Game night at Redd and Blu's

After finishing what I could get done with the patio, we invited our friends Matt and Kris over for dinner and pumpkin carving. I bought a couple of little kits at Menard's today while getting the window insulation, and we got to work with the little patterns and tools they provide in those kits.

Blu industriously tracing an Iron Man pattern onto his pumpkin.
Can you tell we're hopeless nerds yet?

Of course, I'll be showing off our handiwork in a few days, once our porch is ready for trick-or-treaters. Does anyone in NoMi know if we get a lot of them? Should I look forward to more tricks than treats? Let me know in the comments section.

Matt's very surprised looking pumpkin. Hopefully I don't look
like this if mine gets strewn across the street!

We followed dinner with two games - Asmadi's "We Didn't Playtest This Either" (sequel to the chaotically fun "We Didn't Playtest This At All". Seriously, guys. If you are the kind of person who loves to let the good times roll, spend a few bucks on a copy of either of these. I promise you'll have a great time. Asmadi also publishes a few other games: Innovation (essentially Civilization: The Card Game) Fealty (very fun, and generally quick to pick up), and some others I haven't been able to try. Asmadi is an awesome gamehouse, and definitely worth supporting.

Each player is dealt two cards, and plays one. Cards include
"Kitten Ambush" and "Motorboat" and sometimes require
you to do ludicrous things in the name of winning.

The second game we played is called Gloom, and is a hell of a lot of fun. Each player (up to four) controls a family of five different characters. The goal of the game is to score points by making trouble befall as many of your family members as possible before sending them to their untimely deaths. I think it's a game Lemony Snicket would approve of.  It was also the 2005 Origins Awards Card Game of the Year, pretty high praise!

The cards are see through, so you can see how the effects stack on the
character. You can play cards to cancel rival players out, and accrue points
on your characters. Playing an Untimely Death means the points
are sealed in stone.