CountryMouse's Refuge

We played two games of Serpent Hearts, a cut-throat pirate-y version of Hearts. Aaargh! I lost both times. :-(

Cat'r devised the rules for this variation on traditional Hearts using this beautiful deck of cards called Pegleg Pete's Deck of Royal Rogues: Pirate Playing Cards. In this deck, in addition to the usual 52 cards, there are four Serpent cards. In Cat'r's rules, the Serpent of Clubs nullifies the effects of the Queen of Spades; the Serpent of Spades gives you -10 points (a GOOD thing!); the Serpent of Hearts is worth 13 points (same as the Queen of Spades); and the Serpent of Diamonds doubles your total points that hand. You can play "blood" cards the first trick! AND for a three-handed game, there are two extra cards, so they go in the "treasure chest". The first person to take Hearts (or the Queen of Spades) gets those also. Could be bad, could be good--you never know! So it's a much more fiendish game than just regular Hearts. (click on the pic below to see it larger)

I bought an inexpensive cell phone about a year ago, just so I could bling it up. The reception is not good, it drops calls a lot. And I hate trying to text message on it.

Then I discovered Twitter. And that decided me on something I had been mulling over for the last few months: tonight I ordered a Kyocera Switch_Back! It has a QWERTY keyboard, has a "loop" antenna, has a lot of other features my UTStarcom Vox 8610 does not.

Also, my niece prefers to text message rather than talk on the phone, so that's another plus with this phone. This is the same phone that she has, and she is happy with it.

So my Switch_Back should arrive in 3-5 business days. Yay!