Hannah Rae's Blog, page 14

Trivia Recap: 9/28

The Players: Hannah, Mary, Darren, Landon, Marc... and eventually Phil!

The Opening Category:

Hint of the Day: Grover

Round One:

Marc right away knew that Stanford had to be good at tennis and he knew that Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan starred in a movie together. Surprise, surprise: I haven't seen that movie. We went with sand dollar as the round seashell found on currency somewhere, and that was interesting because I didn't realize that a sand dollar was considered to be a shell. Interesting, eh? Marc and Landon were confident that Harley Davidson was the answer to Three Clues / One Company because of a movie-related hint, but Darren told us to hold off for a minute and we lost the two-point bonus. He apologized afterward and we forgave him, so all is well. And then I believe it was Landon and Marc again who solved the World Geography question: China, South Korea, and Russia. We were off to a pretty solid start!

Round Two:

The audio clue was sort of fun. Every song was about rainbows and we needed to name the artists: Rolling Stones, Sia, and Kacey Musgrave. Landon saw that The US Supreme Court was the next category and started writing a list of justices and I believe the only one he didn't have on his list was the one who was the answer: John Roberts. Darren immediately knew that Jason Sudeikis was on 30 Rock and that there was a romance in Cleveland. We all knew the fun answer of Bridget Jones's Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and we missed Baseball Hall of Famers. Oh well.

Halftime:

On the top half, we had to identify sets of TV shows and on the bottom we had to come up with the top twelve most populated states. We got 19/20 because we didn't realize New Jersey was in the top 12, even though Marc suggested it.

Round Three:

Jewelry Lingo was a stupid category and I didn't like it because it incorporated jewelry and French. I don't know any French. Nickelodeon Hodgepodge was fun though. The answer was Ariana Grande and both Landon and Mary knew it straight away. I was super impressed with Landon for knowing much more than anyone else about the US Air Force. We didn't get the bonus, but we did get the points. I knew Oakleys was the answer to Brand Name Origins because that seemed logical to me in regards to the clue (I forget what the clue was; something to do with Annie Oakley) and that was useful because no one else knew it. And then Films of the 2000s was known by Darren (Sin City) but not the bonus. I have seen that movie, however, which surprised Mary.

6-4-2:

We got this for six points and the answer was Penn Jillette.

Round Four:

We predicted that the answer to US Presidents would be Grover Cleveland because of the hint of the day--like, we predicted it before trivia even started--but for some reason my team wouldn't listen to me regarding his birthplace, which I believed to be New York because of Sesame Street and Grover. And I was right and they were wrong. We Share A First Name was alright because Darren and Landon and possibly Marc knew things and It's in the Recipe was easy because everyone knows that cream of mushroom soup is in green bean casserole. And Marc was insanely useful and knowledgable and brilliant when it came to African Geography. Suuuuuuuper impressive!

Final Round:

Phil showed up just in time for the final round and I was so excited that I didn't pay any attention to the question! It had something to do with colleges and Darren wrote down Cornell and Cornell was right so we ended up winning. But more importantly, Marc and Landon finally got to meet Phil! I equated it to introducing a new boyfriend to my friends and family because Phil is my concert husband, you know?

Next week's opening category is an audio clue of Trampled By Turtles songs. I am sending a TBT song to Darren and Mary each day and Darren is sending me a turtle gif each day and so far Mary has only done a "haha"/laughter thingie on our text thread, which is slightly disappointed, but hopefully she begins participating more in the near future... like after she reads this blog.

Concert Edition Barbie

Homecoming is on Friday, so of course there's a spirit week leading up to the big game. Today's theme was Barbie and Ken. Now, I don't own a whole lot of pink, but I have enough to make do. I wore a pair of jeans I would typically never dream of wearing to school (my students loved them, of course), a pink tank top under a grey hoodie, hoop earrings, pink eyeshadow, pink flip-flops, and pink nail polish on my toes (which I woke up seven minutes early in order to paint). And then one of my freshmen loaned me a pair of pink heart-shaped glasses! An easy-peasy Concert Edition Barbie, right? I thought so.

So did my students! I was getting mad props regarding my outfit this morning. The girls were like, "Lookin' good, Ms. Meeson!" and "You really channeled your inner Barbie" and "Ms. Meeson! You went all out!"

There was one person who was unimpressed with my outfit and that was my coworker Landon. Landon said he expected me to go bigger than what I went. That I should have been decked out from head to toe in pink.

Mary said, "No. Hannah doesn't really get big into spirit weeks. This is huge for her."

Annie was like, "What?! This woman doesn't wear hoops! What are you talking about?! This woman doesn't wear eyeshadow! She got up early to paint her toenails!"

