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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…
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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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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…
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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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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…
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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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Horror Filled October
Andrew allowed me to start my scary movie viewing a few days early. Since we both got minor colds during the last days of September, we had even more time to settle in with cozy blankets in our excessively dark cinema room and get sketched out. I decided to publish our list a week early…
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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…
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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…
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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…