Geekdom

New Geek Genre

2011-06-08T22:29:00.000-04:00

Hi fellow self-proclaimed-and-proud-of-it-Geeks we have branched off our Geekiness into a new venue. One heavily influenced by the coolest Aunts and Uncle around! My big sister Trae has started her own etsy and blog dedicated to knitting! She has made some absolutely AWESOME creations so far and has blown us all away by her creativity. Please take a minute to check out her BLOG and FACEBOOK page and ETSY page to get the full effect of her newly developed (yet incredibly skilled) talent/geekiness!

Just a sample of some of her creations... I personally think the watermelon hat is very cute.

Ok plug aside, my own daughters have taken up this passion and are now spending hours on their projects. They can often be found watching the newest Dreamworks movie or Backyardigans with their little sister, needles in hand, knitting away. They are incredibly inspired by Trae and her insanely cute and amazingly unique creations, and are getting hands on training from their Uncle Beah and Aunt Hannah.

Kayden is very very proud of her first baby hat she made, and Kennadi is still working on her scarf. Check em out!

This image is always followed by an insistant grunt letting his sister know he wants what they have

2011-06-08T20:54:00.000-04:00

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Big sister had a slushee...

2011-06-08T20:52:00.000-04:00

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New Geek on the Way!

2011-05-28T15:28:00.000-04:00

Well folks, it looks like time waits for no one and neither does the Filler of Quivers, as He has so graciously decided it was time for us to have yet another little geek!

We were a little worried but as you can see from the US pic, there is only 1 in there... and ominously enough it is waving at us, as if to say "yup get ready for another little terrorizing beast of a child!" ... or maybe its waving it's fist defiantly at us saying "I will rule your world one day!"
Either way were excited!!! Rowan can't stop talking about the "new baby in momma's belly!"

We also had a wonderful vacation the week after Grayson and Kayden's birthdays. We went up north to Boyne Mountain (again) and enjoyed lots of rainy days!!
Thankfully we were able to get out between the raindrops and see the Sleeping Bear Dunes

And Petosky Beach

And a neat little Nature Preserve out by Harbor Springs

It was a very nice time and worked out well as it gave all of us perennial sickies a chance to get well which we have trying to maintain since our return!

Alas as our vacation was exhausting and the Motor City Comic Con was immediately upon our return... and we have a fixed budget which doesn't allow some of those niceties anymore, I did not venture out to the land of Novi and hang with all the supergeeks, and people who live their lives in a fantasy world this year.
Maybe next year!!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T11:18:00.002-04:00

A lot to post about from this weekend, but let me make this first post about the person that made this blog possible. The wonderful woman who brought me into this world, My Mom! Maureen Lynn Kimmel. She did all the hard work of bearing me, birthing me and bringing me up right!

My mom is one of those dynamos that was always up before everyone and working on something, whether it was for her or someone else, and then would be up late burning the midnight oil to finish either her project or some housework or task she had on her ever growing list. She also always had some sort of part-time job that she put alot of work into and allowed her to get us kids the nice things that she wanted us to have.

She has a definite knack for setting up fun times that become traditions. Fall apple picking at Irwin's Orchards, then the apple-pie-baking weekend once the apples were all picked, Easter bread making in the spring, Zoo trips in the summer, Planting and harvesting the garden, Sunday afternoon dinners, Birthday dinners (where we got to pick out everything about the meal). Its been fun to watch her transition these times into Grandma times with my kids as well. They thoroughly enjoy every time Grandma calls us with some fun idea she has cooked up for them.

Since the early days of part-time jobs and craft shows, Mom has turned a passion for cooking and an extrovert's personality into a profitable and beneficial business. As a Pampered Chef Director she does in home cooking shows and also contributes to many fundraisers. Of late she has partnered with a Kidney Research Foundation and has contributed a sizeable amount of time and funds to their efforts.
Past ventures of note:
http://www.sahshistory.org/Fund_Raising.html
http://www.childcarenetwork.org/DNN/Portals/0/Training/2009%20Thanks%20to%20Our%20Sponsors.pdf

Also a featured guest at the Michigan International Woman's Show where a local write-up in 2007 had this to say about my MOM!:
"On the Celebrity Cooking Stage, Chef Maureen Kimmel whipped up a delicious dessert in minutes. Kimmel, a busy mom of five, specializes in meals in minutes and has been cooking for Pampered Chef, a kitchen tools and products company, for 13 years.

“People want fast but not fast food,” Kimmel laughed while offering samples of her scrumptious-looking Double Chocolate Trifle to passers-by. “I call it gourmet cooking in fast food time.”

Kimmel, who mainly does cooking presentations on the weekends, revels in the freedom it gives her away from a full-time job.

“Most of the people that do this actually work a full-time job and this is something fun that they can do on the side, maybe to save for a vacation or braces or whatever,” Kimmel said.

The Pampered Chef, a company founded by Doris Christopher, seeks to empower women by giving them the tools they need to achieve a better balance between work and family. The company offers quality kitchen tools that make their customers more skilled in the kitchen, allowing them to make meals faster so that they can spend more time with their families"

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

P.S.

After reading this, my wife said "it sounds like an advertisement for Pampered Chef" to which I replied, "It's because I am proud of my mom and her accomplishments, many of which have been affected by her position in the company"

May the 4th be with You

2011-05-04T13:04:00.000-04:00

Okay as corny as it sounds "May the 4th be with you"!
Yup it is that time again, it happens once a year. All of us ridiculous geeks either hum some John Williams, practice our lightsaber forms or just don a full Vader costume to celebrate a great day of geekiness.

