January 2024 Wrap-Up

 

The new year has started off really well, despite it being incredibly cold. A couple of delays and work closings were a great way to ease into the month. Because I was busy focusing on my resolutions and playing a new to me mobile game, there are fewer segments this month but still some great stuff to cover.

Blah Blog Log

Bored Board Games 

Board Game Arena continues to fuel the majority of my plays and will continue to do so if I want to meet my goal of 600 plays before the end of the year. However, January got off to an absolute bang because I logged 100 plays of 35 unique games. That puts me 16.67% of the way to part one of my goal and 23.33% of the way to part two of my goal (150 unique games). Sea Salt & Paper and Res Arcana fueled the way for a second straight month because they're amazing. A couple of games to highlight:

Potato Man - I got to introduce this classic trick taking game to the group and it went over pretty well. I had never played before, but it's a well regarded game in the trick taking world and I can see why. The hook of the game is that players following can't play the same colored suit of cards that were previously played. So each of the four colored suits will be played in a single trick. If it anytime a player cannot legally play a card, the round ends and nobody wins the active trick. The other wrinkle in the game is that the lowest valued cards in yellow (1,2,3) beat the highest valued cards in red (16,17,18) if played in the same trick. It's a neat little game that does some very interesting things.

Sail - Another trick taking game that I played in person when we only had two people attend out meetup. It was the perfect time to break this one out because it's a rare two player only trick taker and it's cooperative. I've played the very popular The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, which is also a cooperative but plays 2-5 players. I was a little dubious of Sail going in because I thought that The Crew was only okay. However, the pirate/Kracken theme is more in my wheelhouse than space. The object of the game is to navigate through a series of scenarios around the Kracken and other obstacles to the end space before the end of five rounds. Players move the ship and damage the Kracken by playing tricks with specific matching symbols. The kicker is that you're not allowed to communicate once the cards are dealt. We played through the learning scenario, but I'd liked to get this back to the table soon and run through the whole thing.

Enjoyable Eats

We returned to one of our favorite spots Brick Works Brewing and Eats, which is where we had a delicious dessert that I highlighted in the October Wrap-Up. This time I had a sandwich that I couldn't get enough of. The Scallop Po'Boy is fresh fried scallops served on a sesame roll with lettuce, tomato, pickles and bacon. It comes with a lemon caper Aioli and white balsamic vinaigrette.
I never get fried scallops, but I may start getting them more often after having this. Combing the crunchy yet soft scallops with the rest of the toppings allowed it to hit a lot of great notes. I'm so glad we gave this place another shot after finding it to be just okay a few years prior. Now was have a place in town that we can go to whenever and know we're getting something we'll enjoy.

Resolutions Update

This year was an absolute bust for New Year's Resolutions. As I stated previously, some of it was just scheduling and then there was goal #1 where I just couldn't get motivated to truly succeed.
  • Goal #1: Cook More Italian Food - A lot of the food I make is Italian or Italian inspired already, but I did make some very tasty Chicken Croquettes for the first time.
  • Goal #2: Log 600 Plays of At Least 150 Games - I started off the year incredibly strong, thanks to Board Game Arena. I've already played 35 games 100 times total.
  • Goal #3: Write at Least 3 Blog Posts Each Month - As seen up in the Blah Blog Log segment, I hit exactly 3 posts for January.

Wrap It Up

Please comment below with any thoughts or comments on anything I've covered. Thanks for reading!

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