Category: GameTime

Having a Blast at Our First WNBA Game

Posted on by Markman

High point though was getting to meet a star player on the Valkyries, Veronica Burton Number 22. These women players are Bad Ass! As a bonus we even got to hang with her sister Kayla, who is a sports reporter and anchorwoman on the NBC Boston network and does the Celtics games too! Oh and their mom and dad too, who is also a big name sports reporter here in Boston. Mad props to Ginni for making it happen! Oh, and Suns actually WON this game and by a considerable amount so the place was going crazy! These fans are serious! (You can click on the pics for descriptions).

Currently Reading: Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance by Laura Delano.

Now you’ll have to excuse us for a bit as we need the water heater replaced as it decided to go belly up this weekend. *sigh*

Love Me Brewster

Posted on by Markman

This picture was taken from a wooden walkway like the one you see in the photo while looking back toward the sun after walking around the are for a bit. I always likes this picture for some reason. It’s one of my personal favorites. There really are a lot of scenic areas to shot down the Cape, this shot is from Brewster, one of the towns that we particularly like down there,

Gametime: One More Treasure. This game is pretty sweet!

Emotional Baggage at a Winery!

Posted on by Markman

Woke up this morning to some kind of screeching. Couldn’t tell what it was. Eventually we figured out it was a Common Raven! Never encountered one of those before, it’s always been crows.

Checked out the Blueberry Festival this afternoon in Mendon over at the Vandervalk Winery. There was a giant Santa there and we got some really cool stuff from some artisans that had a few tents there. Before that we hit this Hosta place in Mendon that sells very specific varieties of Hosta and Lillies that they grow themselves. Got a few of those. They also do a great job with Lotus plants, but that’s really tricky stuff to grow, plus you need a body of water. I ate some grilled cheese from a food truck that was there as well for a quick bite.

My Princess Cheyanne book arrived just as we were leaving the house. I grabbed it up but LD wants to read it first, so I let her. She actually knows the person, from a different time and career path at the time. Anyways, I’m going to see if I can find the former Princess and see if I can get her to sign the book.

Gametime: Blobun Mini. Get the snake to cover all the squares!

Suns Lose Bad but Psych Me Up

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I ended up watching the Connecticut Sun game last night. I was rooting for them to win since they traded most of their good players at the end of last season and they hadn’t won game yet. Leading most of the game, but towards the end had a major collapse and let the Lynx, who couldn’t get a basket for the life of them for a long stretch, were allowed to go on a 21-0 run or something like that. Talk about a choke job. My girl Mabley did good though, and the game itself was entertaining. Even though the Suns lost it did get me psyched about seeing a game in person this summer. I’ve decided not to root for teams actually anyway, just certain players, that way I can cheer on both Mabley and Veronica B (LD trainer’s daughter), over out in the west when they meet up.

I also like how these games go by quickly and it’s so much smoother than the NBA. I can’t quite explain it but it just seems like it’s a more pure form of basketball playing.

I’m currently on level 19 of Sokobird 2. Love these little brain teasers.

Fill the Heart

Posted on by Markman

There was a bunny outside in the front yard all day, just sitting. LD in the morning had thrown a carrot out for it but it didn’t touch it. That was until after dark when we spotted it finally munching on the treat! By morning, the carrot was gone as far as I could tell.

Gametime: Fill The Heart. Pretty challenging at times! I like it.

Currently Reading: Next up on my reading list, The Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental Illness by James Longman.

Whoop! Summer Games

Posted on by Markman

Decided to finally pop on some WNBA game tickets down in Connecticut over the summer to see LD’s trainers kid play. She will be playing for the opposing team but that’s ok – haha!

Speaking of games here’s a couple of fun Gametime suggestions for you that I enjoyed solving: Bullet Teleporter and Silky Path.

I found a cute little Dedham Pottery pin depicting a view from the back of a bunny with it’s arm around another bunny looking at the stars. I knew LD would want this so I’m going to take a little jaunt out to Bedford tomorrow to go pick it up! Just a little small thing.

Seeing John Cusack Live and In Person!

Posted on by Markman

As one of my xmas gifts, LD got us tickets to see John Cusack down at the Emerson Colonial in Boston. Never actually been inside that theater before although I must of passed it tons of times. There was a showing of his movie High Fidelity and he was going to talk about it after the screening. Of course my all time favorite Cusack movies are Serendipity, Say Anything, and my All-time favorite, Better Off Dead.

