War of the Ring Second Edition

I am teaching myself a game I recently got in a trade. The game is called War of the Ring Second Edition and it depicts the events in JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. It is a relatively complex game with multiple ways to win and many things to keep the players occupied. The board is huge (it covers up a very large portion of my large gaming table) and the game includes different miniatures to represent all of the different nations in Middle Earth.

I played a super-fancified Collectors Edition version of this game at a gaming convention down in Rochester last year. The miniatures were all individually painted and the board was even bigger and more detailed and copies of it can go for over $2000 on eBay. I was taught how to play the game and really enjoyed it, but I'm having a hard time remembering it all as I try to teach myself.

The Hunger Games

I read The Hunger Games yesterday. Well, mostly. I think I read the first two or three chapters the night before.

You see, Allison and I had plans to see The Hunger Games movie over the weekend but the plans fell through. So we decided to use a LivingSocial deal for one of the local theaters to see the movie this week. The coupon was only good for Monday through Thursday and Allison worked at 6am every morning except Thursday. That meant that Wednesday was the night for the movie.

Allison had read the book a while ago and really liked it. I can't remember who she found out about it from but it came highly recommended. When we didn't see the movie over the weekend she guessed that I could read the book before we went to see the movie. I liked the book okay. I didn't find it quite as enjoyable as most other people I've heard talk about it.

For one thing it is written in the first person which I don't like quite as much as the third person with Point-of-View, which seems to be the main perspective used in modern fantasy and sci-fi, which of course is my main reading material. I think that first person is probably more difficult to write in and I'm not sure that Suzanne Collins was really up to it. I don't know if she had used it in previous novels but I don't know about it here. I think I understand why she did it. None of the other characters would have been as interesting as POV characters as the main character, Katniss. And getting the inner thoughts of Katniss is obviously easiest this way. A lot of the novel is spent with Katniss alone trying to stay alive with nothing but her thoughts. But still, I am not sure it was really well done.

The story itself is interesting enough but being the person I am I of course would have wished for more background of the world itself. And here is where the first person comes in, we can only know as much or see as much as Katniss knows or sees. We only get as much character development in the other characters as much as they develop in Katniss' eyes. She had a couple good relationships with other characters, but she wasn't the most likable character herself.

As for the movie, it necessarily compressed a lot and changed a bunch. As with most adaptations you are left wondering why they made which decisions, especially considering that the author herself wrote the screenplay. I enjoyed the movie but the other characters were even less developed than in the book. The actress who played Katniss was good and she made Katniss more likable than in the book. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I enjoyed the movie, though it won't be making a top 10 list or anything. I'm glad I saw it and enjoyed a date out with my wife.

Fantastic dinner at Rinata

If you don't remember my disappointment from our Valentine's dinner, you should go back and read it. It was an overly expensive, adequately tasting, poorly served meal. We partly blame ourselves for going out on Valentine's Day, but it really was quite bad.

A couple weeks ago we had lunch at the beautiful El Tovar Hotel in the Grand Canyon Village. Excellent food, surpassing service, and quite reasonable prices.

Then this Wednesday night we went to dinner at Rinata in Uptown, Minneapolis. It is owned by the same guy as another restaurant we enjoy, Al Vento, in south Minneapolis.

Allison found out about a wine dinner they were having on Wednesday. It was four courses each with a paired wine including Swordfish as the main entree. It sounded very good and was priced at a very reasonable $40 per person so we got reservations.

A day before the dinner Allison got a call from the restaurant that they had had a number of cancellations and had fallen under the minimum number for the wine rep to show up. So while they were still going to do the four courses with paired wines they were changing the menu a little bit and wanted to make sure we still wanted to go. Allison talked to them and the menu still sounded good but they had traded out the swordfish for pork tenderloin. A disappointment to be sure, but not enough to scare us away.

The evening started out interestingly as I took a bus from downtown to just meet Allison there. Turns out that while Nicollet and Hennepin are only a block away from each other for most of downtown, I assure you, they are in very different places in Uptown. So I was wandering around the corner of Nicollet and 25th wondering where this restaurant was hiding and wondering where my wife was. Allison was parking in the parking lot at the corner of Hennepin and 25th and wondering what her husband meant when he texted that he was standing at the corner of Nicollet and 25th. After finally realizing my mistake I hoofed it the mile to the correct location and dinner was able to start!

