...how to play the Catan card game

Guess what came in the mail today!

Yaaaay, straight from the Amazon, it's our new Catan card game!

And it rocks, as expected. It took awhile to play, primarily because Pete and I had to keep looking back at the instructions for different situations, but I think we'll get the hang of it before long. We both enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Klaus Teuber, you're the man.

...a Full House beats both a Flush and a Straight

The GIS picnic is coming up in a couple days, and I signed up for the Texas Hold'em tournament. Today Pete asked me if I knew the order of the poker hands (which hand beats which) and I began rattling them off:

Royal Flush
Straight Flush
Four of a Kind
Flush
Straight
Full House....

...and he stopped me. "Full House beats both a Straight and a Flush."

No way, I thought. I've been playing poker off and on for fun for awhile now and I know my poker hands.

...Pete and the internet proved me wrong.

Thanks for setting me straight, honey! Now I won't embarrass myself during the tournament on Thursday. Whew!

...there's a Catan card game!

OMG there's a Catan card game! And it's a 2-player game, so it's something Pete and I could play together (since we can't play Settlers of Catan when it's just the two of us).

It looks like a slightly complicated card game, and the estimated play time is 60 - 120 minutes so it would take a little brain power, but dang it looks like fun. Luckily there's an interactive tutorial that would help.

I still have an Amazon.com gift card from Valentine's Day..... cha-CHING! Amazon, don't let me down now!

Acknowledgments: Thanks for the heads-up, Mom! :-D

...Super Mario Galaxy is way easier with 2 people

I knew that Super Mario Galaxy had 2-player simultaneous play before I received it from Pete for Christmas. I knew the second player could help collect Star Bits, which I of course assumed was a good thing for 1-UPs and other points. However, I had no clue that the second player could make my galactic life so much easier! Pete can not only hold enemies in place so I can pound them, he can stop rolling boulders, flying cannonballs, fireballs, all kinds of stuff that desperately want to kill me. It's awesome!

Unfortunately for Pete, it means that I ask him to play Super Mario Galaxy with me quite frequently. But he doesn't seem to be sick of it quite yet.

...Nintendo is releasing a new 4-player Mario game for Wii

Awesome! It's in the classic 2D style and up to four people can play at once:

"The number four is the key to Nintendo's next surprise," [Cammie Dunaway] said, unveiling a new Super Mario Bros. for Wii. The 2D game supports one to four players, and item boxes give one item for each player so you can all be on equal footing. The game looks like New Super Mario Bros, which means it looks great. Bill Trinen showed some of the interaction: you can pick up and carry other players; you can play cooperatively, competitively, or minute-to-minute, as players jump in and out. The big reveal is the propeller suit, which allows gamers to fly up and then float softly back down to Earth. The game is set to launch in time for the 2009 holiday season.
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Excitement!

...I miss my brother quite a lot

Each time I hang out with Austin, I realize how much I miss that kid. It may be true that most of our comradery is based on video games, but that doesn't dilute the comradery itself. We love playing video games together. Period. And we laugh and laugh... I miss the days of non-stop laughing, but I also value our occasional day visits and slumber parties even more now.

I think it's time to schedule another video game night. :)