Saturday, May 10, 2008

5/10/08 Asparagus Anyone?

I have no photos of this silliness, but tonight was our fourth Games Night. Allison started it back in February, Mike and Karen picked up March, MRM and I hosted April, and Clyde and Michelle hosted tonight. We've had 8-12 people and played different games each time. We tend to re-write the rules of whatever game we're playing to turn each one into a non-competitive, cooperative event where the focus is on the fun and the conversation that ensues. Tonight was no different. Clyde and Michelle just moved to a new rental house in Wilton that is an older home with a connected barn. They gave us a tour and we just kept going and going and going. Attics connecting to different rooms, a barn that has all kinds of attachments, a silo, . . . it was very fun!

At last night's new-faculty party (Clyde and Michelle were part of the "not-new" group that was included), we were talking about their new place. Michelle mentioned how much "stuff" there is in the house left by the previous owners and they can rearrange but not really change anything. In the front room is a hideous wallpaper border that she can't stand that's got bunches of asparagus on it. I kidded (but not really) that we could use post-it notes and create little costumes for her asparagus and at least cover it up since she couldn't take it down. She just laughed.

So somehow she was surprised when I showed up with a basket filled with all different colors and sizes of post-it notes and a bunch of scissors and markers. My favorite part of the evening was that everyone contributed at least one asparagus decoration!

We also ate a lot (a requirement of the appetizer and dessert potluck crowd), drank a little, and played games. Tonight it was Taboo and Guesstures. Guesstures is pretty universal but considering that we have 2 people from South Africa and one from Portugal, you have to be careful about games that rely on ones command of the English language or knowledge of American idioms and culture. Fortunately, all 3 of them have a great sense of humor and are pretty clever. Often, they end up doing better at this than those of us from the US!

I'm already looking forward to the next Games Night!

5/10/08 Big Mouth Burritos

I had lunch today at a new restaurant with a new friend. The new restaurant is Big Mouth Burritos. It wasn't very Tex-Mex but it was VERY delicious. I had a beef burrito with rice, black beans, and tomatoes but it also had Adobo Cream Sauce which was spicy and delicious. I also had homemade lemonade that had other things besides lemon in it. Mmmmm it was delicious and refreshing.

Over lunch I learned a way cool fact: Rangeley (which is just 40 miles north and I've been to several times and have written about . . . Smalls Falls is on the way to Rangeley) is exactly halfway between the north pole and the equator!