Before I write this, let me say that yes, I know sandratayler was languishing indoors. The fact that I got to spend all day out of the house has less to do with me being an uncaring or ignorant husband, and more to do with a couple of committments I’d made.

The first of those committments was to finish inking two weeks of strips this week. The last three rows got done today by around 1:00pm.

The second was to help one of the regulars at The Dragon’s Keep with his mini-painting. This is something I do because a) I enjoy it, and b) I want to remain in good standing with those fine folks who provide me what is essentially free office space in the best location my business could ask for.

So… by 1:00pm I’m done inking, and it’s time to start painting. Mike (the regular who wanted painting help) wasn’t around yet, but Drew (one of the regulars who needs no help from me) pulled in and the two of us spent a long and enjoyable afternoon painting, cutting, bending, and otherwise manipulating small pieces of metal.

We also committed what has to be the ultimate, cardinal sin for role-playing gamers… we sat and kibbitzed on the game going on next to us.

Poor Bob, the GM. At one point he told one of the junior gamers “you have to tell me what you’re doing! If you tell me you set down your axe, and then you don’t tell me you pick it up, I’ll remember, and you’ll have to back for it.”

Since we’d been picking on Bob good-naturedly, I couldn’t resist the jab… “Actually, Bob won’t remember it, but you still ought to tell him you’re getting your axe.”

When later one of the party members said “of course I speak druidic… I’m a DRUID,” and Bob followed up with “sorry, I forgot you were a druid,” I had to follow the follow-up with “but he remembers where you put your axe.” I mean… I’m a professional humorist, and I’d just been handed the straight-line for the joke I’d set up twenty minutes earlier. How could I NOT say that?

I’m going to have to remember how truly annoying I was, so I can decide not to do that again, no matter how tempting it may be. To my credit, I did pipe down after a while — mostly because it turned out the Druid was doing just fine ribbing Bob without my help.

In one of those classic moments of miscommunication, Mike showed up right as I was deciding I really ought to get home. “But you were here until like 10:00pm last Saturday — I thought I had all evening!”

Sorry, man. When I said “I’ll be here midday, probably between 1:00 and 3:00,” I guess I should have said “I need for it to be a short Saturday today.”

The good news is that Jonathan, Tim, and Rebecca all showed up to paint and assemble just as I was getting ready to leave. Drew stuck around as well, so Mike had plenty of folks willing to help him out with his painting. When I left he was doing a black ink wash over white primer, which creates what’s called a “guide coat.” You can then lay a single layer of color over the top, and the recesses into which the ink has settled will be darker than the ridges which are still mostly white. It’s fast, I tell you. I ought to try it out, because I spent a good six hours just working on three figures. Mike’s will probably be done in less than one.

I wish I’d brought my camera with me to the Keep, because the two figs I finished look really, really good.