Board, math, and card games

Do you remember that game that you played when you were a kid called "Trouble"? It had a little plastic dome with a 6 sided die in it. When you would press down on it, it would spring back up and roll the dice. You had to get a 6 to start moving a piece...any way Nancy's Grandparents are obsessed with this game. It reminded me of when I would feed our cats at my Mom's house. Turn on the electric can opener the cats would come running. Same thing with this game. When you press the plastic die rolling dome it makes a very distinctive click, and when the Grandparents heard that, "Game On"! Oh and it should go without saying that they take this game very seriously, and they will cheat too.


Nancy, Olinda, and Vic working on a Suduko puzzle. I think that Vic figures these out in about 10 minutes, but likes to watch everyone go nuts trying to solve them.

OK, there is this Italian card game called, "Briškula". From what I understand it is in someways a lot like "Spades" but in just as many ways nothing like "Spades". There are Diamonds(which look nothing like diamonds), Clubs(I suppose it could be used as a club, and in that respect risible a club more then the American suite), Spades ( it's a sword not a spade), I'm not even sure that there is a forth suite. You can talk to your partner about what you have in your hand, in fact there are even "secret signs" that you can use, pretty funny to watch. Jacks are valued more then queens...I guess that the suffrage movement has made it back to Italy yet! And by the way the queens look pretty masculine for some reason...they are also described as dressed. For instance, if my partner would ask me how my hand looked and I had a bunch of kings, queens, and jacks, I would reply,"I am well dressed" But if I did not have very many kings, queens, or jacks...or none at all I could respond in a couple of ways. "I am not dressed at all", "I am undressed", "I'm bare ass naked" or I could tell him that I am well dressed but give him the "supper secret" sign that I am not well dressed.

Lord bless Vic's kind patient heart. I do not think that I will ever learn this game. In fact, I don't even know if we won or lost that night. Oh well it is just fun seeing Uncle Mike, Fred, Vic, and Grandpa get all excited about it.
Grandpa Bruno did give me some words of encouragement, he said,"Ho avuto pesci dell'animale domestico più astuti allora voi!" I'm not sure what that means but he seems very wise.