The Bad Thing About a Good Book

You know I'm reading a good book when I read for three hours straight and still look forward to reading more.  This book is so good, it's like watching a movie.  A couple times it made me laugh out loud!  The bad thing about it is that I didn't move much.  I'm used to being on my feet all morning, at least standing at the computer if not walking or exercising.  At least I did get a long walk and some exercising in before I started reading--good thing.  Yesterday, the only reason I stopped was to eat lunch before going to play pinochle at the Sr. Center for two hours.  (More sitting, although since I kept winning, I did get to move a little when the winners moved to the next table.)   

The Lady's Mine by Francine Rivers is the Christian historical fiction book that has got my attention.  One of all-time favorite books is Redeeming Love by her so I was eager to read this one.  It did not disappoint and this one has clean language!  A well-to-do lady from Boston who was involved with the women's sufferage movement was sent off to the wild west to claim her uncle's inheritance.  The town has no sheriff, few women other than prostitutes, is dirty and full of saloons.  She finds her uncle had a mine, a small newspaper office/house and was murdered but no one was charged.  She is determined to find out who killed her uncle and why, make the town better and restart the newspaper her uncle wrote.  She stirs up the town not only by being a new pretty lady, but also with her curiosity and determination to make it on her own and learn to operate a mine.  Here is the link to my full review of it:  https://ourstack.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-ladys-mine-by-francine-rivers-is.html

Now time to read some more before going to play Bunco.

What is the last book you read for at least three hours straight?

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My Impulse Purchase

Sometimes when I go to the Senior Center I work on a puzzle with some other seniors and find I enjoy it!  Since then, I've been sort of wanting to try doing a puzzle of my own.  I own a big one that I did years ago with my parents, but didn't want to set up that big one.  So, when I was in Marc's and saw they had 500-pc. puzzles for just $1.99, I bought one I thought would be fairly easy.

I sorted the pieces by color to help save time hunting for certain pieces and started on the border.  It was harder than I expected, but I did get it together, sort of.  I knew one piece at the top wasn't quite right, but was close and didn't know where else to put it.  It turned out that this puzzle was tougher

than I thought it would be.  I looked at the path pieces I sorted and thought no way is there enough here for that path!  But there was.  Several times I looked and looked for a certain shaped piece and again thought there has to be some pieces missing, but there wasn't.  It was much harder than it looked because pieces would be so close, but not fit exact.  As you can see from the picture, many colors are repeated in different places and sometimes I couldn't go by matching the color because the next piece started something different, like switching from flowers to the bushes, or from the house to a tree.

I stuck with it and eventually was able to rearrange the top border and complete the whole puzzle.  It was actually fun and relaxing for me, a great way to wind down right before going to bed.  I felt a sense of accomplishment when I finished it all by myself in ten days.   

When was the last time you did a puzzle?  What was your last impulse purchase?  I don't usually make impulse purchases, so this was rare for me.  What about you?

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Snow Rd. Park with More Woods! by Roxy (Updated with pics on 8-3-20)

My first trip to Snow Road Park was so much fun!  It's even bigger and better than Fernhill with more opportunities to go off path and explore!  We only went on the main path today, but that means we have more areas to explore yet on future trips.  I really want to come back here again soon!  It's great for hot days because the woods path is mostly shade, unlike Fernhill that has more sunny places.  Between the two, I like this is my favorite.  Have you ever been here?

Trail to Greenbriar Commons

I see a pool and playground!

 

On our next outing, I got to explore a side trail that mostly goes uphill all the way.  There is a bridge and a bench along the way.  The first time we went on it, we only went as far as the bench, but the next time we went all the way to the top and discovered it connects with an area called Greenbriar Commons!  There was a pool, a library, a playground and pickleball and bocce ball courts up there.  My mom was very excited about that.  There was a nice breeze up there and a bench to rest at. 

 

 

Hey, that's that path down there we came up on before!

 On another visit, we discovered another way down on a trail through the woods that comes out just a little way past the bridge.  It's fun to discover new things!

Another day we explored the wide open space on the other side of the park from the trail.  There are some woods over there too, but no hiking paths.

