Montage

Tiff put together a montage of a few of the better clips from our night of Quelf... one of the greatest games of all time.

Johnny Bubblenut

I mentioned Quelf in passing a few weeks ago. It is truly one of the greatest games around. It is however completely random and you have to be willing to do anything and everything from writing and performing your own song to putting six ice cubes down your shorts until you roll a three with the dice.

We got the chance to play this weekend, and Tiff had the camera out at every chance. There were quite a few good ones, but many were too long and just too randomly nonsensical to include. But here's one that I had to do... and every action I made was laid out in the instructions on the card.

Everything except the tie around my head... that was a game-long rule that I had to have a tie around my head like a ninja.

The lighting's not so good because Tiff was acting like Siamese twins with our friend Dustin, so she had moved her seat.

Anyways, Quelf... anyone who's up for fun, and making fun of himself, should give it a shot.

Food For Thought

Today, I treated myself to Chik-Fil-A. I’m not sure why, it just sounded really good. Chik-Fil-A proudly claims, repeatedly on every wall, that they “didn’t invent the chicken, just the chicken sandwich.” I don’t know who invented what, but both inventions – the chicken and the chicken sandwich - should go down as miracles. Their sandwiches are just that good.

But here’s the strange part… the music. They weren’t playing “Top40Hits” or “Music While You Work” or “Today’s Best Music” or even some sort of Country that I’ve come to expect at places like that. They were playing straight up Gospel, with a little bit of God Rock in there.

I didn’t recognize it at first. It all kind of sounds the same to me. But as I was watching the water change color in the urinal, I heard something like “Praise Out to Jesus” being sung over and over. I tuned into it after that, and every song offered joy-filled adoration and praise to our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

I was a bit surprised to say the least. I mean I get Chik-Fil-A maintains this closed-on-Sundays, holier-than-thou image. And their chicken, I believe, is truly heaven-sent to satisfy my deepest cravings. Plus, the people at this particular Chik-Fil-A were Ned Flanders happy and helpful – they took my tray when I was done!, but not before asking if I’d like more fries, on the house.

I declined the fries, but it all got me thinking; is it okay for a general business, open to the public, to play god music? I pondered it and decided that I would expect a McKosher-Fil-A King to play some sort of Hassidic chanting… or at least hope that it would. Somehow though, it doesn’t seem right. This wasn’t the Christian Café, it was Chick-Fil-A. I think it might have just been a bit too close to my shaky faith to be honest.

In the end though, I was cool with it. I praised out to Jesus and enjoyed my sandwich miracle. I did not get a milkshake, even though they are some of the best around... even though they are sinfully delicious.

OMG! IHDEM!

Yesterday I went to the dentist to have my cavities filled. My usual dentist wasn’t there, so just like in school, they brought in a substitute. And just like in school, the substitute wasn’t very good. It was awful and I hate the dentist even more. I started recounting my trials to Tiff and she couldn’t stop laughing at me, so she turned on the camera.

Basically what happened was… after me knocking onto the floor all the stuff that would go into my mouth as I was reclining from sitting to laying down, which I had no control over, I got three abnormally painful shots. They got the top half of my mouth feeling all funny, but they didn’t do the trick for the bottom. So, I got two more shots for the bottom.

The dentist starts working on the top and drill, drill, drill… OW! Insane amount of pain. I raise my hand like I’ve been told to do if it hurts. The first thing he said was something like, “it shouldn’t be hurting now.” And if that wasn’t comforting enough, he then said to his assistant, “Have you ever…?” He explained that if it didn’t hurt before it shouldn’t be hurting at this point. Then he gave me another shot.

As I was waiting for the sixth shot to kick in, I started thinking about my wife’s grandfather who – through stories – apparently cut off part of his toe because of a persistent blister that was bothering him. I’ve heard the story several times and I’ve always been impressed with the level of pain tolerance, but sitting in that chair, for the first time I began to wonder why he didn’t just get a different pair of shoes. It was this story though that helped me through the pain that would come.

Yes, the pain continued. After the amount of time, dear old dentist, with drill in hand, had at it. This time the pain was pretty intense but I was determined to man up and get through it. Plus, I didn’t want the giant needle in my mouth anymore. When after about thirty seconds of drilling, the pain level shot up and I involuntarily reacted, the dentist jerked away from my mouth and said something I hope to never hear again, let alone from a dentist: “You’re scaring me.”

You’re scaring me, doctor. I pushed through until the drilling was done. And then it was time for the fillings, which involved giant metal spacers and picks that stick between your teeth. All in all, it was awful. And while I hate flossing and have trouble doing it, I will be flossing from here on out, if it means that I will never experience that again.

IHD! by johntduffy
design your own t-shirt at zazzle

Something to Look Forward To...

I just bought some new underwear the other day. I sprung for the middle tier price. It was worth every penny. I think that underwear shopping should be a regular event, much like checking your smoke detectors and visiting the dentist.

So I’m marking my calendar: I bought them on Sunday, September 13. Six months would be March 13, 2010. Now that is something to look forward to.

So I Married a Vegetarian

Tiff’s gone all vegetarian on me. I have not. I have a movie to thank, Fast Food Nation. I’ve read the book, which was disgusting, but in the movie, which I haven’t seen, they show the process. It sounds even more disgusting and would likely lead even me to go vegetarian. Tiff’s talked about going vegan, but I think she feels like that’s more about reading labels than eating food, so that hasn’t happened… yet. Plus, to have to go through life without cheese would just be a shame.

