Hanging with the Halls . . .

[Kevin]

Hanging with the Halls . . .

I had planned to work late Friday night, sleep over at the office and get up early Saturday morning. There never seems to be enough hours in the day, so this would be yet another attempt to catch up on work.

Well, I slept over and I’m up early, but I didn’t get much work done last night.

My dear friends, Lisa and Shawn Hall, came by for a visit. They and four of their eight children (their youngest), Jessica, C.J., Isaiah, and Little Lisa. These are the kind of friends who feel like family, but who you only get a chance to see once or twice a year – sometimes once or twice every couple of years. So when Shawn called and asked if they could swing by the office to visit for a while, I jumped at the opportunity.

The family had gone on a whirlwind, three-day vacation to Niagra Falls, seen the sights and were trekking back home to Indiana. They had fun seeing what there was to see and stopping by Palladium wasn’t too much of a detour on the way home.

They arrived around 6:30 PM. We hugged, laughed, talked and traded stories. The kids had never been to the Palladium office so I gave them the tour, turned on the Star Trek pinball machine and ancient Galaga arcade game to play, and showed them the store set-up still standing from the Palladium Open House. Circumstance prevented them from coming to the Open House as they had planned, so they enjoyed seeing what was left of the set up and taking a peek at the latest books.

The kids loved all the artwork and toys all over the place. Turns out they are all very creative and artistic. Jessica, 13, plans to be a pediatrician, but has written and drawn a few hilarious and fun sounding comic stories, enjoys animae and plays something like 3 or 4 musical instruments! C.J. is freakin’ awesome on the guitar (proud Daddy has video clips on his cell phone) and dabbles with writing stories. Isaiah is a wizard on the drums and will start playing football this Fall (CJ plays baseball), and Little Lisa asked me if I could teach her how to paint. (I forget what instrument she plays). All the children are a delight to talk with and clown around with, and it is always a pleasure to visit with Shawn and Lisa.

Shawn is working on writing a novel that chronicles a truly epic RPG campaign he ran in the Palladium world, though it sounds like he’s a couple years from completion. Shawn has to squeeze writing in between work and a very active family, so it is slow going on that front. Lisa is his editor and proofreader which is an adventure all by itself. (Good luck, Lisa).

We went to a Mom and Pop, German restaurant which they all enjoyed. Then, we came back to the office for more conversation and silliness. Around 10:30 PM, after a brief battle of Lightsaber vs Ninja Powers, shooting rubber bands and running up and down the halls a bit, Shawn and Lisa decided it was time to head for home. It’s a 5+ hour trek back to Indiana, but Shawn is used to the night shift and insisted they’d be fine. After hugs and well wishes, the office was suddenly quiet again.

I shuffled some paperwork, spoke with Kathy and hit the sack around 11:30 PM. It was great seeing Shawn, Lisa, CJ, Isaiah and Little Lisa again, and a genuine pleasure meeting Jessica for the first time. It was well worth blowing off work to visit with such good friends, and I feel refreshed and inspired this morning. After posting this Murmur, I’ll be diving back into editing Carl Gleba’s Hades book (which you're going to love).

Have a nice weekend.

Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artist and Jedi Master (in my dreams)
© Copyright, June 2, 2007