Was thinking it might be cool to try this beginner’s pottery wheel (one time) workshop, either with just us or maybe another one of our couples friends. Anyone out there game? Speaking of games….

Gametime: Dungeons of Deadrock (demo). Pretty cool little game. Also Part 2!

Love Bunnies Hopping Over a Cookie Plate

Posted on by Markman
Bunnies hopping over the plate

Took a jaunt over to Andover early this afternoon to pick up our latest addition to the collection – this pottery cookie plate. We don’t see this one very often, if at all, so had to grab it, and at a good price too. It’s also heavy as hell! Also dropped by a little library in the area and found a cute little book about the Velveteen Rabbit for LD. When I saw that, I knew I had to grab it for her. We’ve also been filling the libraries up with a book purge around here.

Gametime: Bash. Finished all the levels but it took me quite a but to solve the Bonus one. Felt very satisfied once I got it.

Currently Reading: The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne by Kate Winkler Dawson. I’m liking this one, such a unique concept. The author comparing and telling the story alongside another author who wrote about the incident over 100 years ago.

Going Down Memory Lane

Posted on by Markman

One from the archives! Found this down in storage, a map of Lake Cochituate, specifically the wildlife habitat and geographic characteristics of the lake. Although I did this kind of work for close to 30 years (these are the sort of maps that I made for various projects although this is one I created for myself to learn the software, we were transitioning from AutoCAD which I loved, to a program called ArcGIS). I love the fish profiles I added to the bottom right. This piece was created circa 2003 but I consider the best years of that part of my life to be the mid to late 1990s. It was a very special time with amazing colleagues and projects.

Let me know if anyone is interested in seeing more stuff like this from my past. I have some great stuff and stories in that storage.

Gametime: Just a Series of Coin Flips. Fun little Puzzlescript game that kept me entertained for a few.

Glory Be

Posted on by Markman
Glory Be. ✝️

I do like sitting in this new rocking chair! Carson was very happy to see me as he fell asleep on my legs while I was resting on the couch last night watching Law & Order reruns on WeTV. And of course, I can’t move because that would destroy the moment. I also fell asleep then. We must have rested together for a couple hours. When I woke up I went up to bed and he tucked me in but didn’t stay like he does when his momma is around, Little stinker. But I was grateful for the bonding time that I don’t usually get with him like that. Oh, currently on level 352 as of this writing in Tomb of the Mask. Maybe there is no end to this addicting game for me. The above photo was taken this summer, not sure if I posted it before, I think I have, but for whatever reason it seemed fitting for me to post it this morning. Just felt like it, plus it’s a pretty cool photo I think..

You Just Never Know

Posted on by Markman

A couple of weeks ago an 80 year old woman got hot by a car down the road around 5:30 in the afternoon just before the time change. They said it was solar glare. I didn’t realize it until later but it was the same woman that I would chat with now and again when she would walk by. She was a very nice lady. You just never know. In fact, I think I spoke to her a couple of days before the accident, never realizing that would be the last time I’d ever see her again.

Gametime: I’ve been playing this game on the YouTube app on my phone called Tomb of the Mask. It’s pretty addicting to me but how long is this game? I’m already on L:evel 165 207(!!) as of this writing and it looks like there’s no end in sight!

Sure as a Trip to Sherborn

Posted on by Markman

Haven’t updated in a while. Time flies! Saturday we had a nice lunch in the park after a quick visit to the office to figure out lamps and various décor. Then yesterday we visited some animal friends. LD had found out somehow that the town of Sherborn was having a thing where participating farms could be visited for free for a time so we decided to check it out. As a bonus our friend Em came along (sort of a out-of-the-blue-last-minute-want-to-hang-out for the afternoon thing, to which we naturally said “Of Course!”. We do like hanging out with Em, she’s super cool.

Tallest cow I ever saw!
Dudley!
Dudley is a special cow
Geese face off
Two guys
Dudley!
The boys
Finished off with an ice cream

After all that we hit a Trader Joe’s and got a bunch of things, then we were pretty fried so we got some take out and settled in for the night with some television watching. We finally finished watching every episode of the Shield (amazing show!) and are now starting to look for some good things to watch.

Currently Watching: Under the Bridge on Hulu.

Gametime: CubeMerge

How Can Be 10 Years Already?

