a minute to learn ...

... a lifetime to master.

despite othello's long history in the burgan family (as evidenced by "daniel" and "jared" being etched in the box as only a kindergartener can do), the game had never been introduced to S. last night we went at it, although of course for S it was about 15 seconds to learn, 9 minutes to master and kick my butt. i'm glad to now have it in our game-night rotation. it's a perfect 2 player game, is not as time-intensive as scrabble, and thus can hold a certain someone's attention a bit better. i've already got my eye on the next game to rotate in; maybe i'll manage to score it for christmas.

last week, julian hosted a dark knight party at his place. he made us wait two whole days after the film came to dvd. (disappointing, i thought julian was a little more on top of movie/game releases ... ) it was a good time, courtesy of the telep's rather large television and a fair amount of junk food. daniel is in charge of the next sibling night. while full details have yet to be disclosed, rumor has it that an australian theme is planned. i'm psyched. it does seem notable that a sibling night with 5 kids attending is just over half of its potential. now, if only nick, lariss, and steph would hurry back - and jared would modify his home-base - so we could amp up these sibling occasions, we'd be all set.

allegheny west's christmas tour took place this weekend. last year, as you may recall, the tour coincided with hoi polloi's opening. in addition to pretending we knew how to open a cafe, S took on coordinating the musical entertainment for the tour, as well as providing for (ie. baking 2,000 cookies) and overseeing the cider and cookie table. this year we opted to scale it back and put in a more modest shift at the cider table. we even got to take the tour and go to the after-party! it was a nice, albeit chilly, evening.