First of all, I just want to get this out of the way. If you decide to give Rinata a try (and you should) you should absolutely ask if you can be put into Ben's section. Ben was our waiter for the night and I really can't remember a better server in all my life. We weren't his only table but whenever we needed anything he was there before we had to ask. We had our food as soon as we would have wanted it. Our glasses (of wine or water) never fully emptied out. He explained each dish fully so we knew what deliciousness we were about to enjoy.

Before the first course even arrived we had our first glass of wine. We were served a Prosecco that was quite good. Both Allison and I enjoy red wine more than white but we both enjoyed this. Right before the salad came out Ben stopped by to refill our glasses. We were both pleasantly surprised by this as we had only been sipping on our wine. The last wine dinner we attended was pretty strict with only one glass per course. Clearly this was going to be a fun night.

Before our first course was brought out we were served some bread and a olive tapenade in olive oil. A note about the bread: I loved it. It is the same (or at least very similar) focaccia as they serve at al Vento. It has the perfect density and a dusting of Parmesan cheese (maybe?) baked into the crust and a garlicky taste. Dipped in the olive oil and with the tapenade it was a delictable start to the dinner. And another point to our server, Ben. He quickly picked up on the fact that I loved the bread and kept us supplied with fresh bread and tapenade for the entire dinner.

Very soon our first course was brought out. It was a micro-greens salad on a base of sliced beet with chopped almonds and julienned parsnips and celery root. Over all of it was a Processo Parmesan dressing (using the same wine we were drinking).

I'm don't normally enjoy beets very much but this was a very tasty salad. In the last year or two I have discovered that I enjoy parsnips and celery root (they are very similar) so that was definitely a strong addition to this salad and the texture of the salad was very good. The dressing was good but the similarity to the wine was too subtle for me to really "get" the pairing.

After our salad was cleared away we were poured a glass of Sauvignon Blanc that was paired with our second course. Another white that we wouldn't normally drink but was very dry and very good. We were both excited about this course: mussels steamed in the Sauvignon Blanc with housemade fettuccine tossed with pepper flake, garlic, and a touch of butter.

This dish was outstanding. Allison is much more familiar with mussels than I am and she said they were prepared very well. I definitely enjoyed them. The pepper flake gave just the right amount of heat that I could still feel after the dish was done. The wine matched up excellently with each bite. The coolness and dryness of the wine was a nice counterpoint to the heat in the pasta. The noodles themselves were delicious if a little thinner than I would prefer. My favorite housemade fetuccine remains Vescio's. The broth left over after everything was eaten was a nice bonus that was delicious when wiped up with some fresh bread.

Once again, soon after our completely cleaned bowls were cleared away a new glass of wine was poured. This time is was a red to go with the main entree. This was by far our favorite wine of the night, a Banfi Centine Toscana. It was so good that after we had finished our third course I asked to see the label so we could look for it in stores and instead of just letting me take a look Ben said "Of course you can see, here let me just leave the bottle with you." Marvelous!

As I mentioned before the original third course was swordfish which I don't think I've had before and was definitely looking forward to tasting. Instead we got a roasted pork tenderloin over a bed of polenta with sauted spinach and a roasted red bell pepper sauce. He had a particular word for the type of sauce but I cannot remember what it was.

The polenta and spinach were both prepared excellently and were delicious. The tenderloin itself was very good but not good enough to make me forget about the swordfish. It was seasoned well but not as succulent as I would have wished. The sauce over it all was extremely delicious and something I'd like to have again. A good dish but not quite as good as the previous one. The wine went very well and again was our favorite of the evening.

The final course was a dessert of housemade limoncello sorbet with their housemade limoncello.

Allison found the sorbet a little too tart and by this point in the evening the limoncello was a little too strong. I found both an excellent ending to the evening. The limoncello was definitely strong, but not strong enough for me to refuse a second glass when offered. The sorbet was smooth and refreshing and I felt the tartness was just right.

If you can't tell, we had a marvelous time. We were there for a little over two hours but the time flew by. We were never waiting for anything and never wanted for anything. The food was all more than satisfying and delicious. And the price was definitely worth the experience. I can't recommend Rinata highly enough. And remember, ask for Ben, he will take care of you.

Holland Lake

It is another beautiful day for a hike, though we were worried when we woke up to a temp in the 30s. Today we went on a short hike around Holland Lake in Lebanon Hills Regional Park. It was a very nice trail with excellent maps and trail posts. Though maybe not quite as wild as I would prefer.

