Hive on the go

Just in time for my vacation last weekend, I received a new shipment from Amazon.  Inside that box, was my new copy of Hive Carbon.  Hive is a tile placing game for two players, which plays much like a game of chess.  I have been looking to add a couple of two player games to my collection for a while, and Hive was the first one to hit the table.  I chose hive, because it looked easy to teach, but also had a degree of strategy involved.  The durable Bakelite (think dominoes, or rummy cube) tiles travel easily, and can be played on about any reasonably flat surface.

So, there I was, sitting in an airport food court, waiting for my delayed flight.  I pulled out Hive, and looked around the table for any sign of interest.  My dad is not a game player, so that was hopeless, and my mom was just starting a movie, so that just left my wife Ashli.  At this point, my chances of playing my new game were not looking good.  Although Ashli plays a lot of games with groups, for some reason we don't play much alone.  She is also not too fond of head to head thinking games, so I figured there would be little interest in chess with bugs.

To my surprise she agreed to give it a try, probably mostly out of pity for me, and my shameless game begging.  Also to my surprise, I think she liked it.  We ended up playing three games before it was time to get felt up by security.  Ashli ended up winning all three games, which doesn't hurt, to convince her to play again some time.

Hive Carbon is an alternate addition to the original game of Hive.  I chose Hive Carbon, because it comes with the Mosquito and the Ladybug expansions. Each of the expansions come with just two tiles, one for each player, at a cost of around ten or eleven dollars.  Personally I find a price tag of over five dollars a tile to be a bit hard to swallow.  I went with Hive Carbon, because the price difference was less that ten dollars, and made the expansions a little more affordable.  The original version of the game has each bug painted in a different color, while Carbon has all the bugs in black or white depending on the team.

Over all, I am quite happy with the purchase of Hive Carbon.  I expect Hive to be a regular travel companion, and hopefully this will lead to future opportunities to play with my wife.  I just recieved a copy of Campaign Manager, and can't wait to try something with a little more depth with Ashli.  You can bet that when I do, I'll let you know.

Let Me Count the Ways

I consider myself a very fortunate person.  I have a good job, and a nice house, I have plenty of friends.  All of this is great, but none of it would mean a thing without the best part.  I didn't know it at the time, but the night I met Ashli was the most important night of my life (exception being the night of my birth, maybe).  There are so many great things about Ashli I couldn't begin to name them all.  I can't name them all, but I will name a few of my favorites.

She wants to be with me, as much as I want to be with her.  I wouldn't say I am the easiest person in the world to live with.  I can be stubborn, when it comes to arguments, I am known to come up with some awfully crazy Ideas, and I take up as much closet space for my board games, as I do for clothes.  Taking all my quirks into account, when I found someone who still wanted to be with me, I knew what I had to do... As Beyonce puts it, If you like it then you better put a ring on it.


She laughs at my jokes. I know this is a no brainer, because I'm such an entertaining guy, but her laugh makes me feel like the luckiest man on earth.

She is drop dead gorgeous.  I know it is kinda of shallow, but can you blame me? I mean take a look at her.  She is a beautiful woman, and I am lucky enough to have that face be the last thing I see before i fall asleep and the first thing i see in the morning.

She puts up with my shenanigans.  As stated before I have had my share of hair brain ideas, and as stupid as they usually are, Ashli tends to allow me to pursue the ones I want to.  Maybe she is just gullible, or maybe I am just good at convincing her that my plans are good, but I think the truth is that she believes in me, and for that I couldn't love her more.

Ashli really is a goofball at heart.  I bet many of you wouldn't believe this, because she is usually such a reserved person.  I can tell you though that she is a nut, and once you crack her she can be a crazy woman.  I'm not trying to say that i like crazy women, but rather that what I love about Ashli is that I get to know her on so many levels that others barely see.

She is one smart cookie.  I am amazed by how smart she is.  Ashli made it through college in 80% of the time it took me, and she always passed all her classes, which is more than i can say.  she knows just about everything there is to know about children, and in a Harry Potter trivia contest I can't think of a better partner.  She is a very bright lady, and I love her brain just as much as the cute face in front of it.

Here's a few more one liners

I absolutely LOVE...

•  The Sound of Her Laugh
• The Way She Wrinkels Her Nose
• Her Sexy Legs
• When She Tries to do Something New
• The Sound of her Singing While She Works
• How Amazing she Looks When she Dresses Up
• How Cute she Looks When She Dresses Down
• The Look on Her Face When She Gets Flowers
• The Feel of Her Cuddled Up Next to Me While We Watch TV
• Coming Home and Finding Her Sleeping
• When She Does Things For Me That I Would Never Expect
• Playing Video Games With Her
• Watching Her Explore Hogsmeade For Her Birthday
• Watching her Read
• Finding her Asleep in Bed, with Her Book Still in Hand
• Knowing She Will Always Be There For Me
• Knowing that I will Always Be There For Her
• Anything that Makes Her Feel Special.

Although this list doesn't do justice to the love I have for Ashli, I have poured my heart into it.  I hope that everyone who is reading this has someone like Ashli in their lives, because a live without Ashli just wouldn't be much of a life to me.  So... before you click on to another web page to waste a few minutes, find the Ashli in your life and tell them what they mean to you.  Happy Valentines Day to the Girl of my Dreams...