I said, "This criticism coming from the man who wore green on Barbie and Ken day. You're, like, Lame Edition Ken."

This earned quite a few laughs. More laughs than it was probably deserving, but it was one of those mornings when everyone was jolly because the students were festively pink and so the joke went over very well.

The joke also gave me an idea: To turn Landon's classroom door into a Ken box.

When I get an idea in my head, I generally make short work of it. Books are written in weeks or months, large canvasses are finished in days to a week... This particular creation took two periods and a bit of teamwork. The cutouts are all mine, but Mary helped with covering the door in pink paper, a couple students stood as lookouts in the hallway, and another student tore tape for us.

I have to give huge props to my principal too. I texted Beth toward the middle of second period to ask if she could get Landon out of his room for 15 minutes. She made it happen...

...and as soon as he left, Mary, Period Two, and I were in the hallway! The kids had no idea what was happening. One minute, we're talking about how Nathan, Gus, and Doyle are affected by the war in Ordinary Grace, the next minute we're pulling a prank. It was so fun! I was so hot afterward!

Here are some pictures of the final product:

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Concert Edition Barbie, Dog Walker Barbie, and Lame Edition Ken

Trivia Recap: 9/21

The players (in order of arrival): Darren, Hannah, Alex, Mary, Landon, Brock, Alex, Ben

The hint of the day: A pocket

The opening category: Saved By The Bell (original series)

The sucker who gets to write the blog: Darren

The Educated Friends, with Danielle being Ben’s stunt double

Yes, it's me, Darren, here to write the trivia recap blog. The first of a new season at Pour House Trivia, so we wanted to make sure we got off on the right foot. Before I start, I will mention that last week Hannah referred to me as “a good father,” which really just meant that I was only willing to leave my teenage son abandoned at the rec park for 15 minutes after dark while I drank with my friends, showing that she sets the bar pretty low. In any event, I showed the blog to my son and said, “See, now you have to appreciate me because my trivia team lost due to me being a good dad!” He merely grunted because, again, he is a teenage boy.

As I said above, the opening category was the original series of Saved By The Bell, which should not be confused with the revival on Peacock which I have to say is really far smarter and funnier than it has any right to be and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Earlier in the week, Hannah and I were texting about this category and I thought that the answer would be “Good Morning Miss Bliss” while she thought it would be Miss Bliss herself, Hayley Mills, but neither of us was right and the question was about the name of the band that the gang formed for the battle of the bands. We knew the answer was Zack Attack because too much of my brain is filled with silly pop culture knowledge.

Ben’s brain is filled with something that is allegedly more useful which is why he knew that Mormi was the angel that visited Joseph Smith according to the Mormon religion and also knew what the referees are all called in football. One question asked us to name words that rhyme with ‘hinge’ and we knew that binge drinking is when you drink too much and that the surrey in Oklahoma has a fringe on top and that the medical device is called a syringe although to me that didn’t feel like a true rhyme, but Hannah shut me down and said, “I trust you to do the math, so you shouldn’t doubt me about rhymes!” I won’t make that mistake again.

As always, the second round started with an audio clue and, as almost always, we chose it as our bonus category. Luckily, we easily recognized “Brass in Pocket” by the Pretenders and “Hand in my Pocket” by Alanis Morisette and “Pocket Full of Sunshine” although I don’t remember who that is by. Dear readers, you have probably figured out that this is where the hint of the day came in as all of the songs shared a certain word in their title. There was a question about giving up a habit abruptly that everyone in the bar thought was about giving up broccoli because Adam mumbled but we still knew the answer was “cold turkey,” and we also knew that avocados get most of their nutrients in the fat. One question asked which US state is located completely in the Appalachian region, and we were on the fence between a couple but eventually we settled on West Virginia which was correct!

The first part of the halftime round had us identify photos of celebrities, five of whom were born in a given year and five of whom died in that same year (and then we had to name the year). The year was 1994 which I knew as I remember exactly where I was when I heard that Kurt Cobain died (in my friend Aaron’s dorm room and he then came up with a very tasteless joke which I do not want committed to the internet), not to mention Jackie Kennedy, John Candy, and Telly Savalas, but we did not recognize Jessica Tandy. I did not do as well on the celebrities who were born that year because I am old, but luckily we have others on the team who were able to recognize Ansel Elgort and tell the Fannings apart. I did recognize Harry Styles, though, so I’m not totally out of touch. The bottom half involved identifying movies with professions in the title from a few of the stars, such as The Bodyguard and Taxi Driver. I was really proud of myself for knowing Nurse Betty, but I also could have sworn that the 2005 Nicole Kidman/Sean Penn movie was called The Translator when it is not.