I don't think the actual date has anything to do with Star Wars except for the pun itself. But it sure has turned into quite an event!! May (through June) is also Star Wars Weekends at Disneyworld (which, from what I hear, is enough to make a die-hard pass out from excitement!)

Anyway just my geek quota for the day.
Oh and btw, according to the blogger "lightsaber" and "geekiness" is not in the dictionary... Silly spell checker! yeah yeah now it is telling me that btw isn't in it either. Go figure.

Good relations with the Wookiees, I have.

Free Comic Book Day coming soon!!

2011-04-30T02:36:00.000-04:00

Ok Geeks and Nerds... it just so happened that this years FCBD falls on my first born son's 1st birthday!!! Saturday, May 7th.
Mom and the 3 girls are planning on going to a Mother - Daughter banquet at South Side Baptist Tabernacle. Grayson and I plan on hitting all the major comic book/gaming stores in the area before throwing down an incredibly GEEKY 1st Birthday party at the new house, which he will also be sharing with his big sister who has a very close birthdate of May 9th.

Guess I should start cleaning and finishing unpacking my saweeeet action figures, space ships and posters!!!

Oh and in case you are a big Geek like us, check out the FCBD ad with pics from last year... You may just notice a certain familiar girls face complete with S-girl t-shirt and cape!

Stay tuned for pics, since we are also going on vacation for a week after the party and the following weekend after that is the Motor City Comic Con.

Geeks Rule!!

IMG00089-20110129-1153.jpg

2011-04-27T17:14:00.000-04:00

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2011-04-27T17:09:00.001-04:00

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Blogging again?

2011-04-27T16:26:00.000-04:00

Well here we all are 2 years later.
A whooooole lot has changed since then, we turned to Facebook for much of our updates and info, but I felt compelled to return once more to the world of blogging; especially with technology catching up finally to all my ideas!!

Lets do a quick recap, shall we?
Since April 9, 2009, we have moved 3 times. This last time becoming home owners for the first time since we married and started our family over 3 years ago. We are all very excited about our new home (we moved in the beginning of March, 2011) and are enjoying the perks and work of being home owners.

Our baby girl last blogged about is a terribly cute 2 year old that now terrorizes her almost 1 year old brother. She is a walking, talking, singing little firecracker who gives us no rest and consistenly tests the her bounds and our patience! Who knows what will happen in the next 6.5 months, we may just add yet another child to our insanity!

Our 2 oldest have gone from being little girls to becoming lovely and helpful young ladies. They both are a tremendous blessing to me and their mom. Kennadi rises early with the above mentioned Rowan (they all sleep in the same room and she likes to yell and cry until they get her out of her crib) and feeds her and gets her started watching Barney or the Backyardigans for the day. And although the Kayden still requires some assistance waking in the morning, once out of bed she is always willing to hold Grayson until her arms give out.

Who is Grayson you ask? Oh he would be that almost 1 year old boy. Grayson Parker Kimmel was added to our family May 7, 2010. He is named after Richard Grayson and Peter Parker. Those true geeks out there will appreciate that! :) He was our little buddy (don't ask me his measurements, I only know he was small) and still is. Currently learning to walk (look out Haven!) and as cute and pretty as his blond-haired, blue-eyed mommy! We are still working on his manliness though, as his current sounds consist of very high pitched girly squeals to outright feminine screams!

Well that's about it for the actual family member recap...
What's that you say?
Oh, how are Mom and Dad?

Well we are older, wiser, more distinguished and very much so loving our crazy lives with our busyness at work (mom still works 4 days a week along with dad, but opposite shifts), church (we now attend Carleton Community Baptist Church and enjoy serving and worshipping with fellow-minded believers) and family and wouldn't trade it for anything!

More to come, maybe in another couple of years :)

Not so geeky update

2009-04-09T10:17:00.004-04:00

Well I know its been a while... ok since Christmas, but my lovely, encouraging and uplifting wife hinted the other day that I should work on our blog and update it since our baby was born 2 months ago (yikes!) and there aren't any pictures or updates on anything other than Facebook.

So here you go:

Rowan Jade Kimmel was born on 2/7/2009 at about 6:30 pm via c-section. My wife did an AWESOME job laboring and trying to have this baby "normally" for around 36 hours!!!
We were discouraged by the c-section, but the Lord knows and was/is in control and everything turned out great.

It was pretty neat in the OR when they lifted out our baby and waited for me to tell what the Lord had givn us. The moment when I was able to say "Its a GIRL!" was unbelievable and unforgettable. Ill be posting some pics (i haven't yet figured out how SOME blogging guru's post the little link to their WHOLE albums) soon.

I know it is late but thank you all who prayed (the three people left that still read my _every_4_month_post_blog_)

Now our little girl is 2 months old and growing and getting fatter every day.
She loves her daddy and tells him how much she does, every day.

These are cell phone pics so the resolution isn't the greatest.

But idn't she cute?

Gone Too Far?

2008-12-10T12:19:00.005-05:00

So the girls in my office have chosen today to put up their "Christmas" decorations... these consist of:

Snowmen figurines, Tiny Trees, Santa figurines, Gingerbread men, a Rug that says "I Believe in Santa", and a sign that says "Happy Holidays"
NOTHING about Christ or the REAL reason for the season or Merry Christmas or even a manger scene!

