I MAY be smarter than Ken Jennings

Ok, that's not really true, but I may have a better record than he of guessing the Final Jeopardy answer in the form of a question before the question in a form of an answer is asked.

Let me explain. When Fumiko (hereafter known as Poo cuz Fumiko is too hard to type) and I watch Jeopardy, I imagine we do it the same as everyone else - shout out the answer in the form of a question as soon as we know it. However, we have one little Final Jeopardy tradition that I doubt many other people do. We try to guess the answer in the form of a question to the Final Jeopardy question in the form of an answer after the category is announced, but before the question in the form of an answer is asked. Are you following this? Let me give you an example. So, let's say the Final Jeopardy category is "Americans in History", which they reveal right before going to commercial. At this point, Poo and I would start shouting out our answers. Things like "Who is Ross Perot?" (It should be noted that Ross Perot is the standard guess when we don't know.) Then when they return from commercial and the actual answer in the form of a question is revealed, we sometimes change our response. Just our own little set of rules. But the important part here is the part about the aforementioned pre-guessing. Last night I, for the second time in my Jeopardy history, guessed the right question in the form of an answer before the answer in the form of a question was presented.

The first time I did this, the category was "Marsupials". I guessed "what is a koala bear?", which, as it turned out, was the correct answer. Poo guessed "what is a sloth?", which I also thought was a pretty good answer. Now I thought that was pretty cool, to get it right before I even knew the answer in the form of a question. But last night, I did it again. This time, the category was "Countries of the World". I immediately shouted out, "What is Liberia?" It was the first country I thought of. To be honest, I'm not that good at geography and I wasn't even entirely sure it WAS a country. The Final Jeopardy answer in the form of question was, "In 1839, Thomas Buchanan, cousin to a U.S. president, became the governor of this future country.", or something like that. Ok, I admit, after hearing the answer in the form of a question, I changed my guess to "What is Cuba?" Don't laugh, 2 of the 3 contestants guessed the same thing. Sadly, we were all wrong. The winner didn't even get it right. He guessed "Brazil". So, you're wondering what the answer in the form of a question is??? " What is LIBERIA?". That's right. I guessed the right answer in the form of a question from the very beginning.

How cool am I?

OK, maybe it IS broken, a little

I've been busy since my birthday, what with getting ready for the big vacation, and then actually going on said big vacation, and then recovering from the aforementioned big vacation and all. Now I'm back and things are almost normal.

Since it's been nearly 5 weeks since the bowling incident and my wrist STILL hurts, I finally caved and went in for an x-ray yesterday. Diagnosis: fractured. Ugh. There was a bit of reprimanding from my doctor on waiting so long to come in. I had my reasons, I told him. They weren't good enough. So after a bit of lecturing, he gave me a lovely (did you get the sarcasm there?) splint to wear for the next 4 weeks. Probably would have been better by now had I gone in right away (more lecturing). The good news is, he also loaded me up with free drugs. Yay!

The vaca was super cool. I'll expound on that later - maybe when I'm better at typing with the aforementioned lovely splint.

Sympathy cards will be accepted.

37

Let's just start by saying that my wrist still hurts a lot. I didn't ever get it x-rayed because I still don't think it's broken, so I don't see the point in an x-ray. If I could just run in and get the x-ray, I might, but these things are never quick and easy. I suppose if they were, EVERYONE would want to run out and get things x-rayed. At least, I know I would.

Anyway, Sunday last was my birthday. The big 37. 37. Wow. Who would have ever thought? My very cute friends threw me a birthday party. Liz had to buy 2 packages of candles, and used all but 3. Sigh. But she made the cutest bunny cake ever. And tasty, too! Chocolate with white frosting. My favorite. The party was fun. I have good friends. Attendees includude: Liz and Lorin (the hosts), Brad, Mike and Melissa, Ruby, Teona, Natalie, Sheena, Fumiko, Toshio, Jen, baby Carter, and Heidi. I believe a good time was had by all. And I received some lovely birthday prizes. Notable is the book I got from Liz and Lorin. "A is for Amy who fell down the stairs." Now I don't know if that was on purpose or not, but I intend to find out. Perhaps Mr. Gorey knew what was in store for me way back in 1963. He He.

So, I'm 37. Did I mention that? I'm a little panicked about it. I know that 37 isn't that old. But I sort of fear that I'm going to end up with an old spinster with 37 cats and I'll die alone. Ok, that will never REALLY happen, because I hate cats. Maybe it will have to be bunnies. I'll be the crazy bunny lady who yells at kids for walking on her lawn, and has to show proof of pets to buy pet food at the grocery store.