The Translator would have been a better title

After halftime I believe we were tied for first, although I am not entirely sure as I was having to debate points with Adam who had made mistakes on our halftime sheet. This was not the only time tonight that Adam made mistakes, as a number of teams went up to question his scorekeeping throughout the evening and all three times we did we were right. Everyone has off nights, though, and we love you anyways Adam! In fact, Hannah made you a new logo:

The third round started with a question about the Angela Bassett movie where she goes to Jamaica and we all knew that it was How Stella Got Her Groove Back but we could not pull who the author of the book was for the bonus, even though Hannah knows they had it when she worked at the bookstore. The next question asked about the quality that soap bubbles have that makes them change colors and whose name comes from the Greek God of Rainbows, and we really weren’t sure but at the last second Mary suggested “Irridescence” and we wrote it down because it seemed better than “Prismatic” and Mary was right! Hooray! There was a question about people with K in their initials that we almost had chosen as our bonus question (because K is in the top half of the letters according to Hannah even if it isn’t top ten, but she doesn’t know if it is in 11th, 12th, or 13th place) and we knew about KD Lang and about some Korean golfer but we had no idea that fifteen(!) separate movies have been made based on Phillip K Dick stories. I even read the list an hour ago after hearing the answer and I still don’t think I could name more than a half dozen. The round ended with us knowing things about Quiet Riot and Unsolved Mysteries, and it was a good round.

The first clue in the 6-4-2 round asked for the most recent US President to have facial hair. Ben thought it was probably William Howard Taft, and that we should be bold so we turned it in. After we did, Ben correctly predicted that the 4 point clue would be that he is the only person to be both president and chief justice. Way to go, Ben!

Just to be clear, this is Taft. Not Ben.

In the final round, we knew that Cal and Stanford had jumped ship to the ACC, but in a rare sports misstep Landon thought it was also Washington State so we lost our bonus points. The only wagering question we got wrong all night came in this round when we could not think of what the opposite of a dorsal fin was. I had guessed Versal but Hannah convinced us it was Basal but in fact it was Ventral. This is why we need Victoria to come back to our team! Help us, Skoogmaster Flex, you’re our only hope! Luckily, Mary knew about Lucy Hale’s album (and even who Lucy Hale is. I think she is in that show that’s not Big Little Lies but I’m not clear if she is related to Tony Hale) and we knew about Paris and Little Jack Horner, so we ended on a good note.

We were in first place going into the final question, but only by two points so we wagered it all. The question asked for the largest two cities that are on I-15. We knew Las Vegas, but we weren’t sure about the other one. We ended up putting Phoenix, which was not correct, and of all the cities that we thought were possibilities for the other one we did not even consider San Diego which is unfortunate because it was the right answer. Alas. This meant we ended the night in second place, which isn’t too shabby all things considered.

I think I have covered most of the highlights of the night, other than Mary’s Apple Cider Margarita which she said was pretty good, and Ben trash talking me about the Phillies-Braves series. I imagine there will be more of that (although hopefully I will be the talker rather than the talkee) in the coming weeks of the baseball postseason, so stay tuned for that fun. Until next time!

Just a few things

I haven't been writing many blogs because I've been busy doing other things. Here are the things I've been doing:

1. Making art! I have an art show scheduled for December and I want to make sure I have enough pieces to hang... so I've been cutting and glueing and sealing new art. Here's an example of a new piece. I just finished it today after school:

2. Finalizing a Christmas novella with Mary! We concluded the editing process on Saturday and now I am back in communications with Cassandra Alling about recording the audio for it. The book will be released in November, but the audiobook release is still TBD.

3. Writing a new book! I've been wanting to write this novel that's been in my head for MONTHS, but I made myself write another novel first (because I was told I needed new characters) and edit two other novels (because they needed to be edited, you know?) and now I can finally write the thing I've been wanting to write since MAY! Oh my goodness it is so fun! You have no idea how much fun I'm having with this book. When I'm not writing it, I just like to sit around and think about it because it brings me such joy. The characters bring me such joy. I am just so happy to be with them again!

4. Prepping for TWO new audiobooks being produced by TWO new readers! Chris Kerrigan is working on The Way Back and Rob Connolly is recording Kick It One More Time. Rob actually sent me a sample of Kick It earlier today and I loved everything about it. His voice is perfection! His delivery of dialogue is excellent! His interpretation of Chet Abbott makes me love Chet more than ever before... and I've always been (and always will be) Team Sebastian. But still... the fact that I am currently feeling all the feels for Chet? That's impressive.

Alright. There's a quick update. I'll try to post more frequently than I have been, and maybe provide some more art updates and whatnot.

Trivia Recap: 9/14

Spoiler Alert: We came in second because Darren is a good father.

