We just wanted to give a tip of the ole 10-gallon hat to our saddle pal, Kevin G. Nunn. It seems our good buddy has received a high honor for his board game, Duck! Duck! Safari: it's been nominated for an Origins Award for "Children’s, Family, or Party Game" of the year! If memory serves us, this is Kevin's third nomination. Previous nominees include: Nobody but us Chickens and Duck! Duck! Go!  As ya'll know, Kevin is the original author and game designer for the Draw! RPG (you know, the one we're going to publish).

So, this feather in his cap is a feather for us all. And we couldn't be happier for him. His games are fun, expertly designed, and this honor couldn't be bestowed on a better guy. If you've got some young 'uns (or a missus) who you'd like to introduce to the world of gaming, these games are a great place to start (Mitchell sent the Chickens game to his sister and her family a few years back, and it's their favorite game -- she's even taken it to her Sunday School class and it's been a big hit there, too).

But aside from being kid friendly, these games are of that rare breed that are also a whole lotta fun for adults. 

"The ability to be simple enough for kids, yet complex enough for power gamers is one of the hallmarks of Kevin's abilities as a game designer," said Hawgleg co-owner Mike Mitchell. "He has a rare talent and we're very pleased to see that he's being recognized by his peers."

Congratulations, Kevin... we're all proud of yuh!

-- Mike Mitchell, Mike Murphy & Paul Mauer

As we head toward the summer and begin brighter days filled with the warmth of sunshine and friendship, please pause to consider all those who have sacrificed to make our lives... our liberty possible.

Setting aside the politics of North vs. South, of present vs. past, I can think of no more fitting words than these to commemorate this occassion.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
The Gettysburg Address
November 19, 1863