The Event--2011

Each year my firm hosts a mystery event. Some years, the event is designed as a family gathering, and some years, it's adults only; this year's festivities were definitely adults only.

The events always take place on a Saturday and we're given shirts with clues in the designs on the Friday afternoon before the event. Here's this year's T-shirt logo:

So what did we do on Saturday?

We gathered at the office mid-morning for a continental breakfast and a little work on a fashion makeover for our tees. The daughter of one of our secretaries is a whiz at slicing and dicing T-shirts and altering them into something a bit more feminine. Personally, I absolutely hate the rounded neck tees; I was pretty happy to just cut mine into a V-neck. Some of us, though, got very creative with slashed sleeves and tied sides. Cute stuff!

Soon we loaded onto a bus and drove to a restaurant in Old Sacramento. During Prohibition, there was a speakeasy on the property, and the restaurant/bar has maintained the look and feel of that era. Most of the activity on Saturday took place on the restaurant's patio, where we divided into four groups for a beer making challenge. Here you can see the brew master, Robert, and his staff, waiting to begin our training session. (Robert is the dark haired guy in the middle with one foot forward.)

There were points awarded to the groups for different things, and in the end, there was a quiz. Two of the four teams tied, and Hubby was on one of the winning teams although my group wasn't in the running. I should mention that some of us were probably distracted a bit during the brewing/teaching process by the food and beer pairings Robert arranged for us to taste as well as the full bar and, as a result, maybe didn't learn as much as we should have. I might have been one of those people.

As the afternoon drew late, we were ushered back onto the bus for a drive to our next location, a local clubhouse, where we were served a traditional German dinner. This man serenaded us with polka music while we dined, and another gentleman taught us all how to dance.

Later, a DJ took over and rock and roll prevailed. Another fun and successful firm event!

Oh, and one more cool thing: Eight names were drawn to meet with Brewmaster Robert in a few weeks to bottle the beer we made and taste more cheese and beer, and guess what? Yep, my name was one of those drawn. The adventure continues . . . .