First Week in December 2009

Monday started with work and I just wanted to sleep, more sleep, and even more sleep. My lack of sleep has been frustrating, because I've been struggling during the day, and then waking up around 1700. Since I was awake by then, I went and had dinner at VK's house with the stipulation I was going to be home by 2030. It was close, I left at 2030. I got home and did some busy work cleaning and laundry until I went to bed.

Due to time restrictions, we'll be skipping ahead to Wednesday. Ben, Sarah, (of all people) Brianne, and I made plans to play Arkham Horror at 2030 after Ben and Brianne got out of a dance class at 2000. So in the meantime I asked VK to meet me at our favorite dining establishment, the Hy-Vee cafeteria at Shadow Lake. I finally headed home around 2000 so I could be at Ben's place at 2030, and while I was in the car, I found out it was a two hour class. So Arkham Horror was a fail. I stayed home instead.

Thursday I finally got my sleep meds prescription filled, and it was blessed sleep.

Friday was my annual work Christmas party, and yes, it is called a Christmas party. Last year if you remember, I won four pounds of chocolate as a door prize. Jenny really appreciated it. This year I won a printer! An awesome prize considering I haven't had a working printer in about a year.

Dinner was at Champions Run, not too far from VK's house. Photo courtesy of Regan.

I took a few pictures, they probably won't matter to you until you know the people involved, you can find them here.

Saturday was time for the second annual Ben and Eric's Chili Throwdown. First off, much thanks to Troy and Merinda for allowing us to host the party at their place. Secondly, I will not have it over the Big 12 Championship game again, maybe the first Sunday afternoon in December. Thank you to all the participants. The odd part was that there wasn't any chili that was really spicy. I tried one jalapeno, but it didn't do much at all.

The winners were:

• First place: VK
• Second place: Lisa (the latecomer)
• Third place: Me
• Spiciest: Kevin
• Most unique: Jessica

Chili wasn't the only thing that was made. Ladies, if you want attention from men, carry one of these.


Mandi saw Herbie Husker do a cartwheel on TV, so I decided to do one too, it wasn't a pretty sight. Photo courtesy of Lisa.


Jenny doesn't even like beans. Photo courtesy of Matt.


Not really sure what's happening here. Photo courtesy of Matt.

People took lots of pictures, here are 12 from me, 28 from Matt, and 19 from Lisa (on Facebook).

Sunday I got going and made it to church at 1100 in hopes of meeting Frank and Joe to watch the last certain Bears victory of the season. The Bears won, but I never did connect with Frank and Joe. So after church I went over to VK's, and was going to pick up lunch on the way...

...hey, how about some KFC, I haven't had that in while, so I stopped in at the KFC on 108th and Maple and ordered some original recipe, and was told that they were out. Excuse me, but KFC and you're out of chicken? Okay, I went to Hy-Vee on 108th and Fort and got chicken there.

After lunch we hung out and then went to Home Depot and Cold Stone. We bought light bulbs and frozen treats, respectively. I finally left with just a few more inches of snow on the ground than I wanted to drive in, but made it home after a 40mph trip.

Later on in the evening Ben, Sarah, and I attemped to play a game of Arkham Horror via Google Wave. It was surprisingly easy, although game play took a little longer, so the game didn't get finished. Ben had the board to keep track of play, I kept track via a doc and the Arkham Horror Wiki, and Sarah used paper and the same wiki. I look forward to playing this way again.