Celebrations!

 We went to the Canada Day fireworks last night and didn't get home until very late, which is why there was no blog post yesterday. The fireworks were pretty good, although it wasn't like they told a story or anything. Then again, you don't expect a fancy story or anything from a local fireworks night, right?

The evening started with yummy dinner and ice cream followed by board games until it was time for the fireworks. We played Quarto, Gobblet, Skybridge, and Taluva. The first three games are published by Gigamic, a game company that makes sturdy, well-designed puzzle/strategy games which are very simple to learn but can be quite complex to play. These three games are made with wooden puzzle pieces and a simple board - it's amazing what games you can play with such simple pieces.

I enjoyed both two-player games - Quarto and Gobblet - the most and strongly recommend them to everyone. In Quarto, you decide which of the 16 pieces your opponent will place on the 4x4 board. Each pieces is a combination of the four attribute pairs: tall/short, round/square, solid/hollow, light/dark. The goal is to make a straight line of four pieces that share one of those attributes - all are tall, or all are solid.

In Gobblet, each player has three sets of four nesting pieces and can move one piece onto or around the 4x4 board. A piece can either go on a blank square or can "gobble" a smaller piece on a non-blank square. Whichever piece the player touches must be the one moved.

I liked Skybridge but I couldn't figure out a strategy. In this game, each player has a set of coloured blocks which are used to build towers on the 3x3 board. Each player has a bridge that can be used to link two towers together and crowns that are used to "claim" a tower for scoring.

Taluva was more complicated because it involved building landscapes up and out and building huts, temples, and towers. I couldn't really figure out when to do what move, although I'm sure that I'd get it in a second game. Both Skybridge and Taluva work better with more people playing and aren't as suited for two people. I think they'd both be fun another time.

Last night was kind of a celebration for us, I guess, because today, July 2, 2010, is Ian's and my 10th anniversary. Yep, we've been together for 10 years now. What a long time! We've kind of grown up together :) I'm hoping for many, many more years of unmarried bliss. We're celebrating our anniversary by watching tv recordings from the week. Sitting on our butts in front of the tv (ours or someone else's to watch a movie) is one our favourite activities on a Friday night.