Nothing better to do than stay in on a Friday night, cook a nice quiet dinner, and relax over a game of Monopoly.

Ahh, I do love board games. I will always and forever love board games. I can still look up into the top of my brother's closet at the dozens of board games and have tiny heart palpitations of glee - which one could I choose? Sure, some are rather lame (the My Little Pony and Troll games give away their age) but some are just classic. Pictionary, Scrutinize, THE GAME OF LIFE (how much do I love that game), they are all filled with hours of gamey goodness.

We always used to get a boardgame at Christmas, still do mostly, which we would open on Christmas Eve and play with the whole family. The most recent game was Cranium, which I love to play but sadly noone else finds it quite as amusing as I do. Hmph.

Monopoly will always be my favourite game though. We have an old version of it, the money is all faded and the cards dog-eared, and I also have the special Australian edition, which is really cool. I saw an advert in Kmart a couple of days ago that had this really nice wooden box set. I want to go take a peep at it. Fun!

Anyway. Back to the whole point of this post.

People should play board games more often. It should not be so hard to co-erce someone into spending maybe 45 minutes of their time playing a game. Games are fun! I need a game buddy. =( Last night though, I somehow managed to con J. into playing a game of classic Monopoly with me. I don't think I've been so excited in a rather long time.

I warned him.

I told him I was quietly (and ferociously) competitive.

I informed him that I was the Monopoly Queen.

The game began. He started accumulating houses and cash. I was jailbait, about seven times in ten dice rolls. I had no colour-sets to put houses on, he had a whole corner of the board game to himself. I was panicking. He was smirking.

Until!

He spent all his money on houses. I continued to panick, particularly since I was getting in jail so much, and that his money makers were all in close proximity. Would you believe though, that the entire time we played, not once did I land on his houses? Believe it! I am the Monopoly Queen. To make a long story somewhat shorter - the tables turned, I whooped his butt, and enjoyed a rather long evening of gloating. Beating a guy is perversely fun.

So, on that note, does anyone want to play a board game with me?