Señor Hanks

Today wrapped up a 2-week work trip to the Neenah location for Thomas the North Carolinian. If I get pics from him, I'll post them, but I think he had a great time. His dad & Nancy and Poky-the-puppy came up from Illinois last weekend - Nancy went to the Packer game last Saturday (thank goodness it was that one, and not today's!). He also hung out with the game night crew, started getting me addicted to the miniseries House, went with me, Javier and Katie to a Badger basketball game, went cross-country skiing, sent Ray & Becky off on their honeymoon, helped me find a car, and took me with him to meet his friends the Falks in Milwaukee on Friday night.
Michael Falk is a school buddy of Tom's who also was the 2006 winner of the Jeopardy tournament of champions! We had a great evening of playing Outburst, Pictionary (that had been a long time!), and Catchphrase. Michael & Courtney were great fun; very down-to-earth and interesting to talk with. A highlight of the evening was watching Tom and Michael play an intense version of Trivial Pursuit of their very own: 15 minutes for the whole game, no turn can last more than 5 seconds or it's forfeited, and Courtney read all the questions. Tom had a huge lead on Michael for the first half, but choked on the last pie piece while Michael bounced around the board filling his. When the timer went off, Tom still had not filled the last pink piece, while Michael had his filled and was just trying to land on the center space - so he won. I've never seen anything like it!
Saturday we hung out with Katie & her brand-spankin' new boyfriend Joel (ok, he's not that new - but she met him not long before the holidays, so I'm still getting to know him!). We had a great time, eating, chilling, and playing Rook and Dutch Blitz. Overall, I think we convinced him that Wisconsin isn't quite as bad as he remembered it being! Now to talk him into moving back!!
After taking Tom to the airport, I met Dave & Paula for lunch (hooray!), and I wrapped up the evening watching the Packers tank with my friend Linda. Ooh-da-lally. Somebody prescribe Prozac for the state!