Even money says this article won't net you two questions next year, but I find the names fascinating.

I had a magnificent ride going on my suck league team in the past month (basically rolling from middle of the pack to being within one pitcher inferno out of first), but in the past couple days it's all come crashing down. To wit, I've seen 20% of my active roster get sent to the minors. Jimmy Anderson, Ruben Quevedo, Brian Meadows, and the two that really kill me, Josh Bard, and Omar Infante. The last two really hurt as they were the majority of my offense of late (or lack there of), and most catchers and shortstops (being the two most valuable positions) have been snatched up by now. I've got backups, but I really need to solidify them before I go on the trip.

Joe mentioned the Ohio Valley Greyhounds game, but I do have to mention what I thought were a couple great punchlines for something. The first was an absolutely obvious offsides by Myrtle Beach, which prompted the response as the accused returned to the huddle: "Hey guys, the count was on two-and-a-half, right... right?" The second was when Blitz, the Greyhound mascot basically realized he had way more cookies to give out than people in our section. After he went nuts throwing cookies into the stands. We noted. "Everybody Gets Nutter Butters Night... sponsored by Oreo."

If you sum up my easily amusing faults, number one on the list (for me, at least) is that I am cheap, extremely so when it comes to myself. I absolutely hate to spend money on anything out of the ordinary, whether it's new furniture (still don't have the coffee table), books (Half Price Books is my friend), food, whatever. My key problem is I've got to be one of the few people who has buyer's remorse before even buying something. I become physically ill at the thought of spending. I don't know if it's the product of nature or nurture (both my folks have the same cheap tendencies, but I'm much worse), but it's almost to the point where it's annoying me. It doesn't matter the scale of things, I've gotten worked up about stuff costing $10. I can fight through it if I feel I'm getting a discount, but full price and I'm nauseous. This was what I had to fight through on Sunday. I got a digital camera for the trip to Vegas, but it took me a good hour just to work up the stomach to even consider the price. I drove around to five different locations, considered prices, wanted to puke, and finally got something. Not top of the line, just functional. So expect some interesting bits from the trip, maybe from the road, we'll see how it goes.

News from Vanadium Stadium: Element 110 is going to be called Darmstadtium, which incidentally will be where the Bridgeville Trolls NFL Europe affiliate will play next year.

Actual Quiz Bowl Content
1 Biography of Empress Carlotta
2 Definitions of how you derive curves from a base curve (part of the Famous Curves Index)
3 Plot summary of Cosi Fan Tutte (among others)