Game Night is another one of those things that goes back to the very beginning of our relationship. The first summer we were together, we lived in Oakland, and were each working only about twenty hours a week. Each Tuesday night, we would walk into Squirrel Hill to hit up our favorite bar of the time, the Squirrel Cage (its real name is the Squirrel Hill Cafe, but if you say that name, no one will know what you’re talking about). On Tuesdays, they offered free wings from 6pm until they ran out, and then $6.95 pitcher and food specials. Yes, that’s right, you could get a full pitcher of beer AND chicken fingers for under seven bucks.
But what was best of all about Tuesday nights was that while you were watching the Buccos lose, you could also be playing Yahtzee. I taught Michael to play Yahtzee at that bar, for the record. We also learned how quickly rivalries and friendships are made and broken over the course of the game Sorry. And finally, we got really good at trivia of the 1980s from their ancient copies of Trivial Pursuit and Outburst (when in doubt: Dallas or Ronald Reagan is probably the answer).
Unfortunately, we don’t frequent the Cage like we used to. The major reasons are that ‘inflation’ (::coughcoughwhiningaboutthealcoholtaxcoughcough::) has driven up prices, and there are no longer specials, and the juke box has been replaced with one of those new-fangled touchy-screen ones (I am a juke box purist, which is a topic for another blog). Also, someone stole the copy of Yahtzee that we loved so dearly and had written our names inside the top lid of, and so we had to bring our own copy of Travel Yahtzee, which just made us look like absolute nerds.
So, in the essence of being economical and not smelly (the Cage is one of the smoking bars left in the city), we decided to host a game night at our house. While it wasn’t quite the same, a good time was still had by all, and we could play whatever songs we wanted without having to drop an extra dollar to go on the special menu.
Angie (Michael’s sister), Vinnie (Michael’s brother), and Deanna (Vinnie’s wife) getting into the spirit of Apples to Apples. I usually can’t stand that game, but I toughed it out for everyone’s sake and actually enjoyed it!
I have been obsessing over the Freak Show’s song “Tupac Wants Your Gall Bladder” lately, and lo and behold, I got the Gall Bladder card.
And oh how timely, it was about a week after Michael’s mum had her gall bladder out, and a few weeks before his sister got hers out. Hey Tupac, Michael is next in line! 😉 (I choose the healing powers of humor, at all costs teehee.)
Lucy figured that somewhere in all that mess of cheese and crackers, there was a serving or two for her! She is not very good at Apples to Apples, but she is very good at begging!