Patty Johnson's Blog

This weekend we play in two different trivia contests. Lawrence went from 10pm Friday to midnight sunday & Park Falls went from 6pm-midnight on Saturday.
I vowed last year that I would never play Lawrence again but we thought we'd casually play. That contest is terrible...the questions are ridiculous, the dj's are annoying and just in general the format is completely disorganized. The spend most of the weekend begging people to come in and answer the phone lines because they don't have nearly enough people. We stopped playing at 5pm Saturday because we just couldn't take it anymore.
Park Falls on the other hand was very organized and enjoyable to play. We were doing really well throught the contest until they asked some really hard local questions that were basically impossible for us to get. We ended up in 8th place out of 23 teams. It was pretty comparable to the Medford contest that we play every year (both are 6 hours long and very well put together and both like to throw in local questions to stump us out-of-towners)
Overall it was nice to get together and hang out all weekend playing trivia contests, no matter which ones they were. It's always good to practice internet hunting and finding new website to use for Real Trivia in April. VIDEO: Vanessa and Lily jumping video HERE

This weekend, Lily had lots of fun helping her Grandpa shovel snow. She also thought it was pretty cool when she'd run around and then she could look back and see her little footprints.

We went down to Dad's Computers HQ to make sure all the ports worked since we'll be playing two trivia contests this weekend. They all worked fine which was good. We also spent the time cleaning and organizing stuff. Gwyn and Lily also had some fun playing with some kids sunglasses they found

So, not only is my computer broken...now my camera is too! I put it up really high so Lily wouldn't mess with it and then my cat jumped up there and knocked it down like 5 feet. Now when I turn it on it makes a horrible grinding noise and shuts off. The only thing that still works on it is you can review the photos you've already taken so I'm pretty sure it's a lens issue. I've tried to contact the warranty people but so far the only answer I've gotten is that it may or may not be covered by warranty and if it's not the estimate to fix it is $39-$119 (which I have to agree to before sending it in) I'm going to try and call them to see if I can get more info because I'm not going to spend $119 to fix it if I can get a new one for $200.
In other news, Adam has apparently given up playing World of Warcraft. I know what you are thinking, but I think he might be serious this time. He just bought an expansion for it and he's going to sell it to his mom! He hasn't even turned on his computer in two days. It's really nice being able to hang out with him without him being completely distracted by his computer!

Here are a couple more photos of Lily riing arcade rides. These are in the Appleton mall. We bought Lily this new pajama gown with slippers. She had fun posing for the camera today.
VIDEO: Lily riding in mouse car HERE
VIDEO: Lily riding in a firetruck HERE

Went to Vanessa's house Thursday night to watch "The Covenant" which sucked. It took us about 3 hours to watch it because we kept pausing to either talk to each other or the other people in the house. Then, I hung out with Aaron & Vanessa til Adam called me at almost 1am to inform me that Lily wasn't asleep yet and he wanted to go to sleep. So, I leave right away and when I get home they are both asleep already. UGH.
Friday night I went out to Joe's with Aaron & Eric. That wasn't very eventful because Aaron & Eric were playing poker the whole time. I got home and my computer was like sleeping. The mouse, monitor and keyboard were all lit up but I couldn't wake my computer. I reboot it and it gives me a "CMOS Settings are Wrong" error which can't be good. I am able to reboot it again and get into windows so I can backup important files (Lily photos & Trivia notes) After that we put Lily to bed and by the time I come back out to my computer it's "sleeping" again. I haven't been able to get it to boot since. Now, I'm considering whether I want to buy a new computer or replace parts of this one. Thank goodness for tax refunds either way!

