My calves are sore today, after a weekend of standing up and leaning over a large table.

I am about ready to say that this was our best effort in the history of the Master Maze Tournament event. Jason and Angelo helped me put on a huge D&D tournament, and I think nearly everybody involved had a great time.

The tournament ended on a moment so perfect, in afterthought, that it could never be planned. Twelve angry players versus a horde of dragons involved in a strange ritual. They get a surprise round, and then the big bad of the scenario, a huge red dragon, rolls dead last in the initiative count, so after two full rounds of getting pounded on, the dragon finally gets an action and breathes fire on the party...

...killing the first character of the round

...triggering a retributive strike from a defensive spell the cleric had up

...which killed the critically wounded dragon.

How awesome is that!

Even better is how well it fits into the backstory--the dragon was laying the groundwork for a ceremony (involving time paradoxes) to enable her to skip over her prophesied death, which manipulated the characters, which got them to attack her, which brought about her prophesied death. Killing someone to get killed herself is a symbol of her entire plot!

Huge thanks to the Owlcon staff. We've got a great crew who work tirelessly to put on the con, and the commitment and effort really show through. The attendees complained a little, complimented a lot.

The president of our company, a man I greatly liked and admired, died unexpectedly last night.

When he arrived to take over three and a half years ago, I said at the time "Is this business leadership? I don't think I've ever seen it before." My morale soared, and I stopped thinking about leaving the company. He turned us around and got us going in the right direction. While we now have a lot of talent in the upper positions, including a CEO who impresses me, his death is going to leave a big hole.

I don't think we're going to get a lot done today.