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Evil Cats Destroy Lives In Europe

Category: Hobby

  • 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…

  • Happy Birthday To Us!

    Happy Birthday To Us!

    My birthday is July 1st and Andrew’s is August 12th and for 2025 we decided to try something new. Although we dined out in fancy restaurants on our respective days, which is our time honored tradition, instead of getting separate gifts we agreed to shop together. We debated about whether our splurge would be something…

  • 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…

  • The Tour And Tiny Bricks

    The Tour And Tiny Bricks

    I hadn’t given much thought to the Tour de France prior to moving to Europe, but after catching snippets in several Olhão bars and cafes back in 2022, my curiosity was piqued. I started with the Netflix show Tour de France: Unchained (I highly recommend it), and was shocked at how nuanced and complicated this…

  • We Tried Our Hand At Speed Puzzling

    We Tried Our Hand At Speed Puzzling

    Andrew and I have a soft spot for odd competitions (if you do too, check out We Are The Champions on Netflix). For instance, we are not immune to the charms of spelling bees, which I participated in both as a kid in 5th grade, and as an adult in a San Francisco performance of…

  • Perlers (Melty Beads)

    Perlers (Melty Beads)

    For many years now my main artistic hobby has been making art out of Perler brand melty beads. I generally use or tweak existing designs and have given away many pieces as thank you’s for Extra Life donations. Since we’ve got quite a few pieces up around our Urgezes home I thought I’d show them…

  • Lost Cities

    Lost Cities

    Another small two player game I brought on our journey to Portugal was Lost Cities by Reiner Knizia. This game is faster to play and easier to learn than Patchwork but has a depth of strategy that has kept me eager to play for many years. Before moving Michelle hadn’t played the game and I…

  • Cooking Up A Storm And Hanging With ACNH Homies

    Cooking Up A Storm And Hanging With ACNH Homies

    Attending 2 months of physical therapy was a blessing in disguise. It allowed us to plan ahead for when Andrew would have to manage caretaking for me, wrangling all 4 pets, and household management during February when I would be hobbling around on crutches. The first thing we did was stock our freezer to the…

  • Patchwork

    Patchwork

    Michelle and I often play cooperative two player games, for example I’m sure we’ve mentioned playing Gloomhaven. I won’t put words in Michelle’s mouth but I think it is safe for me to say that she doesn’t love games with excessive direct conflict between players. I bought Patchwork thinking it would be a good fit…

  • Timespinner

    Timespinner

    Sometimes I have a bad habit of starting games and then getting distracted and setting them aside halfway through or just before the finale. This year I hope to clear out some of that backlog of unfinished video games. As I complete them I’ll write up a quick review for those of you who might…