NEW RELEASES
The Sisters = Olympic level athletes
So there I was, winging my way across the country in a giant airplane seated next to an eight year old that talked non-stop for nine hours. I had a backpack full of stuff to do. My iPad with a million apps including Kindle and iBooks. I had my actual Kindle as well. There was my lap top just in case. My iPod was in the front pocket for easy access. So there was no reason in the world why I picked up the stupid in flight magazine to read.
But, I did. **shrug** Sometimes there is fun stuff in there.
I did a massive clean up of my desk this weekend and found this article from that magazine. I remember at the time thinking, “Ooooh, that could be interesting.”
The article talked about “off-the-radar sports. Basically, what happens is you take to incongruous “sport” and pair them together. For example, chess and boxing. No, I’m not making this up and apparently neither is Lloyd Bradley. He wrote a whole book about this idea called The Rough Guide to Cult Sport.
I know you won’t believe this but there is actually a federation, The World Chess Boxing Organisation. You’d think it was based in Great Britan because of the spelling, but they’re not. They do have a branch in England as well as India and Siberia (!) but the WCBO is actually in Berlin. I’d have bet there was one in Austrialia but I couldn’t find a listing. It just seems like something those crazy-fun Aussies would come up with.
It goes like this – alternating rounds of boxing then chess then boxing then chess and so on until someone wins one or the other. I’d imagine by round six or so, things on that chess board could get pretty bloody. They have very high standards for who they’ll admit into the Organisation. The boxers must have a chess ELO rating of nearly 2,000. I have no idea what that is or how it ranks in the world of chess, but knowing my abilities, I’d score around a 4. I’m not even sure what all the pieces are called. I was once yelled at by an uncle for calling the rooks “castles”. God forbid!
Apparently, in the world of cult sports, there is also swimming+hockey called octopush and blowling+golf called road
Traditional Curling Equipment
bowling. I guess you just throw the bowling ball down the road and count how many times it takes you to get like a mile or something. I suspect drinking is involved and, if it isn’t, it sure as hell should be.
Quill Sisters Curling Equipment
So this made me ponder the Sisters. We are not sporty types. I enjoy hockey – a lot. Ava tolerates it. Kelli thinks I’m deranged. However, none of us actually wishes to participate in anything…sweaty. In the spirit of the idea of smooshing together two disparite activities the Sister’s could excell at I thought of shopping+curling. The players go to the nearest mall and purchase shoes from Manolo Blahnik.
Instead of the traditional curling “stones” the shoes are substituted. The person who scores, gets to keep the shoes. Woohoo! That’s the sport for us.
In Our Humble Opinion…the key to winning board games is to be the banker.
And you thought it was stuffy. Not!
For those of you who don’t read the Wall Street Journal because you think it’s too stuffy or highbrow for you, I disagree. Not only are you getting a clear view of the news, but there are really fascinating articles and, if you have a sense of humor, there’s some funny stuff there. Just notice how many times I refer to the WSJ in my blogs.
That’s where we first learned the word “kerfuffle”. About that word – I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that I can’t use it in my book. If you recall, I write Regency romance (London, England 1811-1820). One must be very careful not to have anachronistic words, ideas and the like in the stories. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when I looked up the etymology of the world “kerfuffle” and it was first used in 1946. BAH! Too bad.
If you still don’t believe me that the WSJ is worth your time, then feast your eyes on this.
- “I know, but…” by Mu Boyan
This was in an article titled, “Arts New Pecking Order” about China and their emerging artists.
If you have a bucket load of money, you too could buy a sculpture like this to put in your dining room. That’s where I’m putting mine.
So, because I was curious, I Googled Mu Boyan to see what else he had out there. His sculptures are amazingly lifelike and I’m very impressed. But I don’t know if broadening my horizons like this is actually making me a more mature person because as I toured his work, I found myself giggling uproariously.
I dare you not to join me.
Now Ava would like to tell you that’s her after Bikram Yoga but there isn’t enough sweat and regardless of what Ava says, she’s actually nicely slim.
The sculpture on the right is actually me trying to reach the cupcake that fell over the side of the sofa.
It does seem that Mu Boyan is a little obsessed with either Sumo (isn’t that Japanese?) or of plump Chinese people. Do you suppose that it’s some reference to the 
Chinese culture emerging into the greater world as a super power and thus being Super Sized? Or that they are competing with the West and thus are becoming Americanized and fat?
