End of a Trivia Era

Tuesday was the final trivia night for the Henchman's Union. Tom is moving to Blacksburg to work. He and John are the two stalwarts whereas I've dropped off the grid since moving to Scottsville.

We gathered early at 7 PM for a final dinner farewell.

It was not our night. Everyone was lagging due to daylight savings. John had no voice due to pneumonia and I was suffering from some sort of indigestion (it was a rough drive home). There was a whole round on tennis and naming albums that left us behind on points. We finished slightly above the middle of the pile.

I was surprised to see two of my former students working at the restaurant! I couldn't remember one of their names for most of the night and it annoyed me greatly. Thankfully, I remembered before the end of things, so I was able to convey I remembered who she was.

All the Other Stuff

Our top priority is moving, but a lot of other things have been happening in between.

I made Shane take a break from electronics and he started annoying us. To encourage him to draw, I drew an alien using the crosswalk at Jackson-Via with a corgi.  

It sort of evolved......drawing is not really one of my talents (And yes, that's Carrie asleep on the couch).

Shane was inspired to draw a monster.

We went to check on the house at another point.

Carrie likes to keep tabs on things and send updates to her parents.

We should move in mid-July.

Carrie has a lot more pictures of the interior. I'll eventually make a "The Construction Process" post.

The non-stop rain has been disheartening Carrie. She really wants the barn builders to start, but they keep delaying for one reason or another. It's over a month from the original start date without any progress. The barn needs to go up, so that Carrie can start moving forward with other parts of the project like plumbing and electricity for the barn, advertising for boarders, etc.

We dropped by the post office on our way out of Scottsville (May as well be efficient about things!).

I filled out and took a large packet of papers to the County's HR department to prep for my new job.

I almost got it all on the first run. The only thing I was missing was my teaching license (Not that that's important or anything...). I had to ask for a copy from my current HR and we dropped it off another day.

I'm almost fully disconnected from my old job. I went in to work on Monday and spent multiple hours Monday and Tuesday writing up the educational report for a student going through eligibility.

For some reason, me working cued Shane to want to talk. He'd been ignoring me whenever I tried to check in on him. He couldn't take a hint or a dismissal.

Carrie took him to the summer movie camp at Alamo one day to help me have some quiet to work in. I got a few emails I had to respond to and my school's counselor texted me on Friday about some students.

I find it ironic that what caused me the most anxiety at work were emails from a person I only see several times a year. I've been cussed at, threatened, hands on in crises, and the opinion of a person who looks at forms is what started my heart to flutter?

It's not logical, yet there it was. I did my best to power through and wrap things up. I made a mental note to remember how it felt to help empathize with the next person I crossed in the same boat. Next week, I'll disconnect my city work email from my phone and call it a wrap.

I went to my last trivia night for the summer. It's five minutes from our current house, but will be 25 minutes from our new house. The 40 minutes of extra driving may be the death knell for it other than the odd night out.

We went 8 for 8 on the visual round this time. John McM and Fabrice had it all sorted out before I even arrived! Tom was on vacation in the Bahamas, so I said, "Happy Summer" to him last week.

I found the key to the truck in the cup holder when I parked. Thankfully, Carrie didn't need it.

Wednesday, we dropped my car off at a new shop (Edgecomb's) for a safety inspection and a check on my AC. The usual shop was booked solid. The cold air in my car stops intermittently. It seems to stay okay for longer when I keep the air flow low.

The shop seemed good, but they charged like they were the best thing to happen to Volvo's. They charged $55 to diagnose what was wrong with the AC (the compressor was dying) and quoted $1100 to fix it!

I'm just going to survive the summer with the flow low and windows down whenever it craps out. I do most of my work driving early in the morning and in fall, winter, and spring. 

There some other fixes they talked about needing at some point (one piece sunroof drains: $400ish, etc) and the car would fail inspection due to needing new wiper blades and some bulbs. It cost just below $200 in taxes to get three bulbs, front wipers, a sticker, and the diagnostic. 

I'd prefer to order that all online and do it myself if not for the moving crunch. Carrie found the wipers on Amazon for $56 instead of $70, etc. 

Friday, Shane, Carrie, and I went to sign all of the closing paperwork. 

It was an interesting place. There was a broken water fountain that sprayed water over my head, an aquarium, and a vintage Pac-Man machine.

The neighborhood was mostly quiet. Shane spent most of his waking hours on electronics, or getting carted around to places as we did errands or moved things (He got to eat out at CFA and Tropical Smoothie Cafe on separate Lowes runs!). 

We never saw Raheem, but Henry and Sam were out a couple days.

On the final day, Carrie put the toddler 'roller coaster' outside for a curbside pick-up. Henry and Sam were playing on it and Shane didn't want to go outside because his "guts hurt."

It didn't take long for Shane to change his mind. "Wow, they're having a lot of fun out there," and zoom! He was out the door.

There was no big hug goodbye or anything like that. I think Shane was aware on one level that it was, "Farewell," but there were so many other things going on and Grandma, Grandpa, the beach, and cousins to look forward to.

Trivia Oversight

There's a mailing list!?

I flipped through the trivia pamphlet and actually looked at the advertisements for once. I noticed there was a sign up for a weekly mailing list.....

Have we been handicapping ourselves this whole time?

I'd say the other teams are cheating, but if we weren't smart enough to sign up for free hints.....

Not that I'm likely to do much 'homework.' I like to show up, talk, and enjoy the experience. Winning is nice, but optional.

Trivia - It's been a while!

I didn't confirm I'd make it to trivia when the texts went out. I hoped to surprise the guys, but they spotted me first.

It was crowded. There were 22 teams!

We had a good night and tied for fourth. 

One of the questions of the night, "What are the four US states that produce the most oil?"

I immediately said, "Texas, North Dakota, and Alaska," and then blanked. The oil fields in North Dakota are in the west and Alberta is where all the oil is in Canada, so I guessed Montana. 

The answer was California. They had more off shore oil refineries along all that coastline than I realized! 

But that's why trivia is fun. You play a game and learn some new things.

Sometimes, It's Your Night

I went 8 for 8 on the visual round. I owe #2 to Carrie!

Geekiest visual round to date and I loved it.

2nd Best Geek Squad

My second night out for trivia we got 2nd place! There were 14 instead of 23 teams, but it was still cool! There was a section about math, so I had a chance to pull my weight and solve an equation.

John won a bonus round and gave me a Firefly glass. He'd already won one for him and Tom in their previous outings.

John came up with the group name. Here's the write-up from the blog:

"In second place Henchmen’s Union won the fight for better worker compensation as they put frikkin’ laser beams on shark heads."

Geek Trivia

John invited me out to a "Geeks Who Drink" trivia night at a local restaurant, Firefly. John and his friend, Tom, had done a couple of them. 

It was a good time! The trivia really wasn't geeky, though. There were current events, music, movies, history, religion, and sports questions with only a pair of Star Trek references (and John got both of those instantly). 

We did well. Teams could be up to 6 people. There were 23 teams total. We tied for 11th and were one point off from 10th. I'd play again.