Last time we went, mom led us off the cement trail along a dirt trail that followed along the creek.  That was the most fun yet even though it was mostly flat.  There were some very narrow spots and at one point a little ditch that dad crossed first, then I jumped over and mom had to let go of my leash because she couldn't go as fast as me.  Dad had a little freak out, but he was able to pick it up pretty quick.  Sorry no picture of that.

I love walking at the parks and look forward to exploring a place called West Creek!  I highly recommend going to the park!  Woof!  Woof!

It's hard to remember to take pictures when you are having so much fun!

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Park and Shop 1960 Game

Park and Shop is a game I remembered playing from my childhood that I enjoyed.  Unfortunately, it got thrown away at some point, but I recently purchased a used one on Ebay.  It's a game that always changes because although the goal is the same, cards change your route from game to game and just like in real life, things come up that change your plans.  There are two versions, one where you just complete your shopping and get back home first to win, the other you have to use play money to make purchases and you earn points for accomplishing certain things.  We played the version without the money which is simpler, but I lost all the games! 

You get yellow cards that tell you what stores to shop at and you plan your route.  You get a red parking ticket when you park with another stop you must make on your way home.  If you land on the gray spaces, you have to pick a pedestrian card if walking, or a motorist card if driving and follow the instructions.  These may be good or bad, but usually they pull you off course.  When driving, you only use one die because cars have one engine and when walking, two dice because a person has two feet.  (This seems backwards though, since you can travel faster in the car than you can when walking.  I'd like to try changing this next time we play and see how it works.  The way the board is laid out, the parking lots are all close to the homes with all the stores more in the center of the board (blue spaces)). 

Anyway, it's pretty fun and even though I was ahead, those gray squares slowed me down enough for my husband to win today.    Since this was used, some of the token pieces are missing and I'm not sure what's going on with the motorist cards.  Most are red (like the parking ticket cards) and some blue, yet in the instructions, it says the motorist cards are red.  I'm thinking there must have been another version and some of the cards got mixed up.  Oh well, it's still playable, fun and one my husband can win.

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Rapid Recall Tests Your Short-Term Memory

One of the games we both enjoy is Rapid Recall.  It's a game there you have a list of 10 words.  One person has 60 seconds to give clues to their team for each word (or as many as there is time for).  Instead of calling out the answers though, you just toss a triangle into the middle basket and must remember your answer until time is up.  Then the team has 30 seconds to say their answers and retrieve a triangle for each one correct.  You can only have one answer per words though.  When you retrieve the triangles for right answers, they get placed on your half of the board and the first to cover all their spaces wins.  This is a great game for a group.  We've played with as many as 10 people, but it also works well for only 4.  With just the two of us, we had to modify it a bit.  We had Tigger on one team against Pooh on the other team and took turns giving clues and guessing for each.  Pooh won, but only by two.

It's really easy to get distracted.  With lots of people playing, it can be kind of fun and makes it more challenging trying to distract the guessing team, although only the person giving clues is allowed to talk.  Everyone else is supposed to be quiet so the team guessing can concentrate.  What usually distracts me is when I'm guessing and the answer isn't right.  That throws me off and I tend to forget my other answers!  Another problem for me was that when playing so many rounds, I was still remembering words from previous rounds!  It's harder than you think!  Sometimes, my brain can only remember 3 or if I say them back really quick without missing, sometimes I can get 4.  Gerard had the most recalled when we played with 6 in one turn.  That's good even for team play!  It's fun, easy to learn and doesn't take much set up.

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Hollywood Squares Is Fun and Easy!

Hollywood Squares was pretty fun.  Although I won $500 to $200, my husband made it competitive.  This was a TV show on a long time ago and is played the same way.  It's like tic-tac-toe, trying to be the first to get three squares in a row any direction.  In this game though, you answer questions before getting a square.  When it is your turn, your opponent answers a question and you simply must either agree or disagree.  If you are correct, you get the square.  If not, your opponent gets the square.  The only exception is that if the square will give you a win, then you have to actually get a question right and not get it by your opponent missing.  When answering, you can purposely answer wrong if you like or sometimes make up an answer that sounds possible to bluff your opponent into agreeing with you.  Or, you can even act uncertain and knowingly give the right answer to try to trick them into disagreeing.

