New Years Eve 2024

Within a few minutes of midnight, we put down our draw bags for the board game Quacks of Quedlinburg (QQ) with all the Witches additions and 3D printed parts and counted down for the end of 2024. Happy New Year, dear reader!

The Magic The Gathering games broke up when some folks left, giving Clint (Annika’s husband, Annika being Susie’s niece) a chance to get out QQ with all the expansions. Some moaned when we learned we had to learn the new version and that the potion components could vary from the QQ regular game after various drinks, but we found our way. As usual, all my luck happened at the start of the game, and I blew up multiple times, losing my lead. I came in third with another player just passing me. My last play had been unlucky. QQ is a push-your-luck and resource management game. It is a favorite, and I would say the updated version was fun.

After the New Year, I soon headed out, was at my hotel at 1, and slept late after a shower. My coughing is still endless, with each morning being a hope that finally it will stop, but only to be ruined as the nasal drip starts again. Ugh.

Going backward in our story, I watched some football, grazed the finger foods often, and chatted with mostly strangers for most of the evening. The college bowl games are on with a new organizational structure that has left some unusual matchups. Penn State vs. Boise State was the one we watched. Penn State should have crushed their opponent, but as usual, after a few touchdowns, the underdogs, Boise State, started to push hard and threaten to unseat Penn State. Boise State team, tasting an impossible win, began to make mistakes, and penalties started to cost the team the game. Penn State then rallied and crushed Boise State as expected.

A sugar cone, Zuckerhut, was lit over hot mulled wine, Feuerzangenbowle, and soon, the caramelized sugar and hot wine were in our cups. It was great. This is a German tradition that I had not experienced before, and we all felt the German emotion called Gemütlichkeit (loosely translated as friendship). Lovely.

Various folks arrived, and I was introduced as a family member from Oregon. Various grazing foods and drinks were provided. As I was coughing and had to drive later, I kept drinking to a few small drinks of the Feuerzangenbowle hot beverage.

Before this, I learned that Clint had received the excellent board game Wrymspan (WS) as a Christmas present. We punched it, and I taught. Soon, we had it all set up and started a game. There were a few questions, but the game structure, a revised version of the massively popular Wingspan, seems to play itself. You are there to make decisions, not drive the game’s mechanics. Soon, I was fighting to win, and while my score of 75 was good, Clint’s 85 was excellent. I did get some very complex turns done and demonstrated them to Clint. I thought I played well, but I struggled to get the correct dragon cards, and my amber area was weak the whole game, meaning getting dragon cards was difficult. Still, it was excellent gameplay, and Clint got to play and learn a new game.

Before this, I met ten folks for tacos at the local taco place, Mi Jalisco. I had driven from the Bagel Cafe in Nashua, New Hampshire. I traveled in Air Ford NH. I wrote the blog while having a bagel (while not a NYC version, it was still a bagel). All the Hill and Weis clans had mostly tacos, with me going for three Taco Tuesday 99-cent shredded beef tacos. I was inside while the clan waited for me outside. I had arrived first (though I had the furthest to travel) and then waved them in. Lunch was great with the usual mix of young eaters who ate everything or lived off just looking and moving food around. After the meal, I took a few with me back to the house while others scattered for various missions to prepare for New Year’s Eve.

Before this, I rose before 8 and was feeling better. I started the blog and, at 8:30, boarded Air Ford NH, a borrowed Ford Escape, and found my way to the Bagel Cafe. There, I had a salmon (bad breath) bagel.

And that takes me to the start! Thanks for reading.