5 Hours of German Politics

Last night (includes picture) I had four people over for an epic evening of board gaming. We scheduled the time especially for one game in particular: Die Macher. It was designed in 1986 and is one of the classic euro- or German-style board games. The theme may not grab most people though: German politics. Essentially you are in control of a German political party spending money and influencing people as you try to win 7 different state elections while growing your national party base.

It is a very procedural game where you follow a set number of steps through 6 rounds (the 7th election happens immediately after the 6th one without the intermediate steps). Even though you are doing the same steps over and over the decisions you are making are completely different each time. And it doesn't get easier as the game goes on. In fact only 2 of the 5 players scored any points from the last election.

I had only played once before about a year and a half ago and the rest of the players hadn't ever played the game before so it was really a learning game for all of us. We started the game at 7:30 or so. I think the first round took us 1.5-2 hours. The second round probably took another hour. Then the final 4 rounds took another ~2 hours until we finished up at 12:20am. We all picked up what we were supposed to be doing pretty quickly after those first two rounds. Of course, that didn't mean we understood all the ramifications of our decisions, but at least we knew how.

The game is scored such that you really don't know who is going to win until the final scoring is tabulated. You get points for each of the 7 elections. You get bonus points for holding media control in an election you win. You get bonus points for your party platform matching the national public opinions. And finally you get points for the size of your national party base. All of those except the election totals are able to change right up until the final election so it is hard to really see who is winning.

Everyone said they enjoyed the game even though no one really knew what they were doing. I certainly enjoyed it as well. In fact, I enjoyed it more than when I played it over a year ago. My brain didn't quite hurt as much as last time. And lest you think my enjoyment came from the result know this: I did not win. In fact, like most of the games I played at Con of the North, I came in dead last. Even though I try to win every game it is not really important to me who wins. I just want to enjoy myself and hope that everyone else enjoys the experience as well.

Now I'm looking forward to getting this big gameto the table again and I know four other people who would be interested in playing!

DIE MACHER!

A few friends came over for an epic evening of board gaming. Pictured is the middle of the 3rd of 7 rounds of a game about German politics. I'll have a full report later.

Edit: By the way, the name of the game is in fact "Die Macher" and is German for "the makers" or "the fixers", "die" is pronounced "dee" and the "ch" in "macher" is pronounced like the "ch" in "Loch Ness."

Lunch at El Tovar

One of the many highlights of our trip to the Grand Canyon was lunch with Allison's parents at the El Tovar Hotel in the Grand Canyon Village. The dining room was beautiful and built like a log cabin with a fireplace on each end.
Even though there was no dress code (we were in the middle of a National Park) the servers were all dressed in tuxes and bowties. Our server took very good care of us and made a couple of excellent suggestions. He didn't specifically say any thing about a starter but I couldn't resist ordering the French Onion Soup.

It was marvelous. A very crispy top and a deliciously cheesy and oniony broth. I enjoyed every bite.
For the main course Allison and her dad ordered the Navajo taco. Instead of a tortilla it was made on a housemade frybread and made with a vegetarian chili. I had a bite and it was probably the best taco I've ever tasted. Allison's mom and I both ordered the Prickly Pear Natural Chicken. I also had a local beer along with my meal, which you can see in the background of this picture. It was a Grand Canyon Pilsner. Quite good. Allison's dad ordered the Grand Canyon Starry Night Stout that had a great roasted flavor to it.

It was organic chicken marinated in a prickly pear sauce and covered with a jalapeno jack cheese. The chicken was perfectly done and the marinade was very tasty.
And then came dessert...

Mmm, housemade chocolate chip cookie cheesecake! Not only was there a big cookie and piece of dough on top of the cheesecake but the cheesecake itself was cookie dough flavored with chocolate chips inside. Drizzled over the top was chocolate and caramel sauce with a chocolate "mint leaf" sticking out of the back. Allison ordered the vanilla bean creme brulee. It was exquisite. Even though I am still glad I ordered the cheesecake I will admit the creme brulee was better. Thankfully Allison couldn't quite finish her's and I got to eat a good portion of it.

Do you remember our Valentine's dinner? I sure do. The service was subpar, the food was okay, and the price was outrageous. How about lunch at El Tovar? Supurb service by a very friendly gentleman. The food was excellent and their entrees were priced between $10 and $15. What a deal! I highly recommend everyone going to see the Grand Canyon some time in their life and when you're there have lunch at El Tovar.