My husband: The game designer

If it hasn't already become clear at this time, my husband likes to play games.

For example, when his sister and nieces were in town last month, he set up a Hogwarts Tri-wizard Tournament of lego games for a party.  He had one where the girls made potions, another where they fought a dragon, to reach the center of the maze they played this one.  All adults were headmasters of different magical schools (Dale was the headmaster of Dermstrang, wearing a Russian Dermstrang sorting hat), the kids had to compete in the tournament.  In this picture you can see the girls having their names burned in the Goblet of Fire.

Nope, this wasn't a birthday.  It was just a day that he got to see his family. 

If you recall in March Dale got 3rd place out of 25 original board game maker finalists at a national convention called SaltCON.  At that convention, Dale met several different publishers, one of whom gave him a request to send a second draft of his game once he had refined it with their recommendations.

Fast forward to June, Dale submits his second draft to Griffin Games.  Three weeks later, what does this picture look like?

If your answer was SIGNING A CONTRACT WITH A PUBLISHER, then you are correct!  A full professional contract with an advance, a percent of all gross revenue, and ultimately, a promise that on August 1, 2013, Cheesonomics by Dale Tolley will be coming to a store near you!

Side note: On my graduation day from graduate school, my mom gave me a great idea to buy a gift for Dale.  I chose a pen and engraved it with "To our success, love Alana."  We've used that pen to sign job acceptance letters, applications to things that mean a lot to us, and now contracts for published games.

This weekend, we made 6 prototypes of Cheesonomics to send to China, Chicago, Oregon, and Arizona.  This included a LOT of cutting and gluing.  But to see the sweet look on his face, it's worth every inch of it.