Now... last year when they found out that I told my, then, 5 and 7 year old stepdaughters the TRUTH, that Santa is not real and mom and step-dad work hard to provide for them and WE buy them the gifts under the tree, they were outraged!
Note: I also made very clear that we emphasis the actual real reason for celebrating Christmas is the birth of our Saviour and not some fat sicko in a red suit that lets children sit on his lap.
They made a sign that said Grinch and something else along that line that I can't remember the exact wording... oh wait i think it was "BAH HUMBUG!"

Anyway, this year i decided to be pro-active and counter their lies that they tell their own children and everyone else by putting up this sign above my desk so its clearly visible when any employee brings their dear little deceived child into my office. I just put it up just now as kind of tongue in cheek to their decorations and you would not believe the OUTRAGE again!!! They showed it to 3 other people within a matter of minutes and they all evidenced disgust and displeasure at my insensitivity to the dear sweet children of the world.

Question: Why do some people fight so hard to keep others believing in something they KNOW to be completely FALSE and empty of any REAL meaning?!

Answer: Why don't Christians fight harder to get others to believe in something they KNOW to be absolutely TRUE and LIFECHANGING.

Did i go to far?

I plan on changing the sign to something about Christ and seeing what happens then.

A friend (thank you Jason "the nag") sent me this link, all disclosures about not-agreeing-with-everything-certain-websites-say aside, i think this is a very simple clear argument to the whole santa business.

http://www.geocities.com/cobblestoneministries/QA_IS_SANTA_OK.html

SAVE STAR WARS POCKETMODELS!!!

2008-11-20T10:46:00.007-05:00

HI ALL!!! Well you may have heard the news that TOPPS (the big ogre company!) has decided to close down Whizkids and cease operations on all their product lines!!

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/wk_article.asp?cid=41914

On the AWESOME forum that I talk all things SWPM and some things SW someone had a great idea to have all the kids that have been at the tournaments and play the game take a picture with a sign to SAVE SWPM!! So I did it!

We are supporting the grassroots efforts to continue the games! And since Heroclix is the mainstay of WK games and the fellas that have started a company to try and secure the games from TOPPS are involved in the HUGE Save Heroclix effort as well, we added their sign and URL

Sorry that you can't see the sign with the URL's that well, here are direct links:

http://www.Saveheroclix.com

http://www.Pinatagames.com

http://www.Swpocketmodels.com

SO folks here we have a portion of our little group that plays SWPM!

Note those cute little girls holding the signs in the front, they don't really play the game but the carry ships and cards around in their purses! so CUTE

I will be posting some pictures later of my AWESOME WIFE making those great looking posters! The girls and I did the coloring.

And there I am with my pretty face holding a bunch of packs!
I brought a bunch as incentive for the kids to keep playing and for the pictures!

HEH! We are sooo cool!

Someone's silly kid got a hold of the camera! lol WE HAVE A TON of pictures like this on our memory card!

Aha! we have discovered a closet geek!

Well Well, sitting on the floor... what is that your sitting next to?

A SECRET stash you have been hiding!! GOOD FOR YOU!!!

GEEK!!

GIRL GEEKS! AWESOME!!!

Yep im a geek too!

327 Star Corps!

The large outer room... obviously we need some more tables at church! lol

Geeks!

One of the smaller SWPM rooms!

Another room full of geeks!

Long time no POST!

2008-10-27T13:47:00.012-04:00

The prize table!!!

Yoda was awesome!!! and cute!

The kids playing with my Vader helmet

A too cool kid and a Padawan

Mace Windu... i think!

Using the Force to extract their fleets from their boxes... sheesh, GEEKS!

There i am without my Vader mask... that thing was HOT!

Obi Wan bestowed much wisdom upon us that evening... and also won 2nd place!!

Han on the left, a Padawan in the middle (note the braid) and Darth Maul on the right, some kids went all out!

This one is for you Slightlyiffy!! AT-AT at Hollywood Studios in Disneyworld!! It was HUGE!!

Some proof that we really went to Disneyworld... i mean who would photo shop themselves into a picture of the park entrance... unless they were a HUGE geek!!!

Sheesh i wish that pregant lady would stop blocking everyones view of the castle!!!

Some people thought these two should have stayed where they belonged... with all the OTHER animals in the park!!

Hey all,

So I just was doing some blog reading and realized that i have not blogged since September!!

Yikes!

Well since that last blog alot has happened!

My Lovely Wife and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary!

We took a little mid week trip up to East Tawas by Lake Huron (i think, i was too busy staring into her beautiful eyes to notice a silly little lake!)

It was a nice 3 day get-a-way for both of us. With both of us working and getting up at all hours of the night because our little guy is kicking and pushing on bladders and making one of us generally uncomfortable, some nice R&R was much appreciated!

Then after we got back we took the girls on their FIRST PLANE RIDE!!!

No we didn't just hop on a plane just so they could experience it! We actually took them somewhere!

Oh you want to know where?

Well... DISNEYWORLD!!

And let me tell you, i am glad the parents got some R&R the week before because it was a non-stop week for us seeing everything we could at all the parks we could squeeze in!

Then after Disney (dont worry ill upload more pics later)

we just loafed around for about 5 weeks waiting for the EVENT of the year!!!

The Costume themed Star Wars Pocketmodel Tournament!!!

The above pictures tell a bit of the story, some of the kids dressed up... quite well actually

And some were just too cool to dress up!!

Anyway got to run to church more to come maybe on Saturday while i loaf around like some other bloggers do all day!!

