We are in the middle of a major house reorg. This has resulted in games that have been buried in back closets now prominently displayed in dining room book shelves.

I'm not sure I mentioned in this venue the game fiasco of a few weeks ago. The kids fought so much over which game to play that we played nothing. And thus we instituted the Sesame Street cake cutting rule. Perhaps you remember this. One disembodied hand cut the cake, and the other disembodied hand got to pick their piece first. My children are still fully embodied, but one picks five game options and the other picks the game.

Using this rule, tonight we pleasantly played Ra and Skip Bo. Interestingly, neither of these games are on our regular go to list. I think they got picked partly because they were visible but also because we didn't have to come to consensus. (Oh Swarthmorites I can't believe I'm considering that consensus is not the answer to everything.) Ra is Seven Wonders set in ancient Egypt and not as pretty. None of us mastered any strategy in what was, basically, our first time playing it. But we got the hang of it. And more and more I appreciate games where the turns either go quickly or there is something for everyone to do every turn; this was the former.

Skip-Bo was neither. The turns can take a long time and you wait in dread as someone takes the play you were planning on. The game itself also took forever. I'm not jumping at the chance to play it again though I did like the fact that it took barely any strategy, so I could play tired.

I'm presuming a lot of game playing in the next month or so. If I get a five, they are going to be Yahtzee, Clue, Seven Wonders, Mastermind, and Hello My Name is Inego Montoya You Killed My Father Prepare to Die.