GopherDave Abides...

A Day Off...

2012-03-03T17:17:00.000-06:00

Yep... no picture today.

Why? Because I have a day off. Loquacious and Skribl are covering the store, and I have pretty much nothing work-related to do. It's not something I am used to.

Tonight, Grumpy and I are of to the Stop north of town to go see Burn Halo, Lori's Puppets, and some other band (I forget the name... Thrust, I think, but I'm not sure). Burn Halo is a pretty good national act, Lori's Puppets are a bunch of kids from Mt. Vernon, Illinois who tore up the stage opening up for 30Aut6 last month.

Add to this the fact I get to sleep in tomorrow as HiSign opens the store, and this will be the largest chunk of time off I've had in a bit that didn't involve trade show (which I consider a working vacation), illness, or holiday.

I'd be positively giddy if I weren't so bloody tired... =)

-- GopherDave

Parental Stuff...

2012-03-02T10:18:00.020-06:00

Last night at the store was good. Skribl held down the fort for a bit while I went and watched Pumpkin sing at a choir concert last night. Except for one major hiccup, he did a fine job. Pumpkin was also very good at the singing thing. She's one of three sopranos in her choir segment, and she carried her section. Proud papa was I. =)

Beyond that, things here at the store have been hectic this morning between customers, shipments, and phone calls. It's starting to slow down a bit, but that's just the calm before the storm that is Friday Night Magic. We still have a small chunk of a collection to process, sleeve and price. Once that collection's done we have yet another two to churn through, plus a TON of common and uncommon cards to work our way through. The work never ends, I tell ya...

...And we wouldn't have it any other way... =)

-- GopherDave

Still Acclimating...

2012-03-01T13:06:00.000-06:00

I got to leave at 7:30PM and let HiSign shut the store. A friend of mine and I hung out for an hour, and then I went home to the family. It was nice. I totally freaked out Pumpkin by being home. That was both funny and telling. It was fun to give my wonderful daughter a small scare, but the reasoning behind her surprise was kind of saddening. She's not used to me being home on weeknights hardly at all. Except for Mondays, and the occasional Saturday, I'm not. So when I show up at home at 8:30PM on a Wednesday night, it throws her.

It got me thinking... I have been pulling hours like this for THREE YEARS. Ack!!!

Looking at availability, It seems like I can not be here at all on Monday, except maybe to toss out an order based on the new order schedule we're thinking about going to. Sundays are set up now to where I can sleep in and spend time with the family, but I still have to go in and close due to having the floors done that night. I can go home early (or at least escape the store for a bit) on some Tuesdays and Thursdays due to Skribl stepping up his game, turning 18, and thus is legal to leave in a store by himself for extended periods of time.

Ehh... Looking at it, it would seem that my schedule is changing in ways that give me more potential release valves. Good... I need them. We all do...

-- GopherDave

Different, But Not Bad...

2012-02-29T09:50:00.000-06:00

So... Last night was the start of the Pathfinder game I recently joined. It was... good... -ish... As an adventuring group we don't know each other, and that is playing out in various arguments we've already had amongst the party. Near the tail end of the session, things began to settle down as we discovering each of the other character's... nuances, shall we say. I've no doubt that we will be able to get along as people at the table. Group dynamics, though, will be interesting.

Back in the real world, Loq is getting a lockdown on a set of rules which will be made into signs and posted in about three to five key places around the store. Yours truly still gets final approval, but my darling wife is a damn good wordsmith, and if there are changes, they'll probably just be minor ones at best. On that subject, there are some many things I want to say on a conduct sign, but most (read: all) of them are not worded in a "family-friendly" manner, and that's bad, mmmmmkay...

Nothing much going on besides that. I need to do a bit of planning, but I think we will be splitting orders up starting next week where we will do orders on Monday and Thursday for our main distributor, and Tuesday for our secondary ones. The orders for the main place are getting consistently large enough that we can get away with this from a "free shipping" standpoint, and it will help improve our customer service by decreasing the time it takes for special order items that we can get through them. More work for us, but I think the change is worth it. That, plus smaller orders are faster to enter in the new system and put away.

Just some thoughts...

-- GopherDave

A New Beginning...

2012-02-28T12:21:00.001-06:00

Tonight, I'm jumping into a Pathfinder game run off-site (away from the store) by one of our semi-regulars. I've never games with the folks playing before, but I'm not too worried. There's only been a handful of people in 30+ years of role-playing that I am reluctant to sit at the table with based on past experiences with them.

I'm still trying to decide what to play, but am leaning toward either a base rogue (my fallback position) or a LN (or even straight Neutral) cleric that channels negative energy, but has the Healing domain as one their focuses. The healing/harm dichotomy is fascinating to me and if I can find something in the game world upon which to hang some character motivation, then I think we will have a winner. With a basic concept in mind, I can generate the stats/skills/etc. fairly quickly. We'll see how things go tonight.

Other drama seems to be settling down for the time being, but I attribute that to the participants not being around right now. I'm fairly certain the next time a few key elements and I get together, the results won't be pretty.

-- GopherDave

Change Is Hard...

2012-02-27T10:48:00.000-06:00

I'm getting ready for work this morning and I realize that I don't *have* to. HiSign will be there to open the store. I do need to run some errands, but (for the most part) they are not time sensitive.

The fact that there are days I don't have to be "on time" any longer are hard for me. I'm so ingrained in my routine that I bristle at merely suggested changes in it. I am trying to get used to it all, but it's going to take time. Given an incident that happened yesterday at the store while I was not there, that makes it all the more difficult for me to let go as much as folks want me to. When I'm there, the regulars know what they can (and can't) get away with . When I'm not, like all folks, these regulars push the boundaries of those we've left in charge of the place. That's part of growth and change for a business such as ours. It's also a tendency I'm going to have to step on the neck of quickly, it seems. *sigh*

Beyond that, not much is happening. Errands, and if I can fit it in, taking a lovely lady out to lunch...

-- GopherDave

Lazy Sunday (Self-)Debate...

2012-02-26T20:24:00.001-06:00

Spent the bulk of the day letting HiSign open the store while I hung out with Loq and Pumpkin. We did nothing but watch TV, but it was nice to hang out with them.

The Terracide game last night was... different. Between sessions another player and the GM got into a snit, and it ended with Shady kicking this player out of the game. I'm not going to get into the situation, as I said earlier, but it DEFINITELY changed the chemistry of the table. From a plot standpoint, more got done last night than in the last few runs, but I did not feel as engaged. Without the other player involved, I got the feeling that the game is going to change from a character-driven game to a setting-driven game, and that doesn't always fit my playstyle.

I *LIKE* characters... I thoroughly enjoy creating new and interesting people to be, even if they are mostly me with a side of something else. My last few memorable characters have been mostly my cagey, paranoid, pessimistic self, with a side of whatever I can heap onto them to make/keep them interesting.

Case in point, my character in Terracide (Xià Lìng-Zhèn) is an Asian street rat with a college education (criminal psychologist), who ended up being a junk-hauling spacer in an "any ship in a storm" situation to stay a few steps ahead of his past. Ling is also an abrasive, racist bastard... and in an interesting development, he's also now the captain of the ship. I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but I have a few ideas.

Most of what I have been heaping on each character lately has been cultural. Be it simply being Asian, or being from a xenophobic, resource-poor nation with a caste-based warrior culture where women are effectively slaves and property, and mercenaries are the major export, most of my more recent characters have played off something that shaped their way of thinking from an early age.

There are exceptions, though... Ask me to tell you about Willy Rob sometime. It's an interesting story, and more than a bit disturbing... =)

-- GopherDave

(Now I'm Feelin') Zombiefied...

2012-02-25T18:35:00.000-06:00

Gray... It reflects my fatigue and my mood for today... Plus, it's a new addition to the sweater rotation...

Stayed at the store until 3AM last night/this morning. Finished up some laundry when I got home... got to bed around 4:15AM. Got up at 7:30AM to get ready to open the store an hour early for a Magic: the Gathering event today. That actually went well, despite the fact that Skribl and I were about brainless for first couple of hours.

Tonight is Shady's Terracide game and while I was looking forward to this for a bit, some stuff came down the pipe over the last couple of days that have kind of dampened my anticipation for it all. It's not something I'm going to go into here, just suffice it to say it made me a severe combination of bummed and angry.

Said game is about to start, and I'm not entirely certain how it's going to go... Like anything else, we'll see how it goes...

-- GopherDave

Starting To Come Together...

2012-02-24T11:45:00.000-06:00

About an hour into the day here at the store and things have already been a bit hip deep. Nothing I can go into yet, but suffice to say, if we can slog through this weekend with stuff, we'll be doing more than okay.

I'm starting to get used to the idea of the fact that I now have help and I can actually go home early on some nights. It didn't happen last night, and it won't happen for a couple of days, but I see light at the end of the tunnel. Good news...

Somewhere along the way, I've become a bit of a guru on a forum I frequent with our new point of sale software. I'm not certain how that happened since I've been using the software for less than a month. Ehh... who am I to question?

Anyhoo... the day calls and I need to respond. Toodles...

-- GopherDave

Another Busy Day...

2012-02-23T13:21:00.000-06:00

What is flattery for a game store? Going to open the doors at 11AM and having three people waiting for you to do so... =)

So, once the doors opened, I've hit the ground running. I'm still trying to catch up on routine stuff as well as various tasks that must be done TODAY. I'm just about caught up, though. At least I'm caught up enough to drop an entry here.

Tonight is Champions... I'm not sure how this game is going currently. As players, we're kind of just going through the motions right now. I just discovered that a player has to drop due to work scheduling, so that's going to jumble up an already tenuous situation. We'll see how it goes...

Anyway, back to the "grind"... heh... I call it a grind, but it's the best job I've ever had. Thanks to all of you that have made or continue to make it possible for me to do this, especially you Sweetness...

-- GopherDave

Defused...

2012-02-22T09:40:00.000-06:00

Okay... So last night was KnightErrantJR's DC Adventures game where I play Marathon, a very cynincal telekinetic. Here's how that went...

We (the New Guard/Justice League) found out about Kobra operating in South America and owning a modified Lazarus Pit that not only brings folks back from the dead, it makes them mind-controllable zombies. That's not good... Well, before the group can discuss what is going on, Marathon disappears. Just as the rest of the team realizes this, they are attacked at the base by HIVE drones and (eventually) a giant, robotic bee.

