They're NOT Little Men! Oh, wait, yes they are. Never mind.

Andy painting his Little Men (photo: acephotos.org)

I read an interesting review of the Ultramarines (Warhammer40K) movie over on FTW. The cool thing is that it was written by his wife. You know it's true love when you let your wife post on your miniatures blog, and when she writes a movie review about a Little Man movie.

My wife knew I was a geek long before we were married. We have been married for over 15 years now, and have known each other for something like 23 years. She used to think that when I played D&D with my crew that we were literally "jumping around in bushes" instead of sitting around a table rolling dice and pushing Little Men around a battle mat. She now knows that jumping around in bushes is LARPing, but she still sends me out the door on gaming days with a chipper "Have fun jumping around in the bushes, dear!"

When she enters the bonus room and sees me painting, she shakes her head and rolls her eyes and quips "What a geek!" And of course, I reply with "And yet you still married me." As far as I can remember, she has always called miniatures "Little Men." She's right, of course - well, except for monsters - but Little Men is pretty much the universal chick code for any and all miniatures.

My wife and I recently watched the HBO miniseries The Pacific, which was my birthday present to myself. She really enjoyed it, but that's not a shocker to me - as it turns out, she really liked Band of Brothers. And LOTR. And Star Trek. It seems that compelling storylines, interesting characters, and good writing go a long way towards attracting non-geek viewers. That's not to say the missus would enjoy reading LOTR, but I'll take her positive reaction towards the movies any day of the week.

I guess my point is to count yourself lucky if your wife/husband/partner embraces your Little Man hobby and/or gaming and geek culture in general.

Maybe I should paint up Reaper's Brigitte, Naughty French Maid just to see if she's paying attention. She'll probably smack me upside the head, but it will totally be worth it!