So last night I met up with Jones. We did some multiplayer Puzzle Quest on the DSes, then headed over to Adventures Underground (the comic/game/book shop he works at part time). There I met Logan, Heather, and Amanda. The former two joined us in a game of Carcassonne (with the Inns and Cathedrals expansion). Heather won (narrowly beating me by five points), mostly thanks to her uncanny luck with cloister tiles.

Then we played a few games of Cowpoker (which I bought along with the Catan Card Game). Cowpoker is kind of a simpler version of Burn in Hell, but with much shorter turns, no “permission” mechanic, and a really nifty poker theme that forces you to consider multiple qualities and patterns whenever you play a card. I really like the way it makes you weigh potential poker hands against unrelated point values (e.g. “Is it worth giving my opponent a flush if I simultaneously increase my gang’s value by 6 points?”). IIRC, a “deadwood” player won one game, Heather another, and I won the last.

Then Logan, Heather, Jones, and I went to the 10:10 showing of Stardust at the Regal theater in Kennewick. Fifteen minutes in, I was pretty sure it’d be just another generic, B-movie-esque witches-’n'-swordplay fantasy contrivance. But it turned out very decent. I never really got myself to like the two main characters (a smug nobody with nice hair and Claire Danes, who strikes me as a poor man’s big-nosed Gwyneth Paltrow), but the rest of the cast was pretty good. The combination of LotR-ish sweeping shots and campy, nigh-slapstick humor was… odd. Still, it was entertaining. Not the best thing I’ve seen this summer, but not a waste of $8.50 either.

After the movie we went to Logan’s place in West Richland and watched his Cemetery Man VHS. Supremely bizarre, depressing movie — Logan’s right: It haunts you after the first viewing. Logan and I, incidentally, have really similar tastes in DVDs; there’s a lot of overlap between our collections. Offbeat, slightly obscure stuff like Amelie, Best in Show, the Are You Being Served? box set, Ghost World, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc. Anyway, great people, all of ‘em. It’s hard to find truly geeky folks like these that aren’t socially inept, weirdly emo, or otherwise awkward to hang out with.

Anyway, I’m here till tomorrow. Hurt my back lifting some stuff at the clinic. Got some pictures to share when I get back to my desktop.

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