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Air temperature: -10
Water temperature: 105

It’s chilly today. The mercury says 4 degrees, and when the snow finally stopped coming down, we measured about 9 inches. Since it’s so cold, it’s all powder, which makes shoveling a bit easier.

Tomorrow we don’t expect to get above zero. Yikes.

I’m going back and forth with my friend Nate in our board game group chat.

I cherry-picked a few lines from Julius Caesar there, but I felt like it was a masterstroke. Nate is speechless.

So I bought a smart watch.

I’ve worn a watch for about forty years, and when my last one broke a few months ago, I thought I’d see what it would be like not to have one. The first few days without it, I glanced at my wrist at least a dozen times a day to see the time. Then I’d have to pull my phone out of my pocket to check, and tuck it back in. It was kind of irritating. The weeks passed, and it became a bit more of a habit, but I still felt like a watch would be so much better.

At Christmas, Kyra bought Zack a (relatively) cheap smart watch. It was some weird brand no one’s ever heard of, but it had some cool features. He’d fuss with it and show us some of the features, and I became interested. I already knew I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a smart watch; my budget was around fifty bucks or less. After all, that’s about how much the various Timex watches I’ve worn for the past few decades have cost.

After poking around eBay, I found a used older Samsung watch for $35. Brand new a few years ago, it retailed for about ten times that. I figured it was within my budget, and worth a gander. I bought it, and now I’m wearing it. As it turns out, it’s pretty cool. I can select from hundreds of different watch faces (for now I’m sticking with something simple), and load a few smallish apps onto it. It tracks my steps, heart rate, blood-oxygen level, and even my sleep patterns (although cursory research indicates sleep tracking with wrist devices is pretty questionable). It tells me when I’ve been sitting too long and should get up and move around, and then it congratulates me when I’ve taken a few thousand steps. I can pay for things at stores by waving my watch over the credit-card reader. I can pull up a map of the local area and get directions. I can read text messages, and even send them (it’s kind of painful though).

All in all, it was definitely worth $35. I’m having fun with it, and most importantly I don’t have to drag my phone out whenever I want to know the time.

“First do it, then do it right, then do it better.”

– Addy Osmani

Today I spent a good chunk of the day working on my latest game, Dicee. After many hours of working on artwork and layout, and many more hours putting together the design files to be sent to the print company, I reflected on the process. Zack and I invented Dicee on December 29. Today I shipped it for production. That’s a journey from concept to printing of eight days. Considering that Hexteria (which later became Indio) took over two years for that same journey, I’d say I’m getting better at this.

My little mini-career of designing board games, which continues to be a fun hobby but certainly not professional or income-producing, has been a reminder that doing something over and over will almost certainly make you good at it. The same thing has occurred in my photography work, which now spans decades.

A few years ago, I quoted William Wordsworth: “To begin, begin.” Onward and upward. Better and better.

The kids and I have fun making memes poking fun at one another. I usually stumble across a weird or silly photo on the internet, or perhaps see a meme that can be “adapted” for our family, and do a bit of quick graphics work on it.

Now that I’m meddling with AI art, I’ve been learning more about how to use it effectively, and also adding new “models” to broaden the sorts of work I can do. I figured it was time to turn it loose on our family meme wars. Here’s what I came up with.

Obviously this is a Mario Kart joke. During our time together at Christmas, Kyra, Zack, and I played a bunch of Mario Kart. I think Kyra won every time but once, when Zack eked out a close victory. I was the perennial third-place finisher (and, much to my chagrin, often well below third). I love the game but just don’t play it as well as they do. Thus, the meme.

When I sent this to the kids, Kyra thought I’d just edited her face onto some existing cartoon drawing. Nope, that’s what the computer comes up with when you ask it to draw a “woman driving in Mario Kart on a racetrack”. If you ask me, it’s pretty hilarious.

And it’s only the beginning.

We have about six inches of snow on the ground, and the temperature is hovering around freezing, so the snow won’t be going anywhere for a while. Rather than spend the money to have our plow guy come over and clear our driveway, Pepper and I decided to have a go at it. We pulled out our matching wide-scoop shovels and headed down the blacktop. We clear parallel tracks just wide enough for the car wheels. Luckily the snow wasn’t too wet, although it was hardly powder either. We spent about an hour making tracks and doing extra work on the switchbacks, where it’s particularly treacherous.

After our work, we headed back up. Our security camera caught me trudging past.

It’s hard exercise, which I suppose is a good thing, but sheesh, this driveway…

By all accounts, you could label us a “board-game family”. Since the kids were old enough to understand Sorry, we’ve played board games. Every time we’re together, we have to clear some table space to set up a game or deal some cards or roll some dice. It’s a fun way to be together, chatting and laughing and (naturally) talking smack. So it came as no surprise that during our Christmas week together, plenty of games hit the table.

Alex and Kaitlyn received Mysterium and Flamecraft from their wish list. The former is an interesting take on the classic game of Clue (although considerably more complex), while the latter is a game of card collection using dragons. Look how excited Alex and Kaitlyn are while we play their new game!

Zack and Kyra, on the other side of the table, are demonstrating a great faux pas of board gaming: eating Cheetos and drinking soda while playing.

The kids and I played a bunch of Sheepshead, carrying on our Wisconsin-based family tradition.

Zack gave me a hundred colored dice, which were pretty cool.

With them, we played Liar’s Dice many times. It’s quick, easy, and strangely addictive. You just have to make sure no one can see your dice.

