Moving On...

This blog has moved. I'm over here now.

That is all.

Putting My Skills to Good Use

In many instances my mind is a sieve... the other morning it took me ten minutes to find my keys. A co-worker can make a simple request of me, and as soon as they step away from my desk I will forget it if I haven't written it down. I have known my best friend for over 10 years and I know her birthday is in August, but I don't know the exact date. (17th? 18th? I think it's the middle of the month sometime).

But I know my pop culture trivia. Particularly of the 1980's variety. Some of the stuff I know embarrasses me. Sometimes facts will spill off my tongue surprising even myself, as I have no idea where I picked the information up. But it is there, and it will not be budged with such minutiae as to remember to pick up milk on the way home from work.

Which brings me to this morning. The radio station that Sweetie and I listen to most often has a feature every morning called "Mental Aerobics." They ask a trivia question, and if you are the first person to call in with the correct answer you win a prize. Before I came along Sweetie would frequently play it on his own. The way the schedules work now, it's on about the time I need to be waking up in the morning, so Sweetie wakes me up so we can play it together and then he heads off to work and I start my day.

We've had pretty good success thus far. You can win once every thirty days, and we have already won tickets to see Handel's Messiah (which we ended up skipping), and an NFC Champion Seahawk t-shirt. That t-shirt was won on January 23, so our re-eligibility was established this morning.

Now usually when we play Sweetie is the one who comes up with the answer. Even if I know the answer, he comes up with it first, as if you know me you know I am NOT a morning person, and the gears are just getting started at 6:10 am.

But this morning was my opportunity to rise to the occasion. The question was, "On this date in 1985 a sitcom was broadcast live. What was it?" OK, I'm not THAT big of a freak. But they KNEW it was an impossible question, so they played the first few bars of the theme song. It took me a few seconds, but I knew the answer. And we got connected.

While Sweetie was chatting with the hosts (he's responsible for calling in, as I'm really only capable of mumbling at this point in the morning) I even made the comment that the show totally jumped the shark when they added the little kid. Later I realized that I could have made that comment about almost any sitcom ever played. It's always either adding a little kid or hooking up the two leads. But that's a tangent.

We won tickets see Cosi Fan Tutte. Something kinda' cool about winning tickets to the opera because you can identify TV theme songs from 20 years ago.

When they replayed Sweetie on the radio, the DJs then commented that we seemed like cool people and they'd like to hang out with us. We'd like to hang out with you, too, John and Mike. Wanna' go get cocktails sometime?

I can serenade you with the theme to Charles in Charge while we're out.

I Am Not Making This Up

Samson (the cat) likes pita bread.

Which gets added to the current list of:
Angel Food Cake
Oreo Cookie Filling
Lean Cuisine Sauce

No tuna, no canned food, but bring on the carbs.

Yin/Yang

Yin:

- I am sad that the Seahawks lost the Superbowl.
- I am sad that the commercials for the Superbowl generally sucked, and not one single advertiser could be bothered to incorporate the fact that this was Superbowl XL into their schtick.

Yang:

- My three year old niece made me several valentines today, which included my name. My name is eight letters long.... which is double her previous name-length record. That makes it a bitch to fit on a valentine heart when you are printing. And even stamping is difficult, as letters are repeated, so Mom can't just lay the letters out for you in advance. Just tugs at the heart strings.
- Before heading off to the game we discovered "Puppy Bowl" on Animal Planet. Three straight hours of puppies playing on a psuedo football field. The "Bowl Cam" (a camera placed in the bottom of the water dish) was the best. I'm just sad that I didn't learn of the kitty half-time show before now, as that would have been much better than Mick Jagger singing off key.

Blogger-to-Be

Last night while speaking with my parents my dad mentioned that he was thinking of starting a blog. I know he's completely full of it, but I think it would be entertaining nonetheless. He'd definitely fill a niche that I haven't seen... retired, ex-Marine, Republicans unite! I know my Mom reads this blog, and even if my Dad doesn't, I'm sure she passes along all the good bits to him (HI, MOM!) so I think the internet needs to lobby Homer to start a blog!

My parents will be visiting the first weekend of March, and I'd even be willing to help Dad set up his blogger account at that time if he were interested.

You Say It's Your Birthday

So, apparently, my brother shares his Birthday with Wolfgang Amadaeus Mozart. Well, 213 years later. If the movie Amadaeus is at ALL accurate, it seems oddly fitting.

Superbowl Predictions

I didn't post it, but my predictions for this week's playoff games both came true. My two quareterbacks were playing for the winning teams, I have no Broncos and only the Carolina kicker, so it's easy to see that I'm not making that up.

I also went back and made first round predictions based on my interest in teams, and it ends up I would have been 7-3 had I made predictions all the way through.

Next week I'm predicting Seattle will win. As much as I love Big, Bad Ben, he is but one Steeler, and I ended up with BOTH Matt Hasselback AND the Seahawks defense at the end of my fantasy football season. Oh yeah, and home team and all that jazz.

Now excuse me, I have to avoid all local media for the next two weeks, because although I may agree with them in how I want the game to turn out I don't want to listen to it all.

The Scarlet Letter

Sweetie is watching the 1926 silent film version of The Scarlet Letter right now. I can't look at the costumes or sets without being transported to that episode of The Brady Bunch where Greg makes a movie about the first Thanksgiving.

How Not To Sleep

Normally when I'm up late and can't sleep I end up tuned into the infomercial du jour and my problems are solved. Ron Popeil is way more effective than counting sheep.

But 30 minutes of old guys speaking double entendre about a vaccuum pump that will give them an erection so they can have sex. I may never sleep again.