Switch scenes to South America, and we find Marathon with murder in his eyes. He's had it with all the would-be world-conquering villains coming out of the woodwork in rapid sequence due to the disappearence of the big guns (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. - part of the setting's backstory), and Marathon is intending to leave nothing but a smoking crater and plethora of bodies as an example to anybody else. Marathon, however, did not count on one thing... Kobra's hubris.

Seems the leader of the reptilian-themed cretins wanted an audience for when he beat the new "Justice League" and threw our bodies into his corrupted Lazarus Pit, so he dozens of cameras flying all over the place to get the best angle. Cameras, huh? Well... s**t... Marathon played it straight, wiped out a dozen Lanceheads, and then beat Kobra down (with the aid of a timely phone call from Myrmidon) on the poor batsrad's own pay-per-view.

Later, there was some more extraneous crap involving the Order of St. Dumas, another corrupted Lazarus Pit, and a collapsed building that Marathon has no knowledge of whatsoever. It all adds up to more shenaningans that we have to discover and crush.

For a guy who doesn't have to sleep, Marathon is awfully weary... and would really just like to have a day or two where the most crimfighting he has to do is to pimp slap a mugger.

Truthfully, I'm having a blast, and much kudos to KnightErrantJR for running an excellent game. The situation on Earth-53(?) is taking its toll on poor Marathon's psyche though, and he might not care if there are cameras next time...

-- GopherDave

Adjusting... Adjusting...

2012-02-21T12:21:00.000-06:00

Today is order day here at the store and I've finally gotten them all in. I don't know how long Tuesdays are going to be order days, though. With the revamped schedule, we might just adjust how we do orders a bit.

The main orders themselves are getting large enough that we could probably split them into two over the week. That means we'd have more orders to put into the system (yay... more work..?!?) but the sizes of the orders would be smaller (yay... les work...?!?) . I'm not certain how it would really work yet, and I need to figure all of that out.

All of that doesn't take into account orders from either our tertiary suppliers (Southern Hobby and Magazine Exchange) or our direct company suppliers (Wizards of the Coast and Games Workshop). Yay!!! Owning an ever-evolving work environment is fun!!! Actually, it is, but it's taxing on the brain...

So to un-tax my noggin, I am happy to have KnightErrantJR's DC Adventures game tonight! Yes, that means I get to play my cynical, unsleeping, tougher-than-he-looks, telekinetic, Marathon. I am looking forward to it!

-- GopherDave

Another Day, Another...Something...

2012-02-20T12:43:00.000-06:00

General stuff going on today in the daytime... Some catch-up stuff, and clearing out of space... Then later on, Warhammer 40K. It's looking like I will stay all day tonight, but I can get some stuff done as well.

Overall, not much else is happening... today. I can deal with that...

-- GopherDave

Another Odd Day...

2012-02-19T18:17:00.000-06:00

It's six in the evening as I write this, and I am about to go in to the store work a closing shift. HiSign opened the store and I've spent the day with my family. It's been good...

Still feels odd, but I can deal with it. Tonight, I've got some things I need to take care of for the end of the week, but I'm pretty certain I can get them done.

I'm off to sell some games... Well... as many as I can on a lazy, Sunday evening...

-- GopherDave

Tired, But Good...

2012-02-18T10:08:00.000-06:00

Got some new sweaters to replace the one I am either outgrowing or shredding. They're nice, but the logo seems low.

I won't lie... I'm tired. We were at the store until almost 4AM with our after-FNM event, then I turn around and am up at 8:30AM so I can get ready to open the store. Luckily, there's not much going on today. We thought about trying to get a "Gopher Improvement Day" happening, but too many people had things going on to make it feasible. That all said, a slow day will be nice...

Tonight is World of Darkness, so I get to go home early. However, I'm basically coming home to change clothes, and then I'm meeting Grumpy back at the store. Once that happens, we'll be going to a local show to see a band from Rockford, Illinois (Mind Drop), a band from Champaign-Danville (Degrade the Signal), and these guys called Eye Empire. Eye Empire has some good talent in it, most notably Corey Lowery, the younger brother of Sevendust's Clint Lowery. Corey's been more than a few good bands in his career (Stuck Mojo and Dark New Day being two of them), so I'll give him and his crew the benefit of the doubt and my $10. That, plus I hear that Degrade the Signal is pretty damn good, so let's go support some local stuff as well.

HiSign is opening the store tomorrow, so I'll get to sleep in more than a bit.

Beyond that, not much is happening right now, and I'm okay with that..

-- GopherDave

Surreal...

2012-02-17T09:34:00.000-06:00

As I expected (suspected?), last night was odd. I left the store to HiSign at around 7:30PM or so and went... home... where my family was... all of them. It wasn't Christmas... nor Thanksgiving... nor Memorial Day... Normally, if I am not at the store, Skribl or Loq is there. But they weren't... they were at home... with me.

It has been a bit since I've held anything close to a '9 to 5' job. I know we're not entirely there yet, either, but last night was the first step...

I'll let you know how it goes...

-- GopherDave

Getting Used To Things...

2012-02-16T12:03:00.000-06:00

I'm running a bit late again (as usual), but I realized something about halfway through my morning. I could have left as early as 7PM last night and the store would not have skipped a beat. HiSign has it down and I could have gone home early...

I'm not used to this idea yet... It's going to take a while to erase pretty much three years of 80+ hour weeks from my psyche and my routine...

Tonight at the store are a couple of RPGs, and possibly some casual gaming. If I don't have anything else going on work-wise, I may let HiSign shut the store on his own and go home early. Nothing definite on that yet, though... Old habits and such...

Tired of the Limited Menu...

2012-02-15T09:57:00.000-06:00

I'm kind of tired this morning. Getting fours hours of sleep and getting up ON TIME (woot!) will do that to a man. Why so little sleep? Ehh... A number of factors, but mostly, a lack of dice...

See, being a small shop we're kind of limited in what we can bring in at any one time due to space constraints. Because of this, I had gotten into the habit of building/restocking the 7-set Dice Cubes from Chessex to about 25 or so sets each week. Before, that worked. Sales were slow enough to make that a viable model. Lately, we're coming out of weekly order cycles with fewer than fives sets. I know that we've lost sales because someone will come in, see our meager dice selection doesn't have what they want, and leave. I decided that I had had enough of that crap...

We're starting with the 7-setPolyCubes, but I think we'll eventually do this for every dice set. I talked to my main distributor and had them send us two sets of every 7-set cube they had in stock. We have easily over 150 sets of dice coming in over the next few days, with many of them coming in today. So, I spent some time after the store closed laying some groundwork to make receiving the whole order easier. That took a bit of time, but I'm glad I did it.

You know, I may actually start getting good at this business thing... ...eventually.

-- GopherDave

Another Day (of Love)...

2012-02-14T20:44:00.000-06:00

First and foremost today, I would like to wish the lovely Loquacious a Happy Valentine's Day! Loves ya, sweetness!

If I haven't mentioned it yet, Shady's game on Saturday night was quite fun for me and couple of others. At least one other player was not enjoying it due to the session being almost COMPLETELY role-playing. He'll do it, but it's not where he derives the enjoyment of RPGs from. He's more of an action-oriented type. Not necessarily combat, but something active has to be happening at least. I can see and respect that.

The Pathfinder game I was supposed to join tonight got canned due to Valentine's Day, with two players not being able to make it due to spending time with their significant others. Fine by me... I still haven't come up with a character anyway.

Beyond that... not much is going on... Though I think I will be doing some stuff later tonight with the register. We have a HUGE dice restock coming in over the next few days and many of the items haven't been in the new system yet.

-- GopherDave

Days Off Are Weird Anymore...

2012-02-13T12:11:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, there was no blog post on my part. Why? Because, except for the last hour, I pretty much had taken a day off. It was Loq's birthday, and while we tried to make it a great time, some stuff happened (some ours, some external) to make the day not entirely pleasant.

Back to the grind at hand though. As things settle in, I'll get to take more time away from this place. It'll be weird... We'll see how it goes...

-- GopherDave

What's That Girl?!? Timmy Fell Down The (Character) Well!?!

2012-02-11T14:48:00.000-06:00

It's Saturday, and things feel odd. I'm not scheduled to go into the store until 4PM. Loquacious and Big Bank have things covered until then, so Skribl and I got to sleep in after being at the store until almost 4AM. Still, it's weird not turning around and doing it all over again a few hours later. I will admit that the sleep was nice. I could get used to this...

Tonight, Shady is running his Terracide/HERO System 6E game. In that game, I play probably the most racist character I have ever played. He's Asian, a bigot, and talks in stereotypical broken English when he's comfortable. When he's not comfortable, the "extreme" Chinese accent begins to disappear and is replaced with smoother, American English verbiage, with an educated tilt, but with a still-present street edge.

Part of me feels that I'm going to Hell whenever I play this character due to his VERY blatant racism. At the same time, I am finding a depth with him that I haven't found since my last two D&D/Pathfinder characters (for those who know, that would be Kes'keth and Gazdok), each of which developed *VERY* deep back stories as the game progressed. Gazdok, in particular, was sort of a surprise since I did not construct that character to start with. I was lazy and didn't want to futz with rules, so I told the GM (KnightErrantJR) to make me a "thug rogue" and I would flesh out the details. He handed me a half-Orc character with a DEX of 10 and STR of 20. I ran with it...

Anyway, tonight is the further adventures of Xia Ling-Zhen, and the rest of the crew of the salvage vessel Little Bear. Let's hope we don't end up dead.

-- GopherDave

Friday, Friday...

2012-02-10T10:18:00.000-06:00

Another day, another Friday Night Magic... We're looking at tonight to be pretty good, all things considered. The new set is still has folks buzzing, plus we restocked our older sets a bit, so our after-FNM Buy Your Own Packs casual drafts will also get a shot in the arm.

Still trying to think of what to do for Loq's birthday, but I have some ideas, and I'm sure she does as well.

Beyond that, not much is going on except that Skribl is sick with bronchitis and I am catching something else since I am getting sick again and I beleieve I was the one who passed bronchitis onto Skribl. *Sigh*

-- GopherDave

Still Going...

2012-02-09T11:49:00.000-06:00

Well, another day of running uber-late. I cannot wait until I can let go of my trust issues enough to let HiSign and Big Bank fly solo.

Thinking about it, it'll be sooner rather than later. This Sunday is the lovely Loquacious one's birthday, so she'll rightfully get some of my best attention on that day. I'm looking forward to it, though it will be hard to tell my deeply-ingrained psyche "no... it's okay... we DON'T have to be at the store right now".

