Last Week in November 2011

Monday; work, and the end of on call. After work I met VK at China Buffet in Bellevue. I didn't make my food overly spicy, so that was different. We went to Target afterwards. I bought a onesie for Hannah Marie. It turns out great minds think a like, because Jenny bought her the same one. I had to get the one I bought (see previous link) because Matt loves dancing, but hates penguins. After shopping, I came home and went to sleep.

Tuesday after work, I went and picked up Anne and Merinda, and we went over to Matt & Vivian's for some more baby time. Jenny joined us a little later. I played some more with Matt's new camera.

Big Yawn. Photo credit: Matt


Everybody gets a turn, no need to hog the baby.


Look how tiny her shoes are, and how good the quality is on the pictures
taken on Matt's new camera. Photo credit: Matt

Wednesday and Thursday were quiet days, with only RCIA on Wednesday to break up the monotony. Friday was my on call comp half day, so I combined it with a regular half day to get a whole day off ... see how that math works? I ran some errands, had lunch with Maggie at the UP cafe, visited Jillian and Lee (Zonda barked non-stop for :45), and slept. I ended up at the usual Friday dance. Probably the last one I'll be at this year due to holiday Friday busyness. After cleaning up at the dance, about a dozen of us went to Alvarado's in Council Bluffs.

Saturday I ran errands in the snow during the day, then ended up staying at home all night. Third Saturday in a row at home, it's starting to get a little old. I did shovel the drive twice, so that was exciting.

Sunday morning was the latest installment of More Mass Chaos, we went to Saint Bridget in South Omaha, the first one that the original Mass Chaos visited. It is a very pretty church.

We gathered up the group and headed to DJ's to watch the Bears game. So we lose our star quarterback, then we lose our star running back two games later, and lose a game on a Hail Mary pass and a missed Robby Gould field goal. Le Sigh. However, amazingly, we're still in playoff hunt, in fact, we still control our own destiny. Win and in.

I came home and got the house ready for the 4th Annual Ben and Eric's Chili Throwdown! People started arriving a little before 1800, and by 1900 we had eleven chili entries and six non-chili entries. If I counted correctly, we had 37 people came, so it was smaller than last year both in chilis and in attendees, but still quite a good turnout. Thank you to those who made suggestions on improving the contest from the year before.

Voting had all wrapped up by 2000, and we had our winners.

1st - CJ's Ensign Jimmy's Red Shirt Chili
2nd - Julia's No Beans About It
3rd - Adri's Timelord Old Time Favorite
Spiciest - CJ's Ensign Jimmy's Red Shirt Chili
NonChili - Brianne's Potato Bacon Nom Nom Soup.
All photo credist: Matt


There was also some game playing...


...lots of eating Photo credit: Matt...


...inexplicable shenanigans Photo credit: Matt...


...the worlds best behaved baby Photo credit: Matt...


...and Joe. What more could anyone want?

The feedback I got immediately was that the entries were, on the whole, far better than in years past. People seemed to have a good time. The only downside was that my camera quit working in the middle of the party. I still got a few pictures, you can see them here, Matt (thank you) jumped in when my camera gave up and took a bunch of pictures too. Thank you to all who also helped clean up too.

Next week: Um, I'm all caught up, so I don't really have a preview.