hey mr. tambourine man…

If there is darkness in your heart, buy a tambourine and make yourself a promise that you will sing unto God, and you will.

— Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis

Game night at the Taco house part 2

Turns out that Dragon’s Lair here in Austin has a great many of the games suggested by Stephen Baldwin (as described earlier). We were greatly and pleasently surprised to see the famed Setlers of Catan there, in addition to the many variants on it.

However, and this saddened us greatly, a minimum of three players are required. And the same went for the also highly touted Niagara. So very sad. Sometimes we can only round up a few tacos for games. So we asked a very helpful person there, (was his name Mike?), and he showed us — after lamenting that there is a great scarcity of 2-player games — a few that were good.

Lunch Money looked like fun — “A beer and pretzels sort of game”, said our guide — but 20 bucks for a throw-away card game seemed a bit much for us. The Lord of the Rings game looked interesting — “a collaborative game where the players work together against the game” — but we ultimately passed on it. And finally, we landed on Carcassonne (the original). Lots of fun, easy to learn, and takes about a half-hour to play.

The deal is you lay down tiles strategically and make a land-grab, all the while competing with your opponent(s) to make cities, roads, and cloisters. We appear to be King of the Clositers (picking up 4-5 of the 6 cloister tiles a game), thus creating Taco University on a regular basis. The Tacos played 4 games of it last night, and it was fun and different at every turn.

Btw, we asked Mike for his ultimate game recommendation (which, alas, was a minimum three player game, we think), and it is Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Game Night at the Taco House

We Tacos love games. Though, admittedly, we have tended to stick to a few favorties aver the years: Scrabble, Monopoly, Trival Pursuit, and Cranium (when we can get enough willing people about).

But the holidays are upon us, and that means family, so we went searching around for new and fun games. First, we got Matthew Baldwin’s 2005 list of Good Gift Games off The Morning News. And then we found Baldwin’s supplemental list of Good Gift Games at his website. We think his “all time Goog Gift Game (G3), The Settlers of Catan sounds intriguing.

But we also asked our friends, and they gave us an eyeful:

funkaliciouslj: Trivial Pursuit, Taboo, Dominoes, Uno, Pictionary, Chutes and Ladders

twosnoos: SET [which we love] and Wise or Otherwise

doctortina: confirmed SET, Clue, UNO, Pit, Balderdash, Taboo (Celebrity Edition), and Boggle

vintagehandbag: Map Tangle and Fact or Crap

just_jeff: Boggle!

stefan11: Chess

mojodragonfly: Risk

wretchmuffin: Stratego

noromdiam: Shift Tac Toe

kangaroosequins: Apples to Apples

Taboo, SET, Boggle, and Apples to Apples were recommended twice (A to A was on Baldwin’s list).

FreeTacoHere is dead. Long live Free Taco!

I began a blog on March 22, 2001. It ran for 4 and a half years, through happy beginings, near endings, real endings, 5 jobs, 3 moves, 2 wars, a massive identity change (for me), the “blogging revolution”, a lot of learning, a firing, and the single largest attack on American soil. It was there when I needed it, listened to my secrets, found me lost friends, and told my troubles.

There was a lot about it that I didn’t like, of course. But one thing that kept me going was that it was free and it was available. Always. But now it’s coming to an end.

I found the other day a message, saying that the service I hosted with will be ending as of December 31, 2005. So I’m moving on to greener pastures. Here. Here is where the Barbaloots have plotted down their parcels and Barbaloot suits for a rest. New service, more streamlined name. The Taco shall survive.