Long Live the Little Green Men!

You gotta watch out for people getting you back, especially the ones you didn’t even realize you “got” in the first place.

I’d left my dorm room unlocked.  I always left my dorm room unlocked.  There wasn’t anything valuable that could be taken with ease – my speakers were 5ft around – and my sorority-sisters neighbors were usually milling about that end of the hall.  But there was no denying that if I’d locked the door, I wouldn’t be dealing with this …. this what?  It wasn’t really a mess and was only slightly annoying.

Army men.  They were everywhere.  I opened my dresser drawer; army man.  I pulled down a shoe box; army man.  I put on a pair of pants and put my hand in the pocket; army man.  There was even one in the mini fridge’s freezer!  “He’s in Siberia,” my clearly guilty next door neighbor grinned.  I was finding those army men until well after I moved out of that dorm room.  Thanks Amanda.

But as I said, she was just “getting me back.”  Except, I hadn’t filled her room with army men.  No, the little green men first appeared elsewhere on campus, all over campus, thanks to another sorority sister, a trip to Leon’s and the dollar store that just happened to be on the way home. 

A tradition was born, and that tradition continues.

Mommy found one somewhere the other week.  Likely a remnant of   the attack of all attacks just before I left for Zambia.  There’s a lot of good hiding spots in a house with 3 floors.  They’re sneaked into the bottom of packages and carried along in suitcases on visits.  One of the original instigators’ daughter has her own toddler-appropriate army man.   Gummy army men were passed around for holidays and birthdays – I heard they were quite delicious.  One of my  sorority sisters even incorporated them into her wedding!

 

And this past Christmas, Alfred got me the most amazing and absolutely perfectly appropriate present.  A snowflake ornament made out of army men!  I love snow.  She found it on etsy.  It’s super cute and very ingenious.

Adventures from Home: Game Night

One of the best things about the Schultz house – and all my Wisconsin friends can attest to this – is game night.  Game night isn’t a particular night; it’s any night when we happen to play games.  Board games, card games, even Twister.

During my last trip this past June, one of the first things we did was have a game night.  And lucky for us, well lucky for him too, The Great Ecclestone joined us.  Game night is fun when it’s just part of the family; it’s super fun when friends are involved. 

The Great Ecclestone walked into the house as Daddy was yelling from the family room to someone in some other room and Katrina was stomping down the hallway muttering loudly to no one in particular while Mommy yelled back to one of them from the computer room.  The Great Ecclestone smiled, “nothing’s changed around here.”  He was right, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Game 1

We decide to spare The Great Ecclestone’s ears, especially since he’s a professional singer, and opted for board games over Beatles Rock Band.  First on the list, a new game that the family got for Christmas last year.  I spent Christmas in California so I hadn’t played this game yet, but Mommy and Munchkinhead had. 

“Last Word” is a boisterous game that involves quick thinking and shouting over your neighbor in order to be the last person to give a correct answer before the timer goes off.  Correct answers are words that start with the letter given on one card and fall in the category given on the other card.

I thought I had a pretty good “m” word for “things found on the internet” when I said “mommy.”  (She likes to play a lot of Farmville and Café World.)  But, I was really impressed when Munchkinhead tried to answer “Mozilla.”  I say tried because she couldn’t quite pronounce the word and had trouble spitting it out.  (Bay Area and internet-y friends, remember we’re playing this game far from the tech-focused coasts, where most people probably don’t even know what Firefox is, let alone Mozilla.)  I think we gave it to her anyway just because it was so brilliant an answer.

I have no idea who won, which means it probably wasn’t me.  But,  I do remember we had a ton of fun playing that game.

Games 2 & 3

As the night wore on and the Amarula began to run low, the standards started to come out.  Someone wound up with a giraffe on their head, sitting positions were exchanged for lounging and out came the household classics, “20 Questions” with Reifenberg Rules (the rules in the box aren’t as much fun) and “Whoonu”, the game from Cranium where you try to select the things you think your friends will like most. 

It’s amazing how much you can learn about people you’ve known all your life, or all their life as the case may be.  For example, I had no idea that mommy likes sailboats.  I put the card in the envelope to get it out of circulation and because I had nothing better, and then bam, she rates it super high.  She loves sailboats.  Who knew!?

Walking in Memphis

Another great weekend!  Yesterday I drove out to Memphis to see the Great Ecclestone.  No performance this time; he was there for mega-mini auditions.  I think he gets less time than they give people on American Idol.  But these auditions are super important and give him a lot of work.

We went out for dinner and then did the famous Beale Street.  It reminded me a bit of The Strip in the Dells.  I liked it a lot.  Just a couple blocks of random shops and various eating and drinking establishments with live music and windows selling beer to passer-bys on the street.  The weather was gorgeous, so it was a good night for just walking (and later driving, on accident) around the city.

