Movies, Games and Plays...oh my

After going to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe at the Children's Theatre today (which was ok, but not great. I liked the movie better, and I wasn't a big fan of the movie. But the stage isn't particularly conducive to battle scenes. And Aslan looses a bit in translation when he's really just some guy in a loin cloth and head dress, ala the stage production of The Lion King. I found myself spending more time worrying about whether there's some message about racism embedded in the story, rather than the traditional Christian motiff C.S. Lewis intended, then thinking about the story) we watched Journey to the Center of the Earth (which needed the 3D, or at least a big, widescreen t.v.) before shipping Eryn off to bed.

Then I broke out all the presents Kyle bought me for my 40th birthday. That included Dominion, a card-based game that's currently riding the top of the board game charts, and a snifter of Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey. The Buffalo Trace was better than the Bulliet Erik (the Hairy Swede) put me onto. It had a slightly sweeter taste to it. And although I don't usually prefer sweeter, that aspect of it was part of a more complicated taste, which made it much more interesting.

As for Dominion, I played with myself for an hour before I got it right. And then I showed Pooteewheet what I'd learned. Yeah...you heard me right. I served up three hands and pretended I was playing a few rounds to see if I could figure out the finer points. Given how easy it was to learn it, and the variety involved in only playing with a limited set of cards, and the replayability aspect of being able to change up the cards the table is playing with from game to game, I give it a thumbs up. The fact that you share the same cards instead of each player trying to formulate a deck from scratch, as in most collectible card games, makes it just a bit more about the strategy and less about who can collect the most, or read the most about card combos. It only took me about ten minutes to demonstrate the basic gameplay to Pooteewheet, so it's also an easy game for someone to learn, especially with a teacher. Tomorrow I'm going to see if Eryn can get the hang of it. That's usually my test for whether a game is in my favorites list.