Bookshelf:

Recently Read & Reviewed:

• Tony Daniel, Metaplanetary

Currently Reading:

• Dan Simmons, Hyperion

Next Up:

1. Dan Simmons, The Fall of Hyperion
2. Margery Allingham, Mystery Mile
3. Yogesh Chadha, Gandhi: A Life
4. Margery Allingham, The Gyrth Chalice Mystery
5. Wil McCarthy, The Collapsium
6. Margery Allingham, Police at the Funeral
7. Pat Cadigan, Synners
8. Margery Allingham, The Fear Sign
9. Frederick P. Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month
10. Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Pashazade

Rummy & Rules

The holidays sure went by quick. Debbi and I took down the tree this weekend, and also the lights outside my house. The tree has been up for about four weeks. It was a good tree, but it got dry pretty quickly and was looking a little brown when we hauled it out. Still, it smelled nice while I had it, and the cats didn't eat too many pine needles (mainly because they helpfully spread them around by regurgitating them in other rooms).

I chatted with a neighbor elsewhere in my complex today and she said he daughter really liked the lights we put up on the tree out front. That was cool, and I made sure to tell Debbi since it was her idea.

Anyway, I have a big plastic container for all my Christmas stuff and I'm going to stick it up in my attic for next year. It's always sad to have another holiday season passed, though.

Seems like it was a pretty lazy weekend, too. Debbi has totally gotten into playing card games lately, and we spent the weekend mostly playing variations on Rummy. My preferred form of Rummy is Gin, but Debbi apparently plays some very different forms of the game, which I've never encountered. The scoring in particular is very different.

On the plus side, Debbi helped teach me how to shuffle more elegantly, since I've always taken the "shuffle and then jam the cards together into a pile" approach. Now I'm practicing at being able to riffle the cards back into a single pile.

On the other hand, Debbi pointed out that I sometimes drive her up the wall when we play games, and she thinks now it's because I'm very rules-oriented, and she's not. I know my friends and I used to make up rules from time to time, but I was pretty happy to leave that behind me eventually. And many of my gaming buddies are also very rules-oriented, and we often look up rules to settle differences of opinion. I guess this is the way I always figured gaming should be: The rules are there to provide a level playing field for a group of competitors. I certainly play games for fun, but I find that when there's disagreement over the rules and no good way to resolve it (i.e., a rulebook) it leads to arguments and hard feelings, and less fun.

Anyway, we've mostly been playing by "my" rules of Gin Rummy (actually the rules from my copy of The Official Rules of Card Games) and Debbi's caught up pretty quickly to my skill level. Next weekend maybe we'll play by her rules.

I dunno, though. Debbi might be getting a bit too competitive for me!