Dan’s Daily Photo

This would be my brother and his wife. Friday is the annual Smythia 4th of July Duke’s Birthday/Dog Party/People Party. Duke was born on the 4th, so they usually have friends and their dogs over to have fun. Looking forward to it, I’m sure Esther will have a great time.

Esther’s “You’re going to throw that ball, right?” face.

Mmm, bones. Esther wishes dearly for some opossable thumbs, but then again, she makes due pretty well.

So, this is a turn of Cosmic Encounters, the game we played tonight for game night. Little explanation of what’s happening: The big arrow looking thing with purple discs (Flying Saucers) represents the attacking force — 4 ships (max you can warp at one time). The circle it’s pointing at represents the home world it was attacking (red). So, initially, that planet was scarcely defended — 2 ships, only one red which is all that matters for this. Purple needed to only form one colony to win the game, so it was an obvious choice. Someone played a card that released the all ships from “the warp” (basically lost ships) back to their owners, which can be placed anywhere. Red went from 1 ship defending to 10 ships defending, things are looking up. Plus, Green and Blue are there to help defend as well, trying to prevent Purple from winning. And then the cards are revealed and guess what? Purple plays a decent, but not amazing, attack card, and Red plays….Negotiate. Automatic loss when an attack card is played.

Quick recap: Purple looked sure to win the battle and the game, then Purple looked absolutely screwed, and then….Red loses without a fight. Ultimately, Red didn’t have any options — Negotiate was the only card he could play.

Layin’ with the dog. Played with using my SB-800 as an off-camera flash, mostly just to do it, and something to do (this isn’t one of those photos). Esther didn’t seem to mind too much, until I put it behind her. It makes beeps whenever it goes off and finishes recharging, so I think that bugged her a bit. Of course she’s asleep right now. I have to say, I’m constantly amazed at how happy a dog Esther is. As Shannon has said, she’s wiggled her way into my heart, that’s for sure.