Several of you have asked me about great games to play with your friends. I’d like to clue you into a fantastic little board game called Blokus.

The easiest way to describe this gem of a game is to say it’s little like Tetris with a healthy helping of Chess mixed in. There are four colored sets of blocks: red, blue, green, and yellow. Each set has 15 tiles of varying sizes and configurations. The goal of each player is to get all your blocks on the board.

Sounds easy, right?

The catch is that you can only place your pieces on the board with each piece only touching the corners (not the sides) of your own pieces. Each color moves in sequence, one piece at a time.

The game is for 2 to 4 players.

I cannot recommend this game enough. It is easy to pick and learn and it will provide hours of entertainment for young and old alike.

The first-ever Sangria Sunrise, Tapas Tango party, held at the gorgeous Casa de Pate, was a success! I’d like to thank everyone who came down to party with us. The food was decadent, catered by the beautiful Brandy (website pending). I look forward to throwing another bash down at the house — pictures to be posted shortly.

A big kudos goes out to Andrew for the break-out comedic performance of the evening. Holy crap — I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.

And for those of you playing the home game, be on the look out for homebrew beer recipes, gaming tips, and other such goodies in the near future.