Ever Play Spots?

Last night I met up with four other game lovers at Panera Bread to play some games.  I play three different new games I never heard of.  My favorite was Spots.  It's a doggie game where you try to match numbers on the dog cards to numbers you roll on dice.  The winner is the first to complete six dog cards.  Each player also gets a backyard where you have to bury dice you can't play.  If you get a total of more than 7, you go bust and have to start over.  You can also acquire bones which are good for being able to reroll if you get a number you can't use and don't want to bury.  There are cards to choose from on your turn that give different options as to how many dice to roll or how to get more bones or dog cards.  It was easy to learn and fun to play.  I was so close to winning the first game but took a chance that got me stuck and didn't pay off.  The second game I played with a different strategy and won in one long last turn just before we had to quit!

Quiddler--A New Game To Me

Image from Amazon

When I went to ladies game night at church Friday night, I had lots of fun.  We had salty and sweet snacks to eat while we played.  There were plenty of games from which to choose and people could play any one they wanted.  I played a new one to me called Quiddler.  It's a word game using cards which have one or two letters on them with a point value.  The idea is to use all your cards to make words.  A 10-point bonus is given for the longest word (most cards) and the most words in each round.  It starts with each person getting three cards.  You pick up a card and discard each turn.  You hold all the cards in your hand until you can play them all.  When one person goes out, the others get one more turn to play whatever they can manage.  Points are awarded based on the point value of the letters used and letters that cannot be used are deducted.  Each round, one more card is dealt up to ten.  After playing with ten cards, the game is over.  High score wins.  Rounds go fast.  It's a game for ages 8 and up.     

Ga Ga Ball is a Hit!

Source:  Google Images

I was so happy the weather was warm enough for us to play outside for the first Pioneer Girls gym night yesterday at Parma Heights Baptist Church.  This year, all the girls grades 1-6 will have gym time together and for 45 minutes instead of half an hour.  Last night, we had 23 girls.  We played Ga Ga Ball first with everyone.  It was a new game for some, including myself.  I looked it up on YouTube to see how to play it and the video explained and demonstrated it quite well.  (https://youtu.be/-nfPUsPDCNA?si=suBpxTpTS0inzy_U)   Once we played one game, I gave the girls the option to go play on the playground.  Ten chose to do that instead which speeded up the games some.  I like to give them choices if possible.  Everyone seemed happy with that and had fun! We played four games and then had the winners of each play in a championship game.  The winner of the night was Jojo, I believe a 5th grader.  She was very fast and aggressive.  Now I have to think of something fun inside for next month!

Cornhole--Not My Game!

Although I am not good at Cornhole, I went ahead and signed up with Lucille in the Cornhole tournament at the church picnic Saturday because she wanted to play and needed a partner.  At least it was something to do.  I sort of knew her from the Sr. Center so knew she wasn't very good either.  I was doing pretty good when we were practicing before the tournament started; but then I couldn't seem to even keep any on the board!  Neither of us could even get one in the hole.  I figured we wouldn't win, but didn't think we would get shut out 21-0 which is exactly what happened.  We were the first team eliminated.  Our game went very quickly!  The food was delicious and I would have played volleyball but not enough wanted to play.

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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Improved Version of Monopoly

Ever hear of Animalopoly?  We bought it from a gift shop at the Cleveland Zoo years ago.  It's just like Monopoly except instead of buying properties, you but animals and instead of paying rent when you land on someone else's animal, you pay a meal fee.  Instead of building houses and hotels, you build habitats for your animals.  Instead of going to jail, you go hide from a predator.  This is the game we played this weekend.  I forgot how much I enjoy it!  Even when I have to pay, it doesn't seem as bad because you're paying to feed the animals.  Now that we have this, I doubt if we'll play Monopoly anymore.  I won fairly quickly.  My husband kept landing on my Gorilla which is the equivalent of New York in the regular Monopoly game.  I actually believe this is the game that helped me learn how to manage money.

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Around The World

When I saw this world geography toy in a catalog, I thought it would be a fun way to learn more about the other countries so mentioned to my husband that I'd like it.  It runs on batteries and you just touch the country that you want to learn about.  Then there are buttons across the bottom for various things to learn such as the capital, continent, area, population, government, language, temperature, landmarks, general facts.  The last button is for questions so you can quiz yourself.  I play with this at breakfast and try to see how many questions I can answer right in a row.  It's harder than you may think!  The highest I got to so far is 13 setting a new record on Sunday.

Here is a video of me playing the game.  You can play along and see if you can beat me on the quiz.


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A Brain Exercise Idea--Cat Approved!

