Well, I'm in Raleigh visiting my friend Griffin and his girl friend. What a god awful drive! Around Washington, it took me two hours to drive forty miles. Yuck-o-rama!

Had dinner at a Mongolian grill--very tasty. Finished off the evening with a can of Beamish stout and some nice conversation.

It turned out my server had powered off when Dave checked it for me, so my apartment must have lost power long enough for the UPS to drain as well. I'll check email tomorrow. Hopefully no important messages were bounced.

Very tired. Time for bed.

Whew! Christmas day, and lots of people here! Besides the family, there was by step-brother's girl friend, and two other friends of the family who had a five month old baby. We all enjoyed a delicious dinner, plenty of fine gifts, and--most wonderfully--generous and kind-hearted company.

I learned a new dice game. There was no name, so I'm calling it Stock Market. Here are the rules:

1. Seven dice are used for any number of players.
2. The game is won when one player reaches or exceeds 10,000 points.
3. At the start of the game, in order to get "on the board", a player must roll at least 750 points in a single turn. After the player is on the board, points from each turn are added to the previous total. (So, at the start of the game a player might go through many turns before getting on the board.)
4. Player can continue rolling as long as at least one 1, 5 or three of a kind are rolled.
5. Dice that can be used for points MUST be used for points. You cannot roll a 5 and choose to reroll it.
6. Points are assigned as:
Three 1s = 1000
Three 5s = 500
Single 1 = 100
Single 5 = 50
Three of a kind = kind * 100. So, three 2s = 200.
7. If a player AT ANY TIME during his turn rolls the dice and no points are possible, the player gets no points for that turn.

Sample play:
Player A
1. Rolls seven dice. Gets three 2s, two 5s, a 4 and a 6. This is 300 points. The three 2s and two 5s are put aside.
2. Rolls the remaining two dice and gets a 1 and a 4. Total points are now 400. The 1 is put aside.
3. Rolls because he needs 750 to get on the board. Rolls a 3. Player is BUST and gets no points.

Player B
1. Rolls seven dice. Gets three 6s, three 5s and a 1. Total points are 1200. Player can roll all seven dice again, or quit because he's on the board.
2. Decides to roll all seven. Gets a 1, a 5, two 4s, two 3s and one 6. Total points are now 1350. Player stops.

Player A
1. Rolls seven dice. Gets three 1s, two 5s and two 2s. Total points are 1100. Player stops because he is on the board.

Player B
1. Rolls seven dice. Gets three 2s, two 1s, a 4 and a 3. Total points are 400. Player decides to stop and keep the 400.

Both players are on the board. Score at this point:
Player A = 1100
Player B = 1750

It takes about 45 minutes to finish a game.

Very nice day, with excellent food and relaxed company. Got very involved with a jigsaw puzzle late into the evening. It's after 1am now. The puzzle is difficult. It's a maze, with all the pieces cut the same shape. Assembled correctly, you must be able to get through the maze. There's lots of green. I pitched in and took the approach of organizing the pieces in ways that emphasize their differences, hopefully making it easier to search for fitting pieces. For instance, I put all pieces with one green nibbed top together, all with a green nibbed top and green left side together, etc. This leads to searching via "I need a piece with a green top and brown left foot", so I go the area with green tops and only look for the brown foot.

Blah, blah, blah! Too tired to proofread that paragraph. Reading a little Doc and going to sleep.