Outtakes

Sometimes the outtakes from the weekend are just too good to be left on the cutting room floor.

Here you will find a hodge podge of what you missed if you were not in the Amana Colonies this weekend.

There was Sunday dinner with my favorite cousin from Waterloo after we had our Moser cousins reunion.




There was a photo opp at the back of a vehicle that was just too hard to pass up






There was proof positive that beer will help facilitate over exposure.










We ran into the Puzzler who has Football tickets to this weeks Buckeye game. He wants to give them to a victim of the Cedar Rapids flood. But after some reconsideration figures those people have already suffered enough.










And then there was Billy's landlady who we caught red-handed.

Billy in limbo

We're really not panicking yet because we feel Billy is probably jet lagged and that is why we have not heard a word.

We did receive a postcard this morning from the Puzzler. However the postcard made mention of a typhoon which made us a bit uneasy. Billy does not do well if there are high winds around him.

I sent an email to him with some material for his next book and asked him to update me on how Billy survived the trip.

The question remains....is he jet-lagged or is he blown away? Stop back here for updates.

Billy has a dream

Beijing Olympics 2008 - The Countdown Begins @ Yahoo! Video

Billy loves all kinds of sports. His favorite is football and his beloved Iowa Buckeyes. The puzzler has Jack Nicholson seating for the Buckeye season and has promised the tickets to Billy and us when they are out of town on their various traveling adventures. You can follow the adventures of the Puzzler by clicking here.

But this year Billy is conflicted. He can use the Puzzlers football tickets whilst they are in China for this years Olympics or...are you ready for this.....he can tag along with them in China.

Billy has a hard decision to make. His passport is up to date and he travels light (unless you factor in the lung) and he loves watching gymnastics....something he was never able to do himself.

Like I say he is conflicted. There will be a family meeting today at the Crippe household and we will be there to help make the right decision for him. So stay tuned. Will Billy see the first two Buckeye games or will he be a world traveler? Time is short, the Naked Gun is making the airport run tomorrow.

Trivia at the Moose

I had to go to the Moose tonight...because I missed last night. You see ....last night I had to take Billy to the special Olympics in Dubuque. The Hopper was mad and so was the Puzzler because I told them I would be there. But Billy rang up my cell phone and told me about the Olympics and how he would be real good in the luge event......Well we headed for Dubuque.....actually it isn't a bad ride with the divided highway and all and we were looking forward to the sledding and all.......well i t all took place indoors and to say Billy was disappointed would we a huge understatement. We trucked home ...mostly in silence as Billy had the headphones "glued" to his ears most of the way, whilst trying to figure out the latest Wuzzle book.

I digress....So tonight I was able to go to Randyland aka the Moose.....The Hopper didn't show because he can only do one night in a row. Actually it is mostly unknown that the Hopper is a gourmet chef. He spends his free evenings glued to the Food Network. I suspect he was home preparing a soufflé. The Puzzler, a new spousal member of Elmcrust had to do a tour of the facility.....like he didn't know how to find the restroom or bar.....he was at both of them this noon.

Bernalidio and Deb were there....so was Big Al the Vegas odds maker. Also present was Electric Brian and Tom the interior decorator.....but my camera was in the car at that time.

I am a direct descendant of Christian Metz...the founder of the Amana Community in Iowa. He was the charismatic leader who become inspired from time to time and I am a lot like him in that respect. At certain times I become inspired to do a post to my blog and when Randy took charge of the group and suggested various trivia topics and started buying rounds of drinks....I became inspired and took note with mental recording and digital photos.

Jack the pill pusher was there, as was Rich the mortgage broker. Kirk the former roofer and Lowell in search of a recliner...made the round circle. the first trivia question was , "If you could party with any celebrity, who would you like to party with?" Mortgage broker began with Chicago....the band ...not the city and soon the rules committee established that it had to be individuals. Next the question came up as to whether living or dead.......it was determined that one or two dead people could be included. It should be noted that the cell phones were humming in an effort to get the trivia answers.

Andrea, the Moose's newest and very adept barkeep, kept us well watered and we were ready for more trivia.

The new categories included, "If you were in the center seat of an airliner and had to choose your two sidekicks for a lengthy flight, who would they be?" We also had a long animated discussion relating to Andy Griffith. Where was Steve Smid when we needed him?


Here are the answers...you make up your own hypothetical. Tom Cruise, Sean Connery, Anna Nicole Smith, Charlie Gibson, Burt Reynolds, Jack Nicolson, Hugh Heffner, Hillary Clinton, Alan Greenspan, Diane Sawyer, Dominica Davis, Alisyn Camerato, Courtney Friel, Julie Banderas, Tiger Woods...........

....but no Brian Kilmeade

News Flashes

We get the news down here and need to mention "bloggies" in the News! Gary, Billy's favorite humorist and his favorite pizza supplier made the Gazette Saturday. Welcome Marcos Pizza to Cedar Rapids.

The Wine Lizard is in today's Gazette. We had hoped that they would have put a picture of Billy in the Gazette since he was in the center of the room and the photographer had to work around him most of the time.

Of course, there was the Puzzler...but he is always buried on the back page in the lower right corner. I think they put him there because he is a raconteur.
The Puzzler is Billy's Godfather and he usually leaves a message in code form.

Colonel Sanders in the news...He placed 5th out of 1200 oddly costumed revelers last night. Next year he will be back with an updated version. We did get the peoples choice award though, as everyone at breakfast this morning is dumbfounded that it wasn't 1st or 2nd place. Maybe it was our accent that they didn't understand.