Birthday Festivities Continued

Brian and I hosted his parents for dinner on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday. We celebrated multiple times this year (Chapada, Bite Me, Carrabba’s). Not so much by choice, but just how things worked out because that’s when people were available.

It was fitting that the Food Network had their The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs marathon that day because Brian was playing chef at home. He prepared apricot pork roast and German fries.

I won’t explain the foods. Brian can do that for you guys in the comments. However, I will share some photos with you all…

The German fries turned out really well. Brian did a great job.

Here’s the pork roast…

Brian’s mom brought over chocolate mousse cheesecake that she made for dessert. It was super yummy.

For my birthday, they got me the Words With Friends board game, which really made my day. Brian and I played right away.

I had uninstalled the game from my phone a while ago, but I had to reinstall it because it’s got a scoring tool and word checker for the board game. So I’m back to playing WWF again. Challenge me!

November 7, 2012 | Posted by Ching under Family, Food and Drink, Games

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Taquito is Not Acceptable

I tried to bingo on Chad Molen by playing the word TAQUITO. Fortunately for Chad, it’s not acceptable. I give it five years. It will be in the dictionary soon enough. LOL.

March 3, 2012 | Posted by Ching under Games

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My WWF Addiction has Reached New Heights

For those of you unfamiliar with my WWF addiction, WWF doesn’t stand for World Wrestling Federation. That would be something my dad enjoys watching. My WWF addiction is Words With Friends. It’s a two player game that is similar to Scrabble that you can play on your phone. I’ve always been a Scrabble junkie so I was naturally drawn to the game. There’s no one for me to play Scrabble with here. WWF opened up a whole network of potential opponents. I like it so much that it’s the only game I play on my phone on a daily basis. Actually, I don’t play Angry Birds or any other games anymore so I can probably say it’s the only game that I play on my phone period.

Another reason I love WWF is that it’s completely passive. You can take as long as you like or as long as your schedule allows. It’s great for busy people like me. Sometimes games can span several days (sometimes even weeks, if your opponent decides to go to Mexico for vacation – LOL) and sometimes you can finish a game in just a few hours. It all depends on how much free time you and your opponent have. I find it really convenient since Brian does most of the driving (we carpool to and from work and the gym). I usually play WWF in the car on the way to work or on the way to the gym at the end of the day. Sometimes I will play during my lunch hour, if I actually take a break for lunch.

Since Brian and I have been on Christmas vacation (neither of us have to report back to our respective jobs until January 3rd), I’ve been playing WWF like a deserted island castaway at an all you can eat buffet. I usually have no less than half a dozen games going on simultaneously. Right now I’m playing against seven unique opponents. I had to specify that they’re all different people because sometimes one of my friends and I will play two separate games concurrently. This will sometimes happen by accident when we challenge each other at the same time at the end of a game, but sometimes we’ll do it intentionally. I don’t have any of those going on right now, though. If I have made all of my moves and I’m waiting for my opponents to take their turn, I will sometimes get bored and start another game. Thus, I end up playing several games at the same time. I don’t really like playing with random strangers though, so I generally only challenge people I know in real life.

Most of the time, I play from my phone. A few weeks ago, I saw some badges on a friend’s Facebook wall and realized that you can play from Facebook too. I had no idea until then. I think that’s the only time that I’ve ever played with someone I didn’t know. I created a game and hit “random opponent” by mistake. I still make most of my moves through my phone, but I do like playing on my laptop whenever I’m home because then I can post achievements on my wall. For instance, it’s not really exciting when I bingo from my phone because I can’t share it with everyone.

Since we’ve been on vacation, I’ve been living and breathing WWF. My addiction reached new heights last night while we were in bed. I won’t say what we were doing. Just picture us in bed, doing what I can’t say, while having this conversation. Oh, and just to provide some background information, I started wearing my pure hazel Freshlook Colorblends contacts yesterday.

