Triwizard Tournament 2018 in Downtown Oshkosh

As it would happen, geeky things pop up on my Facebook. I clicked interested and immediately I received a message from a friend who wanted to start a team. So I asked some of my friends. One said yes and we knew we had a team of 3. The tricky thing, though, is commitment. One friend flaked, but the other pulled together a team of awesome women to tackle this crazy task. And thus the "Wits Beyond Measure" were born!

The Caramel Crisp Corner Cafe in downtown Oshkosh put together this challenge, which consisted of a scavenger hunt of pictures as well as completing tasks at local businesses. Everything was within walking distance and we posted all of our tasks to Instagram. We weren't sure what we would win or how to win (besides points), but we were in it for the fun and excitement of the task set before us.

So Saturday morning we met up to receive our tasks and achieve greatness!

We had to complete the tasks in order, except when the Escape Room tasks got backed up. We were allowed to continue on to the next tasks and then return to the Escape Room. We took our Butterbeer Cookies and our directions and we were off on our adventure!

TASK 1: TEST YOUR SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Task 1.1: Head to Bar 430 to complete a Quidditch task. We had to play a form of Beer Pong, called Butterbeer Pong, and we challenged another team. If you made it through the ring AND in the cup, there were bonuses. It was near impossible. Shockingly, I was actually really good at it. You couldn't bounce it. You had to throw it overhand into the cups. All that time practicing free-throws in the gym clearly paid off.

Task 1.2: We then had to go to the Market Boutique on Main and do some conversions into wizard money. I was so glad my friend Jennifer was there, because she's a mad math wizard!

Task 1.3: Then, to complete our Skills and Knowledge task, we went to Mojo's music and found the CD of the music by the Weird Sisters. Inside the CD was the directions to come up with our own jingle including the words wizard, spell, and our team name. Easy peasy.

TASK 2: RETRIEVE WHAT'S BEEN TAKEN

Task 2:1: At Mojo's we had to get the golden egg. Once our jingle was signed off on, we had to ask for the egg, which then had our riddle clue that took us Escape Oshkosh for our Task Two.

Task 2.2: So we went to the Escape Room. This is where things started to go pear-shaped. There was a huge wait. We were actually told by one of the organizers to go to the other tasks and then come back. So we did! When we finally came back to this task, we still had a bit of a wait, but it was a really neat experience. They split us up and we each had to solve a puzzle and then, through a door, solve the last puzzle to get us out. Oh... two were stuck in a cell in Azkaban. Teamwork at it's best!

Waiting....

Task 2.3: Before we went to the Escape Room, we went to House of Heroes, or local comic book store. We had to fulfill the task of organizing the potions by their ingredients. We had Felix Felicia (Liquid Luck), Polyjuice Potion, and the Love potion. My friend Jennifer's sister took care of that in quick order, while I filmed Jennifer riding a broom. And that was it for retrieving what had been taken!

TASK 3: TEST YOUR BODY TO RETURN A VICTOR!

Task 3.1: After House of Heroes we went over to Balance Oshkosh. It is a lovely clothing store and we were tempted to shop, but had a mission.... to answer the Quidditch trivia! Megan, Jennifer's sister, totally took care of all of that. Well... I knew when it started. So score one for me! Talk about a well-oiled-Potter-machine!

Task 3.2: Finally... we, um... had to actually test our body. We went to Marisa's Fit Boutique and went through a mini Boot Camp. Oh my goodness... the crunches... oh my goodness... the push-ups. There were jumping jacks and standing jumps and squats... oh the squats... Finally there were burpees. We had to do each task for 1 minute. I'm going to be honest... I didn't wear the bra for these activities and my underwear fell down under my pants. I am, though, proud to say that I did 2 burpees at my best skill level and then had to stop because my boobs were just not having it. I plan to be sore for a week. (We actually did this task and then went back to the Escape Room. This location was right by our final destination, so going back over to Escape Room was a bit more difficult than we intended.)

Task 3.3: All we had to do was return to headquarters and confirm we had completed everything (which we had).

Then they had some extra tasks to extra points. This is where a great deal of the fun really happened.

NEWT LEVEL TASKS: Post photos and videos to Instagram to get loads of extra points. (We weren't sure if we got an additional 5 points for each posting if we geotagged or if we just received a general 5 points. Either way, we tagged EVERYTHING!) We did these throughout our travels, during downtime, etc.

5 Points Each:

These kids were there and I told them if they were going to photobomb, just get in the photo!

FREE ELF!

Oh wait... mine are even better! FOR DOBBY!

10 Points Each:

Can't get more forbidden than this! It was even tucked away in the very back corner of the shop!

They had a toy broom! YES!

The lady was asking us what we were doing and thought it was so cool, we decided to invite her to the ball!

20 Points Each: 

The video didn't turn out, but I mashed up the pictures.

We're in the doorway! It counts as inside!

This guy was adorable. Wasn't keen on being filmed, but since it was Harry Potter, he was "THRILLED."

In the end, we had an absolute ball! I would do this again in a heartbeat! Absolutely wonderful! We arrived back at the cafe and checked in. They had us sign our little card with our number so they could call us if we won and off we went - accomplished, empowered, and hungry.

Later that evening, I got a phone call from a weird number in Oshkosh and my husband answered it. I heard our team name and immediately took the phone. Our team had won the Newt Level Prize for all of our amazing Instagraming! I didn't expect to win anything, but oh my goodness... we were THAT awesome! So here's to an amazing team that not only had fun, but also rocked it enough to win a gift certificate and popcorn!