Beyond that, not much is going on. PC should be here later today to put in the new wireless router and make it secure. Our current router is old and oddly, whenever we secure the network with a password, it crashes the network, so we've been running it as open. Well, it seems that somebody BitTorrented something they shouldn't have on our network and we got a nasty letter from our ISP. Strangely enough, the incident happened during a time when it was least likely that one of our customers would do such a thing. So we're thinking it was either someone from the laundromat a couple doors down, or someone from the apartment complex next door. Either way, the network is getting locked down, and we haven't even decided if we're even going to let our customers use it anymore. We want to, but we also want to avoid upsetting our ISP as well.

In gaming, I am thinking about the upcoming Pathfinder game I have joined, and wondering what sort of character I want to do. Anymore, I tend to be a "gap-filler" for a party and take roles no one else seems to want. Typically, that means playing either a rogue (face or thug) or a cleric. Not sure which will be needed more. As I look through the base book and the Advanced Player's Guide, the Holy Vindicator prestige class seems interesting, but I'm not certain it will fit the party. Either way, I'm trying not to lock in my thinking and remain flexible to the needs of the group. We'll find out Tuesday night how that goes...

-- GopherDave

Story Of My (Recent) Life...

2012-02-08T17:04:00.000-06:00

I wanted to get up early to get here and take care of some stuff. Nope! I woke up later than I wanted and have behind the 8-ball all day up until about an hour ago. I finally have caught up with what I need to do, but I have realized that my cell phone is at home... *sigh*

It'll get better... I know it will...

That said, last night's DC Adventures game was a hoot as always. Many thanks to KnightErrantJR and company for keeping this old rodent entertained. I truly enjoy this game and hope it run forever, but I know things like this eventually end. Once can dream, though... On a side note, I'd like to thank my son, Skribl, for coming in and working his shift even though he felt a touch under the weather. He knows how much I need my releases and he slogged through sickness to accommodte me. Thanks, son... I really appreciate it and you...

-- GopherDave

Getting There...

2012-02-07T12:50:00.000-06:00

Okay... things are starting to settle in. We have HiSign up and going at a good clip to where he is comfortable with most of how we do things at the store. He is also full of suggestions, most of them good, that we try to listen to. We are always looking to improve here at the Gopher, and HiSign knows this and is running with that ball.

Now, with HiSign up and running, we've also added another Gopher to the ranks. Big Bank is a LONG-TIME store supporter who is now stepping up and in to help give me and Loquacious a break. When all is said and done, there will be one day a week where neither Loq nor myself is at the store. That will provide a LOT of stress relief in regard to my family life, which has suffered greatly over the last two years.

In gaming, that Pathfinder game I said I was joining..? Yeah, that's next week, because this week is DC Adventures. Yep, I screwed up and got my available dates wrong, so the Pathfinder guys laughed a bit, and then moved the game to accommodate me. Thanks, guys. 'Tis appreciated. Tonight, however, it's cynical telekinetic time! I am so looking forward to it...

Now, to reflect on my new status as an actual employer of people outside my family, I leave y'all with this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-E0KGjJAx8

...enjoy...

-- GopherDave

Busy, But Not Too Much...

2012-02-06T09:45:00.000-06:00

I have no idea what kind of day it'll be at the store, but it should be decent.

Barring his illness carrying over from yesterday, I should have HiSign on duty today, and that means I can get a couple of errands done. One needs to be done for the store, the other is one of a personal nature that I have been meaning to get accomplished for months.

Also... I need to start think about Loq's birthday and Valentine's Day gifts. Her birthday (her 22nd... really...) is this upcoming Sunday and I am wandering around in my usual place of "no clue land". Don't worry, though. I'll come up with something. I typically do... I mean... my continued survival depends on it, right? =P

-- GopherDave

Settling Down...

2012-02-05T15:12:00.005-06:00

Things are beginning to settle down here at the store. The schedule still needs some tweaks, but folks are getting used to things with the new point-of-sale system, which is now my biggest hurdle in letting go. I will have to say, from a software standpoint, we have more power than we need currently, but that means we have room to grow.

I do have to let go... if for nothing else, to save my sanity. I love y'all to pieces, but I now know why a lot of game store owners suffer from burnout. I'm heading there myself, and I know it. I'm trying to do what I can to combat it, but some folks do *NOT* make that easy.

As far as weekend sales go, those went *WAY* beyond my hopes and predictions. That has reduced my stress a bit as I was afraid that I had heinously overspent. I probably did overspend, but our sales were good enough to bail us out. I need to watch that in the future, ESPECIALLY since we now have employees. Gotta be able to pay those guys... They're gonna help keep me sane...

-- GopherDave

Woof...

2012-02-04T19:47:00.000-06:00

Okay... I'm exhausted... and there's more where that came from. Business has been good though over the last couple of days, so I can't complain too much. Down economy? We're not seeing it right now...

Trying to get some things put together in my work life that will make my personal life better, but it's all gonna take work. I don't how much is left in the tank to get it all done, but I'm certainly going to try.

Finally, my gaming calendar gets another notch in it as I'm joining a Pathfinder RPG game here this Tuesday. It's not my first choice in games (I'm really fantasied out)... honestly, it's not even my fourth choice... but there are a couple of things driving me to this game. One, it involves folks that I've never gamed with before, and I'm always down for a new group. Two, it's being run off site, so I can get some gaming in that should be relatively uninterrupted. I need that... I really do...

-- GopherDave

I'm Late! I'm Late! So What Else Is New..?

2012-02-03T09:39:00.000-06:00

Okay... it's time for a new Magic: the Gathering set. Which means I don't have time for much else, since I also have errands that I need to run before we open in 80 minutes. Later...

-- GopherDave

It All Rolls Downhill...

2012-02-02T23:39:00.000-06:00

Okay... We're caught up from the convention... We've gotten mostly set with the new point-of-sale system... What's next??? New Magic: the Gathering release? When? *THIS* Friday?!?!? GAH!!!

Will this avalanche of "busy" never end? A guy's gotta catch up on sleep *sometime*...

That all being said, as a merchant, I'd rather be too busy than not busy at all. Not being busy is bad, mmm'kay...

Hopefully in the next week or so, we can complete phase two of the remodel by making the point of sale fully wireless save for power cords. When that gets done, it'll be time for phase three, moving the cash station from where it is now to one of the front corners of the store once we get a bit more slatwall up. With that, the physical remodel will be pretty much complete.

However, I'm certain something else will find its way down the hill toward me by the time that happens...

-- GopherDave

I'm A Bit Tired, But We're ALMOST There...

2012-02-01T10:03:00.000-06:00

HiSign and I worked from 11PM to 5AM last night/this morning trying to get everything up and running with the new point of sale system. It works, but it's a physical mess, with wires everywhere in a space that's way too small for it. We'll be working on that part in the next couple of days.

As it goes, we're behind on it enough to alter our hours today to not be open until 3PM today. Loquacious tried to get me to sleep more by turning off my alarm before she left, but my 40+ year-old bodily functions woke me up right on time. Nice try, though, sweetness... =)

Now, I am getting ready to go in and try to finish what we started. Hopefully I can get the orders done, some more receipt tape purchased, the rest of the front stock entered, and everybody's tabs and credit moved over before open. Otherwise, I'm a bit tired and cranky and I might snap at someone without meaning too, and that's no good...

So, I'm off to be productive on three hours of sleep. Wish me luck...

-- GopherDave

Phase 2 Starts Tonight...

2012-01-31T13:45:00.000-06:00

Tonight, once the store closes, we will do a hard count and enter it into the new Point-of-Sale... Then, we will have that thing set up and ready to go, and I will add things like tabs and credit from the old system over the next couple of days. Once it's up and running, we will add the function to take credit cards to the system directly, and then make the whole system wireless so we can move it... once that is all done, we'll proceed to phase three. That phase includes more slatwall, another new counter, and moving everything over to the front corner of the store.

There will be other stuff after that... Like Phase Four, where we replace some trash cans and tables and add locks to the some of the interior doors. Or Phase Five, where we get things settled and I get to take a whole day off every now and then... or Phase Eighty-Seven, when 'Gopher takes over the moon... =P

-- GopherDave

After Armageddon...

2012-01-30T19:28:00.000-06:00

Okay... We're back... -ish... The early part of today HiSign and I finished putting the store back together from the convention. Mostly putting away back stock, breaking down boxes for storage, and throwing away trash.

Numbers-wise, we were up 15% over last year, and last year wasn't bad at all. In fact, it was pretty good. I believe we are reaching a plateau in terms of business numbers for the convention. We've showed steady growth for four years, and this year, while up, felt "even". While doing good business, this year felt easy. Like we've done this before and it's no big thing. Now, with five years of doing this, we and the Gophers have it down. Things went pretty damn smoothly with the only hiccups on our end being arriving at the convention too early to set up and forgetting extension cords and power strips back at the store.

Through it all, hiring HiSign has been one of the best moves we've ever made. His calm, relatively even demeanor (compared to Loq and myself, and even Skribl, who are quite passionate) and his ability to do whatever is asked of him to a very high standard has made *MY* job easier. Eventually, he'll make my life easier once we get the new point of sale in and I can feel settled there...

Now I'm off to find dinner for myself and the kids...

-- GopherDave

Yearly Armageddon -- Day 3

2012-01-29T07:26:00.000-06:00

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! The *bright*... It burns us so!!!

Once more we venture out into the land of "not enough sleep". Ugh... Not awake, but I am mobile...

I wish I had more to say currently, but my head is still foggy. Suffice it to say that the convention is going well, our M:tG event did splendidly, and all things are proceeding according to schedule.

Depending on how I feel tonight, I may blog about other stuff, but no guarantees.

On a cool note, I did have a young man ask me "Are YOU the Armored Gopher?"

I smiled and said "Yes... Yes, I am"...

And while it was a great feeling, bewteen you and me, I'd currently trade armor for sleep...

-- GopherDave

Yearly Armageddon -- Day 2

2012-01-29T01:24:00.000-06:00

Some gray... some blue... some black on the bottom... not bad, if I do say so myself...

It's early in the day as I write this part... after some events happen and I take some more pictures, I'll elaborate a bit...

Let's just set this up by saying that myself, Skribl, and HiSign will be running an MtG Pre-Release tourney at the store, while Loquacious, K, and KnightErrantJR watch the booth at the convention until I can get there.

...And I would add pictures from both the pre-release and the convention if I hadn't left the memory stick for the camera at home... sigh... If that's the only thing that goes wrong today, it'll be a good day...

Pre release is good though... We went four deep into our list of alternates as we had two "call-offs", one late, and one dropped. Thus, we have thirty-six people in the store slingin' Magic cards...