I also got a lot of homework done on the trip, nearly all my readings for the week.  Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, I wasn't holding my homework on the steering wheel to read while driving or anything like that.  Stephen Hawking's twin was reading to me.  I love Adobe's read-out-loud feature!  Just plugged in my laptop to my cigarette lighter and the tape adapter into the laptop's headphone's jack.  Perfect :)

Friday night was also great fun.  First, there was moot court competition at school.  I went to root for one of my friends.  Her team won!  Yay, BLSA members win moot court two years in a row. :)

After the competition, I headed out of town a bit to play games with some friends I haven't gotten to see much for awhile.  That was great fun.  One friend was in from DC with her family, so I  finally got to meet her adorable 1 year old.  My other friends killed me at Whoonu - they tied 19 points above me.  But, that makes sense; after all, they're engaged.  (Yes, to each other.)

Where Playing is a Full-Time Job

"Ooo.  I like the way that [debauchery] sounds.  Even though I know it means three hours of sober, fully-clothed board games and literacy quips." - The Great Ecclestone via text message.

And so, game night begins.

 

Last night was game night at Mommy's house.  She even took off work today so she could stay up late and play with us.  And we did, stay up late and play.  Games from 7pm til 2am.  Splendid!

(The kitchen, ready for game night.)

Actually, those of us who live here started early in the day with one of our favorites, "Listen to the Water."

Here's the water rolling down the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some ducks by the waterside.  (Quack, Quack)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the evening Mommy joined in the fun.  We began with 10 Days in Africa.  (The Great Ecclestone showed up in the middle of the game.)  Munchkinhead won most of the rounds.  I think on one trip, she walked through Sudan about four times.

(The Great Ecclestone near the cheese and cookies while Mommy plans her trip.)

Next, we moved back into the living room for a little gymnastic fun.  The Great Ecclestone took home the most Twister trophies.  Mommy got mad the first round, because Munchkinhead got out before her.  (Alfred, Mommy and The Great Ecclestone on the mat.)

After Alfred popped her hip, Munchkinhead fell on me and Mommy hurt something, we decided to return to the slightly more serene kitchen for a good rousing game of Times to Remember.  It's a match-the-year-to-the-event type game.  Hard enough, made even more so by the fact that the game itself is almost 20 years old.  Well, we managed at least to get fairly even teams by putting me, Alfred and the Great Ecclestone against Mommy and Munchkinhead.  The aggregate ages of the teams were only about 3 years apart.  We won!  Partly because I randomly guessed that Reggie Jackson did some sports thing in 1977 and was spot on. Hee hee.

Then the Great Ecclestone taught us a new game called "Celebrity."  It was pretty fun.  The Great Ecclestone and Alfred won the first game, despite the fact that The Great Ecclestone had never heard of Barnabas Collins.  Mommy, Munchkinhead and I killed them the next game though, even though Orgfish had arrived and joined their team.  Turns out The Great Ecclestone doesn't know Miley Cyrus either.  (Orgfish and I both put the Great Ecclestone in the pot; he does know himself.)  (Mommy thinking of her celebrities.) 

Finally the mail man arrived and we could really get going.  So we played, at my insistence, All About Town Milwaukee.  I really like this game, the others, not such fans.  Daddy got it for Christmas and even he won't play it because he says it's too hard.  Everyone was quite relieved when Orgfish won.  (Alfred, the mail man, Orgfish and part of Mommy playing the Milwaukee trivia game.)

The Milwaukee game turned out to be such cerebral torture that we had to follow it up with Whoonu.  This fabulous game of getting to know your friends is a favorite and comes out at every game night.  We finally had someone who liked the "Big Dogs" card!  Hooray for the mail man.  It's always a challenge when playing with someone you don't know or haven't really hung out with for several years.  Loads of fun.  Turns out Mommy knows best, she won.

Our last game of the evening, which, by this point, was actually the middle of the night, was Wise and Otherwise.  Another favorite game, often included in game nights.   We probably shouldn't have saved this one for last; it requires thinking.  By this point in the evening, the cheese plate was empty, a gallon of milk was gone, two bottles of wine were quite depleted and several animals had migrated into the kitchen from the jungle room.  Mommy won. 

(Mommy's Rhino watching the board and her giraffe getting into the M&Ms.)

Here's my favorite picture from game night.  That's me, The Great Ecclestone and Orgfish enjoying our drink of choice.  (Mommy actually cut us off and said no more milk, gave me wine instead).

These are my oldest and dearest friends (well, most of them).  I've know them since 6th and 5th grade, respectively.  (I don't have any friends from before that because we moved here just before 5th grade.)

 

After the milk was gone, we switched to another favorite.

 

And so game night ends.  Everybody happy, tired and with pains in their sides from laughing too hard (and eating too much).  The Great Ecclestone added at the end of the night:

"You know, things really haven't changed here in the last ten years."