EEI Door Decorating Contest

This year, the human resources department at EEI sponsored a holiday door decorating contest. Each division was to decorate their division director's door, the President and two Vice President's would be the judges, and the winning group would win a pizza party.

Our group went all out. Our boss Lou is an avid golfer, so we tied the golf theme in with the Christmas theme, and several utility industry themes for a kick ass door.

Countless hours were spent applying astroturf to the door, hot gluing trees, and putting Lou's face on a golfing Santa and the rest of our faces on elf bodies.

Real work? Ahhh....who needs that when you can be hot gluing instead! The pictures don't even begin to do the door justice. We were so convinced we were going to win. Lou even told us that we did such a good job, that if we lost he'd spring for the pizza party.

People from across EEI were coming up to us congratulating us before the judging even started on what a great door we had. We did a tour around the offices, and ours was by far the best. The President announced the results at the EEI Christmas party by first saying that every group would get second place, but that 1 door stood out among the rest and would get first place. We were stunned when it was announced that our friends down the hall has won. Not only was their door totally non-creative, they used incandescent Christmas lights! Oh the horror.

Note: If alcohol is going to be served at a company Christmas party, the office should be closed for the rest of the day.

In the discussions that followed the announcement at the Christmas Party, we may have suggested to EEI's Energy Efficiency Wiz, that he conduct an audit of the different door displays to see whose was the most energy efficient. Unfortunately, he thought this was a great idea, and proceeded back to his office for his watt meter and began measuring the output of the various door displays. He then sent an email out to all of EEI with the audit results. Some doors had no lights and got honorable mention. Our door, with 2 strands of LED Christmas lights used just 2 watts. The door that won, with its strands of regular incandescent Christmas lights was the "biggest energy hog of all" at 81 watts!

Unfortunately, this is a story that doesn't seem to die. At a retirement party for another EEI staff person the following week who works in the energy efficiency group, one of the people giving a speech to honor his years of service to EEI felt compelled to slip in a line about how "The use of incandescent light bulbs should never be rewarded, not even with a pizza party." (He was standing next to the President and Vice President at the time.)

I am quite convinced we will never ever have another door decorating contest at EEI.

Helen Kicks Butt at the Girls on the Run 5k!

So despite only getting 4.5 hrs of sleep due to flying back last night from a business trip to L.A., I decided to brave the cold rain and go watch my cousin Helen run a 5k. She did awesome! As did Tracy, who ran it with her. I can't imagine being able to run a 5k in the 3rd grade. I didn't run my first 5k until I was 24. I always had my mom right me a note to get me out of running the mile in junior high and high school for the presidential physical fitness test. Helen however is a running powerhouse! She ran more than 3 miles in a crowd of about 4,000. And she ran so fast I could barely get a picture of her! She will have to be my runner for my next triathlon relay.

FXCM Women's Christmas Party

Today I hosted the Fairfax County Master's Women's Christmas Party. As I learned from Jody, this was the 10th annual. It was a fun time, as we crammed 26 women into my tiny house! I had no idea so many people would come! We don't even get this many people to parties when all the women and men on the team are invited! It got a little loud at times with all those voices but everyone seemed to be having a good time. The food was delicious (no thanks to me, I didn't do any of the cooking) and Dori's basket of pedicure goodies was the most stolen item in the gift exchange with Lori as the lucky one to take it home in the end.



I managed to get my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree up and decorated just in time for the party. I love it! I always get a small one. I have just enough ornaments to cover it and I can put it up and take it down all by myself. It even fit in the back seat of my jetta! I think its adorable. I try to collect ornaments on my travels, so its fun to decorate the tree and remember all the places I've been. This year I added ornaments from Bergen, Heidelberg, and Prague.