“Life isn’t all beer and skittles, but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman’s education.”
This morning I stood outside admiring my flowers. Several crocus (I know it has a first declension Latin masculine ending so it is really croci) are blooming. Most are purple and yellow. Any day now my daffodils will open and so will a few flowers outside the fence. I always want a party when the first flowers bloom. It seems a celebratory time needing funny hats, horn blowing and colorful mismatched clothing.
The sun is bright, but it is only 43°. After the Cape finally reached 60°, my expectations have risen. The weatherman says a warm spell is on the way, and Boston will be in the high 70’s so we’ll be in the 60’s again. I’ve got to remember my sunscreen.
I cleaned another cabinet and the bookcase in the kitchen. The bookcase is filled with special cookbooks I collect, those with recipes inspired by novels, and neat stuff like Davy Crockett bowls and a glass, a Hopalong Cassidy milk bottle, an old A&W mug and lots of other stuff including tacky souvenirs from places I’ve never been. I took everything knickknackty off the bookcase and washed or polished everything. Now I wear sunglasses to protect me from the glare in the kitchen. I have a couple of other cabinets I still need to tackle but not today. It’s my day off the mundane.
Tonight is trivia night, and the whole team will be there. It’s dinner out, a few drinks and several futile attempts to rack my brain for answers I should know but have totally forgotten. It is sometimes a humbling night.
Sorry was our favorite family game but second to that was Go to the Head of the Class. I have my family’s original Go to the Class Game from around 1955 I think. My mother gave it to me for my school-themed bathroom. One of these nights I’m going to pull it out so my friends and I can play. The questions are age-related so adults can play. My parents used to play with us. They got to be Mommy and Daddy, two of the cardboard pieces. I think my brother was Cowboy Joe and I was Sis. The originators (Milton Bradley) weren’t too imaginative with the names. The board is filled with desks and you keep moving to the top row, the head of the class. It was one of our favorite games.
I remember endless games of Slapjack and War. The problem with Slapjack was the first person to slap the Jack got slapped by everyone else trying to snag the card, and the backs of our hands stayed red most of the game. We’d actually play War until its conclusion. I can’t imagine that.
Well, I’m done. I have some prep for tonight’s trivia. I have to check out a map of the world. I’m okay with most parts, but I’m really bad with which countries abut each other in Asia and parts of the Middle East. I want to be ready for all the geography questions tonight.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Asia, Board game, Bookcase, cleaning, Davy Crockett, dinner out night, Flower, Hopalong Cassidy, Milton Bradley Company, polishing, Trivia
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March 15, 2012 at 12:48 pm
Hi Kat,
I managed to curtail the cleaning bug. I did peek into a small box on the shelf in the kitchen. It’s a needlepoint tissue box cover so not a big deal. There was a box with some cheap Avon earrings, never worn, which I can’t bring myself to throw out because they have never been worn but they are not my style. There was a hand made wooden flippy clown toy, a small hand made cloth rabbit angel and I stopped at that point because there were a few more things stuffed in the bottom and I didn’t want to have to find other places for them to be. I have gone back to my knitting and will ignore everything else until tomorrow.
It’s cold up here and very grey. A bleh kind of day that doesn’t inspire any kind of celebration. The birds are very noisy, though. They want me to go out and fill the feeders and I will do that as soon as they police up all the stuff they pushed out of the feeders.
It’s knitting night with my friends tonight. Enjoy your trivia night!
March 15, 2012 at 12:56 pm
Hi Caryn,
I wish I could send some sun you’re way, but ours seems to come and go. Right now it’s back to lovely.
I hate this bug I have. I went upstairs just now to make my bed, get dressed and brush my teeth. In the upstairs bathroom I notcied dust on a cabinet. I cleaned the cabinet, the stuff on it and then all the pictures and the top of the toilet. This has got to stop!
Isn’t it good we’re both getting out!! Have fun tongiht!
March 15, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Tuesday, in the massage treatment room, I dusted the clivia leaves. o-O
March 15, 2012 at 11:45 pm
CarCouldyn,
I’m thinking this horrible flu like disease is spreading. I’m so sorry you caught it!
