A Weekend Without a Cold Wars

As was apparent to its attendees, I did not make it to Cold Wars this year.    A comedy of errors this winter, adding up to rescheduling personal events, a car that I only trust on a 10-minute commute, forgetting to pre-register, and the last minute cancellation of the Gnome Wars games, I was still dedicated to making a day trip on Friday, seeing Mike Lung and the other gnomies, and maybe pick up some cheap deals at the flee market.

Then the snow came... and it never really stopped. 

I already bailed from work twice this week, but the thought of tossing the kids at day care an hour earlier the bus would (school had another snow day), calling off from work, and dealing with the jagged icy ruts to Amish country were still 50/50. 

Then at 4:45pm on Thursday, my boss tells me everyone else is stuck in meetings offsite and will continue to do so all next week.  I'm in charge... of EVERYTHING.

Work loyalty trumps hobby loyalty. 

PROs:  Saves money on gas, admission, food, and purchases.  And between my Pulp Figures order already here, my Reaper Kickstarter almost together, and my Jet Bike Kickstarter from England stuck at the post office, I've already got my metric crapload of stuff.
CONs: I can't get to see my fellow gnomies (face-to-face interaction is always the best).  With Mepacon currently at 20% to attend next weekend (a gnome-themed convention, no less!), I won't see a true convention until Fall-In! next November 3-5. 
As I always do, I will try to assemble a "ViscountEric's Best Of" pics from Cold Wars that I find from other blogs (with proper citation, of course).

(EDIT: Mike to the rescue.  After I typed this up for Sunday, this blog'a eternal and immortal correspondent Mike Lung got ahold of me with tempting news.  A fella at the flea market had two boxes full of PAINTED Legions of Steel minis. A few texts and pics later and I'm getting two more behemoths, six assault troopers and some weird spider creature I can't ID.  All for less than a day pass and gas.  Mike is a God among men...)

As a consolation prize, I finally snagged this up at the local drug store. 

I reformatted my gaming projects journal at the start of the year, and despite being better at plotting out long-term projects through the summer (and changing some dates in my "drafts" side of the blog), I was waaaay too ambitious with the first three months of the year.  There are still three items I haven't completed in January, six in February, and seventeen for March.   Most of my problem is (surprise surprise) in the painting/terrain side of things, where sleep has trumped painting for many nights. 
Upon a quick review of posts from the last two months, I see that I've already brought up these issues... TWICE. 

So, knowing that I have a problem, I will rewrite the project journal into my new permanent gnome-themed one using the following guidelines (so now, revised for a THIRD time!):

1. GNOME WARS - Whether or not the figures are painted, I have an Easter game, a Father's Day game, and a few other ideas open to kids and/or friends.
2. PULP GAMES CONTINUE - The kids enjoy it, plus I have so many ideas saved up that it's great to weave my storyline with their imagination.  The need for figures has dominated my purchasing/painting plan and has helped
3. A RETURN TO PONYVILLE.  More news on that probably after my daughter's birthday in May, post-cruise.
4. MOUSLINGS - So many to paint, with more coming.  Mousling Fantasy games were just on the horizon, anyway.
5. MY KINGDOM FOR A LAPTOP.  With all the other issues/expenses/vacation, the need for a new laptop for working from home is important for Reviews, Gnome History, Rules, etc.  Both our antique model from before I was married and an old work model bequeathed to us have given up the ghost, and it would be nice to have a little processing power from the later side of this decade.  Getting down to the basement to paint after hours is tough.  Strolling down the hall into the office to write up reviews, RPG campaign notes, and the like requires a little less effort. 
6. THE JOURNAL.  I've been busy transcribing the old college D&D journal word for word into another Actual Play series as I've done with Hackmaster and Call of Cthulhu.  It's over 50 pages of handwritten notes, written by multiple players, and that doesn't include a significant side campaign that occurred during Summer session that I already possessed in my office.  I'm halfway through and I've set up 26 different weekly entries that all will need significant editing to turn into a readable prose.  While the other projects are thing I love and seem to generate traffic, The Ballad of the Pigeon God is a nostalgic trip down memory lane that will excite at most a dozen people on this planet.  And while the other laptop preferred activities could be done during my lunch hour at work (I am allowed), I'm more inclined to dedicate that time for these weekly postings every Tuesday.