Kubb!

Last night I went over to the “band house” (three of my band mates live there) for a cookout and then what was supposed to be a late band practice. My friend Jared made a lovely meal for everyone (Thanks, Jared!) and my friend Lyndy brought over this insanely awesome Viking (!) lawn game called “Kubb” (There is some argument on the internet as to how to pronounce “Kubb.” Apparently the sound in Swedish is a sort of mixture of the “oo” sound and the “uh” sound).

http://www.valhallapalooza.com/demos.html

Anyhoo, this is pretty much the best game ever. Like, ever ever. Simply, you throw pieces of wood at other pieces of wood and try to knock them down. The rules are a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist. Click here to read a description. We played a few rounds, and, when it was getting too dark to see, we moved the tiki torches away from the grill to either end of the playing “field.” Hurling pieces of wood across the lawn by tiki torch light seemed very Viking to me. I was imagining myself as a huge, strong, blonde woman with braids and a horned Viking hat who can hit a high “A” and break a window (Yes, my parents let me watch too many episodes of Looney Tunes as a child. Ten points to anyone thinking of “What’s Opera, Doc?”). The best part of the game was that I was awesome at it. Yes, I’m one of those people who likes games I’m good at, and hates games I suck at. Anyways, the side my boyfriend Chris and I were on always won (even though the teams changed around a bit), and we did not hesitate to point out the correlation. We were the power couple of Kubb.

http://www.ryanmaria.com/after-the-wedding/game-rules/cornhole

We ended up not having band practice and then played another game (of the board persuasion) called Munchkin. Yes, there really is a game called Munchkin. It is awesome. But not as awesome as Kubb.

So I want to start a new part of my blog, which is sort of the “Ryan Recommends” section (yes, the dorky English major girl likes alliteration). Each time I post, I’m going to let you all know what I’m reading, watching, listening to, etc and why or why not I recommend it. I realize I have zero clout to recommend things to people, but I’d like this to be a back-and-forth thing. I’d love to have you recommend things back to me.

So, here we go:

Listening To: Some Perspective by Galen Curry

• Galen is a great friend of mine, and an extremely talented musician. This is his debut solo album, and I can't stop listening to it. Check him out at http://www.galencurry.com/ (Also, my boyfriend Chris plays electric guitar on the album!!! Couldn't be prouder).

Reading: Watership Down by Richard Adams

• I'm only about 50 pages in, but this book is great. I'm obsessed with bunnies because I have a pet rabbit named Coltrane. He was actually originally named after one of the characters in this book by the SPCA!

Working Out: 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels

• I literally lost 20 lbs over a 6-month period with this DVD. It's awesome. It's hard work, but fantastic. There are 3 6-minute circuits in each workout, which are high intensity. Love it, swear by it.