Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Air Hockey- Best. Game. EVER.

For my immediate family, Dec. 25th is a secular holiday of presents, food & family fun. As in years past, J10X & I arrive at my mom's house, fashionably late, with santa hats on our heads & my incredibly warm, long, heavy forest-green cloak about my shoulders. (It is of no surprise to me that people no longer wear substantial cloaks to drive- the shoehorning of myself & that garment into my car alone is a Herculean effort, never mind clearing enough room around me in a sea of wool to locate the car's gearshift.)

I have finally come to the realization that all along it is only my sister, mother & myself who get completely hysterical during the present opening. My 5 year old nephew (Jack) doesn't even get that excited, tho' he claimed to be way more excited than me. But there's just no way- he doesn't even get to drink mimosas before gifts.

But the most fun to be had was when my dad brought up an air hockey table he had purchased for my nephew - or so he thought. J10X & Jack tried it out (Jack employing the Nowyckyj Goal-Blocking Ploy- placing his forearm in front of his goal) but things really heated up when J10X & myself went head-to head. My dad was pretty sure we were destroying the table & my mom was laughing as hard as we were- air hockey can get very intense, very fast & very fun. Half the time you end up knocking the puck into your own goal by mistake, or in my case, sailing it onto the floor, into my sister's back, the walls, etc. Considering the advent of so many great computer games, Xboxes and the like, I was amazed at how intense a simple game like this could get- we were sweaty & totally crazy.

So, we finally peeled ourselves out of there & to home- we recuperated by watching 'Mr. Bean's Holiday' which was a tad disappointing- good effort made to create a story, but I expected way more silly stuff. This past weekend we also watched 'Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix' which I was only compelled to watch because I had seen all the other movies. I think with the exception of the 'Prisoner of Azkaban', they've all been disappointing. I've not read any of the books, but the movies tend to make me feel that a LOT has been left out.

So, now I have a week to create & read!

Happy Boxing Day!

6 comments:

C. Margery Kempe said...

Air hockey is a contact sport, but safer than the real thing. My dad made us an air hockey table top, large enough to fit over the pool table, so we really got some spin on the pucks. There were a lot of dents in the piano from them.

Rowan Atkinson is terribly terribly funny -- except as Mr. Bean. I can't stand Mr. Bean. I think the first thing I ever saw him in was the first Amnesty concert where he did the schoolmaster sketch. Blackadder just got better and better as it went along.

CL said...

I liked all the Harry Potter films just fine. It's the Golden Compass that was disappointing.
I felt like there was definately something missing there.

The Queen said...

I'm not nearly as fond of Mr. Bean as I am of the Blackadder series- which did get better & better with time!

I first saw Atkinson on a SNL-type show called 'Not Necessarily the 9 o'Clock News' - one of the best bits consisted of him in a chair under spotlight, and he would just speak long, multi-syllabic words in his own inimitable way...

I'm sorry to hear the 'Golden Compass' is disappointing!

I think Harry Potter is a pantywaist....

C. Margery Kempe said...

They took too much out of the story in The Golden Compass, but it sure looked lovely.

Not the 9 O'Clock News was brilliant -- we were just watching the Comedy Connections show on it (which traces where people were before and after a show). Kudos to the creator, the ever bubbly John Lloyd, who now runs one of my favorite shows, QI.

Anonymous said...

I was amazed at how intense a simple game like this could get- we were sweaty & totally crazy.

Yeah, but what about the air hockey game?

lushy

The Queen said...

Oh, I meant to say 'air hockey is the Best. Aphrodisiac. EVER.'