In flipping through Keep Your Brain Alive by Lawrence C. Katz, Ph.D and Manning Rubin, it mentioned that one office they knew of had a chessboard near the water cooler.  Any employee could come to the board, assess the situation, and make a move.  It was an ongoing game, with no known players, and no winners or losers.  The idea is to use visual-spatial thinking.  It provides a break from verbal, left-brain activities.  (pg. 83)

I decided to try this at home.  I just had to find a good place for the chessboard and chose to put it upstairs in the cat room.  I'll spin the board around after each move so we know whose turn it is.  Hopefully my husband will join me in this too.  Spunky Doodle of course was eager to walk on the board, but I stopped that.  Then she wanted to play right away, moving the black pawn.  I wonder if any pieces will be left standing when I return.

Linking up with the Cats on Tuesday blog hop.

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Friday Fragments (games, celebrities, kindness, Books)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

New Game

Last Friday the ladies at church had a game night and I played a game I never heard of before: Mexican Train Dominoes. It isn't hard but was fun because we had six people playing. I liked that the winner got to hit the button on the gadget to sound the train whistle. It was loud! (I would have taken a picture but didn't bring my camera with me.)

Tom Brady

Gerard's favorite QB--Tom Brady

I was surprised to learn that Tom Brady, the Patriots' Quarterback, makes less money than his wife does who is a model. (He makes a LOT of money!) It's nice to see a pro athlete who isn't all about money and greedy for more. In fact, when offered a bigger salary, he told the Patriots organization he had enough. Interesting.

Kindness

Who buys girl scout cookies just to give them away? An attorney at work stopped by my desk before work and gave me two boxes of girl scout cookies--thin mints and tag-a-longs! He also gave some to the secretary next to me just because he's a nice guy. I'm glad I ordered less this year! I kept the thin mints at work and gave the tag-alongs to my husband. It was a nice surprise!

February Favorites

Gerard's favorite read for February was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes about caring for a paraplegic and Karen's was In Need of A Good Wife by Kelly O'Connor McNees about Mail-order brides.

Book Giveaway

We are giving away Mighty Inspiration--Love Letters From God by blogger, Barbara Bernard Miller of "Mighty Inspiration" over at our other blog to the first U.S. commenter who says they would like to have it.Click the title link to see our review at Grab A Book From Our Stack and leave a comment if you'd like it.  (UPDATED:  Congrats to Rebecca Jo from Knit By His Hand who was the first to comment.  Will mail this book to her on Monday.)

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8 Things We Learned This Week

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

Sisters

Dear Abby just died at age 94 and I heard for the first time that Ann Landers is her twin sister. When we used to get the paper, Dear Abby was one of my favorite columns. Did you know that?

Read it Twice!

Last Saturday when visiting at Legacy Place, I was thrilled to hear that the one lady read and liked My Funny Dad, Harry so much, that she read it twice! You made my day, Ginny!

SHAKA Sign

Do you know what a SHAKA sign is and what it means? I didn't until I read SHAKA, Hand Gesture I Golden Approve over at Sugar's blog. Sugar is a Golden Retriever who lives in Hawaii and is a blogging buddy of ours. It means to hang loose.

New Game

I love games and over at Comedy Plus this week, Sandy shared how to play "Quarters" which is a new game to me. I printed out the directions. All you need to play is dice and some coins--(wouldn't have to be quarters), could even use candy!

Embed Tweets

Attn cats!Sparkle is having a giveaway of Nekoflies (toys) Stop by if you live in US:tinyurl.com/a3k9bff #cats
— Karen Zemek (@kzemek) January 17, 2013

I just learned this week how to embed a tweet when entering Sparkle's contest: click on time of tweet, mouse over your tweet and it brings up an URL for just that tweet with an option to embed it or even email it. 

Passwords

Out of my 50 passwords, only 12 are very strong. I plan to do a post about this soon.

Work

My hubby learned to use a new bagging machine at work. He says it makes the task easier so that's good! I learn new things at work all the time too. It seems there is always something new to learn.

Snowmobile Accident

I always thought it would be great fun to snowmobile until I read about Tom Hedin's terrible snowmobile accident over at It's Just Life, "Reconfiguring? You Betcha!". He and his family could really use our prayers and even some financial support. He has a beautiful family but suffered serious injuries including a brain hemorrhage and many broken bones. He's only been at his new job for six months so does not qualify for FMLA. Please follow the link to learn more and see the family picture.

A Surprise

When I went to link up this post, I saw this Amazon ad for my book come up at the bottom of the screen:

(I wanted to just show the ad but didn't know how to get it so printed the whole screen into paint.)



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