Where has May gone?

I can't believe May is gone already and I've been a slacker in posting this month. Quinn has sure been on a roll lately. He does assure me that he really does do some work when he's there. Anyways I need to catch up a bit. We had a busy Memorial Day Weekend. Saturday the 23rd was my Cousin Monica's wedding. She was a gorgeous bride and we are so happy that this day has finally come for her. The reception was in her parents orchard and the bride made all the desserts herself. She is a pastry chef back in Washington D.C. It was a very fun time.

Monica and Nate Fish

Monica and her sisters, Hannah, Jennifer and Beth

This was my kind of reception: a cotton candy machine!

Emma and Cousin Abigail playing in the beautiful tents.

Emma playing with her Grandpa Van Bibber!

Emma with one of Beth's girls - I'm not sure which twin this is - Bella or Lilly.

Emma had a blast playing tag with Grandma Van Bibber.

Memorial Day was even busier for us. We started out the day over at city hall for the Woods Cross flag ceremony/breakfast. Emma and I enjoyed the pancakes and eggs. We then got to go see Uncle Kyle and the Life Flight crew.

With Grandma Lavender and Cousins Christian, Sarah and Nicole.

Emma and Uncle Kyle

After breakfast we all headed up to Cherry Hill for some Mini Golf. The rest of the Lavenders joined us, the Non-Woods Cross ones, Shawn, Diane, Loren and Tanner. In our group was Quinn, Me and Grandpa. I'm pretty sure Quinn beat us solidly. Grandpa was nice enough to let Emma hit one of his balls and she thought it was so cool.











We then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Lavenders for lunch. Emma discovered a new game while she was there. Connect Four - love this game. It kept her entertained for a while. I think this will have to go on her b-day list.





We then headed to Salt Lake to my Uncle Mike's house. We were celebrating that he is now Cancer Free!! After stuffing ourselves on cake and other goodies (I kept finding Emma with cookies in her hands, she was finding them on tables left by other people) we headed over to Great-Grandma Zundel's house for more food, dinner.

< align="center">In the sandbox with cousins Alley and Heidi at Uncle Mike's Party.

Not sure how she got this off the table!

Playing ball with Dad.

Whew, we made it through the day with only a 15 min. nap for Emma. She did great!

King of Ping.......pong

Thanks to all who participated in this inaugural edition of "Stuff I Didn't Know Yesterday." I had a lot of fun doing this, and was pleased with the amount of feedback.



First off, I'd like to address some of the comments I received. Bryn asked "Quinn, where the heck do you come up with this stuff? What entices you to study ping pong?" That's a silly question, Bryn. June's "The Office" calendar has a picture of a ping pong paddle on it.



I was very impressed with Daniel's scientific breakdown of each item, particularly when he tried to gauge what my imagination was capable of.



It was also interesting that two voters (named Ann and Anne) both voted for #10, though they give 100% opposite reasons for so voting.



Item #10, about the fastest shot being 70 miles per hour, is surprisingly true (click here to see).



In late 2000, the ITTF decided to take measures to increase the "watchability" of table tennis, including TV broadcasting (I find this so funny). This led to some changes to slow the game down, which included increasing the ball diameter from 38mm to 40mm (#3 is therefore true).



Real ping pong balls are actually filled with compressed gas, which causes them to bounce as high as they do. If you've ever stepped on a ping pong ball, you know it makes a fun little explosion when it breaks. So #8 is also true. Will also notes that they will explode if held over a flame. Hmmm.



Seems a little funny to me, too, but ping pong balls are ranked on a 3-star scale. Why'd they stop at three? I don't know. Here's a hilarious article about how the quality of ping pong balls has gone way down since the switch to 40 mm. This guy really loves his table tennis.



I'm embarrassed to admit that I make a transcription error when I wrote the information on the original post; and this has led to one answer that was intentionally false, and one that was unintentionally false.



"Ping Pong Diplomacy" was indeed the term used to describe the events that led up to Richard Nixon's historic visit to China. However, Nixon was president when he made the visit, and I accidentally typed "vice president". So #7 was false, even though it was false on accident. Kudos to Garrett, for voting on this one based on my gaffe, and to Daniel, who just happened to get lucky, since he thought I made the whole thing up.



The "true" false statement was #6: No American is currently ranked by the top 100 by the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation). Actually, according to the most recent world rankings (May 2009), there are actually 3 Americans in the top 100 for women's singles and women's doubles. Their names? Gao Jun, Crystal Huang Xi, and Chen Wang. Hee hee hee. Gao Jun is actually ranked #19 in the world. U S A! U S A! U S A!



So even though nobody guessed #6, Garrett and Daniel are off on a technicality. Still, they are awarded this:

The Golden Paddle of Knowledge. Congratulations! This is the highest table tennis-related trivia award that I know of.

Go ahead and post this award on your blog. Or don't. It doesn't really matter.

--Quinn

Better M*A*S*H Man -- The Results Show

Thanks to all who participated in this Potter v. Blake showdown. I thought I might have to cast the deciding vote here, but as it turned out, Colonel Sherman Tecumseh Potter is officially the winner. For the record, I vote for Potter too. No doubt that Blake was funnier, but I appreciated having Potter there as the 'straight man.' There was still plenty of comedy to go around with Blake gone.


So, way to go, Harry Morgan! You can now include in your list of accolades the fact that you narrowly defeated McLean Stevenson in a non-scientific poll hosted on blog that nobody reads. You have my permission to print this post and tape it to the wall next to your Emmy.







Quinn

Stuff I Didn't Know Yesterday: Table Tennis

Today's topic: Table Tennis.

9 of these are true; 1 is made up. Can you spot the false one?

1. "Table Tennis" is the official name for the sport, while "Ping Pong" is a trademarked name owned by Parker Brothers.

