Or, as it turns out, from the Predator.
Monthly Archives: October 2006
V is for VICTORY!
Saturday night, the Trivia Dream Team reemerged from hibernation to dominate the proceedings at the Florrisant Presbyterian Church Trivia Night. Jen, Kim, Katie, my parents, and I burst onto the scene with a sweep in the first round of questions (“In The News”) and never looked back, completing a wire-to-wire trouncing of all comers. The nearest “competitors” were NINE points behind. IN YOUR FACE!
Highlights included Jen putting her workday websurfing to good use for the “In The News” category, Katie’s Jelly Belly aficionado status coming into play during the Jelly Belly tasting round, and my run on the Retired Numbers category. Larry and Pam came through in the clutch with the movie cars category, while Kim’s performance was pitch perfect in the Children’s Song set. Most surprising of all though was the fact that we all pulled together to get 8 out of 10 on the foliage category.
Our victory was especially sweet, as we had come close the previous two times. Last year, we tied for first, but were outguessed on the tiebreaker, and the year before, we tied for first, but relinquished the title, as we had more players at our table than allowed and were just playing for fun. Now, we’ve got a good team in place. One that has a wide knowledge of various areas of interest, and most importantly, each member contributes to the snacks and foodstuffs. We were not only the most knowledgeable team, but also the most well fed.
In addition to the domination and the gorging ourselves on chicken hot wing dip, we watched the Cards dispatch Justin Verlander and the Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series, and then switched over to watch the Blue Note finish off a 4-3 victory over the hated Blackhawks. Quite the night. Next year, we will return to defend our crown. We will not relent until all those in North County can fully appreciate the power of our trivia knowledge.
How ya like me now? PART TWO, BITCHES!

W00t! Cardinals win Game 7, advance to the World Series, on the back of Yadier Molina. Yadi came through with a clutch 2 run homer in the 8th. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Much love as well to Suppan, the NLCS MVP. True.
And to our experts: There’s gotta be some motherfucking weatherman jobs available. Actually, no. Just pick the Tigers to win it, across the board. I’m getting used to this underdog shit.
Wooooooooooo!
Gender Issues in the Canine Species
The first time we witnessed this act, we were taking her for a walk in Creve Coeur Park. It was a beautiful fall morning. The air was crisp with with scent of freshly fallen leaves. The sun was shining, keeping the chill away. As we meandered along, Kuma kept her nose to the ground, intently sniffing everything in her path. When we approached a cluster of trees, she began to pull toward it, needing to investigate. As soon as she reached her destination, she promptly LIFTED HER LEG AND PEED ON THE TREE! Did I just see that? That did NOT just happen! Holy crap! Okay, so she actually propped her leg up on the trunk in order to pee on the tree, but seriously! Once she was finished, she put her leg back down and proceeded on as if she didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Her mommy and daddy, on the other hand, were not so lucky. We are now scarred for life.
Glass in the Garden, in the Dark
Last night, Jess, Lauren, Matt, Jen and I went to Chihuly Nights at the Botanical Gardens. After watching the rain all day at work, we still went because we had bought the tickets two weeks in advance. For such hoopla about this exhibition, we were a little disappointed. When the whole point of the thing was to see the glassworks all lit up, any reasonable person would expect that a lot of thought would have gone into properly lighting the sculptures. Unfortunately, any reasonable person would be wrong. The lighting was ill considered (when it was working), the placement of the sculptures was confusing, and the coolest sculpture was out in the middle of the freaking lake. It was very hard to photograph, requiring this intrepid shutterbug to descend the slick and soggy bank to the edge of the water. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one to have veered from the path, as the grass there was all chewed up. This was the best I could get:

Fortunately, the work inside the Climatron was presented in a more rational manner. It was also a welcome respite from the cold and the rain. Click here to see the gallery of our blown glass adventure. All in all, an interesting experience. Didn’t blow me away, but then again, how often do you get the opportunity to see stuff like this?
These are some of my (Jen) favorite photos:

A lake full of Walla Walla Onions

One of the many realistic sculptures found in the Climatron

Satan’s basket