2008.03.12
Grillin’ game night
When I moved to my current address, one of the many upsides was that the balcony had a gas hookup for a barbecue on the balcony. I had always intended on buying one, but somehow I never quite got around to it. Until now.
Last Friday I went shopping and bought myself a barbecue. The beginning of the adventure was fitting it in the car.
Those of you who know me, and know what I drive, are probably wondering how I managed to fit a regular-sized barbecue in my car. It turns out that it fit perfectly well when everything was removed from the box, and divided between the back seat and the trunk.
In any case, my friend and coworker Brian used to work in a store that sold barbecues, and he has assembled many in his time. He offered to help me put it together, and I countered with dinner if he did. So, it was set. He and Pam (his wife) would come over for dinner on Sunday, and Arman would join us (he helped me carry the pieces in from the car). Brian arrived Sunday afternoon, and I had already perused the assembly instructions, figured out what was what, and had the first part of the base assembled.
We soon discovered that the cap the builder put on the gas hookup was pretty much welded to the nipple. The nipple came apart from the valve easily enough, but the cap wouldn’t budge, so I made a last-minute run to Home Depot to buy a replacement nipple. Aside from that small snag, everything went together quickly and painlessly. By the time I got back from the store with my $0.69 piece of pipe, Pam and Arman had arrived and taken over my sofa, and Brian had all but finished the assembly.
I had the foresight to set the steaks marinating in the morning, and had prepped the couscous salad in the afternoon, so there was little to do but assemble some veggie skewers and grill it all up.
It was delicious.
After dinner, we broke out Ticket to Ride: Europe, which none of the others had played before. We played in about 90 minutes, which is typical for a four-player game with new players. Everyone enjoyed the game, and it was definitely an interesting one. Pam set about hoarding locomotives, Brian played spoiler to Arman’s plans, and I managed to wiggle and weave my way from Lisbon to Stockholm to complete a number of tickets.
After we finished, the group wanted to play some more, so I got out Blokus and we played a few quick games. I’m not sure who gave it the name “the anti-Tetris“, but it stuck for the rest of the evening. Blokus is one of those subtle games where you pick up the basics really easily, but which can take a while to learn all the tricks. I had a large advantage, being the only one who had played before, but the others picked on me so it evened out somewhat.
And so it was that Sunday was a day that combined three of my favorite things: good food, good company, and good gaming.
Subscriptions