For us, a classic

The first boardgame that Sheila and I ever played together was Carcassonne: The Discovery. This game taught us that there was life beyond Trivial Pursuit, Win, Lose, or Draw (who remembers that one?), and Monopoly. The Wal-Mart games, as I like to call them, are fine--I have no problem with the games that everybody knows. It's just that once I started playing these more complex, more elegant and rich games, I found it tough to go back. But Carcky (as we are want to call it around here) was our intial venture.

The Carcassonne series is pretty popular worldwide, maybe the most overall popular. It is relatively cheap, easy to learn, and can be played either cutthroat or multiplayer solitaire. During games, we whine, yell, throw game pieces, raise hands, and curse (friendly cursing, of course). But we never ever help each other out. When we play, we are at odds with one another. Though we are joined in holy matrimony, a thick black dividing line cuts between us like a ornery bolt of lightning, and we are sworn enemies. And we love it.

We have been known to knock out a few games in the morning, before the kids get up. Over coffee and cereal, we plot and weave, scheme and agitate. The sun has not even come up yet and we are young, in love, and playing Carcassonne as mean and dirty as we can.

Life is wonderful and painfully short.