Tournament Pictures!

2008-09-13T13:56:00.012-04:00

Here are the pictures of the tourny

All you readers out there im hoping to have another one on Oct 31st in the evening...

Clone Trooper wannabe
Packing their fleets for the ride

The Draft
Assembling ships from the draft

Our token female player in the van

Still assembling
still more assembling
Yet still more assembling
The layout: Ping Pong table and another long table for play
Kayden and Kennadi helping Lydia with her cool ships

preparing their fleets and decks for battle

Prize and Freebie table (notice the super glue bottle! lol not a prize)
The three prizes were a Mega Model of a Victory Class, an IPUP and an O66 Assault Deck
Andrew seems overwhelmed by the ships he is making

Jonathan and Daniel... Friends even in battle!
Peter is a little too excited to get beat by Nathaniels Millenium Falcon!

Daniel obviously thinks its gonna be funny

Lydia brought her sweet playmat, i thought it was the coolest!!

Andrew seems to have like it too
Jacob K. mounting what looks like a formidable ground assault

The Ping Pong table was a little big to play accross so some of the shorter members had to adapt.
The Jacobs squaring off
The sweet Poster from Small Boy, Thanks again Slightlyiffy!
Pretty sweet looking!
At play in round one

The excited group! There I am with my cool Imperial Domination shirt, and Jonathan with the Clone Trooper helmet
Now I have the helmet on
Ok here goes from left to right, back row first: Leah, Jacob M, Jacob K, Nathan , Nathaniel, Josh. 2nd row: Lydia, Sarah, Christian, Daniel, Andrew and Jonathan

Front row: Kennadi and Peter... what a cute couple they make!

ouch the reserves look kind of full there Nathaniel... keep that Millenium Falcon alive!
Jacob vs Andrew; Nathaniel vs Daniel
Again the challenges of the ping pong table
Lydia got the first round bye win

Lydia with her cool playmat, about to put the smackdown on Chris

SWEET playmat!!!
Leah and an unknown player...
Brothers at war

Tournament!!!!!

2008-09-08T19:23:00.002-04:00

So this is what i posted on the SWPM forum the evening after the tournament.

timbo7575
Trade Count: (8)JediForce: 11 OnlinePosts: 141
For the future SW PM junkie

Re: Independant Tournament
« Reply #38 on: September 06, 2008, 11:08:02 PM »
Quote Modify Remove
SO today was the big day!!!!!I picked most of the kids up and had them at the tournament site (my dads pole barn) by 10am. There were 13 total players there ranging from 7 to 18. 3 Girls and 10 Boys.

We had our draft made up of common ships and common cards (donated by many of the awesome people on this awesome forum!!!) Just a side note: most of the kids are homeschooled (as was I) and its a running joke with us all about their powers of listening and understanding being hindered by that fact. The draft was a great idea. It gave them alot of good common ships to base a nice fleet on and many common cards to do the same (everyone got 2 common space ship plates, 2 common ground ship plates, 10 common combat cards, 2 common objectives and a bonus of 1 uncommon combat card and 1 uncommon objective.
I actually have enough left from what was donated and all the extras i myself have, to have another tournament right now!

Anyway... the draft was easy enough (i took Grimunderworld's suggestion "Each player opens the first pack, in this case, set the cards aside for now and just draft ships (or set ships aside and draft cards). Once the packs are opened, each player chooses a ship plate and passes the other to either their right or left. What is passed now belongs to that player. Then, go to the cards. Each player chooses one then passes the opposite direction. Then, another card is picked and passed the same way again. Once all cards and ships are done from the first pack, another pack is opened and the process is started over. I find it is always nice to change directions of passing between packs, so if you passed ships right and cards left with the first pack, the next pack would pass ships left and cards right.")

I had one pack for each person made up (by myself at 2 am last night! i was so excited i couldn't sleep) of 2 common space ship plates, 2 common ground ship plates, 10 common combat cards and 2 common objectives. Well they didn't really get the whole "taking half and passing it to the left" idea.
So we had to work through that.And their was a flurry of speed in the building process with excitement so i had to help alot and get the superglue out! lol

I took Porpmans idea for Swiss rounds "Basically, they work like this: Make a bunch of score cards, enough to give 1 to everyone. They should contain enough space to accommodate the following number of rounds:

# of Players = # of Rounds

2 = 2–3 (best 2 out of 3)
3–8 = 3
9-16 = 4
17–32 = 5
33+ = 6

30-45 minutes per round.
The Score Cards should contain space for the following information for each round:
Opposing Players Name -
Win / Loss -
Tie Breaker Points -
Total Win points -
Total TB Points.

Round 1 - mix up all the score cards and randomly pair up the players using them. If there are an odd number of players, the last remaining player gets a "bye" with a Win and 0 tie breaker points.

-- Scoring - Give each player with a Win 1 point in the Win Points column. Give every player Tie Breaker points based on what they have remaining in play at the end of their game and put it in the Tie Breaker Points column. I suggest 1 point per and 2 points per objective, though there isn't an official rule that covers it so you are free to determine your own Tie Breaker scoring system. In the event of a Tie game (where neither player won), give the Win point to the player with the most Tie Breaker points for that game.

