Evil Cats Destroy Lives In Europe

Author: Andrew

  • February Decor

    February Decor

    We have made it through one of the rainiest seasons in Portugal (and much of Europe) in decades. Thankfully we didn’t have any water related problems of note, but it did mean we spent a lot of time indoors January and early February. Back in Medford our house had, over the years, slowly gained specific…

  • December Viewing: Baby Don’t Hurt Me

    December Viewing: Baby Don’t Hurt Me

    Way back in 1993 Haddaway asked us “What Is Love” and every December Michelle and I sit through a bunch of films trying to see if his answer, “baby don’t hurt me” is correct. Technically this month is my romantic comedy counter to Michelle’s fear filled October, but every year a few other genres sneak…

  • Ark Nova: A Zoo Building Boardgame

    Ark Nova:  A Zoo Building Boardgame

    In reality building and running a zoo seems like a nightmare to most people, except maybe Matt Damon and a handful of zoologists. Today I hope to tell you how the experience translates into a board game, specifically Ark Nova. Released in 2021 by first time developer Mathias Wigge and currently rated as the #2…

  • Fall Cooking 2025

    Fall Cooking 2025

    As fall settles in and winter quickly approaches we’ve been making some seasonal dishes. Many of our choices were made with our Thanksgiving celebration in mind, specifically dishes or ingredients we could prepare and freeze for that menu. We mentioned before that we had some Roasted Pumpkin Soup the night we went to see Jethro…

  • A Lot Of Silent Hill 2 And A Few More Movies

    A Lot Of Silent Hill 2 And A Few More Movies

    Slow dread, unnerving suspense, paranoia, unexpected startles, and gory demises made up a large part of our October. During the last week of the month we spent many hours beating the video game Silent Hill 2 (Remake) and saw a handful of horror films that were surprisingly high quality. If you want to emulate our…

  • Penha Mountain Rolling Cart Race

    Penha Mountain Rolling Cart Race

    Mount Penha is visible from our house and is a treasure that deserves its own post where we can talk about the area’s majesty. To frame today’s story just remember that we can normally hike to the sanctuary at the peak in under an hour (leaving from our front door) and the direct route takes…

  • Game Night At The Finazzos

    Game Night At The Finazzos

    Near the end of May we discovered a board gaming club (Board Guimas) in Guimarães. They have weekly Wednesday meetups at a local restaurant called O Rei dos Cachorros, monthly gatherings in the mall at Fnac, and various other more informal gatherings. We have been making friends, playing tons of board games (you may have…

  • Don’t Run Away From Complex Board Games!

    Don’t Run Away From Complex Board Games!

    Last week Michelle talked about how when we look for new board games we try to find a gap in our collection. A good example is that I love space themes and gravitate towards them so they are over represented. We track our games on a Google sheet so we can quickly pick out a…

  • Perudo: Cups Full Of Fun

    Perudo: Cups Full Of Fun

    Back in the late 90’s I used to have house parties that involved lots of party games. My friendship with Michelle solidified during these nights in spite of the fact that they were chaos filled drunken nights that got progressively zanier as my move away from Minnesota approached. We lived in a college community and…

  • Finding The Tinned Fish

    Finding The Tinned Fish

    A very common question and discussion I’ve had multiple times since moving is “What things are hard to find at a Portuguese grocery store?” Oddly enough at least half of these conversations have been with other people who have also moved to the country. I’ve heard multiple strange stories about the lack of peanut butter…