I’M ON THIS GAME KICK

When you’re into Perfection, Keep on Your Toes
You have to be quick, cause here how it goes
Push the plunger down, set the timer
Put the pieces in place
Don’t be slow, with Perfection
You gotta move on fast, move on fast
Before the pieces pop-up before you put in the last
And that’s perfection

I still remember the song to that commercial from many years ago when growing up and it keeps ringing in my head to the extent that I’m on this game kick. Not electronic, video, computerized or internet games; but board games. I’ve been having this fear that the board games that I grew up with will no longer be available and will eventually become obsolete; because everything is either or going electronic, video, computerized or internet.

I had some of these board games growing up and don’t remember what happened to them. Even some of the stores that only specialize in board games are folding. I remember Game Keeper, they had a couple of locations, well they all folded and now there’s only 2 places left; Game Towne and Game Empire that sell an extensive selection of board games.

You can still find some of these board games at drug, department and toy stores, but these places don’t have the variety of sizes, various kinds of woods and creative game pieces in Chess, Checkers, Backgammon, Mancala, Dominoes, Chinese Checkers or Mah Jong. These places lack the originality and uniqueness of these board games because most of them are made out of cardboard with plastic game pieces. The game stores game pieces come in wood, jade, marble, stone, tile & metal and of course you would have to be willing to spend booco bucks for wood, distinctive game pieces and larger sizes of these board games. I must admit that the average board games such as Monopoly, Clue, Life, etc are less expensive at drug, department & toy stores than these games stores.

Another thing that I like about these game stores is that I saw a lot of games that I never even heard of in addition, they still have some of the older games that I would estimate date back to the early 1900’s maybe even older. They also have different kinds of Chess; I even saw a Star Wars Chess set. You’re not going to find these games at your typical drug, toy or department store.

When I went shopping for these games there are some many versions of Monopoly I was overwhelmed, but I still prefer the original version. There were also several Pop Culture Games that interest me, but they were expensive. Mulysa, I went to a couple of places that only specialize in board games, Game Towne & Game Empire but still no luck in finding that game you described to me with blocks and marbles; I’ll keep my eye open though. I bought some of these games for TC; her birthday is coming up soon, Mulysa’s kids and myself.

FAREWELL TO TRAVELING ABROAD.....I THINK

Well, Scregman and I took our last trip abroad to Italy and I must say that this was the best trip ever. The gondola ride, lagoon cruise to Venice, ruins, grottos, boat ride around the Isle of Capri, Naples bay, Tuscany’s countryside, Pisa’s leaning tower, Amalfi’s Coastline & Tivoli’s Fountain. Italy is truly a beautiful country with exception to Rome, it’s so dirty and there is graffiti everywhere; we saw the Vatican and the Pope lives in the Ghetto. Rome does have cool fashion, like Paris I did see some unusual clothes there I ended up buying 3 skirts in Rome. The natives are nice; they have great food especially the seafood and Gelato is excellent. Our tour guide was awesome and our bus driver, the way he rode those curves along the Amalfi Coast plus we met allot of nice people on the tour not like the Buffalo Herd of ladies that we met on the Spain tour. I’m not one for talking badly about people but these women were so rude that they deserve this title.

Why is this possibly the last trip abroad? Simply because there are no more places left that I’m interested in seeing. Scregman is not too big on traveling but when he comes along for the ride he has a great time. I started traveling alone early on and saw every place that interests me.

When I first started traveling I had an interest in the tropical places and wanted to see what they were like; so my 1st, 2nd & 3rd trips were the Bahamas (Nassau), Hawaii (Waikiki-Oahu) & Jamaica (Montego Bay) all 3 in which I had several bad experiences, maybe because I was traveling alone; more on those later at another Blog. Then I started to have an interest in Europe in which I went on to London, Switzerland, Northern Italy & Paris some were with a group or my cousin. Other destinations include Colorado, Missouri, Virginia, Canada, New York, Alaska, Australia, & Spain.

My cousin moved a couple of times, first to Denver in which she lived for 5 years; she loves the snow and wanted to see what that was like. That is what brought me to Colorado 3 times when I use to go and visit her, twice was to visit my cousin and the third was with her to visit her friend and go cross country skiing in Vail. Five years later she moved from Denver back to San Diego to take care of her sick mom with cancer and then from San Diego to Alaska.

With Missouri I’ve been there twice. The first time was to visit a friend in St. Louis of mine and her family and the second time was when one of my co-workers/friend who doesn’t drive lost his father and asked me to drive him and his sister there for the funeral. This was in a small town in the outskirts of Missouri in which we had to fly part of the way to Missouri and rent a car to drive the remains of the way to the small town because they didn’t have an airport.

In Richmond, Virginia, my cousin had a friend that moved there; she knew this friend when she lived in Denver so we both decided to go and visit her.

What took Scregman and I to New York was his high school friend wedding.

I decided to go to Vancouver when I helped my cousin move from San Diego to Alaska; so we droved along the coast, through San Francisco, Oregon & Washington said our goodbyes, she went on to Alaska and I to Canada. Three years later I went to Anchorage to go and visit her.

With Sydney, I’ve always wanted to see it and it helped financially because Scregman has an aunt and cousin that live there, so we had a place to stay and didn’t have to worry about hotel expenses and we rarely ate out because Scregman’s aunt cooked nearly everyday.

I’ve heard from several people that Africa was the best trip they’ve ever taken and how there’s nothing like a Safari ride. I have 2 cousins that live in Japan and one cousin in Germany that really like it there. I’ve also heard from co-workers that have done the Amazon Rain Forest and really enjoyed it; I just never had an interest in any of these places.

I’ve heard great things about Amsterdam from friends and co-workers, Amsterdam scares me, I consider it the country of Sin because there are just too many things that are legal there. And then there is Prague, one of my co-workers just came from there and he said it was awesome.

The only other place that I would consider traveling abroad to would be Sicily. Our tour guide on the Italy trip said that we gotta come back to Italy to see Sicily; I’m very curious about the little villages where the Mafia came from. Last, there’s still the Americas and their National Parks; I have to see Yosemite and Yellow Stone.