A Walk to Remember

It's been a full week. Some of the highlights include:

I now own Settlers of Catan! After some thought, I decided to get the base game instead of one of the add-ons, which was also an option, as then we could join it with Grant's board for even more fun. It was a tough decision, because you can play the basic game for free online, single or multi-player, at http://catan.jsettlers.org/index.html . The graphics suck, but once you get started you stop noticing, and it's nice having a quickish game that you can play with your friends over the net when you don't have time for a proper visit. Note that the color of wood in the on-line version is different between the cards and the board, this is slightly confusing! In any case, I've been playing it a lot this week (with my youth, with Ben online, with Ben and Reuben live), and am getting a bit more into the strategy of the thing! (After getting trounced twice by sheep farmers of all things, I've started researching what makes farmers tick.) I look forward to playing more games with you all in the future!

Saturday movie group was interesting too. We didn't have a place to host the event at, so we went on a treasure / scavenger hunt courtesy of Jamie! Our trek took us from Elim Place (the canal) to Pierson Park, to Fairview Mall, in a cirlce around downtown, and back to Lake Street! 3 hours and 52 minutes after we left (with a couple stops for snacks), we arrived victoriously and somewhat tired at Jamie and Marjorie's place! I expected to run out of steam halfway through (having fallen arches doesn't help), but surprisingly, I was tired but not in pain. Oddly, a single hour of shopping at the mall often gives me foot pain, suggesting that maybe I do better walking than standing? In any case, it was four hours of good exercise, which I was pleased to get! The length of the trek possibly set a new record for me. The only walks I've done close to it before (that I can think of) were several cross-city expiditions with Shannon in grade 8, and a memorable trip when I was very young (grade 4?), walking home from the dentist with my mom and little sister. We walked from NOTL downtown to NOTL Line 1, (5.5 km) a very long trip for a kid that age, but a lot of fun!

Does anyone in movie group have photos of the walk that they would care to send me? (Jamie? Shane?) I'd like to add them to this post.

Speaking of Shannon, we met him & his wife Ruth-Ann on the way to downtown! Both groups were en route to other destinations, but we took a few minutes to say hi and introduce people, which is a nice first step towards my master plan! (No, not the plan for global domination. The other plan silly!)

Also, I've added a new link! http://prettymess.ca/is Shannon's site. Shannon is into anything to do with art or media. He writes, directs, acts, makes music, paints, does photography, reads, etc etc. The only art form that I can think of that he (might) not do is dance, and Ruth-Ann does that! Ruth-Ann is also heavily into the arts, so they are well matched. Shannon has formed a group of friends who get together and make films, and this is their site.