Kapachino

My Friend is a World Champion Punner

On Saturday David and I went to Austin to see my good friend and former roommate, Carmen, compete in the O. Henry World Championship Pun Competition. It’s always quite an experience, one which I have actually come to enjoy. I love visiting Austin, seeing Carmen and her family, and the pun competition can be pretty dang funny.

Although David wasn’t completely convinced he would like it, I did catch him making a pun at one point. There was some reverb from the microphones, and someone in the crowd sarcastically yelled, “Can we get some more feedback?” Then David whispers under his breath, “Feedbag.” I made him repeat it to me, and he admitted that he was trying to pun off the word “feedback.” Too bad the pun didn’t have to do with anything…but I thought it was really cute.

Anyway, I would like to proudly say that my friend Carmen won first place in the event “Punniest of Show.” This is where the contestants perform a prepared monologue under two minutes long. I’m so proud! For your enjoyment:

Walking Cleo

Lately, while walking Cleo, I’ve caught her trying to roll in another dog’s feces. This has happened before. I don’t always catch her before she does it, either, because yeah, dogs are weird and they like excrement. I will let her sniff it to her heart’s content, but wiping her face in it? No. Absolutely not, that is unacceptable.

Also, last week she bit my leg and bruised it. She was just nipping, because she got really excited, but I did not appreciate it.

I really can’t stay mad at her long though, because she gives me something to cuddle with at night, which I desperately need, and it gives me so much pleasure when she licks my feet. Also, she’s just really cute. And Boyfriend David likes her:

The Weekend’s Hap-PUN-ings

Yesterday, for the second year, my roommate Carmen participated in the World Championship Pun Competition in Austin, TX. There were two events. The first was called “Punniest of Show” in which the contestants (32 in all) performed a 90-120 second monologue and were rated on a scale of 1-10 by four judges for a maximum of 40 points. I am proud to say that with a score of 39, I now live under the same roof as the second-place winner!

Here’s the video of her ENTIRE presentation:


You can read the entire transcript here.

The second event was a tournament in which two punsters went head-to-head. They would receive a topic and go back and forth punning off that topic with only 5 seconds to come up with one. If they took longer than 5 seconds they were out. No word could be punned off of twice, and if they reused a word they got a strike against them and they were out on the third strike.

Carmen faced last year’s second-place winner in the first round. The topic was “Dancing.” A few excerpts:

“My paper isn’t good I got a B, but can I plié?”
“At the big dance your senior year of high school you have to have the right drink. You need promenade.”

In the second round her topic was “The American Presidency.” This one lasted 17 minutes!

“I’ll have to put a Nixon that one.”
“I was editing my web page and I wanted to make sure everything was easily accessible, so I put a Lincoln everything.”
“Have you ever found one of those pits? They come impeaches.”

Moving onto the third round, the topic was “Mystery and Crime Fiction.” More snippets of punny goodness:

“For Halloween I dyed my hair and put it up in a ponytail with a red herring.”
“There was a costume that was used in the play, but I don’t know who donned it.”

Finally, she moved onto the final round, facing off against last year’s first and third-place winners. The category was “Fictional Creatures”:

“I gave her some money because I ogre.”
“If you’re hurting, I don’t care. Bear it.”
“I’m so mad, I’m going to lop off your head! Psych! Lops aren’t very nice.”

Last year’s champion got out on strikes, and Carmen took it to the other guy. But it was soon obvious that he knew many more creatures than she did, as he revealed himself to be a Dungeons & Dragons fan, whereas Carmen is NOT into fantasy or any similar genre. So after a long and hard battle, she conceded and again took second!

Congratulations Carmen!

Her fans:

The Nickel Creek Concert: One Less Thing To Do Before I Die

I will admit, I haven’t been to a ton of concerts in my life, but I’ve been to some. And seeing Nickel Creek live last Friday, something that I have been wanting to do for years, was the best live music experience I have ever had in the quarter century that I have walked this earth.

First of all, the band graciously requested a no-smoking policy at the club they performed in. That was wonderful. And thanks to some friends of mine who got there REALLY early and let us stand in line with them, we got to stand on the FRONT ROW. Which, as Lauren said, is the only way that counts. This band is raw talent. And they’re funny and personable, and my own age. I sincerely wish that this wasn’t their last tour.

Here is a picture to prove to you how close I was:

Here is the set list (the photo is upside-down to increase readability):

And here is a video that Lauren took of a funny song:

You can see the rest of my pictures here.

The only bad thing about the whole night was that we had to stay on our feet for six hours straight, and there was a LOT of waiting beforehand. This was not in the least bit pleasant, but it was worth it if only for the moment when they went off set list for the very last song and played “The Lighthouse’s Tale” instead of “When You Come Back Down” due to crowd request, after which ensued the most amazing crescendo of awesomeness that I forgot to close my mouth for longer than is socially acceptable. I have found myself wishing to be back in that moment many times since then.

So yeah, it was a pretty good concert.

***Edited to add as requested, the lyrics to the above song:

I won’t find another girl on my own
I don’t think you understand how dependent on you I’ve grown
Gonna gripe and moan till someone does something for me

Who am I gonna take to the Grammys
Who am I gonna make out with when I win
If you’re going to leave me
Set me up with one of your friends

Havin’ a Good Time

My brothers. What more can I say?