ME: No one even noticed my eye color today. Do you like that I have hazel eyes? We have the same eye color now.
BRIAN: My birth certificate says I have brown eyes.
ME: How come?
BRIAN: I was born with brown eyes. They changed color as I got older. Now they’re hazel.
ME: What does it say on your driver’s license?
BRIAN: Brown.
ME: Why?
BRIAN: I guess it was easier than putting hazel. My eyes change color depending on the light anyway. Sometimes they’re brown, sometimes they look more green, but most of the time they’re hazel.
ME: Hazel would be a good word to play on Words With Friends because the H and the Z are worth a lot of points. Specially if you land on a triple word square.

My last comment was so random that Brian busted up laughing. We both laughed hysterically, actually. I was laughing so hard that I cried.

Speaking of, check this out. I was playing with Cassie the other day and ended up with the crappiest set of letters. Three As, three Is and an O. Naturally, I turned to Facebook and whined. LOL.

When Anthony saw the post, he was like, “That’s nothing! I ended up with seven Is once.”

I guess it could have been worse. =P BTW, Anthony’s board looks different than mine because he plays Wordfeud. It’s similar to WWF, but the bonus squares are distributed in a different pattern and some of the letters have different point values. He likes the functionality of their phone app better. I used to have both, but had to get rid of one the last time I was cleaning out my phone. I know more people on WWF so Wordfeud got the boot. Now I just have to get Anthony to convert over.

December 28, 2011 | Posted by Ching under Games

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It’s Not About Who Won

It’s not about who won. It’s about who lost. Jenni and I both knew we were no match for Anthony. Basically, it was a contest for second place. LOL.

It was a really close game. Most enjoyable game of Scrabble I’d ever played. Thank you Jenni and Anthony!

Incidentally, last night’s Scrabble game made me realize that I am in dire need of a new set. The ten-year-old one I have just isn’t cutting it anymore. I want one of those “deluxe” Scrabble games with the rotating board/table. Hmmm… Maybe Brian will get me one for my birthday.

August 21, 2011 | Posted by Ching under Games, Wishlist

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Wordfeud Moment

Whoa! I had no idea you could play bad words. LOL.

I think this will help Brian out some. These four letter swear words are the only ones he can really spell.

LOL. Just kidding, baby!

Speaking of, Google has a neat new toy on their web site in honor of Les Paul’s 96th birthday. So Brian pulled up Google.com and then told me to strum. What did I do? I started strumming his computer screen.

Brian looked at me and said, “WTF, babe? My laptop is not touch screen!”

“Oh,” I replied with much disappointment.

It’s sad when you are so used to everything being touchscreen that you just expect everything to be that way. I’ve actually borrowed someone’s non-touchscreen phone before, pushed on the screen several times in vain, and was frustrated when I couldn’t get it to work. Total Scotty from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home moment.

Faced with a 20th century computer…
Scotty: Computer! Computer?

He’s handed a mouse, and he speaks into it.
Scotty: Hello, computer.
Bones: Just use the keyboard.
Scotty: Keyboard. How quaint.

LOL. Yup. I feel like Scotty sometimes when I’m forced to use primitive hardware.

June 8, 2011 | Posted by Ching under Games, Life, Movies

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Anthony is my Favorite Opponent on Wordfeud

My sister introduced me to this word game for your phone a couple of weeks ago. I loved playing Scrabble as a kid so I was immediately hooked.

Shortly after we started playing someone named Surazal invited me to a game. I declined because I didn’t know who they were.

After Jenni told me it was a friend of hers from Kansas City, I felt better about playing with someone unfamiliar to me. I actually sent him an invitation to play. We’ve played a few times since then and he is, by far, my favorite opponent on Wordfeud.

With others, it might take an entire week (or more) to play one game. With Anthony, we could probably complete an entire game in one day if I didn’t limit my playing to morning, lunch and after work. I think he can complete multiple games in one day with one opponent if the other person could match his pace.

