Murder-Mystery Dinner

My wife's cousin celebrated a significant birthday on Sunday and her close friends hosted a murder-mystery dinner. Naturally my wife and I were invited to a very fun evening as we tried to discover motive and the identity of the killer. Everyone came dressed up and enjoyed getting to know friends of the birthday lady.

Our invitation to the party came in a very ornate envelope via the US Postal Service. We get so little mail these days it was kind of fun to open a physical envelope filled with an elaborate invitation and two sealed sets of instructions. We were to read our own character details and be sure not to share them with anyone, including each other. I got to play the part of Stephen Goldring, a wealthy American traveling on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul. My wife played the part of Patty Hunt, a recently widowed woman with a shadowy past.

Upon receiving our invitation, we both had a number of questions and so I did an Internet search and found the game online. We got a few more details but didn't discover any secrets about our mystery. Should you be invited to the same event, I won't reveal any more specifics about our particular game. I will say that we had a wonderful time and really enjoyed ourselves.

We arrived at our host's house at the appointed time and and received more information about our characters as well as some instructions for the first part of the evening. We enjoyed the bar car (front porch of the house) while waiting for everyone to join. As none of the attendees drink alcohol, all of the drinks available were mocktails and added a bit of fun to the event. The host pressed her son and the sons of the birthday lady into service to take orders and mix up the various concoctions. One of the get-to-know-you activities included finding out everyone's drink of choice. My character enjoyed gin and tonic, which for me looked an awful lot like water, as that is really all I drink.

Next we moved into the dining car (dining room inside the house) where we enjoyed a spectacular meal. It amazed me that the host could accommodate all of the various dietary restrictions for around 20 guests. Nowadays it seems you can't get that many people in a room without 2 or 3 exceptions to whatever you prepared. The host did well and meal lived up to the haute cuisine one would expect on the Orient Express.

After dinner we moved to the sleeping car (family room) where we had a clue-finding activity after discovering one of the passengers had been murdered. The murdered passenger then switched roles to a doctor traveling in the coach car and provided his expert opinion to help with the clues. We also made sure to enjoy birthday cake and had a marvelous time solving the puzzle of the evening. Prizes were awarded to those that figured out the killer as well as a few other mini-games that made up the mystery. To me it seemed if everyone had a good time. My wife and I spent the ride home reminiscing about the evening and the fun we had.

Should you find yourself invited to a murder-mystery dinner, do not hesitate to go. If you have other plans that evening, cancel them so that you can attend. If you find yourself wanting to host such an event, I highly encourage you to spend the $50 to get a pre-packaged kit with all of the details necessary to pull off a spectacular evening. I know we had a lot of fun and they include a lot of tiny details that really matter when you try to solve a whodunit mystery.

Hoping for a Miracle

Most everyone has heard about the tragic story of the Titan sub trying to bring tourists down to see the Titanic. I spent Monday morning this week working on my sailboat's outboard engine. On the drive home, I heard a quick news blurb on the radio and became interested in the story. The sub went missing on Sunday and everyone knew they had 96 hours of air before the crew would start suffocating. I sincerely hoped the rescuers would find everyone alive and well within that 96-hour window.

Looking back, I had that nagging feeling that the sub imploded on the way down and nobody survived. I pushed that idea out of my mind as did a lot of people. The US Navy reported hearing an implosion sound on Sunday morning at about the same time the sub lost communication with the surface ship. They then clarified their statement as inconclusive. They knew what happened but didn't want to discourage anyone from looking for survivors because we all wanted to believe the 5 people in the sub could still be alive.

Tuesday and Wednesday we hear a story from searchers saying they heard banging sounds every 30 minutes. This is something that would happen if the people were sitting on the floor of the ocean inside the Titan sub tangled in the Titanic wreck. While we don't know the source of the sound, it gave everyone hope. We all wanted to believe in a miracle.

Thursday afternoon, the US Coast Guard held a press conference letting everyone know they had found pieces of the Titan sub on the floor of the ocean. They mentioned they found Titan's tail cone. I heard that but still had hope because it is a part meant to be ejected from the sub. Next they mentioned the rails that the sub sits on while on solid ground. Again, I had hope because the rails are not required to keep the hull of the sub intact. Finally they mentioned they found the front nose dome and all hope was lost that there would be any survivors. The only good news to come from the US Coast Guard press conference was closure to the story and knowing approximately what happened to the occupants inside the sub.

Today is Saturday and I have gone to a few news sources seeing if we know more about what happened. We can speculate but won't know for sure until a thorough analysis is completed. This will require finding as many pieces of the sub as possible, bringing them to the surface, and having engineers examine them to reconstruct what happened. I doubt it will be much different than what we all imagine happened as we mentally picture an aluminum can getting crushed with 5 people inside. I personally hope death came quickly and nobody suffered.

I know I am not alone as someone that hoped for a miracle. Everyone else that comments on the issue confesses to hoping as well. I think that is a good thing as we want to believe in happy endings. Sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.

Temu vs. Amazon

My wife recently bought me a linen suit. I had to host a company-wide event in New York and I wanted to look my best. The suit got a lot of complements and I enjoyed wearing it. I have continued wearing it as linen makes a great fabric for staying cool in summer.

While my new suit looks amazing, it can't change the fact that I am bald. Now I'm not saying baldness makes someone look better or worse, but you can't really wear a baseball cap with a linen suit. Not wearing a hat requires me to sunscreen my head or get a nasty sunburn. Sunscreen makes a bald head really shiny and so I prefer to wear a hat. What kind of hat goes well with a linen suit? A panama hat and my wife and I found one that we both like.

Initially we found the hat on Amazon for around $20. I thought about getting it but have been spending a lot of money on myself lately and so I opted to hold off. My wife was talking with some of her friends who have fallen in love with Temu and suggested she give it a try. She found the same hat on Temu for only $8. At that price she felt like she could get me an early Father's Day gift and gave it to me on Sunday. I wore it with my suit and looked like a villain from a James Bond film. Naturally I liked the combo.

This evening I started looking around to see what else is available on Temu. There are a lot of t-shirts with silly sayings but I wanted to see if they have more substantial items. I did a search for left-handed guitars and found a lot of musical items but no left-handed guitars. I doubt there are as many items as are available on Amazon but they have some great deals. From now on, I will probably search both sites and see which one has the better prices. So far Temu seems to be winning but we'll see how long that lasts.