Round 2 - Put all the cards with 1 win point into one pile, and all the cards with 0 into another. Pair the next battles up according to the piles (1's vs 1's, 0's vs 0's), matching up players with the highest Tie Breaker points first and going on down. Give any extra player a "bye" for that round.
NOTE: A player may only receive 1 "bye" for the entire tournament. If the the "bye" would be to the same player, instead give the bye to the next eligible player (which would be someone from the same pile but with the next highest Tie Breaker points).
-- Scoring - Same as above, but total up the Win points and put in the Win Points column, and total up the Tie Breaker points and put in the TB Total column.

Round 3 - Same as above. Break the score cards Win Points down into piles of 2 points, 1 point, 0 points. Pair up as per above.
-- Scoring - Same as above.

Round 4+ - Follow the same as above until you have one undefeated winner." and it worked perfectly... although it took a little while for them to figure out how i was going to determine a winner and what the TB points were for.... again there was room for lots of Homeschooler jokes amongst us all!!

The competition was pretty fierce but the rounds done this way kept everyone in the game for the duration of the whole tournament. Most of the rounds were done by actual wins and not by the time limit... but the Swiss rounds style helped alot with determining a winner.

Everyone got a foil card as a door prize.

I proudly hung Slightlyiffy's poster up and we all took a picture under it (thanks small boy!!)
The prize packages were:
Mega Model (thanks Boba Fan!)
IPUP
O66 Assault Theme Deck

I didn't set up what placing got what prize, rather I allowed the placing winners to pick in order (1st, 2nd and 3rd)
Each was very geeked about what they got to pick!

Oh and my Grandma happens to work at McD's and got a ton of the bobble head figurines for me as freebie handouts too
All in all it was awesome
We ended up finishing right at 3pm when i wanted to.
THANKS ALL for your encouragement, great ideas and contributions.

Pictures will follow as soon as I upload them.Im already planning the next one!

So for all you blog readers out there, as soon as i do have pictures up loaded ill put them on here to see.

I HAD A TON OF FUN
Im not sure what was funner though, watching the kids play or smacking Weadocks upside the head... kind of a toss up i guess.

THanks parents for letting me warp your kids brains further with SW!!
And a special thanks to LW for not completely shutting me down and breaking every Pocketmodel in the world

Update

2008-08-21T09:20:00.003-04:00

Hi All,

Ok Ok so you're all begging for an update?
Well we went to our 2nd appointment with our Midwife this past Tuesday.

Heard that little heart beating away!!! It was sooo awesome again to hear it!
Everything is going well so far. Our big ultrasound where we will be able to tell the baby's sex is in 3 weeks... i think.

Though we are able to tell the sex at our next ultrasound, Rhi has convinced me to wait for the ultimate surprise.
I know in today's day that its practical to find out so you can prepare... but I do love SURPRISES!!!

So we will see in about 24 weeks!

Oh and we are nowhere near coming close to deciding on a name... I think we may just stick with Taleulah Belle if its a girl
and Mephibosheth Hezakiah if its a boy.

whatya think?

Oh and last night we had 2 rooms full of kids playing SWPM!!
SOMEONE childishly came in and tried to turn off the lights on us!
SILLY PERSON! we use the FORCE to see!! HAHAHAHA
just kidding LW!

Tournament

2008-08-08T07:30:00.004-04:00

Ok, for all of you faithful readers out there who are not SW haters and can appreciate the fun of the game and not become a SWPM antagonist, here is some info for you concerning the tournament.

Date: 9/6/2008 (Saturday)
Location: Steve Kimmels pole barn (yes i know its a pole barn, but its the biggest place i could find to house rowdy kids and make a mess that will easily be cleaned up)
Time: After Men's Prayer mtg, which is usually around 9 or 9:30AM
Duration: 2-4 hours. Depending on how many players there are it will be mostly 3-4 hours. Estimated end time is 2pm.
Reason: Cuz its STAR WARS!!! and its FUN!!!
Cost: FREE!!!

There will be door prizes and tournament prizes.
I will be encouraging all of the kids to come with a Player Name picked out, just a name for the tournament that they will be registered as. Can be fictitious or real.

We will be having a draft of ships and cards that will be mandatory to play with during the tournament and can be supplemented with their own ships/cards. These will be their own ships after the tournament to keep.

I will be limiting the amount of rare ships and cards that will be allowed.
I will be acting as a rules arbiter of sorts during the tournament. (Haven't decided if I am going to play or not.)
We will be playing by the rules listed on each rule sheet that has come out with each subsequent edition, and using "house rules" for exceptions or questions that come up during play. I will make final ruling calls on individual cases which will stand for this tournament.

We will be playing with Swiss rounds using points for wins, losses and tiebreakers. THIS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT!

So far the list of possible players includes:
Leah
NK
SRK
NW
DW
PW
AW
CT

Any others are welcome to play.

Since we will be playing quite close to, if not into, Lunch time I will be providing food for all these young rascals! It will be cheap (as i do have a baby on the way) probably pizza and pop.

Concerned parents please feel free to ask any and all questions regarding the tournament.
Oh almost forgot to mention.
Transportation: My plan was to come to mens prayer and if parents can bring their kids either to the mens prayer or at least drop them off after mens prayer (9:30 SHARP), i will be bringing them back to my parents house afterward. I can provide a reasonable amount of tranportation for those that cannot make it to church at that time.
And as far as getting your kids back... they can either be picked up from my parents house around 2pm or I can make arrangements to get them back to your houses somehow, someway

Thank you for letting your kids take part in this fun event! I may even have a devotional just to spiritualize it... ok no I won't thats just going a bit too far!

Tim Kimmel

Star Wars Coolness! Pwnd!! l33t!!!

