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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Penha Mountain Rolling Cart Race

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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…
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Don’t Run Away From Complex Board Games!

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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…
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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…
