Rest In Peace, Mrs. Ivy

I wanted to take a moment to pay my digital respects, as it were, to Christina's grandmother, who passed away last week at the age of 88. In May, the family will be traveling to Mississippi to lay her to rest.

Christina has written a beautiful "unofficial" obituary on her web site.

Pop Tart Day

For those of us lucky enough to live in the Maryland suburbs of DC, today is Pop Tart Day at California Tortilla. To quote their newsletter,

" All you have to do to get your free Pop Tart is go to any California Tortilla in the land on Wednesday, March 23rd and the spunky cashier will give you one FOR FREE, just for being you. And if you?re lucky, there may just be a toasting option. But please, heed the warning on the package: Remove the wrapper before toasting! I can?t tell you how many I've forgotten and had to buy a new house."

So stop by. I know I will!

Carcassonne

Yesterday was board gaming day. Turnout was a bit low, although we did get in a four-player game of Seafarers of Catan, a four-player game of San Juan, and a three-player game of San Juan.

After that, I introduced Ben to BrettSpielWelt, a German site for playing board games on-line. It was a lot of fun, especially since we tried out a few new games. I didn't want to try them out with unsuspecting strangers who wouldn't want to deal with someone who didn't know how to play the game.

One game we played was Carcassonne with the Inns & Cathedrals Expansion. We've played Carcassonne before (Martin owns it), but not with the Expansion. I liked the added gameplay. There's a couple of cathedral tiles that make cities worth more if completed, but nothing if uncompleted. Ben and I fought over a big city with the cathedrals, and I ended up completing it, which was the difference in the game.

Here's a screenshot from late in the game. I think that's particularly nice city there.