2008-08-06T12:00:00.010-04:00

Ok T and L!
I know you think I'm a wonderful influence on your children... or should I say my converts.
Here is some picture positive proof of that influence!

The date: July 25th/26th.
The time: 10:45 PM - 2:00 AM
The location: Toys R Us
The occasion: Midnight releasing/opening of the new Merchandise for Star Wars: Clone Wars... including new SWPM!!!!!! The people: Leah and Myself and a whole bunch of other Star Wars GEEKs, and a guest appearance by the 501st Legion! Led by Darth Vader himself!!!
Here are some pics:

So here is all the stuff i brought home at 2am!!! i piled it on the coffee table to freak out my wife.

It worked!!
Theres Leah putting together her SWPM! GEEK!
Oh we are watching Episode III while we play with our toys BTW
more STUFF
Yeah Leah doesn't look so good at 2 am either!
Here is the display in TRU note the empty wall behind the guy with the wierd headgear. Totally sold out!!
Some of the Jedi Knights... just curious, why are they all LARGE and the troopers so thin??
They had the SWEET! FX Lightsabers!!!!!
BEAH!
More female geekiness! She's hooked folks!!

I couldn't contain my excitement!!!
As you can see waiting in line there was quite the display of Stormtroopers and Clone troopers

These guys were great btw! No one was aware they were even coming and at around 11:30 ish all of a sudden here they came into the parking lot out of the night.

They are known as the 501st Legion. http://www.501stlegion.org/index.php

They make their own costumes and do events for charity. They have their own trading cards, gear, squadron patches. They are worldwide but this particular splinter was located near the Grand Rapids area. They were awesome! They let everyone take pictures and talk about whatever and hold their Sabers and guns! it was cooooooool!

This guy was hilarious! and obviously a big fan of Hannah Montana (Who I in no way endorse at all!!!!!)

Me and Captain Rex!
These guys really authenticate their costumes! They do all the battle damage effects and wear on them!

Captain Rex and the Gray Cheek Clone Trooper (ill give more on him later)
The line 200 strong
We were about # 20 in line!!! YESSSSS
Everyone loved my shirt!
Oh and it was a cool night but they were all roasting!!

I could be a trooper....
This was a girl in the costume, the kids was disappointed too! lol
Vader with a guy next to us in line. The costume was awesome! He just stood there and breathed...
Captain Rex again!
Jedi Lightsabers going to town!

These guys were nuts!!
Oh so the Gray Cheeked Clone Trooper. He actually showed up the next day at a TRU without his gear on and we chatted for a bit, he was a pretty cool guy. I asked about his Uni and he said he got it from a guy in Episode III. He was the trooper in a 5 second clip that killed Aayla Secura in execution of Order 66. Pretty neat costume!
Fat Knight... you'd think the Force was easier on the body...

VADER

This guy was skipping down the parking lot and doing funny dances!

Poser

Ultimate Geekdom

2008-07-31T08:17:00.007-04:00

My Dad obviously doesn't share my enthusiasm of Star Wars Pocketmodels! Yikes!

GEEEKS!!

Muhahahaha i have coerced my sister Leah to cross over to the dark side of SWPM!!

Here we are!! The coolest kids in the church!
Im obviously the most excited one... these other guys are serious gamers!

S&V, here is the collection i was getting together for game night
Scum and Villainy

Yes Tom... this is ridiculous!
And this is just the top part of the tackle box
Heres the bottom contents
getting fuller!!!
Ahhhh Scum and Villainy... i actually don't have room for them all yet in my box...

Note the really cool red Star Destroyer... its the Errant Venture... Pretty sweet if you ask me!

Oh and don't forget the two Slave 1's, each in a different flying position.

Our Future Geek

2008-07-20T16:08:00.002-04:00

Well my wife just asked me if I blog about our baby that is coming in... "how many weeks honey?" 27 weeks!

I said to her... "Uh, no should I be?" "I mean seriously whats more important? our baby or a new member of the Geek Squad?"

But here we go.
OUR baby is now 13 weeks along. We went last Tuesday to our first meeting with the Midwife. She was highly recommended by our friends T and L, and J and C. They all loved her and said she was great. So our first meeting obviously was full of pressure on her! Good thing she didn't know about it! We liked her too and even in the initial meeting she gave us some good advice and answered some questions we had been discussing together.

She then got out the little "thingy-mabober", Jason or Rhianon could tell you the clinical term for it, and put the COLD jelly stuff on the end of it and went to work trying to find the heartbeat.
-Sidebar here a friend said this is the part he hates the "hmmm-ing" and "hmmm-ing" when they can't find the heartbeat makes a person very nervous!-
so that did happen... lots of hmmmss and nervousness and then finally~~

A very fast little beating heart could be heard! WOW what a feeling seriously!
That God would entrust to us a child is a privilege beyond words anyhow, but to hear that little heart... that little life growing inside Rhianon was indescribable... and here i am trying to vainly do just that!
Anyway it was awesome and quite a day and a bonding experience for us.
JOY JOY JOY!

Oh and the heartbeat was 160 and for all you superstitious people out there Rhi says that means its a girl. Ha silly people! You can't name a girl Han Chewbacca Kimmel.

SO yes this post is not soley about geeks and geeky stuff... but its about the future of my geeky heritage!

Faithful Readers

2008-07-15T09:19:00.007-04:00

Look at the pure joy on my face!
Could I be any more excited?!?!
What great geeky sisters!
So supportive to all my Geeky endeavors!

