Trivia Trifecta Achieved!

My long sought after trivia goal was achieved this week with the help of some wonderful teammates. We completed the Western Skagit Pub Trivia Trifecta*, coming in first place in 3 consecutive nights of pub trivia (the three establishments in question are the ones I reviewed here.) The competition was tight (esp. at the Longhorn, where it was more crowded than ever), but the categories were with us (former geographic names and Simpsons, to name a few). There was a helpful little overlap on the various pictures rounds* (answers in comments below), though. And for this triumph, there was no prize in addition to those of the various establishments. But those do add up: 2 pitchers of beer, 2 mixed drinks, 4 t-shirts, and $95 in gift certificates. If I drank or wore beer swag t-shirts, that would be a pretty good haul. But a burger, desert, and good times is enough of a reward for me. Next week I head to Portland to get a little trivia in down there. Hopefully the streak will continue! Did I mention that I really like trivia?

Friday March 22 2013

File under: Anacortes, games

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on Fri 22nd Mar, 2013 02:16 pm CDT Wren said: First picture round (from the Brown): 1. Nikola Tesla 2. Cambodia 3. Dionysus or Bacchus 4. Diamonds are Forever (missed) 5. Yugo 6. Some heavy rocker dude I forgot to remember (missed) 7. Mexico 8. Record adapter* 9. Chicago (missed*) and 10) Weekly World News Second picture round (from the Longhorn): 1. Henley 2. Glory 3. Honda, Civic, Del Sol (missed "civic") 4. Tow Mater 5. Iditarod 6. Some guy I forget now but Aunt Julie knew 7. Warcraft(? or something like that) (missed) 8. Wisconsin 9. Roberto Clemente and 10. That handsome devil Nikola Tesla again. ************************ on Sun 24th Mar, 2013 09:08 pm CDT Dave said: You're welcome. ************************ on Mon 25th Mar, 2013 05:09 am CDT Horge said: I think it intersting that they went full-cricle with both rounds: 2 Teslas and a Yugo (all from the same former country) and in round one you had Batboy, while in round two, you had his older brother, James Carville (2.6) ************************

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Appreciating Photographers - Maui Hat Draw Edition

Much of this blog is about chronicling events of my life, both to share with you, dear readers, and to have for myself when I am old and grey. And while it occasionally turns out okay to have a words only post, everyone knows that posts with pictures are way better. But if I'm busy doing, I don't have much time to take pictures of those doings. I do okay when I'm diligent about it, but it's fair to say that many posts lack in the photo department. Enter other photographers, people who know what they are doing, have great equipment, like doing it, and do it prolifically. I'm so appreciative when someone like that is 1) around and 2) willing to share their photos with everyone. And it makes creating a decent blog post that much easier. Case in point: Kurt at the Maui Hat Draw Frisbee Tournament. Without the awesome photos he took, I'd have 2 or 3 photos Della captured on my not-a-phone to share*. Instead, I've got a whole gallery to choose from to create a post that conveys the experience in a much more efficient way. And since pictures say much more than words, here they are: The Action: The Off-Action Fun: Big hanks to Kurt and all the other photographers out there that share their art!

Wednesday March 20 2013

File under: travel, hawaii

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on Thu 21st Mar, 2013 12:23 am CDT Luke said: Oh man, "Pole Smokers" - haven't played that in a while. Great fun. You can sure smoke a pole like a champ Wren! ************************ on Thu 21st Mar, 2013 05:35 pm CDT Stephanie said: I do find it is a hard balance to strike between wanting to chronicle events by taking pictures, and wanting to just form memories instead of constantly having the camera out and not actually experiencing life. What I think would be perfect is if I just had a professional photographer with a nice camera who followed me around and always caught me in flattering candid poses, making even the most mundane of everyday tasks, such as washing dishes and clipping one's toenails, look romantic and exciting--especially for blog purposes. S/he wouldn't charge, of course, and s/he'd be so good at it you wouldn't even know s/he was there. Alas, I'll have to make do with a tripod and just being a weirdo who photographs herself. Anyway, awesome action shots! Kurt did an amazing job capturing the fun. ************************

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Happy Pi Day 2013!

Even though I've been looking forward to and semi-planning for this year's Pi Day for over a week now, I somehow find myself celebrating it exactly the same as last year. Well, maybe not exactly because my quiche has spinach and mushrooms in it, but pretty dang close*. Yep, pecan pie and a quiche, just like last year. But why not celebrate it the same way? It's the awesome way. Speaking of celebrating Pi Day, did you know that I wrote a Pi Day Crossword? You should print yourself up the crossword, go find a nice slice of pie, relax, and celebrate! (oh, and if you're really in the mood for all things Pi Day, you can check out my previous posts on this oh so special day here, here, here, and here.)

