ripper cases.
It says it accommodates 1-8 players and in the rules it suggests people take turns figuring out where to "go" next but I feel it's definitely a 2 person game- and you better like that other person. Any more heads in the game and I feel like it'd be a "too many cooks in the kitchen" situation.
Usually, our game play consists of one person reading the clues and the other taking notes (oh yeah, you gotta take notes), then we have a discussion about what we've read, what that means to the case, and where we should go next. If' we're deadlocked on where to go, we'll take turns choosing but generally it's a mutual decision.
You decide when you're done the case and ready to answer the questions at the end, though you don't know what the questions are until you've officially quit, adding to the difficulty. Like I said before, your score is calculated against Sherlock's but don't expect to "beat" him. We're usually happy if we're able to answer most of the questions and get something above 60. Its not so much a win/lose situation as it is a "how badly did we do" kinda thing.
Each case takes us quite a while - we never finish in one sitting- and there's a lot of heated discussion. To be perfectly honest, we usually stop when one or both of us gets too cranky. Maybe that doesn't sound like a stellar review but that just goes to show how deeply involved you can get. Some people will love that, some won't, we definitely do.
Liking the world of Sherlock Holmes (so, 1800s London) would be helpful of course but you don't have to have read any of the Conan Doyle stories to play. I have and love them- above is a picture of my much loved copies- and I would definitely say it adds to my enjoyment. M hasn't read them though and he's still just as much into the game as I am.
All in all I'd highly recommend this game if your into sorting out murder mysteries and puzzles. Each box costs roughly $50 new which admittedly is a lot for a game you can really only can play once. If that's an issue for you I'd scout eBay or something for a used version because if you're anything like us, you'll get a great many hours of enjoyment out of each box all the same.
And with that, I guess I'm off to kill some more time with Duncan McLeod until M gets home. If you can just watch this intro to The Highlander before you go so we both can have that Queen song stuck in our heads, that'd be great.
