August 2025 Wrap-Up

August always flies by because the school year is about to begin and we spent another week in North Carolina for the second straight summer. The boys and I played a 18 hole disc golf course while in NC. It was the first time we went out together and we had a blast. Of course it wasn't without some drama as they both threw a disc directly into water on one hole, thankfully we were able to retrieve them. There was a slow down on the amount of board games I played, but as you'll see in that segment that I'm still crushing it for the year. Right now I'm debating on pulling back from in person gaming some as work is about to get really busy for me. I'll probably have more to say about that in the coming months. All in all it was a good month, but I'm happy to get back into our routine this month. 

Blah Blog Log

Just the one post for August.

• July 2025 Wrap-Up - A trip to NY, back to Rockville, MD for work, and a lot of gaming.
  

Bored Board Games

In August, I played 23 games a total of 102 times which brought my total plays to 1261 for the year. No new games were added to the 100 Games 100 Plays List, but there are a couple that might this month.  My for trade list has exploded to nearly 1/5 of my collection as I've started to feel the urge to declutter and purge. Evaluating my collection to see what games I want to keep has been on my mind for a while now. I'm now in the hobby veteran phase of not keeping up with what's new and being content playing the games I love more than learning new games week after week. This month's highlighted game is the first game I went all out for during the Kickstarter back in 2019 and want to play it a lot more, The Isle of Cats.

The Isle of Cats is card drafting and tile placement game where players compete to save as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vesh arrives on the island. Using various card abilities and spending  fish to lure the polyomino cats onto your ship board. There are a variety of ways to score including private and public lessons, filling rooms on your boat, covering rat icons, and keeping cat families together in the largest groups possible.

I love card drafting and tile placement and the version I have came with hundreds upon hundreds of cards in different modules to keep the game fresh for an almost infinite number of plays. I've only scratched the surface through the handful of games I've played and haven't even cracked into the extra Kickstarter expansion content. It's light-medium weight puts it right in the sweet spot for a game that I want to spend 60-90 minutes playing. The solo variant is supposedly very enjoyable so it should see the table in October when I participate in another year of Solotober.

Enjoyable Eats

I'm very excited to share a new place in Dover that opened at the end of July/beginning of August that Christine and I really enjoyed. Curry Pizza House is a franchise based out of California that somewhat randomly ended up opening its first Delaware location in Dover. As you know I love all things pizza so you know I had to go check it out. Their food combines pizza with Indian flavors, while also serving pizza and other dishes as one would find them in any American pizza shop.

Christine and I opted to try two items that we can't get anywhere else. We started with Desi Garlic Sticks (right) which are cheesy pesto bread-sticks topped with red onions and green chilis. They were a little on the spicy side but we could have eaten them all as a meal. On their craft curry pizza menu there are a dozen and a half options and we opted for the Lamb Kabob pizza. It was topped with curry sauce, cheese, red onion, garlic, seasoned ground lamb, and cilantro. We ended up saving about half of both so we ended up enjoying them again the next night. We'll definitely be returning for future date nights and meals with the kids.

I'm Watching 👀

Every summer we look forward to watching the food competition show, The Great Food Truck Race. Teams of food trucks, established and/or amateurs, compete in various cities each season to see who can sell the most and come out on top to win the grand prize. The current season (18) focuses in the southeast through the south Atlantic coast, mostly in Carolinas. 

For long time watchers of the show, the first episode ended in such a way that completely shocked us. I remember sitting there with Christine and Grace as we questioned what we just witnessed. Like any competition show, the personalities can put you off but that's just how reality shows are. If you like food competition shows and/or food trucks interest you, I highly suggest tuning in to see how this season ends.

 Resolutions Update

I decided on a single resolution for this year: Read all 35 issues of Simplify Magazine. Which means I'll need to read 3 issues each month. Each issue is about 75 - 100 pages long and is comprised of short essays on whatever that issue's topic is. 

• Goal Progress - 15 out of 35

I do not have a better update for August as I have all but forgotten doing this. Maybe I'll be more inclined as we enter the most cozy autumn months.

Whatcha Snackin?

This post has been delayed a few days because I could not remember what snack I wanted to highlight. I still can't remember, so I decided to share one my daughter has been enjoying and that I also think are pretty good.

Chester's is a spin off of the Cheetos line by FritoLay that makes a whole bunch of fried corn snacks. We've been buying their cheese puffcorn snack ever since the kids were very little and they continue eating it to this day. Recently the brand launched a line of fries that remind me of the Andy Capps Hot Fries. These ranch flavored fries are crunchy, salty, and a little creamy tasting. They aren't any better or any worse than all the other fried corn snacks out there but we'd never seen a ranch flavored one before and have enjoyed a few bags over the last couple of months.

Wrap It Up

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