Anniversary: Out With the Old, In With the New! November 2004 marked our second anniversary. We celebrated it with a week of events starting with a Costume Contest on October 30th (see previous gallery) and concluding with an overnight the next weekend. In addition, we had a boffer tournament which got a few people (but no pictures), and L5R tournament, a Paranoia game, and a Twister Tournament. Later in the month, we finally managed to replace those terrible old displays that we had and replaced them with lovely new displays.
Political Action Break Instant Runoff Voting has been an issue of mine for a while. When I discovered there was a question on the ballot about it in my area I was very excited. As election day went on, and I talked to more people, I started to realize that very few people knew what it was, and thus they might vote against it. Since there was no one in Sunderland supporting it, I decided to take action. It was late, so I quickly made a simple sign and stood out by the polling place for a few hours in the cold. To the right, you see the fruits of my labor. The ballot initiative passed, but it was non-binding, so we'll see if anything comes of it.
Anniversary Overnight
.... Whenever there is a Twister Tournament here, it generally comes down to Rachel and James. Rachel has flexibility and strength. James has ridiculous reach and freaky shoulder blades. It is always an epic struggle. In this round, James was triumphant, but the game took over half an hour.
You can't scare Tex. Oh, I suppose you can.	This Overnight needed ninjas! So we played Ninja Burger.
Giddy-up, Kiernan!	...and now for something completely different.
And then there were these kittens! Elisa brought a pair of kittens to visit on evening, and that pretty much took up everyone's attention for the rest of the night.
It's ok, April-Lyn, you can pet the kitten too.	Apparently my shoulder is comfortable to kittens.
It was Ariel's first visit to the Store as well. Cute kittens and cute girls. A winning combination.	Look out kitten, it's Rachel's nose of DOOOOOOM!
We were also trying out In A Pickle that night. The rules don't actually require players to ante a kitten, but it's an optional rule.	"Why do I get the feeling I'm being stared at?"
Sshhh, he's sleeping.	...and now for something mostly the same.
Aaaaarrrrrrrr. It's Pirates of the Spanish Main Night! ... Shortly after Pirates of the Spanish Main finally became available on a regular basis, some of the regulars got the idea of setting up a Pirates draft. It worked fairly well...as long as we can keep getting Pirates in stock which is an ongoing struggle.
Unglued/Unhinged Release Event .... On November 19th, the Unhinged set for Magic was released, and Phoenix Games hosted a draft where players could get two packs of Unhinged and two packs of the hard to find Unglued set. It was a very amusing event. Below left, you can see some of the players drafting. In honor of the goofy draft, we set up the tables in a 'C' shape. Below right, you see my opponent who has a "Working Stiff" on the table.
Looney Labs Experiment
The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Brian (with the long blond hair, sitting top center) ran a Looney Labs Experiment for us.	We played a number of games including Fluxx, Volcano, Ice Towers, Chrononauts, and Cosmic Coasters.
It was great to have a chance to break out the giant Icehouse pieces again!	Each player got a special sticker for each game they played. When they got three stickers, they got a prize.
New Displays: Axe To the Old, In With the New Back in February, we had arranged to get some new displays from Name of the Game, a store in Nashua that was going out of business. It took us 9 months to finally make arrangements to pick up the displays. On the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, Erin and I managed to get the displays on the way back from Thanksgiving with the family.
We quickly cleared away the old green table room for the new in the front of the Store.	The project was slightly complicated because people were already playing Pirates when we arrived with the displays.
Before we could move the new ones in, we had to move the old out.	And all the books had to go somewhere, so we stacked them on the tables. There were a lot of them! You never realize how comprehensive the inventory is until you stack it on a table.
Kiernan decided to do a bit of cheerleading while we worked. I'm not sure, but Erin might be banging her head against the new display in this picture.	The Store from the front door once the moving was mostly complete.
The view from the soda cooler.	The view in the back.
Removal of the Old Displays The old displays started out as pantyhose display racks. They were bulky and old and no one would want them. We had to dispose of them, but they would not have fit in the dumpster unless they were broken down a bit. For that job, we called in Chris.
First we tried a bit of kicking. It was fun, but not overly effective.	Perhaps a bat? Not quite good enough.
Ah, how about an axe!	No, a Claymore! That's the ticket.
Definitely, the Claymore is the play.	"Take that!"
Pete took a crack at it. You will notice that in this picture, Pete looks nothing like a movie psycho killer. Nothing at all like one.	I Know What You Displayed Last Summer.