Sigh - so much for Adepticon

I'm sad. I was lining everything up for Adepticon - I had a partner for the Team Tournament, I had a reservation for the hotel, I knew which flights I could buy, and I was planning my list. The one thing that I thought was a sure thing, though, bit me - I couldn't get the time off of work. That is the week of standardized testing, and it was seen as too important to have me miss proctoring one segment of the test out of about fourteen. Well, crap. So no A-Con for me.

I did manage to get everything set for The Necronomicon, though. My hotel is paid for, I've gotten my frequent flyer mile ticket out there (first class! - ironically the cheapest seats available), and I've registered and paid for the con itself, which as always is the cheapest part. I've even sent in my list, which is the same one I used for the Gathering. It served me pretty well there.

So now I need to improve my paint jobs. Some of the highlights - I'll need to get all of the details painted and then highlighted. I'll improve the level of overall highlighting, particularly on the rangers and Guards of the Fountain Court. After all of that, I'll probably do some extra details, like edging on the Guards cloaks and battle damage on the shields.

So now the clock is reset, with the countdown ending on July 24th. I'll get myself a paint plan going in a few weeks, after I've finished my grading.

The year ahead in gaming

I've got some serious thinking to do. First off, with a strong performance at the Gathering, it makes sense for me to get some other LOTR Circuit events in. With some extra time, I can definitely improve my paint scores, the low part of my performance at the Gathering. The bigger question is how I can work in actually attending given some of the challenges I'm facing.

The first challenge is this - my wife and I are expecting our first child this year. Hooray! I'm definitely looking forward to being a daddy, and I know that though my life will forever change, I seriously doubt I'll be getting out of the toy soldier hobby. However, the due date is September 18th. No problem, right? Oh, other than the anticipated date for the Vegas GT being a week ahead of that day... With the accuracy of due dates being in the 5% range, my wife is NOT excited at the prospect of me leaving town that close to birth. Her fear is that I fly out, she goes into labor, and then has no support at the hospital. OK, a small possibility, but a very valid concern. The consequences of hitting those low percentage possibilities is awfully high. OK, it is now clarified - there is no way in hell I am going to Vegas. I don't know if my wife as ever actually kicked me before this... Ah, well.

So this leaves other options. One possibility that I might be able to swing is going to Adepticon. Of course, if I do that, I'll need to find a partner for the team event... Second, I can go to The Necronomicon in Orlando. The cool thing about both of these is I can probably weedle out free hotel stays with my parents' time share through Starwood. So those are relatively inexpensive for me. I may even be able to swing a trip to one of the other official GTs, probably Baltimore. So those are all possibilities.

Birth of child also means we're going to get a house, which we will be moving into in April as well. The really cool thing about this is that I'm going to be able to get enough space for a gaming table. Now I can get some terrain built for the house, and I'll never have to leave home to game again! OK, maybe that's a little extreme, but it does open some options. One of those options is for playing Trafalgar, the new Warhammer Historicals game. The models, Langton Miniatures 1:1200 scale ships, are totally awesome, and with my own gaming table I can make a seascape pretty easily and game in my house.

So those are all things on my mind... I'll need to make some decisions pretty quick about those.