The convention seems to be going well, based on Loq's reports. I'll find out more when I get there...

...and I'm there... Based on my overview of the room, things seem down quite a bit. When I checked the numbers, though, it seems that we're up about 25% over last year. Oddly enough, convention attendance is down about the same percentage, but they are setting records for the number of "butts in seats" playing games during many of the slots...

Finally, I do one thing to add... If you run a business with some form of remote sales (such as conventions or open markets), if you haven't already done so, get yourself a Square. Ours have been a dream and I can't imagine doing sales at a convention without them...

--- GopherDave

Yearly Armageddon -- Day 1

2012-01-27T18:40:00.000-06:00

New convention, new neckties in the rotation...

It's that time of year again... the time where Loquacious and I lose our minds. Luckily, we have a great group of Gophers who are used to it all and help find our brains when we have seemingly lost them.

Gopher-Piranhas attack the store in directed ways, picking only the selected bones clean...

These are folks who volunteer their time and effort to help us move the store at this time of year. They are fantastic folks and a game store couldn't ask for a better core crowd to be blessed with...

Far off shot of our booth...

This was earlier today. Sales have been good and steady, and we had an active Friday afternoon of the convention. Being local, we usually the first dealers here, and this year was no exception. The initial boost we get when the doors open and we are the only dealers currently here is nice... Sort of proves the old quote of early birds getting the worm...

Right now I'm in a side room writing this up while Loq and Hi-Sign run the booth. I'll be rejoining them here soon, but it's kind of awe-inspiring to look out in the main room and see all the Gopher Mafia shirts that are about. It makes me proud to see what we have wrought... =)

Thank you, Gophers... For all your help... all your loyalty... all your friendship... we *could* do this without you, but it would be rather maddening and not *NEARLY* as fun...

La Gopher Nostra... represent... =P

-- GopherDave

Say It With Me Now...

2012-01-26T18:16:00.000-06:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's the day before the convention, and things are avalanching down at breakneck pace. We;re only slightly behind the curve, but we are actually less behind than usual. There are still a couple of things to dig-up just in case our various "Plan A's" hit critical fail.

I'm getting to play Champions tonight, but my mind will not be on it. Too much stuff rattling around in my mind. I fully expect, while playing, to make a Notepad list of things that come to mind that need to be done before we hit the convention tomorrow. Then, once I get home, there is laundry to be done. From the looks of it, sleep will be that thing that other people get this weekend.

I've said it before, though... I wouldn't change a thing. It's one of my favorite times of the year. While my focus has shifted from convention attendee/event judge to vendor, it's still a blast for me. I never could do it any year without Loq's help, and as a store, Loq, Skribl, and I couldn't do it without the Gophers. Those guys rock... ...on toast.

-- GopherDave

T-Minus Two Days And Counting...

2012-01-25T12:05:00.000-06:00

Got an early start to the day and have been knocking things off of my to-do list. Tomorrow will be hectic as well, but not as much so I think. If I can get the last two things knocked off of my list today, we'll be in great shape for the weekend, I believe.

I forgot to mention in my last entry about the (then) impending DC Adventures session that occurred last night. Everyone got into things, we split the party, Marathon got to sink an Apokoliptan robot, Fahrenheit got to wear Zeus' Thread of Life as a belt (don't ask), we saved pretty much the whole of the Greek pantheon (except for Circe, who was stabbed dead by Myrmidon, but in his defense,there were some vengeance issues going), and the ever-awesome Necromancer got trapped in a ring. All-in-all, a great time was had... Thanks once again to KnightErrantJR for running such a great game.

In other gaming news, I've been invited to join a Pathfinder RPG game. Not my go-to genre in terms of play (I've done fantasy to death), but it's a completely different group of people to game with and it's off-site, so I can concentrate on being Dave and not GopherDave. A lot of y'all think they're one-and-the-same person, but trust me, they're not. Do they share traits? Yep, but there are differences... Those who know me well can tell you exactly what they are, too. I won't elaborate here.

Still more game-related stuff, the store has been chosen as a playtest site for D&D Next. Full details on that are still forthcoming from Wizards of the Coast, so not much to report. I'm also getting an itch to run a home-brew game once again... This itch has been building for a while, and the font of creativity behind it has only been contained by a plethora of other things to do and a severe lack of time. With the hiring of a couple of part-time folks, and placing more trust in Skribl to run the store on his own, I feel the logjam beginning to break free. What form the home-brew game will take is still nebulous, but I have a couple of ideas percolating...

Finally, Winter War... It's coming up in two days (hence the entry title), and I feel we're more prepared for it than we've ever been. What we're bringing will be reduced from years past, but not because we are dogging on the convention. No, this year we're not bringing a lot of items that traditionally don't move for us. We've done several years of "bringing the store", but now we're being smarter about and bringing what we think will sell well for us as opposed to EVERYTHING. Plus, we have a lot more stock now. Everything is quite a load...

That's it for now... time to turn my "to-do" list into a "to-done" list...

Toodles...

-- GopherDave

Plod... Plod... Plod...

2012-01-24T11:40:00.000-06:00

Lateness plagues me... Impending workload plagues me. Can't sleep, clowns will eat me... ...or something like that.

To all the folks coming to Winter War, we will see you there. To folks coming to our MtG: Dark Ascension Pre-Release on Saturday of this upcoming weekend, we will see you at the Gopher. How can we be at two places at once?

We're talented that way... =P

-- GopherDave

One Step Down, Many More To Go...

2012-01-23T10:38:00.000-06:00

Running late... Point-of-sale is done, now onto some early tax stuff right before the convention... Plus other stuff...

Gotta go...

-- GopherDave

Slow Going...

2012-01-22T14:16:00.000-06:00

Went home early last night as it was one of Lo's nights to cover things at the store. Once home, I began to realize just how sick I still am. The early evening went well, but once it got late, I felt like absolute crappage. This morning, I woke up with a combined sinus headache/migraine. Lo went to the store to cover...

I have an absolutely wonderful wife.

I'm just now getting motivated, and it's after 2PM. I need to get to the store so I can let Loquacious get home. I also have a bit more to do with the point-of-sale system before I'm done. It should get done tonight. I'm going to get moving, so it can be so.

-- GopherDave

Two Days, One Wall...

2012-01-21T13:05:00.000-06:00

Basically... I have two days to enter in a roughly 8' by 8' section of product. With the exception of a handful of items, it's all WH40K related. I'm gonna make this happen. After that, we have the soday and candy stuff, plus anything in the back room that may be oeverstock that I might have missed. Overall, not much left...

After that, I get to work on tax stuff and gear up for the local convention next weekend. It's called Winter War... it's been happening for 39 years now... you should come.

For now though... no time to babble. I need to get my work face on... =P

-- GopherDave

Post Untitled...

2012-01-20T11:28:00.000-06:00

...Mostly because I can't think of one...

Things are moving along... I continue to plug away at the POS system and it should be done by Sunday. Tonight is FNM, so it looks to be a long night. S'okay, though... I don't mind.

Have to go... many things to do...

-- GopherDave

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'...

2012-01-19T12:49:00.000-06:00

Things keep moving on here... I'm not as far on the point-of-sale as I would like to be, but I'm not worried. I'll knock out the last difficult shelf tonight, and then I have most of the weekend to actually work on it. It should be done by Sunday night. Once it's stocked with item numbers, I'll just have to update it with inventory numbers. That's actually pretty easy.

Even with "impending doom" coming down, I'm feeling my stress level lessen. We hired someone to lessen my workload. That combined with the boy turning eighteen and taking a more independent role in his duties at the store, things are going okay. I'm transitioning from "grunt work" to a more managerial role. Trust me, I still do my share of work, but it is different type now. It feels good.

Beyond that, not much is happening. Work proceeds apace for the convention and phase two of the "remodel" should happen shortly after that...

-- GopherDave

On the Rebound...

2012-01-18T13:03:00.000-06:00

Still feeling sickly, but not as bad as yesterday. I'm on the upswing as I have switched from 'Quil to Mucinex to get the ick out of the chest. There's still a lingering cough and some fatigue, but I'm beating this.

Today was shipment day, so I've been busy early on. Getting ready to update the "New Arrivals" section of our website after I post this. Beyond that, not much is going on. I am hoping to get to the POS system today and get more stuff entered. I do have some help tonight, so that should play into it.

Off to (slowly) do more work...

-- GopherDave

Ugh...

2012-01-17T12:29:00.000-06:00

Woke up sick as a dog... No GopherDave sweater vest/tie uniform today. Took all my energy just to achieve "comic book guy"-look. Not sure what's kicking my backside harder, this illness or the new point-of-sale. No one else to watch the store though until later, so here I am.

If I can't get the stuff in the POS system by the end of this week, then we will be closed for a few days after Winter War, just so we can get it together prior to February 1. I've got tax stuff to do, and a good chunk of it needs to be done before the convention.

Hasta lumbago, folks. I'm gonna go be sick some more...

-GopherDave

Busy Day... VERY Late Start...

2012-01-16T11:14:00.000-06:00

Lots to say, but no time to say it... LOTS going on... Talk at y'all later...

-- GopherDave

Sick... Yay!

2012-01-15T15:57:00.000-06:00

I woke up this morning feeling like poopage. I am at the store on the power of DayQuil. I am seriously hoping that what I have is not one of those sicknesses that hangs on, because I have too much to do for that to happen.

Tomorrow is looking like a day when I can get a lot done in terms of entering things into the point-of-sale system. I just hope I have the energy to do so. If I can get to that and get on a roll, there's a good chance I can get the majority of what is left done. Here's hoping.

So, for today, I'm going to work on getting better. After I leave here tonight, I'm going to get the boy a birthday present and do a bit of laundry. Wish me luck because neither of those involves getting rest and rebuilding my immune system... =P

-- GopherDave

In A Hurry...

2012-01-14T10:16:00.000-06:00

...But Still Rockin'...

Loq, Skrible, and HiSign all made me ditch FNM last night to go see a local rock show with some of our semi-regular customers. It was a good time. Much thanks to the three of them for holding down the fort while I let my hair down...

Watched local act Scathe first... veteran rockers still trying to find their sound after a band implosion and reconstruction. There's talent on the stage though..

Next came a band from Mt. Vernon called Lori's Puppets. These kids barely looked old enough to drink (and some of them weren't), but they tore the place up. Very good at this early stage, and they're only going to get better.

