Yesterday was the third annual boxing day boxing match amongst my friends. For the past two years we have gathered on boxing day to throw some punches and give meaning to the holiday.

This year we copied last year's format and combined the boxing matches with a game of Settler of Catan. If someone rolls a seven in the game they can steal a card from another player of their choice. In our version the person who is having their card stolen may then challenge the stealer to a boxing match in order to not have to give up a card.

This changes the game since you no longer simply consider who has a card you want to steal, but also will they challenge you to a fight, and do you have a reasonable chance of winning.

Here, in the first fight of the night, Girish decided to steal a card from Matt which lead to Matt challenging Girish to a fight and Girish losing the match. From there, multiple fights followed and Justin narrowly beat Mark to victory.

You can find more pictures of the fighting on my gallery.

Last weekend was the Whyte Ridge annual winter retreat at camp and we played the largest game of settlers possible. Mark, Girish, and I brought our boards and expansion packs, which were combined into one huge board.

The game was crazy. It was strange having to get up and walk around simply to place things on the board, or stand up to get a clear view of the other side of the board. We had originally planned on playing to thirty nine points, but ran out of time so we abandoned the game when supper was ready. Mark ended up winning with twenty nine points.

It was really fun although the thirty five minute set up and take down times were a bit on the long side for my liking. Someday we'll have to try this again and actually play all the way to thirty nine points.

I have been wanting to do some night photography this weekend; however most nights have been to cold to convince me to go outside. With any luck I will be able to go out today and actually take some night pictures.

Until then, here is my latest:

On Thursday, Mark Aaron and Heidi came over to hang out. We had tea, Mark went crazy with my camera and then we started a game of settlers. During the game I took various pictures with my camera to play with the limited depth of field. None of them turned out the greatest and the camera was set on ISO 1600 for all of them. So yesterday I set up a fake game and proceeded to take some proper pictures of the board.

Play with the dog as a team.

Music I'm listening to: Underworld - Cowgirl