Twinings Assam, babbling about board games and a bit of sewing.
Assam (Twinings)
3 min @ 212°
The first thing I notice is how dark this is- it's a really strong tea! I can completely understand why this is the 'wake-up' tea of choice for many people. In spite of it being so strong, it is not overbearing or harsh and I quite like it... although perhaps not every day.
Ok, there, you've had not one but two tea reviews from me today. Now let's talk about something else.
Mom has decided that assisted living is a jail and she's coming home. I haven't bothered to argue with her... but when she does, here we go again. I am going to make sure that she has one of those devices that calls help for you if you fall and I am going to stop staying with her in the emergency room all day (or all night as the case may be). I can't bring my life and everyone else's to a screeching halt every other week- it's ridiculous to expect me to. That sounds a bit harsh... but there is nothing actually wrong with her outside of her poor life choices and a desire to be the centre of attention.
So, about the boxes in the back ground of the Assam picture, I found a new (to me) Sherlock game on ebay- for $10 plus shipping. What's really awesome is that, even though the auction made no mention of it, the first expansion was included in the box. Now, the game itself has been reprinted... but not the 4 expansions. I'll keep looking for the other three a reasonable price... the least I have seen was around $50 USD. (I have seen them for $70-$400 and amazon.de has the second expansion for $1500. I am so not paying that!) I want them... but I want them to play, not to collect. What's really nice and unusual is that the game can be played in solitare mode- I don't have to convince anyone else to play with me.
I am still working on changing over 221B Baker Street into a form I like. I've finished the first 100 cases- now I have the travel edition cases and all the Hanson expansions to go. So I'm about 1/3 finished with the data entry part. Once I have that done, printing it and binding it... and making a custom box... will be pie.
We finally played the Doctor Who Clue game- I liked it but not as well as I liked the Firefly edition. There were a lot of mechanisms that seemed reasonable in Firefly but a it strained in Doctor Who. For instance, if you draw the 8th Reever card, you're out of the game. Ok, I get that- you can't escape their notice forever. In Doctor Who, it's a pocket watch... 8 pocket watches and you're out of the game. Seriously? Not 8 Daleks or 8 Cybermen or 8 Angels (or a combination) but POCKET WATCHES! The Silence would have been better. We'll keep it, for now, but I don't expect us to play it as often as we play the other variations.
Contnuing in the game theme, I've found one new and several old games I'd like to have and play. The new game is Rococo/Rokoko where you are trying to be the most prestidious tailor/dressmaker at the ball. It looks to be similar to Splendor in game play... and I love Splendor. The old ones are Which Witch/Ghost Castle, Voice of the Mummy, Cat's Mansion and Lost in Space 3D. I had the first two when I was small but I never even heard of a Lost in Space game. It looks very cool and has a three level board but I may never get one as the game play does not look all that interesting and it commands a huge price, being quite rare. The other three are pretty juvenile... but I'd like them anyway.
The only other thing on my games wishlist is a person or people to play them with... and some time to play, of course.
When I'm not obsessing about board games, I've been working on the border of the Very Irish Chain quilt and I have three sides attached. I was going to work on it last night but Dorothy decided to claim it and I couldn't work on it while the cat was pulling and wallowing around on it. (Ok, I could have tried... but that's a really fast way to stick a needle in your finger or sew a crooked seam.) I want to get the top finished up so I can get back to working on my fancy tea cosy and working out a couple of tablecloths I have in mind. They're a departure from my normal needlework of quilting but I think they will go faster... and there are only about three I want to make (and two more if I can't find them) so it's a finite set of projects... unlike quilting, bookbinding or reading where my projects just keep expanding.