Day 362 of 362

Mission (mostly) accomplished...

Out of 362 possible days to the whole "dress-up" thing, I only missed two. One was based on my misjudging tattoo after-care times (by a LOT), and the other was due to me being very ill on that particular day. There have been days where I've been late (like today, by design), or I haven't been at the store for long, but I missed no others. Not even when I went to a trade show where game store owners are known to "let their hair down", I was the best-dressed one there.

So... 360 divided by 362 means, percentage-wise, I scored a 99.4475138121547% on my self-assigned goal. That's actually close enough to perfect by most scientific standards that I'm gonna count this one as a win.

Where do I go from here? Well, the habit is pretty ingrained in me now, so I don't think we'll see much in the way of slacking in that department. I'm thinking there won't be any more "362" posts, as it will be a new year. Plus, we're in the process of interviewing people for the store to work part time so I can actually get a day off here and there. Thus, doing another "362" would be pointless as I will not be at the store that many days in the coming year. I'll certainly take pictures and blog on the days I do go in, but the labels will probably fall more in the "Life, Business, Gaming, or (insert new label here) realm". "362" is done...

Thank you all for joining in... It's been a fun ride thus far. Let's see what 2012 brings us this year...

-- GopherDave

Day 361 of 362

It's Friday... Got word that the rest of the POS system will be here around Thursday of next week. That's good... Now I need to make some arrangements tonight and tomorrow to get the slatwall sometime next week. Operation: Hole Improvement is off to a slow (but forward) crawl.

In other news, well, not much has happened over the last couple of days. Things are about to happen, but they haven't yet, so there's not much to talk about. Hmmmm...

-- GopherDave

Day 360 of 362

Another Thursday at the store... Got word that the rest of the point-of-sale system has shipped, so that should be here early next week. I also need to make plans to get the slatwall from Bloomington next week. I'll solidify plans on our end once I can firm them up with the guy we're getting the slatwall from.

Also on the agenda for this week is picking up a cart for the microwave oven that can also store things like paper plates, condiments, and what-not. Plus, I need to order a cash register stand for the new POS system.

Hmmmm... I have a lot more going on this week than I thought. Mayhaps downloading DC Universe Online was a bad idea...

-- GopherDave

Day 359 of 362

Shipment day... Time to get moving and get stuff into the store and into the system. New stuff... ordered stuff... restocked stuff... It's all on the way...

Last night's DC Adventures game was fun, even if Marathon couldn't quite goad Geo-Force into a fight. Prince Brion is still a jerk and his friends need to stop covering for him. Just saying...

Later on today, I also get to take Dinero into the vet to see what the growth on his leg is. One of our friends who's more pet-versed that we are thinks it's just an abscess, but we're not taking chances. Dinero is one of the sweetest, most good-natured canines you'll ever encounter, and he deserves our due vigilance.

That's it for now... gotta run...

-- GopherDave

Day 358 of 362

Okay... It's Tuesday, which means it's order day. It's also complicated by having to find a vet for the dog. Dinero (not the dog's real name) seems okay, but he's got this odd, squishy bump on one of his front legs. It doesn't seem to cause him pain when we touch it, but it's definitely something that should not be there. So, after I get done ordering stuff, I'm going to track down a vet, come back home and get the girl and the dog, and take our four-legged friend to see the doctor.

On the game front, tonight is Casual MtG and KnightErrantJR's DC Adventures game. I can't wait, even if I cannot remember what we are doing as a group. I do remember that Marathon was going to go off and be petty by bugging the hell out of Geo-Force for Prince Brion's uppity behavior last time. I was supposed to e-mail KEJR about this, but I got distracted with the holidays and running the store and such.

Anyway... off to the day...

-- GopherDave

Day 357 of 362

There are only five days left in this semi-sartorial, self-improvement journey. So what am I going to do after it ends?

I'm not certain... I've thought about keeping the blog going. It'll probably have fewer pictures of what I'm wearing and more actual content, but don't hold me to that. It will sort of depends on how quickly our agendas for "improving the store and saving GopherDave's sanity" happen.

The first item on our agenda after receiving the rest of the new point-of-sale system and setting it up is hiring one or two part-time people so I can actually get a day off from the place on a regular basis. Once that happens, I'll actually have more time to spend with my wife and family...

Speaking of wife and family, I hope your holidays were good and went well. Mine was fantabulous! Loquacious made (a non-traditional) Christmas dinner of meat loaf, chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, and cheesecake with a hint of orange flavor. It was delicious! ALL OF IT! This was on top of a breakfast of made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls and bacon. My wife knocked herself out providing me with two great home-cooked meals. Thank you, sweetness... I'll never be able to top that... That's how good it was and how much it filled up my soul.

-- GopherDave

Day 356 of 362

It's Christmas Eve, and the only thing we're planning on doing at the store is selling a fair number of games...

