Sonya's Blog - Day 135 - November 4th

Sonya’s Blog - Day 135 - November 4th - Games Night

Blake went for a run this morning and was gone for almost 3 hours. He actually left with Suzanne to drop her kids off at their schools and then ran back from Kate’s school. Isaac starting working on his research project about an historical figure in Pittsburgh’s history, planning his menu for tonight and catching up on the rest of his blogs. It can be a little frustrating to work with Isaac, there are a lot of excuses as to why things are not getting done. In the end he did a short report on a previous mayor of Pittsburgh, made up a menu for tonight and got a few more blogs done. Picture of his menu:

Natasha also wanted to work on her blogs, as she is also behind. She got to work on that and will try and get caught up today and tomorrow. While the kids were working I went through some of our budget details.

After lunch and Simon’s nap we headed out on a long walk with everyone and Kizmet. We couldn’t bring Bowser because he barks too much at everything. We were heading down towards the University of Pittsburgh (where Adam works and teaches) to a comic book store. Adam was going to meet us there after his last class. It took us about a 1/2 hour to get there. It is another great day (25 when we were walking), so it was lovely to be out and about. Unfortunately the road we were walking down was super busy, so that made it less pleasant. We found the store and everyone headed in, except for me. I stayed with Kizmet and the stroller because Kate had fallen asleep in it. I just walked around while they explored the comic book store. We then headed to the frozen yogurt place and the kids all got a treat.

It was time to walk back home. Adam had his bike, so he was much faster than the rest of us. I wanted to try walking down a different street to get back, so that we could hopefully have a nicer walk. We went down one block and it was so much more pleasant. There were lots of large, old houses with very large lots. Both of the little ones did a lot of walking on the way back, so it took a little longer to get back. Poor little Simon was so hungry when we got back that he grabbed one of the corn on the cobs from the counter (it was shucked and ready for cooking) and started eating it. He was almost done a whole side before anyone noticed him. He was so upset when it was taken away.

Once we were back, it was time for Isaac to start making supper. He would need a lot more guidance than Natasha. He started with the pumpkin, because he wanted to make pumpkin pie and roast the seeds. It was pretty scary to watch him wielding the large butcher knife, but he managed to get the top off the pumpkin. Blake helped him get the seeds out and Isaac started separating the seeds from the guts. In the end Suzanne had to help him, or it would have taken an hour or so for this to get done. I helped by finding him a recipe, but he had to read it and figure out the next process. He put them on to boil and then put the corn in a pot ready to start cooking when the time was right. He wanted to wait until the pumpkin seeds were in the oven before he started cooking the chicken and the corn. I cut up the rest of the pumpkin and wrapped it in foil for the oven, so he could make the puree for his pie. Suzanne then helped him get a salad together (I think Suzanne did most of it) and then Adam took him out to the bbq and helped him with the grilling. It was a group effort to get Isaac’s supper made and on the table at a reasonable hour. The pie won’t be done, but we can have that tomorrow. Supper was really good and that’s all that really matters.

Natasha was going to babysit tonight so the adults could go out. None of us are big drinkers or bar people, so it was decided we would go bowling. Adam found a bowling alley that had live bands rocking it out on the lanes on Wednesday night, so we decided to go there. The only problem was it didn’t start until 9 PM. We left around 8 with the thought of finding a coffee shop and then going bowling. When we finally found parking the two coffee shops in the area had already closed for the night (they closed at 8). That is quite early, but there you have it. We found this pub, that had games night happening. Blake popped in there to ask about it. A local games store brings a whole bunch of games and you can take a table and try them out and have some food and drinks if you like. Sounded interesting. It was 8:40 by this time so we decided to just head to the bowling alley. So we got there and were ready to pay and we were asked for our ID. We all had to show our ID before we could bowl because they served alcohol on the premises. It get’s better. Suzanne and Adam’s Driver’s Licences are expired and they cannot get them renewed until they get their new visas or something. The woman takes one look at Adams licence and says, “this is expired sir, I cannot accept it” and won’t allow him to bowl. Sure it is expired and he shouldn’t drive on it, but his birthdate is not going to change when the license is renewed. Anyhow, wouldn’t let us in, so we left and went back to the games place.

Hambones was the name of the bar. Half the place was set up for the games night and the other half was the regular bar area where they had trivia going on. We chose the games half and grabbed Blokus and ordered some drinks. Blake and I have never played Blokus, so we got the run down and started playing. You play with blocks of colours that are all different shapes. Your goal is to get as many placed on the board properly before you are blocked. Adam ended up winning, I came in second and Blake and Suzanne tied for third. When we were done the guy running the games night came over and talked to us. He then went and got some games for us to try that we had not played before. The first was a card game. I don’t remember the name of it. The cards had different categories and symbols on them. If your symbol matched another players you had to be the first to call out the answer to their card before they called out the answer to your card. So Blake’s card would say American Authour and mine would say Harry Potter Movie, the first to yell out the correct answer to their opponents card gets that card. So we played and it was a lot of fun. Whomever has the most cards at the end of the game wins the game - which was me and Suzanne came in second. The next game was a cooperative game. We each got five cards, but we were not allowed to look at our cards. We get to see everyone else’s cards and we have to give them hints to lay the cards in the right order. Their are lots of rules to how the hints can be said and you only get so many hints until you earn new hints. You end up with a group score and the goal is to get a perfect score. We did not get a perfect score, but we did get a respectable score. It is a game you would need to play a few times to learn how to give the hints and in what order. We called it a night after that. Everyone thanked us for coming (there are a lot of regulars) and we headed back home.

Sonya