STOGA STOGA

We had practice last night. It was late, but we stuck with it. Tim wasn't there, but in his place was Mel. I performed the same as in the last practice. I quizzed out 3 of the 4 matches, I errored the one match I didn't quiz out. That was scary. But the team did well. Mike did the same as me. There was one match where there was five quizouts: me, Mike, Christine, Chelsea, and Mel. The practice did help. I returned home to finish some homework.

I met up with the team again today at 9 in the morning for some practice during the Sunday School hour. We read the material and had two practice matches. Some of the questions were from before, some were made up on the spot. I got two quizouts. That was good enough for me. Next we had church. As they had communion, I was reviewing the material on the first communion! As church ended, we grabbed our secret sponser gifts, some warmed up their lunches, and we left. My secret sponser gift was a CD and dark chocolate (sweet). Yes, I was huffing it a lot. Some of my fellow quizzers got some carzy things. Tim got a giant cookie, bigger than the ones at CD! It was like the size of a medium pizza! Bryan's secret sponser spoiled him with a giant bag of M&Ms, over 2 pounds! Mike took a while getting in the van, he had to warm his chili. Lucky for us, he didn't release any gasious side effects while in the van. I had a hoagie with every condiment on it except dirt from the ground. It was very messy, but I kept it pretty clean.

We made it to Conestoga in good time. So we took a rom and began practice. It was the kindergaten room, one step up from the one we were last time, the preschool room. We sat in little seat next to a little table. We tried to make the table "levitate" by all putting our legs under it, but that fun was quickly ended by a certain coach. After prayer, we read through the material once, then split up for rounds of questions. That went well.

As the team rolled into the sanctuary, memories of the last time we were there flooded my head. I remember the last time we were there, we quizzed against Blainsport and lost bad. It made chuckle a bit. I also remember that the sanctuary is where we got the devasting news that West Liberty was no longer hosting the invitational, but rather PA was. When the mentioned the Invitational this time, I held my breath, hoping not to hear bad news again. It wasn't. All they wanted to do was gather registration earlier for the ease of the hosting conference, one that hosts less. They also made some rulings changes. They say now that apostles and disciples are sometimes interchangable. For that quizzer, that translates into, "they really aren't interchangable too often, so you're better off knowing direct text." They also said headings will be allowed to be used. They will not be questions, but a quizzer can use them in answers. That totally changes everything, and in the quizzer's favor. It makes up wonderfully for quizmasters being allowed to use "you" in a question.

Our match didn't start until the 3rd round. It was against Hope Community 1. The last time I recall quizzing against Hope Community 1 was in last year's ACC tournament. The team was different though. It wasn't the Hope Comm 1 I remember. No Ben, No Spazz. Like Christine told me, it was pretty much last year's Hope Community 2 moved up. I saw Ben's brother though, and he looked like a smaller version of Ben. The quizmatch was fast for me. I got a bonus right question 1, and buzzed in on question 2 and 3, and got them right. I quizzed out on question 3! It would have been more impressive on all buzz ins, but I took what I got. Tim quizzed just before review on question 12. Michael got a buzz in right, but Christine, Bryan or Chelsea could not get team bonus. Michael was unable to quiz. But we did win 80 to 55. 80 is the lowest we have scored all year so far. Hope Comm 1 kept us from our average, but we did the same to them, in a more hurtful fashion. Like Dave said, until us, they had a pretty easy schedule. Spring City was a challenge to them. Luckily, their next match of the day was Bowmansville 2 (I didn't watch it, but I think it was in their favor).

We had a round to rest before we were in the sanctuary for our next quizmatch. The quizmaster was Jamie D, favorite quizmaster by all. The opposing team was Hopewell 1. (I didn't know this in the match, but last time we were at Conestoga, we quizzed against Hopewell 1! I don't know what the score is. All I said was we lost.) I sat across from I wasn't able to quiz out as fast, but did quiz out on question 6. Christine delievered again. She gave team bonus. Tim quizzed out on question 10, shortly followed by Mike quizzing out on question 12. Chelsea scored, getting 30 points on the year. Mike picked up another one when a bonus went his way after a quizout. At one point, it looked like Hopewell would lose points on errors and have a negative score, but they managed to get 10 points, and not error more than 4 times. We won 155 to 10. Not as great as when we shut out a team in the first week with the same score, but it was good.

Last match was on the last round. Go figure, last round match during the Super Bowl. It was against Weaverland 1. They were placed in 9th. I predicted this would be the 2nd hardest team we were going against. I nervously sat in seat 1. I......I cant' believe I'm talking about this. I'm really upset with what happen. I think that if I talk this out, I can get over it better. I do feel like I should have done that last time I failed. What happened.......I couldn't quiz out. Mike quizzed out, Tim quizzed out, I couldn't get on board with that. Weaverland 1 was too fast for me. I got two buzz ins, but buzzing in on the 15 question, "How much wheat...", I was too stressed out to remember what it was. I knew this like that back of my hand in week 1, but like I always say, I don't like review. We won 90 to 65, but I feel like I failed my team. I could get the 3rd quizout to get 105 points. It would have been better for both my average and our average. I couldn't beat my perfect weeks record again. I've been trying since 2004 and have failed once again. I am frustrated. It's not easy to avoid being hard on myself. I could have.....should have done better. I was so upset I left right away.

We got home 5 PM, enough time for the Super Bowl. Currently I am watching it now. Indianopolis is winning against Chicago 29 - 17. The Colts on the offense with about 9 minutes left. It isn't looking hopeful for the Bears. I think the Colts are going to win, but I've said that for 3 weeks. I voted for Kicker Adam Viniteri to be the Super Bowl MVP. And I don't feel like waiting for the game to end to tell you. Watch it yourself to find out the winner.

Quizzing Question of the Post:
Who began mocking and beating Jesus?