Finally, we had the headliner of the show, 30Aut6. Another band from the southern part of the state (Carbondale area), and they showed why they are the ones starting to get a regional buzz. These cats are a solid unit. Just straight-ahead rock, with stuff that could easily go on the radio right now.

Like I said, I had a good time. Thanks to BigMan and RnRC for inviting this old varmint...

-- GopherDave

Turning A Corner... Facing A Hill...

2012-01-13T10:08:00.000-06:00

In a literal sense... I've entered in enough stuff in the new system that I can now turn the corner around the front of the counter and begin working my way forward up the new wall of merchandise. Looking at it all, most of it will go relatively quickly. I'll hit a slow down in the RPG section, but I expect that. Left to my own devices, this may well get finished by the time of the convention at the end of the month. Given what's currently on my plate, that's about a week too late as there is a whole raft of other stuff that's gotta be done as well.

The hill we're facing is the hiring of HiSign. Paperwork and such is all going swimmingly, and general things are going well. No, the hill we're looking at is integrating him into the schedule at times we need him, and my personal hill of letting go. I don't let go of things easily. Makes me a great employee, but a lousy manager-type.

I've love to type more, but there is a mound of stuff to do and it won't do itself...

-- GpherDave

I Love (HATE) Technology...

2012-01-12T10:20:00.000-06:00

Okay... I began entering items into the new POS system last night. At the rate I'm going, I'll be done sometime in mid-February. Let this be a lesson to everyone in business-land... if you decide to upgrade a major system like a point-of-sale system, make certain at least ONE of the POS-systems involved (old or new) can speak to the outside world in an easily transferable language.

We've got the old POS system that's proprietary and won't talk to our current printer any longer. The new one is SQL-based, but doesn't make transferring things easy because it won't tell us which info needs to be in which columns of the CSV file to make everything fall into place.

So, we're reduced to entering items into the new system by hand. We have over 4000 different items in stock at any given time. Yeah, time-consuming doesn't even cover it...

Well, off to the (data-entry) salt mines... =P

-- GopherDave

Busy...

2012-01-11T17:42:00.000-06:00

I arrived at the store at thirty minutes before open. After playing with one of our two orders a small bit. I opened the doors at usual time. I'm just now starting to blog... ...six and a half hours later.

It's been a day... customers... phone calls... shipments... finding time for lunch... Things that would normally be done by 1:00PM were finished around 3:30PM. Things usually done within 15 minutes of open got done around 2:00PM.

I would probably have more to say if I had the time, but I currently do not.

I will say that KnighterrantJR's DC Adventures game last night was hellafun!!!

-- GopherDave

Redundancy Is Redundant...

2012-01-10T13:01:00.000-06:00

Not much is happening. I'm off to do orders. HiSign worked his third offical day at the store, but under Loq's tutelage, so I have no idea what she taught him. Skribl is sick, so I will probably be flying solo for a bit tonight. Overall, it won't be a bad night as inbetween customers, I get to play Marathon, my uber-cynical telekinetic...

With Phase 1 of the store pretty much done, we're on to Phase 2. This will be done one of two ways...

1) I will take time out each night to place some of the item codes in the new system, since we cannot make the two Point-of-sale systems talk to each other. This will be more tedious, but will have the advantage of not making us close for an inordinate length of time.

- or -

2) We will be closed the four days after Winter War to place all of the stuff in the system. I hate being closed that long, but I may not be able to make the first way viable...

Ehhh... who knows...

Settling In...

2012-01-09T10:33:00.000-06:00

The new look of the store is starting to settle in on me. We'll be doing a bit more work tonight, but it's mostly of the clean-up variety. One of our main goals is to arrange things so I can set up the new POS system so I can enter stuff on it as I have time. If we can do that, then we might not have to close for for four days after the convention at the end of the month to do inventory and get things into the system. On that one, stay tuned.

As of this point setting up said point-of-sale system is phase two of this project. Once phase two is complete, we move onto phase three, which is putting up more slatwall in the front area and moving the POS station there. The look will change greatly in time, but it will look ten times better than before... I just gotta get used to it...

-- GopherDave

The Day After...

2012-01-08T11:22:00.000-06:00

It's another Sunday... I have to catch up with financials and what not. Many of us are tired and sore from yesterday. It was worth it... the store looks great. Now, I have to go figure new table arrangements for the time being.

I wish I had more to say, but I just don't have the energy at the moment.

I will, however, reiterate my thanks to all the Gophers who helped yesterday. You are all champions in my book, and we'll do whatever we can for you... You've more than earned it...

-- GopherDave

Phase One (Mostly) Completed...

2012-01-07T21:28:00.000-06:00

A lot of blank (and dirty) wall space where we had put tables/game space...

Another section of the same wall...

Same wall, different angle...

Work comences...

We're still a game store and the Gophers worked around a couple of guys playing 40K...

The furring strips are up...

The first two panels are up...

Gophers admiring the progress...

Once the first couple of panels went up, the Gophers got on a roll...

All the panels for this phase are up and we have started transfering stock from our old, jankity shelves...

Our revised minatures section...

Role-Playing in the middle...

Board Games at the far right...

Fuzzy pic... just to keep you on your toes...

Better shot of the middle section and the board games...

Great shot of the middle sections...

This is just the start of it all... We did a bit of work on the back as well in terms of terrain storage as well, and reorganized the storage unit. A *TON* of work got done...

Huge thanks go out to... HiSign, TreeRat, DDS, KnightErrantJR, D-Man, Longbowman, Z-Mor, A-Bomb, P-Web, EG, and CafeSushi... This would not have happened without your help and hard work...

-- GopherDave, Loquacious, and Skribl

We Stand On The Edge Of A Precipice...

2012-01-07T10:40:00.000-06:00

See..? Still doing it... Can't wait for trained employees, though. Working on that one...

Okay... this is the day for one of the major changes to the store. After today, if all goes well, one half of the front area will be covered in slatwall panels, and the all the old, cheap-looking, ankle-biting shelving will be in the storage unit awaiting convention use...

The store already looks different with the additional case and register stand. It feels different. I'm not entirely certain I like it yet. The changes are not complete yet, so it may grow on me. Mostly, I attribute my unease to the fact that I typically hate change.

Speaking of change, we finally have all the parts for the new point-of-sale system in our possession. Just drifting through the program... ummm, wowwwwww... this thing is great! Sure wish I knew what I was doing with it all... The manual is 500+ pages, but it's Microsoft, so the book is full of white space and unnecessary "helpful tips" sections. Broken down, it's probably closer to a 260-page book of actual, useful reference. On cursory glance, it looks like we will have issues doing some of the things that our current point-of-sale does easily, but I'm pretty certain I'm just not finding everything in the new software yet.

In comparison, the current POS software is like a nice, local grocery store. It has most of what you want, easily found due to its small size, and what it doesn't have can be made up for using substitutes and workarounds. The new POS software is like walking into the largest supermarket on the planet. It's got EVERY EXACT ITEM YOU COULD EVER WISH FOR... you just have to go find it... ...and on your shopping cart is a map of the store, with general sections labeled, but no other specifics, so you have to brave the expanse to find what you are looking for...

It's a big store... and it won't let me bring my shopping list (former inventory) with me... This will not be ready by the end of the weekend. Hell, it may not be ready by the end of the month.

We'll see how it goes...

GopherDave

Progress Is Being Made...

2012-01-06T10:33:00.000-06:00

We got the new display case and the register stand put together last night. Today, I'm going to try to call the POS folks and see if they can give me my training. Barring that, I'm going to see if they will at least let me have the password for our software so we can start setting things up on our own end.

To help with that, Hi-Sign (with little to no training on our current point-of-sale) will be helping me watch the store. I imagine I'm still going to be up and down, but it will be better. Thanks once again, sir.

Tomorrow... Slatwall!!!

I'd love to write more, but I've got a store to open...

-- GopherDave

I Really Can't Complain...

2012-01-05T09:49:00.000-06:00

Okay... I am in pain and ache terribly from having to unload all the new shelving, the hardware for said shelving, the new register stand, and the new display case that arrived yesterday. I did the work pretty much on my own. Apparently "Driver Assist" does not mean what I thought it did. I got it all in, and that's what counts.

I cannot complain about it, however, as later on yesterday Hi-Sign, DDS, and I went to another game store (out of town) to get seventeen sheets of slatwall from them that they had leftover from their remodel. Given what I had done earlier, Hi-Sign and DDS did pretty much *ALL* of the work. Also given where this stuff was stored and how heavy it was, I started to feel heinously guilty by about sheet five. This would not have been accomplished without them. Not in the slightest... Thank you, guys... *A LOT*

The new point-of-sale tower should arrive today, and we should get the register stand and the new display case assembled tonight. Saturday is the installation of the slatwall, and rearranging of the storage unit to hold the old fixtures so we can continue to use them for conventions.

Work proceeds apace...

-- GopherDave

Stumbling Into Place...

2012-01-04T08:54:00.000-06:00

Suck it, Blue!

Okay... the storage unit never got rearranged due to the weather, but we did get furring strips bought for the slatwall panels that we are picking up tonight. We did clear a space in the store for the stuff that was supposed to go into the storage unit , and then we'll assemble it as best we can over the next two days. The only snag I can see with this is Friday, when we have Friday Night Magic, which typically packs the place. It'll get kind of tight if we have ANY sort of crowd.

Progress is being made by the new point-of-sale system. The main part is at least in the state as it makes its journey from the west coast. Soon, it'll be in our dysfunctional hands...

As an added bonus, Skribl is still not feeling well, so he's not going to be of any help for toting and carrying of slatwall. Osmosis has offered to step in, but knowing where the slatwall panels that we are getting are currently being kept, I'm doing him a favor by saying no. Os is very asthmatic and the place where the panels are is currently *REALLY* dusty.

That's it really... the calendar for the store website got fixed (Thanks, M-Bee), thus the event schedule is as up as I can make it. Now, off to go pay rent and sign a lease...

-- GopherDave

Stupid Weather...

2012-01-03T10:14:00.000-06:00

Not even one day into the schedule for the week and it's already been thrown askew. The weather was such yesterday that it would have been inhumane to have anyone rearrange the storage unit out in the cold yesterday evening. On top of that, Skribl is currently ill, so his help tonight will not be available. Sigh...

With all of this happening, I also still have to maintain the usual cycle of orders, supply, and receiving, plus, make sure rents for both the store and the house get paid. Oh yeah... somewhere in all of this, Loquacious and I have to find time to sign a lease to stay at our current spot. Then there's the store calendar, which would have been done by now, except the site software got a "fix" during an update and broke how things are supposed to work. It took our web guy about two days to track down what happened and repair the "damage". Thanks, M-Bee!

