La Follette Formal

The La Follette Social committee successfully hosted a formal party a couple weekends ago. The entire student body as well as faculty and staff were invited and we probably had about 60 people show up to the event. The intent was to provide an opportunity for people to mingle and have fun outside of a school setting. We waged a heavy publicity campaign and twisted a few arms but many were excited about the event.

The party took place at an Irish pub on capitol square called The Brocach. It's a pretty nice place and we had an area of the upstairs reserved for the evening. It was a little cramped but we basically had our own bar and the section to ourselves. We charged $10 for tickets which went to purchasing some food and there was just a cash bar. The food was good, but there was unfortunately too little of it. We could have charged more for tickets and gotten more food, but we didn't want to make it prohibitively expensive.

Part of the conditions for the night was formal attire. I think it's fun to dress up from time to time and I wanted to get other people to look snazzy as well. People sometimes don't like to admit that they like to wear nice outfits, but I know deep down everyone likes to look good. Some dressed up more than others, I wore a bow tie, but it was fun to see all the suits and dresses.The turnout was excellent and everyone seemed to have a good time. I was talking with my friend Becky the next day and she said, "People were a little skeptical about the party, but it actually turned out well" (I think that's a compliment). I had plenty of help from others on the committee but the idea was primarily mine and I was especially pleased with how well things worked out.

Chili Cook Off

On Super Bowl Sunday a group of us decided to have a chili cook-off. The winner received not only the pride associated with victory, but also the golden spoon (wooden spoon spray painted gold). I teamed up with my buddy Nate for the endeavor. Taking the event perhaps a little bit more seriously that others, we woke and went grocery shopping that Sunday morning. We meandered through the aisles collecting ingredients and went back to his apartment and tossed them in a crockpot to cook for a few hours.

We had three different kinds of beans, tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, etc.; they all went into the pot. I was moving around the kitchen opening cans and whatnot while Nate was doing the chopping. I was really paying attention as he chopped up and threw in a whole habanero pepper. He was half way through the second when I told him those are really spicy peppers. He didn't know and maybe didn't believe me because he picked up piece he was cutting and popped it into his mouth. He took a couple chews and duely started coughing admitting, "yeah, that's pretty spicy."

With the crockpot bubbling away, Nate and I did some homework during the afternoon before heading over to watch the Super Bowl. The game itself was actually really good. Back and forth with lots of big plays on both sides. Two other chilis were in the competition with all accompanyment (corn bread, cheese, beer) and it was a good time all around. In the end, I would have liked the Cardinals to win but I'll just have to be satisfied with a chili contest victory.