Valentine's Day Weekend

Happy Valentine's Day, internet! I personally have had a fantastic Valentine's weekend. Let me tell it to you:

Saturday: It was my last day of work! It was actually fine, since it was busy and I was a little nostalgic and everything was in perspective. I didn't change my mind or anything; I definitely think quitting was the best thing for me, and as Jeff said, my soul is now slowly repairing itself. I am hoping to get a dog walking job now. Anyway, after work I sped home, had a snack, then went to Hinckley Pottery for a Try It! Class (Jeff's birthday present to me). We got there and were given a tour of the studio. There were about 10 people in the class. After that we were shown the basics of centering your clay, then we got to do it! This was wheel pottery by the way. So we hunched over our wheels and started pushing the clay up and down. It is pretty difficult to move the clay; it takes more force than it looks like. After doing that for a while, we were shown the basic steps of throwing a pot, and then it was time to throw our own. Really, there's isn't much actual throwing involved... it was not quite like I imagined. My first pot had too shallow of a bottom and it fell off. I made a second pot and overcompensated, so it had quite a thick bottom. It looked like an okay dog bowl! Sadly we forgot a camera so I can't show you my efforts. Anyway, the class was incredibly fun, and I see that throwing pots on the wheel is difficult, but not as impossible as I imagined. I mean, I was able to make a little bowl that didn't look awful! I would love to take a full class but alas, it's out of my price range.

After the pottery class, we drove to Alexandria and stopped by Whole Foods for a salad. We arrived at Carla's house just in time for the telephone pictionary extravaganza! Telephone pictionary is a wonderful game for large groups (at least 5 is recommended, more is better). No one wins; except everyone wins because it is just fun and hilarious! This time was no exception. We stayed til the wee hours of the morning and I was totally exhausted, so when we got home I slept like a log.

Sunday: We drove back down to Alexandria for a trip to Fredericksburg with Mary and Rob. We went to a game store called Game Vault and tried out some board games! We played Last Night on Earth, Pandemic, and Revolution!, which I will review below.

Last Night on Earth: This is a team game. Some people are zombies, the others are survivors, and you have one night (15 turns in basic gameplay) to win the game - the zombies want to kill the people (each survivor plays as two people, and you have to kill two heroes to win) and the people want to kill the zombies. It is a fairly complex, multistep game that we quite enjoyed (though the rulebook was sort of vague and we kept misinterpreting things).

Pandemic: This is a cooperative game where you are trying to cure four diseases around the world. It was not very complicated, and due to a misinterpreted card we won easily (the perils of trying to learn games that none of you have played). We thought it was okay, but weren't enamored with it. It is apparently, though, decently popular.

Revolution!: It's a bidding game that goes rather quickly and is easy to learn. However, once someone gains an advantage (which can happen randomly) it becomes very hard to catch up, and it's the kind of game where one or more people can end up totally screwed over. I really disliked it, and it was generally everyone's least favorite of the three).

We went out to Salsarita's for food at some point and I got some delicious nachos. After the three games were over, Rob and Mary bought a couple games (Ticket to Ride Europe and Betrayal at House on the Hill), then we headed back to Alexandria. Stan and Carla were there when we got there so we decided to give Betrayal at House on the Hill a try.

This is a game with a changeable board - you start exploring and go through a door, then a random room tile is laid down. Eventually a haunting occurs. Someone is a traitor and everyone else is working against that traitor. There are 50 different hauntings, apparently. Ours was the Zombie Lord one, coincidentally. It dragged on a bit but was quite fun. Also, the game is very different each time you play, so that's nice. I will be playing this again!

Monday: Today it was 68 (!) degrees out. Jeff took off work and we biked downtown to get something from a food truck (but were too late for everything but Lobster Pound, which is too expensive for me so I got a salad from Chop't). Then we went over to the police department to pick up our stupid background checks (I may go into more detail about the Korea documents fiasco but maybe not since it is so frustrating. Suffice it to say that it has been annoying). After that we went home, took a shower, then lazed around, ate canned Indian food, and watched the first episode of Jeopardy that has Watson the supercomputer on it. So far Watson is winning... but they didn't finish the playing of the first game due to showing stuff about Watson and all that. I will watch again tomorrow!