Winning a game gets you $100 and there are some bonus questions that if answered correctly gives you an extra $100.  These questions are pretty easy because most are multiple choice or true or false.  The games go quickly.

I have used this game in my Sunday School classes from time to time as well, with Bible questions and the kids liked it.

Have you seen the show or played this game?

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Razzle Went Quick But Got Bored With Triple Yahtzee

Razzle is a quick-thinking word game where you try to unscramble words of at least 4 letters.  If adults and kids play, the kids can make 3-letter words.  When you say and spell a word before your opponent does, you move the tray of letter cubes one space toward your goal.  If you don't see any word, you can challenge your opponent and flip the 30-second timer.  Then if your opponent doesn't come up with a word, you get to move the tray toward your goal.  When you reach your goal (the end of the tray) you score a point.  You can play to 10 or 5.  There are score things on the edge of the board for convenience.  We played to 5 only because I kept winning every time.  We were done in just 10 minutes so then chose another game to play.

We switched to Triple Yahtzee for an hour and still didn't finish so gave up on this one.  It's just rolling five dice and filling in the score sheet with different combinations.  In triple Yahtzee, you actually play 3 games at once.  The score sheet has three columns--the first is straight, the second doubles the score of the items and the third column triples the score of the items.  You add all three column totals together and the high score wins.  The highest item is a Yahtzee (50 pts.)--when all five dice show the same number.  You have to add a lot in this game--total all dice for 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, chance, and the total of same numbers that are rolled; for example, if you go for 4s and roll 3, you would score 12 points. 

Which game would you like better?  Have you played either one?  I prefer Razzle but my husband didn't like either one.  It's small enough that you could even take it to a restaurant to play while waiting for your food.

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OUTBURSTJunior Is Easy and Fun

OUTBURST Junior is a fun game for us because my husband is pretty good at it so our games are competitive.  This is one we both win sometimes.  It is similar to Family Feud, except easier.  Instead of answering a question, you are given a topic and must shout out things related to that topic.  There are 10 answers listed below the topic and you score one point for each one you say.  Plus, you choose a card with a number on it and if you said that number answer, you score 3 bonus points!  Game is the first to reach 50 points.  It even has a little scoring device to keep track of the points.  You have 30 seconds to give answers.  You can play with teams or just two.  The blue topics are more for adults and the orange topics for kids, but usually we used the kid topics because they were easier.  Have you ever played this?

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Rook Is Fun if You Like Card Games

Rook is a card game with four suits:  black, green, red, yellow and numbers 1-14.  You can play just about any game with these cards that you can with a normal deck.  There are a variety of specific games listed in the table of contents of the rule book though from games for just two to games of as many as 6 players.  My husband and I played the regular Rook game for two and Tennessee for Two (fun card game for two).  Both games involved bidding, naming trump and taking tricks.  The only point cards are 14s and 10s which count 10 points and 5s which count 5 points.  High bidder names trump, but unlike other card games, the non-bidder leads first.  I thought it was fun because I like card games; however, Gerard just played along to make me happy.  He never wanted to bid so it wasn't very challenging.  Obviously, I won all these since I was able to name trump for the opening bid every hand.

This was my first introduction to playing cards as a kid.  Have you ever played with these cards?

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Let's Play Family Feud!

Finally, a game I lost!  Family Feud is a game my husband likes and can win.  He won two out of three from me when we played yesterday, although I scored higher than both his games in the one I won.  The singer and celebrity questions threw me for a loop.  The game works quite well but with only two of us playing, one had to play an entire game first and then the other.  Then whoever scored higher won.  It's very simple to play and works just like the TV show, except we allowed ourselves more time to answer since it was just one on the team having to think of all the answers.   

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Two Fun Games That My Husband Didn't Like--Conflict and Mille Bornes

I thought for sure my husband would like Conflict, a war game by Parker Brothers that I've had a very long time.  It is easy with a combination of luck (rolling the dice) and strategy (choosing which pieces to move when and where).   The object is to either capture all your opponents pieces or to take over their home base as I did with my boat.