Sorry all you Faithful Readers who have been disappointed by my lack of posting these past few weeks. Its been pretty busy around here with baby talk and the holiday and my BIRTHDAY and trying to finally finish my Math class!! And its pretty busy at work lately so that takes up alot of my time... arranging my schedule, staying late, etc...

So here are some updates for you all.

Lets see... on the 4th of July I played some with NW and CT, the game was delayed and then later canceled due to other activities taking presedence.

Later that evening we played some games with LW, CM, TK and RK and that was fun! We flipped from Pompeii (which involves throwing people into the volcano!!!) and Pandemic (which involves saving the world from diseases and outbreaks and infections!!)

Then I spread the Geeky love at church and gave one of the younger guys (NK) some extra SWPM that I had, he didn't have any yet and Im all about starting them young into the Geek Club. The look on his face was priceless! Makes it all worth it!!!

Now his mom is hounding me for good resources for cheap (good luck!) SWPM!

Still waiting for my shipment Mrs. K!

Hmmmm oh yeah then Rhi and I had an open night and stopped by a friends house and played GOA!!!!! love that crazy game!

And learned a new game that I plan on buying for my sister!! It was a fun easy quicker game... and quite humbling since you play as many rounds as there are players and each round you get a different persons hand from the previous round... it basically shows you how bad you did when someone else won with your hand that you lost with. Confusing? yeah it took us a little while to get used to it.

Then I played NW and blasted him outa the water with my MMP objective! He was beating me pretty soundly until I played that, and then I just started striking his objectives one after the other. He is getting to be a much better sport... to my face at least. He shook hands and said good game so... He's a cool kid!

Then on my birthday my wife took me to a Comic Book and Toy show. It was pretty much full of guys who either don't shower, still live in their Mom/Grandma/Dad/Brother's basement, don't have a wife, or were just plain cool like me! We walked around for a while and I oohed and aahed at all the cool toys and collectibles and comics and packs of pocketmodels. I bought a few packs of SWPM S&V at a pretty good price and a few SW comic books to try out and see if they are any good. I read the first one about Yoda (or as some call him Yogurt) and it was pretty cool!

Then yesterday as you can tell from the above pictures my sisters surprised me with my birthday present... 6 packs of Order 66 SWPM!!!!! The funny thing about it?

I bought a box of them a while ago and opened a few, sold a few more and then saved the rest... well then I sold them to my sisters so they could give them to me! AM I A GENIOUS OR WHAT!!??

Anyway that brings us up to now... but my mom said she would get me the next release of SWPM for my birthday (Clone Wars is supposed to come out at the end of July!)

Thats all for now. Im diligently working on math at night so it may be a while before I post again.

Oh and I found this shirt on ebay and thought it was hilarious!

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/5eb7/

New Recruit :)

2008-07-03T10:54:00.003-04:00

oh and the book caleb is reading is a Star Wars and Science book (really cool)

Well i've got another recruit to the Star Wars Pocketmodel Armada. She is already a member of the Geek Squad since she can be seen reading Japanese Anime and playing her Nintendo DS lite.

So join with me and please welcome RACHEL WATERS!!!! She and Caleb came over Sunday night after church, sidebar: my dear friend Caleb is leaving us for Bible College in Florida :( i will miss him lots!!! Back to our regularly scheduled program of GEEKINESS!!

So I convinced her to play a game with me. She was very intrigued and thought the concept was super cool and the ships were really neat.

And she purchased some packs from me to give to her little brother for his birthday, he sounds like an up and coming Geek Squad member also; after opening his presents he went back to playing his Lego Star Wars video game.

Here are the pics... oh i just looked at the pics and forgot to mention that i got out my little Yoda figure and he reminded me that "do or do not, there is no try"

Fellow church geeks

2008-06-30T17:42:00.006-04:00

Well as you know, this blog is not strictly dedicated to STAR WARS POCKETMODELS (although one day... one day...) This blog is a celebration of all that is geekiness! And what could be more geeky than a bunch of Christians sitting around playing Pictionary on a dry erase board... Ok sure I know of alot more geeky things than that but it was a fun night and I thoroughly documented it!! Down to the food, which as you should be able to tell was quite good and plentiful! We are Baptists after all!

So here are the pics... and I haven't yet figured out how to put them at the bottom of the post. Guess im not a supergeek yet...

Organizing my fleets

2008-06-25T12:25:00.002-04:00

Well to further prove how cool of a Geek I am, I got out all of my Star Wars Pocketmodels and was working on grouping them into different fleets matching their icons to have a more cohesive playing strategy against the likes of the Weadock boys and my wife (who I have yet to beat!!!)

I also was picking out the more effective Objectives to allow for more support for my fleets in combat.

Well you can see from the pictures that I have waaaayyyyy to many of these and spend waaaayyyyy to much time with them!

But if you look to the left of some of these pictures you will see a laundry basket also. I was trying to be productive while "playing"

GEEK!

Geeky Father's Day

2008-06-23T10:03:00.004-04:00

So I apologize for the lateness of this blog (yes I am blogging twice in one day too).

My sweet little daughters (they are technically step-daughters, but I'll never think of them that way) joined together in geeky thoughtfulness and for Father's Day got me this card with a very special gift inside.

2 packs of the NEW SCUM AND VILLAINY SWPM!!!! It was soooo cool and they were really excited to give it to me and watch me open it. It was my first Father's Day ever and they made it a great one. It was also a really special day too since only a few weeks before, we found out we were pregnant and would have a new baby on the way!

