Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The Big Kahuna at the grill

Sunday, The White Rabbit hosted a Labor Day barbecue at his house, which The Gryphon and I attended.

We called our dog walker ahead of time to arrange for her to come through and walk Una once so that we could stay as long as we wanted.

Since I figured it would be primarily burgers and hot dogs, I brought some frozen veggie burgers that could be grilled for me. I had to be especially careful at this outing, because I am trying to watch my figure until my wedding day to make sure my dress fits as well as it can.

Therefore, I brought food I knew I'd be happy to eat. Along with the veggie burgers, we also brought a veggie tray. Interestingly, I didn't open the veggie dip, because I figured if someone wanted it they'd open it. No one did, and they polished all the veggies off, except for the tomatoes, which were a bit off.

We were among the first to arrive. When we got there the Devil's Advocate was there already, along with The Con Ops Guru and The Big Kahuna. It seems everyone I spoke to at the barbecue that day wanted to talk about our wedding plans. I told them all that it was going well and that we just have relatively minor details to finish.

Other guests slowly arrived, including The Punster; The Cheshire Cat and The Paper; The Paralegal; The Martial Artist, The Book Lover and their son; Batman; and The AMV Editor. So it was a pretty good crowd, albeit small.

Not long after guests began arriving, The Big Kahuna started up the grill. At my request, he cooked me two veggie burgers. I ate one right away and put the other in the refrigerator for later, figuring that if we stayed over dinner time, I'd want something to eat.

I put the veggie burger on a low-calorie hamburger bun someone had provided, then filled the rest of my plate with fresh vegetables. Since it was early in the day, I grabbed a light beer, too.

As I was writing down my Weight Watchers points for everything I ate, I managed to keep on track throughout the day.

Once the vegetable tray was demolished, I had another option. The Paper had brought a delicious corn and bean salad, which I first tasted at my bridal shower when The Warrior Princess brought a bowl of it. Which reminds me: I have to get that recipe!

I spent a lot of time talking to The Book Lover about nutrition. Her son is allergic to a variety of foods, so she has to pay close attention to how she eats while he's still nursing. He's gradually starting to eat solid foods, so she might not have to eat that way too much longer. She certainly has learned a lot over the past several months.

We talked about healthy alternatives to common foods, and she told me about some crackers she found that don't have any wheat (one of her son's allergens) but are really delicious. They're called Mary's Gone Crackers, and she said she found them in her local grocery store. I'll have to look for them.

After everyone ate, I tried to interest people in tossing around a Frisbee I'd brought, but I couldn't find any takers. I should have known it would be a challenge, since The Cousin and her family weren't there. Oh, well. It was worth a shot.

I got into conversations with the guests, mingling as much as possible. I spent a little time on the back porch with The Gryphon and The Cheshire Cat, who is the best man for our wedding. They spent a lot of time talking, and while some of it was wedding related, most of it was just fun.

The Gryphon tells a story

A bunch of people had brought some new games they wanted to try. The Dormouse had brought a new version of the card game Munchkin, which uses cards related to the Cthullu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. I joined in on a game, along with The Punster and The White Rabbit. If I forgot anyone, I apologize.

This, again, is a card game where you react to the various cards drawn, which range from a monster you have to fight, objects you can use, special actions you can take, or character cards. You go up a level every time you fight a monster or sell enough objects to equal 1,000 coins. The first person to get to level 10 wins.

The game was fun. While Munchkin often gets cutthroat, most of us weren't playing that way, except for The Dormouse, who tends to be a tough competitor. This meant he had to face our wrath when we had the opportunity to get back at him. I actually wasn't playing to win; I was playing to have fun. So it was kind of amazing when I did win, by defeating a really pathetic monster, which was some sort of a log. I think it was called a Loggoth. By that point, everyone had exhausted their really mean cards dealing with some of the other people who had nearly won, and no one could prevent me from winning.

After that game was over, we took a break. People wanted to get some dinner. I heated up the veggie patty in the microwave, having that with some of the delicious bean and corn salad. That pretty much filled me up, and as the day wore on, I managed to stave off my snacking. The worst thing I did was have a bunch of mini pretzels near the end of the evening, but as salty snacks go, they're not so bad.

I'd also brought along some bottles of water, just in case there was nothing to drink but beer and soda. It was a good plan, and whenever I wanted another, I put it in the refrigerator first to get it cool. This meant I had enough water for the day, as well.

Since only a few burgers were left, after they were eaten, those who were still hungry made a food run to a local sub shop. While they were doing that, I hung out with people and talked. Some of them were trying to get me to play a strategy game with them, which looked a lot like Risk, but I declined because The White Rabbit had wanted to play Carcassone when he finished his dinner, and I love that game.

At about this point, after The Martial Artist and The Book Lover had left, after The Paper had gone home and The Paralegal left to visit her family that I realized once more I was the only woman present. This is not unusual for me with this group of friends; it's been that way ever since college.

(from left) The Con Ops Guru, The Big Kahuna, The AMV Editor,
The March Hare and The Devil's Advocate play a game

We got a game of Carcassone going, with me, The Gryphon, The Dormouse and The White Rabbit. The Cheshire Cat acted as our scorekeeper and also provided sound advice on where to place piece.

In Carcassone you draw tiles out of a bag, which have pictures on them. They might have green space, buildings, part of a city or a section of road. You have to match them up to existing tiles on the playing space. Players get points based on roads, buildings and other things they complete. Some of the city tiles contain images of trade goods, such as bolts of cloth or barrels of beer. Whoever completes a city gets to claim those trade goods.

The White Rabbit keeps getting add-on packs to his game, which provides new, interesting tiles. We got into an amusing contest, where The Gryphon was building a big city and then the rest of us tried to horn in. He found a tile that allowed him to cut us off from most of it, and he managed to complete a large city nonetheless.

In this game, The Dormouse used the strategy of completing people's cities and then taking their goods. The person who built it still got points based on the size of the city. In some ways, it was all he could do, because he kept drawing road tiles. It was a strategy that paid off: at the end of the game, he won because of all the goods he'd accumulated.

The game went on a little longer than usual, because of the extra tiles, which only made it more fun.

By that time, the other board game in the front room had ended, so everyone gathered together in the front room to chat. With this group of people, it wasn't surprising that the conversation turned to Science Fiction novels.

The Gryphon and I had been up late the night before, so when I started to get a little tired, we bid everyone good-night and headed home.

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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