Trivia is for birds

We had a really fun evening planned tonight and were getting ready to head out when Moe (our cat, for those of you who are just starting to follow this blog) slowed us down. I was pulling in the clothes from the line outside when out of the corner of my eye I saw Moe jump from the upper level deck to the lower level. I immediately turned my head to the very back of the yard, expecting to see another cat. There was nothing there! Moe then ran down the stairs to the grass and crept forward very slowly back toward the stairs. It was then that I saw a little chickadee perched on the third step, probably the same chickadee I'd been watching eat from the feeder earlier in the day. I was in mid-fold and things were moving very slowly. I dropped the shirt and lunged toward Moe, trying to scare the bird away. But I wasn't quick enough. Moe reached up and with one swift movement grabbed the little bird and scooped it into his mouth. I let out a little scream! When he turned around, all I could see were the tail feathers peeking out of his clamped mouth. I followed him to the middle of the yard and tried desperately to get him to release the little bird, which he finally did but then batted it with his paws so it couldn't get away. I think he just wanted to play with it. I've had no experience with this kind of thing, so I ran inside to pull my husband out of the shower. After throwing on a pair of shorts and grabbing some gloves, he followed me outside and was able to grab the bird from Moe's mouth. It was dead :( I almost cried. Meanwhile, at least half a dozen chickadees were flying all around us squawking something awful. I felt so bad for this little bird's family! It all happened so quickly! We marched to the back corner of the lot and gave the little bird a proper burial, taking care to release his or her little soul! Then Jay dragged Moe inside and put a bell on his collar! I will remove the bird feeders tomorrow in case those are the culprits...

Then we continued with our planned evening by meeting friends downtown at Clark's Ale House for Trivia Night! We did really well on the first round of questions, but not so well after that. We were pretty sure people were cheating by going on their cell phones for answers, and then we heard some guys at the table next to us debating economic responsibility versus communism. Okey dokey, then, maybe they weren't cheating! I am embarrassed to say that out of 25 teams we came in close to last. And we had smart people on our team, too, including a M.D/PhD student! I still want to believe people cheated...

Looking forward to the next trivia night! Who's in?????