The Players: Hannah (English teacher), Mary (English teacher), Darren (math professor), Marc (social studies teachers and ice cream connoisseur), and Danielle (bartender)

Something we learned last night is that Marc's arms are not nearly as long as Ben's arms. So Danielle took the picture.

Opening Category: R.E.M. audio clue

Hint of the Day: Mermaids

Disclaimer: I am writing this blog from school during my lunch break and forgot to bring my notes from last night, so it's likely going to be a brief one.

Side Note: Isn't it interesting that every single paragraph of this blog entry so far contains a colon?

Round One:

Side Note #2: There was another one!

If I remember correctly, we didn't miss any questions in this round. I actually figured out the answer to the opening question, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" even before Darren did, and Darren is the R.E.M. expert. I don't actually remember anything else that was asked in this round, but Darren was really beneficial on the second or third question.

Round Two:

We did well in this round too. Mary was quite helpful with the audio club because she knows things about country music. All of the songs played last night contained the word "Waiting" in the title and we needed to identify the artists. The first answer was Rascal Flats and the second was Mumford and Sons (we all knew that one) and the third answer was... I forget. At one point, there was a question about geography and island countries and Marc knew the answer straight away. And Darren wanted to figure out how many points we should wager so he asked, "And you're very confident that at least one of these is correct?" (Because we needed one answer to get the points and both to earn a two-point bonus.) Marc was funny because he looked at Darren very seriously and said, "I'm confident that both are correct." So we went high and got the points and the bonus. There were obviously other questions that were answered this round as well, but I have no memory of what they were.

Halftime Sheet:

The top half of the sheet consisted of photographs of award-winning female musicians, and because I am not especially drawn to female musicians, I didn't help very much with this. However, because Mary seems to prefer female artists, and because Marc and Darren like females who are musicians and actors and writers and TV personalities and just, you know, women in general, they were quite good at this. On the bottom portion of the halftime sheet, we had to match the location of a reality TV show to the name of the show. I don't watch reality TV, so I wasn't much good here either.

A Note About Musicians:

I have and always will have an affinity for musicians, and because I am attracted to men, I think this is why I very much prefer male musicians. I mean, yes... I listen to music because I like music. But I also listen to music because songs help me come up with scenes in books that I intend to write. I mean, sometimes a song will paint such a vivid scene in my head that it becomes a challenge (and also an excitement) to write because I just need that scene to exist. And all of my characters who are musicians are male because I like to write about them. And I like to go to concerts and watch men on stage because I find men to be fascinating in their interactions and the way they communicate with each other. Don't get me wrong: women are fascinating too... but men are, to me, more fascinating because their brains work very differently from mine. In addition to all this, I am an alto and have an easier time singing along with male voices, and I very much like to sing along with the music I'm listening to.

Round Three:

This might have been the round with TV Show Spinoffs... but that might've been Round Four. Either way, it was Danielle who knew the answer. From behind the bar, she very confidently mouthed the words "Scooby Doo" as the TV tie-in to Supernatural. Darren, at first, was a bit skeptical that Scooby Doo was the answer, but that's only because he didn't see the adamancy on Danielle's face. I was facing Danielle and therefore could see her face and we went with Scooby Doo and it was right. There was also a sports question in this round and it had something to do with football and math. Even though we didn't have Landon (he was having dinner with his mom in York), Darren and Marc reasoned through all the possibilities and came up with the right one: a two-point conversion. Remember that time Darren was a mathemagician? This time he was kind of like a mathlete.

Mary wanted to see if Landon would have known the answer to the football question. He didn't.

6-4-2:

The first clue let us know that there are three states that are bordered by two states. We needed to come up with the largest one. I suggested Washington. Darren agreed. We waited for the next clue, just to be on the safe side. We should've gone for six points... but hindsight's 20/20, right?

Round Four:

Marc left around this time because he had to help at open gym... so then there were four. I had predicted that the answer to Film Debuts would be "Mermaids" and I was right. I took joy in this and told Mary to text Landon and tell him, which she did. There was also a question about fish in this round and we got it wrong because the most popular freshwater fish is a guppy, not a goldfish. Who knew? Not The Educated Friends.

Final Round:

Going into the last question of the night, The Educated Friends were in first place. Melissa of Street Shark fame was apparently conferring with Adam regarding her team's score and it was taking forever and Darren needed to pick up his son from baseball, so he left too. And then there were three. The last question involved a country that did not announce it was going to host the Olympics in 1940, even though I guess it was supposed to be hosting the Olympics in 1940, but then because of WW2 the Olympics were postponed, but this country has now hosted both the Summer and the Winter Olympics. Mary was pretty sure it was Russia. Neither Danielle nor I had any idea. Russia seemed as good a guess as any, so that's what we put, but the answer was Japan. Therefore, The Educated Friends came in second.

