Shipping off to Boston

I was in Boston for training and was able to take a short walk around town. What a neat city. It is a lot more crowded than I care for but the history is incredible. Small little chapels, graveyards and state buildings from the 1600s where snuggled in between skyscrapers and modern structures.

We had a seafood dinner down by the harbor and I was stuffed. The boats looked nice and overall I had a good time.

Gencon 09

Gencon


The very name itself has a mystique. It comes from the first convention held at the home of Gary Gygax in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin then called the ‘Geneva Convention’. It is one of the oldest and biggest gaming conventions. By gaming, it is inclusive of all gaming styles, board games, card games, miniature wargames, role-playing games, electronic games and all the various sub types that exist under and between. Also represented is interest in anime, model crafting and writing. As of 2003, this annual event has moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. I have attended at least one day of the convention every year. On those occasions when friends are also attending, I will come out for the full four days.


I love Gencon as it is one of the few times that I feel completely at ease with everyone around me. Nobody has a hidden agenda and we all have the same goal which is to have a great time. I walk in the ICC and get an immediate sense that ‘these are my people’. This year, our friends the Goodwins, came up a day early and we visited and went to the children’s museum. As the day progressed and some normal life stress started to increase (trying to do too many things at once), Sheard reminded me to relax as the next day would be Gencon and that just made it all better.


Unfortunately, the Goodwins came down with some kind of bug that passed through them all. This made me think of the last time they visited Indiana during the winter and all got sick. Sheard assured me that they did not blame Indiana but I sure felt bad for them. Fortunately, they all recovered quickly and were able to enjoy most of the Con.


I have included a lot of pictures here as I have tried and failed often to describe the atmosphere. I would say that they represent about 15% of all that goes on. By Sunday afternoon, I was feeling rather sad knowing that the fun had ended for another year. To anyone looking at this and wondering if you would enjoy it, I whole heartily invite you to come check it out.


Mark your calendars:
Gen Con Indy 2010 August 5-8, 2010
Gen Con Indy 2011 August 4-7, 2011
Gen Con Indy 2012 August 16-19, 2012
Gen Con Indy 2013 August 15-18, 2013
Gen Con Indy 2014 August 14-17, 2014
Gen Con Indy 2015 July 30 - August 2, 2015


Here a a few of the pictures but for more please visit - Flickr

Castle Diorama











Cardhalla (all made with cards)











One of the board gaming halls











An Angel statue













Amtgard guys demo

First up, Doug's Party

Everything has to start somewhere. First let me clear away some small items of business. I have no announcements to make. Cheryl is not currently pregnant. I am not reading anything interesting right now and Cheryl reads so fast that it makes keeping an accurate post impractical. This is the first post in the first public blog for our family so don't worry about catching up on historic posts as there are none.

Having read many friends' blogs, I have come to believe that these online musings serve a purpose beyond posting pictures and stories for far off friends and relatives. As a while, they form a communal bonds very much like those enjoyed by a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. I like small towns and as far as I am concerned, this is a good thing so hence this contribution to the community.

Today's entry is regarding Doug's birthday. He is 11 years old today and last Saturday we had a party for him. He wanted to host a kind of role-play mystery adventure where he and his guests would go room to room on a fantasy medieval quest. We took on this challenge and developed a storyline, recruited decorating and casting help and generally prepared for hours to somewhat successfully host a 15-20 minute adventure. Fortunately, the kids were victorious and not much crying occur ed. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our friends who gladly came over to help out. The famous Rigby twins, Dana and Sarah, who spent their Saturday with us and helped place spiderwebs and other props and Sarah even stayed on as our hardworking tavern wench. In addition, Joe Ambrose made a convincing ghost and Jillian Tueller was our outstanding Spider Queen. In addition to the castle cake, Cheryl baked round loaves of bread and so called pigs-in-a-blanket while I deep fried a turkey and fries for that not so authentic look and feel.

While I am satisfied that it turned out well enough, I did learn some lessons. First, inviting kids to a party is a very intricate ordeal. If you invite the brother do you invite the sister etc. and before you know it, you have triple the number of expected guests. It's great to have everyone but it does strain the resources and can make planned activities a lot less organized. Second, your most carefully laid plans will not get executed like you think. Again, this is fine but be sure that you are flexible enough to handle these surprise changes. Third, take lots of pictures before and during the party. The actual event goes so fast that before you realize it, the trap has been sprung or the treasure found and the memories are already fading. I think even staged pictures, while annoying is useful. Take lots of shots as well. As the pictures below will show, you don't know when your hand is shaking or the light was wrong.

Every time we finish one of these parties, the inevitable question is, "what will we do next?" At this point, we don't know, but hopefully we can maintain the fun factor.

The Castle cake

Joe Ambrose as a Ghost

The message in the mirror

The revelers

The trap room

Killing the Spider

The throne of the Spider Queen