Am I over reacting to being 37? I don't think so. Casey said 37 was a good year for her. That's the year she met Keny. I guess I could continue to grasp at "you're-not-going-to-die-alone" straws. Maybe 37 won't be so bad. I do have that vacation this year. (sniff)

"you fall more than anyone I've ever known"

So says Brad about my latest adventure. And he may be right. I do seem to fall an awful lot for a full-grown adult. There was the trip (ha ha - get it?? TRIP?!?!?!) down the stairs at Tres Hombres. I can't tell you how many times I fell on the snow and ice this winter, and last night's topper, the bowling incident.

Now anyone who has ever bowled with me knows a couple things: 1 - I'm really bad at the bowling. 2 - I have terrible bowling form (which is probably why I'm such a poor bowler). And 3 - bowling shoes and floors are really slippery (of course, you don't have to have bowled with ME to know that last one).

Now I get to the bowling alley looking pretty cool. I'm wearing my K RANCH bowling shirt, with my name stitched on the front (if my name were Leon), and in the practice round, I actually bowled a strike. But Game 1 didn't turn out so well. A whopping 49! (which, by the way, is better than the 16 I got last time I went...) Game 2 was going ok until....Frame 3. I don't know what happened exactly. You know how it is. One minute you're headed for the lane, ball poised, ready for action. The next, you're on your butt in your shirt named Leon, the ball is in the gutter, the alarm that alerts the whole bowling alley that you just went over the line is going off, and you might have a broken wrist.

I think I heard a crack when I hit the floor. It might have been my wrist. However, evidenced by the fact that I'm typing less than 24 hours later, it probably isn't broken. It hurts a lot, though. And it's not swollen or bruised enough to get the office sympathy. So for now I just say "ow" a lot, and whimper occasionally. I hope this doesn't interfere with carrying my suitcase on my upcoming vacation!!

REAL vacation plans

Yes, yes I have been slacking a little at work. It happens. But the good news is, I actually have a gen-u-ine vaca planned in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty excited about it, though I'm really bad that Ann won't be there. Helen has a condo on the beach in Litchfield(?) South Caroliiiina for three days in mid-March. I'm going to fly out to D.C. on March 8. Allie and I will do a fair number of touristy things (we already have tickets to the Washington Monument!!), and enjoy a lovely birthday dinner with her friends. This will be the first time in ... 30 years maybe? ... that I will have spent Allie's birthday with her.

Someday after the weekend, Monday or Tuesday, after we've had our fill of D.C. sightseeing, we'll drive on down to South Caroliiiina and meet Helen at her house. We'll spend a day or two there before heading out to the beach. Yay! The beach. I do love the ocean. And I've never been on the east coast, unless the Gulf of Mexico counts, and I really don't think it does.

I'm excited to see Hexen's house, as well. I hear she's done many cute things to it. She's become quite the little handyman since becoming a home owner. Her friend Ray even gave her her own pair of overalls with her name on them to wear while doing home improvement. Hee hee.

After relaxing on the beach and eating seafood (ha ha - just kidding), Al and I will head back up the coast to D.C., where I'll fly out of to return home. I'll be gone 12 days in total. That's a pretty decent trip. Hopefully it will do something to rejuvenate the ol' work horse.

I'm sad Ann won't be there, though. It was a originally supposed to be a seester's weekend, but the beeg seester can't come. Sad face. We will miss her.

If anyone has any suggestions of places to see while in D.C., please share! So much to choose from, not a lot of time, so I want to see the really cool stuff.

Meanwhile, I'm daydreaming of Atlantic waves crashing into my happy toes....

How I spent my weekend vacation

Ok, it wasn't really a vacation. But I don't think I've done any actual work for about 5 days. Let's flashback to Thursday.

8 hours at the office spent reading Workman's Waste of Time. No, I'm not an especially slow reader, but I had two years of posts to catch up on.

Friday: started out normal. Sitting naked on my bed putting on my makeup. Then, something new. Pain in my ears, then my jaw, then my chest, then my left arm. Minor panic, a few phones calls, and a trip the ER. The good news is, they didn't find anything life threatening. So, most of Friday was spent in the hospital.

Saturday was the usual weekend fare (or is it fair??) - sleeping in, having a nap.

Sunday - a little more of the aforementioned sleeping in and napping.

Now it's Monday. I've been here for 3 hours now. I finished reading Workman's blogs. Now I'm writing one of my own. I should really consider doing some work some time today. Oh, I did make a photo copy a few minutes ago. That counts, right?

The Virgin Blogger

I'm a little nervous. It's my first time blogging. I only signed up for this service to be with a boy. Wait, that's not entirely accurate. It's more like, to reconnect with a boy I lost touch with, whom I miss dearly. But since I'm here, I thought I might give it a go. Of course, Now I'm vexed with a boatload of new anxieties. What if I have nothing good or interesting to say? What if I'm not as funny as I think I am? I read other people's blogs and I start to feel inadequate. I used to write. In High School I did some pretty good stuff. But come on, that was....Ok, I'm not going to say just how long ago that was, but do the words "Frankie Say Relax" mean anything to you??

I think I've gone far enough for my first time. I'll get better at it. I promise.