Our power is still out. It's been about 50 hours now. So this afternoon I booked a hotel room in downtown Huntington. Nothing like spending $78 to visit your own downtown!

Lisa, who should have been home taking it easy, worked today and then picked me up around 4:30. From there we got the girls from the babysitters and then headed home to pack and take care of the animals. I buried a bunch of frozen meat in a cooler under the ice in the back yard, took out the trash, and otherwise got frustrated with the situation at our dark and dreary home. Then we went to the hotel only to be stopped by a coal train so we had to wait 30 minutes while the 167 cars (Shannon counted) passed at a crawl. Finally we checked in and then decided to go out to dinner. I picked the Outback.

It has been well over a year since our last trip to the Outback and I was hopeful it would be positive. Overall it was. My steak came out well done instead of medium rare but the waiter and manager resolved the issue pretty quickly and the meal itself was pretty good. The girls, however, were getting pretty tired so we finished up and headed back to the hotel. On the way Lisa had to stop at the house to get my laptop and so I could put Rosie out again.

Once we got to the hotel Shannon was complaining her stomach hurt so we sent her into the bathroom. Almost immediately she threw-up all over the place; it was a huge mess. I helped her finish up then put her in the shower and cleaned up the mess before trying to login for the final nights "online tryouts" for Jeopardy. Lisa really wanted me to try out. The hotel wanted $10 for the use of a days internet access and I wasn't buying it. The hotel is only one block from my office so, once Shannon was ready for bed, I walked over to the office to login and take the test.

I booted up and my computer crashed. I booted up again and managed to login to the Jeopardy site about 15 minutes in advance. So I waited a bit and finally the test began. It was hard. There is no way I will have qualified for the show. I skipped about 10 questions out of fifty and of the forty I tried to answer I know I screwed a few up. It was fairly frustrating because one was about my favorite Broadway show, Les Miserables, but I couldn't remember anyones names from the show at all. I drew a blank. Boo Bill.

The only way I could have possibly been selected is if the entire west coast that tried out tonight is populated by morons AND the show decides to take pity on me because I'm in West Virginia. For some reason I don't see either of those things taking place. I can always take the test again next year but I doubt I will remember it is even available. Lisa just happened to be watching an episode this year when they mentioned the online tests.

It is now 11:20pm and I'm pretty tired. I have a pretty full day of work ahead of me tomorrow so I'd better get back to the hotel and try to get some sleep.

#Family #MyLife