March 15, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Hi Caryn,
Today was just the bathroom upstairs. Tomorrow the world! I really am determined to get at the food cabinet. I bet half the boxes have already expired.
You know if you toss those earrings, they’ll come a time when they’d be just perfect and you won’t have them. That’s always the way! The stuff were probably important to you at some time so you saved them in a nice needlepoint box.
The grey has made it down here. The sun has gone and it’s getting colder.
Trivia called off: half the team is sick. Bummer!
March 15, 2012 at 1:39 pm
People say I’m obsessed with order and cleaning at work 🙂 but unfortunately I’m not the same at home 🙂 🙂 🙂
I love Sorry as well and always have but we call it Fia with a push 🙂 and I think I know what War is but have never played it. We did play Monopoly too. But mostly it was card games here.
Cloudy and grey here and even if it is unusual warm it was better yesterday so I can’t say I’m enjoying the day at all 🙂 As You say, the expectation has risen 🙂
Have a great day and good luck on the trivia night. My biggest problems are the smaller countries in South America and the smaller countries that once belonged to the Soviet Union. Many of them is in Europe but we never learned about them i school.
Christer.
March 15, 2012 at 4:55 pm
Christer,
I think it probably helps your work to keep the area neat and clean. Some things about here drive me crazy. I don’t like crooked pictures or dishes in the sink. My house is always neat but sometimes does get dusty from the pet hair.
It getting colder here. I can feel it coming in from the open back door. Every now and then the wind blows Gracie’s door open-chilly.
I’m with you in not knowing the smaller countries which used to belong to the Soviet Union. I traveled all through S. America so I’m good with those. I have no idea where most of the….stan countries are\.
March 15, 2012 at 4:14 pm
As kids we played Monopoly. I always wanted to be the race car. I never knew if we were playing by the official rules but we had a lot of fun. We also liked to play Black Jack. Again, we didn’t play by official cosino rules but it helped with learning addition.
I have been off all week and I haven’t lifted a finger to do anything productive all week. Tomorrow is Friday so I need to get started.
I just spent a lot of the time with my kids who were off from school for Spring Break. Our school district used to have a Fall Break during the first week of October. We started school the first week of August. Our wonderful State Legislature, led by such education experts as Rick Perry, passed a law a couple of years ago requiring all school districts to begin no earlier than the third week in August. I call it the ‘Six Flags Law’. Fall Break was wonderful because it broke up the long Fall semester and most resorts were not crowded and the rates and airfare were low.
I love playing Trivial Pursuit because I am the oldest and I remember a lot the things that are on the cards.
Mentioning former Soviet Republics, a friend of mine got his Boeing 767 rating at Delta and was told by one of their instructors to never ever divert for any reason to any country that ends in the letters ‘stan’.
March 15, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Bob,
We played Monopoly too, but now I find it takes too long to finish. My friend Jay loves that game so as a special birthday present his wife and I agreed to play it with him. He killed us even though we were sneaking each other money.
Most schools here start after Labor Day in September though a few districts start the week before. The individual districts determine starting time, not the state legislature. The problem with the after Labor Day start is if there is a really bad winter with lots of snow days. A couple of years ago there were so many snow days schools had to go to June 30th to make up the days lost.
There are school vacations in February and April here. I always think there should be one, in March, but no one agrees.
We used to play Trivial Pursuit but haven’t in a long while. Sports was always my downfall!
I understand that directive.
March 15, 2012 at 4:27 pm
The original Trivia game was like viral. It’s all anyone wanted to play at parties. My Dad knew every question relating to WWII and before but could never answer an easy one like The Beatles. Just didn’t know a thing about them. It made us laugh. Have a fun night.
March 15, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Z&Me,
You are so right. We playe it all the time as did everyone else. It’s been sitting in the closet now for a long time.
Sorry to say no trivia. Half my team has some sort of a flu bug so they’re staying close to home.I think I’ll pick up some Chinese food for myself.