Anyhow... I need to jet and make sure things get done. I'll just leave you with a picture...

Dinero... Fur-covered Valium on four legs...

Big Week Ahead...

2012-01-02T12:42:00.000-06:00

Okay... The upcoming week promises to be big. If everything pans out and the weather doesn't hamper us too much, then we'll see and accomplish the following..

Monday, rearranging the storage unit to accommodate more stuff...
Shopping for reinforcement and mounting strips for the upcoming slatwall on Tuesday...
Said storage stuff arriving Tuesday or Wednesday, with the assembly of two pieces accomplished sometime this week...
Picking up seventeen slatwall panels from another game store on Wednesday...
The arrival of the main piece of the point of sale on Thursday...
The hanging of slatwall on Saturday morning and afternoon, with the shifting on inventory happening that evening...
The entering of current inventory into the new point-of-sale system by weekend's end, so we can be up and running with it a week from today...

It's quite a list... let's see what kind of progress we can make, shall we...

-- GopherDave

New Year... Same GopherDave...

2012-01-01T12:59:00.000-06:00

It's a new year... and I've pretty much decided to continue with the pictures on the days I work, and skip the days I don't. Makes sense, right?

The reasoning behind continuing to do it at all is mostly due to a fair number of private communications with folks who seem to like what I've been doing, and have started to step up their "big boy" clothing habits because of it. I didn't set out to inspire anyone, but if that is the result, then I guess I sort of have a responsibility to continue.

The plan to improve Gopher continues apace. Once I'm done with this blog entry, I'm off to send e-mails and make arrangements to pick up some slatwall panels, order some shelves and brackets, a register stand for the new point-of-sale, and take care of other business.

Here's hoping your new year is a great one!

-- GopherDave

Day 362 of 362

2011-12-31T12:56:00.001-06:00

Mission (mostly) accomplished...

Out of 362 possible days to the whole "dress-up" thing, I only missed two. One was based on my misjudging tattoo after-care times (by a LOT), and the other was due to me being very ill on that particular day. There have been days where I've been late (like today, by design), or I haven't been at the store for long, but I missed no others. Not even when I went to a trade show where game store owners are known to "let their hair down", I was the best-dressed one there.

So... 360 divided by 362 means, percentage-wise, I scored a 99.4475138121547% on my self-assigned goal. That's actually close enough to perfect by most scientific standards that I'm gonna count this one as a win.

Where do I go from here? Well, the habit is pretty ingrained in me now, so I don't think we'll see much in the way of slacking in that department. I'm thinking there won't be any more "362" posts, as it will be a new year. Plus, we're in the process of interviewing people for the store to work part time so I can actually get a day off here and there. Thus, doing another "362" would be pointless as I will not be at the store that many days in the coming year. I'll certainly take pictures and blog on the days I do go in, but the labels will probably fall more in the "Life, Business, Gaming, or (insert new label here) realm". "362" is done...

Thank you all for joining in... It's been a fun ride thus far. Let's see what 2012 brings us this year...

-- GopherDave

Day 361 of 362

2011-12-30T10:20:00.000-06:00

It's Friday... Got word that the rest of the POS system will be here around Thursday of next week. That's good... Now I need to make some arrangements tonight and tomorrow to get the slatwall sometime next week. Operation: Hole Improvement is off to a slow (but forward) crawl.

In other news, well, not much has happened over the last couple of days. Things are about to happen, but they haven't yet, so there's not much to talk about. Hmmmm...

-- GopherDave

Day 360 of 362

2011-12-29T12:57:00.000-06:00

Another Thursday at the store... Got word that the rest of the point-of-sale system has shipped, so that should be here early next week. I also need to make plans to get the slatwall from Bloomington next week. I'll solidify plans on our end once I can firm them up with the guy we're getting the slatwall from.

Also on the agenda for this week is picking up a cart for the microwave oven that can also store things like paper plates, condiments, and what-not. Plus, I need to order a cash register stand for the new POS system.

Hmmmm... I have a lot more going on this week than I thought. Mayhaps downloading DC Universe Online was a bad idea...

-- GopherDave

Day 359 of 362

2011-12-28T10:38:00.000-06:00

Shipment day... Time to get moving and get stuff into the store and into the system. New stuff... ordered stuff... restocked stuff... It's all on the way...

Last night's DC Adventures game was fun, even if Marathon couldn't quite goad Geo-Force into a fight. Prince Brion is still a jerk and his friends need to stop covering for him. Just saying...

Later on today, I also get to take Dinero into the vet to see what the growth on his leg is. One of our friends who's more pet-versed that we are thinks it's just an abscess, but we're not taking chances. Dinero is one of the sweetest, most good-natured canines you'll ever encounter, and he deserves our due vigilance.

That's it for now... gotta run...

-- GopherDave

Day 358 of 362

2011-12-27T10:27:00.000-06:00

Okay... It's Tuesday, which means it's order day. It's also complicated by having to find a vet for the dog. Dinero (not the dog's real name) seems okay, but he's got this odd, squishy bump on one of his front legs. It doesn't seem to cause him pain when we touch it, but it's definitely something that should not be there. So, after I get done ordering stuff, I'm going to track down a vet, come back home and get the girl and the dog, and take our four-legged friend to see the doctor.

On the game front, tonight is Casual MtG and KnightErrantJR's DC Adventures game. I can't wait, even if I cannot remember what we are doing as a group. I do remember that Marathon was going to go off and be petty by bugging the hell out of Geo-Force for Prince Brion's uppity behavior last time. I was supposed to e-mail KEJR about this, but I got distracted with the holidays and running the store and such.

Anyway... off to the day...

-- GopherDave

Day 357 of 362

2011-12-26T11:49:00.000-06:00

There are only five days left in this semi-sartorial, self-improvement journey. So what am I going to do after it ends?

I'm not certain... I've thought about keeping the blog going. It'll probably have fewer pictures of what I'm wearing and more actual content, but don't hold me to that. It will sort of depends on how quickly our agendas for "improving the store and saving GopherDave's sanity" happen.

The first item on our agenda after receiving the rest of the new point-of-sale system and setting it up is hiring one or two part-time people so I can actually get a day off from the place on a regular basis. Once that happens, I'll actually have more time to spend with my wife and family...

Speaking of wife and family, I hope your holidays were good and went well. Mine was fantabulous! Loquacious made (a non-traditional) Christmas dinner of meat loaf, chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake with a hint of orange flavor. It was delicious! ALL OF IT! This was on top of a breakfast of made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls and bacon. My wife knocked herself out providing me with two great home-cooked meals. Thank you, sweetness... I'll never be able to top that... That's how good it was and how much it filled up my soul.

-- GopherDave

Day 356 of 362

2011-12-24T09:56:00.000-06:00

It's Christmas Eve, and the only thing we're planning on doing at the store is selling a fair number of games...

That and a good friend of mine is in town for a visit. He's supposed to stop by the store and have a chat. Beyond that, there's really not much on the agenda. The tables will be open for first come-first serve gaming, so we'll see who drops by... =)

Hopefully you and yours have a safe holiday. Be safe on any travels you undertake...

-- GopherDave

Day 355 of 362

2011-12-23T14:09:00.000-06:00

Another busy day here at Gopher... It's so busy I almost forgot to do this, but then I remembered during a lull.

Tonight is FNM... Tomorrow is pretty much a free and open day as it being Christmas Eve, I'm expecting at least SOME shoppers. We're gamers after all... As a group we procrastinate like no other. Want proof? Just take a look at release dates for games. How many of them actually *MAKE* their prospective arrival times? Probably less than 30%. Well... we, shop like that too.

Operation: Improve A Game Store is starting to slowly progress. We received the cash drawer, the receipt printer, and the barcode scanner in today. We are told that the rest of it will be shipped next week. That's fine... It'll all get here eventually. If the deal I have in the making goes through, we will have slatwall panels here the first week of January. It won't be all of what we need, but it will be the majority. Once we get the initial panels up, we'll see what needs to be added from there. If the deal falters, well... It'll take a little longer, but it will get done... Like everything else, all in good time...

-- GopherDave

Day 354 of 362

2011-12-22T10:10:00.000-06:00

Another day, another dollar, as the saying goes. I wonder if the creator of that little bit of wisdom took inflation into account? Probably not...

Loq and I looked at another potential spot for the store. It's got possibilities, but it really doesn't say 'wow' to us. We're not worried, though... the right spot will show itself eventually.

Tonight at the store are a couple of RPGs and some casual gaming. I'm not really involved with any of it, so Skribl and I can watch the store and get some work done while things happen.

The only other piece of real news is that our ancient point-of-sale station will be getting an upgrade soon. We ordered a set up with an actual cash drawer, a scanner that isn't old and been dropped dozens of times, and software that isn't DOS-based. There are some other improvements on the horizon that we should have made a long time ago. I think we'll make them, now...

-- GopherDave

Day 353 of 362

2011-12-21T09:51:00.000-06:00

It's shipment day at the store, and there is a metric TON of stuff coming in today. The bulk of it is restock, and I *STILL* didn't hit all the bases because I'm a caveman at purchase orders using all four of my 44-year old eyes... Definitely need a new point-of-sale system. I need to get that ordered today...

Later on today, Loq and I will be looking at another potential Gopher hole. I'm not expecting much, but I'm open to looking. From a historical standpoint, if my memory serves me correctly, the building we're looking at today once housed a camera/photo shop. One that was the first place in town to EVER carry D&D books back in the mid-70s. On some level, it'd be nice to be the ones to bring that full circle, but I'm not going to let that cloud my judgement.

Now, I gotta get going. Work waits for no man...

-- GopherDave

Day 352 of 362

2011-12-20T14:53:00.000-06:00

Running late today... Made some *MASSIVE* restock orders today as we have been torn up over the weekend. That's a good thing as it means more money, but jeez... ... our shelves haven't looked this bare in a while. As it goes, Skirbl and I are still hip deep in work, but are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Lastly, Loquacious is the bestest wife ever! That is all...

-- GopherDave

Day 351 of 362

2011-12-19T13:44:00.000-06:00

Wow... I got so busy staring at various point of sale systems I alomst forgot to blog for the day... (By the by, if someone knows of a good, cheap point-of-sale system, let me know please. Thanks.)

Anyway... 'Tis 40K night so I shall be going home early and doing the laundry I didn't do the other night. S'all good, though... Normal stuff like laundry is helping keep me sane.

