So like I said early this morning when I posted last...

It should have been a good night last night. Here I am, finally done with all the loan paperwork and what not. So I go to Best Buy thinking I might get myself a lil somethin' somethin' as a treat to me. I walked around the store for what felt like forever and held dozens of things (from South Park Season 2, Family Guy DVD Box Set to some CDs) and in the end I couldn't bring myself to buy anything for me and ended up leaving with just some gift cards that I needed to get for folks' birthdays and things.

I ended up at WalMart later that night and fished around in the $5.88 bin and found 4 DVDs that I bought. But overall just an unsatisfying night.

I'm in a funk lately. Nothing is really making me happy, nothing is what I want. But its not like I know that I want THAT, rather I just know what I have at the moment isn't it. I'm guessing its just from the stopping smoking and being moody or whatever.

(72 hours since I quit for those of you who are keeping track at home).

I dunno...

I haven't had a cigarette in 61 hours. I want one.

Today should have been a good night, I got the last loan done that I needed, all is finally falling in place. Instead it was just one annoyance after another tonight. Maybe I'm more easily annoyed without my smokes?

Either way, just an annoying night that took too long to end. Plus I have miniSARS or something. Ive been sickly for 2 days and its down to just a sore throat now pretty much. Feels like I gargled with steel wool.

Time to sleep....

For the record:

Home from Toronto.
Had a good time.
I hate Ohio. Fuck You Ohio, right in the heart of it all.

More later...

.... and now More:

In short, Toronto was great. Had a ball, met some cool folks, hung out, drank, etc etc. All good. :)

Ohio? Well they gave me a ton of grief getting my title transferred and then "surprised me" by telling me I had to buy new plates. I don't want the red, white and blue plates. I want the gold and white ones that match my truck. So yeah, they just pissed me off.

Well I wouldn't say it was the sanest decision we made, but we decided to rent LANlords Gaming out to a guy who "lost" his venue for his tournament. Bottom line? We made a decent rental on it. He rented it from 10AM Saturday Morning straight through 6PM on Sunday night. Now, add to the fact that we had to reset out store to seat 55 rather than the normal 35 or and we couldn't start the reset until we closed on Friday night at midnight.

Ok, we got the reset done about 6AM, went home and got a few hours sleep and were back at the store by 9ish. Somehow the 55 max seats we had turned into about 60. Through sheer luck, clever planning, and animal sacrifice we didn't trip a single power breaker throughout the whole tournament. It did get a little warm once there were 60 bodies, computers and monitors in there.

We each took a short nap break for a few hours and here I am, 2.5 hours before this ends, still awake. We had a great night on concessions and I expect we will have a last minute rush on what remains of the BAWLS. The tournament itself was quite disorganized and the host disappeared several times, once for hours. That kind of left us to run this for him. We did this so that folks would have fun and not walk away with the memory: "yeah, I went there once and it was all disorganized."

One of the best parts of the evening was meeting some new folks from Whempy's LAN and Michelle from Columbus Gaming. We spent a lot of time talking about how we could cross promote each other and work together to increase our customer bases. It was all good. We even got word that the Whempy's folks took our flyers back and handed them out to every player that was there. Thanks Guys!

Lying ahead today is the daunting task of cleanup here, resetting the store to normal and then some sleep is in order.

Not a lot of new info to post. The store has been going well. A little slow but steady. We are going to hand out some flyers as well as donate some prizes to Columbus Frag Fest this Saturday which should get us some more exposure.

My brother Matthew is also in town tonight finishing up shooting on Death4Told, a movie in production by Bo Buckely. He'll be here all weekend.

For those who might have been contemplating this very same MacNCheese question:

"If I had no milk would it be just as good with double the butter?"

The answer is : No. A resounding, buttery, artery cloggin' NO.

This was an experiment in cooking for me as I was too lazy to cook anything proper as well too lazy to go out and get something to eat.

In short: Pretty DAMN gross. Don't try this at home folks. Or anywhere for that matter.

When the HELL did I move to Seattle?

It has rained here so much this weekend I'd swear that's where I am. The rain is nice, cools things off for a bit but within an hour it seems that the humidity and heat are back. At least I finally got the bedroom AC unit in. I should sleep like a baby tonight.

Speaking of sleep this weekend has been pretty deprived of sleep. LOTS going on with the grand opening and I look forward to a good night's rest tonight.

Time to close up shop and head home. That is all. Over and out.

Well, it's official now if there was any doubt before. We are open for business.

Opening night seemed to be a success. We had about 25 or so folks up (not bad for a holiday). It rained pretty good tonight, so the foot traffic going to and from the fireworks that we were hoping to get didn't really happen. Had a few folks stop though, some just to see what we were and others who were interested in coming up sometime.

However, we DID get our VERY FIRST paying member tonight. There were a couple who said they were coming back tomorrow with cash in hand.

Time will tell, but I think this is going to go over pretty well. On that note, I'm running back up to the store quick to double check if I turned the damn coffee pot off. I'm either getting old or just too tired to focus. Choose your own adventure folks.....

.... for "old" turn to page 32
.... for "tired" turn to page 57

Edit: For those of you playing the home version to our game the correct answer to that question was: The coffee pot was off. It was off folks. Ok next round: SLEEP.

I should be asleep but I wanted to make a quick post.

It's almost 5AM and I just got home from working on LANlords Gaming.

We got a TON done tonight, although my part was pretty much driving all over hell in the truck getting things. I figured out I drove about 150 miles in the city tonight alone. But the computers are all up, running and tested. We took down the coming soon signs and put up the Grand Opening signs. We have blinds in the windows (to cut out any glare), got our credit card terminal in and setup, put up an 8 foot by 8 foot tackboard for folks to post pics, for sale stuff, etc.

I'm sure we did more but my brain quit on me hours ago.

Oh and I bought a coffee pot for the store. They thought I was kidding when I said I wouldn't work there without one. They don't know me and my NEED for coffee very well.

...More later right now sleep.

Well, we are almost there. Technically we have a mere 28.5 hours until Grand Opening.

It's exciting, and nerve-wracking at the same time. Either way, I think we all will be glad the prep work is done and over with.

Speaking of done, the mural is finished. Jesse and Allison Miller were the artists and they did a fabulous job. Cameron and Jason put the border around it last night and sealed it with a clear-coat finish to preserve it. I can't tell you how happy we are with this mural.
I highly recommend Jesse and Allison Miller if you have a need for a mural or just some art.

There is still a lot left to do, but I think we will get it all done. Once we open, life should calm down a little bit. I might even get those pictures up here that I'm always promising. Then again, I may just keep taunting you all.

If you are in the Columbus Area this weekend, we open July 4th at 4pm. That's the 4th at 4. Stop on by, we have food donated by Big Bear prizes and giveaways.