Ramblings of a Game Playing Mom

I feel so blessed that our adult son and his family like to hang out at our house Sundays after church! We enjoy a big family meal and play games - usually phase10 or monopoly.

Now our daughter is back from Florida but hoping to move there permanently before long, and our son is being transfered by HP to Houston, where our oldest daughter and her 2 children live. I know we have to make the most of the time that we have with them because once they are gone, the chance of getting the whole family together will get even slimmer than it has been with just one living in a different state. Not only that, but our third daughter is going to be Junior this year and isn't even looking at any local colleges. And our second son is starting high school this year. We've got a way to go before we are empty nesters, since our third and youngest son is just starting 1st grade this year - but I am already feeling the saddness of family being too far away to visit regularly.

So, while most are still here, we have to make the most of game night. Oh, and the oldest and her two little (or not so little, anymore) ones are visiting for a week at the end of the month while hubby/daddy is being a camp councelor. I will miss seeing the son-in-law, since we only get to see them once every 2-3 years or longer, but am very excited to visit with the rest of the family.

With summer here, I would love to find games we can enjoy on the deck, especially on evenings that there is a breeze blowing. So, when "An Island Life" blog mentioned this great game that uses magnetic hematite as the playing pieces, Jishaku, I knew I needed to get it. Hope it doesn't take too long to get here ;).

Check out her review of the game on her blog An Island Life and you will have a chance to win one of your own.

Want to know more about the game? Visit the Jishaku site.

Happy playing, whatever you choose to play!!

Ramblings of a Rocker

I love most kinds of music and will happily go to just about any live concert (though I do draw the line at heavy metal and hard core rap), but I'm definitely a rocker at heart. So when a friend mentioned that Journey was coming to Fiddlers Green in Denver with Heart and Cheap Trick opening - I was SO in!

Just one thing we were curious about, being children on the 80's - with Steve Perry not singing for Journey anymore, who was? Then I saw an interview with Journey on Good Morning America - they said that they were watching videos on youtube of band covering their songs and discovered Arnel Pineda from the Philippines - and when they played clips of him singing, I was completely amazed! All you have to do is close your eyes - he sounds so much like Steve Perry! I bought their latest album "Revelation" - a two disc album with a bonus DVD. Disc one was all new songs (I noticed that more than half the audience just sat down when they played the new songs because they were unfamiliar) and disc 2 was a 'greatest hits' of sorts, but re-recorded with Arnel on vocals. The DVD is a concert, which I still haven't watched.

Anyway, the concert was last Wednesday, the first stop on their American tour. Heart sounds as amazing as they always have. Journey was equally amazing - though it would be good if the lead singer would remember what band he is singing for, LOL! (He stumbled a bit over "Journey") Cheap Trick has only ever had a couple of songs that I liked, but they banged those out as good as ever. I am always amazed at the range of people who attend concerts. I saw children as young as 4 (which, IMHO, is ridiculous - way too young for a concert, I am hesitant to take my 15 year old son and 16 year old daughter to concerts) and rockers in their 60's!

I was hoping this video that someone posted to youtube would work, but I can't get it to embed, so here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LICMjJAeFw