Many people that have visited our house have been able to enjoy a relaxing game of Settlers of Catan, or two, or three, or more… For those of you that do not know about this game, it is a great turn based board game about building and exploration. Basically you collect resources, those resources are used to build roads and other settlements. You gain points by building settlements, cities, and a few other ways. You win by being the first to reach 10 points. There is a great Wikipedia article about the game here.

So why am I writing about it today, because I have heard that there is going to be a new Xbox360 game based on this game. Well I did not just hear, but I heard an update that it should be released in March or April. The game is going to be a Xbox360 Arcade game, this just means that it will be a little cheaper and you download it instead of buying it at the store. There are two great places to find out information about this new game, first is the official games website here, and there is also a Wikipedia article on it here.

We can not wait till it comes out…

How do we play??

So there are a few ways to play the game. First is the one that comes with the box, where all the tiles are placed in specific places and the numbers are placed on specific tiles and all the cities are placed. The goal behind this setup is that everyone has a fairly equal playing field. this is great for the first few times playing while you are learning about the game, but then it gets a little old. So the way that we play the game is that we start with all the tiles faced down. We go around the group each placing one settlement, then back around the opposite way to place the second settlement. After all the settlements are placed, we go around again turning over the tiles under a given settlement, then back around turning over the tiles under the second settlement. If a settlement is on all water, then the owner can move the settlement. At the same time, numbers get drawn randomly for all the lands, and ports rolled for on the water. All the other tiles remain face down, and can only be turned over when either a road is built along an edge or a boat is moved along an edge.

All in all, this is a fun game that changes every time that we play. If you have not heard of it, you should get it and get some friends together to play it. You need a minimum of 3 people to play, and if you want more than 4, you need to make sure to have the expansion pack. Just be prepared for the consequences, it is a very addictive game that is a lot of fun to play for all ages. Everyone in the family has won, even Katie.

-Matt

PS. I just came across a program for playing Catan, there is a local version and also a network version. Very interesting. I have played it a little bit, but there is no AI, so playing without anyone else is not too interesting. Check it out here.

The whole family got together to celebrate Mom & Dad’s Birthdays this weekend; we all had a great time. Mom got a kitten! Kayla found my old stash of Care Bears and had fun “mopping” the table with, well - just look at the picture Kayla also enjoyed giving the kitty hugs, and I think Craig wants a cat now too! Dad got this great bird house from Craig and Nicole, it just makes you want to laugh. Matt and I got a belated x-mas present from Craig and Nicole, a DIY home repair book, to help us do things around our house, can’t wait to get started.

For more pictures, go to the Gallery

Matt and I attended a party hosted by one of my co-workers titled “The Anti-Valentine’s Day Party”. Now one would imagine this means you can’t stand Valentine’s day and are simply creating a support group for single people during this sappy holiday. But no, as the hostess so wonderfully proclaims, this is not against love or romance, it is simply to make fun of the commercialized “day of love” and pretty much destroy decorations and the things that most of us grew up knowing as Valentines propaganda.

This was the 7th annual party, the first Matt & I attended… Activities included breaking heart cookies with hammers, popping red & pink balloons with sharp objects and fire, crushing the candy hearts with a mortar and pestle, burning kid’s Valentine cards, cutting them and creating “Frankensteins”, melting and mushing heart shaped candles, and of course… can’t forget the mutilation of Cupid, the Pinata!!!

More pictures here

So this year for Valentines day, we got a nice Ice storm that came through our area. The picture on the left is what our backyard looks like through an icicle. Basically we had a little bit of snow and then a lot of ice on that. This lead to an entire day without power, but on the positive side, Cindy and I were able to spend the day together in front of a nice warm fire. Take a look at some of the other images that we took of the ice by clicking on the image on the left. This is also more in our effort to start posting more images and more text more often, so you will have reasons to come back and see what has changed recently.

I am sure that you would love to know what I got Cindy or what Cindy got me, but that is for us to know, and no one to find out

-Matt

This weekend we drove down to DC to visit with one of my friends from 5th-10th grades, Katie. She has been serving in the Peace Corps since just before our wedding. She has been living and working in Moldova, which is a former Russian republic. She is back in the US for a month and a half, at the end of which she will be returning to Moldova to finish her two year stretch.

So this weekend we went down to stay with her at her hotel in Arlington, VA. Since it was really close to DC, we decided to go touring about the city both days. On Saturday we went to the World War II memorial, the FDR memorial, the Jefferson memorial, and several other places nearby. That was a lot of fun since most of us had never really visited the memorials or remembered them much. After walking around town and stopping for a nice warm cup of coffee, we went back to the hotel to relax for a little bit. After Katie’s boyfriend Nate called, we left for his parents house in Alexandria. Unfortunately Matt missed a turn that we needed to make and since Katie only know where Nate’s Parent’s house by going one way, we had to loop back around to the hotel. Which was easier said than done, first we ended up having to go into DC and then finding a place to turn around and get back out. After getting back out, we had trouble getting back towards the hotel because there was a car accident in the way. Probably 10~20 minutes later than planed, we got to the house. From there we walked to seafood restaurant in downtown Alexandria. We had a great food and great conversation with Katie, Nate, and some of his friends.

On Sunday, we drove around DC a little bit and stopped for lunch at the Eastern Market, which is a few blocks from the Capitol building. After that, we drove over to Mount Vernon and took a walking tour of the house and grounds. We all learned a lot about George Washington that we did not know. One of the big surprises was how well made the museum was done, having been finished in 2006. It was informative and yet still very interesting, not as boring as most history museums! After a long weekend of walking around, we went back to the hotel to gather our things and head on home.

Overall, the weekend was a lot of fun. It was great to see Katie again… it’s been about 3-4 years since we last saw each other at Busch Gardens. Thanks to the internet, we have been able to keep in touch and talk about what is going on, but it still is not the same as having a little face time. Can’t wait to get together with her again when she is back in the US after her time with the Peace Corps and into Grad school!!!