SHE SAID:

I’d be lying if I said I buy only locally grown and organic food, drive my bike to work every day and wear nothing but cotton. I have tried to be the perfect steward of the earth and after a week of super eco-consciousness and smelling like a pole cat (does anyone know of a good aluminum free deodorant?) decided my sanity was worth more than worrying about a piece of trashed paper towel going in the compost. Since then I decided I would simply try my best and take baby steps. So, I carpool, buy organic and local food when I can, and use non-toxic cleaning products (mainly so Himmery doesn’t croak when sipping from the porcelain).

The Earth Hour Date was one of those baby steps towards becoming more “green”. I love how easy it was. I didn’t have to read any labels for weird chemical names or calculate my ecological footprint (although I did anyway and I need 3.3 earths – yikes!). I just had to turn out the lights.

At first it took some getting used to actually using our brains to think of a new form of entertainment. We decided to play Clue, a game I had never played before and ended up winning! Just sayin’.

I tend to love peace and quiet. A lot. It was so nice to eliminate all of the noise in our lives and enjoy a quiet night together. Whether you’re looking to sustain the earth or just your relationship this is the perfect date for both!

HE SAID:

With Earth Hour being on Saturday, March 27th, and Earth Day next month, we thought it was the perfect time to shut off all the lights and have a date by candlelight.

We started by going to a nearby fruit & vegetable shop that specializes in locally grown food and picked out a few items to include in our dinner. I read somewhere that using a barbeque was more eco-friendly than using a stove. I have no idea if that’s actually true or not, but that’s what we did for our electricity free evening at home. Along with our hamburgers (topped with maple mustard from Sugar Moon Farm), I tried something new by putting carrots and green beans wrapped in tin foil on the barbeque. It all turned out great, despite the fact that I’m just learning how to cook foods that don’t have the initials K.D.

After dinner, we lit some candles in the living room as it was beginning to get dark. We then realized that we hadn’t thought ahead very well. We were planning to play cards, or a board game, but neglected to get either one before shutting off the lights. What followed was a dangerous and frantic search through a dark closet, lit candles in hand, for said deck of cards or board game.

Our board game of choice was Clue. I’m sure if I say I’ve never played Clue before, someone will tell me I played it as a child and just forget (I’m looking at you, Mom). So instead I will simply say that it’s been long enough since I last played that I totally forget everything about it. After we read through all the rules and set up the board, we had a very enjoyable evening solving a murder by the flickering light of the candles.

It was really quite easy to have a fun date at home without using any electricity. I do have two tips for those who want to try this out. First, if you plan on making or eating food as part of your evening, it might be a good idea to time it so that you aren’t cooking in the dark. Second, make sure you have any games you want to play, books you want to read, or any other activity ready to go before it gets dark. It will save you some frustration as well as cut down on the chances of accidentally burning down your house.

Regardless of where you come down on the issues surrounding the environment, there’s no denying that it’s a good thing to take care of the earth. If you’re wondering what kind of impact your life is having on the environment, check out the carbon footprint calculator. It might be all the motivation you need to have an eco-friendly date night.

For the locals: Check out Second Nature, a website with lots of great information about improving the way we live and our impact on the environment in Nova Scotia.

Cost – The basic game costs around $30 depending on where you buy it, and expansion packs average around $20 each.

SHE SAID:

When some friends from England came home for Christmas, they mentioned getting together to play an exciting new game called Carcassonne. I’m usually up for learning a new game, so I agreed without hesitation. I had no idea what I was in for. This is the game that keeps growing and growing until you realize you’ve unleashed a monster.

The game’s playing space is made up of tiles that you lay down with each turn. It starts with a happy little river and then explodes into a booming medieval metropolis. It’s not like you’re leisurely building your own cute little city, though. No, no. That would be too easy and stress free. No, there has to be fire-breathing dragons and forts and catapults that destroy everything you’ve worked so hard to build for the past 4 hours. Oh yeah, did I mention you need a solid 4 hours at your disposal to complete this torturous escapade?

I know it sounds like I hate the game and, in part, I do, but I don’t think I hate its core concept. I think I would quite enjoy the basic game of building castles and fields and roads with my meeples (wooden playing pieces). However, there are numerous different expansion packs you can buy, such as the dragon, that wipe out everything in their path and leave you feeling bitter and angry. I’m not a very competitive person, so these add-ons did nothing good for me.

Carcassonne is great at its core for couples to waste away a rainy afternoon with and can conjure up some healthy competition. If you really get into the game you can purchase your own wooden meeples online and custom paint them (meeplepeople.com). If you have a large table, a competitive spirit and some time to waste Carcassonne is the game you’ve been waiting for.

