the cribbage challange

mark and i love to play cribbage. it seems we are pretty evenly matched. perhaps because much of the game depends upon the luck of the deal, unlike chess, for instance, where you actually need a strategy, which means that i don't stand a chance against mark! but cribbage, now here is a game that i can really win...usually. but not last night.

if you look closely at the board, you can clearly see that the pegs in the red have advanced all the way to the finish and the the pegs in blue are lagging far behind! ugh. i hate it when he wins. now he has gloating rights. and i suppose he will use them as ruthlessly as i have used them since our last match when i really smoked him!

this game has a long history with us, about 14 years long. when we were still newly weds, a month shy of our first anniversary, we took a trip to estes park, colorado. it was fall and the aspens were bright and yellow, the nights getting chilly, and elk were bugling. we stayed at a beautiful old place, the elkhorn lodge. we spent one morning shopping in the gift shops and bought this game on a whim. later we took it with us to a sandwich shop for lunch. our waiter coached us on the rules of the game and we played our first match. since that october in 1994, we have played this game countless times. we take it with us on dates and play in the restaurant while we wait for our food. usually we have to scramble to move the cards out of the way when our order arrives. we have taken it on airplanes, to the beach, and camping. i guess you could say this is one of our traditions. and even if i lose the game, i know, really, that i have won.

everyday gift: a little friendly competition