Vitamin D infiltrated folks’ blood on this beautiful sunny day, and the Belmont Inn Pub Quiz crowd was buzzing, animated and loud as everyone rejoiced for the sweet, blessed rays of the sun. I had the PA turned up almost to feedback levels, and still people in the corners had trouble hearing me. But that didn’t keep the three farthest away teams (distance-wise… they’ll always be close my heart)–Coffee Shits, the Half-Hearted Habi-Trails and No Biege Food, I Am Your Father– from making it to the final round. Clearly you guys didn’t have THAT much trouble hearing.

Meanwhile, the team CLOSEST to the table, the Urban Achievers, ended up winning the whole darn thing, and they were awfully sweet about it. One of their regulars is a nice fella who I referred to in a recent post as an “orange-shirted douchebag” (repeatedly) after he booed me for no reason I could fathom. Well I’ll take this moment to apologize to the guy (whose name I need to learn). Booing your quizmaster is still unacceptable, but one little drunken boo-session does not a douchebag make, even if you ARE wearing an orange shirt to boot. TWO, however…. But seriously, I’m always happy to see the Urban Achievers in the hiz-ouse, and congrats on their victory tonight.

Other things I liked tonight:

I liked the photos folks brought of their dads, especially the one with the dad rescuing his daughter from under the train, and also Howard of Beige Food’s picturesque shot of lil’ Howard and dad at the shooting range, firing away. Awww… Beige Food was also the only team with a player who brought his dad, though I had a hunch the guy was more interested in the Lakers/Celtics game than the quiz.

I liked that Chelan of Spending Daddy’s Money almost got into the final round as a team of one, and also that she brought me delicious cookies.

I liked the team of lawyers clad in slacks and ties who wrote “Poor people” in answer to the question “What is papaphobia the fear of?” They all seemed relatively young, but they’re gonna be great in their field, you can just tell.

I liked that the Celtics came back to beat the Lakers during the quiz and everyone cheered because even though the rent-a-star Celtics are evil, they’re not nearly as evil as the Lakers, who are led by the smug, oily, face-punchable Kobe Bryant and appeal to nobody outside of Jack Nicholson and other people who have no soul.

And I liked knowing that tomorrow I’m off to Seattle to go to a Mariners game with my own dad and celebrate in style all he means to me, which is quite a lot. A great quiz followed by a ball game with dad? I’m not sure life gets better than that…

xoxo, Justin