"Holiday" Party

Today is the company "holiday" party. Remember when companies used to have Christmas parties?

Speaking of holiday parties, there has been a news story for the last couple of days in Cincinnati about a local firefighter who was driving home from his own holiday party a little too sloshed to be behind the wheel. He turned onto one of the exit ramps of I-71 near downtown, and ended up driving south in the northbound lanes. He ran head-on into a woman driving in the correct direction, and killed her. Since this all happened within a couple miles of 3 different TV stations' offices, the footage of his late-night arrest has been rolling on the news non-stop for the last two days.

They keep referring to this guy as a Cincinnati Firefighter, even though he wasn't on duty or driving a city vehicle at the time. This guy is probably going to prison for a very long time. To make things even more humiliating for him, since he was at a "holiday" party, he was wearing a lame-ass red Christmas vest, complete with embroidered snowmen and reindeer. He's probably very popular in the Hamilton County Justice Center right about now.

But anyway, back on topic. Today is the holiday party here at work at 4:00. That's a full hour and a half before normal quitting time, in order to make attendance mandatory. The co-workers who normally get off work at 4:00 are thrilled that they "get" to stay around work for another couple of hours. I specifically wore clothes to work today that I wouldn't be emarassed to get arrested in, just in case things get out of hand.

Each department is supposed to bring a different meal course to the pot-luck. Operations is doing side dishes. So, I threw something together into the crock-pot and have it sitting under my desk bubbling away right now. Here's the recipe that I made up for it:

Black-Bean and Corn Chili

2 cans black beans

2 cans peeled diced tomatoes

1 jar pizza sauce

1 small can tomato paste

1 can white corn, with liquid

1 can yellow corn, with liquid

1 medium white onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp chili powder

1 pkg taco seasoning (chipotle flavored)

Throw everything into a crock-pot and cook on low 7 hours.