Dem’s Abroad Pub Quiz

Here in Ireland, going to the pub is a part of life. Sometimes you have a Pint, sometimes you don’t. I often wondered why it’s such a big part of the Irish culture. For me, the answer came when I started realizing that traditionally – Irish have large families and very small homes. This means that the Pub became what is effectively everyone’s living room when you wanted a bit of space to “yourself”. It also became a place to meet your mates and a heart of the community. Now – with a housing crisis here in Ireland and many individuals and families forced to share houses and apartments (I know of several single mums that share eg. a 3 bedroom house – in which each mum has a room – shared with their youngest one or two – and the older kids all share a bedroom too!) what I’ve found is that folks spend time at the pub. Eg. Your roommate or the kids are using the living room to watch something. You go to the pub to give them space and not spend your life in the bedroom or kitchen.

That being said – part of Irish life and the center of everything is the Pub quiz. Some Pubs have them weekly, while others have special events to fund raise. I’ve been to a few while here – but recently had my chance to help organise one for the democrats abroad. Basically, several of us wrote up 50 questions – and then the “host” chose a few from each area to include in the sections. Because so many of us wrote questions – we could still participate – because in total only 4-6 questions (out of 50 asked) were used -and we didn’t know all the answers.

The First annual Pub quiz for Dems abroad was held on July 13, at the Stag’s Head Pub in the city center. There were about 50 ex-pats that showed up and answered questions from about 8 pm – 11:30pm. Marja and her husband were the “tally” for the team and then the Dem’s Abroad Chair (TJ) was the host.

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016
Marja and TJ

My team was made up of Paddy, myself, Stephanie, and then another Patrick and his wife (Irish) who we met at the table quiz. Our team name was the “#NeverTrump-eteers”. The 3 of us from work were stumped on many questions -but amazingly – the couple we met knew many of the answers. My team came in 2nd.

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016

Some other teams had really great names – like “Make America Great Britain again”

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016

And Donald Trump’s Tiny T-Rex Hands.

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016

The entire night – we had a great time – and the first, second, and third place teams were all within 2 points of each other (55, 54, 53 points).

The first place team: the Kew Tours! – who won the glamourous hotel voucher for 2.

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016

The second place team (mine): The #Never Trump-eteers (who won back the 3 bottles of wine that I donated):

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016

And the third place team -I can see Ballsbridge from my house – who won a fabulous bag of gourmet Gummy bears:

Dems Abroad Pub Quiz 2016

it was a great evening – and very successful in terms of fund raising. Hopefully, we can do another one sometime soon!

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I Voted – ABSENTEE!

I’ve been waiting for my ballot. Everyone else had theirs last Friday – and I was getting concerned that maybe there was a problem with my absentee ballot. I printed out an emergency ballot, filled it out and had it ready to go in case my ballot didn’t get here by October 1st (it has to be mailed by Oct 8 to get there in time.)
Why why was I worried? Because I’m voting absentee from abroad, and I want to make sure I have enough time to get my vote mailed and counted.
The good news is that my ballot for Georgia got here yesterday. YEAY!
I filled it out, and sealed it up. I went to the post office – and because the ballot is oversized, and I’m sending it from Germany – back home to the USA
it cost me 4 EUROS (that’s almost $8) to mail it back.
But – despite it all, I did it.

I VOTED.

Now, for those of you in the USA –
~I know it won’t take you two weeks of wondering if your ballot was is going to get your house.
~It won’t cost you $8 in gas to go to the poll or to mail your ballot.
~I know it won’t take you a month of wondering if it got there, or if once the ballot gets there it will be counted….
So, to my view, there’s No EXCUSE.
If I can VOTE from Germany, and do all that – just to make sure MY VOTE makes it on time and that I HAVE A VOICE ….
ON
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2008
I EXPECT NO LESS OF YOU. I don’t care who you vote for.
JUST VOTE.
Update –
Twenty-five states, including nine swing states – Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, – have registration deadlines in the next two weeks.

Voters in the following states (who have not yet registered and/or requested their ballots) must ensure that their FPCAs are sent in NOW!

Oct. 4 – Illinois, Nevada, South Carolina

Oct. 5 – Alaska, Mississippi

Oct. 6 – Colorado, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming

Oct. 8 – Missouri

Oct. 10 – Idaho, New York

All of these states except for NY and WY will accept faxed FPCAs.

Please use the following US fax number: +1-703-693-5527 (the toll free numbers in many parts of the world do not work). All faxes are received in Virginia by the Federal Voting Assistance Program. The FVAP will log in the date and time that the fax was received and then forward it on to your local election official.

For deadline purposes, your form is deemed received when it arrives on the FVAP’s fax machine, but you still must MAIL the original form to your local election official.

Exceptions: NY and WY do NOT accept faxes. The only way to meet the deadlines for NY and WY is to ensure that your original FPCA arrives in the local election office by mail no later than the deadline. (NY and WY will also accept FPCAs by commercial courier.) NOTE: FPCAs need NOT carry a foreign postmark!

Later Deadlines:

The other states have later registration deadlines.

Check them here: http://democratsabroad.org/registration_dates and watch for our forthcoming Voter Alerts.

To check the status of your registration, check http://democratsabroad.org/registration_links.

If your state is not listed, contact your local election official. You can find this information at www.Votesmart.org/voter_county_election_offices.php

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