I Survived Watkins Glen

Ugh, why does doing without kids seem so exhausting...

Saturday, Mrs Viscount and I took a bus trip up to the Finger Lakes Wine Festival in Watkins Glen , NY.  She had help arrange it as a fund raiser for the animal rescue she (and we the family in extension) volunteer with now.  Obligatory shout-outs time:

1. Pawsitively Purrfect Rescue is the rescue and their volunteers nearly filled the bus.  
2. Paulson Tours  conducted the tour.  My wife loved working with them, they were extremely courteous and professional.   While the tailgate spread they had this time wasn't as great as the one we had when we took another one of their bus trips to old Yankee Stadium, I must remember that that food for the Yankees game was doled out before batting practice... and was loaded onto the bus right before we got on in Wilkes-Barre.  For the wine festival, food didn't start until 4pm,  which was eleven hours after the buses initially left their garage.   Plus they needed to feed our bus and FIVE others.   Any drunk winos who complained were obviously ungrateful buffoons.
3. Finger Lakes Wine Festival:  This is our second time up here, and it's pretty swell.  Last time I was the DD as a drove my wife and a few friends up.  With the bus, I managed to determine that I'm not a wine person.  Oh, I enjoy the occasional glass or two, but even with my basic appreciation of wine and wine tasting, it seems that most participants fell into three categories:  (1) Idiots  (2) Douche bags  and (3) Drunks.  Very little common courtesy.    Watching most of them take up the entire booth (and attendants' attention) while powering through 6+ wines offered, while offering little feedback, and then them and their entourage picking up without a word and bullying their way through the next stand, without even pondering a purchase.  

I did expand my wine palette considerably, munched on some phenomenal boneless wings and fries for lunch, and jumped into line for a chance to ride in a pace car on the raceway.  Unlike my first foray, this time I didn't giggle like a girl the entire way around:  I waited until the second-to-last turn, when the car powered through the turn and only thing keeping me from landing in the driver's lap was the five-point safety harness.  Only my wife picked up a couple of bottles.  I'll mosey down to our local State Store and do my purchases there.    

That being said, some random gaming notes:

• Reaper Bones III:  As much as  I don't need 150-200 minis for $100, the add-ons have tempted me.  Up to $36 with the Mystic Circle.  Now the Mouslings and Frost Giants have some terrain to fight in.  It is a nine inches across!

• I grabbed a copy of To Cry a Joust off of Wargames Vault and I taught the girls the rules.   Despite the fact that Maja had not learned subtraction in Kindergarten, which is crucial for play, we bullied our way through... and learned a thing or two.   Millie had more fun counting up the dice than moving her Gnome Cavalry, so I was forced to jump in.    Our three passes resulted in a tie, and real rules be damned, we went to Overtime!  Maja had a beautiful kick, a great charge, and proved to unhorse me!  The jousting crown

The jousting field from the rules works just as well.  And playing cards for tactics cards

• My nightly Gaming Grunts podcast while I paint wrapped up earlier than I initially expected.  Their Masks actual play was getting tedious, so I skipped half of them to get to the Keeper's notes for Egypt, and then moved immediately to the Kenya notes.   I'm surprised they lasted that long.  I've been grabbing random one-shots off of Skype of Cthulhu, and I even attempted to listen to a Battlelords of the 23rd Century on RPG Logic, but it was just waaaayyyyy too boring.