Ups and Unders

Some quick up-dates, first:

* I survived the potential purge from my Not Dumbest Rung of the trivia competition. Barely.  I lost my final game yesterday, getting only one right out of six, and even chose to make fun of my perilous situation in answering the final question:



Still, I managed to stay a point out of the "relegation zone" because the guy right behind me, playing a much better opponent than either of us, only managed a tie with four out of six right.  That kept me a point ahead of him, key because if we had tied in points, he would have beaten me out in the first tiebreaker (and probably most if not all of the rest).

So I survived one of my suckiest seasons ever, but I'll be back with the same cohort of smart people starting in about six weeks. I can use the time in between to brush up on some of my weaker categories, which include the fairly esoteric food/drink subset.  I have my first recipe to try out already:







* We began that last Netflix DVD last night, and it's quite lovely. Everyday stars Master-ful Doctor Who alumnus John Simm as a UK prisoner, with Shirley Henderson (best known from the PotTERF-verse as Moaning Myrtle but beloved by us for many other things) as his much-suffering spouse and four actual siblings as their children. Filmed a few weeks at a time over five years as the kids grow up and Simm's character Ian progresses and regresses through various HM prisons, we see Shirley's character and various permutations of the kids visiting him and getting into assorted trouble in and out of the visiting room.  It's beautifully filmed, and while its plot is slow, it's refreshing in just showing a country treating its prisoners like human beings in need of rehabilitation and not in need of heads on pikes like we're lurching toward over here.

* And I've quite enjoyed the new voices, and recommendations of a few books already, from that thar Network link. Already added one new regular and looking forward to more:) If you're new here from that,



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Those are the Up-dates. As for the Unders, well, ask Carl Specker what he thinks about them:
 

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We've been watching a similarly bizarre battle of nature across the street from us.

 

A lovely young couple with a delightful two-year old live in the house; they're both Asian, but Andy was adopted by a Very WASPy Older White Couple who actually own the house. Mary's mom, Vietnamese with very little English, lives with them and helps care for the youngun but also for a beautiful vegetable garden in their back yard. This opinion of its beauty, and its tasty, is shared by at least one woodchuck who has been chowing down back there for months.

VWOWC's response to the varmint was to enter into a contract sinking mid-five-figures into a wooden stockade fence completely surrounding the back yard. Unfortunately, the fence did not sink into the ground below the back yard. Nobody told them that woodchucks burrow rather than climb. Plus, even if it had been extended below ground level, what did they think the woodchuck was going to do with wood?

Eleanor saw him out there yesterday, looking fat and happy. Not dumb, though.