Tonight we play our eleventh live trivia game since we started playing live trivia games again in earnest in December, 2022. The COVID 19 pandemic put a lot of things on hold or hiatus for people, along with making investors in whatever company makes Purell hand sanitizer very, very rich. But what do I know about investing?

Yes, the pandemic definitely put out trivia team’s activities on hold, though we played quite a lot of virtual games to alleviate boredom, and in some cases, “see” friends and family. Now we’re back to doing live trivia again, and it’s going “OK.” We have our lucky moments, but we’re hardly dominating the trivia scenes in any of the places we’ve played, which is OK! We’re semi-retired as far as playing very competitively compared to how we used to operate pre-plague. I actually like it better this way!

So far, we’ve only won prizes three times in our past 10 outings at three different trivia spots.

About those three spots, each has their own quirks! The Owl is a bit of a drive, the drinks are reasonably priced, and the host? Well, that’s all I’m going to say! Until he’s replaced, we’re not likely to return to this place. The trivia competition decent here, and it’s always nice having that one “team to beat!” I also like seeing the black and white kitty snoozing in one of the storefronts nearby! We used to also like taking walks around Milan before our games.

Closer to home we have a couple of options, one of which is Sticks. The parking isn’t great unless you want to pay, which makes it unattractive, especially on colder nights (the free parking is quite a long walk). The host Ashley is bubbly and does a solid job, and is friendly and approachable. Getting drinks at the bar is kind of annoying when lines are long, but not something that makes the place a deal breaker. The competition is good, but not insurmountable.

About the word “insurmountable…” That is how I describe the competition at Arbor Brewing Company, aka “Corner Brewery.” Here, there are several “teams to beat,” and most of them will have between five and eight players on any given night. If you don’t arrive at least an hour early, forget about getting a decent table!

So far at “Corner,” we’ve only managed to win prizes by wagering low on final questions that sink enough teams. Though we’d much rather win by being in first and getting the final right without having three other teams to settle a tiebreaker, meh, we’ll take what we can get! We seldom have more than just a couple of players in a room packed with 20 some odd teams, so it’s definitely David vs. Goliath.

Adding players always improves our chances a bit, and tonight we’ll allegedly have four! More people to talk each other out of correct answers!

Beyond this week, I don’t know when or if we’ll be playing our next in person game. That all depends on my work schedule and weather!