JAN 19

2026

Monday: up a little before 8 in a state of exhaustion, but I logged in early and got right to work. Listened to a lot of the Vampire Survivors soundtrack today to keep my energy up. Had a few calls, but not as many as last week. John wanted to tent on my second break, and since Goose showed some interest in the blanket situation, I formed a second compartment for her, which was a pretty cute arrangement. Worked almost 30 minutes after my shift to try to get through an enormous HQ group, which I did manage to clear before all was said and done. I have more to do tonight/tomorrow morning.

Apparently the new jacket I got from my parents is reversible; I had it on black-side-out as we walked to Stogie Joe's. The place was completely packed. It wasn't a horrible wait to get a table, though, and we were seated by the restroom with food arriving before the Quizzo started. We had a 9-point first round with the bonus for 18, and we rode that lead throughout the night. First picture round was red carpet photos at the Golden Globes; Julie filled out the sheet and asked how many people I recognized. (I recognized Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jennifer Lopez; I would have mislabeled Ashton Kutcher and didn't recognize either of Orlando Bloom or Jennifer Lawrence. The other photos were performers I wouldn't have known even if you gave me the names, like the guy from The Bear and the girl from True Grit.) The second picture round involved stills from movies with memorable settings, and you had to pick the states. (Rocky for PA was the free point. Places we've lived: The Wizard of Oz and 8 Mile. Other answers included Fargo, Raising Arizona, Good Will Hunting, The Hangover, something in Hawai'i that I didn't recognize, Napoleon Dynamite, Ferris Buehler's Day Off, and something I'm forgetting.)

After we'd listened to the final music round a second time, Julie had worked out that all the performers were Black, and changed some of her answers to make use of that insight. Whenever Jimmie gave the scores, she'd mark down the score distribution and put a star next to our number so we could see how well we're doing compared to the pack. Tonight, we took a clean first place, no tie-breaker needed! But as we were wrapping up and paying the ticket, Jules came over to let us know that apparently, the restaurant is part of some event on the Avenue that requires them to contract with a DJ every Monday for the next three months, so Monday night Quizzo is now on hiatus. Jimmie wasn't thrilled that we all got this notice at the last minute. "I'm done." He was retiring from his job this year, but planned to keep running trivia here and in Media on Tuesdays, but since they couldn't even give him a heads-up that Monday nights might be affected by the plans they were discussing, he sees no reason to come back after the break. Just like that: Monday Quizzo is over.

We're glad to go out on top, but it's a little bit devastating. No more looking up "the top movie at the box office last week-end" for Julie; no more identifying his go-to musicians like Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers/Boygenius and Ethel Cain and everyone out of Ireland. No more "Welcome to Monday Night Quizzo at Stogie Joe's. Quizzo is a general knowledge trivia game. There's six rounds to Quizzo: there are three question rounds, two picture handout rounds, and a music round at the end. Each round is worth ten points: ten questions, ten pictures, ten songs each round, for a possibility of ten points each round. Now, listen carefully if you've never played before, each game you have the opportunity to use what we call as a bonus. What a bonus does is it allows you to double the score for the round in which you use it. The only caveat is that you cannot use it to double one of the pictures rounds or the music round; you can only double one of the question rounds. So, if you have a round where you think you got eight, nine, or ten of the questions correct, that's the round where you want to use your bonus, as it will turn an eight, nine, or a ten into a sixteen, eighteen, or a twenty. Everybody come up and get some answer sheets, and if you haven't given me your team name, just write it at the top of your sheet. This week, we have The Secret Life of Debts, the Stogie Bros, Steve Buscemi's Eyes, Murphy's Law, Quizz Hoes, the Birthday Beavers," and so on. No more "These are the best prizes in the city, folks. $100 cash for first place, a $50 gift card for second place, and a $25 gift card for third. Here we go, round one, question one:" etc. No more listening to him struggle to get his music player to sync to his speaker or to hear him talk about what a tight game it is. No more reason to subject ourselves to the beatific presence of the signed Guy Fieri portrait or the Goose Island tap overhead; no more staring at the painted guitar and sketched saxophone by the bathrooms, or the "Passyunk Gym" sign, or the Christmastime painting where Santa is fondling some pasta. It's the end of an era.

2025

Sunday: no entries yet.

2024

Friday: it was my day off, and it was very unproductive. Still waking up and falling asleep super early, and we're still watching Murder, She Wrote. I have been able to log into FFXIV a little bit each morning to work on leveling Red Mage, but the class uses just a few too many buttons in its regular rotation for me to be satisfied with. I'm hoping I like Pictomancer better.

2023

Thursday: Work was BUSY BUSY BUSY. I mean, not unmanageably so, but lots of people wanted me to help them with things I really didn't want to involve myself in!! PLEASE BOTHER MY COWORKERS INSTEAD, PEOPLE. The one good thing about today is that we had a backfill shift-bid, so there's a chance I'll have a better schedule. Not holding my breath, though.

I forgot to mention that after I set up the new water fountain in the living room, I moved the old water dish into the office near my desk, and I set up another food station plate. We now have four sustenance stations and four litterboxes set up, and I would prefer to have more, but we've pretty well covered the places the cats actually want to spend their time.

Spent most of my free time today on watching an Open Sorcery Let's Play. (I loved that game when I played the original free version. I should pick it up on Steam some day.) Now I'm finishing this update and doing the dishes again.