What Is. . .Adios, Ken Jennings?

Yes, yesterday marked the last day in the Jeopardy life of Ken Jennings, at least until the Tournament of Champions. I'm suspicious about Ken possibly losing on purpose, as he did pass the $2.5 million marker yesterday. Personally, I think Ken should join the Jeopardy Clue Crew, apparently there's an opening.

Ok, recent (and not so recent adventures). I was sick for a while, then holidays and finals kept me from writing for a while. Let's go back to the Thursday before last. Shannon and I saw the Incredibles, and I have to say, I was not as impressed as I thought I'd be. I love Finding Nemo, but this was no Finding Nemo. It was really cute and the effects were awesome, but I just wasn't feeling it, I guess my expectations were a bit high. However, I did learn from the previews that there is a current trend in children's movies featuring zebras, including one film in which a zebra is voiced by Frankie Muniz. Hold me, I'm scared.

I was sick that weekend, but on the Friday night Courtney, Melanie and I had dinner at one of Joliet's newest establishments, Smart Alec's, the "Sassy Social Eatery" at Town & Country. The eatery was not too social, as there were very few patrons other than us, and not too sassy either, although I think our waiter's nametag said "Trouble." There were attempts at sass in the form of slogans on the wall, but basically this was just a low-rent Ed Debevic's. The food was average, but nothing to write home about. However, I did not order the Pot Roast that they advertise on the sign, so maybe I would feel differently had I partaken. Either way, the favorite part of my meal was the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard I had at Dairy Queen afterwards. Note: before heading to DQ, we attempted to check out Carnival Food Stand, but no one was there. Has anyone ever seen this place open? Discuss. I may start wanting cotton candy soon.

Ok, the rest of that weekend was spent watching OC DVD's and Shrek 2 (excellent, especially because there was no Smashmouth), and I didn't brave the social whirl until last Wednesday, Black Wednesday and Megan's 24th birthday. The night was spent at Sapphire, and we had an awesome time. Megan got tables reserved for us in the club's "Vodka Room," so we had a great spot to hang out and observe the goings on. I have to say, I love this place. If the dance floor was a wee bit bigger (and if you could bring drinks on the dance floor), it would be even better, but it's great. I especially liked that they opened up the VIP section of the club to everyone for the night, I don't know if this is a regular thing or what. Overall there weren't too many amusing encounters with strangers,but there was some kind of singer on the dance floor, according to the flyer I was emailed, his name was Georgie Porgie, which was somewhat bizarre. It felt like almost every person I've ever seen at a Joliet bar was there that night, which leads to nickname Sapphire, "Heroes & Samy's, but Dressed Up." Oooh, I just found Georgie Porgie's website. This quote rocks: "His follow up releases, 'Strawberry', and 'Everybody Must Party'; kept the rumps shaking, arms swaying and pearly whites flashing on the jam packed dance floors." Bad use of semicolon, and "pearly whites flashing"? Anyway, Sapphire is good.

Thanksgiving, as usual, was awesome, we had lots of food and had a family Apprentice Watching Party. On Friday, my brother and I took my neighbors to see the Spongebob movie, which surpassed my expectations. It was very funny, and I was glad to see David Hasselhoff has a sense of humor. Two and half stars.

Friday night Melanie and I made a brief stop at Heroes to catch up with people before heading out to Naperville. We spent the evening at Features, and I honestly can't remember anything very interesting happening. However, as much as I like Features, the bar might have the worst layout ever: the dance floor is in the middle of the place, and you have to walk through the floor to get from one area to another. This is annoying both for dancers, as it gets really crowded, and people walking through. At point I was cutting across the dance floor and got stuck in a traffic jam, during which a random large guy started dancing behind me and I couldn't escape. Features, next time you remodel, let's rethink this. Saturday night was more family fun at my cousin's engagement party at a bar in Forest Park, good times all around. I think that's it for stories for now, I'm almost done with finals and feeling better, so there should be more tales soon.