On the gaming front, I've been thinking about Tai'eres again, but not the setting so much as the mechanics. I'm thinking about ripping the system out of the Tai'eres setting and trying them in a different genre. Still working on what sort of game they would end up in, but I have some ideas. The main idea swirling in my head is some sort of modern-day, conspiracy game with possible (low-level)psionics added in, but nothing is set in stone.

Other than that, not much is happening...

-- GopherDave

Day 350 of 362

2011-12-18T11:21:00.000-06:00

Lats night was a good time with the daughter. Not as much laundry got done as I would have liked, but I'm good with that. I'll have opportunity to do more tomorrow.

Today, I go work on weekly financials a bit. Then, it looks to be a slow day, but every time I say that, it isn't. Good problem for a business to have.

Beyond that, not much is going on. I'm heading to the store now to get it ready for not much of anything today...

Toodles...

-- GopherDave

Day 349 of 362

2011-12-17T13:24:00.000-06:00

It's a lazy Saturday here at the store. Not much is happening here during the day as much by design as anything else. It's giving us some time to catch up on some stuff. Like taking a check over to the folks who run Winter War. We're all paid and should be all set to see our convention friends once again! Like always, looking forward to it...

Beyond that, since it's World of Darkness night at the store, Loquacious will be coming in early and relieving me, so I get to go home and do laundry... I really don't mind. It's gives me a chance to unwind, watch some TV, and spend some time with the best dog on the planet.

It'll be good...

-- GopherDave

Day 348 of 362

2011-12-16T12:40:00.000-06:00

Well... Loq and had our meeting on Wednesday and jumped through another hoop, successfully I might add, but something at that meeting put us ill-at-ease... the details we are willing to reveal can be found here.

In other news, well, nothing is ever set in stone, and a bigger Gopher hole is in our future. We just have to be patient about it.

Cheers...

-- GopherDave

Day 347 of 362

2011-12-15T11:37:00.000-06:00

I hate that the speed of bureaucracy is so damned slow.

We're currently in limbo once again with the new place. I'm pretty much of the opinion that if we don't have a signed lease in place by 6PM Friday, then we (Gopher) are walking away from the deal. Too much hoop-jumping makes GopherDave a frustrated person.

On the gaming front, the DC Adventures game was a hoot. We actually beat the crap out of the Fatal Five. I am honestly kind of surprised. Tonight, we have Zug's Champions game which is having some issues. We're going to talk about those issues in a discussion that will probably be led by me, which is odd since I am not the GM for this particular game. Ehhh... whatever... We'll work things out or we won't.

I think that's it for now... I'm going to go do some game store owner-stuff... =P

-- GopherDave

Day 346 of 362

2011-12-14T08:14:00.001-06:00

Well... it's D-Day. In about an hour, Loq and I will have a meeting to determine if we are indeed signing a lease for a space we have been actively pursuing (and who has pursued us in return), or if we are back to square one. I have to be honest, with all the stress this situation has caused me, square one doesn't seem so bad right now. That, however, would be the easy way out...

...and the Gophers deserve more than that...

They deserve us to fight hard for something that will ultimately be better for them, for us, and for the good of the local table-top gaming community as a whole. The space we're pursuing (or something close to it) is that 'thing'...

So, Loq and I are going to put on our "war face". We're going to try and act professionally about it all, and we're going to fight for something that there should be no fight over. Someone has a space for rent. We want to rent it. Loq and I have run the numbers and made an offer we can pull off. The (potential) landlord sent back a counter. We had another round of back-and-forth and came to what I consider to be a (non-binding) 'handshake agreement'. Now, they've come back with trepidations about us being able to afford the space.

I don't know what numbers they're looking at, but we've no doubt we can pull this off with flying colors.

After all, we have an army of Gophers behind us... and that's all we'll ever need.

-- GopherDave

Day 345 of 362

2011-12-13T10:26:00.000-06:00

Another Tuesday... It's time to go make a couple of orders... It's time to receive an early order... and eventually it will be time to play my semi-paranoid, telekinetic private detective, Marathon.

The orders should be no issue. I do those on a regular basis. Last we left off in the game, we were facing down the Fatal Five. Now... Marathon is more durable than a LOT of characters in this game, but I'm not looking forward to receiving what could be an epic ass-whoopin'. This one is going to take some brains. I hope we're up to it.

Plus (and there is no real pressure here for KnightErrantJR), given the meeting Lo and I have tomorrow, I'm going to need a major stress release full of fun tonight. I know me, and the less stress I feel going into this meeting, the less likely I will need bail money.

Here's hoping...

-- GopherDave

Day 344 of 362

2011-12-12T12:02:00.000-06:00

Well, we survived the weekend. While I didn't got to bed until WAY later than I should have, I slept like a rock. Anyway, on to business...

Just for kicks and grins, I submitted an application to the House of Paincakes blogroll. Oddly enough, I got accepted. This is why I find it odd... Ya'see... HoP is primarily a place for Warhammer 40K blogs, and this blog here is not a 40K-oriented blog. I like the setting... I have an army for the game... but the current edition of the game leaves me feeling kind of "meh", so I don't really play it currently. Honestly, I don't play much at all right now. Running a game store just doesn't leave me the time I would like to ACTUALLY PLAY GAMES on a regular basis.

So, why'd I submit an application to the House? Simple... I was asked to. I have no clue why, but someone over there thinks I have interesting things to say in between all the pictures of what I'm wearing on a particular day. *shrug* Who knew?

Anyway, for those just joining me, this blog's primary purpose is as a self-accountability tool. I tried doing some regular features, but found that I just don't have enough "off-time" from the business to keep those up *AND* unwind. Every now and then, I drop a game-or life-related nugget of wisdom onto the 'net, and I guess that is what makes me worth reading...

Have fun... enjoy the ride... and remember, keep your arms inside the confines of the coaster at all times... We wouldn't want ya to lose one...

-- GopherDave

Day 343 of 362

2011-12-11T11:12:00.000-06:00

Running late as I'm trying to catch up on sleep. So here's the sum-up...

The benefit went great! We raised $3K+ for the Geiken family, and we couldn't be happier. Thanks to all who donated their items, time, and money. We appreciate you all more than I could ever express... =)

As for gaming, the Terracide game went okay... we did a lot of nothing, but that is as much our fault as the GMs. As players, we're still trying to find out feet in the background. Meanwhile, Shady's off at the deep end going "come on over, the water's fine". We'll get there and meet in the middle someplace. Currently, we seem to be in a stick-and-carrot situation that involves one carrot and a whole LOT of sticks. As Rorschach would say, "Hurrrrrrmmmm..."

-- GopherDave

Day 342 of 362

2011-12-10T09:56:00.000-06:00

Late night last night, but a good one. I was flying solo and we had one of our largest FNM turnouts of the season. I am a tired puppy. On top of that, we have the huge Geiken Family Benefit today. For details of that, see a couple of posts below. It looks to be a good time. We'll be auctioning off over $2100 worth of stuff, and raffling off two (semi-generic) tickets to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Basically, the tickets are good for any non-benefit show you wish to attend for the 2011-2012 season.

Yours truly will be playing auctioneer, and things will be kept at a rapid pace. I don't play when I sell stuff. It's very much shock-and-awe... Get in-Get out-Leave no doubt of the sale... That's how I roll... =P

Speaking of rolling, I need to get going. Things gotta get done...

-- GopherDave

Day 341 of 362

2011-12-09T10:12:00.000-06:00

It's Friday, so that means Friday Night Magic at the store. It'll be a bit different this week, though. Skribl (my son) will not be there to help me as he will be on a weekend vacation to visit some friends up north. It'll be a bit hectic for me, to say the least.

On another note, we found out what the last snag is in regard to trying to move. Once I read the e-mail explaining it, it was all I could do not to completely lose it in terms of temper and frustration. I kept it in check, though, and no one got hurt. We're trying to schedule a face-to-face with the other parties involved in order to get to the bottom of it all. Both sides have been working through realtor-esque intermediaries, and I think that has been part of the problem. Either way, after the face-to-face, we'll know if we are moving forward or moving back to square one.

The Geiken Family Benefit for tomorrow proceeds apace. Loquacious is doing the bulk of the "heavy lifting" on this one. I will be there to help, and I am the auctioneer for the live auction we're having. If you've never seen me as an auctioneer, you're in for a treat, but don't blink. I don't play around. Stuff gets sold quick...

Speaking of quick, I need to jet. I have an errand or two to run before I hit the store.

Later...

-- GopherDave

Geiken Family Fundraiser

2011-12-08T13:14:00.000-06:00

Hey Folks...
I cannot remember if I've spoken about this here, and I know the notice is short, but the cause is good...

Armored Gopher Games will be holding a fundraiser for the Geiken family. The matriarch of the family was involved in a traffic accident a few months back and was hurt fairly badly. She's mending and well on the road to recovery, but that road isn't free. The Geiken's are gamers (like us) and could use our support...

Details are here...

Thanks for listening...

-- GopherDave

Day 340 of 362

2011-12-08T12:14:00.000-06:00

Early at the store, not much is going on. Still waiting on the last round of paperwork to go through at the potential new landlords. If this fails, it's back to step one, but it's not an entire wash. We'll just use the money we've saved up for this potential move to make improvements to the current store and begin socking money away for some other potential move.

If it goes through, though... that's when the work truly begins for us. Either way, I am looking forward to it.

At the store, there's a couple of role-playing games tonight (Deathwatch and Jade Regent (Pathfinder)). I should have the boy with me, so the traffic flow of helping customers shouldn't be an issue.

Beyond that... not much else is going on. I'm taking a wait-and-see approach with the new place, but I'm not a patient person. Either poop or get of the pot folks. Give me a "yes" or "no", and let us get on with our next step...

...sigh...

-- GopherDave

Day 339 of 362

2011-12-07T10:28:00.001-06:00

Running behind as usual... It's "shipment day" at the store. I used quotes because based on how many distributors I placed orders to this week, it's going to be "shipment day" for the rest of the week.

Progress on "new Gopher" proceeds slowly. I believe we have finally submitted everything, and are now in wait and see mode. The ways things are looking, they "should" go through, but I'm not counting chickens until they are well and truly hatched.

Other than that, there's a ton of work at the store to catch up on. I think I'm going to be busy for the next couple of days.

-- GopherDave

Day 338 of 362

2011-12-06T12:41:00.000-06:00

It's order day here at the Gopher, the day where I watch a not-insubstantial sum of money fly out of the bank account in hopes of becoming a more substantial quantity of money in about a week's time.