Chinese culture emerging into the greater world as a super power and thus being Super Sized? Or that they are competing with the West and thus are becoming Americanized and fat?Or do you think I’m completely full of shit?
Whatever the deal is – the Wall Street Journal is some fun reading. Who’d have thunk it?
Stop SOPA/PIPA
No. Oh, so no.
Educate yourself. Educate everyone you know. This is really, really important. You’ve probably heard a lot about this but maybe you don’t really understand it. Watch the video below – it will all be broken down for you. Censorship is always bad.
Always
Make your voice heard.
A feline chorus
My Honey and I went out to dinner. When we came home late in the evening we pulled the car into the driveway and stopped right next to our boat. The motion sensor light came on and, much to our surprise, two tiny kittens popped out from under the cover of the boat and stared at us. A tiny, all black one and an equally tiny black and white kitten.
Oh my word, they were so cute. My Honey jumped out of the car cursing mightily. Of course, you know exactly what 
the boat now smelled like. Our neighbor is constantly feeding the stray cats in the neighborhood. Then, to thank her, they have kittens on our property. I have no idea why they always select our house for the nursery, but they do. We’ve had them under the shed and this isn’t the first time with the boat, either.
Before I could rescue the babies they and their mother jumped out and ran across the street. The little black one was hollering at me. That’s the best way I can describe it. And the little tyke had lungs on him, too. He would PEEP at an ear piercing level at the opposite curb and I would mew back at him, then he would answer. We carried on this way for about five minutes.
PEEP
Mew.
PEEP
Mew.
Finally the neighbor kid came out of his house and inquired what the hell was going on. He was in his room and could hear the little bugger PEEPING for all he was worth.
Our own cat, the most gorgeous, ginger-colored tom you’ve ever met, sat on our front porch and glared at us. “You are NOT bringing that loud little bastard in here.”
Even with the three of us working together, we never did manage to collect the little dude. I’m sure he’s out there PEEPING still. Cute little bugger, though.
In Our Humble Opinion…pie is a much overlooked dessert.
Our new “puppy”
I think the reason Ava and I are so obsessed with these cute little animals is because we don’t have enough to do at the soul sucking day job with Bank of No Forks. Also, what we do have to do is completely boring and 100% unsatisfying.
Today we found this picture. After an extensive discussion where I postulated a theory that there really aren’t anymore Panda bears. They just look so unbelievably perfect they can’t possibly be real. I suggested that China and Disney are in cahoots and that they’ve got a crack team of Chinese Imagineers running around the bamboo jungles of China moving around stuffed bears to fool the tourists. She said there was a video and the pandas moved. I suggested animatronics. You know how good Disney is with all that.
Ava refused to believe that they aren’t real and I’m unconvinced so we decided that we needed to investigate this more fully. I offered to look into the flight arrangements. I pulled up Expedia and typed in what I wanted: two first class tickets to China. There is no way I’m flying all the way to China in anything but first class. It’s nonnegotiable. Expedia wanted to know where in China. I didn’t know. The jungle-y part. The panda bear part. NOT the part where the outdoor markets try to sell you giant cockroaches on skewers to eat. I will NEVER be that hungry, I assure you. I stared at the list of Chinese airports.
Fortunately, right then the building maintenance man wandered into my office to spackle my wall where I tried to tunnel out using a wooden coffee stirrer and the butt end of my stapler. He amuses me because he’s about four feet tall and Irish. (It occurs to me that this post is quite multi-national. Good for me.)
I asked him, “If you were flying to China to kidnap a panda bear, would you fly
our new "puppy"
into Shanghai or Beijing?”
He didn’t answer. I hope he’s not a company spy here to see if I’m misappropriating Bank of No Forks resources.
I found a near perfect flight from here to Phoenix then London and off to Beijing. It will cost a paltry 21,990.00 before tax. Each. And, the way back we need another seat for our new “puppy.”
I wonder if the flight is cheaper from Rome to Beijing? We could work in Operation Panda Liberation right after we withdraw all the funds
in that Latin ATM. In fact, depending on how smoothly this whole thing goes, we may also stop off in South America for that prehensile porcupine and a llama.