A Nerdy Teacher's Closet: Week 6 (10/8 - 10/12)

I went full on Harry Potter this week. I had a few Harry Potter shirts and they're witches and wizards and it's October, so I figured it'd be okay to maybe channel that. I mean, especially since this past weekend where my family went all Harry Potter crazy and we all determined our Official Pottermore Houses and wands and pratonuses. It was quite a surprising weekend for all of us. Yet, therein lies inspiration and that is where my weekend of t-shirt inspiration comes from.

Week 6: 10/8 - 10/12

Monday, October 8, 2018
Our I didn't know what to wear at the beginning of the week. I found it incredibly difficult to not want to defer to another comfortable shirt and start duplicating. Since I had spent the weekend sorting my October shirts, I started sorting through them and found this shirt as my comfiest option that I could also theme out for the week. This shirt is so absolutely comfy and loose, so it made me feel happy on a Monday that I knew was going to be right. Since I had just had a Harry Potter weekend, I figured this would be great. It came from a Loot Crate box.

Tuesday, October 9, 2018
I purchased this shirt when I went to Universal Orlando a few years ago. They largest size they had was a 2XL and, at the time, there was no way I was fitting into that. It was so tight, it squeezed my arms. I, though, bought it anyways, knowing what was ahead of me. Last year I finally wore it and I didn't look like a sausage. So I was very excited to put it on today. I also love Sirius Black. You can get your very own version without even going to Orlando! They do sell it in 3XL on the website.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018
The Forbidden Forest.... sooooo spooookyyyy. I mean look at this thing? Soooo spooky! I totally realized on this day that all of these Harry Potter shirts are full body shirts and it makes it really difficult to take a picture. Awesome! I purchased this through TeePublic.

Thursday, October 11, 2018
I'm not gonna lie... I've never worn this shirt. Not ever. I have no idea why. I just never have. It was one of the shirts that was folded and never really came up in my mind to wear. It's an Art-Nouveau style shirt of Luna Lovegood. If I remember correctly, it was part of empowered women series from several years ago via TeeFury. Now it is available through TeePublic.

Friday, October 12, 2018
I Same story as above. I bought the shirt. I never wore it. Art-Nouveau Hermoine Granger. Was at TeeFury, now at TeePublic. MeganLara, who has these shirts available through her shop on TeePublic, has several of these style shirts for all your geeky loves and even more for Harry Potter.

That was an interesting week of shirts. I had one that I didn't get to wear, but it's more Harry Potter vs. Lord of the Rings. I'm disappointed that I can't wear a selection of my shirts to school, because they depict guns. It's my Supernatural shirts. There's always a gun somewhere on the shirt. I'm thinking, though, next week might be zombie shirts and then our short week will be N.E.W. Game shirts and then the week of Halloween I have a few choice shirts, I think. November, though, I am breaking out the Science and Sci-Fi shirts, because November is Sci-Fi month!

5 Fandom Friday - Favorite Things About the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando

Seems really specific doesn't it? It's summer, though, and many people are traveling to this much-loved destination. After a somewhat sad experience at the Wizarding World last summer when I attended, I wanted to reflect on what I loved about being there.

Note: I wasn't unable to go on any of the rides at the time due to seat size. I was body shamed by an employee who thought they were being helpful, but sent me into a panic attack and embarrassed me. The only good to come out of it was that I was able to walk through the intro to the ride with my daughter and mother. It was Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.

1. The PINS!
I don't know how open I've been about this anywhere on my blog, but my goodness I have a pin addiction! It's like that old-person addiction to shot glasses or spoon souvenirs. I have to have PINS! Hard Rock Cafe can take my money, just give me the pins! It's my favorite way to identify places and events. And holy crap... there are carts of pins all over the place and the stores all have ones too! I needed an intervention, because it was becoming a bit rough for my pocketbook and where I'm going to, one day, store them. Oh my goodness I was in love! The proclamations were fun and I bought this one for my classroom, because it was silly.

2. The Butterbeer
Yes please! It was a real treat and it was hard not to go back for more and more and more! Sugar, yo... it's dangerous! The recipe that is floating around isn't as good, but I was able to finagle it to our liking. Let the butterbeer flow....

3. The Interactive Wand Adventure
So you can buy a special wand and then walk around to special locations, perform a spell action, and something will happen! No, we didn't do the ceremony of being assigned a wand. The line was a bit too insane for my liking. Everyone got in on the action, though, and I thought it was a really amazing touch to add to the magic.

4. Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley
It... was just amazing.... for realz. There are all the shops with all their amazing little curios. There are dancers and people to talk to. Everyone is, of course, in character. All the things to see will just melt your heart.

5. Hogwarts Express & King's Crossing
I used to live in Edinburgh, Scotland. I saw so many of Rowling's inspirations there. When I went to London to do some research for my PhD, I couldn't pass up going to King's Crossing. To see it replicated here just made my heart long for my life back in the UK. The express itself was a relaxing little trip between the two Harry Potter locations and I loved the videos and the interactive experiences that occur while riding.

I'm sure if I had been able to do more of the rides it would have been even better. I'd love to go back now that I've lost so much weight. Universal Orlando, overall, is my absolute favorite place and I'd go back there every year if I could. My daughter wasn't fully into Harry Potter and was a bit young to understand the geeky implications of what we were doing, but her interest was peaked. She was more obsessed with the Jurassic Park area. Oh my goodness.... the obsession is bigger than any hardcore Potter fan. No offense, but I'm so serious.

Even if you're not a Harry Potter expert, you'll find something to love and enjoy.