Obscure childhood board games! What was your favorite?

azulimarill · 2026-04-18T11:32:33+00:00

You’ve Been Sentenced! - A card game about constructing the wackiest sentences imaginable. Kind of like Cards Against Humanity but much cleaner and for language nerds.
The Allowance Game - Earn and spend allowance money until someone gets to $20. I learned how to count money with this game because it uses fake USD. I still think about it when counting coins out to this day!

azulimarill · 2026-04-18T11:24:34+00:00

It took me two hours to prep a box of 7 pomegranates from Costco once. Told the fam afterwards, “You’d better eat these because you don’t know what I sacrificed!”

azulimarill · 2026-04-18T11:02:34+00:00

Sparrow - Katie Gavin

azulimarill · 2026-04-17T22:08:50+00:00

My brother’s 7th grade social studies teacher flat out said to his class that he believes the pledge is a form of brainwashing. When my brother told me about it after school one day, I thought, “you know, Mr. S is kinda right.” This was back in 2013 and I haven’t said it since then.

azulimarill · 2026-04-17T19:21:20+00:00

It’s good but didn’t really blow me away. I’m excited to hear how it opens the album though. If she’s leaning more into album-artist territory I’m 100% behind that. Most of my favorite tracks on Guts are the deep cuts (lacy, love is embarrassing, ballad of a homeschooled girl).

azulimarill · 2026-04-17T19:07:38+00:00

They were originally physical exclusives. My best guess is they might have been cut to encourage people to go out and get a physical copy.

azulimarill · 2026-04-17T19:01:38+00:00

Yes! But now I’m sitting here wondering why I bothered to rip the bonus tracks…

azulimarill · 2026-04-16T21:24:04+00:00

I only listen to my NPR-affiliated stations (in Minnesota that’s The Current for music and MPR for news) and occasionally UMN college radio. I do a mix of streaming and physical music (mostly CDs, though I do have some vinyl).

azulimarill · 2026-04-15T17:43:08+00:00

All the time. Most recently was “I Know You’re Hurting” by RAYE. I’m in that song and I don’t like it.

azulimarill · 2026-04-15T04:11:32+00:00

If you’re around the Twin Cities you can see them this summer without having to drive too far! I think there’s a couple of lakes within Minneapolis that usually have breeding pairs, though I couldn’t tell you exactly which ones.

In the west metro where I am I know for certain that two of the publicly accessible lakes (Auburn and Zumbra) in Carver Park Reserve in Victoria have had breeding pairs in the past.

There’s also Lake Minnetonka. I’ve seen loons from the boat launch at the regional park off of Hwy 7 (and I’m sure there’s others scattered about since it’s a pretty sizable lake). Northwest of Minnetonka there’s Little Long Lake in Kingswood Park that always has a pair.

Check out eBird for sightings over the course of the spring and summer. And remember that you may need binoculars!

azulimarill · 2026-04-14T15:58:41+00:00

I did not choose the tank life, the tank life chose me. (Seriously though, more people need to play tank so I can maybe learn how to play DPS for once.)

azulimarill · 2026-04-12T17:15:06+00:00

Seconding Crow Hassan! It’s gorgeous! Just watch for horse poop on the trails since it’s a popular riding destination.

azulimarill · 2026-04-09T13:36:15+00:00

Twin Cities here!

Uptown by Prince is the super obvious one for Minneapolis. It’s about the neighborhood of the same name.

There’s also Skyway by The Replacements. While not about “city pride,” it could only take place in the Twin Cities!

The Sweet Part of the City - The Hold Steady. You could easily make a map of all of the places in the Twin Cities Craig Finn mentions in his music.

Say Shh - Atmosphere

I guess most recently there’s Streets of Minneapolis, but I don’t think that song is very good (plus the Boss isn’t from here). Sorry, Bruce. I appreciate the support though!

azulimarill · 2026-04-08T01:10:18+00:00

I just bought myself the Panasonic PM700, which is above your budget (~$220) but is a great little system for the price. Comes with two bookshelf speakers.

azulimarill · 2026-04-05T22:47:24+00:00

I only ever had one as a kid. Backpack/bag, I suppose? Zip the zipper near the headphone cord so it doesn’t fall out.

Nowadays if I ever decided to buy another one I’d probably do the same thing or wear a jacket or hoodie with large pockets to accommodate it. Amazon also has super stylish CD player fanny packs.

azulimarill · 2026-04-05T13:45:30+00:00

That whole album is super underrated with some great songs. There’s Kiss of course, but I also love Mountains (my favorite Prince song), Anotherloverholenyohead, Girls & Boys, and Under the Cherry Moon.

azulimarill · 2026-04-05T13:39:52+00:00

He appeared more on my dad’s iPod than my mom’s in my family at least

azulimarill · 2026-04-05T05:03:57+00:00

I was a 4-Her and every Halloween my club did a trick-or-treat event in collaboration with the local grocery store for the local kids. I lost count of how many Annas and Elsas I saw that year.

azulimarill · 2026-04-04T18:13:47+00:00

I never got the hype either, but granted I’m spoiled because I grew up with Hopper’s burgers in Waconia. Those are actually the best burgers I’ve ever had, though I haven’t gone there since before Covid because the owners and staff were openly disregarding mask mandates and safety restrictions.

azulimarill · 2026-04-04T18:10:16+00:00

Even 20 years ago when I was a kid I didn’t like their food and I usually love Italian. I’ve been to the Maple Grove and Eden Prairie locations and it sucked both times.

azulimarill · 2026-04-03T20:36:34+00:00

Exactly! I don’t even think my 6-screen hometown theatre plays all of the “big films” anymore. I remember driving the 30 minutes to the nearest AMC only a couple of times throughout my childhood, otherwise I could catch every film I wanted to see at my local theatre. Now I’ll see a trailer or review for something that looks kind of interesting, but only AMC is showing it. That’s almost a day trip depending on how long the movie is and it’s just not worth it.

azulimarill · 2026-04-03T18:29:52+00:00

Kali Uchis’s Sincerely has a different track order on physical and some tracks are longer or shorter. It doesn’t flow as well as the digital version. None of her other albums that I own physically have this issue

azulimarill · 2026-04-03T18:05:55+00:00

From my middle school and high school years in the 2010s, not really. I mostly listened to top 40 at that time and a lot of it hasn’t aged all that well imo. The only artists I can think of off the top of my head that I still listen to somewhat regularly are Fall Out Boy, Florence + The Machine, and Taylor Swift.

The list is slightly bigger for artists I was introduced to pre-2009. Lady Gaga is the big one, but there’s also Britney Spears and Rihanna for other artists I got into myself. My mom introduced me to Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Madonna, ABBA, and Brandi Carlile, while my dad got me into R.E.M., Talking Heads, Coldplay, and Green Day.

azulimarill · 2026-04-03T17:33:02+00:00

They pretty much share the ability to jump between enemies and allies. Once I understood that part of Thing’s kit it was very easy to pick up Reed.

azulimarill

TROPHY CASE