Have you ever noticed that at times one's life has a form of motif?  Our
first vacation to the Outer Banks was dominated by cats to the point that we
"needed" a cat a day.  Right now our lives seem to be dominated by, of all
things, games.  All of us love to play games on the computer.  We each have
forms of games that we prefer and, for some reason, most of them have feline
observers and even players.

My personal computer favorites are hidden pictures, puzzle, and organized,
non-poker card games.  I had Hoyle's Card games on the desk top and became
addicted to canasta as a result.  Unfortunately, no human around here plays
it.  I usually go into the HP games consul and use either free games or use
the wild coin option for play.  Favorite games currently include "Puzzle
Express" a sort of tetras like game, "Big Kahuna Reef 1 & 2" I love a good
explosion in a game, and an assortment of hidden object games.  Right now,
I'm play testing "Big Adventure: Sydney"  In each round one is taken to an
attraction and searches for items hidden in plain sight in the screen
picture.  Between rounds a variety of puzzles is used to show one where the
next game location will be.  Of course little snippets of information is
displayed on post cards and are fun to read.  Of course the game includes
cats as hidden objects, though not as much as in "Big Adventure:  San
Francisco."  More importantly, Miss Calico Girl loves to watch me play from
the book case by my bed and Pine Cone likes to get behind the screen and
streeeeetch out and make himself comfortable.

Rob loves to play (as do I) Spider Solitaire, and Mah Jong on the computer.
We can get him to play UNO, Cribbage, Spades, Rummy, Skip-Bo, Risk, Talisman
(we just got him the recently released fourth edition) Monopoly, Sorry,
Scrabble, and various other games.  Mandy started teaching him how to play
"Magic:  The Gathering" today.  He had fun and won the first game.  I now
have to get Mike's best friend, Jason, to build Rob his own deck.

"Magic: The Gathering" is a cause of another problem for the kids.  There
are a lot of aficionados who love to play the game.  They all attend the
local Community College, FTCC.  The only place to play, generally, is in the
cafeteria of the student union building (see where this is going?).  It is a
public room and is used by students, faculty, and visitors for various
purposes.  They include studying, eating the drek the college over charges
for, eating the food the students bring in instead, talking, using lap tops,
studying, playing cards and so forth.  Several times a security guard has
walked past the students playing poker (cash on table) and kicked the magic
players out of the cafeteria.  They aren't making a lot of noise, they are
being respectful and leaving without complaint, though they don't understand
why the guard is selecting them as targets, and they are working with one of
the deans to fix the problem.  He has no problem with the kids being there.
The guard told the kids the other day that the dean told him to kick the
kids out and not let them play there.  The kids went to the dean right
afterwards and he says that he never talked to the guard, let alone tell him
to kick the magic players out.  The kids are holding in there, but their
patience is wearing thin.

I think this is the time to make an appointment with the president of the
college and get this straightened out.  I told the kids that maybe they were
trying to wait them out until the end of the semester in hopes that the
problem will go away.  Meanwhile, the guard is so hateful that he's had some
of the girls in tears.  I also suggested that the kids arrange a boycott of
the food services there and even a sit in if the situation is worse.  I'm
willing to drive fast food runs for the kids.  The kids are doing no harm.
They aren't skipping classes, they are playing between classes, and are
actually adding to the revenue of the cafeteria.  They aren't loud or
obnoxious like the poker players, they don't have music cranked up like some
of the gang bangers do and the only way they could be a nuisance, is that
they like to sit at the tables by the window to the outside.

BTW, four cats were learning Magic with Rob this morning.  They also helped
me read my Saturday paper at the same time.  They are so helpful.  They
looked over Rob's shoulder, laid on his cards, got in his face and did the
same for Mandy and Jim.  Rob thought it was funny, Mandy did not.  They were
as interested in learning Magic as they are learning D&D.  Which happens
here at least twice a week.  I've semi retired from playing and DMing, and
am debating about keeping my dice collection.  I'm  not quite ready to divvy
them out yet, though I thought about it during my shower today.  I was in
charge of a dungeon that I thought was going pretty well, but people were
missing multiple weeks of play and then coming in and taking up where they
left off and I got tired of it. Oh well, when I do divvy up the dice, I'll
give the gamers in this group their first choice of color options.  Sonya
will want whatever she can get her little puddy paws on.  She's a gamer girl
and loves to roll dice.  I have probably donated more dice to the heat vent
and furnace than I care to admit.  Sonya has a wicked paw when she gets
those dice spinning.

On the health front (remember this is mostly OT)  I developed a boil on my
other cheek and ended up playing safe and visiting the ER to get it checked
out.  We're all pretty sure it isn't a health hazard, but after last year,
we are more careful than before.  I'm on Clindamycin tablets with doses of
300 mg four times a day.  I think the ER staff doesn't want me back either.
We also got my tetanus shot renewed as it has been ten years since the last
vaccination. My left arm really hurts.  I'd forgot how bad it could be, as
my last shot was given by this woman who thought that anyone who came in for
shots was a whimp and deserved all the pain she could give.

Pam S.