A few years back, when we were a REALLY tiny game store and our order budget was minuscule, there was no room to take chances. We *HAD* to make a profit in order to keep going, and our order budget was so small we really could only order that which we KNEW would sell due to prior customer order/interest. It's a retail store's version of living check-to-check, and it's no fun.

As we have grown, our order budget has as well. We can now take chances on games that are new that may not sell immediately. We can order stuff for the "long haul", and we can now put money away to easily afford the big releases when they happen. We are resting easier.

With the potential move, we will be moving back to that check-to-check area for a bit. There's no way around it really. We've pretty much hit the sales ceiling here at our current location. The place where sales cannot increase much more because we cannot fit a larger quantity/variety of stuff in the store to appeal to a larger customer base. Gopher hit that with its original location in short order (with in 18 months). We hit here in about the same time (22 months). The actual space difference between original Gopher and current Gopher is only 380 square feet. With that added 54% worth of space, plus better parking and an easier-to-find location, we've tripled our sales.

The new location will increase our physical space by 463%. Do I think that it will increase our sales by a factor of 8.5? Honestly, no... We're a niche hobby, and there's only so much of that money to go around in this area. But if this moves leads us to triple our sales once again, well, the Gophers will be sitting pretty. We'll have a large enough facility where everybody truly gets to play... We'll have enough space to increase the amount of games we have on the shelf for IMMEDIATE purchase that special orders (and the wait that they entail) will be just that, SPECIAL orders... We'll be able to provide jobs to some of our unemployed Gophers, and in a down economy, this ability is worth its weight in gold.

I personally want the store to grow, because I want the gaming community of our area to not be isolated pockets of people who don't know anyone outside of their little circles. I want it to be a small gaming convention EVERY DAY, where people can come in, if they're of a mind to, meet some new people, and learn to play some cool new games. I want Armored Gopher Games to be the brightest star on the Midwest gaming horizon... the beacon that draws people in, encourages them to mingle, and helps create support networks from those new friends for when times get rough...

Because rough times are here, folks. We're all living them in one form or another, financially and/or emotionally...

It'll just be easier if we do it together...

-- GopherDave

Day 337 of 362

2011-12-05T08:33:00.000-06:00

Monday... and busier than usual. I've a number of errands to run before the store opens and I need to be out the door as soon as I can manage without being too early as all of the places I need to go do not open until 9AM or later. Sigh...

Once this morning is done I can slow down, take a breath, and then work on OTHER stuff that's been piling up at the store lately. Beyond that, I got nothin'... that I can think of right now...

Sigh... Never done... never done... never done...

-- GopherDave

Day 336 of 362

2011-12-04T13:22:00.000-06:00

Ugh... the show wrestling went WAYYYYY longer than I thought it would. Got home close to 1AM. By the time I wound down, it was just after 2AM. Overall, the show was good. Some very good young talent... some talent that has no business being near a ring yet... a couple of spots where it looked like folks were legitimately hurt... In short, an indy show. The promotion is called Dreamwave. They are based in Oglesby, Illinois, and they run monthly shows in nearby LaSalle, Illinois. If you like wrasslin', and are in the area when they are running a show, you should check it out.

Today, I'm going to try to finish up all the preliminary paperwork for the move, so we can turn it in tomorrow. It needs to be done before I go to bed tonight, so it might be another late night. Once we get that done, we need to start looking into signage, flooring, and the cost for a new point-of-sale system. Things never really end...

Well, if things are going to be done, I need to get to it... Later, all...

-- GopherDave

Day 335 of 362

2011-12-03T10:26:00.000-06:00

Another late Friday, but it was fun... Today we have a Miniatures Modeling day at the store followed by World of Darkness. That means I leave early usually, but today is a bit different.

This afternoon, the father-in-law and I are going up to Lasalle-Peru to watch some indie pro wrestling. Yeah, I dig the fake fighting... guilty pleasure... sue me...

Beyond that, not much is happening today... other than me doing another big chunk of the paperwork effort. It should all be done enough to turn in on Monday, and that is already looking like a busy day.

So what else is new? =)

-- GopherDave

Day 334 of 362

2011-12-02T14:19:00.000-06:00

Friday... so that means Friday Might magic, and a long night for me. S'okay, though... I've grown to thoroughly enjoy the crowd we get.

Progress proceeds apace on submitting paperwork for the new place. We've got two more things to do to finish our end of that out. One of those things will tack practically no time at all. The second will take me about five to eight hours worth of uninterrupted work to accomplish. Sigh.

-- GopherDave

Day 333 of 362

2011-12-01T06:19:00.000-06:00

Why is it that I don't notice the really BIG hair sticking to the sweater until *AFTER* I am done taking pictures for the day?

It's 0-Dark-Early in the morning, and I'm strangely okay with that. Sometimes, I have to wonder why it's easier for me to pull myself out of bed after only four hours of sleep as opposed to when I've had seven hours of sleep or more.

Today, I'm taking my lovely Loquacious out to breakfast, in an effort to spend some time with my favorite lady. We don't get much time like this anymore, unless I make it. So, I made it. She's worth losing a couple hours of sleep for. =)

On the gaming front, tonight is the other superhero game that I play in. I'm hoping it goes well, but my time has been so crunched lately that I am looking at stepping away from it for a small while so I can get stuff that needs to be accomplished actually accomplished.

Beyond that... not much is happening. Life moves on and such...

-- GopherDave

Day 332 of 362

2011-11-30T13:58:00.000-06:00

Well... Last night's DC Adventures game was every bit as fun as I thought it was going to be. It was definitely missed and needed from my point of view. Thank you, KEJR!

Today was shipment day for the main order for the week. Nothing new, but a couple of special orders and some restocks. Last night, though, was busy enough that I had to place an order with our secondary distributor today to get some things restocked and cover some items that our primary distributor did not have. So, we'll have some more stuff either tomorrow or Friday.

I am going to attempt to get some move-related paperwork done today as I am not in any games. However, given how business has been lately, it all may have to wait until after we close tonight. It needs to get done, and I haven't been able to get it done at the store when we've been open. Taking said work home hasn't been much help lately, as I've developed the mindset that when I'm home, I'm *HOME*. Working 70+ hour weeks at the store, home is supposed to be the place where I decompress at least a little, and I have not been accomplishing much there. Still, this work needs to be done, sooner rather than later.

Beyond that, not much has changed... I'm going to try to catch up on some things, now.

Toodles...

-- GopherDave

Day 331 of 362

2011-11-29T12:42:00.000-06:00

Orders are done... paperwork for the potential move continues slowly apace... Dominion and its kin have begun to make speedy exits out of the store, so it must be the holiday season...

Tonight at the store is casual MtG and... wait for it... KnightErrantJR's DC Adventures game.

SQUEE!!!

-- GopherDave

Day 330 of 362

2011-11-28T12:55:00.000-06:00

It's Monday... Overall, it's been slow, but things did start with a burst of business.

Loquacious faxed of a "Letter of Intent" for the potential new spot for Gopher. I say potential due to a couple of contingencies that have to be met/overcome. I started the ball rolling today for one of them. If we can get the new printer to speak to the (very) old point-of sale system, there will be a couple of things to print out. If not (and it's not looking likely), then I will have a couple of long nights doing stuff after close getting some pieces together to make the rest of what we need to happen happen.

No real word yet, though... and until there is, I may comment, but we are not COMMITTING or COMMITTED to anything. It is definitely a wait-and-see time.

The next few days look to be busy with orders, and other move-related business. It's a good thing I stockpiled some sleep. I'm gonna need it...

Now if I could just find some way to stockpile some for Loq as well, that'd be super...

-- GopherDave

Day 329 of 362

2011-11-27T11:14:00.001-06:00

Sunday, Sunday... (La-laaaa-laa-laa)... Not as bland as Monday... (La-laaaa-laa-laa)...

Okay, hippie 60's songs aside... Today is *scheduled* to be a busy day at the store game-wise. That being said, with the holiday weekend, a number of games and events just haven't been happening. I understand why that is, just makes knowing what's going on at Gopher a bit like throwing darts at a list of events. Every now and then, you miss the list entirely, and nothing happens.

Last night, though, Shady ran his Star HERO Terracide game. It was a lot of fun, and during it all, Ling became a touch less racist, but he still rates highly on the "Summer's Eve" scale. Thus, I consider the session a success. In general, our Gang of Four ran through a ship with about 50 people on it. We misdirected over half of them to a part of the ship where we wouldn't be, sedated those that we could, shot those that we had to (one spectacularly), kidnapped an insurance piece, and ended up with a defector who joined our side because "he wanted a better job". Overall, a good run. I'm looking forward to more of it.

For now, however, I gotta go. The store doesn't open itself...

-- GopherDave

Day 328 of 362

2011-11-26T10:10:00.000-06:00

Blue, gray, and black... For some reason, it feels right...

Last night was a long night, but an overall good one. Today promises to be more so.

First, I'm heading to the store for a bit, then Loquacious is going to relieve me, and I will change out of my normal, dapper gear into something more conducive to drumming. I've been invited to Grumpy's house for a a holiday jam session. I haven't truly touched a musical instrument in 20+ years, but that hasn't completely killed the urge. I do like music, and though I am old, out-of-shape, and WAY out-of-practice, I'm looking forward to it.

Once we've deafened ourselves, I'll come back to the store and play in Shady's Star HERO game. It wasn't what I intended, but I believe I have come up with the most racist Asian character ever. I'm going to see how this character ("Xia Ling-Jen", or just "Ling") develops... Depending on what happens, he'll either get spaced by one of the other PCs for his antics or he'll become so indispensable to the ship/crew that they'll put up with his crap. The more I look at this paragraph in writing, the more intrigued I become by the possibilities.

Finally... apparently I won something. You can read about it here. All I'll say for now is "Thanks, JJ! 'Tis appreciated"

-- GopherDave

Day 327 of 362

2011-11-25T10:11:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I noticed the giant hair after I took the pictures. It's gone now...

Yep... It's Black Friday... Currently, we have no specials going on at the store, but if you come in and buy enough, GopherDave will make you "such a deal", you'll hardly believe you're walking out with money in your pocket. =P

Seriously, though... Other than normal business, all that's going on tonight is Friday Night Magic.

My day yesterday, though, was Heaven. I got to spend the day with my family and not worry about he store. In fact, I didn't get "store twitchy" like I usually do on one of these days until about 9PM. That's about 2-3 hours later than usual. I'd like to think I'm getting better at letting go, but we shall see.

Take care... shop defensively...

-- GopherDave