Hot Run, Hot Reds, Cold Hard Facts

Yesterday after work, I headed over to my mom and dad's for team trivia night at Oakbrook Cafe.  Team Dion has won twice this summer--we won the our first time we played in May and then won again last week. We don't go every Monday, but we felt obligated to go this week, as we were defending our title. The team consists of my dad (who is pretty much a human encyclopedia), my mom (who's general trivia knowledge is somewhat limited, but randomly know weird facts that no one else knows) and the third member of our team is yours truly.  I consider myself to be at least in the above-average range when it comes to trivial knowledge, but I definitely am also known for having a few embarrassingly weak areas.  For instance, while I can identify pretty much any British author from the 18th century and can take a good stab at the chronological order of Ryan Reynolds movies (which was last night's final), I truly, honestly, in all sincerity, told my ex-boyfriend a few years ago that I thought Texas was next to California.  (In other words, don't count on me for the geography questions.)

Before trivia, I needed to get my exercise in for the day. Despite the 90+ degree temps, I felt like going for a run.  My parents were worried about me running in the heat, and suggested I stay inside, have a snack, and ride my dad's stationary bike.  While I appreciated their concern, it wasn't helping my motivation any, so out the door I went.

The trail through my parents neighborhood is one of my favorites.  It's about 2.5 miles from end to end, and my parents live in the middle of the subdivision, so if I start from their condo and run to the front where Oakbrook Road meets KY 18, then turn around and go all the way to the other end where it meets Pleasant Valley, then turn around again and go back to the condo, it's five and a half miles exactly.  There's one huge hill in the middle, and about half the time I end up walking it.  (Yesterday was one of those days.)  Due to the heat and the fact that I didn't want to kill myself, I ended up walking about half of the last two miles as well.  It was still a great workout, and I was drenched in sweat by the time I got back to my parents' place.

After taking a cold shower, downing some Powerade Zero, and enjoying a Landshark beer with my dad, we headed up to Oakbrook Cafe.  While we intended to dominate the same way we did last week, it just wasn't our night.  We came in 7th place out of 8 teams... not quite the victorious title-defending we expected.

The Dions arrived home from trivia with our heads hung low, but our moods were quickly brightened when we flipped on the tv to catch the tail end of another amazing extra-innings win from our beloved Cincinnati Reds!  Once the game was over, I immediately sent a text message to my favorite St. Louis Cardinals fan to deliver some smack-talk. Despite the fact that my own talents and abilities had nothing to do with the Reds win, I'll still actively participate in the bragging rights. After all, my ego needs it after the crushing trivia loss.
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