Blurry HH

I met several current and former coworkers (and friends!) for happy hour at Cowboy Jack's in Bloomington on Thursday, January 23rd. You spend so much time with your coworkers as a whole so I always appreciate getting out and hang out with them on a casual and friendly basis as well, which doesn't happen often. We had a couple of drinks, some appetizers and some fun conversations before calling it a night.

 

This is what happens when you hand your phone off to someone else to take a picture. Blurry!

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Holiday Party

My employer's holiday party was on Friday, December 13th.  It was held at the Crown Plaza in downtown St. Paul.  This was my 7th year attending this annual party and for the first time, it was held in St. Paul.  Since I work in Bloomington, it's always on the west side of the cities or Minneapolis.  

We had cocktail hour up on the 22nd floor called Windows on the River.  You might have remembered it as the Carousel restaurant when it was a Radisson.  My mom just recently told me that her first date with my dad was at that restaurant.  

After cocktails, we went down to the main floor into the Great River Ballroom for dinner and the rest of the evening.  We both had steak for dinner and it was pretty good.  There was an illusionist/magician that performed after dinner and then a DJ and dancing after that.  M and I closed down the place with a small group of my coworkers before leaving around 12:15 am to head the 10 minutes home into the snow.  

Surprisingly, We Won

The Vikings played the Washington Redskins on Thursday, November 7th.  It was a game that was televised on the NFL network.  I had a scheduling conflict that night so before I could go to the game, I went to the Westin Edina Galleria for my employer's Director of Servicing's retirement party.  I wanted to stay the whole night at the party but I also wanted to go to the game so I wrestled for months on what I should do and decided on doing both.  I went for a little more than an hour to the party and then hustled downtown where I planned on being a little late.  I ended up arriving up at our seats greeting M with about 8 minutes left on the clock in the first quarter.  The score at that point was 3-0, Redskins.

Ponder started the game and had a decent game (it's all relative, folks) until he had to go out in the 3rd quarter with under 2 minutes left with an injury while going into the end zone for a touchdown, which turned out that he dislocated his shoulder on his non-throwing arm.  Matt Cassel would step in for the remainder of the game.

The score was 27-21, Washington when Ponder left and Cassel stepped in with his first snap being handed off the AP for a touchdown and somehow we pulled off a win.  Adrian Peterson had two touchdowns, Cordarrelle Patterson had his first NFL receiving TD and John Carlson came in and did a great job while Kyle Rudolph was out totaling 98 yards and a touchdown.  Vikings win, 34-27.  The crowd was into the game, more than I have seen this year, which is probably because we were winning.  The crowd was also the loudest I've heard since at least last year.

Cris Carter was elected into the Football Hall of Fame in 2013 and you get a ring presented to you.  Cris wanted that ring to be presented to him in at the Metrodome in front of the fans and so he was presented it during a halftime ceremony.  He spoke for a few minutes and was very humble in his speech.  He is a great speaker, very polished and it was a highlight to be able to see him accept his ring in front of us fans.

Halloween

The night before Halloween I made pumpkin spice mini donuts with maple glaze for work.  It was our intern's last day at work and our whole team brought treats in for him.  They were very easy to make with the debut of my Kitchenaid mixer.

On Halloween night, M and I had the Jack-O-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's.  He's pretty cute all baked up, isn't he?  We wanted to watch a scary movie but couldn't find one that was scare-worthy for us.

My sister and her family all dressed up.  Jamie was Daphne, Tom was Fred and Colton was Scooby, all from Scooby Doo.  Keith was Dexter.  He shouldn't even know who Dexter is!

The real Dexter.  Keith looks like him

Team Building

On Thursday, September 12th, my team at work went to Lake Calhoun for the afternoon as a team building activity.  While there are normally 10 of us, one of us was sick and didn't make it.  (We missed you Sara.)

We left work at noon and ate at The Tin Fish right at the lake for lunch. I had fish tacos, one walleye, one mahi mahi and a Summit Octoberfest to wash it down.

We had the option of renting bikes, pedal boats, stand up paddle boards or just walking around the lake or playing lawn games.  A lot of us planned on walking around the lake, while a few were going to paddle board but in the end, none of us did.  We all opted to play lawn games and we did for the entire afternoon. We found a nice patch of grass right next to the beach on the north side of the lake.  The weather was pretty cool, barely 70 degrees but we all agreed how gorgeous it was because at this time of year, all us Minnesotan's know what is just around the corner.  

Hanging out with my team was a lot of fun.  While I've only been on this team for less than 3 months, I've been working most of these people for years and know mostly everyone quite well.

