Nickel, Dimes & Games

It's January... which is always a big gaming month for me, even with no conventions and/or gatherings (capitalized or otherwise) to attend. I'm guessing it has something to do with the weather (cold & dreary), the post-Christmas gaming glut of games that need playing, and my general difficultly in getting back into any kind of real groove at work following the holidays. So, I've played over 100 games since the Rose Parade. Sheesh. Because of and/or in spite of this, I'm posting some more quick hits about Mark & gaming & the blog:

• I picked up a nearly new copy of Tumblin' Dice at the AmVet Thrift Store last week for $5.00... it was marked $10 but it was 1/2 price day for blue-tagged items! Shari has fallen in love with this dexterity/dice game... so it may well be my first "dime" of the new year. (The first nickel is Balloon Lagoon, which Braeden got for Christmas.)
• Speaking of nickels & dimes, I am still in the process of compiling my annual Five & Dime list. If you want to know more about what in the world I'm talking about, start with my introduction from last year. If you want to submit your own 5 & 10 list for 2006, e-mail me at fluffdaddy@gmail.com. Deadline is supposed to be Wednesday, but I'll probably still be processing the responses through the weekend.
• I had a great trade recently with gamer-stu through the BGG Marketplace... I sent him the ASL module Yanks for his Starfarers of Catan set (complete with expansion & alien figures & a rulebook signed by Klaus Teuber). Only I screwed up and didn't do a decent piece count of Yanks... so I'd sent him an incomplete copy. He reacted with grace & kindness - and so I'm sending him my incomplete copy of ASL: Beyond Valor to help begin an ASL parts trading "emporium". I can not say enough nice things about gamer-stu (who's real name is Chris); he was a gentleman in every sense of the word.
• And Starfarers is already a hit at my house... with a little help from BGG, I tweaked the rules a little bit to make it playable with Braeden (my 5 1/2 year old gamer son). Since Braeden reads at a 2nd grade (or better!) level, the encounter cards weren't a problem... he takes particular glee in reading bad outcomes to his dad! We played 2 player to 15 points, using the 5/6 player expansion. Set-up was 1 spaceport/1 colony. Each player was limited to one colony per set of planets, both at start-up & during the game. Galactic Relief was 2 cards per turn. We played with open card hands (so I could help him make decisions). After all of that, he beat me 15-14, winning by dropping a final colony a couple of turns before I could take away one of his alien friends.
• I'm slowly but surely moving all my "games played" statistics onto BoardgameGeek... I've kept a detailed spreadsheet for a number of years (since July of 1998) but the computer that it lives on is ready for the computer equivlaent of a mobile home park in Florida. (It's a Mac Powerbook that doesn't even come with a built-in modem... now, that's old.) My profile name there is gamemark, if you're interested. (I'm only to the "F"'s so far... a long way to go.)
• The good part about moving all those stats... I'm getting to revise my ratings & comments on a number of games, as well as add some oddball games to the database.