Home Sweet Home

Well, now own a house in Framingham, and since I rarely make resolutions nice to achieve one I did make (buy a house by Nov 2009). Closing went fine yesterday. Moving in tomorrow and spending some days getting settled. Will end up needing lots of stuff, particularly outdoors stuff (lawn mower, grill, deck chairs, etc...) and to get used to home maintenance stuff. Should be interesting. Am hopeful the commute will be alright - think in the morning it will - much less sure of the evenings.

Will have a house warming party but maybe not until August.

Gaming in NH

Had a really fun weekend gaming in NH at Brian's event. I think, amazingly, I only played one new game (Black Sheep - pretty bad) and also only one game that I rate less than an 8 (obviously Black Sheep again). Played lots of Tichu, Dominion, and Crokinole but also got in games of Titan, Race for the Galaxy, Merchants of Venus, Spinball, and St Petersburg, and won a 9 person poker tournament. Was really happy with this, as most events end up dominated by the 'cult of the new' and, honestly, most games aren't really that great.

I ran a small Tichu tournament which went very well with Brian and AaronW beating Nate and I in the 1500 pt final in an incredibly close game. My Grand on the final hand which would have won it for us was hurt badly enough by Brian's King call with a 1-6 straight for them to stop me and win. However, given I had called it with only Phx KK, can't complain too much (ended up with DPAAKK) and overall they played really well, while I definitely made mistakes, like losing track of the Phoenix not being played on the first hand and thereby giving them a 1-2.

Also helped AaronW run a small puzzle event which ran just the right length and which 3 of the 7 teams finished all of the puzzles for, only one of them meaningfully early. He is amazingly good at judging the lengths of these things, something I really don't understand how he does.

Signed the P&S

Well, just signed the P&S for the house in Framingham. Still have to figure out mortgage but everything going smoothly so far. Closing is now June 18th and I expect that I will move on Saturday the 20th. Probably again going to try to get friends to help so if you think you'd be up for helping that day, let me know - I will also send email asking this and with more details to people. Move to this place which is basically the exact same set of stuff to move this time went very smoothly and think whole thing was only like 3 hours or so. My current place is right by Alewife and for anyone without a car I'd of course make sure you get a ride home. Also, plan to feed all helpers with whatever people want from Tennessee's BBQ which is yummy - will be glad to be nearby them now.

Bought a House Today!

Well, put in an offer and had it accepted on a house in Framingham today. At the maximum of my price range unfortunately but really loved the place, even though a bit small (but also has a very nice unfinished basement so the potential for a bunch more space if I need it in the future). All in all, saw 11 places and this place was BY FAR the nicest one, in nearly every respect other than location and that just because a bit long of a commute but in a really nice spot in Framingham - and in Framingham the commuter rail is a completely reasonable option if I find the drive too painful.

Hopefully the inspection and the rest of the process goes well as I really don't want to end up back out looking and comparing other places to this one, as they just aren't going to stand up to it.

I am really excited and not having or expecting to have the slightest bit of buyer's remorse.

Btw, the place only has two bedrooms but both of them are effectively masters and will be very happy to have guests if people are in town once I am there and settled in - closing at the end of June. Also, will plan to definitely have a housewarming party.

Knockabout Tournament

Close to exactly 3 years ago, Tom Vasel wrote a negative review of one of my favorite two-player games, Greg Lam's Knockabout. Tom basically claimed the game was all luck, a not that surprising (albeit not accurate) claim of an abstract game that involves rolling dice much of the time. I strongly disagreed with him.

Well, recently David Dyer implemented an online version of Knockabout at www.boardspace.net and decided to run a tournament of the game. The tournament was 16 players in a single elimination format but playing best of 5, 5, 7 and 9 games in the four rounds to even out the luck elements there are in the game. Well, the tournament ended last night and I won with an overall record of 16 wins and 4 losses (played 1 extra fun game with one opponent which is why it is 16 and not 15), and that against some quite good opponents. Now, I think this 80% win rate was definitely lucky and all and wouldn't have expected to do nearly that well but still, I really do think this tournament pretty much proves my point in regard to the disagreement above.

Thanks to Greg Lam for designing the game (and providing prizes for the tournament), David Dyer for implementing it and running the tournament, and Doug Orleans for pointing out the tournament to me. Also, of course thanks to all my opponents for some very fun plays of this great game.

Crossposted to my blog and to BoardGameGeek.

Humorous story in the NYT - "My Life With Cables"

Very amusing story and great illustrations - My Life With Cables.

Tichu Game - kind of amazing

Played a Tichu game over the weekend that had a pretty amazing first 6 hands. In ALL of these hands, our opponents had the Dragon AND Phoenix (a less than 1 in 4000 chance). In addition they always had at least 1 ace and as many as all four (wrote it down but now misplaced but think their ace count was something like 4,3,1,2,1,2). What was the score after these 6 hands of them having all the cards (and by the way, there were not bombs or crazy good combinations on our side)? 500-500 Sadly, we ended up losing this game after this (and we definitely had the skill advantage in the game) but crazy first set of hands.

Looking for a House (and Realtor)

Well, although I had expected this, turns out I definitely have to move (and hopefully buy a house) by early July. I actually don't think this is a bad thing but definitely a lot of work ahead.

If anyone knows of a realtor (or a house) they would highly recommend, please let me know their name and contact info. I am looking for a house (single family, detached) and fairly flexible about where although based on my searches now and when I was looking a couple of years ago, the two towns that seemed to provide the most hits on my criteria were Waltham (preferred) and Framingham but lots of other places (Watertown, Natick, Somerville, Cambridge, Arlington, etc...) are not out of the picture either. Would probably prefer to be West than North or South.

Will be first time buying assuming I find something too so any other tips or whatever welcome as well.