Next week's opening category was originally going to be Serial Killers, but then the team changed its mind and decided to go with the original Saved By the Bell instead.

Trivia Recap: 9/7

The Players: Hannah (English teacher and aspiring author), Mary (English teacher and aspiring editor), Landon (English teacher and aspiring NBA star), Ben (not a mechanic and not an aspiring cartographer... even though he's really good at maps), Darren (math professor and aspiring Pour House Trivia Champion of the Galaxy), Brock (marketing/design expert and aspiring Knower of all Things Marvel), and Danielle (bartender and aspiring #1 Fan of Mr. G's Ice Cream)

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(We forgot to take a picture last week, so this week Ben took extras!)

Opening Category: Dave Matthews Band (audio clue)

Hint of the Day: Snake

(I drew this snake.)

Round One:

Because Danielle saved the day last week in the final round, we let her choose the opening category. She of course knew all the answers... as did Brock! It was a no-brainer and we easily earned nine points plus a two-point bonus. Woohoo! The second category was our bonus category and it was a fun one: Triple 50/50: Children's Character or Wine Brand. Seeing as I drink wine on the regular and my mother was a children's librarian, this was relatively simplistic. Brand Name Hodgepodge had us determining what the RC stands for in RC Cola (Royal Crown -- thank you, Brock!) and Name That Actor earned us the points, but not the two-point bonus. Want to know why? Because Danielle didn't tell us the answer. Ben immediately knew that Kevin Costner was the actor who appeared in movies about baseball, golf, and cross country -- and he was able to name the movies as well... except for the cross country one... which was the bonus. And then Danielle, standing behind the bar, looked over at us after the fact and was like, "You got that, right?" And we were like, "Not the bonus." And she made a face. And then I believe it was Ben who said, "Did you know it?" And she was all like, "I mean, yeah," with a shrug. So that was a bummer for us. And then International Celebrities was fine (Oscar de la Renta and Oscar de la Hoya -- thank you, Ben!) and we got those bonus points.

Round Two:

This week's audio clue was One More Trip to the Beach. I was slightly worried that there would be a song by The Beach Boys OR Jan and Dean -- or both! -- and we wouldn't be able to tell them apart because they sound exactly the same. However, the songs were about the beach and the answers were Counting Crows, Blake Shelton, and Lana del Rey. Danielle came to the rescue again with this last artist. I had suggested Billie Eilish, but Danielle knew the correct response and it worked in our favor! Yay, Danielle, for being hip with the modern music world! This next clue was kind of funny because I was giving Ben a hard time about how he rarely draws maps anymore (I love his maps!) and Mary was assisting in stressing the great loss we suffered as a result of his lackluster map sketches, and so he started drawing a map that depicted the country's rivers because the category was U.S. Rivers. I was thinking the answer might be the Missouri River, but then Ben said, "Nah... I wanna say it's the Snake River," and I was like, "Snake is the clue of the day!" And it was right!

(This piece is titled U.S. Rivers, by Ben)

Here's another really great thing that happened during the second round: When we originally got the answer sheet with the categories filled in ahead of time, Landon saw that NFL Not-So-Memorable Moments was among the selection. He said, "I have a feeling it's going to be Jim Marshall. He ran the wrong way on the field in 1964 and I just have a feeling..." So I wrote it down on our sheet off to the side and lo and behold... that answer was there when the clue was given! And the answer was indeed Jim Marshall! In addition to all that, Landon also knew that he was playing against the 49ers at the time it happened, so that earned us another two-point bonus. Go, Landon! Sadly, Landon was not quite as useful in the next category, What Do I Measure?, even though he used to teach about the tool that measured wind. It is not an endometer, in case you were wondering. Mary knew the tagline for Gossip Girl, though, which came in handy for the next question and she knew the network it aired on: the CW. That got us two more bonus points! Yay, Mary!

Bonus Sheet:

Spoiler Alert: We won for the second week in a row last night, but if we hadn't, I'd be emailing Denny Grizzle today to complain about the half-time sheet. The top half had us identifying celebrities with something in common (they all had Presidential last names), but the bottom required us to come up with an answer the included part of the human body in its answer. For example, "A 1972 thriller film starring Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, and Ronny Cox." Ben knew it was Deliverance, even though he wouldn't refer to the genre as a thriller, but he was originally stumped because he didn't think of Deliverance including a component of the human body. Except human bodies have livers, so it worked. Anyway... What would you come up with for the following clue? "A term used to describe someone who is arrogant, presumptive, or cocky." We went with smart ass, even though we thought the answer might be heel. Can it not be argued, however, that other possible responses are asshole, butthole, d*ck, or f*ckhead, just to name a few? Want to know what the answer was? Cheeky. Cheeky. I'm still annoyed about this because the definition of cheeky is as follows: impudent or irreverent , typically in an endearing or amusing way. This doesn't, in my opinion (or anyone else's opinion on The Educated Friends) fit the bill. But whatever.