Posted on by Markman

It’s our 1982 Ms. Pacman machine’s 10 year anniversary! In 2014 we brought her home and has been entertaining us and our guests ever since.

I need to open up the coin mech and see how much money is in there!

I can sort of remember how we obtained this. I think it was from a craigslist ad from someone down in Rhode Island, and it was a really good price so we made a trip, back when we used to do stuff like this. I just remember this guy had a ton of games and pool tables in his basement, and some motorized vehicles in the yard that all these kids wanted to keep riding on. Anyways we could see in a booth down in the basement with what we assumed to be his very pregnant wife. We got the feeling she really wanted him to part with a bunch of this stuff, and quickly. We got a really really good deal on this fully functional machine – it was our lucky day! We got the machine somehow loaded into the back of LD’s Saturn SUV and it just made it. In fact I believe the top of the machine was right between us up front. It made it all the way back and the rest is history!

I remember being a kid and my mom would take my sister and me to this arcade that used be at North Station in the old Boston Garden. I would fantasize about owning all the machine one day. I was especially fond of getting a Ms. Pacman and another game called Venture. Well, at least one of my fantasies about this came true 35 plus years later!

I Like Big Flips and I Cannot Lie!

Posted on by Markman

Took a quick jaunt today over to Bow Market in Somerville this afternoon. Luckily I was able to get on street parking right across from the place because parking down there is brutal, assuming you can even find a spot. There was a roast beef place I wanted to try called The Hotbox, which I had read about in a magazine that I was perusing whilst waiting for LD at a doctor’s appointment a few weeks ago. It was pretty good – I ended up getting a junior three way. The sauce is a little spicy but not bad at all, perhaps that’s why they chose that name? anyway, the whole area has a bunch of little local shops and a very cute outside seating area, which I partook of. Also while there I saw they what appeared to be a small pinball parlor, so I went and played some of those classics, the machines range from from the 70s through the 90s, and I guess they swap them out with other ones every so often. Pretty cool little place.

Finally, toward the end of the afternoon I had to hit a grocery store and they had these cute little roses on sale. I couldn’t resist and picked up one that had light purple flowers.

And finally, to close out the afternoon I went to see this band play over at the local gazebo playing some pop hits from the 70s and 80s. They sounded really good!

Piggy Yoga is Now a Thing

Posted on by Markman

So much fun! I was surprised at how fun it actually was! Then it was an afternoon by the pool, a night of grilling and doing a fire pit. Beautiful day!

Group Shot! (I’m holding the bunny!)

Gametime: Tongue Tied. Help the frog reach the stars! Pretty cool game.

Currently Watching: Brats. A doc about the Brat Pack of the 80s headed by one of them.

Serenity Now

Posted on by Markman

Game Time: Cargo Lines. This game is actually pretty fun, I like using my brain to try and solve the puzzles. I’m on the red crated levels now and the difficulty has really ramped up!

Kind of a weird day today, thunderstorms, then sun, then rain, then hot sun. At least the good news is that I didn’t get too wet outside today.

Giving Myself a Pat on the Back

Posted on by Markman

I play Wordle and a couple of other games on the New York Times site and this particular game that I play called Spelling Bee usually bumps me out after guessing a few words but for whatever reason this one just would not end. I play the game without using any hints. It took a while but today I was able to complete the board, a first for me! So I’m a little proud of myself at the moment. Have you played any of the NYT games, do you have a favorite? How do you do at them?

Spring Time Sprucing Up

Posted on by Markman

After working my rounds today, I began starting to do a lot of cleanup on and in the gardens. Getting rid of old leaves, cleaning out the beds, checking on the flowers currently coming up and bulbs starting to emerge from the soil. Getting out the various hanging planter tools and preparing the decks. Cleaning out the firepit and buying a bunch of stuff to get the season started. This is a great time of year. Also, looks like the next door neighbors just opened their pool so get ready for their drunken late night loud parties again. Oh, and LD probably has a mild concussion. Great.

Currently Reading: The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle. (review).

Gametime: Ping On Ice

Rainy Good Friday Things

Posted on by Markman

Picked up some groceries this morning for this Easter Sunday. Watched an intern of LD’s from back in day defend her dissertation. She’s now a doctor! So proud! What a major accomplishment, especially considering all the environmental factors over the years to get it done. Bravo D!

Gametime: Dungeon Heart. I’m currently at the time of this posting stuck on level 15.