HE SAID:

Board games are sneaky little things. They can bring people together for a fun evening, or they can tear friendships apart and lead to tears and rage. I had a bad feeling about Carcassonne right from the first time I saw it. I thought there was no way that a game built on cartoonish tiles and little wooden pieces called meeples could possibly be good. Well, I can honestly say I was equally right and wrong.

We played Carcassonne twice over the holidays, with two different groups of people. It can be played by as few as two players, but in order to learn all the complexities of the game, we joined some friends. The first time we played I got completely overwhelmed by all the rules, but by the second time I started to get the hang of it.

I get frustrated when I feel like winning or losing a game is largely out of my hands, and that is exactly how Carcassonne made me feel. At it’s most basic form, Carcassonne is about placing tiles that make up the playing surface. These tiles can be either castle, farm, or road. When you place a tile you have the option of placing a meeple on that tile and only that tile. That part of the game is fun. I like trying to complete a castle or a road and get the points before someone else takes it over. Where things go bad is when certain expansion packs get added into the game. All of a sudden there is a huge element of luck involved, which I didn’t enjoy at all.

Though I wasn’t crazy about the game, I did find one great way to enjoy it. There is a version you can buy on XBox Live (800 points) which I love. It breaks the game down to the essentials which is especially great for newbies like me.

A mixture of being confused by the rules, and frustrated by the element of luck keeps me from loving this game. But people seem to love it or hate it, so I recommend at least trying it to see what you think. You can buy the game at places like Chapters, and if you want more you can buy expansion packs online, or if you live in Halifax check out Strange Adventures.

If you’ve ever played Carcassonne we would love to hear what you think of it.

Cost – Around $20.00 to buy the game new

Board games are a great way to spend time with someone special. They get you away from the hustle and bustle of life and allow for some great times. We recently tried a new game to us called Sequence. Did it live up to our love of Scrabble, or did it get put back on the shelf in a fit of rage, never to be played again? Well, you’ll have to keep reading to find out.

SHE SAID:

I usually can’t stand learning a new board game, even though I love board games. Normally I don’t have the patience to read wordy instructions on game play and score keeping. I just want to play the game. Once in a while I pull it together if numerous people have recommended one, as was the case with Sequence.

Initially, I had sort of passed off Sequence as a boring board game because those who recommended it were of, let’s say, a different generation (love you, Mom!). Boy was I wrong. It’s now one of my top 5 favorite board games (check back for the other 4 as we continue this series).

I find Sequence fun because it’s one of the few board games Brad and I both love. Brad loves Risk and I would rather make firewood out of its contents. I like Monopoly, but Brad would rather live on bread for a year than be subjected to its “drawn out nonsense” (which makes no sense considering Risk takes HOURS, perhaps even DAYS, to complete). End rant.

I personally like Sequence because it can be a two-player game and it has just the right amount of challenge. The board is basically the faces of two decks of cards. To win, you must make a row, or “sequence,” of 5 tokens. Sounds fairly easy, but not so much when the cards in your hand don’t make a nice sequence on the board. It doesn’t take all night to play, like Risk, but also isn’t over as quickly as Dutch Blitz.

Typically, board games are a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon or a rainy day, but they might also work well in the sun. We’ll have to try that out next summer and get back to you. For now, I like how they take you away from your computer and TV screens and force you to converse and spend quality time together. That’s what it’s all about.

HE SAID:

When I was first shown what Sequence looked like I quickly blurted out, “Pffft…Lame!”. But internally I was thinking “Dear God that looks confusing. Quick, make it look like you’re not interested!” You see, me and numbers don’t exactly get along. When I first looked at Sequence I didn’t think about the fact that it was just a bunch of card faces, I just saw a bunch of numbers scattered across the board and panicked.

Luckily this game is great, even for the numerically challenged. The best way I can think to describe it is if Connect Four and Go Fish had a board game baby it would look like Sequence. I’ll leave you with that mental picture for just a second.

There are four things that make Sequence a great game for me:

• The first is that it’s easy to learn. I can’t stand the kind of games where nobody really knows what’s going on, with reading the rules just adding more confusion. The rules aren’t open to interpretation so arguments are kept to a minimum.
• The second great thing about is it works for two people or for larger groups. If you’re playing with six or eight people, you just pair off. The trick is you can’t talk to or see the cards of your partner.
• The third thing is that it’s fairly quick to play. I love dedicating a whole evening to an epic battle for world domination in Risk, but there’s something to be said for being able to sit down for a few minutes to play Sequence and then go do something else. It doesn’t eat up your day like some other games.
• I get a surprising amount of enjoyment out of shouting “SEQUENCIA!!” when I get a sequence.

I think it’s fair to say we both loved this game and can’t wait to play it again. What are some of your favorite board games?