nothing but a heartache

It must be March Madness at the pub as we made our way to 2nd place in last night’s quiz. After our last performance a few weeks back – the worst ever – it was a pleasant surprise. The only question that led to protest, at least from me, was this: What is the native currency of the following islands? Christmas, Aruba, Wight, and Canary. Feel free to look those up, we only got the Isle of Wight correct. I couldn’t come up with florin for Aruba even though we knew it was a Dutch property, and even with me writing down ffl on the napkin, just wouldn’t come to the brain. We went with the dollar for the Christmas Islands, sans Australian, so we misfired there. The Canary is where the debate raged – we were debating Portuguese v. Spain ownership issue and ended up going with the peseta. Well, that’s sort of right if you go with the ‘native’ portion of the question but is apparently wrong when he says that the Euro is the answer. The Euro? Native? To the Caymans? If we’d been asked “what is the currency of…” I could play along but I don’t buy the Euro as the native currency of anywhere. The analogy would be saying that the native currency of Germany isn’t the Mark. L. came along and managed to let us know that the Cobb Salad originated in L.A., told us that Singing in the Rain has a scene in front of Grauman’s in L.A., and that the largest U.S. fortune cookie factory was in S.F. – who knew? The Cobb Salad really surprised me. Small potatoes…

Here’s a piece at dcist.com that addresses the first month of the $.05 tax on plastic bags that took effect in January. A yearly review will probably be more useful – and accurate – so I’ll keep everyone posted. S.F. simply outlawed plastic bags so you have a total of zero in use out there, I’d have been more happy with that, but this has, at any level, had a serious impact on usage. I’d like NoVa and Maryland to get onboard and play along.

We’re gathering up the clan early Saturday morning and rolling over to the Tidal Basin for a lap around the cherry blossoms – or to the cherry blossoms with a lap around the Basin. There’ll be some baking on Friday night and coffee brewing early in the morning. Sunrise is set for 6:50 am so we’ll be there by 6:30 to beat the crowds and the Metro schedule. There’ll a nap when I get home; we’ll send pictures.

X has come down with one of those bugs that mostly affect the voice, her’s is disappearing into a gravel pit, to which I pointed out on the way home last night that she makes it sound like I’m hanging out with Bonnie Tyler…or Demi Moore in the St. Elmo’s Fire days. If you’re wondering…

internet code .kp is north korea

Just a quick update: we got the whole quiz team in-place tonight and managed a best ever 8th of 52 teams and we actually won one of the two prize rounds of the evening. Our first ever win of any sort.

Maybe you'll get more tomorrow.

how do you say snow in russian?

For dorks like me this is a great slideshow especially since we live in the area and use the Metro all the time. I’ve often wondered about the progress of the system; how they sorted out where to run and when they opened the various lines and stations. I’m still amazed they didn’t build a line to Dulles International way back when. From what I understand, Dulles was built to handle the growing traffic, particularly international and long-haul continental, and opened in the early 1960s and was fully up with jumbos by 1970. Who thought to themselves, “You know what? Let’s wait until the entire area is overrun with population and then try to build a line through 25 miles of suburbs in 2010.” It’s really a horrible example of civil engineering…or thought engineering.

We’re supposed to get another 8” today, and 8” more tomorrow, before our newest and bestest storm friend finishes with us. This is getting a bit over the top.

Quiz night went well last night. We finished a bit higher than normal (8th of 43 teams) and hung a bit tougher with the legendary Naked Hookers, weekly winners and 2009 champions, as they tumbled to 3rd and only about 5 points ahead of us. X got the team prize for coming up with Lulu (sang the theme to The Man with the Golden Gun). (see foonote)

Last season, we (Caps followers, not us) got a quick lesson from our local Moscow hockey reporter on the correct pronunciations of the Russian players’ names, nicknames, and myriad other confusions. They all seem to love living here in D.C. and hanging out a Russia House but they put up with some serious name butchering. Here’s a follow-up that adds audio and an embarrassing correction on how to really pronounce Alexander Ovechkin’s last name.

Even though Corey has some broken bones in his foot, and I honestly do feel bad about that, the story that led up to the breaking of said bones at North Park Dr. is absolutely hilarious. I don't think a story has had a car full of adults laughing so hard for so long. I'll leave it to Kt to rely when she has time.

Footnote / update: I've been alerted, in no uncertain terms, that X actually came up with the Lulu answer and Kt merely made us stand firm on that answer. The original entry claimed that Kt had come up with Lulu. Believe me, it was mere moments after the the original posting before my ding-a-ling rang and I was chastised. It's now been fixed.

t

freaky old shows...and people.