Thursday March 14 2013

File under: holidays

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on Sun 17th Mar, 2013 09:43 am CDT mely said: happy belated pi day to you! we made apple! ************************ on Mon 18th Mar, 2013 06:35 am CDT Horge said: Happy Pi Day (and also "White Day" in the Far East)! They don't celebrate it here, since most Europeans do DD.MM.YYYY (too bad there's no April 31st). But I did celebrate it by eating "Bosnian pita", which they often translate (wrongly in my opinion) to "Bosnian pies"... But man, oh man, I'd kill for a nice pecan pie... Stupid lack of pecans over here... ************************

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Maui Transit Review

Never does everything go right on a trip. Every traveler knows that. But with some preparation, the number of hiccups tends to go down. This recent trip to Hawaii seemed to have more than its fair share of hiccups, at least from the get go, starting with a 6 hour plan delay that put us into Maui in the middle of the night, long after our hotel's shuttle stopped working forcing up to sleep in a homeless camp on the beach. But those things happen. The big hiccup that altered our trip severly was one I never saw coming. We were quite rudely refused service on Maui Public Transit due to the size of our luggage(which I would have been happy to carry on my lap). So all the planning of figuring out the schedules/routes to get us to the frisbee tourney, to campsites, and back out to the airport was lost. I was stunned at the this rule and the rudeness with which it was enforced. An inquiry to the transit agency after our trip was rather unhelpful as to ascertaining the reasoning behind such a limiting regulation. "The rules regarding luggage size are from City and County of Honolulu." I, personally, suspect that there is a more underhanded motivation behind the rule, to discourage tourists from using the service, instead pushing them to car rental to help boost the island's economy. Call me a cynic, I guess. So where did that leave us, all transportation plans shot? At the whim of strangers, that's where. But luckily, we found quite a few friendly ones, specifically ones associated with the Maui Hat Draw frisbee tourney* who toted us out to tournament site and helped us find a nice campsite afterward. It also pushed us to the time-honored tradition of hitchhiking, something neither of us has done much but took too rather easily. While in the end the trip turned out awesome despite the epic fail of the local transit agency, I can't help but have my faith in public transportation slightly shaken by the experience. If I can't believe in the bus, what can I believe in? Am I going to have to become a car-renting, gasoline-burning tourist like the rest of them? We'll see, I guess, as I've got another adventure just around the corner.

Thursday March 7 2013

File under: hawaii, transportation

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on Mon 11th Mar, 2013 10:13 am CDT Horge said: Interesting about the refusal. 2 weeks ago I was in Budapest and happened to notice a sticker there, handily written in English since Hungarian is a spaceman language*, saying you are limited to 2 or 3 bags a person. I can't remember if this was for the metro, bus or trolley, but it was the frst time I'd seen public transport trying to do that - not that I'd expect it to really be enforced in a place like Budapest. But then again, I wouldn't expect Hawaiians to be uptight about such a thing either... ************************ on Mon 11th Mar, 2013 10:14 am CDT Horge said: *It literally is. I learned this trip that in "Blade Runner", the cyborgs' weird language is actually Hungarian, and that Yoda's speaking style apparently arose from having sentences translated into grammatical Hungarian, then translated literally back into English. ************************

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Hawaiian Vacation Overview

How do you summarize a trip where you didn't really do anything? I can't say "we went to a luau, surfed, and ate fresh coconut every day" because we didn't. But that doesn't mean we didn't have a great time, because we did. And I suppose it would be a bit of a stretch to say we did nothing. While most of our time was spent lounging at the campsite or meandering around Lahaina, we had a few noteworthy experiences. We saw many breaches of the humpback whales (often right from the beach at our campsite), ate some of the local cuisine, hitchhiked*, hiked to get a geocache, saw the largest banyan tree in the U.S., were warm, reveled in fun yet insignificant discoveries, and just enjoyed hanging out together. And in terms of bang for our buck, I think we did pretty dang well. The whole concept behind the trip was let's go hang out somewhere warm and not spend oodles of money (hence the camping, hitching, spam, etc.) And while the final receipts haven't come in yet, I know we did amazingly well. Yep, Hawaii ain't such a bad place to hang out for a week. In fact, I might just have to do it again next year.

Saturday March 2 2013

File under: travel, hawaii

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on Sun 03rd Mar, 2013 11:28 am CST Steve/hope said: I see u upgraded your shorts.I am impressed! ************************ on Mon 04th Mar, 2013 02:51 pm CST Horge said: I was kinda hoping you'd go the other direction, by wearing long slacks and maybe a sports coat in Hawaii. You know to balance out all that shorts-in-the-snow-karma you've been building up for decades... ************************

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Hawaii Mini-Post

It turns out that 1) Hawaii is pretty dang neat 2) keeping current with blog posts is hard when you are camping and 3) sno-cones are delicious. I'll get some better posts up soon.

Wednesday February 27 2013

File under: travel, Hawaii

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New Crosswords!