Round Three:

Alter Egos was tricky, and even though Darren thought the answer to the second name, Don Diego de la Vega, was Zorro, and even though I agreed with Darren, Mary and Ben were convinced the answer was Don Quixote and they were wrong. So we didn't get those points. Military Matters was easy enough because tanks weigh a lot, Fruity Titles was fun because it referenced a Dr. Seuss book and Darren got it right away (,And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street,), Mathematics was OBVIOUSLY going to be gotten by Darren because he is a mathematical ,genius,, and Presidential Elections was fine because Ben knows all of his Presidents, easily.

6-4-2:

We got this for four points. I forget the clues, but the answer was Trinidad and Tobago.

Round Four:

NASA Stuff was another one that Landon would have known last year if we'd had him on our team while he was teaching science, but he'd forgotten the answer because he's getting old and his memory is going. Arts and Crafts was fun because arts and crafts are always fun! Three Clues / One Celebrity ,could, have been gotten by Darren with a two-point bonus, but he wasn't 100% confident that the answer was Lucille Ball. It was, though! It was Lucille Ball! And Darren knew that she had connections to the Three Stooges and ,Star Trek,! That Darren is such a wealth of information! Tennis Time was up next, and with their powers combined, Ben and Landon figured this out. Then we got into a conversation about different playing courts (grass, clay, and hard) because I am reading ,Carrie Soto is Back!, by Taylor Jenkins Reid and it is ,very, heavy on the tennis terminology. And you will never believe this, but I, Hannah, knew the answer to a movie question! The category was Films of the 1990s and it was our bonus. Phil would have never allowed such a thing because it was the fifth category in the round and he doesn't like it when we make the fifth category our bonus category, but it worked in our favor last night. We needed to name Matt Damon's three biggest films in the '90s. Everyone knew ,Good Will Hunting ,and I think it was Danielle who came up with ,Saving Private Ryan, (which everyone them kicked themselves for ,not, immediately knowing), but I was the one who said ,The Talented Mr. Ripley,. I remember watching that movie and being completely repulsed by Matt Damon. I have since grown to really like and respect Matt Damon -- his mother is in education and so he does a lot for public education as a result, plus he's a good actor -- but he used to gross me out so much that I'd want to take a shower after looking at him. Legit. And it's all because of his role in ,The Talented Mr. Ripley,, which he played very well.

Final Round:

Going into the final round, we were ahead by plenty and therefore only wagered one point. Brock wanted us to wager no points because he thought it had never been done before, but it had been done before and we needed to explain this to Brock several times before he believed us. Ben was ,super, excited to only wager one point, though, and marched right up to Adam to deliver the news. He tried to march up and share the news with Adam before Adam was ready for wagers, and then Ben stuck his finger in the air in a sort of one-fingered fist bump ☝️ to announce to the other teams that we were only wagering one point. The clue was something about how this restaurant used to have the name of Top Hat, but then changed it to a speed-of-sound-related name, and the answer was Sonic and Darren and I both wrote it down at the same time and we won and next week's opening category is an REM audio clue because REM is Darren's favorite band. And that's a wrap for this week.

My First Fan Art

Remember my student Poseidon Jr. from last year? I love that kid. And Poseidon Jr. did a cool thing: he created some fan art to depict my favorite character of all time, Sebastian Porter.

I think (but am not certain) that Poseidon Jr. has only read The Way Back, but interestingly, his favorite two characters were my favorite two characters: Kai and Bas. Both are minor, sure... but they sure are great!

Side note: I'm currently writing a novel in my head in which both Kai and Bas (along with some other characters from Time Jumps, which is not yet released) are the main characters. Isn't that fun? It really is; I know.

Anyway... back to Poseidon Jr.

Last year, Poseidon Jr. asked me to pick out a color palette for Sebastian, which was both easy and insanely fun. After this, Poseidon Jr. got to work. Below are the works-in-progress and the final piece:

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While this is maybe not quite as I imagine Sebastian to look... it's so cool to have my first fan art created by someone who really enjoys Bas's personality and artistry! And this is one of the MANY reasons I so adore Poseidon Jr.

Trivia Recap: 8/31

My first trivia recap, don’t feel I will add as much flair as the rest of the group does but here it goes…

Disclaimer, even though I have been to trivia multiple times, I still don’t understand how the bonus questions and previous week hints work. All I know is if we circle one, and don’t get it right, we pretty much are doomed.

