Greetings Earthlings!

For lack of real content....

A little more than 20 years ago our all male gaming group came back from GenCon and for some reason got the idea in our head that we needed some new blood. Gordy thought it should of the female variety. Not sure if he was hoping to find a gaming girlfriend or what, but lucky for me we did.

Gordy, Mike, & I went to Hobby Hub in the Frandor Mall (which at the time was the best store in town) and checked the index file they had there for people seeking games. We pulled three women's names from the box wrote them down and headed back to Owosso.

We called the first no answer so moved down the list to number two. Number two was Ann. Gordy talked to her on the phone for a while and then invited her over to meet us.

Ann had just moved her from Stevens Point Wisconsin and had only been playing AD&D for a short while. She had bought all the books and didnt want them to go to waste. Her roommates (all friends from high school & college) were convinced that we were going to axe murder her, then bury her in cornfield. So Lisa came with her as a bodyguard I guess.

Ann walked in dressed almost mousy and anyone that knows my wife knows that she is anything but! Lisa was in a black leather bikers jacket, Terminator mirror shades, and had her fingernails painted red, black, red, red, black.... Quite intimidating.

At the time the party needed a mage so even though she said had never played one before we threw her in the deep end anyways. To quote Ann "I usually play mouthy chick with sword."

She was in the group on a probationary basis and we werent too sure of her at first, but won us over with knowledge of trivia and capacity to hold her liquor. To say it more politely while her ability to play a mage wasnt the greatest at first she was a lot of fun to have around.

Ann & I became close friends over the next few years and really werent thinking about romance though it seem everyone else saw we had an attraction. This will sound very geeky, but our characters in the game got married long before we became involed.

It wasnt until she was fired for the first time in her life that it changed. She spent a lot of time with me while I was doing my caretakers gig. We went out to breakfast a lot, went to the movies and that sort of thing. Then one day we eating breakfast at Waverly Family Restaurant I was reading the paper and there was an ad for engagement rings on the back page. She looked at me indicating the ad and said "You wanna?" It took a moment to it sink into my testosterone ridden brain and said yes. We went from buds to engaged without the normal dating period. Most people that knew us well enough made comments along the lines of 'about damn time!'

So now about sixteen years after that day and fourteen years of being married as of today let me say how much I love you and appreciate you. You put up with my moods, my comics, goofy humor, make me laugh, let me watch movies like Hawk the Slayer, and one hell of a cook. I love you kiddo. Thanks for fourteen years service! *

And hey I actually married a cute gaming chick!

*"Thanks for fourteen service" is what it said on the card I sent her with her flowers at work today. It was supposed to say "Thank you for fourteen great years! Love, Lon" But no it had to get screwed up. I think it may become a new joke between us.