Yesterday was a really good day...

I got to see a movie I enjoyed and I got to play trivia.  While we didn't win the premium game, we did finish 2nd on the West Coast feed, an admirable achievement considering it was just two of us at that location.  When I got home I even got a couple of thousand words written.  Now if I  only find them to be any good.  It's a pattern.  I'll write something new, get a bit of the way down the road with the idea and then decide it wasn't as good an idea as I'd originally thought.  Perhaps I'm a bit too critical in that first "second look".

There are really no other movies I have any interest in seeing this weekend so today and tomorrow will be a lot of writing, web-surfing, Words with Friends, television and the like.  I may run by Red Box and see if anything catches my eye, and there are one or two movies on VOD I might check out.  But otherwise, a quiet weekend.  CLOO is running a Bond marathon so that will undoubtedly get at least some play.  "Goldfinger", my favorite of the Connery Bonds is coming to a close at the moment.

I found out I'll probably be flying solo at this coming Monday's live trivia game as my regular teammate is obligated elsewhere.  Normally I'd prefer to skip rather than play alone, but we're working to qualify for a tournament with good prize money that will happen in February, so hopefully I can grab one of the top three spots to add more points to our already significant lead at that location.

Larry Hagman died yesterday, in Dallas.  He'd probably set up residence there for filming of the modern version of "Dallas".  His long-time co-star and TV wife was at his bedside when he passed.  Very admirable of Linda Gray.  Even though she was an "older woman", when Dallas was in its first run, I found both her and Victoria Principal very attractive.  And, BTW, I'm the one who really shot JR.  Every single episode would open with him pulling up in downtown Dallas and finding a parking place.  I never found parking that easily in downtown Dallas, so I shot him for his parking place.

Carpool lanes (or HOV lanes if you prefer) can be dangerous.  Yesterday I saw a driver (a man this time) who was in the carpool lane who suddenly realized he was about to miss his exit.  He violated the double double yellow line and went all the way across traffic to get off the freeway.  There were enough points from the multiple unsafe lane changes he made to suspend his license for at least a year.

I also saw someone doing 55 in a 35 zone as they passed me on the right (I learned to estimate speeds when I was a military cop).  That's just way too fast.  There's no good reason to be driving that fast on a city street that has intersections with other streets.

This Date in History:

On this date in 1835, the provincial government of Texas authorized the formation of what are now the Texas Ranger division of the state Department of Public Safety.
On this date in 1859, Charles Darwin's seminal work "On the Origin of Species" was published.
On this date in 1932, the FBI's "crime lab" officially opened.
On this date in 1944, the first U.S. bombing of Tokyo by land-based aircraft was done.
On this date in 1950, a storm called "the storm of the century" paralyzed the NorthEast and the Appalachians.  100 mph winds and sub-zero temperatures were recorded.  Pickens, WV recorded 57 inches of snow.
On this date in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby.
On this date in 1965, Joseph Mobutu seized power in the Congo and ruled dictatorially for over 30 years.
On this date in 1971, D.B. Cooper jumped out of a passenger plane with a parachute and $200,000 in ransom money.  He has never been found.
And on this date in 1973, due to the oil crisis, a speed limit was enacted on the German Autobahn.  It was so unpopular that it was eliminated four months later.