Greetings Earthlings!

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.

Today is my lovely wife Ann's birthday, with me working nights we cant go out to celebrate until the weekend. But I want to say that I love that girl more every day and I hope she has a great day.

If you have the time send her b-day greetings at allyssenn@gmail.com

Now I am waiting for the phone call to tell me the flowers have arrived......

Ann & I went out to get a bite to eat at Applebee's tonight. I think it is the forst time we have eaten out in over a month. I had the Sizzling Chicken Skillet from the Weight Watchers menu and Ann had her usual.... fajitas. I am not sure why she even looks at the menu when we go there. :-)

But in the way home we stopped at The Place of DVD Evil, known to the rest of the world as Best Buy. We were poking around the new releases and she said "Go ahead I know you want to." She was gesturing at the general release version of Battlestar Galactica. Not being a fool I grabbed it and sprinted for the checkout counter before she could think better of it. I think I trampled a senior citizen on my way there.

Then when we got into the car again she just looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes and said "I love you. You geeky man." Now usually that is a prelude to needing me to do some laundry or some other household task (just kidding sweetheart), but this time she told me how much she adored me and was glad that we got married.

Now I just want to say I love you too, Ann. I couldnt be any luckier than to have you with me and I hope we are as happy for the rest of ours lives as we we are right now.

Now onto the DVDs...

The BSG DVDs come in a slip case and the individual DVDs are in thin cases (like the Firefly DVD set), which I like a lot. All the episodes and the mini-series have commentary except: Water, Litmus, Six Degrees of Separation, and Flesh & Bone, Which means I have many hours of watching and re-watching to do. YAY! It also looks like the discs have a play all option for the episodes which is another big plus for me.

I just wonder why every cover for BSG things has Six looking like she is about to shoot eyebeams out of her eyes. She is by far the least interesting part of the series for me. Oh well I am off to my geekfest!!

EDIT: BTW anyone that is interested I have a copy of the BSG miniseries on DVD that is looking for a good home now. For sale or trade!

Saw Fantastic Four tonight. I loved it. I wish Doom was more of a bad guy, but I enjoyed it far more than Batman Begins. From the look of the Baxter Building to Ioan Gruffudd playing Reed Richards so well the movie was well-crafted. Critics have said he was stiff in the movie. The character of Reed Richards is stiff. His reaction when Sue brought him the unstable molecules uniform that is Reed at his core. He is the "dumbest smart man in the world".

While I was watching FF Ann & Lisa went to see Bewitched. They said it was adorable. Ann commented it was the first time she like Will Ferrell in something.

So Saturday night while I was winning playing poker (for a change). Ann went and saw the Fantastic Four without me. I know she has a bit of the Ioan Gruffudd bug since she got hooked on the Hornblower movies, but she went and saw a comic book movie without me.

Now she owes me double after dragging to the Phantom of the Opera.

My best friend Gordy just joined the blogging world. It was in his AD&D game that I met Ann. So I present On The Stick!

Nothing to see here move along.

It was 12 years ago today that Ann & I were on our way to Wisconsin to Ann's hometown of Stevens Point (home of Point Beer) to get married. It was a whacky week of In Laws and drinking too much the night before the rehearsal dinner. Ann's midnight phone call the night before the wedding asking if we had to get married and just couldnt live together for the rest of our lives.

As to the ceremony itself I really dont remember much. The last thing I really remember of it is Ann walking into the church. After that I remember kneel, stand, kneel, stand of what is a full Mass Catholic Wedding.

Watching the wedding video is interesting because its like watching something that happened to someone else. I will comment on how large my eyes got when I first saw Ann walk in. My best man Mike thought I was going to bolt for the door for a second.

I can honestly say Ann is the best thing that ever happened to me. I make a LOT of jokes about being married, but I would be lost without her. The vows say "for better or for worse" and there has been a lot of both, but with Ann the worse dosent seem that bad.

I love you, kiddo.

EDIT: BTW to avoid confusion our anniversary is Sunday.