The Dooryard

Catan hits Santa Monica Blvd.

Though Halloween was a month ago, I wanted to share the costume that got me most excited on Santa Monica Blvd. First, if you don't know, West Hollywood is home to a party of a half-million people on Halloween every year. There are sexy outfits and funny outfits. But the costume that got me most excited was a unique Catan costume: and the hexagons even fit together! Oh, you can see a picture of Dan and me headed out on Halloween here. It's Cynthia. Cynthia Dickson.

Killer Bunnies rule!

On our trip to Aspen, I was introduced to a wonderful game called Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. When our friend Matthew told us we would be playing it the first night we were there, I was very skeptical. I had done my time playing Candyland with my niece. Luckily, she had at least graduated to Yahtzee. To be on vacation and forced to play a simple-minded kids game? Ugh.

Boy was I wrong. To be sure, the mood of the game can only get so serious. I mean, you're trying to kill other players' bunnies by starving them or attacking them with green gelatin while trying to keep your own bunnies alive and collect carrots. Within all of that is a game that involves several different ways to win, luck and a careful crafting of strategy that can lead to anyone's victory.

Dan and I loved the game so much that we went and bought the game and the next four extensions on ebay. If you love games, go buy yourself the blue starter deck. Or, if you're in New York, hit me back and we'll try to squeeze you into our den for a rousing game someday soon.

A good riddle

I'm an editor by day, and I came across an interesting word that we all know and have all used. It's got a special quality to it, and I've been stumping friends with this riddle. Can you guess what it is:

"What word has three consecutive sets of paired letters. For example, the word could like like this: abbccdde or abcddeeffg."

What's the word?

LCR rolling the dice

While in LA last weekend, I played a dice game called, "LCR." It's a fun, sipmle gambling game in which you roll three dice, each labelled with an L, a C, an R and a dot - and depending on the roll, you either keep your money or give it away. In a big group, it can be a lot of fun - and you're never out of it until the game is truly over. Given how much I love to gamble for three or four dollars, this was perfect (of course, in one of the two games I played, I was the last person knocked out of the $45 pot. Curses!)

Catan!

I love to play bridge - and can often be found on Yahoo's bridge games playing under the name "mabutimoose" (say hi if you see me there). But, my recent discovery is the online version of my favorite board game, Settlers of Catan.