Afternoon Twins Game

On Tuesday, April 23rd, this is what it looked like outside in my backyard:

That wasn't a good enough reason to play hooky from work though.  What is a good enough reason is an afternoon Twins game.  Not only a game where you don't have to pay for the tickets, but a game where your employer pays for them and tells you to take the day off.  Why?  Per the email our Director of Servicing sent out: 

Congratulations! You are receiving this email because you were rated as a high-performer on your recent annual performance review. We would like to reward your exceptional efforts by inviting you to attend the Minnesota Twins baseball game versus the Miami Marlins on Tuesday, April 23 at 12:10 pm.

I was so excited when I read that email.  Not only was I excited to go to the game, the excitement level got a little bit higher when I found out where the seats were...behind the visitor's dugout.  But don't worry, I was also able to go to the company's suite for all the food and drink I wanted. :)

Because of the snow and the fact that the game the night before was postponed, they pushed back the start of my game until 1:10 pm in order to clear the snow and to accommodate the double header that day.  I bundled up wearing the exact same outfit I wore for the home/season opener and it turns out I wouldn't be cold the entire day.  I didn't even need my jacket for the game.  Thank you, Sun.

Even though it was snowy at my house, you wouldn't be able to tell at the game.  The field was green and the seats were clear of any snow.  There was a group of us that went and four of us were able to sit behind the dugout, four were able to sit behind home plate and the rest sat in the seats at the suite.  Joe Mauer hit a foul ball that one of my friends caught in the suite.  Well, she didn't actually catch it.  Instead, it hit her in the butt when she was trying to take cover.  She still got the ball.

Twins beat the Marlins 4-3, including a 3-run bomb by Oswaldo Arcia.  I had the BEST time at the game.  I worked a little bit in the morning from home, went to the game and was home again by 4:15 pm.  Perfect day.

Thank you to my friend Ed for the first six pictures below.  

Ed taking our pic from behind home plate

Looking down from the suite

Drinking beer with Zak

Jared and I 

Work Holiday Party

My employer's holiday party was held on Friday, December 7th.  This year, we went to the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre for drinks, dinner and a musical called Our Hometown Christmas Pageant. 

It started snowing in the late afternoon so driving to Chanhassen was a little difficult.  M met me at work and we went right from my work since it's only 15-20 minutes from there.  We got there on time but there were plenty of people that were late due to the weather and traffic.

We had some drinks and appetizers first and then right at 6 pm, we sat down for dinner.  We were served a salad with balsamic vinaigrette and then had the option to order the following; chicken breast stuffed with wild rice, prime rib with shrimp, sea bass or vegetarian pasta.  For dessert, we had the choice of salted caramel cheesecake or triple chocolate cake.  Yum!

Our COO talked a little bit about how great of a year the company has had and then drew names for some prizes.  I didn't win.

We didn't have much time to mingle before we headed to one of the theatres for our musical.  My company had the entire theatre to ourselves, which made it a little more fun as well as we were able to bring our drinks in there. 

The musical was cute and sometimes funny but it was cheesy too.  It was pretty much as I expected it to be. There were a couple really good singers in the musical as well.  I most definitely would have taken photos but it was not allowed.

One of the things I like about my employer is that there is always a lot of thought put into the annual holiday party.  I've always enjoyed myself each year (sometimes a little too much) and I like that we do something different each year.  I'm really glad I had a chance to go to Chanhassen Dinner Theatre and it's always better when someone foots the bill as well!

Does your company/employer have an annual holiday party?  Do you attend?

Ugly Sweater Party

We had an ugly sweater party/contest at work on Thursday, December 6th.  Before we had our contest, we had Pizza Luce for lunch, which was awesome since they ordered vegan pizza from there as well.  There were about 15 of us who entered the contest, mostly girls but a couple of guys too.  The guys had on women's sweaters which made it even funnier.  There were three people that won, both guys and a girl. 

Here are the winning sweaters:

 

Here are some sweaters that I saw at Saver's and Goodwill.  I decided to go with the third one shown but in hindsight, I think I should have gone with the scary Santa Claus faces.  I think the gauge of what constitutes as an ugly holiday sweater is if people use the word "hideous" to describe it.  Multiple people described mine as that and others described their own sweaters that way.  You know you're disgusted when you use the word hideous.

After the eating, contest and fun, we did some good for this world.  We put together activities packets and tie blankets for patients and family members and breakfast bags for patients going through chemo and other treatments.  I personally chose to put together the breakfast bags for chemo patients.  That one had the most personal effect on me as I remember sitting with my dad during his first chemo treatment.  It's a long few hours to have to sit there and with everything being pumped in you, you want to eat and drink a little while you're sitting there.

Did any of you or will you attend an ugly sweater party this year?  We were going to do it for my immediate family Christmas but decided against it.  Those ugly sweaters are expensive if you don't already have one.

P.S. I've turned off the word verification for comments.  I've heard from several of you that it's so hard to comment because you can't read the words.  I've turned off the verifications before and immediately I start getting spam so we'll so how it goes this time.  I'd love to hear your comments so I hope I've made it easier for you! 