It happened on my birthday, so she’s been going for four months strong now. It’s not exactly what I wanted for my birthday, but it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I would have thought. Our meals haven’t changed too terribly much, and we are eating a lot of pasta and Mexican-type food. When we go out to eat I still get meat, so we have been going to Chipotle and Red Robin a lot more. Red Robin has great hamburgers, and according to Tiff even better veggie-burgers. We still go to Five Guys too, and she’s got me eating the veggie sandwich, which is just their fully loaded burger without the meat. There is no veggie patty and you don’t really miss it.

I do however eat quite a bit less meat now. My lunches are now strictly peanut butter and jelly. We don’t eat chicken and sloppy-joe’s and meatloaf of course, but I’m eating a whole lot more hot dogs, for better or for worse. She’s got me thinking about it quite a bit, which is strange. Our milk is now organic, which is better for us too because we never drank a lot of it and the organic stuff is good for like a month before it spoils. Our eggs are from a local place too, on the way to my in-laws. Last time I drove out there, I had to slow down because the chickens were walking across the road - I’m not sure why.

Anyways, all this is old news and has become part of our lives, but I mention it now for this. I went vegetarian once. I sacrificed meat for a whole month, it wasn’t too bad and it made for some fun times. I’ve started up the Sacrifices again… starting with video games. It’s not too terribly exciting, but I’m doing it and you’re going to hear about it, so check it out!

In Training...

The Krispy Kreme Challenge is only a few short months away!

It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger!

Taking the Challenge

I’m in training… well, maybe I’ll start tomorrow.

I’ve wanted to get in shape and maybe a drop a few pounds for quite some time. I don’t think I’m crazy out of shape, and I’m not crazy big, but it would be nice to start to feel like I’m healthier. The problem is that I like to eat.

I eat sweets. I eat other stuff, but it’s sweets that get me. I don’t think I’d have much trouble not eating squash or not eating cabbage, but the thought of not eating sweets is awful… and I should know! I’ve tried it before! And look where that got me – sure I may have felt better, but it left me with nothing to say – nothing to say to you, the world!

I think I’ve found a solution to all my problems. It is something that combines what I want from myself and what I want for myself; it gets me in shape and lets me eat cake. Well… maybe not cake, but the Krispy Kreme Challenge is all about running and eating donuts. I’m seeing two big positives – where could this possibly go wrong?

Okay, so the annual race, in its fourth-year this February, has you run through Raleigh , NC for 2 miles, stop and eat a dozen donuts, and then run back 2 miles to where you started. It is brilliant! I’m so excited!

I do need to seriously start training up for it though if I’m going to be able to do it. So, Today: I’ll try to eat a dozen donuts. Tomorrow: I’ll try to run 4 miles… and if I’m feeling up for it after that, I might try to eat a dozen donuts, too.

US Open Cup

I cheered till the bitter end.

DC United hosted the US Open Cup, but it was the visitors that hoisted the US Open Cup. Congrats to Seattle, who won the game, and has clearly won the hearts of some die-hard fans.

The game Wednesday night was truly great. Despite being outplayed through much of the game, DC lost in dramatic fashion, down a man, with several opportunities to even it up in the final minutes. This video my wife took... I didn't realize she was so short... no wonder she didn't like it as much as me.

As my wife said at the time, “Why can’t the whole game be like this?” The surprisingly large-ish crowd was loud and raucous throughout the game and for me, it was really cool to be a part of it.

Seattle though, a city that’s almost 3000 miles away, had a good size crowd of supporters there themselves, and they got the run of the entire upper-deck. I’ve said it before, it’s pretty damn impressive those fans of theirs.

While there was little to celebrate afterwards, the atmosphere at the game was wonderful and it makes me want to go again and again, even if I have to go alone. I think my wife has reached her fill of soccer for the season, but there’s always next year.

Plus, tomorrow night DC United’s on TV! Hopefully, I can cheer till a better end.

Another Weekend Older

This past weekend we had company in town, which is always fun. We played a few games, we ate a few meals, and we saw a few very young people.

First off, we played a few games, beginning with ping-pong. Here’s a quick video:

We also played a couple of board games, including a game that we just got called Quelf. It may be one of the greatest games ever made. It is like a very random Cranium game for grown-ups… mixed with some rules from drinking games. It is sublime.

I also have to say that we went out to eat twice, both of which were playing sports on their TVs. And that sport… soccer. Off the premium soccer channel, no less. There we were, eating our food, watching Italian soccer like it was baseball or football or something. It was great! I imagine with the start of college football this weekend, that trend will quickly end. It was good while it lasted.

And lastly, on Sunday, we slept in and got a slow start and then drove the hour or so down to my old college campus, Mary Washington College. We walked through the neighborhood a bit and then walked down Campus Walk and checked out all the new improvements they have made over the last seven years... which are quite impressive. We didn't see many people, so when we saw some students, we asked them when classes started and everybody returned to school. The answer surprised us at first: Classes started last week. It's just Sunday... and it's still early. Then I looked at the clock and remembered... 1:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday was early at one time in my life.

Oi... I'm getting old.