Anyway, Happy Belated Father's Day to all you geeky Dads out there!! And to all the non-Geeky Dads... and even the closet Geeks (you know who you are!!)

Churchy Geekdom

2008-06-23T09:30:00.004-04:00

Well folks, it finally happened! We brought our geekiness with us to church!

My sister is a geek wannabe and she heard how ULTRA COOL I and my fellow geeks are.

Yes i know I am not supposed to end a sentence with a verb or preposition but Yoda-speak starting to rub off on me it is, mmmhhmmm!

Anyway here are some pictures of the ULTRA COOL geeks (note: Tom felt he needed to wear this really cool hat to show his even cooler geekiness... although he has never worn it at his house when we play games so... hmmm maybe he is just showing off) Oh and the blurry person holding the really cute, fat, kid is Tom's wife. She did not want her picture taken or POSTED ON THE INTERNET! Oops!

Oh and we played Pandemic the Heroic setting and saved the WORLD~~ yeah were cool!

Future Geek and Pretty Geek

2008-06-16T09:56:00.004-04:00

So I posted a while back about the cutest couple ever...

Well they are back! And I have nick-named them Future Geek (AKA Ethan W.) and Pretty Geek (AKA Rhianon K.) no not Pretty Geeky!

And since I have decided that he will be our next Padawan disciple we have decided that his name shall no longer be Ethan, but shall be Wea-Et Paann from now on! Ok yes I used some cheesy Jedi name generator and thats the best it could do! Give me some time I will think of something as cool as Qui-Gon Ji soon!

Heres some pics

Saturday barfiness and non-geekiness

2008-06-16T09:17:00.002-04:00

So we had some mushy lovey-dovey ceremony on Saturday, June 14th 1008.
My little sister Sarah married Steven! I don't have any pictures at this time (my wife forgot our camera at home!!!!)

It was a very neat wedding with lots of scene's and act's to play out (seriously there were so many changes in the Girls and Guys sitting and standing and positioning that it was like watching a production!) But it turned out very well... even the palm trees ;)

I love Steven too he is a great guy and I am happy to have him as a Brother-in-law...
Since this blog is about being a geek though i can't write it out without adding that he loves playing games! Settlers of Catan is his current favorite but we will introduce him to other board games im sure!

3 MORE DAYS!!!

2008-06-12T18:56:00.003-04:00

Well i had this really neat, long post that was witty and ingenius and full of love and humor... and lots of zingers aimed at a fellow blogger. Since i am new to this world of blogging i didn't realize clicking on a certain link marked settings would take me away from the posting i was creating and i would lose all the info...

So i am now whining about that fact instead of re-writing that lengthy original post.

Blah anyway there are 3 more days till my wife and I's 9 month wedding anniversary and then in another 9 months there will be 5 of us to be geeky (although i've yet to include K & K in this blog... but that day will come i'm sure)

Its been a great 9 months and I love my wife very much (there that wasn't LONG or MUSHY now was it?!)

Here are some pictures of that fated day September 15th 2007.

Weekend geekiness

2008-06-07T12:10:00.004-04:00

Hopefully the above pictures will relate to you what my wife and I did this weekend...

Well first of all we bought a really nice new Digital Camera with some Circuit City gift cards (the only redeeming thing about having a credit card with rewards... that is no longer being used, the card that is)

And then we stopped at Target... whoops! They just happened to have the new Scum and Villainy edition of Star Wars Pocketmodels. And my wife bought me some for Father's Day... well at least that's the excuse i'm using!!!

So we then put these two new purchases to good use and took lot's of Geeky pictures of us with the pocketmodels! I really think i'm changing my wife for the better!

Oh and we are both a little pink from the sun we both got that day. Although I was outside working, and she was just hanging out at the pool with Kayden.

Cutest couple ever!!!

2008-06-05T12:30:00.004-04:00

So I took some more blurry pictures with my phone of the CUTEST COUPLE EVER!!!!

here they are!

Game Night at the Kimmel HOUSE! aren't you jealous?

2008-06-05T12:19:00.005-04:00

Well I did it!!!!!

I convinced my wife to play Star Wars Pocketmodels with me!

And she beat me very soundly actually!

I was sitting there all smugly knowing that I would win because of my superior intellect and gaming abilities and she is pretty SW PM ignorant herself. YEAH that lasted all of about 1 minute when her "designated randomizing cube rollers" started consistently rolling 10s 11s and 12s!!! She was blowing every ship I had out of the Universe!

I started attacking her objectives but alas they were a tough lot to rout and I lost most of my attack force to her ridiculously lucky rolls!

I guess you could say my wife is pretty COOL to let me be a geek.

Probably way cooler than other people's wives that I know.....

For my friend T

2008-06-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

Hi T!

You know who you are, fellow-geek-squad-member!
Don't be all high and mighty in emails to me and think that you can out-mock me pal!

I went and one-upped you by making this ridiculous blog!
I think I shall waste as much time as I can at work by typing long, random and ridiculously geeky posts.

I LOVE STAR WARS POCKETMODELS!!!!!
L don't kill me but I love that fact that you let your boys play SW PM with me! I have alot of fun even when they fight and cry and get mad when they lose! Please don't make them stop. Then it'll just be T and I all by ourselves playing for hours! If it wasn't so sacreligious (and distracting from Worship and Service to our Great God) I'd bring them to every church service to play afterward!