The brown squares are land, the blue-green is water.  Planes can go on any square, artillery only on land, boats only on water.  You can go in any direction.  The anti-aircraft gun cannot be taken by a plane.

The pieces in the middle square are your reserve pieces that can be removed and put into action one at a time whenever you roll a 7.  You get to move two pieces each turn, one piece for each die.  Doubles get you another turn, however, if you roll three in a row, you must put a piece in reserve.  I'd say this game only took us about 10-15 minutes so I asked if he wanted to play it again and he said "No, get something else."  I was disappointed he didn't like it because it's one I like very much.  Four can play and you can play partners if you want.

So, next I chose something completely different--a French card game called Mille Bornes.  The object is to be the first to complete a 700-mile (two players) or 1,000-mile (3-4 players) trip.  (This too can be played with partners if you have four players.)  Each player has a "battle pile" that determines if you can play mileage.  To start, you need a green light.  You can then put down mileage cards until your opponent plays any of these hazards on your pile:  flat tire, accident, out of gas, stop or 50 speed limit.  Then you need a remedy card to fix the problem and then a green light before you can play mileage again.  Each player gets 6 cards in their hand.  You get extra points if you can complete the trip without using 200s, for each safety you play (Driving Ace (protects from accidents), Punctureproof (protects from flat tires), extra tank (protects from out of gas) and Right of Way (protects from stop lights, speed limits and no need for green lights).  The game is over when a player reaches 5,000 points.  We only played to 3,000 though because my husband didn't care for this game either.  UGH!

Have you played either of these games?  Which one do you think you would like?

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Scrabble for Juniors--Gerard Almost Won This one!

Finally, a game that was competitive--Scrabble for Juniors.  This is based on Scrabble, but the words are already on the board so all you do is cover them.  The person to complete the word wins a point.  You get to play two letters each turn, either the first letter of a word or the next in a word that is started.  A bit of strategy comes in because you can see the other player's letters.  Mostly though, this is a game of luck which I only won by two points.

The board though is reverseable with the other side a bunch of blank squares.  You make your own words and connect them as in Scrabble, but the scoring is much simpler.  You score one point for each letter in the word.

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Tis So -- Another "Bible" Game

Yesterday, I chose to play Tis So--a game where you put together Proverbs from the Bible.  It includes a list of the ones in the game and color codes them into 5 groups with different point values.  Each proverb is broken into three parts and the object is to put them together.  There are also some bonus point pieces that you can use to add 100 points or double the point value of the proverb you play it on.  You can play until all the pieces have been picked, but that would take quite a long time so we just set a time limit of an hour.  I won.  It isn't a lot of fun, but it is a good way to learn some proverbs!  I think once you learned the Proverbs well enough that you didn't have to look on the list, it would be more fun and go much faster. 

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The Game Called "TRUMP"

Just so you know, we don't only have old games.  Friday night we played one of our newer ones--TRUMP.  It is a real estate game about making deals, bidding for property and just trying to make the most money.  An odd thing about it is that we are dealing with millions of dollars which I am not used to counting.  It was a little hard when it came to totaling everything up at the end!  I won by $510,000,000 with a total sum of $1,250,000,000! 

I think this is only the third time we played it because it's really a game meant for 3-4 players.  With only two of us playing, we modified it a bit by only using about half the Trump cards so it wouldn't take as long.  The game ends when the pile of Trump cards are gone.  Play just continues until no one can play any more Trump cards they hold.  Then you add up all the money you have, including what is hidden in the properties you own.

Have you ever played this one?

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Time For Baseball!

Today was supposed to be the Indians home opener and we had a beautiful day for it!  Unfortunately, it has been postponed due to the Corona virus.  So, tonight we played our Baseball box game that came out in 1959.  It's actually quite fun and as close to actually playing as you can get, for a box game.  Sometimes the simpler games are the most fun!

