Day 217 of 362

Okay... getting almost as late a start as yesterday, but not quite.... (sigh)

Today at the store will be Dungeon & Dragons Game Day, and not just because it's something that WotC has declared. In addition to the D&D4E shenanigans going on, we'll also have a 3.5 special invitation game being run as well. It pretty much means we'll have two tables guaranteed of D&D goodness, possibly three.

After all of that, the World of Darkness game invades the store and the lovely Loquacious takes over, freeing me to come home, relax, and possibly think about my games. Bonus!
Later...

-- GopherDave

Day 216 of 362

Running REALLY late today... Gotta go!

Day 215 of 362

The thermometer says it's 79 degrees outside, but (according to them) it feels like 95. How does this happen? Either way, no sweater vest today...

It's Thursday... Not much is going on at the store for me. We have Deathwatch and Savage Worlds: Hellfrost happening, but I no longer run the Deathwatch game, so I'll be dealing with store business.

Loq went to register the kids for school yesterday. The process itself went well, but we were informed YESTERDAY that the boy might not graduate as he will be short on credits. This was something we (as parents) and he (as a student) asked about LAST YEAR, and his counselor worked with him and they supposedly came up with a plan that would facilitate his graduation. Come registration time, there's no hide nor hair of this plan anywhere.

As a family, we were a bit upset, and it was with that mindset that we took a meeting today at the school. Turns out, the plan was in place. There needs to be a minor adjustment made, but it's on track. This was just another case of the right hand (the assistant principal) not knowing what the left hand (the counselor) was doing, with our son's future stuck in the middle.

So, pretty much, crisis averted. We've done our part, now the boy has to do his. I believe that he will... I have faith in him...  =)

-- GopherDave

Day 214 of 362

Yep... braving the sweater today. If it gets too hot, I'm packing a tie clip...

It's Wednesday, so that means it's shipping day as well. Running a little late, but it *IS* the 20th wedding anniversary for my wife and myself, so late was going to happen.

Tonight at the store is the ongoing Savage Worlds game, the War of the Dead. Also tonight is the starting session for the Verdant Vale, a new D&D4Ee campaign. From what I understand, both need players, so if zombie apocalypses or swords-and-sorcery is your thing, come on by and jump on in.

Also, I cannot remember if I've mentioned this or not, but the store now has a Twitter account. Follow us (if you dare) at @ArmoredGopher.

That's it for now... Toodles...

-- GopherDave

Twenty Years...

Twenty years ago today, I married the most amazing woman I have ever known.

We were quite young when it all went down. I was 24 and she was 18, and we were as passionate as two people could be. For better or worse, that passion came out in both love and anger. We have loved madly and fought insanely. Through it all, however, we’ve stayed together. I know there have been times when we each have wondered “what the hell am I doing here with this crazy person?”

I know a few of the reasons she has stayed with me, but the primary reasons I’ve stuck around are that she gets me and I love her. I love her smile… her laugh…her passion… the sheer JOY with which she tackles things at times. She makes me laugh, and look at life in a positive way, which something I have a difficult time doing.

Looking over our marriage, while there are some days I’d rather forget, there are a BUNCH of days that I’ll cherish forever…

• The birth of our son… after 36+ hours of labor… she was absolutely exhausted… and incredibly amazing, and so was he…
• The day our daughter was born… Less labor, more fun moments… also amazing…
• The day we bought the store… I would have never done it without her love and support…
• The first time I took her to see the Indigo Girls… Her joy was infectious…
• When I took her to see his royal badness, Prince… Her all-time favorite musician… To be the one to give her that moment was a privilege…
• The first time I bought her flowers… I’m not romantic, and we had been married for over fifteen years when I just did it out of the blue… the look on her face was amazing… I should do that more…
• The weekend we spent at Six Flags early in our marriage… We had such fun…
• Our 15^th anniversary celebration, where she played hostess for about 50 of our friends… bouncing from person to person… genuinely happy to talk and laugh them… and just being genuine as a person… My wife is real and honest about who she is and what she’s about, and that honesty absolutely shone that day…
• I remember when we got “the letter”… and how much we laughed and howled about it… and then almost caused a second letter to be sent…
• The day I flat-lined in the hospital… While it’s not wholly positive moment, I do remember coming to with her squeezing my hand until it’s blue. I came back for her…
• The day we were married… I didn’t have my glasses on, but I could tell she was gorgeous from a mile away, and her getting closer didn’t change that perception one bit. She was absolutely radiant…

Loquacious makes every day an adventure full of love, passion, and honesty, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  =)

I adore you my gorgeous, beautiful, vivacious, loquacious angel. Even though I don’t show it often enough, I cherish you immensely. You are a better woman than I deserve…

Happy 20^th Anniversary, Darling. Here’s hoping to many, many more…

Love, David

Day 213 of 362

The heat index is supposed to be something cray like 115 degrees. Even *I* know when to leave the sweater at home.

Hey all... Tuesday it is and it's time to go do some orders for the store, as well as try to get some other work knocked out as well. Tonight's events are Gregghawk (closed D&D3.5 game) and Casual MtG. We've been getting some call for a Yu-Gi-Oh day, but that's still not a scene we're looking to bring into the store. With that scene comes a heavier than average shoplifting issue, and I have no desire to call the cops of some young kid. I like being able to sleep at night and look at myself in the mirror, thank you.

Going beyond that, this week has reminded me that regardless of how far we've grown as a store, we're still not as big as we could or should be. Hopefully we'll soon be plotting the next move in the "Armored Gopher Games Plan for World Domination", but I do know that some moves we have made financially have put a crimp in that progress for the immediate future. We'll recover, of that have no doubt. The timing of said moves was just more than a bit off on our part, and that we'll have more on our toes than we have been as of late.

Well... of to do work. Y'all take care...

Day 212 of 362

Hey All... The day got kind of screwed up. The lovely Loquacious wasn't feeling well, so I ended up staying at the store tonight and things got kind of screwed up. So I threw up a "place holder" entry to edit and add to later.

It's later. Not much happened today. I hung out with Lo on our date day. We talked about some various things, hung out, and had a good time. The store was mellow. About the most constructive things I managed to get done today is moving the store web site from one host server to another and to sign the store/myself up for a Twitter account (look for ArmoredGopher, you should find us).

Beyond that, I had some thoughts and passed some e-mails in regard to the two current games that I run... All in all, a mellow day. That also means I need to hit the ground running on Tuesday. There's a LOT to do, and it's not going to do itself.
-- GopherDave

Day 211 of 362

It's Sunday... Today it's time for some Deadlands: Hell On Earth action, with Rogue Trader and Monsterpocalypse also going on. Later, We'll have board games in the front and me running my Chicago-based Champions game in the back.

Last night, I drew things to a "conclusion" of sorts with the Phoenix game. One PC died doing something heroic, and I'm using the event to do a soft reboot. Players can either keep their characters the same, alter them via "radiation accident", or bring in new characters. I did this with the game I'm running tonight a few sessions back, and I am just now starting to see the light of day storywise (though I did lose one of my favorite "underloved on my part" characters in that reboot process).

Hopefully things progress a bit tonight. The more I look at it, the more I need to devote more prep time to both games. That's been a big issue with both of these games is that I have not given them the time they deserve. Trouble is, I rarely have any free time to myself where I don't need to decompress first, plan games second.

Oh well... I'll figure it out... it's not like I am running eight games at a convention or something... =P

-- GopherDave