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Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Home from Origins

STEVE COLE REPORTS: We got home from Origins late last night, tired but happy.

We had good sales, good games, met good friends, and generally had a good time. The three women who ran the booth for me did a fantastic job. The crowd was small for a number of reasons (it's always bad on 4th of July, Gencon is planning a blowout for its 40th anniversary and those who could only do one picked that one) but those who were there had a splendid time.

The show was well run by the GAMA crew. There was massive confusion about the "vouchers" which were given to judges, and lots of people got wrong information, but it all worked out.

This was the 9th one since ADB incorporated, and we have the system down pretty well. Everything went very well. The drive was pleasant, despite some heavy rain in spots.

Three special moments of note...

1. Jen Pyle, my primary booth babe, is expecting her first child in six months. Her husband Bart was very protective. I gave them the baby spoon that was baked inside my mother's wedding cake; I had my first solid food out of it 55+ years ago.

2. During the F&E tournament, we stopped to have the tournament judge (Lieutenant Colonel Charles Strong) swear in Staff Sergeant Dan Knipfer (who has spent 19 years in the Air Force and wanted his final hitch to begin on the 4th of July at Origins).

3. Randy Green brought me a 105mm cannon shell casing which had been used to bombard Taliban battle positions in Afghanistan early this year. The engraving thanked me and ADB for supporting the War on Terror and this empty cannon shell means more to me than my Origins award from last year.