We got back to quiz night last night and did better, point-wise, than normal but so did everyone else. My claims to fame are two-fold, as they would be if they are claims: first, I made X and Phil stick with the Faye Dunaway answer on the "who is this" picture round (it was a 50s or 60s black-and-white photo). I only claim stubbornness and not knowledge on that one. My second point was during the 'Life and Times of William Shatner' round when the question was something along the lines of "on this 1965 show that included blah blah and talking trees, William Shatner played a dancing onion." I immediately came up with H.R. Pufnstuf, to which they both looked at me as if I were radioactive; they'd never heard of it. Of course, what else in 1965 could have talking trees and dancing onions? Yep, I was solid gold.

Last Saturday night we had a bit of a D.C. blizzard and there was some wonder on whether or not I'd have class. We were scheduled to finish up soups with a shrimp bisque, New England clam chowder, and a consomme. In the end, only 7 of the 20 showed up and so we worked 10 lbs. of shrimp into two gallons of bisque and two gallons of chowder. Once we got that sorted we finished the other 4 lbs. of shrimp into scampi and a very light breaded shrimp. I was shrimped out at the end of the night but it was a great class - loads of room in the kitchen and the chef instructor seemed to really enjoy the time. We're moving into poultry and some butchering this week (this a one-quarter, eleven-week, classical techniques course that runs about 11 hours per week.)

Both gals in the house are knocked down with sickness. L is reading in her room and X is laid out on the other living room pillow area. Both will get doused with NyQuil and sent to bed any moment.

Love to all.

t

P.S. I suspect all will be home tomorrow as we have another 4-6 inches of snow in progress.

(Picture from my seats)

H. is working on his science homework and as an eighth-grader he's doing the somewhat standardized science-y homework that entails the writing down of experimental details. I remember so very well my 9th grade biology teacher, Mr. Kelp, hammering away at our science notebooks and assignments. Back then, in Omaha, our methodology was strictly this: Purpose, Equipment, Procedure, Data, Conclusion. Nothing more, nothing less. If you forgot one area then you were in for a world of hurt. Purpose. Equipment. Procedure. Data. Conclusion. Bang.

Our quiz results were once again right at the tenth-place of about 45 teams. I think X, who I badmouthed in an earlier post, might be right on your position in the 'Quiz World'. You are what your record says and you'll never win if you aren't right there from the get-go. Of course, this comes from a woman who spent seven years in England winning every week; well, glomming onto an already established winning team by shaking her moneymaker - no shame.

I had a great time at the Verizon Center last night as the Caps came from behind and beat Philly, 4-2. They fell behind 2-0 and then roared back in the last 30 minutes to win. When they beat the badass stormtroopers it's much more exciting then a struggling win versus the non-rivals. I'd rather see last night's game than a 4-goal night by AO versus a less worrisome rival.

No further details on my school or L. ending up here in January...I'm withholding nothing.

t

todds against bothersome monkeys

For some reason, far beyond me since it's been going on forever, I've been taken aback of late at political car stickers that intone "all of my type for Jackass" (feel free to change jackass to whatever or whomever you choose). I've decided that in my own little World I'll eliminate nearly all plurals from support stickers. If you want to tout "Blonde woman for the Death Penalty" that's perfectly okay - you just can't be "Blonde women for the Death Penalty". Any more than I can proclaim "Veterans for Free Love"; "Veteran for Free Love" is a whole different ideal. So, all of those that have any of the following: Democrats for, Women for, Gun Lovers of, Veterans for, Folks on Hilltop Place for, Dog Lovers for, Drying Clothes by Hanging Them Outside People for...knock it off. Kindly go out to your vehicle and cross off the 's' from your support sticker; or, if need be, change a vowel. You're free to be what you want but you're not free to claim me or the other 52% of the population. Thanks.

As is my chore sometimes, I stopped by the library and picked up a book for X to read in the evenings; a copy of Tom Robbins' Still Life with Woodpecker. I don't know from fiction but I'll say that this opening from the blurb on the back makes me wonder: "...is a sort of love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes." What sort of story is that? It sounds as if there are loads of stories that not only take place in cigarette packs but, specifically, stories that take place in the packs of different brands. I think I'm going to entitle my blog "blatherings of the sort that you hear whilst standing in a boiling pot of spaghetti."

Speaking of Todds (see title), one of the questions from the quiz on Monday night was: Give the letter of the alphabet which is the first letter of the most World capitals. Right. X actually came up with the right answer immediately, and clearly from the blue, to which I sort of it wrote off as some sort of blather before I said "Tehran, Tripoli, Tokyo...I think it's 't'." And my tiebreaker between my 't' and her (eventually) correct answer was this "My name starts with T!" For those that know the WonderTwins, and those that do are blessed while those who don't are blessed, I'll let you think for just a moment about how much grief I got for my "my name is Todd and it starts with T" input. You give one WonderTwin some Guinness and ply the second with two Cosmos and you get the idea of the drive home. Endless...