First Game of the Year

At work, I am part of a group of volunteers that helped with the acquisition of another company back in January through March.  It was a stressful time at work for all of us but we accomplished what we needed to by the deadlines that were set.

To reward some of us for our efforts, we were given Twins tickets so last Wednesday, I went to my first Twins game of the season.

Before the game, we started with a happy hour at The Public House with drinks and some appetizers. I just had a beer but one of the items on the menu was Bone Marrow.  Um, no thank you!

There was a group of eight of us for the game but the tickets were in two separate sections.  There was a drawing to determine who sat where and I was lucky enough to score the seats behind home plate.

It was the first time at Target Field that I had ever sat that close.  We were seated in between the visitor's dugout and home plate.  I sat with three others, one of which was a new employee, who works in my department and on my team.  He was able to come with as one of the original people was sick that day so there was a drawing for that ticket, which he won.  He's kind of a shy guy but we gave him a nice warm welcome when one of the other girls I was with arranged a deal with the usher, unbeknownst to any of us.  It went something like this:

(We're in row 3 and usher comes down and stands at Row 1, looking into the crowd)

Usher: (insert name here) just started at a new company so I think we should sing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" for him!

Crowd:  ♪ (sings the song) ♫

It was funny if you were there and it's even more funny when the person you are embarrassing is a little shy.  He was a good sport about it though.  You should have seen his reaction when I told him jokingly that (insert name of other employee) arranged for him to be on the Kissing Cam.  He freaked out.  And I won't even tell you the "kind" words that popped out of his mouth to me in reaction to that.

So the company was fun, the antics and new employee hazing was fun and the game was ok.  Twins lost,   6-2 but I didn't expect it to be any other way.  We did get to see a Josh Willingham home run at least!

Hi Torii Hunter!

Oh, and we saw this fine lady.  There was a contest going on for the best dancer and man, did she think she was hot ish!

Goodbye, My Friend

Last Wednesday my company had a happy hour after work for one of my coworkers. He's been with the company for a little over five years.  We've worked in the same department and on the same team since February 2010 and we've grown close over that time.  We have made each other laugh so many times and we've laughed harder than we've ever laughed at work before.  We talked sports whether it was Twins or Vikings and we always caught up with each other after the weekend.  We talked TV shows like Archer, Dexter and Lost and recommended movies to each other.  He's like a brother to me.

He's going to start a new career and in a new place, Cumberland, Wisconsin.  I'm excited for him and his path but I'm also sad that I won't see him anymore at work.  Today was the first day without him and it felt weird.  We did exchange our contact info we didn't already have on each other and we did have a proper goodbye on Friday before he left, including me in tears and a big hug.  

I hope to see him again at some point as his family still lives in Minnesota and I bet they'll be an opportunity for a happy hour when he's back.  

Good luck and we miss you, Vince!  

(I hope you're now reading my blog.)

BBQ

When my friend Jared invited me to his house for a BBQ back in March, I'm sure he would have assumed it would have been nice weather for April 28th.  It turns out that last Saturday was one of the worst weather days this spring.  It was cloudy and rainy and no more than 45 degrees, which meant that most of the time was spent indoors.

That didn't stop us from having fun though.  M and I arrived a little before 3 pm and there about 10-12 people there and starting mingling.  I guess there were about 20 people that would have come and go before the night was over.

Jared had bought 29 lbs of meat and spent the overnight on Friday smoking it in his meat smoker.  He made beef brisket and pulled pork so I had to indulge.  Both were fabulous but beef brisket is my favorite.  Add a little bit of Sweet Baby Ray's to it and mmmmm..mmm!  Besides a few crackers, that's all I ate at the party despite some yummy looking dips and desserts his wife made.

I really wanted to take pictures but sometimes it's weird pulling out your camera at a party, therefore I didn't.  I wanted to get a picture of all us girls that I know well and now regret that I didn't.  I've decided I'm pulling out my camera whenever going forward. Besides, having photos makes for a better blog post, so now I have to put in some generic ones.

Credit

Somehow I do not think cows are this happy to be slaughtered

Promotion

Last month, I had my annual review at work and I was promoted.  Let's pretend that my job title is Wickity Wickity Wack.  Now, after my promotion my title is Senior Wickity Wickity Wack.

I will still stay in my current department but I will play a larger role in training others, presentations as well as being a mentor and example to others.  I've already felt the stress of my new duties though.  There are three new people starting in my department starting this past Monday until the end of the month and I'm a big part of training them.  Unfortunately I can't get to my daily work and I'm having to come in on weekends.  I know it's temporary and it's a busy time of year for us but I'm getting a little burned out.  I know it sounds like I'm complaining but I'm trying my best to stay positive and as stress-free as possibly can!  I'm truly excited to have been promoted to this title.  This is something I had been striving for!

My new business card:

Ok, the only thing real about that business card is the picture. That's really where I work...the building shown in the back at least.