That and a good friend of mine is in town for a visit. He's supposed to stop by the store and have a chat. Beyond that, there's really not much on the agenda. The tables will be open for first come-first serve gaming, so we'll see who drops by... =)

Hopefully you and yours have a safe holiday. Be safe on any travels you undertake...

-- GopherDave

Day 355 of 362

Another busy day here at Gopher... It's so busy I almost forgot to do this, but then I remembered during a lull.

Tonight is FNM... Tomorrow is pretty much a free and open day as it being Christmas Eve, I'm expecting at least SOME shoppers. We're gamers after all... As a group we procrastinate like no other. Want proof? Just take a look at release dates for games. How many of them actually *MAKE* their prospective arrival times? Probably less than 30%. Well... we, shop like that too.

Operation: Improve A Game Store is starting to slowly progress. We received the cash drawer, the receipt printer, and the barcode scanner in today. We are told that the rest of it will be shipped next week. That's fine... It'll all get here eventually. If the deal I have in the making goes through, we will have slatwall panels here the first week of January. It won't be all of what we need, but it will be the majority. Once we get the initial panels up, we'll see what needs to be added from there. If the deal falters, well... It'll take a little longer, but it will get done... Like everything else, all in good time...

-- GopherDave

Day 354 of 362

Another day, another dollar, as the saying goes. I wonder if the creator of that little bit of wisdom took inflation into account? Probably not...

Loq and I looked at another potential spot for the store. It's got possibilities, but it really doesn't say 'wow' to us. We're not worried, though... the right spot will show itself eventually.

Tonight at the store are a couple of RPGs and some casual gaming. I'm not really involved with any of it, so Skribl and I can watch the store and get some work done while things happen.

The only other piece of real news is that our ancient point-of-sale station will be getting an upgrade soon. We ordered a set up with an actual cash drawer, a scanner that isn't old and been dropped dozens of times, and software that isn't DOS-based. There are some other improvements on the horizon that we should have made a long time ago. I think we'll make them, now...

-- GopherDave

Day 353 of 362

It's shipment day at the store, and there is a metric TON of stuff coming in today. The bulk of it is restock, and I *STILL* didn't hit all the bases because I'm a caveman at purchase orders using all four of my 44-year old eyes... Definitely need a new point-of-sale system. I need to get that ordered today...

Later on today, Loq and I will be looking at another potential Gopher hole. I'm not expecting much, but I'm open to looking. From a historical standpoint, if my memory serves me correctly, the building we're looking at today once housed a camera/photo shop. One that was the first place in town to EVER carry D&D books back in the mid-70s. On some level, it'd be nice to be the ones to bring that full circle, but I'm not going to let that cloud my judgement.

Now, I gotta get going. Work waits for no man...

-- GopherDave

Day 352 of 362

Running late today... Made some *MASSIVE* restock orders today as we have been torn up over the weekend. That's a good thing as it means more money, but jeez... ... our shelves haven't looked this bare in a while. As it goes, Skirbl and I are still hip deep in work, but are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Lastly, Loquacious is the bestest wife ever! That is all...

-- GopherDave

Day 351 of 362

Wow... I got so busy staring at various point of sale systems I alomst forgot to blog for the day... (By the by, if someone knows of a good, cheap point-of-sale system, let me know please. Thanks.)

Anyway... 'Tis 40K night so I shall be going home early and doing the laundry I didn't do the other night. S'all good, though... Normal stuff like laundry is helping keep me sane.

On the gaming front, I've been thinking about Tai'eres again, but not the setting so much as the mechanics. I'm thinking about ripping the system out of the Tai'eres setting and trying them in a different genre. Still working on what sort of game they would end up in, but I have some ideas. The main idea swirling in my head is some sort of modern-day, conspiracy game with possible (low-level)psionics added in, but nothing is set in stone.

Other than that, not much is happening...

-- GopherDave

Day 350 of 362

Lats night was a good time with the daughter. Not as much laundry got done as I would have liked, but I'm good with that. I'll have opportunity to do more tomorrow.

Today, I go work on weekly financials a bit. Then, it looks to be a slow day, but every time I say that, it isn't. Good problem for a business to have.

Beyond that, not much is going on. I'm heading to the store now to get it ready for not much of anything today...

Toodles...

-- GopherDave

Day 349 of 362

It's a lazy Saturday here at the store. Not much is happening here during the day as much by design as anything else. It's giving us some time to catch up on some stuff. Like taking a check over to the folks who run Winter War. We're all paid and should be all set to see our convention friends once again! Like always, looking forward to it...

Beyond that, since it's World of Darkness night at the store, Loquacious will be coming in early and relieving me, so I get to go home and do laundry... I really don't mind. It's gives me a chance to unwind, watch some TV, and spend some time with the best dog on the planet.

It'll be good...

