Nothing against the two big FLGS’s in Dayton, Ohio, but if I’m in Columbus, I’m going to the Guard Tower.  For the years that I lived in Columbus, the Guard Tower was a place where I’d often go on my way home from school or work and hang out and buy way too much stuff.

So yesterday I’m in Columbus so, as I said, I’m at the Guard Tower.  And I’m not buying anything.  I stopped reading Knights of the Dinner Table after it became all about the Black Hands and World of Warcraft, plus the very protracted “BA gets his revenge” storyline (shark, jumped).  I dropped White Dwarf almost a year ago when it became less about battle reports and modelling and more of just a catalog.

Pathfinder Beastiary?  No thanks.  DMG2?  Pass.  4E splatbooks with more powers or magic items?  I don’t even use all the options I have now.  The hardest things to pass on were Mantic’s new plastic elves.  Cheap and only slightly funky looking, I’ve been giving them the covetous eyeball ever since I saw them sprayed-and-dipped over at The Army Painter.  They are a little funky looking on the packaging–I think they could’ve come up with a more striking and effective paint scheme.

But, then I remembered that I’m still in the running for Andadas’ lottery over at the HA site, and that I had promised myself I wouldn’t buy anything until both the lottery was over and I had finished painting the Chaos Marauders.

Stupid mature judgement and new-found frugal nature.

So, I’m thinking strongly about having a marathon painting day Friday.  It’s my day off, the schedule looks clear (knock on wood) and I’ll be pretty busy over the weekend between trying out the new Skype-based RPG I’m playing in, work, the lottery, and having the missus be out of town so I’m single-parenting.  So maybe, maybe I can get the rest of the Marauders primed and perhaps a few of the major block-painting steps done before that, and then do the rest Friday.  That way, when the lottery is over I can jump into whatever I’m going to do next.

One final note: I did see while I was at the store four guys playing a pretty lively game of 1949 Secrets of the Third Reich.  It looked like fun and I’m always a sucker for games that other people enjoy, but the $40 price tag and the knowledge that I would have to find players allowed me to resist temptation.