Birthdays and Football

Two of my favorite things today!!! My bestie J's birthday AND the first game of the SAINTS season!! It is a toss up as to which is my favorite!

This picture just happens to capture both things I love!

Celebrations of Jessica's life will be Friday. I can't wait to get together with everyone! Chris probably will not be in town early enough for dinner though.

As for the SAINTS: I was reading an article in the Shreveport Times by the Associated Press earlier this morning. Only in Louisiana:

As the Saints prepared to open the defense of their Super Bowl title, the city was in Mardi Gras mode: schools set to close early and concerts and a parade planned in the French Quarter. Even City Hall closed for the day.

Each group also had a tall, skinny black-and-gold tent holding a portable toilet. "We pioneered that," said Danny Trent of Reserve. "Look inside." The 5-gallon black bucket was still empty. Except for a Vikings decal."

And how yummy does this look- Pork bombs! This is apparently a tailgating neccessity in New Orleans today. It is pork, jalapenos and cheese wrapped in bacon and grilled! YUM! Definitely adding this to my "to cook" list!

GEAUX SAINTS!!

Labor Day

Ahhhh...Labor Day, a wonderful long week-end to spend doing whatever you want!! For Labor Day this year the fam (plus Hannah and Chris) went to Galveston. We chose Galveston because it is a shorter drive than Florida, but still THE BEACH! Woo! We stayed at a fabulous little place on the West Pointe of Galveston. It was sooo pretty:

Like I said SO pretty.

So we got down there LATE Thursday night after work. After a rousing trip to Randall's Grocery Store at 11:30 p.m. we made it to the condo-unpacked-and crashed. Friday, I woke up ready to get my tan on! Mom and I headed to the pool but it was slightly cloudy. With patchy clouds and Dad and Chris almost to the condo (and it being lunch time) we headed in.

Dad got there and then CHRIS!! WOO!! It had been 2 long weeks since I had seen him! We got to eat dinner and I gave him a tour of the pool and the beach! It was great to have him back for the weekend!!

Saturday a friend of Dad's asked if we would like to go on a boat ride. Well heck ya!

3 Bedrooms, 2 bath

Love. Love. Love the boat ride! And the boat!!

Sunday was 100% layout day. I was in the sun from 9:30 to about 3:00. Whoa. I totally had the raccoon eyes to prove it. That's right, I didn't take my sunglasses off the ENTIRE time I laid out. Brilliant, I know.

And then of course we had beach pictures:

Awesome weekend at the beach. And I even got to do a little shopping on the way home!

How fun is this?!

Aug 30, 2010
New Board Game Café Welcomes You, But Not Your Laptop

from Torontoist by Steve Kupferman

Snakes and Lattes on Sunday evening, papered up in advance of its first day of business, which is today.

Ben Castanie's new Koreatown café, at 600 Bloor Street West, just east of Palmerston Avenue, will emphatically not have free Wi-Fi. In fact, laptops and their attendant air of isolation are completely counter to what Castanie is trying to do. "I just don't want people sitting staring at their screens," he says. Then he starts explaining the system of categorization he'd used to organize his café's library of 1,500-plus board games.

Snakes and Lattes, as the café is (pretty cleverly) known, opened for business earlier today.
Owned by Castanie and his girlfriend, Aurelia Peynet—first-time entrepreneurs—the place looks similar to any other newly renovated café on its section of Bloor Street, except for the board games, which occupy a set of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that run half the length of the room. Castanie amassed the collection over the course of two years, by diligently scouring garage sales and thrift stores. He inspected every box to ensure that no pieces were missing. A few must-have games were purchased new.

Snakes and Lattes is Toronto's first "board game café." Customers each pay a five-dollar flat fee for unlimited use of the game collection during a single visit. There are also drinks (including lattes, of course), tarts, and quiches. A liquor license is on the way.
The five-dollar fee, in addition to usage of the games, buys expert instruction-manual guidance.
Castanie, who is proudly French, but speaks English with a British accent because of time spent in the UK before he and Aurelia emigrated to Canada four years ago, is a believer in the power of games to bring people together. Anyone who comes in a small group should be prepared to make new friends.

"A game is not meant to be [played by] two," he says. "So you know what? If there's two groups, well then, we'll just make sure they play together, right?"
"You learn a lot from people playing board games."
A bookshelf holding some of the café's 1,500-plus game collection.

The games on offer include many old favourites, but the catalogue runs far deeper than just the basics. Castanie is particularly proud of his selection of "Euro games," so-called because they tend to be designed and produced in countries like Germany and France. Euro games are characterized by their simple rules, and their lack of player elimination. They're considered quick and easy to learn, and they lend themselves to casual play. Settlers of Catan, a German game, is one particularly popular and well-known instance of the genre.

Castanie says the idea for a board game café originated with a French business concept known as a "toy-lending library," which is a place where customers can rent games, board games, or other types of toys.

Board game cafés are not unheard of in other parts of the world. South Korea experienced a vogue for them, beginning about a decade ago—but Castanie, who would know, says that the fad, there, has peaked. Now, he says, board game cafés are beginning to become popular in English-speaking parts of Asia, like Singapore and Hong Kong.

Asked if he's worried that the idea won't catch on in Toronto, he grins.
"I don't think so," he says. "I think they're gonna like it."
Photos by D.A. Cooper/Torontoist.

Wordless Wednesday

Fighting malaria. (that's a mosquito!)