We've Got Game!

It may come as no surprise to those who read this blog that we love strategy board games around here. All four of us spent a big chunk of yesterday playing Cathedral World, pictured above. We were already big fans of Cathedral, where you place buildings around a central safe spot, the cross piece, and try and claim territory for yourself. Cathedral World has a slightly different set of rules, so it was fun figuring out the strategy differences. But what's also neat is that your playing pieces are famous landmarks from around the world. It adds an interesting dimension.

I thought I'd list some of our favorite family games, or at least ones we've been playing a lot recently, in addition to Cathedral.

Abalone
Apples to Apples
Bendominos
Blokus
Davinci's Code
Frog Juice
Katamino
Life: Pirates of the Caribbean Edition
Pente
Quoridor
Risk
Scrabble
Scrambled States of America
Set
Stratego: Star Wars

The sheer number of board games we have is slightly embarrassing, so this is an abridged list. Feel free to add your family favorites to the comments section.

The Answer

I know you've been burning with curiosity about my couch and how long it lasted....

The answer: 4 or 8 minutes, depending on how you count.

We set it out at 7:21pm on Sunday evening. By 7:25, the first person had stopped. It took them 4 minutes to test it out (they sat on every cushion) and load it up. By 7:29 it was gone, like it had never been there.

New couch was delivered today.

Freecycling the Old-Fashioned Way

note: The following entry has not one thing to do with letterboxing. It just amuses me.

Let's say you have a couch. It was a wedding present, so you've had it for a long time (17 years to be exact). In that span of time, couch has hosted a menagerie of dogs & cats, babies & children, Thanksgiving guests & book club friends. It's watched (and endured the cheers, tears and moans of the humans perched on it) Super Bowls, terrorist attacks, election returns, home movies, and lots and lots of good and bad sitcoms. It's had dog poop and cat pee and red wine and baby vomit and apple juice cleaned off of its cushions. With all that use, it's certainly gotten a little ragged. For the last 5 years, couch has sported a slipcover to keep its bare spots from showing and to prolong its life a bit. But, that slipcover is annoying...it's always riding up askew. And one day, you've just had enough of couch and its slipcover.

You decide to get a new couch to replace it (this could be a whole entry about what the travesty that it's cheaper to buy a new couch than re-upholster the old one). And said new couch is arriving Tuesday.

And it just so happens that Monday is heavy trash pick-up day.

So, with permission, the kids somersault off and jump up and down on old couch one last time (seriously, they can't do that on new couch and no juice either--but you know they will). And then after saying your goodbyes, you put old couch out by the curb on Sunday evening. There's a bare spot on the den floor now which reminds you of when you moved into this house 16 years ago and didn't have nearly enough furniture to fill it (whole rooms were barren then). Now, there's stuff everywhere (and of course that's a whole different blog entry itself). Sure, you're nostalgic for all the things old couch has seen (and remembering how much stronger your back was when you carried OC into the house all those years ago).

So, my question to you, oh blog readers, is this: How long does old couch stay by the curb before someone picks him up? Answer coming later, but let's hear your guesses...

The Puzzle Queen

I am delighted to host clues on this blog for a letterbox created by my friend Mother of Five. This box was my birthday present, so it's special...I hope you have as much fun finding it as I did!

Procede in an orderly fashion. Smoke comes before fire.

A 6 A 3 6 10 Q / 4 2 6 K / A 3 9 2 8 2 10 2 3 10 K 6 / 8 6 2 10 Q 7 . 8 2 K 6 / 6 6 5 / 8 6 2 10 Q / 4 2 7 8 / 3 10 8 / 7 8 3 2 6 / J 2 Q Q / 8 3 / J 9 2 4 10 3 2 / 3 7 / 3 Q 9 6 / 8 6 2 10 Q. 8 3 / 6 10 8 9 8. 2 8 / 8 3 4 / 3 7 / A 2 2 /A 2 5 6 / J 3 3 5 6 2 /9 10 Q Q / Q 3 3 K / 6 10 8 9 8 / 7 3 6 / 2 6 2 6 3 Q / 4 6 3 8 6 4 8 6 5 / 7 8 9 A 4 / 8 9 2 8 / 9 3 Q 5 7 / Q 3 9 6 / 4 9 10 A 6.