Like me, he is also up early on weekends. Last Saturday, we were playing back and forth pretty fast around 7 AM. I was surprised that anyone was up that early (I’m usually the only one I know who wakes up before 7 AM on weekends), let alone before me. He said he’d been up since 5 AM. We were playing words pretty quickly back and forth. As soon as I played a word, he would play another. It led me to think, at this pace, we might as well be sitting across from each other playing. Except, I was sitting in the toilet for part of that game so that might not have been a good idea. LOL.

Anyway, I really enjoy Wordfeud because now I can finally play a Scrabble-type game with someone. I found a chess game, Chess Buddies, for my phone that works a similar way. I really want to play, but Brian won’t play with me and I don’t know anyone else who has it. I asked Anthony the other day if he knew how to play chess. He said he did, but it’s been a while. I hope he gets Chess Buddies so I’ll have someone to play chess with. Finally.

Jenni came to my work yesterday to pick up some materials for the Riverfest volunteer work she’s doing. While we were sitting there eating lunch, she told me that Anthony mentioned to her that I asked him to play chess. I guess I could have asked Jenni too. She knows how to play. Not sure why I haven’t. Here’s how their conversation went (from what Jenni shared with me):

ANTHONY: Your sister asked me to play chess.

JENNI: It’s probably because she thinks you are smart enough to play chess with her.

ANTHONY: I think it’s because I kick her ass too much at Wordfeud and she really wants to win.

Gee, thanks! Incidentally, I won our last game. Barely. But a win is a win. It was probably the closest game I’d ever played. I think I had 411 points, but lost 3 points when he played his last tile. We finished the game at 408-407 in my favor. Go me!

June 4, 2011 | Posted by Ching under Games

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Wordfeud with Me

Jenni introduced me to a new game on Sunday. The best part is that I’m actually pretty good at it. LOL. Thanks, Jenni!

P.S. If you are on Wordfeud also and would like to play me, look up Chingay. I’m always up for a good game.

May 12, 2011 | Posted by Ching under Games

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6th Annual Hull Invitational

I think I’m going to learn how to play ping pong, in addition to learning how to play disc golf this year. I’m uber competitive and I felt left out on Saturday because I didn’t know how to play. So I promised myself that I’m going to learn how to play ping pong and get really good at it. I’m going to train so I can take down the tournament next year.

Here are some more photos as promised…

Brian hadn’t played ping pong before, but he was a good sport and gave it a shot. This is a photo of Uncle Roy explaining the rules of the game.

Brian vs. Vinton was the first match.

Some photos of Barry’s matches…

Uncle Roy demonstrating his mad ping pong skills…

Brian and Jocelyn were completely enthralled by the People of Walmart app.

Spectating…

Steve and Val were there too.

Since Val teaches group fitness classes at Andover YMCA, Brian said he is constantly running into Steve there. Steve promptly outed Brian by telling everyone that he usually sees Brian just sitting there, watching TV. LOL.

I’m not sure who won the doubles tournament because we left to meet Jenni at LL right as they were getting started. As far the the individual tournament went, though, defending champion Uncle Roy and his ping pong prowess prevailed yet again.

This will be his last year as champ, though, because I’m taking it down next year.

April 6, 2011 | Posted by Ching under Games, Things to Do

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Frisbee Golf Time

Our frisbee golf beginner sets arrived today. Yessss!

March 17, 2011 | Posted by Ching under Games, Things to Do, Toys

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I Want a Rematch

So the men beat the women at bowling on Saturday. Brian scored the most in the first game. I was well on my way to kicking his butt. I was actually doing so well on the second game that I had him by three pins if we summed both games together. Unfortunately, we ran out of time. I did buy that Groupon for Northrock Lanes a few weeks ago. Stay tuned for our rematch.

Until then, here are some pictures from The Alley last Saturday.