The participants were Darren, Hannah Mary, Brock, Ben, and myself. I don’t really remember who answered each question, but I do know we won (with a little help from Danielle haha)!

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Round 1 Darren was ready for the most popular boy name (Liam), and we briefly talked about how much names have changed. We got the trifecta of Ad Slogans, and the only one we had concern with was Calvin Klein, but Brock came through with a “it just sounds like a CK slogan.” The Catholic Cardinal was agreed on by pretty much everyone, and because of a previous week's hint, we named the sport of horse racing. However, we did not get the 1920’s horse “Man O’War.” We said Seabiscuit but we knew it was wrong. The final question in round 1 dealt with flags that had bears on them. I was wrong with Maine, should’ve gone with Ben’s Missouri answer. Overall, I think we did pretty well in this round. I typically look at Darren's facial expression when I ask him if we are doing well, and he said Street Sharks probably got them all. On a personal note, I was happy with our answers, but a little distracted by how good Brock’s crab cake looked and wished I went with that instead of my choice.

Round 2 started with the saxophone piece of each song. We got 2 of the songs but couldn’t nail down Seger’s Bakerstreet. Poetry was easy for Mary and Hannah, as they wrote Robert Frost’s name with confidence and a serious look in their face lol. Darren and I were singing The Gilligan’s Island song, but he knew a different version that I did and got the Professor and Mary Ann. There is a red mark by that question, and looking at the paper there are a lot of numbers so I assume that was a big question for us. The 1998's people of the year were Clinton and Starr. We over-thought that one and went with Newt, but Brock came through with Unforgiven and Gene Hackman before half. I think at this point we were sitting in 4th place. Darren added our score to make sure it was right, he said it checked it out.

Half was about cold, frozen, snow, ice things, and board game pieces. The paper was pretty much filled out and I didn’t see much of it, but I know they crushed it.

Round 3 is where we started the ascent to the top. We got the Trinity question, then Brock got the National Park Death Valley economic question. We named both Heisman winners that were drafted by the TN Titans, but we could not think of Derrick Henry’s first name for a minute. Peter Frampton was the classic rocker and we bombed our bonus on who was the man who lost 2 presidential elections. I think the hint was something about his grandfather being president, but that didn’t help us at all. Honestly, I think most teams got that wrong. Adlai Stevenson was the answer, and we weren’t getting that.

Final round we kept on climbing. We did have a little discussion and debate between Seinfeld and Frasier. Darren said Frasier and that show did run for a long time. But we went with Seinfeld lol. But other than that, everything else in the round we crushed. Star Wars questions dealing with Harrison Ford. Actually I was wrong, we only named 1 archipelago (Bahamas) and missed Turks & Caicos, but again, I think that stumped quite a lot of teams. Hannah was very confident in her Sonny Bono response and we trusted her. Good job! And Darren knew the Venezuelan island of Margarita. The only thing I remember from that is the debate of how to spell the pizza and if it has an “e” at the end. At this time, Hannah also successfully spelled orangutan.

Last question we went all in and Danielle came through. I don’t even remember the name of the band that was given, but it was the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Anthony=Tony was the ohhh yeah moment.

Overall, fun night with friends and it was nice to win! We did not get a team picture (I’m blaming the team leader on that lol).

Life With Arlo: Basement Edition

When Arlo was just a puppy, the cats used to escape to the basement because the solitary dog in the home didn't understand how steps worked. He'd lie at the top of the stairwell and whine, wanting to reconnect with his feline friends in the worst way, but unaware that he could simply walk downstairs to reconvene with them.

When he was a bit older, we went to my friend Victoria's house for a playdate with her dog Beaker. I believe it was at that point Arlo learned he could venture up a flight of steps. Beaker modeled the behavior, and with some serious trepidation, Arlo gave it a go. Coming down was TERRIFYING, but he somehow managed to accomplish that too.

When Augusta moved in with us and discovered cats for the first time, NOTHING stood between her and her feline friends. She loves them too much and they essentially hate her, so I was forced to block off the basement with a baby gate. Said baby gate has been in use for years, but I've recently needed to relocate it due to some construction taking place in the basement. Currently, no one (dogs and cats alike) is able to exit the kitchen and venture down to the basement unless I, Hannah the Gatekeeper, allow them to do so.

I allow Arlo to explore the basement when he comes in from outside. Rather than herd him back into the kitchen, I give him the opportunity to go downstairs, and to this day, it is still a VERY BIG production for Arlo to go up and down a flight of stairs. He needs to build up to it. And he's not graceful about it at all. He gallumphs his way down, and then he gallumphs his way up. The energy he employs to clumsily carry himself from point A to point B erupts from him in a burst of gusto! He has the speed of a sled coasting down a snow-covered hill and the elegance of Elaine Benes on a dancefloor.

