August 18th's Jokes of the Week

I bought a wooden whistle.  But it wooden whistle.  So, I bought a steel whistle.  But it steel wooden whistle.  So, I bought a lead whistle.  But it steel wooden lead me whistle.

August 11th's Joke of the Week

New research suggests that towels are a leading cause of dry skin.

August 4th's Joke of the Week

There’s a new restaurant in town called Karma.  There’s no menu: You just get what you deserve.

Trixie Camp 2025

In June, I finally made it back to Trixie Camp.

What's Trixie Camp, you ask.  It's a gathering of fans of the Trixie Belden series of books.  When the internet was starting, someone had set up a fan page for the series that then lead to a message board.  The regulars became friends, and we started wanting to meet up.  Thus, the first Trixie Belden convention was born.  After a couple of years, we started calling it Trixie Camp.  I was at the first one back in 2000, but I haven't been able to be a regular recently.  The last one I was at was 2017.  Yes, we'll talk about the books, although it's rarely a formal thing.  It's mainly a chance for friends to hang out together, form new friendships with those who are new to the group, and tour the area where we are meeting up.

This year, was in St. Louis.  After years of wanting to visit the city, I was there two Junes in a row.  We visited the arch, which meant I got to explore the museum at the base, which I was disappointed on missing out in last year.  We did a riverboat cruise right there by the arch.  And we did a mystery theater dinner where we played many of the suspects.  That's was just Friday.  Saturday, we explored St. Charles, the town we were staying that's actually just outside of St. Louis.

Honestly, it was just nice to get to see everyone and hang out.  I've often said that what we do isn't as important to the success as just hanging out and having fun.

While it officially ended Sunday morning, I stayed an extra day to spend time with some friends who live nearby in Southern Illinois.  They came over, and we went to Hannibal, Missouri, aka Mark Twain country.  Yes, it was touristy, but I enjoyed getting to see it.  And it was nice to see them, too.

July 14th's Joke of the Week

What do you get when a police officer surprises a skunk?

Law and odor

July 7th's Joke of the Week

My friend kept nagging me about pretending to be a flamingo, so I had to put my foot down.

Game Day!

I know I’ve mentioned it a couple times here over the last couple of years, including when it started, but I have a couple of friends (a former roommate and his wife) who host monthly game days. It’s always the second Saturday of the month. It starts at one and goes until people leave. It’s a come and go as you please, but I’m usually there for most of the entire thing. 

And it’s a blast. I wasn’t super familiar with many of the games when we started, but now I’m familiar with many of the favorite games. And we have hardly scratched the surface of their collection.

It’s rubbed off on me. I’ve started getting games from Kickstarter. Not that I’ve sat down and figured out how to play all of them. I’m at about half of the games I’ve gotten so far figured out. And they are fun if not favorites of the group. Still, they do seem to enjoy them when we play them. 

Anyway, this post was inspired by this month’s game day. It was a little low key compared to many of the game days. There are a lot of college students who attend, and they are done for the summer. We talked a bit more than usual, too, which was nice. I was able to introduce a game that seemed to go over well. The game was Horizons, which is a game I bought after playing it with my brother and his family in March. 

This is always a highlight of my month. I didn’t leave until about one in the morning this time, and the last couple of hours was just talking. And I’m already looking forward to next month.

A House Cooling Party

 Almost two weeks ago, I went to a house cooling party. 

A friend I grew up with in Santa Rosa now lives over in Alta Dena. While she didn’t lose her house in the fire, she came very close. And she had lots of smoke damage. So, for the last five month, she’s been working on getting everything replaced and redone that she needed taken care of. While working full time and keeping her daughter on track in school. Well, they were finally able to move back in, and they had a party to celebrate. It also happened to be her husband’s birthday. 

And yes, they called it a house cooling party since warming it up didn’t seem like something they’d want to celebrate. 

I knew a couple of the people who were there, and it was nice to catch up with them. And it was nice to chat the little bit I could with the hosts, although they were quite busy talking to lots of others, as you’d expect. It was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon and early evening.

June 16th's Joke of the Week

A guy goes in for a job interview and the manager says, “We’re looking for someone who is responsible.”

“Well, I’m your man,” the guy replies.  “In my last job, whenever anything went wrong, they said I was responsible.”

June 9th's Joke of the Week

I have the world’s worst thesaurus.  Not only is it terrible, it’s terrible.