Lily had a great 2nd birthday. Lots of people attended the party including my parents, Adam's parents, Michelle, Gwyn, Katie & Savannah, Aaron & Vanessa, Becky & Mark, Nick, Braeden, Tabitha, Eric & Ian. The first thing Lily wanted to do was open all her presents. She got oodles of cute stuff! Lily was also very happy to have Savannah there and they played together pretty much the whole time. One time I went by Lily's bedroom and they were both singing "No More Monkey's Jumping on the Bed" So cute! Lily's cake this year was a big Elmo face and it was actually made of 24 cupcakes! Lily liked painting her high chair with the cake frosting. VIDEO: Lily painting with cake frosting HERE

Lily has discovered the wonderful world of arcades. At the Rapid Wa*Mart she took a ride on a camel & at the Plover Wal*Mart she rode on a firetruck with Bert & Ernie! She they were both pretty cool! See Lily riding the camel video HERE
See Lily riding the firetruck HERE

My parents' dog, Poquita, has been sick for a few days. On Saturday, she actually had a seizure so they took her to the emergency vet place in Mosinee. They first thought she had diabetes because her electrolights and sugar levels were off the charts. That night she was in critical condition because they couldn't get her stable. They gave her some insulin but ended up giving her too much (since she is so small) so then they had to give her glucose. She stayed at that vet place until Monday morning because that place is only open nights and weekends (since none of the local regular vet offices are) Then my parents had to take Poquita to their normal vet where she spent the day at. She is now at home and very happy to be back there! They now don't think she has diabetes but that she was actually sick from something else and since she is such a little bitty dog that it just messed up her whole system. But they will be monitoring her closely and she'll be going in for check-ups alot.
We went to my parents house tonight to see the puppy & also for yummy tacos! I also had some stuff to work on in the basement for trivia. So, after dinner I took Adam home because he had to go to bed super early because he has to go to Milwaukee tomorrow at 6am for work. Then, Lily had lots of fun playing with Grandpa while I did my trivia stuff. We went home at 9 and Lily fell asleep in the car on the way home. She slept until midnight and woke up hungry for bananas. I've been promising her bananas for 2 days but everytime we are going there she ends up falling alseep! So, we ended up going on a Midnight Wal*Mart run to get bananas and other necessities. Now, she's wide awake and watching "The Upside-Down Show" She's a silly girl!

Today was our Dad's Computers January Meeting. Gwyn got there first so we got to chit-chat for a while which was nice. She also gave us all sweet Christmas presents! Then, Tabitha was next to show up followed by Aaron & Vanessa. We had the meeting then and discussed lots of stuff including our team theme, plans for this trivia, etc. Then, we organized the bibliotech and some of our wrappers/packages. It was a productive night. After that Adam and Lily went home to take a nap while I went with Aaron & Vanessa to Wal*Mart. Aaron was in the mood for Beef Tips so that is what they got for dinner. Then we went to their place and I helped making dinner by peeling potatoes & snapping the ends off of green beans. I haven't peeled potatoes in forever so I was actually a little sore afterwards! About 1/2 hour after Adam and Lily got home, Lily woke up hysterical because I wasn't there so they actually ended up joining us for dinner too. Then, we all watched "Little Miss Sunshine" which was pretty good. Then it was late so we went home to sleep.

Adam didn't have to play darts tonight so I went to a late night crop at the Scrap Shack. That is where they stay open until midnight and people come in to work on their scrapbooks. It's cool because I can scrap without Lily needing my attention and if you need something you are in a Scrapbooking store! I haven't scrapbooked in a while and I really forgot how much I liked it. I cranked out like 17 pages (they are mostly done I just have to add journaling to some of them) I stayed out until about 11pm when I was tired and was at stopping point. Adam had fun with Lily and she was surprisingly really good for him.

Woke up at about noon today which was nice. Then, Lily & I went to a couple stores with my parents. I was excited because I got both things I was looking for! Then, Adam met us at my parents house and the 5 of us went out to dinner at Bamboo House. Lily fell asleep on the way there so we ended up propping her in a high chair sleeping with her head on my coat. She finally really woke up as we were about to leave so we grabbed a Happy Meal for her on the way back to my parents house. We hung out there for a while before going home. Our friends said they might not go out tonight but then took about 2 1/2 hours deciding what they wanted to do. They ended up going out so we stayed home since by then we would have been there only an hour before they went out. Then, we watched "Scary Movie 4" which was silly (as we expected) but it was nice to just all relax and watch a movie together. Then, we found the right channel and got to watch the ball drop for our time zone! Lily was mesmerized by the pretty lights on the ball. Then, she told us she wanted to go Nite-Nite (which we were surprised about) and after a little while she was asleep. Now, I'm clearing off my replay and moxi for the Rose Bowl Parade and other stuff I have to record starting tomorrow. Bring on 2007!