Today Arlo ran the stairs many times. Wanting to come in from the wild outdoors of my backyard, he flung his entire body against the door (as he so often does), and persistently barked until I acknowledged his desire. Then, once again inside his beloved home, he ignored my wish for him to follow me into the kitchen and, with wild abandon, thumped his way to the basement.

Then he ran back up, declined the offer of a dog biscuit in the kitchen, and disappeared yet again to the basement.

Then he ran back up, barked a playful request that his sister follow him (she refused), and disappeared again to the basement.

Then he ran back up, an empty box of dryer sheets clenched in his jaw, and begged to be released once more to the squirrel-riddled lawn on the other side of the door.

Five minutes later, guess what he was doing. That's right! He was back inside and repeatedly following his new favorite route from the first floor to the basement.

This dog makes me tired. I really wish he'd make himself tired. Perhaps I'll open the gate and send him down to the basement for his twenty-eighth visit today... and then his twenty-ninth... and then his thirtieth... and then his thirty-first...

Dispatch your enthusiasm like hounds because this is a worthy blog!

When it comes to spotting musicians, I suppose I have a knack. It’s kind of like they make their way through a crowd while decked out in red-and-white stripes, you know? Striped sweater, striped knit cap… just like Waldo.

That being said, let me tell you what happened yesterday:

My friend Erin and I ventured up to Bethel Woods, New York (this is where Woodstock was held!) in order to attend the Catbird Music Festival. On Sunday, while watching Amos Lee perform, I spotted a fellow in a blue t-shirt and a baseball cap and thought to myself, That’s Brad Corrigan.

Erin didn’t notice.

Brad talked to one of the security guards, and then he meandered farther under the pavilion to watch Amos Lee for a minute, and then he moved up to the next level and talked to another security guard. And the whole time I followed him with my gaze and thought, That has to be Brad Corrigan.

Erin didn’t notice.

Then Brad looped around and came toward us. I saw him pause for a quick photograph with a fan and I said to Erin, “That’s Brad Corrigan.”

Erin said, “What?”

“That’s Brad,” I repeated. “Get up.”

Erin said, “What?”

I said, “Get up. Hurry. Come on. We have to go.”

I squeezed by Erin, leading the way, and walked over to where Brad was passing by a security guard. Then I said, “Excuse me.”

Brad Corrigan stopped and turned to me. So did the security guard. I said to Brad, “You’re Brad from Dispatch, yes?” He nodded. I continued, “I have been trying to get in touch with you for years.”

I think this surprised him a little bit because it’s probably not typically what a fan would say. But it is true: I have been trying to get in touch with Brad Corrigan for years. I think he’s an amazing musician and an amazing human who stands for so many amazing and important things--like a woman’s right to choose what’s right for her body, and the importance of kindness and acceptance, and supporting people who have been sentenced to prison and how that impacts their health and their lives.

The reason I’ve wanted to be in touch with Brad (and all of Dispatch, for that matter) is because they gave me permission to use the lyrics of “Out Loud” in my novel Kick It One More Time. I went through all the appropriate channels--no copyright infringement occurred--but I wanted to thank them and also provide them with a copy of the book. I might also like to send a piece of art. I tried to send art once before, but I believe it was (sadly) lost in the mail.

(This is what the artwork looked like. It's called "Cross the World," which is the title of a very cool Dispatch song, and I suppose it's either in the garbage, sitting in a mailroom somewhere, or hanging in a thief's home...)

Anyway, Brad is hopefully going to provide me with a mailing address for the book and the art--that’s pretty much what we talked about on Sunday when I met him--and he congratulated me on the release of my novel. And then Erin said, “How about a picture?”

After taking a picture of Brad and me, Brad said, “I’ll take a selfie with all of us.” So he did.

Then he congratulated me again, shook my hand, and I thanked him for making some of the best music out there. I was a little shaky after that (just with excitement), and as we walked away, Erin said to me, “So who was that?”

Oh, Erin…

I’ll also say a few things about Dispatch’s performance. As per usual, they were incredible; they always are. They had the best stage banter among band members that I’ve seen yet at a show (JR has three lungs and “Lady J” is about drunken orgies!), which I obviously really enjoyed. And at the end of the performance, after having the crowd give a round of applause to the ASL translators standing off to the side, Brad went over and gave them his drumsticks, which I thought was so sweet.

Here’s hoping he really does remember to email me with an address for some art/literature because I’d love to share a bit of my creativity with him since he’s already provided me with such an incredible soundtrack for my life.