Getting Closer to Batman

How many bats does it take to become Batman?  This is the question the question of the week in my house.  It is kind of like the question of how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop.  

Last year there was a bat in the house while I was at work. It is easy to think what I would have done at the time, but it is hard to really know what I would truly do.  A year later from the last bat incident, we were revisited by the brown bat. 

Dib was no help with the bat and Iggins hid under a bed.

It started simple enough. I was puttering around the guest room talking to Laura on the phone when I noticed something at the window.  I didn't have my glasses on, and it was a dusky twilight in the room, so I couldn't immediately identify what was going on.  Less then a minute later, it became clear as a bat flew out of the window and at my general direction. 

Oh, did I scream.  Down the stairs I thundered, hollering about a bat as the winged menace followed me.  My husband was less than thrilled about the nocturnal nightmare fuel that now inhabited the kitchen. My husband and father in law collaborated in the bat removal.  I did my part and screamed every time it flapped around and laughed maniacally when not screaming. The bat was released back into the night air. The whole event was kind of like the thrill of a roller coaster, you don't really know what the next turn is going to be, but that rush of adrenaline makes your giddy with anticipation and makes you silly.

In a moment of silliness, it made me contemplate if I am one step closer to becoming Batman. There is some serious bat trauma that has to happen before Bruce Wayne lost his parents that helped shape him.  I have had some not so serious bat trauma. How many bats does it take to become Batman? 

Apocalyptic Flat Tire

It is a wonderful night for a flat tire. I love the way it brings me perspective.  I don't think I ever understood windchill until the car tells me it is 44 degrees out and the wind has me seriously thinking it was 29 degrees out.   It is a cosmic requirement for me to have a flat tire when I am least appropriately dressed.  High heels, dress slacks, thin jacket and a shell top is the opposite of what a person should wear to change a tire.  

This experience has made me understand why in post apocalyptic films, the clothing looks like it was randomized out of yard sale rejects. It always bugged me that it seems like they don't even try to have anything that remotely goes together in those types of movies.   As the wind ripped through the thin jacket and shell I was wearing, I searched my car for any sort of additional clothing I could find.  Search results yielded a spring green tunic vest and a burnt orange crayon colored wrap.  They clashed horribly with the cheerful crocus colored shell and eggplant jacket, but I didn't really care.  Fashion could take a hike when you are cold. 

Thankfully my flat tire was in the parking lot of my work and one of my coworkers stuck around until my husband showed up. Between the two of us, we had the spare tire out, the car jacked up and we were getting ready to take lug nuts off by the time my husband pulled in. (Jamie is awesome, and we had that accomplished in maybe 10 minutes.) Despite my husband saying that we did the hard part of getting the jack set up, he did the truly hard part of getting the lug nuts off. I think removing the lug nuts is the hardest part of getting the tire off and he did it like a pro. He is a hero.  Jamie is a heroine. I am that weird person that cracks terrible jokes when faced with adversity and doesn't lose their cool. (Also wind chill is bull shit.) 

Thank you Jon and Jamie for not letting me become a weird pre-apocalyptic desert wanderer with bad fashion sense!

Boss Monster

Boss Monster a Dungeon Building Card Game

Boss Monster plays like a side scrolling video game. There is only one direction to go, and it is forward.  The concept is easy to pick up. You have your Boss Monster and to protect your Boss Monster from the persecution of wanna be heroes. To do this you have to build various dungeons for the pesky heroes to way laid. 

 Not only are you trying to build up your tolerance to the intrepid heroic traveler, you are trying build up a greater cash flow from the ones that have perished in the dungeons. Ever hero that is kill equals at least one coin. Get ten coins and you win. If  five Heroes get to the boss monster and you are dead. As the games go on, the heroes get stronger. 

There are spell cards that sometimes help you against the heroes or help you sabotage someone else's dungeon. If you aren't careful, you can really hurt yourself with the spell cards, because you need to be sure you read the card instructions exact. Spells can be used in the dungeon building phase of the game, which is normally a bonus to help you defeat what ever hero is intrepid enough to enter, and other spells are used in you action sequence and can be played against heroes or other dungeons. There are few spells that can be played when ever you want. Use those spells wisely. 

All of the Bosses in Boss Monster have special abilities that you get to unlock when you achieve five dungeons as protections. Depending on what you Boss you have, is going to help you decide how quickly you want to build your fifth room or if you want to upgrade any current rooms. This is a very strategic part of the game, because if you build your last dungeon too soon, your power up from your boss can be defeated and might not do you as much good as it would if it was played at the beginning of the game.  You have to be sure that you read  every single card carefully so that the hero does not get the upper hand. 

When you go about constructing you great and wonderful dungeon that is a refuge for the greatly understood monsters, you have to think about the vast majority of things that monsters would be interested and what peaks the hero's interest to try enter the dungeon.  Each room is going to have a symbol at the bottom right corner. That symbol, be it book, sword, bag of money or ankh is what brings the heroes to the yard, not milkshakes. I wish there was a milkshake dungeon room. I could see a bunch of succubi sitting around and enjoying a good milkshake and having a laugh.  Moving forward, the heroes are interested in either the recognition of defeating the monster (sword), the vast intellect and knowledge (books) or riches (bag of money) and treasure of religious artifact (ankh). 

There is only one hero that is not after the sword, books or ankh, and  that hero is The Fool. He is a really easy kill and is practically a free gold coin if he stumbles into your dungeon. He goes into the dungeon with the least amount of rooms built. His death helps keep starving monsters feed for one more day.  I am pretty sure The Fool has been served in my dungeon cafeteria a couple of times as a delicious soup.  

All other heroes fall into four categories, Fighter, Thief, Mage and Cleric and are drawn to you by how much riches you have that interest them. If you have a lot of book related rooms in your dungeon, the Mage is going to be really interested in you. If it was my dungeon and a Mage come in to pillage my library, I hope the Mage likes to cook, because I am pretty sure they are all cookbooks and maybe not the mystical knowledge of the unknown that he is looking for. My Monster Boss likes to eat well. It is the perks of being a Monster boss.

 The fighter is drawn to the fighting rooms  to achieve the recognition and glory. The Thief is drawn to the shiny gold in the bags, while the Cleric is trying to restore glory to the church and save the non Monsters from damnation. Each Hero has a name and a little blurb underneath them, and some of them are hilarious and tongue in cheek to other popular genres out there. 

 The pixel art is fun and delightful quick play makes Boss Monster an easy grab and go. There are no small pieces to lose, and the game can run from 15 to 20 minutes with experienced players and about 45 for first timers, because you really need to read every card. This is good game to have in any gaming collection and is a great 2 to 4 player game that is good for a variety of age ranges.    Enjoy!