Well, first things first. No getting around it, your non-uncle Bob cannot pull the same kind of crowds as your Uncle Bobo. I blame the beautiful weather, and also El Niño, since no one has blamed El Niño in at least a decade.

So yes, the team count was a bit lower than usual, but that certainly doesn't mean the fun count was lower, am I right? We all drank and ate and laughed and sang Happy Birthday to complete strangers who walked in for round eight, as Uncle Bobo intended. Speaking of those strangers - they wiped the floor with you on the last round. You should consider yourselves lucky they didn't come earlier.

It is exceedingly rare that a Duh round is the lowest-scoring round of the night - average of 3.8, folks. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you were all just over-thinking it, and it does not reflect in any way on your true abilities. Instead, I will concentrate on your mastery of one of my favorite visual rounds in a while - average of 7!

A three-way (heh) tie for third place between Platypups are GO!, High School Drama, and You Pick It led to a riveting chug-off: While it was indeed impressive that You Pick It's representative managed to accidentally drop his empty glass from his head directly through a tiny trash can lid opening, it is unfortunately still a disqualification.

• Platypups are GO! harnessed the power of PBR tallboys to break the tiebreaker with an impressive blend of speed and balance, and made it to third place!
• Who beats a platypup in a fair fight? The Fighting Axolotls took no guff from those Australian hooligans, perhaps because they are native to a completely different continent.
• Look At How Much We Know! is not trying to rub it in your face, but they did get first place, I'm just saying.

Thanks for coming out last night, humans! It was a lot of fun guest hosting, and Our Fearless Leader Bobo should be back next week. I'm sure I'll see you again, but as a competitor, not overlord.

It's not that I don't like writing these blog posts.  I actually do.  It's that I don't like writing them again after my computer does its elderly computer bit.  But you aren't reading this to hear me complain.

So they said there was a party in the back room.  I couldn't see back there, but I can tell you it sounded like a lot of fun.  I can tell you definitively that there was a party in the main room, because I was in it and it was awesome.  Thirteen teams.  Well, eleven in the main bar.  Two teams were having that party in the back room I was talking about earlier.  And it must have been a hell of a good time, because one of those teams took second and one took fourth.  That's not to say there was any slouching where I was sitting.  Big props to all the teams that stuck it out, even when they didn't think they were in it.  Round 8 is always full of surprises, and it's fun to watch the scores move with those teams that held onto their joker.

I love learning new things while I'm hosting the quiz.  And tonight, from some of my Geeks, I learned the four cycles of an engine:  Suck, Squeeze, Pop, & Blow.  Here's the night, engine-style:

Suck - Not to be a negative Nelly, but I will tell you what sucked tonight.  My poor sound system just can't keep up with how hard we rock the quiz.  During our break between rounds 3 & 4 it just crapped out.  Not a big deal by itself, I turned it back on and took some pressure off of it, and we had sound.  But not enough, some of the speakers weren't playing the music.  It was a tough break for some of the teams during round 7.  I am very sorry about that, and promise to have it fixed before next weeks quiz.

Squeeze - It was another packed house tonight, but we all managed to squeeze in thanks to a couple extra chairs and tables.  A lot of new faces, and plenty more old favorites (I'm not calling you old, just saying I'm glad you're back).  All together a very fun night.

Pop - If I had to pick just one "pop" moment, it would be when I shit the bed on entering the scores for round eight.  Almost really stepped on my whatzit there.  Luckily, I caught myself in time and we were treated to some Sudden Death Quizzing Action for the honors of first place.  A fantastic way to end the night.

Blow - Even with fifteen teams finishing the quiz and a Sooner-Or-Later round, we blew through the night, moving right along.  A big part of that comes from the lack of our normal side talk from some of the tables.  When we are quiet, we are quite a smooth room of Geeks.  Thank you all for that.

PS.  The new Churchill EP is up for downloading at i-Tunes.  You should totally buy it, because it is SUPER-GREAT!