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Category: Portugal

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • On The Road To Recovery

    On The Road To Recovery

    I have chronicled my ACL injury and repair and people are curious about what life is like post surgery. I am almost at the 4 month post-op mark and am still on restrictions, but here are some factoids about my recovery journey so far. On 2 Crutches: First 4 weeks. First Look: After 6 days…

  • 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…