After taking a bit of a break from crossword creation, I'm back at it. I posted a while ago about the puzzle I submitted to the New York Times. Well, I got a very cordial "no-way bub" response*, so that means I can now make it available to ya'll! It can be found here or at on the games page. Since then, I've put together two new ones, both of which I think are pretty dang neat. They can both be found over at the games page as well. Format wise, I've forgone the html online version in favor of just .pdf and .puz. If you're greatly missing the html version, let me know and I'll resurrect it. One puzzle is worth calling attention to: A Reason For Celebrating was created as a welcome to the world for baby Soren (although in reality, it'll be at least 8 months before he's figuring out "Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity spot" in 4 letters.) Anyway, do the puzzles, share them with your puzzle-oriented friends, and let me know what you think. I've farmed a few more out in hopes of getting published, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll no doubt keep you posted on if anything ever comes of that. In the meantime, I'll keep cranking out puzzles. Because if nothing else, I certainly enjoy them.

Wednesday February 20 2013

File under: games

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Welcome Baby Soren!

In case you haven't heard the exciting news, Jule and Katy recently welcomed a happy and healthy baby Soren into this world. From all accounts, all the birthy things went well, although us men-folk are sometimes spared those details so for the full story, you'll have to go to the source or Auntie Fern or Uma. I can tell you he's a big baby, tipping the scales at 9lbs! It's high on my agenda to get down there and get in some good uncling time soon. Until then, I will be watching the Baby Soren picture stream and you can too. It's linked to over in the right hand column* or here.

Saturday February 16 2013

File under: family

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on Mon 18th Feb, 2013 12:51 am CST Stephanie said: I was so confused when I started reading this. I thought, "Wait, why is there a baby pic, Jules and Katy are only like second trimester. And since when does Wren make typos?" Name coincidences are the best. Cute baby! ************************ on Mon 18th Feb, 2013 11:32 am CST Horge said: Congratulations to everyone involved, especially the people who made that little of bundle of joy. Not to mention congrats for the people responsible for the baby wearing that green bundle of joy ;-) ************************ on Thu 21st Feb, 2013 05:23 pm CST Jule said: He's the cutest baby I've ever had! ************************ on Wed 10th Apr, 2013 02:11 pm CDT Wren said: Official baby announcements are supposed to come a few weeks late, right, after all the hecticness of getting settled in has passed? Well, here is the all too awesome baby announcement for Mr. Soren. Interesting note: Jule actually got these letters in WWF a couple weeks before the arrival. So awesome. ************************

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7th(!) Annual Roses Are Red Breakout

This year's entreaty for Roses are red poems is coming a little late. That means you better get your submission in pronto! And remember, the more entries the more fun! (Rules as always: gotta use either "Rose" or "red" in the poem and it must follow the standard Roses are red rhyming/stress scheme.) Happy composing! oses are red that much is true but there isn't a flower that can hold a candle to you 'll make you a rose In your choice of hues If you don't care What chemicals I use or 7 years now I've rapped about roses How many more years Til this tradition decomposes

Wednesday February 13 2013

File under: poetry, holidays

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on Wed 13th Feb, 2013 10:08 pm CST Andrew! said: Roses are red And I haven't much time To make this Valentines Late entry rhyme! ************************ on Wed 13th Feb, 2013 11:02 pm CST Grandma said: New babies are blue But quickly turn red I've been awake for three days Now I'm going to bed. ************************ on Thu 14th Feb, 2013 01:25 pm CST Stephanie said: What is Valentines day without a little bit of inappropriateness? Roses are red And violets are blue But which one will get me In bed with you? ************************ on Thu 14th Feb, 2013 02:52 pm CST Rapmaster W said: Roses is red, yo It don't take an Einstein It's also quite clear, shit Bitch you is fine ************************ on Thu 14th Feb, 2013 03:00 pm CST DEEP VOICE TAURUS said: Roses are red violets are blue One million 2 million kisses for you Girl I have so many hugs Girl my heart filled with love Girl no matter where I go I got to let my feelings show Girl the way you look when you comb your hair girl I want to take you with me everywhere girl I'm single so let me say Will you be my valentine's today? ************************ on Fri 15th Feb, 2013 11:41 pm CST Soren said: My cheeks are so red And I think that just maybe I'll poop all night Cause I'm a baby ************************ on Mon 18th Feb, 2013 11:39 am CST Horge said: I like Soren's best! But I'll try to come up with one of my own, though a bit late... Valentine's skiing Burnt my face red. But falling on my ass, Still better than my head. ************************

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Lazy and Easy

This photo, taken of last night's sunset and then pretty-ified with instagram, is meant to represent what I'm up to: chillin'. While I can't, for the life of me, think of what I've been busy with the previous 6 months or so, I feel like I haven't gotten a proper chance to indulge the lazy life that I once knew so well. These past couple weeks have been a return to that easy life, and it's been so nice. Lazy and easy doesn't mean I'm not productive. I'm working on all the projects that have built up for me over the past months, both for myself and for others. I'm making websites, printing troothpicks, knitting(!), writing*, making crosswords*, and getting travel plans ironed out. Lazy and easy, however, does mean that there is time for non-productivity too. I'm catching up on reading, tv, baking, and lots of Words and Scramble with Friends*. It's easy to let myself enjoy this because I know it's not meant to last. With spring travel then summer circus season just around the bend, I better enjoy the lazy life while I can.

Saturday February 9 2013

File under: misc

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