Amparo Bertram

07:58 am: January board game report
My parents joined me in playing a lot of my games this month. Here is the list of all the new-to-them games, along with their top picks for the month.

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Both of my parents decided that their favorites were the Dominion upgrade packs, but they didn't think it was fair to include those in their lists, because they were already predisposed to like them. Thus, Dominion gets a special bonus award instead.

Mom's Top Five
5. Traders of Osaka
4. Colony
3. Aeon's End
2. Five Tribes
1. Pandemic Iberia

Dad's Top Five
5. The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game
4. Yardmaster Express
3. Taluva
2. Colony
1. Pandemic Iberia

Pandemic Iberia comes out as the big winner for the month, with Colony also appearing on both lists.

Tags: board games

08:16 am: After the storm
The Bay Area received a substantial amount of rain in January. While the water was much needed to replenish what was used during the drought, it also resulted in a lot of flooding and damaged roads. It also meant that it was hard to do any work out in the yard, with everything so wet.

We finally had a few sunny days this past weekend, so we used the opportunity to get a lot done. We finished the winter pruning and planted the early spring vegetables, plus more strawberries. My dad worked on putting up fences around all of my garden beds to keep the dogs from digging up the plants. He also did a lot of weeding in the front yard, which I have been neglecting for months.

We're still working our way through my bountiful winter squash harvest. I also cooked up some of the salsify that I've been letting self-seed in the front yard.

I'm going to try growing onions this year. I've been avoiding them because they look similar to an annoying weed that grows here, but I've decided that if I grow the onions only in a specific area, I should be able to tell them apart.

I've placed an order for more bees to replace the ones that were killed off last summer. This time I'm ordering a nuc (essentially a small hive) instead of a package (a queen with a bunch of unrelated workers). That ought to give them a head start in building up a strong colony.