I'm Back!

Wow! I am sorry to anyone who feels this blog has been neglected! It has! I will make a post now to try to catch up on things.
First, I have been to so many conferences since my last post. I traveled greatly between Feb and April. Some highlights:
Brain Camp was wonderful. I met many from the kids entertainment industry. Cartoon Network, National Geographic Kids, Disney, DiC, etc... I really enjoyed meeting Steve from Feld Entertainment (B&B Circus and Disney on Ice) as we sat and did puzzles over the lunch hour. Amanda and Rick from PintSize Art I finally met as well. They are wonderful and I enjoy working with them!
I also attended the large annual NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics)Conference in Salt Lake City. Bill and I did a presentation that was incredibly received. We were thrilled!
Toy Fair in February in New York was incredible too! What a thrill to be there to talk about ThinkFun and Game Club in our beautiful booth! I also went to a small dinner party of puzzle, toy and magic people. At this dinner of about 20 people, who should show up? David Blaine! It was really cool to meet him. He did one trick that night, and I was his guinea pig! I wrote my name on one of his cards and then he found it again. It was incredible. I have a photo, but I'll add it later.

Also, one of the biggest thrills was to meet Ivan Moscovich. I met him in New York but then again at the Gathering for Gardner. He is the kindest person and we spent lots of time just talking! It was a thrill for me. Here is a photo of us!




I met many other greats at the GAthering as well! Here is John Conway and I. It was a real honor to meet him and it was really cool to meet these people on a personal level. It's hard to explain but these are people that I have admired and known in mathematics and I just can't believe that I'm meeting them! I had Elwyn Berlekamp, John Conway and Richard Guy all sign my new copies of Winning Ways!



So my life continues to amaze me! I am truly blessed! One of these days I should really journal some of these great experiences!

Tanya

Tanya's Update

It's been too long! I apologize, I doubt anyone checks this anymore since it's never updated. However, I'll post anyhow.
I'm excited to say I've taken a few lovely trips since my last post. I travel about every 6 weeks to ThinkFun Headquarters in Virginia. It's always wonderful and extremely busy. Since I go without the family, it just makes sense to work 16 hour days while I'm there. It always seems like a ton gets accomplished but there's always a ton more to do!
I was also invited to Halifax to speak at a conference for Independent Schools. Our good friends are associated with Armbrae Academy and they were hosting a conference. They asked me to speak about ThinkFun Game Club. It was spectacular! Out of the 5 schools in attendance, I'm proud to say that 4 are now doing Game Club. I'm so honored to be a part of their community now!
I also got to stay with my wonderful family Sandra and Allan. Dinner with cousins too which is such a pleasure! And always love seeing my aunts and uncles!
This Friday I'm traveling to U of Waterloo for my math contest writing weekend. So excited to be seeing all my friends again!
I'm traveling next week to New York. Both for a puzzle party (so excited about this) as well as for my first NY Toy Fair. I'm honored to be there as a part of ThinkFun. Not sure what to expect, but expecting big and wonderful things! I'm also going to see Rent on Broadway too!
In March, I've a wonderful conference to attend called Brain Camp. It's a high level executive conference for people in the Kid's Entertainment Industry. It's a small numbers conference with round table discussions. I'll be excited to meet these high level people in the business.
March also includes a trip to New Orleans to the ASCD Annual Conference. We have a booth there and hoping to talk with many supervisors who attend this conference.
And then at the end of March is the Gathering for Gardner! I'm excited to say that I received an invitation for this event this year. It, like IPP, is very exclusive so I'm thrilled to be included. It's in Atlanta and people from all over the world come to attend this event. It's in honor of Martin and is it's 8th gathering. It's for mathematicians, magicians and puzzlers, all three of Martin's passion.

So you can see that I'm just always busy! But I'm loving life! I feel I'm the most fortunate girl in the world!