Coming Soon: Previews In July

Another blog post! This one takes place in the future... my sister Katie visits in July 07. So say hello to my awesome nieces Julia and Emme!

Hey, we need some football here!

Now don't get me wrong. I am a University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University fan all the way. But when you get free tickets to watch the Miami Hurricanes play in the Orange Bowl, I can switch allegiences for one day. My very good friend Joe and I took full advantage to watch what is easily my favorite sport. These pictures were taken last year...so for one time I will say it. Go Canes! That one was for our benefactor who dished off the tickets, Matt.
Thanks Matt!

Spending Some Winter Time in Maine, N.H.

We were recently in Maine to visit friends and stayed at the house of our good friends Russ and Christina. We attended a wedding held in the famous Mt. Washington resort in Bretton Woods, N.H. I have climbed Mt. Washington in the winter (background) which is deceivingly dangerous. In fact, Mt. Everest climbing teams sometimes come here to train. The reason for this is that this mountain has some of the worst weather anywhere on the planet. The highest, non-tornado, non-hurricane wind speed ever recorded at 231 miles per hour was recorded here in 1934.

Home Sweet Guest Home!

More Swiss Pics....

Here are a few more images from our trip, by popular request!

Expanding on My Switzerland Ruminations...

Well, I thought I would share some more impressions from our trip. The trip was great, obviously. But I was very surprised by the amount of graffiti in Switzerland as we traveled by train. That was the only disappointment of the trip. We went down to Zermatt through Baden and Bern down to Brig, but came back to Zurich going through Gletsch, Andermatt and Lake Lucerne. The trains were really on-time. We bought five bags of luggage with us and the train system was so efficient we were worried several times that the train was going to depart and the luggage was going to go to Zurich and we were going to be left behind. I always liked trains and think they are a great way to travel.

Zermatt was a lot of fun and a step back in time. We skiied a bit. In a funny side bar, we spent about $400 USD getting Jennifer all outfitted to go skiing. She skied 45 minutes, and then rejoined, "I don't want to ski anymore... um, ever." That made me laugh. I said,"Well, OK...no problem. But can I get a run in at least"? Jennifer liked the toboggoning quite a bit though. It really is amazing how fast you can go and you simply toboggon from town to town. An aside: Swiss children make the run completely in the dark, with only a headlamp to light their way. The fact that they do it in complete darkness (and those things go fast too) was a sight to behold.

About Zermatt: Zermatt is incredibly serene, beautiful and peaceful...a valley surrounded on both sides by monutians. NO car traffic. They have a little cemetary where people who have tried to climb the Matterhorn and have not quite succeeded are buried there. All in all, a quaint mountain village that emits a robust and jovial spirit. There is a little village above Zermatt called Winklematten... and talk about an incredible view at night: the Matterhorn in the background...the lights of train windows passing high in the mountains behind me, the warm lights of houses dotting a gorged valley with a charging stream running through it below... and all defined by just total stillness. Every sound was amplified. It was so incredibly nice. I just sat, all by myself, over the gorge bridge taking it all in (Jennifer gets too cold for that type of stuff)... for about three hours straight. It was a very awe inspiring three hours.

As far as the food: I tried horse steak for the first time. Tastes like venison. Really wasn't a big deal. The Kasefondue was very good, but the raclette is definitely an experience. It is a specially melted cheese served with potatoes, pickled onions and gerkins. Along with Rosti, which is a Swiss grated potato pancake, it definitely gives much needed constitution to face the cold. Also, I did get my hands on some good Kirsch for my own fondues. Finally! I bought two bottles... the Etter, which I use for making fondues and the Dettling Reserve... which I am reserving for tasting. We had friends over the other night and I tried the Dettling for the first time. It has a strong cherry flavor and it is quite good. The Swiss breakfast is very spare. They use real full cream milk, which definitely makes your museli cereal taste richer! A simple selection of cheese, salami, bread and jam typically rounded out our morning eating session.

Upon our return to Zurich, we took a journey off the Obnammanstrasse, near the bahnhof (train station) and we came across this little coffee cafe named Cafe Felix. Talk about the most intensively decorated place on the planet. Everything was covered from head to toe in Christmas decorations. Including the ceiling. It looked like a Christmas jungle. And the one time we didn't have a camera (sigh), but I would have loved to get that shot. It was memorable.

All in all, I have always been fascinated with everything Swiss. Even to the point that I brushed up a bit on Swiss history. I think they are a great people. My travels there reinforced why I am so enthralled with country and its people. Switzerland is definitely a place we will revisit soon. The goal is to make Europe a stop every two years. One goal I definitely hope to live up to!

More of Clarissa and Jeff's Big Day...

Clarissa and Jeff pose for a few more shots on their wedding day...





The happy couple bask in the glow of the evening... and the glow of the fireplace!

Congratulations!

This one is a hearty congratulations to my dear friends Jeff and Clarissa, who were just married last week at the Mt. Washington Resort in New Hampshire. Here the happy couple shares their first dance together. The neat thing about these two is that both of them were my friends... from different parts of the country. They met at my wedding, fell in love and now they get to enjoy their own wedded bliss.

I took this shot with my Nikon D80 and I think it captures their much deserved happiness well, on their special day. Congratulations Jeff and Clarissa!

Wine and Cheese Boardgames

There have a lot of updates to the website in the last couple of weeks or so, including the changing of several pictures for a fresh and new perspective. Please scroll down and check it out!

