My folks came to visit this 3-day weekend, and I'm happy to say we managed to play a few games. In some of the early Geek Speak episodes I remember the hosts commenting how common it was for today's gamers to have grown up in a home with parents who played games. That wasn't the case when I grew up. My dad knew & enjoyed both Hearts and Monopoly (I remember being impressed that he had the price & rents of all properties memorized from his own youth), but I could probably count the times we played together on one hand. No dominoes, no Clue, no Risk, and definitely no Acquire for us. I got into boardgaming by way of wargaming-to-roleplaying-to-CCGing, more than anything else. And though my younger brother pretty much came along with me on this hobby, my folks didn't. (And my brother never got heavily into the hobby like myself.)
That said, my parents aren't against playing games. They just don't gravitate to them. Or get too enthusiastic at their suggestion, especially my father. More than anything else, I think they just know how much I enjoy them, and during family weekends it is a way to spend time together.
This weekend my mom watched my daughter and I play a couple Pretty Wooden Abstracts, Gigamic's Pylos and Zenix. She agreed to play a game with my son and I . . . and to my pleasant surprise this turned out to be St. Petersburg! Sam had never played this, either, but they both caught on well enough. I warned them about the danger of running out of money, and didn't crank up all of the tactical plays possible with your reserve, card slots, and turn order. It was probably at the upper limit for them in terms of rules complexity and game length, but still fun. And definitely unique for them. Sam had been curious about this game since he watched me win it as a door prize at SoCal Games Day last month. I already knew I liked it (but only for 2-3 players). Sam and I also played Da Vinci Code beforehand.
Then this evening we even got my dad to play. It was Smarty Party that did it, combined with the Jr. Expansion set that made the game more playable with kids. After one successful game with him, he sat out a second when my wife came home and tried it. Success!
More good news: our latest order from Playme.de arrived. Total time from when we placed the order was just over a month. Again the games arrived in good condition, again we got copies of both Oltremare and Reef Encounter for good prices ($20 and $60, respectively--including shipping). I know some folks on spielfrieks and BGG have reported trouble with Playme.de, but we've not had any. This latest order had one missing game, but I expect to clear that up quickly. (And honestly, Adam Spielt used to do this once in a while.)
The latest Geek Speak (lackluster, but I know they're busy prepping for the con) got me interested again in recording my own thoughts. I suspect Mikko couldn't host the large files easily (even ~15 minute shows like I'm considering add up), but it appears an affordable option exists with Audioblog.com. I'm not a technophile, so need to figure out a simple way to do this. I'm reading some instructive web pages now.
What else? I haven't mentioned anything about our regular Santa Clarita Boardgamer sessions lately. I've actually been writing some session reports, just haven't pasted them in here. Goa is our Game of the Month, but after three weeks in a row we're mostly done with it. Those that like it still like it--those that find it just ok haven't changed their mind. I'm somewhere e in between, leaning toward the latter. I do enjoy it, but the game doesn't justify its own length. Sure, I've got a bias against almost anything approaching 2 hours, but can enjoy myself when the game is good. Or at least when it's good fun. That was true of Viking Fury, not true of Princes of the Renaissance, and pretty marginal for Goa.
Lastly, I've been playing some more play-by-web games again. It's one of my favorite formats. Good ol' Vinci is about to be taken down (though it's still working at Ludagora), so I've got one last game in there. Still really enjoying Droles des Zebres (Funny Zebras) at Boite a Jeux, including three games against its designer, Bruno Cathala! Then there's Rosenkoenig, which is now available through Yucata.de. (Also Chinagold, but I think Rosenkeonig is much better.)