And, just like that, another year of trivia is in the books. Although we slipped slightly this year from fifth place to sixth, I think that it was a very successful year once again, and I hope everyone had lots of fun. The best compliment we received in a long time was when a group of Plantz kids expressed surprise at the awards ceremony that we aren’t a much larger team. Considering the size and experience advantage that the teams that finish ahead of us have, I personally think we should be quite proud to finish in sixth place while simultaneously enjoying ourselves the way that we do. It sounds like everyone is excited about returning next year, so I think it’s safe to say that Too Much Trivia in the Pants will return for a twelfth consecutive year in 2009.

I want to thank Connemara and Ben for hosting us this year. Our team wouldn’t be able to carry on from year to year without the generosity of our hosts in allowing the team to overrun their domicile for a weekend, and they did a great job of hosting us, as have all of our hosts over the past eleven years.

I want to thank everyone who provided food and beverage to the team this year, be they sponsors, team members, mothers, visitors, friends, or casual observers. Everyone really came through this year, and we didn’t have to make any mid-weekend food runs, which always makes for a better weekend.

I want to thank all of our team members, whether they participated from the War Room or afar; whether they found answers, called in answers, answered phones down at the studio, or participated in the spirit, revelry, and camaraderie of the team; and whether they stayed all weekend or were only able to make a short, cameo appearance. Everyone’s assistance is appreciated and cherished: thank you, thank you, thank you.

I want to thank the Trivia Masters for putting together another successful weekend of trivia. I know you’re still dealing with the growing pains of adjusting to life on the Internet, but you’re making good strides. I also want to plea with next year’s Trivia Masters to relax and enjoy themselves a little more. Too often in recent years—especially this year—you seem to be taking trivia a little too seriously and forgetting the Trivia Credo: “Trivia is meant to be entertainment and should be perceived solely in that light.” Don’t get angry about teams having fun, and, most of all, don’t get so angry over phone jamming. (Not that we condone jamming, but I think most trivia participants appreciate clever and/or amusing jam team names, so please don’t deny the people their fun.) I think you did a good job this year of being lenient and taking lag time for slow Internet connections into account, and I sincerely hope you keep it up. Also, please take the size of teams into account when requesting phone answerers. We were often sending down a person or two to answer phones while down to only three or four team members playing—there’s no reason why teams with thirty, forty, fifty people cannot sacrifice a person to answer phones at all times if we manage to send people down with only a half-dozen playing.

Finally, this year’s photos have been posted, so I recommend everyone go over to the photos page and check them out.

Thanks once again everyone, and I hope you’ll all be back for trivia again next year.

♥ k.