A Little Ace Up My Sleeve

Ashe and I love playing games. For many years, a favorite of ours was mahjong. We were proud to introduce many of our friends to this game after we returned from Asia. Until not too long ago our heavy, large-tile mahjong set was one of few games in our games cabinet. It, a deck of cards, and a cheap Go set were the only games we had. Over the past year or two, however, our games cabinet has filled up quickly. Today, it is almost overflowing.
Our rapid accumulation of board games began with an afternoon in Berkeley where we spent an afternoon playing games with our friends Kate and Neil. That afternoon, they showed us that there are so many games beyond the family standards of Monopoly, Risk and Scrabble. It turns out that the world's best board games come out of Germany. The game we fell in love with that afternoon was The Settlers of Catan.
Two years later, and dozens of 'real' board games later, we were playing the two-person "Lost Cities" tonight. Ashe was winning and I had to find a way to catch up. Two heads are better than one, so I did what any cheater would do: I put an ace up my sleeve or, in this case, a Rai on my knee. More than just a good luck charm, he helped me with overall strategy and with each card that I played. One day you can be the third player Rai, but until then, you're welcome to keep helping me!