Baby shower weekend is upon us and we (Dana) are excited. Actually, it will be a great time for me to go golfing with my father-in-law, so we all win. Dana initially wanted me to be a part of the festivities because I came up with some good party ideas. After politely, yet adamantly declining, she wanted me to wear my tuxedo tee shirt and be the valet parking attendant. I was not as polite declining that. (Okay, so I do own a tuxedo tee shirt and I wear it more than a 28 year ever should. Dana got rid of my ‘Danger; toxic gas in rear’ tee shirt a couple of years ago, so I am making progress.)

Trivia night on Wednesday brought us our second victory in a row. Our team, Trivia Newton John, is now a force to be reckoned with. I, however, almost blew the game this week.

The trivia master posts a free answer on MySpace each week and it is my role to remember to look it up. I came through this week and got the answer: ‘reading.’ I explained to Dana beforehand that I did not want to share the answer out of fear that I would ‘narrow her thought process.’ I added that, “I want her to keep an open mind and I will chime in when the proper time comes. I am doing this for your own good.” I repeated this same conversation to both of the other couples on separate occasions and refused to share the answer with anyone. I found a way, as I have a tendency of doing, to say this very obnoxiously.

So, the question comes, “according to a 2007 study, what family past time became more popular than watching television?”

We sat there for a little while and someone mentioned, surfing the Internet. Without a thought, I immediately concurred. It made perfect sense. We thought about it some more and settled on ‘surf the Internet.’ Right before handing in our answer, Mike asked me if this happened to be the free answer. I grabbed the paper, scribbled down ‘reading,’ and was saved from years of disgrace and a long walk home. We got 6 points from that answer and ended up winning by 5. Whew.

The moral of the story: I am an obnoxious idiot. (I can see Dana proof reading this nodding her head in approval.)

After that incident, the group learned about my staged backyard wrestling name, Dan Mysterious, and found out that I frequently attended numerous underground wrestling events in the Grand Rapids area until I was 18 years old. Kevin was intrigued and wanted to know my theme music and finishing move. (Kevin, my brother is sending me the VHS tape. It will be an instant viral sensation.)
Dana, and the other hand, was not so impressed. Her reaction was:

Dana: How old were you when we met?
Bryan: 18.
Dana: So were you doing
this while we were dating?
Bryan: Hmmm. You know, I think I did.
Dana: Yuck. (shuttering and moving as far away from me as possible.)

I could have told her that I made out with the whole cheerleading team* when I was 18 and her body language would have been more endearing. Just 24 hours earlier, I was driving her wild with my total house cleaning maneuvers. That didn’t help me this night.

* Since we are in the middle of a marriage series at church, I did not make out with any cheerleaders.

Thankfully I was still able to sleep in my own bed. After all, we still won.