Tacky Christmas Sweater Day at Work

Last casual Friday at work was our 3rd annual Tacky Christmas Sweater day. This year did not disappoint as we had more participants then ever before.

Productivity meeting first thing in the morning.

 Jamie and Greg enjoying a coffee and donut in front of the Christmas tree.

 Pop-pop owning the look.

 Waiting for the folks on the 5th floor to come down for pictures.

The 'family' picture around the Christmas Tree.

After work a bunch of us headed to Eastern Promises for drinks. All of these were not Amy's but when you rock a John Deere sweater you can do whatever you want. This might also be the last shot of Amy with her cast. It was scheduled to come off the next day.

The End of Movember

Another successful Movember has come and gone. I raised around $350 bucks for prostate cancer research through the power of facial hair.

Thank you for your donations. Here is a shot of the mustache on November 30th.

We had a few people at work grow mustaches this year including the big boss man and his silver topped upper lip. Here is a sampling of some of the work Mo Bro's. That's some professional looking dudes.

This year Movember got extended a few extra days for the annual Movember gala. It's basically a celebratory costume party where you are encouraged to dress to your mustache and awarded prizes. Last year Christina and I were awarded couple of the year. This year we got lazy and had some bad luck with our costumes so we pulled a complete 180 and went 'normal'. Normal for us was a building a backstory and dressing up as the star QB and head chearleader 10 years past our prime. My ring is supposed to be from a football "State Championship" but it's really a Red Lantern ring from DC Comics.

Before heading out to the big gala we hit up a local pub to meet the rest of our crew for the night.

First to arrive were Chris and his lovely wife Tara.

The epitome of sex appeal.

Drink it in.

Our posse continued to expand including the Bells and Greg.

Adam, Jamie, Jeff and their folks arrived to help put down some table kegs. The Super Troopers syrup bottle props got put to good use.

Things started to get out of hand

Eventually we got to the Oil City Roadhouse on Jasper Ave for the big gala. The Roadhouse is usually a country themed 'meat market' and not a place I would goto willingly. However, they did it up well for the night. The mechanical bull that is usually a big attraction was done up for one night only to take mustache rides. I didn't do very well and was thrown off in only a few seconds. Matt had at least time to pose.

Being a country bar and myself a good ol' boy for the night I grabbed myself a Budweiser and a blonde.

Mike Miller, one of the dudes who actually helped bring Movember to Canada, was in his Eskimos outfit that he rocked during the Grey Cup festivities.

Greg's costume was most likely lost on a bunch of people but I thought it was pretty sly and dead on.

Greg.

 Greg with his inspiration: Micheal Cera from the movie Youth in Revolt.

  Eventually the judging finally started. Our group had quite a few winners. Adam won for "worst mustache".
He decided to mascara a little portion so people could actually see some of it. He had the blondest and most uneven mustache ever: It didn't grow beneath his nose but grew to at least a centimeter around the corners of his mouth. We called him Catfish.

Tara and Chris won the best couple prize which was supercool. That makes it 3 years running that someone from our Movember team has won the couples prize. While Chris was on stage he was introduced as Kenny Powers of the TV show Eastbound and Down. That immediately made him a crowd favorite. He parlayed this popularity into a berth in the finals for the honour of being the Edmonton Man of Movember.

I captured this video of the finals. Beware, there is some NSFW language.

(Spoiler Alert - Chris Wins) After the big win there was nothing left to do but dance.

If you're at Oil City Roadhouse then that means there will be line dancing. If there is line dancing then that means Christina will be there, most likely leading it.

Before everyone got too messy or took off we took a work reunion photo of all past and current staff in attendance. We are a bit of a motley crew.

 So mark another great Movember in the books. Once again thank you to all who donated and we'll see you next year.

For more pictures: Click Here.

Denes' Last Day

This last Wednesday was a work colleagues last day in the office before leaving for greener pastures. As a final send-off Jamie, Pop Pop, and myself wanted to make it memorable.
We decided that after work Tuesday we would stick around  the office and newspaper Denes' entire office. It took a little over 2 hours time to complete.

Denes at his desk

 The newspaper team and Denes

My 31st Birthday

Started off like any day as I walked to work.  However as soon as I got into the office I found my birthday gift from my co-workers who I share an office with.

Apparently Michael spent a good portion of the previous night working on it as he sent the following e-mail below at about 2:30am. 

--------------------

From: Michael Lam

Sent: March 26, 2010 2:32 AM

Subject: Happy Birthday Stuart!

Hi Teammates!

So… it is Stuart's birthday today!!!! YA… Stuart has a birthday like each of us, although he consistently denies he has one nor he wanted people to throw a big party for him…

BUT!!! Who listens to Stuart anyways…. So Jamie and I decided to do something for him!

When we acquired the bookcase, Stuart made a comment: "I want a Batman and Superman bookend like this, they are my hero, I love them!!!!!"

Well well well…. When we went on eBay and found out those two heroes would cost $300… and figured "That's way above our pay grade!"

So I decided to make one for him and ding ding ding ding ding ding, "Barbie's bookend!"

Let me introduce you to our two ladies, the one on the left is "Cutie Barbie" and the one on the right is "Girly Barbie". (That's they real name… don't ask me how I know…)

So the two blondes' are sitting at Stuart's desk, waiting for the glue to dry!!

I just can't wait to see his face, I know he would love them :)

It would be nice that if we can say "Happy Birthday" when we see him today…. just keep it low profile :)

Who doesn't get a surprise for his birthday, right?!

Time to go home,

Michael

----------------

Needless to say I think it's pretty awesome.

About Michael: He's a young guy recently graduated from the UofA. He is originally from Hong Kong, his speaking english is very good but you can see from above his writing isn't always the greatest.  I've nicknamed him "PopPop" as I have figured out his modus. He has come to Canada solely to impregnate women and expand the Chinese influence. 

Here's PopPop

I share an office with PopPop and Jamie. Jamie arranged a bit of a birthday party around 2pm with special cupcakes. They are pretty much ideal office mates.

This is the view from my office window. We had some fresh snow this morning.

After the cupcake birthday party I went to the Edmonton Research Park for their monthly social.  The social pretty much revolves around the ping pong table.  I partnered with PopPop and played the ladies seen here. They smoked us. Just my luck to have the only Asian in the world not good at ping pong as my partner.

  

After work I went to Teddy's with Christina http://www.teddys.ca/ for a birthday supper. Awesome as always.

My birthday finished up with a hockey game. It was the final league game of the season before playoffs. We lost 2-1 and finished in eighth out about 12 teams. 

Overall a good day.