Green Valley Book Fair

In what has become one of my favorite things to do down here, my wife, daughter, and I went to the Green Valley Book Fair, a discount book outlet that has a huge selection of books for cheap. It's only the third time I've gone, but I love it. My goal each time out is usually the same: find one spiritual/religious book I can read during Adoration, and one book to read for fun. This time around, I picked up Pop Goes Religion, a look at spirituality in pop culture, and Spaulding's World Tour, an attempt to spread baseball throughout the world in the late 1800's. For this particular trip, we spent about $30 on 10 books, mostly children's books for Victoria. We also spent another $15 on a stuffed bear and raffle tickets to support the American Cancer Society, which had a table out side the entrance. It was a good trip, and I'm very thankful we had a chance to go again, especially since the place was air conditioned.

Augusta County Fair

Just got back from a evening at the county fair. It was alright, just like every other small county fair I've been too. The outing was actually a part of Meredith's job. The place she works for took some of the teens out for the opening night of the festivities. Everyone got to bring a friend, and I was Meredith's.

The evening started with my wife and I driving in a van with 5 teenage girls. I couldn't help but feel I was getting a glimpse of my life 13+ years from now, when I'll be driving around teen Victoria and her circle of friends. Let me tell you, I do not miss all that high school drama! The girls were well behaved at least.

It was my first trip to this particular county fair, and I was generally unimpressed. It was maybe half the size of my hometown's county fair, and I was never impressed with that one either, to put it in perspective. They had a few rides which were your run-of-the-mill stuff - you spin, you twist, you drop from a safe height, etc. (Although I was rather impressed with this one young lady who was on a ride called the Tornado who proceeded to text on her phone while spinning around at dizzying speeds.)

The food was rather disappointing. The funnel cake, a favorite of mine, seemed bland, and the lemonade was little more than sugar water with half a lemon in it. It's fair food, so you shouldn't expect high quality, but when you shell out $14 for two cups of lemonade (with refills), I prefer not to suck down pulp and seeds.

The highlight for me was the fireworks display, which was pretty good considering everything else. Then again, when it comes to fireworks, I'm easy to please.

If nothing else, it was a nice distraction from the ordinary weekday night. And although it was way to expensive, my wife was on the clock, so we pretty much broke even.

Jazz In The Park

One of the great things about Staunton is that there is usually something going on. On Thursdays during the summer, they have free jazz concerts in the park near where I live. Meredith and I had been planning on going for some time now, but something has always come up to change our plans. This week we finally got to go. We met up with one of Meredith's friends and her family and enjoyed a cool night of music by the Jennifer Kirkland/Bert Carlson Quartet. Surprisingly, Victoria was quiet and well behaved. She sat on my lap most of the evening and just took in the music and all that surrounded her. It was a fun night, and hopefully we'll be able to go again before the summer ends.

Games People Play

So I was catching up on my blog reading today...

One friend of mine, Chuck, recently made the paper in recognition of a gaming club he started.

Another friend, Olivia, is a avid Scrabble player and recently participated in her first official tournament.

It got me thinking about how games, particularly non-computer games, have had a significant role in my life and how they've consistently strengthened the friendships I have in life. Games have even played a significant role in my marriage. When my wife and I were doing the long distance relationship thing, we would spend almost every night chatting online. To help pass the time, we'd play checkers through Yahoo Games. It became one of "our things", so much so that I used a custom made checker board to propose.

In college, many nights were spent playing Dungeons and Dragons. After college, my best friend Paul got me into Legend of the Five Rings. And sprinkled throughout were games of Scrabble, Clue, Chess, Settlers of Catan, and Cosmic Encounter, among others. Each game was fun, and provided nights filled with laughter and pure, unhindered fun.

Computer games are fun, don't get me wrong. I still play Snood regularly, and count my Atari 2600 among my prized possessions, but I never really got into it at the level others like my brother have. Truth is, and I may get my geek membership revoked for this, I really don't care for the major online games out there, especially first-person shooter type games. They really don't compare with board and card games.

I really need to start playing more. Perhaps I'll look to see if there's a group in the area, or maybe I'll take a cue from Chuck and start my own. Time's precious, especially when you have a baby, but it'd be worth it making time for this.

I hope that as Victoria gets older, I'll be able to pass along my love of games to her. Cheesy as it sounds, I can visualize future family game nights and giving her a game every Christmas. Maybe she'll like them, maybe she'll outgrow them, but she gets half as much out of them as I do, it'll be worth it.

Allow me to end by giving a short list of my favorite games. try them if you haven't already. My favorites, in no particular order:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkers: a classic game with simple rules, this is one my wife and I bonded over.

Pentago: A variation on the classic Tic-Tac-Toe, this game involves a good deal of strategy. I picked this game up last year and have enjoyed it immensely.

Legend of the Five Rings: My all time favorite collectible card game, L5R is the 2nd longest running CCG behind Magic. Steeped in samurai lore and fantasy, it was unique in that it told an ongoing story, with the story developed directly by the players. How many games have their own story team?

Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island: Another card game, this game is just flat out silly and fun.

Settlers of Catan: A game my friend Chuck got me into online, it's another game of strategy.

Munchkin: For those of you who love D&D but don't have 6 hours, this is a great compromise.

There are of course many others, but to list them all would be too much. Happy gaming!