-- GopherDave

Day 348 of 362

Well... Loq and had our meeting on Wednesday and jumped through another hoop, successfully I might add, but something at that meeting put us ill-at-ease... the details we are willing to reveal can be found here.

In other news, well, nothing is ever set in stone, and a bigger Gopher hole is in our future. We just have to be patient about it.

Cheers...

-- GopherDave

Day 347 of 362

I hate that the speed of bureaucracy is so damned slow.

We're currently in limbo once again with the new place. I'm pretty much of the opinion that if we don't have a signed lease in place by 6PM Friday, then we (Gopher) are walking away from the deal. Too much hoop-jumping makes GopherDave a frustrated person.

On the gaming front, the DC Adventures game was a hoot. We actually beat the crap out of the Fatal Five. I am honestly kind of surprised. Tonight, we have Zug's Champions game which is having some issues. We're going to talk about those issues in a discussion that will probably be led by me, which is odd since I am not the GM for this particular game. Ehhh... whatever... We'll work things out or we won't.

I think that's it for now... I'm going to go do some game store owner-stuff... =P

-- GopherDave

Day 346 of 362

Well... it's D-Day. In about an hour, Loq and I will have a meeting to determine if we are indeed signing a lease for a space we have been actively pursuing (and who has pursued us in return), or if we are back to square one. I have to be honest, with all the stress this situation has caused me, square one doesn't seem so bad right now. That, however, would be the easy way out...

...and the Gophers deserve more than that...

They deserve us to fight hard for something that will ultimately be better for them, for us, and for the good of the local table-top gaming community as a whole. The space we're pursuing (or something close to it) is that 'thing'...

So, Loq and I are going to put on our "war face". We're going to try and act professionally about it all, and we're going to fight for something that there should be no fight over. Someone has a space for rent. We want to rent it. Loq and I have run the numbers and made an offer we can pull off. The (potential) landlord sent back a counter. We had another round of back-and-forth and came to what I consider to be a (non-binding) 'handshake agreement'. Now, they've come back with trepidations about us being able to afford the space.

I don't know what numbers they're looking at, but we've no doubt we can pull this off with flying colors.

After all, we have an army of Gophers behind us... and that's all we'll ever need.

-- GopherDave

Day 345 of 362

Another Tuesday... It's time to go make a couple of orders... It's time to receive an early order... and eventually it will be time to play my semi-paranoid, telekinetic private detective, Marathon.

The orders should be no issue. I do those on a regular basis. Last we left off in the game, we were facing down the Fatal Five. Now... Marathon is more durable than a LOT of characters in this game, but I'm not looking forward to receiving what could be an epic ass-whoopin'. This one is going to take some brains. I hope we're up to it.

Plus (and there is no real pressure here for KnightErrantJR), given the meeting Lo and I have tomorrow, I'm going to need a major stress release full of fun tonight. I know me, and the less stress I feel going into this meeting, the less likely I will need bail money.

Here's hoping...

-- GopherDave

Day 344 of 362

Well, we survived the weekend. While I didn't got to bed until WAY later than I should have, I slept like a rock. Anyway, on to business...

Just for kicks and grins, I submitted an application to the House of Paincakes blogroll. Oddly enough, I got accepted. This is why I find it odd... Ya'see... HoP is primarily a place for Warhammer 40K blogs, and this blog here is not a 40K-oriented blog. I like the setting... I have an army for the game... but the current edition of the game leaves me feeling kind of "meh", so I don't really play it currently. Honestly, I don't play much at all right now. Running a game store just doesn't leave me the time I would like to ACTUALLY PLAY GAMES on a regular basis.

So, why'd I submit an application to the House? Simple... I was asked to. I have no clue why, but someone over there thinks I have interesting things to say in between all the pictures of what I'm wearing on a particular day. *shrug* Who knew?

Anyway, for those just joining me, this blog's primary purpose is as a self-accountability tool. I tried doing some regular features, but found that I just don't have enough "off-time" from the business to keep those up *AND* unwind. Every now and then, I drop a game-or life-related nugget of wisdom onto the 'net, and I guess that is what makes me worth reading...

Have fun... enjoy the ride... and remember, keep your arms inside the confines of the coaster at all times... We wouldn't want ya to lose one...

-- GopherDave

Day 343 of 362

Running late as I'm trying to catch up on sleep. So here's the sum-up...

The benefit went great! We raised $3K+ for the Geiken family, and we couldn't be happier. Thanks to all who donated their items, time, and money. We appreciate you all more than I could ever express...  =)

As for gaming, the Terracide game went okay... we did a lot of nothing, but that is as much our fault as the GMs. As players, we're still trying to find out feet in the background. Meanwhile, Shady's off at the deep end going "come on over, the water's fine". We'll get there and meet in the middle someplace. Currently, we seem to be in a stick-and-carrot situation that involves one carrot and a whole LOT of sticks. As Rorschach would say, "Hurrrrrrmmmm..."

-- GopherDave