I've had some amazing boardgame sessions over the past two weeks that I'm eager to share. Earlier in December I hooked up with

So far it has been a wonderful family Christmas with much gift giving and cats rising and crashing on catnip. The morning started with an unusual early waking by th

Jacob and I have both explored quite a few online college courses over the past year. His completion rate is better than mine. We started with Software Engineering for SaaS on Coursera last spring. The class was a mix of Ruby on Rails learning but inc

Here is a summary page with links to all of the detailed write-ups for Sherwood Troop 224's Philmont 2012 adventure with itinerary 34: Planning and getting there

We are living in a time warp. New games to us are the games from last year, so by playing stuff that has held up we are avoiding stinkers. This is what Thursday and Friday looked like: Disc World: Ank Moopork -- Taught this to Bob and Jim. This is good chaotic fun and I'm happy to own it. E

Played the last-year released Rosenburg game last night. I like it more than Le Havre, though it feels similar. We had a hard time with language as we played the German edition. Took about 2.5 hours.

Today I arrive at BGG.CON, the annual BoardGameGeek convention in Dallas. This is my (n-1)th convention, where n is the number of conventions they've held. I missed #2 because I went to Essen that year. Once again I will be hanging with Jim Ginn who I met at GenCon in Indy (2004 I think) but really got to know (along w

Like most people (adults?) going to Philmont, Julie and I spent a lot of time exploring strategies and tactics for equipment. Much our equipment was close to twenty

We did all survive the night in the haunted Dean Heck trail camp. Matthew's first words when he woke up: "I'M ALIVE!!" Kyle admitted that he was exhausted after a

This is our last full day of hiking and program at Philmont. For breakfast, we had the hot skillet scramble. Texture a little odd, but still good and a nice change of

With a final close-up look at Baldy and farewell to the Baldy Town kitten, our crew departed on a downhill descent to Pueblano where some spar pole climbing awaits us.

We departed camp with our light daypacks on at 6:45am to begin our Baldy ascent. We screamed up the mountain, passing four other crews along the way and reaching the

Leaving Baldy Skyline we had a choice -- swing by the Miranda camp for some program time, or high-tail it to Baldy Town to try and get an early slot for our required c

On day 6 we departed Deer Lake Mesa at about 6:50am and began our gradual climb down towards the Cimarron River. We saw a buck on the way, keeping our deer-spotting s

As I said before, day 4 was our last easy day. Day 5 would be a true test fo

We spent the day at Elitch Gardens, a decent mid-sized amusement and water park in downtown Denver. Knowing the heat woul

We spent the day at Elitch Gardens, a decent mid-sized amusement and water park in downtown Denver. Knowing the heat would bear down on us in the afternoon

We are headed to Denver today to start our 95 mile backpacking adventure to Philmont. Two days in Denver then we hop on a charter bus down to Cimarron NM.

We are headed to Denver today to start our 95 mile backpacking adventure to Philmont. Two days in Denver then we hop on a charter bus down to Cimarron NM.

Last month we did our last training hike in preparation for 10 days / 96 miles at Philmont starting in late July. We had a small crowd this time -- only five of us --

Last month we did our last training hike in preparation for 10 days / 96 miles at Philm

Last weekend about 19 of us from from Troop 224 in Sherwood, OR ventured to the Columbia Gorge for an overnight backpacking trip on the Eagle Creek / Benson Loop trail. This is my trip report with some photos (

Last weekend about 19 of us from from Troop 224 in Sherwood, OR ventured to the Columbia Gorge for an overnight backpacking trip on the Eagle Creek / Benson Loop trail. This is my trip report with some photos (

I love maps and navigation and have enjoyed teaching orienteering to Boy Scouts in the past. A few summers ago I even took over an orienteering merit badge class being run by an older scout that hadn't even learned the basics. Despite my

The Dice Tower recently published their nominations for the 2011 Dice Tower gaming awards. They recently lamented about how there aren't any luminaries talking up their awards, so I figured I would do my part to maintain the status quo. I'm in no

I've had some great, though infrequent, gaming sessions lately. Ken and I we

We took a family trip to the east coast -- Washington DC and New York City -- for a mix of tourism and college visits.

We hosted noteworthy gamer Joe Hu

I surpassed my five and dime totals from 2010 and met my prediction that Thunderstone would make my nickel list in 2011. Here is the breakdown: Dimes (games played 10 or more times)

Julie and I spent a fabulous afternoon yesterday traveling the 4T Trail here in Portland. 4T stands for Trail, Tram, Trolley, and Train and having never ridden the OHSU tram this sounded like a perfect way to give it a first try. We followed