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I feel I have been remiss in my blogging. I get home from work and really don't feel like doing anything on my computer. (My facebook games have suffered for this - as Sharon keeps reminding me.)

The job is good. I don't love it, I don't hate it. The drive isn't too bad and I've been able to listen to a ton of books on CD. I just finished 'The Sun Also Rises' by Ernest Hemingway. Definitely had me really hating bull fighting (and thinking back to Lisa's post about the bull ring they went to in Spain).

Trivia has started up again. I'm back with the Mods (yay). We won our first game, but I think I was sitting in the wrong spot because I knew more answers in different seats than my own (I still didn't know very much, though).

I just returned from a quick visit out to BC. I spent the weekend with my brother Jason and his wife Megan. She's expecting in October and she looks great. My brother has grown a beard and I almost didn't recognize him at the airport (pictures, hopefully, to be posted tonight). The weather was amazing (Jason even had a sunburn after Saturday). We hung out with Megan's brother and his wife and a couple of their friends for a barbeque on Sunday. It was a really great weekend. But, I am paying for the time difference today! I am so tired.

Trivia Finals - Way To Go Mods

Last night were the finals for my trivia league. First off - so happy this season is done. I've been sub-ing for Rod's team this season. They needed an extra body to QM (ask the questions). So, Julia was nice enough to take my spot on the Mods so I could help out the Naughts.

Anyway, this was the first time I had gone to the finals. In the finals there are three teams competing. The Mods just squeaked in after an upset in their final regular season game. Throughout the evening the Mods were in the lead, but they almost lost it in the challenge round. They won by only 1 point and the trophy is now theirs. Yes, there is a trophy. Julia has the honour of having it at her home as the rest of the guys have already had the privilege. They promise me we'll be back to the finals when I'm back on the team so that I get to take it home.

Congrats as well to Mel for winning the individual trophy!


Picture of the Mods: Tim, Mel, Julia, Bob and Ralph

Lovin' Ben Covington

While sitting at home looking for a new job I've been watching Felicity on DVD. I swear Ben Covington (aka Scott Speedman) gets sexier with every viewing. When I was over at my friend Dorie's tonight, the group of us (4 women) had a discussion on just how damn fine he is. It's funny to me that all I had to say was 'Felicity' and everyone in the room immediately went to Ben.

Julia was asking if I had watched anymore X-Files. I just can't seem to get into season 7. But, I can't wait to get Battlestar Gallactica season 2.5. I love that they brought in Michael Trucco. They need to go back to Caprica so that there is more of him.

I wrote my first round of trivia this week. I'm a little nervous for Monday to find out how it goes over. It will be weird to QM that round and ask people questions that I wrote. I can't say what the theme of the round is until after trivia on Monday, though. Julia reads this blog and that would just give her too much of an advantage :)

Too Much TV

Last night at trivia I learned that I watched too much television in the 80s (I'm not sure that has changed).

I actually did really well in last night's game. I was able to get my current events question correct (I was worried for awhile): 'What American university hosted the Iranian president for a Q&A' (well, the question was way wordier than that) and I actually had Columbia somewhere in my brain (I had read an article on the visit, but I didn't think Columbia was actually correct).

There were two rounds that I absolutely loved: Entertainment and Audio. The audio round this week was on Canadian artists. My team had a perfect round (everyone answered their question without the team's help). My song was by Feist (so thank you Jason for downloading a ton of Feist onto my MP3 player). The Entertainment round was on 80s sitcoms. I knew all of them except the Bosom Buddies question (I had a different show in my mind, but it wasn't our question). Somedays it does help to be the youngest person at the table. I was also really happy with my question in the challenge round. I don't think I have ever gotten a challenge question correct, but this week there were two questions on Yellow songs. I was hoping for Yellow Submarine, but that really is way too obvious. My question was about Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. I would have also gotten the steal correct (if it had come back to me) as that was about Coldplay's Yellow (I'm not a fan of Coldplay at all, but I did know that they sang Yellow).

So, a good night for our team. We did win at our table. Rod's team, though, kicked butt at their table. Rod and I went out to Green Mango for dinner before the game. It was soooo good! We then stopped in to a great furniture place on Yonge. If I had any room in my house I definitely would have found many things to buy. Rod has a new house so he will definitely be going back for some pieces.

Must Study

I did not do as well at trivia last night as I did the week before. I missed the current events question on the Giller Prize. For the history round I was able to come up with the correct answer (Jesse James) for the epitaph given (I also guessed correctly for Winston Churchill's epitaph, but it wasn't our team's question). Other than that I did not do very well. The audio round this week was classical music and unless I danced ballet to it (which, really, was only Tchaikovsky - and that wasn't my question) I'm not that good at the classical (which means I need to get downloading!).

I've decided I need to find more time to check out websites, books and the news!

Trivia Stats

I just received the stats from last week's trivia night. My team came out on top with the highest score. This is causing me some nervousness that it was all a fluke and I will fail miserably tonight. Hopefully the fates are on my side again tonight and we get some categories that I actually know something about. I will be really happy if there is no poetry this week (in last week's literature round they gave part of the poem and you had to name the poet). Last week no one did well at the poetry round. Unless it is Shakespeare I have no idea (even then I probably can't get the sonnets).

Trivia - Awesome Music Round

Last night was my first night on my new trivia team: The Misplaced Modifiers. When I got there it was looking a little dicey. Only 3 guys from the other team showed up and then only two guys from my team showed up (normally you have 5 team members), plus no QM (quiz master). I gave my cousin Michelle a call, but her and Andrew weren't feeling well so they weren't up for it. After I got off the phone the rest of my team showed up and the QM. So, it was 5 against 3 (this means that the other team can't get the full two points on two questions every round).

Out of my first 5 questions I answered 4 of them correctly without help from my team. I couldn't believe it, I've never done that well. The last half of the night I did not do as well, only one question did I answer correctly.

But, my favourite part was the audio round. The round was 'non-hits' off of albums that had a number of hits. So, they played the 'non-hit' song and you had to name the artist. Well, I had some issues with what they took as 'non-hit' songs. 'Pictures of Lily' was a hit for The Who. Any song that makes it on to a greatest hits package is a hit by definition. Also, 'Nautical Disaster' by The Tragically Hip is a song they play almost every concert so really I wouldn't think of that as a 'non-hit'. I knew every band except my question and the guy across from me. I had a song by the Indigo Girls (and I should have known it after all the songs I heard in the car on the trip to Newfoundland with Liz and Michelle) and the guy across from me had Sam Roberts. I was really excited about the song by The Stones. It was a song I had never heard but I knew who it was as soon as the guitar started. It was classic Keith. Still not sure if it was Mick on vocals, but the guitar was unmistakable.