2. Table tennis has been an Olympic sport since 1988.

3. Beginning in 2000, table tennis balls were made larger.

4. Table tennis balls are ranked for quality. Those with 3 stars are the highest-quality ball.

5. Placing your free hand on the table during a match scores a point for your opponent.

6. No American is currently ranked by the top 100 by the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation).

7. The phrase "Ping Pong Diplomacy" refers to a period in the early 70s when American table tennis players were invited to China to participate in various tournaments. Their participation marked a "thawing" in US/Chinese relations, which led the way for a state visit by vice president Richard Nixon.

8. Table tennis balls are not just hollow; they are pressurized with gas.

9. "Beer Pong" is a drinking game wherein players try to throw a ping pong ball into a cup of beer. If successful, the opposing team drinks the contents of the cup.

10. The world record for fastest table tennis shot is 70 MPH.

--Quinn

Better M*A*S*H Manager

Who's the better Colonel of the 4077 M*A*S*H?


Henry Blake?

Or Sherman Potter?

Quinn

The funniest TV phrase of all time

Did anybody else happen to catch this show on Tuesday night -- The 50 Funniest TV Phrases of All Time?

I enjoy TV, and I enjoy funny, and I enjoy lists, so of course I watched it.

I thought it was enjoyable. Sure, I could argue about the placement of this phrase or that one, but it was fun to watch. I really don't think "Yada, yada, yada" is the funniest of all time, though. Not even the funniest from that show.

I think it's an unwritten requirement that to be considered for this list, the phrase had to be said more than once -- at least several times in an episode, if not across the whole series.

So, here's the list in its entirety:

50. “Hello, Newman” from “Seinfeld”
49. “Missed it by that much” from “Get Smart”
48. “Yeah, that’s the ticket” from “Saturday Night Live”
47. “God’ll get you for that” from “Maude”
46. “Hey, Hey, Hey” from “What’s Happening”
45. “Holy crap” from “Everybody Loves Raymond”
44. “Let me show you something” from “In Living Color”
43. “Nip it” from “The Andy Griffith Show”
42. “Thank you beddy much” from “Taxi”
41. “Do you wanna hug it out” from “Entourage”
40. “Watch it sucka” from “Sanford and Son”
39. “Jane you ignorant slut” from “Saturday Night Live”
38. “Mom liked you best” from “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”
37. “Sit on it” from “Happy Days”
36. “Now cut that out” from “The Jack Benny Comedy Program”
35. “I’m Larry, this is my brother Darryl…” from “Newhart”
34. “What you see is what you get” from “The Flip Wilson Show”
33. “I’ve made a huge mistake” from “Arrested Development”
32. “I know nothing” from “Hogan’s Heroes”
31. “Here come de judge” from “Laugh In”
30. “You look marvelous” from “Saturday Night Live”
29. “I’m comin’ to join ya Elizabeth” from “Sanford and Son”
28. “Would you believe” from “Get Smart”
27. “Up your nose with a rubber hose” from “Welcome Back Kotter”
26. “Ohhhh Rob” from “The Dick Van Dyke Show”
25. “Kiss my grits” from “Alice"
24. “Nanu, Nanu” from “Mork and Mindy”
23. “Don’t be ridiculous” from “Perfect Strangers”
22. “I’m Gumby, damn it” from “Saturday Night Live”
21. “No soup for you” from “Seinfeld”
20. “One of these days, pow right in the kisser” from “The Honeymooners”
19. “Did I do that” from “Family Matters”
18. “Will you stifle” from “All in the Family”
17. “Eat my shorts” from “The Simpsons”
16. “Hated it” from “In Living Color”
15. “Well isn’t that special” from “Saturday Night Live”
14. “Sock it to me” from “Laugh In”
13. “We were on a break” from “Friends”
12. “That’s what she said” from “The Office”
11. “It’s going to be legendary” from “How I Met Your Mother”
10. “Homey don’t play dat” from “In Living Color”
9. “Excuuse me” from “Saturday Night Live”
8. “Lucy, you’ve got some splainin’ to do” from “I Love Lucy” (even though he never said it quite that way – the closest he came was “Lucy, splain” and “All right, start splainin’”)
7. “Oh my god! They killed Kenny” from “South Park”
6. “Burn” from “That ‘70s Show”
5. “We are two wild and crazy guys” from “Saturday Night Live”
4. “Ayyyy” from “Happy Days”
3. “How you doin’” from “Friends”
2. “D’oh” from “The Simpsons”
1. “Yada, yada, yada” from “Seinfeld”

Some notable ones that I thought were missing:
"What you talking about, Willis?" Diff'rent Strokes
"Dy-no-mite!" Good Times
"Not that there's anything wrong with that..." Seinfeld
"This video needs more explosions" Beavis and Butthead
"NORM!" Cheers
"You got it, dude." Full House
"Woah!" Blossom
"Hello!" Laverne and Shirley (not funny to look at but quite funny the way Squiggy says it)
"Oh, ay....ay, oh!" Who's the Boss
"Schwing!" Saturday Night Live
"Hi, I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not" Saturday Night Live
"Living in a van, down by the river" Saturday Night Live
(In retrospect, you could probably pick 50 good ones from SNL alone)
"I don't think so, Tim." Home Improvement

So, what others would you add to the list?

Quinn

It's a Sabbath Day Miracle

Many of you are familiar with the story of the widow who fed the prophet Elijah. As a result of following Elijah's words, she was blessed with a barrel of meal that never emptied, and a cruse of oil that never went dry.

I have a magical suit coat pocket that never runs out of Cheerios. We only take a small cup of Cheerios to church each week, but when we get home, I somehow pull more Cheerios out of my pocket than we took with us in the first place.

Quinn