The Equitrust Penny Wars

Rob's JDRF fundraising has now drawn to a close. On Tuesday, Rob brought home the coin jars that they had had up since the begining of their fundraising campaign. They had penny wars between the different sections/departments at Equitrust. Whichever department had the most money in their jar after the pennies were subtracted won a bagel breakfast. I offered to help Rob count out the change, since we had to seperate the dollars and silver change from the pennies and count them seperately (we probably would have just taken it to a coinstar if we didn't need to get seperate counts :) ). I volunteered to count IT's jar so that Rob wouldn't get as much trouble from folks at work about "fixing the count" if they won. The IT jar was the fullest.

Here we are counting out the change. Rob has ALL of the Marketing jar in front of him. I have all of the IT jar in front of me. It took us an hour and a half to count the jars. I only counted IT. It took me almost as long as it took him to count the other three jars.

IT won the penny war by a lanslide and earned the most amount of money overall (something like 63 dollars--most of it in change). I counted over 20 dollars in pennies. The whole fundraiser made just over $138. Last year they had a coin jar for donations that made 7 bucks.

Rob enjoyed heading the fundraisers, but is glad that the campaign is over. They made about $1,600 total after expenses were deducted. They beat last year's total by over a hundred dollars, so he's calling it a success (especially considering the economy).

...time has gotten away from me

I'm starting to pull back on the reigns a bit. The last few weeks have been a blur.

Valentine's was a nice lazy weekend. I got my Dove truffles (which are divine really). I got some purple ear buds for my mp3 player and Rob bought me purple meeples (and he got me roses too :). We went out for lunch at our favorite asian restaurant. It was nice to avoid the crowd and to be able to just enjoy each other's company.

Midterm grades (which are done very early at DMACC) were completed and sent out. I have gotten through both classes' first essays, and I'm dreading the second set that will start coming in tomorrow. I have made it through 3 of the 4 Composition Portfolio reading and training Saturdays...this Saturday will be the last.

Other than that...not much to report. We picked up a recumbent exercise bike. Rob had been wanting one for a while, so we used some of his annual bonus to buy an inexpensive one. Oh, and I got my purple converse sneakers that I've been wanting for forever. :)

Back to school work...hope you are all well!

The Caf-Pow

Last week we went to pick up some burgers and get some gas for Rob's car. Conveniently enough, there is a local Kum & Go that has a Burger King attached to it. So Rob started filling up his gas and I ran in to get the hamburgers. Well, the service was a bit slow and Rob came in to join me. I suggested that he run over to the Kum & Go side and get us some fountain pop (since it's way cheaper there than at Burger King). He asked me what size I wanted and I told him to surprise me. After I got the burgers, I walked over to meet Rob...and there he was filling the largest plastic glass I've ever seen.

"Dude! It's a Caf-Pow!" I said.

"That's what I thought!" he said.

Now, if you don't immediately know what that is, a Caf-Pow is what Abby drinks on NCIS. It's a running gag that she's always hyped up on caffeine and folks (especially Gibbs) bring her Caf-Pow's to keep her working and at her best. The 64 oz "kup" from Kum & Go is as big as a juice/koolaid pitcher--it's enormous. The really amusing part is that it only cost $1.18. That's a heck of a lot of soda for a little over a buck. I, of course, did not finish all of that pop....I only made it a little past half before I had to toss it out, but it was well worth it--just for the amusement. :)

Under Construction

If you don't read my blog in an aggregator or on facebook, you may have noticed some changes lately. I've been trying out some new headings and color schemes. Feel free to weigh in with comments :).

We've been fighting some crappy health lately, so both Rob and I have been just wanting to chill out at home and go to bed early lately. We've been watching NCIS from Netflix. We are all the way up to the end of season 4 now. Today we started watching the second season of Dexter. I can't seem to get enough of the crime dramas :).

This morning, I had my root canal. My tooth is a bit sore, but otherwise everything seems to have gone smoothly. It certainly took less time than the bifurcated root tooth.

Blah

I'm starting to get back into the swing of things with school....which is nice. So far things are rolling along as anticipated--which means that my attendance for my Comp I class is already lousy. It confuses me why so many of my students think it's ok to have missed 2 or 3 of the 6 class meetings that we've had so far... Other than that though, things are going well. I've been participating in the reader training for the course assessments. Which means that I get to go in to work on 4 Saturday mornings and read student letters. Exciting stuff I tell ya! :) But hey...I get paid extra, which is always good.

