Exciting News!

It is hard to believe, but I found another gamer nearby. The husband of a colleague somewhat recently started gaming. He knows a few others within a reasonable travel radius, and I think there are some potential gamers among some of the faculty at my college. Maybe we are overly optimistic, but we are going to start a club and see where it goes.

On a different note, I sort of gave my friend Karl (the General of Northern Chalupistan) an ultimatum. I said that if he didn't come through with his OOB for his Operation: Ike & Tina, that I'd start the battles without him. He is probably angry at me because he has not emailed me back since I sent him the message over two weeks ago. From my standpoint, he hasn't done a whole lot lately and I really want to begin gaming the campaign, especially if I now have real live people to game with. He seems to enjoy the roll-playing aspect of it, but doesn't seem all that interested in much of the other aspects. Setting up your army dispositions may be dull, but it has to be done. I've already begun assigning combat brigades to the various starting points of the invasion, and I have been using what he sent me in terms of plans. Maybe he will send me something, if not, the war must go on.

The New Table is Now Operational

The New Table

I don't have everything on there, but its now ready to be used!

An open house was attended by a few guests:

The Unfinished Vampire Queen Welcomes the Guests

Guests Chatting and Examining the New Facilities

Big Karl and Bambi Admiring the New Glue Station

New Table Update

Yesterday, I put up my new table (sorry, no pictures). On the plus side, its very long, on the down side, its very long. If you look at the picture from the previous post, there isn't a whole lot of room to begin with. Double the size of the old table and that becomes a problem. The new table really sucks up a lot of real estate. Its not a tiny room, but we also have a TV, coffee table and small couch in there. Second problem is with my light. The light that I have now is one of those that has a vise that attaches to the edge the table and the lamp slides into. Well, it does...sort of. The table is plastic and a slippery and soft one at that. I attached the vise opposite to where I would sit and then inserted the lamp inot the vise. The lamp is so heavy that when I extend the arm to an optimal lighting position the whole thing bent from the vise. I'm sure that the slippery plastic will cause the vise that holds the lamp to slip out. Disaster will result!

I am more sentimental about this old lamp than my old workbench. I've had this lamp for well over 30 years now. It was my Uncle's lamp when he was a graphic artist. They don't make 'em like they used to. That is why its so heavy. I really don't want to get a new one, but I will probably have to find a lamp that is on a pedestal. I could anchor the old lamp at one end of the table, and that way I would not have to extend it very far, but the point is that I want to sit at the middle of the table, not at one end.

I've been thinking of getting one of those OTT lights, but I will try to find a way to better anchor the old light.

Retirement of an Old Friend

The Old Workhorse

After 16 years of use, I finally decided to retire my old workbench. above, and move up to a larger one.

The old one is a 3' x 3' table that my wife used as a table before we were married. Once we got married, I inherited it as my workbench.

The problem with it is that, first, I'm a slob and there was always a ton of stuff always strewn about it. Second, even if I weren't a slob, there was little room to put paints, storage boxes, etc. Very few things were at my easy reach, and I always ended up with a work space the size of a postage stamp. You can probably figure out where that was on the table based on the concentration and location of paint splatterings.

So, I bought a 6' folding table. It is long enough to put more storage boxes and drawers on top of it, and I plan to have some plastic storage drawers on either side of me.

Not Much New

I went home to Chicago to visit family. I had hoped to have another game using my 1/600 jets. I had more of them painted and, I had carefully re-read the rules. However, the game never happened. Also, in my haste, I forgot to bring those plastic miniatures for my nephew.

While there, I did buy some figures at Games Plus to help Big Karl and Bambi fight off the machine hoards. Also, some much wanted AA weaponry from C-in-C arrived while I was gone. Much to do, little time to do it.