Old Friends

So last night Troy Denning was in town for an appearance at the University Bookstore for his most recent Star Wars novel, Invincible. Troy's a fellow Allit with thirty books under his belt, and, once upon a time, was my boss at TSR back in Lake Geneva. At the appearance, he was flanked by members of the 501st Stormtrooper Legion. Fellow gaming dinos like Steve Winter and Martin Stever showed up as well to show support, and afterwards the four of us, joined by Duane and Arthur from the bookstore, went down to Big Time for beer and pizza.

Six people, four pitchers, two large pizzas. Yeah, I have a bit of hangover this morning.

And this afternoon at 5 EDT, the latest shuttle is going up, carrying a Japanese science lab called Kibo. The Assistant Flight Surgeon for the mission was an member of my D&D group from college. Col Keith Brandt is the Assistant Flight Surgeon for the mission, but we know him better as Demerol the Fighter, a loyal member of Broadswords, Inc. He's staying groundside, but we probably shouldn't mention his adventuresome past to the crew, who have complete faith in Dr Brandt's abilities.

More later,