Well I’ve been remiss in keeping this sucker up to date. In my defense, I’ve been very…well, actually not very busy. I did learn to knit, though! I have 1/5 of an afghan done for my son.

Oh, oh, and we painted the store! Most of one wall is now a blackboard, and the rest went from drab brown to sunny yellow. I LOVE it! Here are some pictures, but to really appreciate the change you really need to come in and see. One of these pics has Kendel’s head in it. Hi, Kendel’s head!

In game news, have you played Dungeon Lords yet? I love this game. It ranks as a new favorite. Come in and try it out, but only if you’re willing to put a lot of thought into what you’re doing.

That’s it for now, but I promise to get back to writing once a week. (I have more time now since I quit that other job!!!)

Dawn

Well, we did it! We had our very first:

1) prerelease tournament!
2) 32 person tournament!
3) Worldwake tournament!
4) midnight tournament!

And, wow, am I tired. We started the festivities by moving tons of furniture into the rental space at about 4 pm Friday afternoon (thank you Mike and Robert!!!). Then we ran FNM from 6:00 – 10:00 pm. Then we started the prerelease tournament at midnight. It was about 7:00 am Saturday morning when I finally finished putting all the furniture back into the store (thank you Mike (again? What are you, a glutton for punishment?) and Brandon!!!).

It was all worth it, though, because what a great group of players we had. I just hope everyone had as much fun as we did.

Congratulations go to Geoff Dearing for taking the whole thing and going undefeated. Second place went to Robert Kinser, who is back into Magic after a long hiatus. Welcome back, Bobby! Also, congratulations to Sora for winning the Fat Pack through the bounty drawing. Jesse got the intro pack and Rob got the extra Comet Storm promo card.

And super grats go to Khalea for dressing up her husband and our distinguished judge, Brandon, as a girl in pigtails.

So here are a few pictures:

I am posting this picture for my daughter. She needs it for school. Hi Samantha!

What a great week this week (and last)!

Last week we got two new games:

We played Dungeon Lords at game night Saturday, and it’s definitely up there as one of my new favorites. I can’t for the life of me seem to remember the rule that you gain one niceness for losing a dungeon room or tunnel, though. Oh well, next time.

This week…Worldwake prerelease!!! This is our first prerelease, and I’m so excited. We’re doing the tournament at midnight Friday night/Saturday morning. Tiring, but fun as heck. We have room for 32 people, and we have only a couple of spots left, so come and join soon or you won’t get in.

The tournament will be a sealed deck with 4 Worldwake boosters and 2 Zendikar. Everyone who stays and plays gets 1 more Worldwake booster, and there will be additional prizes for 1st through 16th as well.

I have the best job…

Take care, and see you all soon!

Dawn

As the new year starts, I look back on the past year and all the changes and reflect on a good life. As you all know, we moved the store due to monetary considerations back in April. It was pretty much like starting over, but I am very thankful for our faithful customers who followed us to the new location. Seeing friendly, familiar faces is always a blessing.

We started at the new location by taking down 2 walls and leaving the game room as a completely separate room. Soon, we took down the front wall of the game room and eventually removed the last of the walls, opening up the store in a dramatic fashion. Big thanks go out to Robert for helping us so much with the demolition and electrical work. Soon we may even have everything patched and painted!

Last year I also started work at the Verizon Wireless call center, leaving my husband in charge of the store for several months. Soon that changed too, as I went to part time at Verizon and full time at the store. This is a change that pleased James greatly. This year I’m hoping the major change will be that I only work here.

We also got a part time employee this year, which was great. It’s nice to know the store is in good hands when we aren’t here to watch it. Thank you to Jay and Kendel for your brief stints here, and thank you to Brandon for your enthusiasm. We hope the change this year will involve more time for him at the store.

What a wonderful year! We aren’t getting rich, but we are getting by, and for that I am most grateful. May all of your New Year’s wishes come true, and may we be here to share in them.

Dawn

(Oh, and congratulations to Melissa and Chris, good friends who got married on December 31st. We love you guys!)

Just a quick post to let you guys know our holiday hours:

Christmas Eve 10am – 5pm
Christmas Day Closed
Day after Christmas 12pm – 5pm
New Year’s Eve 10am – 8pm
New Year’s Day 12pm – 5pm

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!!

So, yeah, Christmas. We’re doing okay, but could be doing better (especially today, which has been like a graveyard so far). I am grateful for every customer through the door, though, even though it’s been an exhausting few weeks.

The good news is that my husband is leaning more and more towards my only working here instead of here and that other evil place. So, yay for just one job! Here’s hoping we can keep the momentum so we can pay ourselves at some point to replace the other meager income… I do wonder sometimes whether this place is worth all the heartache and trouble, but then I see my good friends and play some games with someone new, and my faith is renewed. It would be easier to keep my head up if we saw more people every day, though.

Either way, Merry Christmas to all of you out there in cyber-land! Come see us soon and make sure to say hi when you come in.

Dawn

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Seriously, they are all on the SAME post. It’s really weird. (No, to those of you worried about me, I did not approve any of them.)

Anyway, on to better news…

Look at the cool new stuff!!!

Okay, okay, so technically Red November isn’t new, but we do finally have it back in stock! It’s been MIA for months. Wheel of Fortune looks pretty cool, and Tobago is the latest craze in new games. I’ve played it, and I have to add my hearty endorsement. Come in and check them out!

Dawn

Well, it’s Saturday and I still don’t have a non-messy store. As a matter of fact, all I have is a mostly unmessy ceiling. I’ve been married for 5 years; you’d think I’d have learned by now that statements like “it’ll just take 10 hours or so” and “it’ll only cost about $100″ are wishful thinking. Husband: triple your estimations next time. I expect he’ll finish next year some time. And I know I didn’t post anything about sales on Wednesday. Quite frankly, I was cleaning and/or putting up ceiling tiles literally all day.

In the meantime, though, we do have more room! Check out the pictures!

Also: thank you to everyone who came in yesterday and made it our best day in sales in our entire history! Hopefully today will be even better.

Samantha, my daughter, is painting windows as I type this, so I will post new window pictures later. Maybe I’ll paint a Santa Munchkin. :0

We had people draw on a wall we were planning to tear out in the store. It turned out that we have some very clever friends and customers! You can’t really see it all in the picture, but here it is anyway. It turned out so well that I’m considering having a permanent “put your thoughts here” wall.

Then we tore that wall down, along with half of the store (it feels like). Thanks for your help, Robert!! Now we just have to redo the ceiling, patch the walls, paint, and clean. And clean some more. Time to bring the kids in to dust, I think.

Now, for Black Friday…I think we’ll do a free gift with purchase thing. Come see us for final details! I’ll post the final stuff on this page tomorrow when I have time and a non-messy store.

Enjoy the pictures (they were taken with a phone, sorry…)

Dawn