Carving Oz

I've had a lot of fun carving some of the characters from OZ. Above is an image of the Winkie soldiers running away which I just finished. Below are my results so you can compare. I'm not entirely happy with some of the detail, but it's okay. I have a special spot in mind for the Winkie Soldiers, one that illustrates some of the history of Memorial Park.

Many of the OZ illustrations are in the public domain, but some of the characters are hard to find images for. I've pulled out some of our books and searched the Internet. Whoa are there are a ton of OZ-fan sites out there!

I'm concentrating on some of the characters from the books. Some obscure, some less so. I am trying VERY hard not to get carried away, but when I have fun with something, well, that's the whole point.

I also have a special traveler for the event, and I'll go ahead and give the clue. There's a special word that allows the speaker to transmogrify anything (but only if the magic word is pronounced exactly correctly). Originally, only one person knew the word, but later it was discovered by others. Because you'll never pronounce it right, you can go ahead and give me your best try. After you do so, you'll receive the traveler.

Countdown to Oz

In 2006, I hosted or helped with major portions of three gatherings. Even though they were a lot of fun and we really enjoyed them, that level of organization about did me in...and one of my New Year's Resolutions was no more hosting of gatherings!

10 months into 2007, and I'm breaking that resolution. My buddy MoWizLiz is coming to Houston, and there are so many new letterboxers around that we just couldn't resist! So Mother of Five and I are busily planning Follow the Yellow Trail, an ode to the wonderful world of Oz. I avidly read most of the OZ books as a kid, so the characters and places are dear to me.

Click here to see details for
Follow the Yellow Brick Trail

The event will be October 6th at my favorite Urban spot, Memorial Park. Some weeks I walk the trails of Memorial Park 3-4 times. I never tire of them, as they seem to be constantly changing. I've seen some amazing wildlife in this serene oasis surrounded by loud hustle and bustle: coyotes, baby armadillos (and mom), tarantulas, venomous snakes (coral and water moccasin), owls, swamp rabbits, rare migratory birds and more. And there are days (like Wednesday when I took a four mile hike along the green trail) where I don't see another human. Those trails are my respite (and where I work out my next mystery box clues).

We're trying to keep things simple, and not overdo. The focus is on friends (new and old), with some boxes thrown in. There already are a ton of boxes in Memorial Park, but the place is huge, and others will be more than welcome. Already, the gathering has blossomed from a mini to a normal size (50 people), which is a good, manageable size. But keeping it low-key is not always easy for me. As I explained to someone, I'm of the "What if we run out of dip?" school of party planning. Overplanning and overcooking are just part of my genetic make-up. There are always left-overs at one of my parties.

As far as boxes, I'm just carving the OZ images I love and whatever I get around to planting I plant. And some lovely friends from across the US volunteered to send stamps, so that makes the job easier. We're having a special Jack Pumpkinhead pumpkin patch for the young boxers, and good friends are carving pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns for that. It's like a letterboxing potluck!

All in all, I'm getting excited. See you in OZ!

Way Down Upon the Suwannee....

One of our stops in our live oak letterboxing tour of the South was the Stephen C. Foster Folk Culture Center in White Springs, FL. There are five letterboxes at the park, including two-in-one hidden near this beautiful gazebo on the Suwannee River. It was raining quite a bit when we were there, so we didn't get to take the planned hike, but we toured the visitor's center and walked around the park a bit.

Stephen C. Foster is the composer of such American classics as Camptown Races, Oh Susanna!, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Old Folks at Home, My Old Kentucky Home and more. There is a carillon tower at the park with 97 bells. Every two hours, there is a bell concert of some of his music (different selections). We timed it so we arrived at the visitor's center at 11:45, which gave us enough time to look at some of the dioramas (there are dioramas that represent about 10 of his songs--they have moving parts and you peer at them through a glass window) before the concert started. Then, we walked through the rain listening to the bells to the Tower itself, where there are additional pieces of memorabilia and much more information about his life. Listening to the carillon and the drip drip drip of a gentle rain was just amazing.

I have to confess. This whole visitors' center creeped me out. The bell music was lovely; as was the gazebo on the river. I bet the hiking trails are gorgeous. But, the dioramas? They were a 1950s view of the Antebellum South, complete with happy darkies whistling tunes (see Old Folks at Home, to the left) while they work. We were stunned to see this viewpoint prominently on display throughout the visitor's center.

