So it turned out that BW had an infection. After a day of antibiotics, she was almost back to her self, again. Thank goodness. We were really missing our chipper, wise-crackin’ CraftyMomma.

On Saturday evening, we hosted our friends, LadyHeron and TheaterGeek. We had a little cookout, and then attempted to play a 5-player game of Settlers of Catan. Now, I really like Settlers, but with the expansion, it moves kind of slowly. LadyHeron and BW bailed after giving it a good effort, and even NatureBoy dropped out after a couple more turns.

Then we guys chatted and the women-folk chatted, and NB bounced between us. I then offered to show TG an episode of Avatar: the Last Airbender, which he hadn’t seen. We ended-up seeing two episodes, with the whole party watching most of the second. What can I say? It’s a great show.

On Sunday, bright and early, NB and I played a game of Stratego, which BW had snagged at a yard sale recently. It came right down to the last handful of pieces on either side, but I managed to prevail even with just one cup of tea. (I said it was early. I’m lucky I got to pee, first!)

BW and I ran a couple quick errands, then NB and I played a game of Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

Now I picked up this book on sale at the friendly local gaming store a couple years ago because it has some decent instructions for painting miniatures and creating terrain. NatureBoy decided he wanted to try the game itself, though.

Since we didn’t have any of the minis, we made do with some quick paper tokens. Here you can see my Men of Gondor hopelessly outnumbered.

And here’s a Giant Eagle’s eye view of the Battlefield. That’s a folded green wool blanket with some encyclopedias tucked underneath, and some nicely weatheres pop tart box ruins.

It was nice to play a miniatures game without a grid. Most of my miniatures gaming has been with D&D minis. And the system was pretty straight-forward; we skipped the advanced rules for this first skirmish. We’ll have to see if the interest continues.

While we played, BW was busy assembling piles of provisions. She and NB are in Maine visiting her sister for the week. So I have the place all to my self. Well, except for the three cats. …and four guinea pigs. …and fish.