Iowan Purchases

Awhile ago Joanna made a couple of key purchases at a yard sale out in bucolic Iowa City, IA. I picture it out on the front lawn of a sedate mid-century bungalow, but I wasn't there so I don't really know.  The important part is that she came away with a Scribbage set and a new cooler, not whether or not that talkative little grandmother from my imagination was actually there.

Scribbage, despite its portmanteau qualities, is completely unrelated to the game of Cribbage; it's really more of a Scrabble/Yahtzee/Boggle hybrid. If you haven't played, you should come visit me or Joanna as soon as possible.

The other purchase, a small igloo Lunchmate now known as The Becks! Cooler, hasn't provided as many gaming opportunities, but easily makes up for any shortcoming there with the sheer number of ice cold drinks we've enjoyed from its tub section. Without it we would never have survived our odyssean trips to Oklahoma City and Antigo, WI.

We don't know why The Becks/Becks family needed to identify their cooler so thoroughly, but we do find ourselves yelling "Becks! Becks! Becks!" in celebration sometimes.

In a related story, my intake of Becks beer has increased significantly.

The Mattress Sway

Just because we missed our chance to do the Atlanta Sway between two faux stone maidens didn't mean we weren't going to sway, we just had a less stable base on which to do so.

Words/Non-Words

There's been a little bit of a Scramble revolution in my life recently thanks to a certain chrome covered iPhone. I couldn't believe that I couldn't get a shitty version for the LG Dare, so I was glad to see that Facebook has me and my new addiction covered.

I'm still having a hard time accepting some of the included words of the Scramble dictionary though. Apparently my eclectic Scrabble dictionary knowledge is good enough to cause Barnebey family quarrels, but not enough to prepare me for the Scramble board. That mysterious evergreen shrub, KAT, I think I can handle, but FUNNER really gets me. I'm glad I guessed it anyway since it is actually a Scrabbler. Now I know.

But then there's TWAT. Not a Scrabble word. And should definitely be worth more than 2 points. What made me upsettest though was that I didn't play it, Katie did.

Saturday—now with more games.

In the continuing story of Games I Have Loved, Saturday in The Kee really brought something to the table. The afternoon got underway with a really satisfying round of Breakfast Scrabble over PBRs (I'm unemployed!) that Katie kicked off with LATTED. As in, "No, I'm fine. I just latted over at McDonald's, those McCafés are totally deck." And you can't argue with a game where you get to use HEROBEARS, my favorite kind of bears, and HIV-GLAZE. Ask for it at BW3s.

Next came bowling. We had a variety of skill levels involved, and half-way through the ball return started hoarding our balls. Regardless, the event was a great success due to the beer, the hand-scoring, and the sweet sweet jams that group of black ladies had put on. Conveniently, by the time the Alanis Morissette hour started up we were off to game #3—Crapples2Crapples.

This particular game was something of a watershed moment for Crapples. We've played our internet-cum-reality creation a couple of times now to cautious enthusiasm. Any festering doubts that it might not be as much fun as just reading the googledoc, or the distinct possibility that it would prove unaccessible to non-contributers, have been trampled thoroughly. By charging rhinos.

Game #4: Dancing!

Jenga; Lakeside

Madison's been pumping out some pretty enjoyable weather recently; I haven't shut my porch door in weeks. We took the Jenga blocks down to the lake today to make good on some of that enjoyability. I'm sure the weather would have been enough, but we brought a bottle of champagne anyway. And a Scrabble board, but just for structural support, not tile support.

The 1st game went by too fast; it didn't take long for the top to fall off. We clearly hadn't gotten our Jenga-fingers back on yet. Also, we were distracted by the elephants in the champagne. The 2nd game turned out to be a nail biter though. Luckily I bite my nails all the time

This move was successful.

This move was not.

The Continuing Story of Density, Play

If you've been hoping that I was going to stop talking about this Play Density thing sometime soon, skip ahead now. If you've been waiting to hear about the latest developments, I've got just the thing for you!

First up is some new terminology via the brother Evan—The Densitometer, i.e. the tool that measures the densitosity of a song in the burgeoning field of Densitometry. This was the sole useful contribution that came from our lengthy, multi-day email exchange we had on the topic last week. It wasn't worth it.

Next in line, the long awaited playlist function! Finally, a playlist of your Dearest Densest songs. It's like they're just lined up waiting to be played again. This requires a little bit of applescripting; it's like regular scripting, but on a Mac. Don't try it on a PC. Also, don't judge me on my questionable skripting skillz.

Requirements:
1 Macintosh
1 updated Play Density excel document [see previous post for setup instructions]
1 AppleScript application [available below]
1 double click of the mouse

What you'll need to do:
⓵ open that file in your AppleScript Editor
⓶ change the values at the top of the document for file_path and file_name to suite your own computer/file location

➠ file_path is where you keep your Play Density documents in correct "Hard Drive Name:Users:user name:folder name:" format

➠ file_name is the name of your Play Density excel document

⓷ choose Save As from the File menu and set File Format to Application
⓸ double click your newly saved application
⓹ wait while Excel gets itself together
⓺ watch as iTunes populates your playlist
⓻ indulge your STOS

Weekend Swimming

Joanna and I went to Antigo, WI last weekend for a wedding. We did both lake swimming AND pool swimming. We're ready for our flip turn critiques.

A 10 Inch Span

Last weekend we began measuring our guests here at 929. So far Anna and I are holding down the tall and the short ends of it pretty handily, even when she's got her bun on, but look at that jumble in the middle! Luckily we remembered to mark down the date, so we can all come back and compare later.

℞ 400 mg Dramamine

I took too much video of the latest Barnebey Vacation—it took until now to get it under control.

Livin' In a Lonely World

Double Door: 1 Door, Topped With Another Door

This little architectural oddity can be found directly off the starboard bow of my recently acquired personal porch. Aren't you curious about what's on the other side? Do you think anyone can use it, or is it only accessible from Narnia?

Believe It Or Not - Joey Scarbury

Wienersaurus Rex: The King of the Wienersaurs

This morning, after getting up from my nap, I noticed I'd received a short email from Alyssa at StudentPrint. Alyssa was just writing to let me know my order was ready to be picked up, and I'm really glad she did. I had come perilously close to physically throwing an 85 year old man out of the coxswain seat this morning, before the sun had even come up, so it was nice to find out that our  box of Crapples cards was waiting for me. Everything was coming up Barnebey!

Conveniently, all 5 sets fit perfectly into this cardtub they gave me. And now they're all sitting in our apartment. Waiting for Game Night. I don't know how long I can wait.

Vampire Weekend

Vampires have really been getting a lot of attention recently. With all this increased exposure it's no wonder we're learning more and more about them, and about ourselves. We already know that Katie has a vampire hair-twin. It turns out that she has a vampire voice-twin twin too.

Jason Segel - Dracula's Lament


Next up, Joanna's hair-twin. They've got to be out there somewhere, it's just a matter of which vampire series they're going to show up in. Keep your eyes open for other uni-directional hairdos, specifically ones avoiding the sunlight &/or spattered in blood.

Per usual, the weekend included a jumpshot session. Props can either go really well or really poorly. I feel pretty good about how my wooden stake turned out, but Joanna's invisible trapeze worked out also.