Trivial Matters
Sometimes you just need to take a break and enjoy the little things in life. Good coffee. Good beer. Good food with friendly co-workers. Better yet, Good food, good beer, and some tough trivia. All of these things we embraced as our (mild this year) winter edged deeper into a lovely, warm spring.
Brewing for the Spring Brewfest & Picnic is already underway, with Hunter Provyn, our very own Clown Prince of Beer, offering special tutorials for the neophyte to begin their voyage on the high seas of fermented hops and malted barley. Don Rude, already an old hand at beer making, has begun the process of brewing for the Springfest in the hopes of securing a coveted win in the bi-annual brewing contest. The winning brewer can hope for a commemorative pint glass emblazoned with their likeness and the name of their winning entry, as Andrew H, Josh M and Malcolm M did last year with “MADA”.
One of the perks at GA-CCRi is an annual allotment of extra Christmas bonus money to be used for your own office-related benefit, or combined into a group purpose. The only condition is that all items belong to GA-CCRi and are to be used onsite. One of the most beloved big item purchases this year included a fancy espresso machine that quickly became the most popular item in our kitchen.
And not only did Chris E bring in some coffee-related fanciness, he also introduced some book learnin’ into our midst by forming (with the assistance of Joseph) a monthly book club. So far we have read “The Alchemist” by Paul Coelho and “The Remains of the Day” by Kazuo Ishiguro. This month we decided to lighten it up with “Good Omens” by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Discussions have been lively and thoughtful, and always based on a general love of reading good books. Future works will include the dystopian “The Man in the High Castle” by Phillip k. Dick, among many others.
When not organizing the Trivia Team, Bob K. took upon himself the hefty task of organizing a large GA-CCRi “swag” (t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, etc.) order, tastefully emblazoned with our logo, for the office. These items were mostly purchased with the use of Christmas money funds. Several GA-CCRi employees also opted to donate all or part of their Christmas funds towards the general GA-CCRi Food Fund for the culinary enhancement of our weekly symposiums, monthly breakfast sandwich offerings, themed cookouts and biannual brewfests. Under the dedicated guidance of Master Chef Kyle, we have already experienced a number of grilling events and themed parties (e.g. St Patrick’s Day). Most recently we were treated to an Ice Cream Social, featuring traditional fudge/caramel sundaes, along with ice cream floats made with fresh off the tap Guinness. A must try, if you haven’t had one!
Frank Deviney continues his bicycle advocacy with a vengeance, dedicating much of his personal time to posting bicycle relevant posts on Facebook, attending local council meetings to assure that the concerns of cyclist are being served, and making sure that GA-CCRi participates in the annual National Bike Challenge. He has devoted much of his Christmas bonus money to keeping the “bike room” at GA-CCRi ready for any needed service or repair.
And a long overdue shout out for two of GA-CCRi’s stalwart employees, John Bruggeman and Randy Attai. John is the Director of Operations at GA-CCRi and does all he can to keep the ship sailing smoothly. Randy, a long-time full stack developer at GA-CCRi, now heads up the company-wide management of UI/UX resources.
And finally, under the clever moniker “Working Title”, GA-CCRi’s stalwart trivia team once again crushed the District Trivia regional finals to claim first place, qualifying for the finals in Washington, DC. at the Howard Theater, on March 31st. Out of 65 finalists we climbed up to tenth place, before the final round of perplexing questions (and reckless bonus point wagering) threw us down to 21st place. Oh well. We still had a great time, and are already planning for another victory this fall!