If you want to know my reading stack then you can; I'm slowly working on The Believers by Zoe Heller and The Lost City of Z by David Grann.

Of you go now...

t

adult SATs

We did the Pub Quiz on Monday night. I think we actually tied for fourth since there was the winning team and two tied for second (we were tied with another). Generally speaking, we did well for a rookie squad (The WonderTwins, one of X’s workmates, and I) scoring 79 (of 86) for the evening. The winners tallied 82 so we were close enough to sniff the lead and I think there were about 35 teams. X happens to think that her quiz experience tells her we’ll never win – there’s always two or three teams battling at the top, within a point or two of each other, and we’ll never get there…so she decrees. She’s so negative. If we’d gone with Alaska (state with the most national parks), Small Pox vaccine (which came first? the vaccine, X-rays, or penicillin), and known who the kid was in The Fast and Furious with Vin Diesel, then we’d have been right there. I may kick her off the team for malcontentness. Of course, the quiz has now become a must schedule event after this week’s outing. (Don’t let X know but I think her wanting to go every week sort of shoots down her quiz determinations. Who’d go every week if they thought there was no chance of winning? That’s what I thought. It’s not like she needs.)

I must tell this story. X stayed home today, relaxed on the couch, started a fire, and called report on both cats lazing about with her. She was also up last night around 3am and told me this morning that Lemon was aggressive in her desire for pets; she also told me that she felt my cat was overbearing. Her update on the cats this afternoon involved her telling me that she'd given my Lemon a warm plate of cream. What? That cat that you think hates you and would rather you didn't exist? And you think I treat Lemon as a princess? A plate of warm milk...her hard-hearted, self-proclaimed toughness is out the window. Warm cream.

t

what's the answer?

Last night the Eleven and L. (I guess for the summer we could all be The 61 if we go by the LXI roman numerals…) headed out to for trivia night to one of the local microbreweries / restaurants over in the old neighborhood. We brought L. along for three reasons: she knows a lot about mythology and the current crop of children’s books, we couldn’t very well just leave her at home, and finally, I offered her any dessert on the menu. The decision to head over for the quiz came fairly late so we didn’t have adequate time to prepare mentally or physically for the challenge. I’m not sure what we would physically do but maybe some stretching would’ve helped. Once we were seated and L. had ordered her sundae it became obvious that we were the smallest team – accounting for 2.5 adults. Some teams had 8 or 10 players that appeared to include some Weird Al Yankovic ringers…don’t ask and don’t worry, I’m not setting up any excuses. The first round (of four) rang us up in dead last of 17 teams involved. You see? The stretching would’ve helped. Our performance over the final three rounds was impressive enough to climb to a tie for 14th after the second, 12th after the third, and a final standing of 6th at the end. Well done! L. read her book, ate her sundae, occasionally pondered the entire situation, and was one-for-one when asked for an answer – she came up with the correct kids’ movie answer. What we really needed was help on the first two questions of the third round: who was the dancing lady with bananas and fruit on her head? and, who was married to both Frank Sinatra and Mickey Rooney? We got to Carmen on the first question but couldn’t come up with her last name (blame me for distraction); we had no real idea on the second. The final bonus question was intriguing: what two states that border each other have the highest rate of smokers in America, and the lowest rate of smokers in America. We bet the most points allowed and the answer no doubt moved us five or six places up the chart. I think that if we draft another player we might find ourselves battling for a top-three position some Monday night.

L. had little to report on camp yesterday. It seemed she was fairly middlin’ on the events but there wasn’t anything necessarily bad. Hopefully the Smithsonian will up the ante today and get her a bit more interested.

I think there was some agreement during the quiz, while my guard was down, that we're going camping this weekend. Yikes.

t

like who you live with

Ever since we watched Helvetica a few months ago there's been fonts hanging all about the place: "Oh, that's Helvetica", "That Obama guy has a nice font!" Who knew a documentary would latch onto the brain - my Rwanda and rendition documentaries never get the same shrift. There've been entries (elsewhere...) and critiques on who uses what and for what good/evil purpose. My contribution to the institute of my readers and strange birds will be this quiz for the overly interested. I'm about to take it but it's clearly for much more erudite (strange? insane?) of the typesetters and designers of the World than it is for the font lovers hanging about - they even have Hall of Fame. I love that it's dubbed the 'Rather' Difficult game.

As a challenge I'll alert you that I got the first one correct. Bang!

t

post-script: I got 18 of 34 which is pretty pathetic by hall of fame standards. Not many Americans near the top of that list.