So many topics today... but this is a good one. One of the great reinassances of the modern age is in the world of boardgames. Boardgames continue to gain in popularity. And the quality of boardgames these days is just superb. One of the great benefits of boardgames is that it offers the chance for the adult to be a bit of a kid again. It is an awesome social vehicle that quickly brings people together, laughing, talking, conversing.... and it can turn total strangers into friends in a matter of no time.

And it is great for putting togther potential dates too... for those of you who are single! I can't tell you how several of my single friends were able to get to know someone in a fun, casual and light-hearted atmosphere.... and it was so easy for them to find out if there is any compatibility when they had cast their eye on someone they liked.

Finally... unlike the movies, TV, computers etc. boardgames are a great way to socialize and a great way to engage the mind intellectually... not to mention engaging memorable conversation!

With the creation and addition of interesting food and music, an entertaining evening everyone can find to be immensely fun and amusing... is right around the corner!

Office Space *NEW*

About a year ago, I promised a newer, more complete picture of my office. Better late than never. Here it is!

Florida Fondue Fever for Fifteen

Looks like people are having a good time at our Fifth Annual Fondue Party. Jennifer takes center stage in her Swiss Cross sweater. We matched! How cheesy is that?

The Switzerland Buzz

The first picture (above) was the view which greeted us upon our arrival to our hotel in Zermatt, Switzerland. Let's see... a little skiing, tobogganing, kase fondue and the Matterhorn. Life was certainly great for the next 10 days. The Swiss sleep in blankets that essentially are like sleeping bags. Very warm...but very cool. It was truly a great Christmas, even if it didn't snow the entire time we were there. There was snow on the ground though, so we did in fact get our white Christmas.

We got to enjoy the great Swiss climate in comfort with great food!

The Wife and the Sister-In-Law

Finally. Here is a picture of my wife Jennifer (in blue) posing with my sister-in-law and our niece Hayley.

We have Updates!

This one is really for my friends who I haven't been in contact with for awhile.

I had to put some update on here...so this a picture of the boys in Miami as our little adventure for Ben's Batchelor Party. And yes, we kept it clean.

Miami is a great place. Food is awesome and the culture really has a strong latin, Cuban bent. And the culture is what makes Miami a great place to visit. We had a fun time with the jet skis and everything else. And I think we gave Ben a great sendoff to married life.

On the Trail of Mr. X...

"Scotland Yard" is a boardgame of Milton Bradley fame in the 1980's. Here, some intrepid friends spend a small part of their evening chasing after the elusive Mr. X.

The Name is Bond

I thought I would take time to mention a great group called Bond which offers an ecclectic and some say "sexy" take on the world of classical music. Really great stuff and highly lyrical, so I thought I would offer you a listen at their website for a little something different.

http://www.bondmusic.net/home.html

Hello again.

I am working very slowly at starting my own boardgame publishing company. The temporary arm to do this is a very tiny company I have created, titled as you see it. No website for it... I have a name in mind for the actual boardgame company and I am currently working on the logo for that. By the way, this logo is my own creation.

The Epiphany...

In my bio, I mentioned that I like boardgames... so I thought I would throw out some history how I got started into that. Only just a couple of years ago, my wife and I only had two games on our shelf. Monopoly and Balderdash. We always were talking about when we have friends over, it would be nice to have something to do with them. Boardgames seemed like a good idea... but it is impossible to get people to play Monopoly. This is either because it is too long and involved to play... or that people played it so much as a kid they were sick of it. When you have four or six people as guests, it only takes one dissenter to rule it out for everyone else. And sometimes that dissenter was me. Party games were only OK for me... I did always like Balderdash though. I never liked Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scruples or Taboo. But even Balderdash gets tiring after a while if that is the only party game you have.

One day I told my wife Jennifer that maybe if we could add something to Monopoly to make it different, and then maybe people would be curious enough to play it. So I went on the web to research if there were any add-ons for Monopoly and came across a website that sold boardgames. I almost passed up looking too deep at it, thinking it was just an online forum to sell the usual fare such as Sorry, Trouble, Aggravation and of course, the party games. But there were several games on the site I had never seen before. One thing led to another and soon I came across this game called "A Dog's Life." It seemed way more than just a kids game and it was definitely different. Soon I wound up ordering it. It seemed strange waiting for it to arrive. This was the first "toy" I had purchased since I was in my early teens... Ironically, I felt like a kid anxiously waiting for it to hurry up and get to my home. That also was very strange and it only served to peak my curiosity.

Anyway, I thought I had finally found something unique that would give us something fun to do when our friends came over. Surely they would go for something that was new and fresh to do rather than just sit back and have coffeeshop or cocktail talk like we usually do. So, the game finally arrives and as I look through it, I get pretty excited because it sounds like a lot of fun. We have people over and everyone has a blast playing it. I immediately decide I want more then one game like this. I run out to the store and buy a copy of Clue! since I always remember liking that as a kid...except there is a new version out called Clue!FX....so I buy that instead. Feeding on the Clue! karma, I get back on the website and start looking for another deduction type game with maybe a different type of flavor... and come across a game called "Mystery of the Abbey" Very cool. So I purchase that, we all play it and have a blast and the rest is.... well, shall we just say "history."

An updated picture...

Well, here is a current picture of me.... the author of this blog. I'm coming up on the big 3-7 in October. Hopefully, it doesn't catch up with me too soon!

Office Space

Here is picture of my newly completed office. I will get another shot posted later.

Back From Computer Troubles...

It finally feels good to have a computer that I can rely on again... it was almost a month of being down without a computer. It makes you realize what an everyday dependence people have on computers now.

I just completed the final touches on my very own office, so I can have some peace, quiet and focus for building my boardgame ideas. Will have to post the before and after pictures soon.