Stephen C. Foster's music is emblematic of the period in which he composed it (mainly from 1850-1864, when he caught pneumonia and died shortly thereafter). It is worth remembering and recognizing; the music is a part of our American cultural legacy. But it is time for a re-evaluation of how this era and Stephen C. Foster's amazing music are presented at the park, now that we are no longer looking at the Antebellum South through an idealized lens.

Next up: Potent Potables in Savannah.

Optical IllusionWell, I've been playing with optical illusions a bit. Mainly for my own amusement. But also for my buddy Puddle Splasher, who is coming to Houston next month.

But I thought you might like to see one thing that I'm working on.



What do you make of that?

Letterboxing Under the Live Oaks

Last month, we traveled to South Carolina for an extended family vacation. The kids were coming with the grandparents after a week at Camp Fun (staying at their house in St. Louis), so it was just the adults. Our basic voyage consisted of travelling all the way across I-10 to Jacksonville, FL, then hanging a giant left to travel up the eastern coast to near Charleston.

Without side trips, it's a 20 hour drive (which we did in two days on the way back with the kids. On the way there, we took four days, an eternity in road trip time, and took plenty of side trips and detours. The live oak pictured above is in New Iberia, LA at a lovely city park with two letterboxes. To the right? That's the chile fish at the gift shop on Avery Island at the Tabasco tour. The tabasco factory tour is an odd one, no other way to describe it. You have to pay $1 to get on the island, although the tour is free. The entire tour is similar to attending a booster club pep rally for the McIlhenny family, original & current owners. But, I'm a sucker for bottling lines and spicy things, so it was worth the side trip. And New Iberia is an amazingly charming town...I'd recommend it for a weekend getaway.

One of the boxes hidden by the Weatherlys in New Iberia was at this little grotto. I just love the little unexpected things out there, and this shrine next to the public library was one of them.

Other high points of Louisiana included meat pies in Lafayette, dining at the Abita Brew Pub (which we always do when coming through), having breakfast at Louie & The RedHead in Mandeville (a must), the UCM museum in Abita Springs (dogigator & friends as seen on roadside America) and seeing the sugar mill ruins at Fountainbleau State Park. Yes, there's a lot of food mentioned there, but what can I say? It was the live oak, letterboxing, dining & brew pub tour of the South.

Low point of Louisiana? That would be a letterbox where the clues were vague and could easily have referred to one of about 50 live oaks in a grove. We got a stick and poked into a hole in a promising one and what should come out? A swarm of yellowjackets! Yes, for the second time while letterboxing, I was stung by a mess of angry yellowjackets. I just got a few stings, but I dropped my sunglasses as soon as I felt the first prick. My darling husband thought that he could retrieve them (over my protestations)...result? Two stung adults and you guessed it, no sunglasses. And no box.

The last time we were stung, my husband didn't get hit. Now he found out how much it hurts. It's tough when the person you're whining to is also hurting.

Look for another few posts about our trip, specifically why the Stephen C. Foster Folk Art Center in Florida is like a time-warp to the 1950s. And not in a good way.

Back to School & Reality

It seems like August was a time-away-from-time month. We just kind of did our own things. We traveled for the first two weeks. Look for some upcoming posts about letterboxing under the Live Oaks as we worked our way across the South to our ultimate destination of Charleston. (And about how yellow jackets can live in the crevice of a live oak; be careful about where you poke with a stick-ow!)

There, we didn't box, but had a relaxing week with friends and family at the beach. We had much to celebrate and just being with this group was wonderful.

Then, it was a few letterboxes on the hurried trip back to Houston.

Here, we tried to squeeze the last little bit of fun out of summer. At the beginning of June, the kids and I had made a giant list of what we wanted to do this summer. With two weeks to go, we re-evaluated. Everyone got to pick one thing that they wanted to do. Me? I got to go to the DFW area for a whirlwind letterboxing tour with MoWizLiz and a fun mini-meet with area boxers (look for a post just about that too). I didn't worry about the blog, mainly because I still haven't downloaded the pictures from vacation & beyond.

And then, in a blink of an eye summer was over. Time for back to school and all the rigors of establishing a schedule (especially the going to bed early enough and waking up parts). The kids are doing their homework; I'm trying to re-organize a whole summer's full of art projects & lego creations. In addition, we started re-doing their room and bathroom, so that's half-completed. If we're lucky that will be finished by December.

We're taking a bit of time to get re-situated. Look for some more upcoming posts about cipher solving and our upcoming Wizard of Oz themed gathering.