Coach Blair, Kakerlaken Poker & Cast Iron Utensils

Whenever I ask Coach Blair to take a picture of the class he always takes a selfie. It never fails, if I hand him my iPhone I'm going to get a selfie of Coach Blair. If you haven't noticed from these pictures he's a big ham and it's awesome. He's also one of the most enthusiastic, encouraging and warm hearted coaches at NerdStrong Gym. He knows his stuff and know exactly how much to push you, even when you don't think you have any more left in you.. Thanks Coach Blair.

Other randomness that happen today.. I got several things in the mail. First was a card game that I first played in England with my friend Erlend and Matt last year. It's called Kakerlaken poker, it's so simple to play and super fun. I've been wanting to get it for a while now, but it's fairly expensive for such a small and simple card game but I found a deal on ebay that I couldn't pass up. 

Here in the US it's called Cockroach Poker... Here's a bit more about the game and how to play it.. Cockroach Poker is a reverse set collection game that has nothing to do with poker – except that the game is all about bluffing, but with cards that show cockroaches, rats and stink bugs instead of queens, 10s and aces. The goal of the game is to force another player to collect 4 of any one type of critter.

The deck includes 64 cards, with eight copies of eight types of critters. On a turn, a player takes one card from his hand, lays it face down on the table, slides it to a player of his choice, and declares a type of critter, e.g., "Stink bug". The player receiving the card either... Accept the card, say either "true" or "false", then reveal the card. If this player is wrong in her claim, she keeps the card on the table in front of her face up; if she is right, the player who gave her the card places it face up before him. Of you can peek at the card, then passes it face down to another player, either saying the original type of critter or saying a new type. This new player again has the choice of accepting the card or passing it, unless the card has already been seen by all other players in which case the player must take the first option.

The game ends when a player has no cards to pass on his turn or when a player has four cards of the same critter on the table in front of him. In either case, this player loses and everyone else wins.

The other thing I got in the mail is part of my Samwise "The Hobbit" cosplay for SDCC this year. I was trying to find "fake" cast iron pots, pans and utensils as I didn't want to have all that weight on my back/backpack but that doesn't look like it's going to happen so I got these really old cast iron utensils. There not as heavy as I thought they would and I don't think I'll be hanging all four of them off the backpack so that will also help with keeping the weight down.