Friday & Chili

You may be wondering what does Friday and Chili have in common?? Well, today is Friday and today is our March for Babies Chili Cookoff at work!! :-) See how I made that connection all on my own. I’m smart like that.

All kidding aside, Wells is a supporter of the March of Dimes through various ways and a lot of it comes through team member volunteering and donations. We have over 700 people participating in the March for Babies walk on Sunday which means they have collected personal donations (or are making them directly). The four members of my family who live in the house will all be walking the 5k on Sunday morning together which will be interesting!! It’s not really a 5K apparently, but rather 4 miles. Not sure why .....

Anyhoo... for the last two months, various groups in our bank have been holding random fundraisers (i.e. bake sales, ice cream sunday parties, beanie baby sales donated to Tx Children’s, pizza parties) in an effort to raise money (from Team Members) to go straight to March of Dimes.

Our groups efforts are also coinciding with a meeting we happen to hold in our group every month that is simply a Team building exercise with a little low key (low budget) fun.

So... what are we doing? We are having a Chili Cookoff - 6 Teams, 3 judges and $5 donations from everyone to eat.

Now... this is where the competitive side of me pops out its head.... you see I have a history here and a legend to continue.

My Teams and I are 2 - 0 right now.

First competition was WII Mario Cart Racing - which I had never played before. We were in pairs and I was paired with grandpa (he is so I can say that) and we WON!! I carried him right on through all the heats and by about the last race, I finally got him going which was good he caught on because we were gonna lose if he didn’t!!

Second competition - Easter Egg Hunt around the office followed by Riddle Solving. My Team was victorious because I can run and know where all the hiding spots are. We found the most eggs.... these eggs had riddles in them. We (as a Team) then solved all the riddles and won again!!

So.. you see... this is the Third competition!! Chili Judging & Name Creativity ..... all for the benefit of March of Dimes...... :-) I’ve enlisted professional assistance (and no, not for me silly, but I know this is what you were thinking!). FOR. THE. CHILI.!! I happen to be married to the guy who makes the best chili, albeit, usually too hot to eat chili, but he can tone it down a bit when he wants. So.. he’s helping me (translation: I get to watch and stir) make the Award Winning Chili for our TEAM!!! TEAM NAME: EL FIASCO (which we stole from John but loved). John pretty much said our team name should be Poco Fuerte (John’s translation - wimpy) because he’s not making it nearly as spicy as he usually does and we’re all wimps because we can’t eat fire-breathing chili!! However, again knowing who are judges are, I know at least 2 of the 3 are not terribly fond of spicy foods. So.... I’m in sales... I’m playing to my audience (hopefully).

Of course, I’m taking pictures..... they will come later!! Wish us LUCK!!! oh.. and that we raise a good bit of money for the March of Dimes today. Cause that’s really why we’re doing it... :-)

Baseball Update
Weds game was another good game. The Knights won!! I only was able to see Stephen’s first At Bat and out in the field. He made some good plays from the field (this other team had some strong bats) and struck out on his first at bat. However, after I left, apparently, he hit a ball through the short stop and back towards the fence which brought in a runner and got him to 2nd base. He scored on that one. I believe he got on base again, but was left out there at end of the inning. Proud of him. He’s starting to show he really can play ball!! Another game on Saturday!

Off to work now... and to serve Chili!!! Just for the record (because who knows who is reading my blog), all the supplies were bought by Team Members at Team Member expense as well as other Team Members purchasing with personal funds. No TARP funds were harmed during these exercises! In fact, we’re just helping out the economy!!

MA