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Category: Friends

  • Celebrating With An Egg

    Celebrating With An Egg

    As you may have guessed by our lack of blog posts, our summer has been a bit hectic. We’ll be doing a few catch up posts talking about what’s been going on here in Portugal! Don’t worry, all is well (eggcellent even) but it did feel like the last few months disappeared before we were…

  • A Geeky Discussion About “Gateway Games”

    A Geeky Discussion About “Gateway Games”

    Our board game club, Board Guimas, has a relatively active user group that talks about all things game related. A couple weeks ago one user commented about which gateway game was the most interesting (in their opinion) of the most popular five. This coincided with some similar discussions I’ve had with Michelle and another friend…

  • Farming (Game) In Portugal

    Farming (Game) In Portugal

    My grandpa Finazzo was a farmer in Minnesota, he had a farm and a tractor and the whole shebang. Like most farmers he supplemented his income in a variety of ways but his core identity was related to tending to his crops. I imagine sometime around 1979 someone saw the new board game The Farming…

  • Cross Stitch Christmas

    Cross Stitch Christmas

    In 2005 I started making annual Christmas ornaments for Andrew, myself, our parents, and sisters. By 2019 it had become one of those projects that brought more stress than joy. I always felt behind during the frenzied holiday season, so I stopped doing it. Last December when we pulled out our seasonal decor, my old…

  • Friendsgiving 2025

    Friendsgiving 2025

    I am absolutely food obsessed. This is not a new development. Food and memories of holidays, people, and places are pretty much inextricably linked for me. I remember baking cookies with Gram Novotny when I was too tiny to reach the counter (I had to stand on a step stool or chair). My passion for…

  • ROCK That Flute Jethro

    ROCK That Flute Jethro

    We carved out some time between our intense, scary Halloween movie schedule in order to attend a concert. Several months back, Andrew and I had seen a bulletin board advertising that Jethro Tull was going to be in Guimarães in October. It just seemed like one of those opportunities we shouldn’t pass up. I mentioned…

  • 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…

  • Bunny Babysitters

    Bunny Babysitters

    Back in my 20’s in St. Cloud I had 2 bunnies as my primary pets. The first was a gray Netherland Dwarf named George. He was adorable, mild mannered, gentle and oh so sweet. Dumb me thought he needed a friend, so Betsy the brown Mini Lop came next. She was a lot less sweet…

  • 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…

  • All Aboard The Train To Mexico

    All Aboard The Train To Mexico

    I’ve never really played a lot of tile placement games. Before moving to Portugal I played online Mahjong Solitaire, the occasional game of Carcassonne, and Upwords (which feels more like a word game). Andrew generally favors games like Blokus more than me. We didn’t own dominoes and none of our fellow board gamers in the…