One person gets to pitch by choosing good and bad pitches, trying to strike out his opponent who either swings or doesn't.  A swing at a good pitch results in a batted ball (not necessarily a hit) and a swing at a bad pitch is a strike.  Not swinging at a good pitch is a strike, not swinging it a bad pitch is a ball.  If the batter hits the ball, they choose either a "Bases Empty" card or a "Base Runners" card.  There are little tokens you can move around the bases.  The cards have baseball situations on them such as "Fly out to left" or "Long double, runners advance 3 bases."  You can even try to steal if you wish, by drawing a "steal" card.  It's actually quite fun if you like baseball.  We played a full nine innings and I won 7-4.

The scoreboard has wheels to turn to show the number of strikes, balls, outs and runs.  The cardboard scoreboard originally had tabs that fit into slots on the game board, but they broke off so my dad attached a wooden stand for it.  There used to be sticks that fit into the circles to move the pitch choice and batter knobs, but those broke too so we just push the knobs.  It works!  Have you ever seen this game?  I sometimes use the cards from it when we have a baseball review game in Sunday School.

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Go To The Head of The Class Needs Updating!

Our game for Tuesday was Go To The Head of the Class.  Players start in Kindergarten and move up 6 desks when they answer correctly.  If you land on a desk with a red ink well, you get an examination question and the opportunity to skip the next grade!  We had two of these games but I combined all the pieces into just one.  One of the question books was copyrighted in 1957, the other in 1960.  Some of the categories need to be updated.  For example, one question was name the 3 presidents who were assassinated and the answer:  Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley but J. F. Kennedy wasn't listed in the answer.

We started with the senior questions, but quickly found they were too hard for us so moved to intermediate.  When we got through all those, we went to the junior ones and then we moved along much better.  It got to the point where we just were ready for the game to end so much that we were giving each other hints (although that is against the rules and should have moved back 3 desks for prompting).  I was way behind most of the game, but caught up once I got to the junior questions and won when my husband missed his last question with a come-from-behind win.  I believe next time we want to play, we should probably take some time to study the questions ahead first.

Here are some sample questions for you to see how you do (answers at end of this post):

Senior questions:
1.  category "Styled for Tomorrow":  What make of car has the "Park Lane" cruiser series?
2.  category "Where Would You Advertise":  Within 5% either way, what would a one color full page in Life cost?

Intermediate questions:
3.  category "Shopping Spree":  Where would you buy a Quid?
4.  category "Do You Watch TV":  What show does a man sitting in a chair looking at the picture of a house on a large screen remind you of?

Junior questions:
5.  category "Signs of the Holidays":  Which is not a symbol of Thanksgiving Day?  pumpkin pie, turkey, onion soup?
6.  category "What's My Name?"  I am a little Chinese boy and have a wonderful magic lamp--what's my name?

1--Mercury
2--$29,500 (1960)
3--Tobacco Store
4--Person to Person
5--Onion soup
6--Aladdin

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Two Games We Gave Up On

In continuing our "quest" to play different games each day, I pulled out Upwards, but soon we discovered it was too hard and not fun.  My husband couldn't even find any words to make in three turns in a row and just kept turning in letters.  My mom was good at this one but me, not so much.  I was having a hard to coming up with words as well so we quit and changed to what I thought would be a much simpler game--Bridge It.  My husband said "This is the worst game yet.  Even Mingh wasn't as bad as this!"

In Bridg-It, a very old game by the way, all you do is try to connect your pieces all the way across the board.  Red goes one way and yellow the
other way.  While you try to get your pieces connected across, you also must try blocking your opponent.  It took only about 15 minutes (or less) for me to win two games.  I thought my husband would like this one, but he didn't.

Have you played either of these?  What did you think of them?

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Battleship and Bible Trivia Challenge

For Saturday night, I was looking for a fast easy game to play so chose Battleship.  Of course, we have the original version.  The white pegs are misses and the red are hits.  My husband only found two of my ships!  It was fun, but hubby didn't like having to push in those pegs.  This game involves some luck with a bit of strategy.

