Grinding Out Sausages

We finally did it. Last night, Scott, Aleem and I held our first game night. In the future, it'd be great to have twice as many people, but even with only three, a few hours of board games is a great way to spend an evening.

I've always loved how social board games are, but like many Americans, the best I've done in recent years has been the annual marathon game of Trivial Pursuit with my relatives on Thanksgiving or Christmas. While visiting New York last Halloween, however, I discovered that my friends Wylie and Molly host a weekly night of board games for three or four couples, which seemed like an inspired idea.

Last night we played Clue (which is a bit too easy for adult gamers) and a new Book Lovers' Edition of Trivial Pursuit, which was ridiculously hard and fun. I'm looking forward to playing Scrabble, Taboo, and Turbo Cranium at upcoming game nights, and if anyone has any recommendations I'd love to try them as well.

I think board games reveal a basic truth about people. We love nothing more than to chat and hangout, and if possible, maybe show-off a little. I think this is especially true as people get older. It's why people play golf or go lawn bowling - the structured excuse to walk around and chat.

When I was in my early 20s, I was drawn to exotic (and expensive) activities, like flying airplanes, skydiving, scuba diving, and skiing. All of those things are exciting and worth doing once in a while, but I used to do them every weekend. (Fortunately, I had a much higher income in those days.)

Perhaps I've mellowed or become more pedestrian, but now I'm just as excited about spending an afternoon sailing or doing yoga, or even better, having dinner and playing games with friends. Then again, maybe I'm just much poorer.

Posted by Mark at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I always say that I'll try anything once.

This is not strictly true since there are whole areas of activity that I have no interest in ever exploring, but I do like to dabble in new hobbies.

Like blogging. Last summer, I announced that I would try blogging "at least for the few weeks that my attention span will probably hold out."

The problem is there is no reason for me to blog, or for anyone to read this. I don't have a particular cultural rant or political spin or even a specific project to journal about. Nor do I have a huge network of friends and family that would have no idea what was going on in my life or what movies I liked without an online update. So I make no promise to post anything unless I find myself with too much free time. (After all, it does says occasional musings up at the top.)

As it happens, I happen to have some free time again. And so I've been chalking up new hobbies as quickly as my bank account will allow.

This week I added both beermaking and winemaking to my repertoire. I like wine and I like making things, so it seemed like a fun thing to try. (Then again, I like food too, yet I don't feel particularly inclined to cook. Go figure.)

Anyway, Tabitha bought me some books on winemaking for Christmas, and thanks to The Home Wine, Beer and Cheesemaking Shop, I now have six gallons of White Zinfandel fermenting as well as a gallon of spiced apple wine.

The problem is that wine takes six months to a year before it is ready to drink, often even longer. So while waiting, I decided to try making beer. I didn't bother reading any beer books--just bought some large pots and a recipe for five gallons of a London style ale. Beer is a little more initial work, requiring an afternoon of boiling various ingredients, but it's ready to drink in a month or two, which I'm looking forward to.

I have no idea whether these new hobbies will become something I stick with for years (like yoga) or just a few weeks (e.g. racquetball) or maybe something I pick back up every once in a while (such as tennis or blogging).

For now, the fermenting beer and wine smell great, and I'm hoping the bottles will make nifty little gifts.

In the meantime, I need to find a few more hobbies to try.

Posted by Mark at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A couple months ago, my sister Katie bought a Capri 14.2 sailboat. She raced similar boats in college, but the one time I went out with her, we capsized twice.

However, ever since growing up watching The A-Team, it's been one of my goals to be able to drive any vehicle. That way if Hannibal ever shows up and Murdock is unavailable, I'll still make sure the plan comes together.

So far I've learned to fly small airplanes, ride motorcycles, ski, surf, skydive, scubadive, and now sail.

After crewing for Katie a few times and refining our racing skills, today I took her boat out and became the first person to sail it solo. While the Capri is not exactly the Argo and I'm hardly ready to call myself Jason or Sinbad, I did technically captain a ship.

And there's something exhilarating about whipping across the water powered only by wind and skill, just as pirates have done for thousands of years.

Posted by Mark at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)