The "Royale With Cheese" Debacle

This isn't so much a debacle as it is a "How could they get that wrong?!" moment. Wendy's mom visited this past weekend, since she had a conference this week in Milwaukee. On Saturday night, she and Wendy were playing Trivial Pursuit, when Wendy was asked the following question:

What McDonald's item is known as Le Royale in France?

Any self-respecting movie aficionado knows the answer to this instantly. Wendy and I both knew it, and she correctly replied, "The Quarter Pounder."

But no! It's the Big Mac, says Trivial Pursuit. We were shocked. There's a famous scene in Pulp Fiction that goes something like this:

Vincent: "You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?"
Jules: "They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?"
Vincent: "No, they got the metric system there, they wouldn't know what the @#$! a Quarter Pounder is."
Jules: "What'd they call it?"
Vincent: "Royale with Cheese."
Jules: "Royale with Cheese. What'd they call a Big Mac?"
Vincent: "Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it Le Big Mac."

At first I thought that the movie might actually have been wrong, but after a bit of googling, I was reassured: Trivial Pursuit was wrong. The answer is in fact the Quarter Pounder. Despite the temporary setback, Wendy went on to claim victory in the game.

We managed to get a fair amount accomplished over the weekend. We replaced a bunch of old light switches and outlets, installed a new thermostat, and bought a new light fixture for the dining room. And we're currently plotting a painting project for this weekend (when Wendy's mom returns, post-conference), although we're not sure yet what we'll paint or what color. Minor details, though.

And finally, the bathroom remodeling that we mentioned in our last post is going to happen on Monday! We're very excited, since it means we'll each now have our own bathroom!

Harry Potter, You're So Keen

We had a really nice time with Jill! I'm so glad she was able to come visit. Final Trivial Pursuit tally: 3-3-1. (We had to call one game on account of extreme tiredness.) Other things we did while Jill was here included taking a nice walk at Chain O' Lakes State Park, watching the first season of Coupling, and going to Lake Michigan on a hot day without our swimsuits. We'll know better next time.

The day after Jill left, I got a rejection letter in the mail for a story I had submitted to a magazine for publication! This is actually much more exciting than it might sound, because, 1) this was my first rejection letter ever, and, 2) my rejection letter was personalized and encouraging. Some bigger magazines (which this magazine isn't, really, but still) have as many as 5 or 10 different rejection letters that they send out, depending on how thoroughly they're rejecting the piece. The meanings can range all the way from, "Please don't ever send us anything again," to "We really don't have space in this issue, but this was great, so please try us again." Mine was along the lines of, "We like this, but it's not quite right for us. Try it somewhere else." And an editor had taken the time to write a few notes about the story on the letter, including "Good Luck!" It may not sound like much, but it is encouraging. So...I'll try again.

Also, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes out this Saturday! I pre-ordered it from Amazon, and it should be delivered that day. I'm just frantically trying to finish re-reading the first five books before then - I have only two more to get through, but they are by far the biggest two. Luckily, they're pretty quick reads for me, so I think I should be able to do it. I can't wait!

P.S. You can download a song about Harry Potter here. It's the British-ish version, which is not as good as the non-British-ish version available for sale on that website, but it is free.

The Great Outdoors

Jill is here, and the epic Trivial Pursuit battles have commenced! At last count Wendy was ahead 3 games to 2.

This evening we went for a walk at the McHenry dam. There seemed to be a lot of wildlife out and about, which was very cool. We saw a muskrat swimming in a pond, several frogs, a few deer, many different kinds of birds, the coolest of which was a field full of at least a dozen great blue herons, and, as usual, many lightning bugs. Afterwards we went swinging on a nearby swingset which is next to a large grove of pine trees. The swings, pine trees, and lightning bugs all made for a very pleasant evening.

A little over a month ago, I posted a link to a google map of the state parks we've visited so far. Google has recently released a programming interface to create custom maps, so you no longer have to rely on hacks. There's really no limit to where this will go; the possibilities are endless. People have already come up with maps showing live concerts across the country, earthquakes in North America, and even a map of injuries during the running of the bulls in Spain.

My favorite so far, though, is Gmaps Pedometer, which helps you record distances between points. Simply center the map where you want it, and start double-clicking to plot points. It does all the work of calculating the total mileage. Here's a map I created of a walk that Wendy and I would go on when we lived in Longmont. And here's a longer walk that I occasionally went on. It's a lot of fun when you can effortlessly connect technology with your everyday life!