I've been really feeling the winter blahs lately...the weather here has been merely annoying, not bad...but that coupled with the short days and this weird stomach bug that keeps coming back...and I just want it to be springtime....

An update on the BBQ fundraiser: Rob's group raised almost $250! We did end up having to throw away some BBQ....which was painful, but at least everyone had enough and it didn't stain my tupperware orange :).

22 lbs of Hamburger

Last night Rob and I diligently made 5-4lb plus batches of BBQs (using a slightly modified version of my Grandma's BBQ recipe). Approximately 22 lbs of hamburger leaves a lot of greese. There is a mixing bowl full on my counter that I'm trying to figure out how to dispose of (maybe a milk jug?). We used two of the largest containers of ketchup that they sell at our local HyVee plus some from our fridge because our math on the ketchup was apparently not that accurate. Anyway....I don't want to look at ground beef or BBQs for a good few weeks...at least....and there is ketchup splattered all over our kitchen. Rob carted two giant tupperware bowls full of BBQ to work late last night because we didn't have room in our fridge to store the giant quantities. Luckly they have a very large fridge at Equitrust. I'm expecting lots of leftovers...perhaps I should be more optimistic about this fundraiser...but I don't want to see the stuff ever again which means we'll be stuck with a good 5-10 lbs of leftovers. Murphy's law. So please...please...Rob's co-workers who do not read my blog...please eat lots of BBQs. :)

Oh and if you're curious, here's my Grandma's modified BBQ recipe (in normal quantities):

1 lb of hamburger
3/4 cup ketchup
1 Tbs Mustard
1 Tbs Vinnegar
1 Tbs Sugar (I usually split this half white sugar and half brown sugar)
salt to taste

Makes about 6-8 BBQs...depending on the size of the buns. :)

If you want to make them just like Grandma Anetta...use only one teaspoon of white sugar and add some grated onion...I have nothing against onions...just faster this way. :)

JDRF

Rob is once again participating in Equitrust's fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). He has taken on the role of team leader. If you would like to help him in his fundraising, click on the link below.

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87292159

This week I get to help him make a giant batch of B-B-Qs for a lunch fundraiser at his office. :) It's a good thing I have a top knotch B-B-Q recipe.

Back to School

Well I've completed my first week back at school. We had a half day on Monday due to a blizzard and we get Monday off for MLK day....It's nice to be able to ease into the semester a bit. So far the students are on their best behavior--so I have no idea what the semester will be like. My classes are both +1 (as in one over max) for enrollment. Which is a good thing--now I just hope I end up keeping 20 or so for the whole semester.

It's been very cold here this week...but not near as cold as it's been in ND and SD and MN. It is, however, the coldest winter that I can remember since we've lived in Iowa--which is confirmed by the local weather guy who insists that it hasn't been this cold since 1996. Really? -16 only happens once every 10 years or so here? -16 in Fargo is practically normal for January :). The elementaries and highschools in the Des Moines metro area were all closed on Thursday (the coldest day of the week). It makes me want to donate a bunch of children's mittens and scarves or something...because they are apparently not well enough equipped here. Oh well, we'll be back above freezing this weekend and the DOT will be back out spreading salt like crazy. Stay warm!

Where has my winter break gone!

Well I start school on Monday. I'm almost done revising my syllabi (I have a new textbook for Comp II so I had to change some things). So I'm almost ready for school to start...but man am I not ready for school to start. I had all of these notions about what I wanted to accomplish in my glorious month off...but it's dwindled to a meer three days and I haven't even finished taking down the Christmas decorations (though I am a firm believer that most of the decor should stay up until Three Kings Day/Epiphany...which was only two days ago).

I've been fighting this lingering phlegm fest of a minor cold this last week...not really sick, just annoying. Today I spent nearly two hours at my dentist where he was initially sure I would not need a root canal...and then by the end of the visit, he was sure I needed a root canal (of which I have to go to a specialist for because I have weird teeth...which means I have to wait for another two weeks to fix my toothache). Well atleast my dentist and I had a nice lengthy chat about the state of the American health care system while my novacaine was kicking in (My dentist really likes to talk politics...it's kind of weird...but in a good way :).

So I'm trying to decide which of my long list of things that I wanted to do I will actually try to accomplish in the next few days...I'm leaning toward taking the Christmas decorations down and doing very little else...I am on vacation...right?

Alton Brown on Fried Chicken

"It was like Colonel Sanders Pole Dancing..."