Of course King of Tokyo made an appearance. It’s an old family favorite, and I gave Zack an expansion for it.

The kids agreed to test my latest game, Utu, which was hot off the press. Kyra helped me come up with some add-ons for the game, which she insisted I call the “Dark Expansion”. I’ll be working with her ideas over the next few weeks.

Not all of the games were on the table. Zack, Kyra, and I played a few rounds of Mario Kart (in which I was absolutely demolished). Alex brought his gaming computer from home, and enjoyed a few hours on the big screen. Ollie joined him. Yes, Ollie was actually driving a race car here… not very well, but driving nonetheless.

Alex and Zack had some more rowdy video games going for a while…

We played Skull King and Endeavor and Architects of the West Kingdom and a half-dozen others. I really enjoy spending time with my kids over a gaming table, although sometimes I find that I need to hold back a little because they don’t always want to play that many games.

Yesterday Zack and I were playing Liar’s Dice (again) and he wondered aloud how we might design a game involving dice that have “powers”. This isn’t really a new concept, but he and I started trading ideas. We rapidly came up with a framework for a game, and went to work creating the rules and cards. Here’s our testing ground:

Pepper commented that normally I design games alone, so it was nice to see me collaborating. She asked Zack if he was going to continue working on it with me beyond the first ideas, and he quickly replied, “Yeah, because otherwise it’ll become a resource-management game.” We all laughed, because of course he’s right. Most of the games I design tend to lean in the direction of resource management… probably because those are the sorts of games I enjoy most. So it was a ton of fun to brainstorm with him as we refined the rules, played a few turns, identified problems, came up with solutions and new directions, and continued scribbling ideas and rules on cards.

After three or four hours, Zack and I felt pretty good about our new game, which we jokingly called Dicee (we can’t call it Dicey because that name’s already taken). We introduced it to Kyra and Pepper.

To my great surprise, Pepper actually said she enjoyed the game. It’s rare for her to enjoy any board game, especially the ones I make (they’re just not her style).

Our final game of the year was Skull King, which we played right up to the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Poor Kyra had planned to go to bed around nine, but we talked her into staying up to ring in the new year. Pepper was also well past her bedtime but agreed to be a good sport. This picture reminds me of a joke my parents used to tell: (kid’s voice) “But Mommy, I’m tired” … (parent’s voice) “Shut up and deal!”

I’m grateful I can have fun doing a favorite activity with my kids. And this week I was especially grateful to spend some time with Zack envisioning a new game– one unlike anything I’ve designed before. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

It’s sure fun to be a grandpa. Since we only see Ollie every few months, each time we do it’s a chance to see all the stuff he’s learned. He really enjoys coming to our house, because there’s a ton of space to run around, and a ton of toys to dump out.

The Fisher-Price city is a perennial favorite.

He had fun with trains and cars, blocks and stuffed animals, things he opened at Christmas and things we’ve saved from his dad’s time as a toddler.

There was a bit of snow on the ground, and Ollie learned to make a snowball.

We went to Rosa’s Pizza (of course) and he decided his pizza wasn’t complete unless it was absolutely covered in parmesan cheese.

He and I played a game I guess we’ll call “Small Ollie, Big Grandpa”. It involved a cosmetic mirror and a crazy amount of laughing and yelling.

Running around the house(s), exploring the attic, hiking, swimming in the hot tub, bouncing on beds… Ollie had a full schedule!

Grandma Pepper was a real champ. She’d get up early with him (around 7 each morning) and play so his parents could get a little extra sleep. She’d take him on walks and set up his train and read him books. I’m convinced she took several hundred pictures, and dozens of videos, of the little guy. Eventually she needed a well-earned break.

Yep, we sure had a good time with the little guy. It’ll be a few months until he turns three, but I’m hoping we can celebrate another birthday with him.

What’s Christmas without some treats around the house?

It started with the sugar cookies. We all gathered to roll out the dough and start cutting out shapes.

Never a family to do things in a traditional way, we had some pretty interesting cookies. In addition to the usual stars and angels and bells, we had cookies shaped like squirrels, sheep, dinosaurs, shamrocks, and even some custom ones like Zack’s “duckfish” (don’t ask).

Ollie was really good about quality control, frequently sampling the dough to ensure it was of the finest grade.

We popped them in the oven, and then went to work on the frosting. Normally I’ll mix up some frosting, throw food coloring into it to make four or five colors, and then take a butter knife to spread it liberally on the cookies. Not so this year. Kyra brought her cake-decorating tips, and the crew went to work.

Even Ollie tried his hand at it.

Kaitlyn made what I can only describe as the prettiest Christmas sugar cookie I’ve ever seen. It was an absolute masterpiece of a wreath. Look at her concentration!

Eventually Ollie tired of squeezing frosting through a bag, and Grandma came to the rescue with some fun.

In the end, we had boxes full of amazing cookies. Some seemed too pretty to eat… although in the end they were definitely eaten.

The Christmas cookies were epic, but Kyra and I had agreed weeks before that we were going to make bonbons. It’s been years since we’ve had them, and they’re a real treat. She, Zack, and I had a grand time making them. We had a bit of extra chocolate dip at the end, so we experimented a bit with chocolate-covered Cheetos and cashews and Starburst. They were… underwhelming.

With sugar cookies and bonbons and chips and crackers and Cheetos all week, we had no shortage of treats. I literally gained seven pounds during the kids’ visit. That’s proper Christmas eating!