Then for Sunday, I thought it would be appropriate to play Bible Trivia Challenge.  We used the children's questions because they are easier and had some fun with that.  We could sit in comfortable chairs for both these games instead of sitting at the table to play.  The object is to be the first to move your piece up the rainbow three times by answering questions from the seven categories in order and one from the category of your choice.  Then to win, you put your piece on the dove in the center and must answer a question correctly from the category chosen by your opponent.  The categories are:  Old Testament, History & Geography, Prophets & Prophecy, Names, Letters-Numbers-sequence, New Testament and Wisdom (usually a verse with a blank to fill in the missing word).  One of the questions I missed was "Who was the mother of Ishmael?"  I said Sarah, but the right answer was her hand maid, Hagar.  I knew it as soon as I saw the answer!  I should have got it right.

Which of these games would you most like to play?  Have you played either of them?

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"What We Do All Day During Stay at Home Time" (Writer's Workshop)

First off, I am not bored.  I am very thankful that I can watch videos of Silver Sneakers and Planet Fitness workouts to keep my exercise going, plus now that all the places I usually went are closed, I get five walks in a day with my husband and dog, two of which take around an hour each.  I am also thankful that on Facebook, I can watch a livestream of our Pastor's messages.  Tonight he is talking about the last days at 7:00 on the Parma Heights Baptist Church page as well as his own page.  Although Sunday services are canceled, at least I can watch our service on video at 11:00 on Sundays which is better than nothing.  I really miss teaching my Sunday School class and meeting in person, but understand the reason for this separation.

My husband has also agreed to play a game with me every day.   Since Friday, we've played all these:  Sequence (get 2 sets of 5 pics covered in a row that match your cards), Sorry! (like Parchesi with cards to add some strategy), Aggravation (marbles are used to go around the board like Parchesi but with shortcuts), Mhing (card game based on Mah Jong), Checkers and Stadium Checkers (move rows to get your marbles to drop towards your hole and get yours in first).  Although I usually win, he is a good sport about it.  We have lots of games so are trying to play a different one every day.  Do you like any of these?  Have you ever played any of these?  I will be posting more game posts in the coming days.

I used to go to the Parma Sr. Center to play Pinochle twice a week.  I miss the people, but found I can play online by just googling pinochle.  I also play Gin and Cribbage (through Facebook) and some Word Wipe, Word Search, Scrabble and Free Cell solitaire on the AARP website.

I have plenty of books I can read as well so am getting some reading in each day too.   Of course, I still enjoy certain TV shows that I tape so I can watch them any time:  Biggest Loser, The Rookie, Survivor--Winners at War, All Rise, Bull, For Life, My Wife and Kids, When Calls the Heart and All-American plus of course the news and movies.

What about you?  What are you doing to occupy your days? 

Stop by Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop for more post options and to link up yours.

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My First Fantasy Football Draft - Disappointing

Let's Go, Parma Pandas!

I was so pumped and excited about draft day!  I had made up my strategy for auto picks based on my 9th round pick in a 14-team league and had set my grade A strategy.  Then, an hour before the draft started, I found out I had pick 11, not 9.  They were set randomly, not by team no. so that really threw me for a loop.  I did not have time to figure out a new grade A strategy, so decided to just wing it and pick as I went trying to get the top players available in the rounds.

Unfortunately, I was also switching browsers back and forth for my husband to pick his team as well and he had the 9th pick, which made it difficult since there was only 1 pick between us!  At one point, I think I must have got confused and was on the wrong browser because the options all showed as "queue" instead of "draft" but I didn't realize it.  I got bit flustered to say the least.  It was stressful, especially when my husband was putting in specific names and they'd already been drafted.

At one point, my husband was trying for Greg Little but it didn't say "drafted" but nor did it say "draft."  I think it said queue and then I was able to get that guy.  I don't know, maybe I was in the wrong browser then too?

Anyhow, at the end I was extremely disappointed because I had several injured RB and a bunch of dud players.  My best ranked RB, M. Gordon, is questionable and probably going to miss the first 4-6 weeks!  The good news is, the next morning I went on and made some did drop/adds and was able to make a good trade with my husband that made us both happy.  I think I'll be able to salvage it.  I think it will be fun even though I still have some question as to how the defense is going to work.


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