Tank IV & Twenty-Four...
damon, james, and i have decided we are watching the show '24' this season...this was pretty easy since it was hyped up quite a bit throughout the NFL playoff games and came on right afterwards yesterday. we watched the second half of the 4-hour season premiere event tonight, and it looks to be a very promising season for the show (i have unsuccessfully watched full seasons in the past, but with a little effort and extra motivation from the team, we should be able to pull it off this season).
anyway, enough of that. this past saturday was 'Party at The Tank IV'. as you may have guessed from the name, it was the fourth official party at The Tank and i must say that our parties have not suffered any ill-effects of 'sequel syndrome' yet. in my opinion, and that of many others in attendance, the tank parties have proven to be progressively better than the predecessor. this one was going to be risky since it's winter semester and a heck of a lot colder...some of our traditional tank events were in doubt (at least in the planning stages) and organization was pretty crazy at times...but we pulled it off and i think everyone had a great time! so before getting into anything else, thanks to everyone who came, and i hope you all enjoyed yourselves at what was by far the biggest party at The Tank thus far!
because of some events on friday (which is an entirely different, but also entertaining story), there was little cleaning and preparation done until the actual day of the party...but why i wouldnt i set myself up to be stressed out up until the last minute??? needless to say, damon and i got the supplies together, coupled with a new idea for the punch, tentative plans for cold-weather flip-cup, and our best guesses as to how many people to expect. thank goodness our friend beth showed up early, as she helped with everything from figuring out how to work my iron (damon needed it, not me) to logistics with the snacks and keeping everything running smoothly from that end. thanks beth!
the proposed starting time was between 8-9pm, but of course most people came after 9...but it was generally in steady force and the kitchen, living room, and eventually basement quickly reached capacity and beyond! james (who was absent on a ski trip) room became the storage area for a mountain of coats (thanks for your help with that sarah) and the overflow went into storage for later sales on e-bay. if you are missing anything, i'll gladly sell it back to you. there was also some confusion as to the shoe policy, but that eventually worked itself out with similar results to the coat-overflow solution.
people in attendance ranged from all groups of our friends, fish labmates, the fish nerds, the SPH crew, friends from high school, neighbors, MSU & EMU students, SNRE folks, and family...the diversity of numerous group pictures was pretty indicative of those present. although we don't have exact numbers at this point, it was definitely well over 60 people over the course of Tank IV...at several points we couldnt even hear the music over the conundrum of the numerous conversations.
there were some new and old aspects of tank IV as well...we kept up with the fish tours for the newbs present (special thanks to kate for helping out with those, as i would have been doing that for much of the night without her help!), and yes, we eventually moved out onto the deck (in below freezing weather) to play flip-cup...which has been a tradition since Tank II. as could be expected, Team BOWFIN returned in full force and went on to dominate the competition over the course of the evening! nice job to the team members, you know who you are :)
and let's not forget the latest addition, the beverage of choice for a party at The Tank...fish tank water! you read it correctly, and if you were there, you probably tried it...even if you hesitated upon first look. special thanks to erin for the recipe for the 'invisible punch' used for the recent party at her place. i thought this would be perfect for our party since the beverage is perfectly clear (and therefore won't stain) and also tastes really good. we modified the recipe to taste for ourselves, and came up with the idea that this beverage should definitely be served from...yeah, a FISH TANK. we set up a new 5 gallon fish tank complete with an airstone and pump to keep things bubbling. people thought it was a normal fish tank (although it appeared empty) until others started filling their cups from it. the comment: "wait, the fish tank water IS the punch?" was heard many many times over the course of the evening, and was just as entertaining every time.
since this is already getting quite long (i've gone back to intersperse pictures from the party throughout the thread) i'm going to wrap things up with bullets so you can check out more pics from the party.
- i should also (and very importantly) add that ALL the david siblings (yes, even rachel made the trip up) were in attendance, and our cousin from seattle, sunny, was also there for the festivities.
-there was much speculation as to whether or not damon and i coordinated our shirts...i assure you we did NOT! we decided early on that we would dress up a bit for this one, but the fact that the shirts looked similar was pure coincidence! next time we're just going to go ahead and get t-shirts that say 'event staff'.
-swedish fish were also a big hit...although not mixed with jello shots like last time, they quickly went extinct. i remember fishing one or two out of the 'fish tank water'...
-the mounted alligator gar head ended up wearing sunglasses by the end of the evening. today james pointed out (the gar is still wearing the glasses) that gars wouldnt really need sunglasses, and he's never seen one wearing them.
-if you are missing a scarf and a pair of gloves, please reference the e-bay comments earlier in the entry.
-although they were very few in number, the 'casualty' stories by the end of the party (reviewed the next day) were quite entertaining.
-hal's coat looked like the gore-tex coat george costanza wore...
-i believe i told kara i'd give her nalgene back (a sort of re-gifting) when she graduates, and that i had not in fact melted it down into a plastic cube.
-ly & vidya were more interested in the fishes/tanks than anyone else i have seen come through The Tank thus far.
-sarah does NOT know how to order a latenite (4am in this case) pizza, but she does know how to fight for the last piece...i believe my half was bigger though! on a related note, hilary did not present the marinara sauce until all the breadsticks had been consumed...i was not necessarily pleased.
-double D and gwen are doing better with their arrivals to the tank parties, they went from 3am (Tank II) to 12am for Tank IV, good improvement people.
-there were more indians present at this party than any other tank party; surprisingly it didn't make me nervous either (as indians can sometimes do, haha). i believe the count was around 10...too bad we didn't get an all indian pic, but we did exploit several combos, including the asian-south-asian theme.
-shaw was rummaging through our freezer for some reason. i don't know why this is, but i'm now missing a couple hot pockets and some smelt.
-julia has some explaining to do the next time we hang out...
-we discovered (when they made a surprise -and welcomed- appearance) that our neighbors had not been building a time machine in their garage (as james/damon/and i thought) but in fact constructed an artificial intelligence-operated drink maker: A.I. Bar. fascinating.
although i don't believe i actually got to sleep until 7:30am or so, it was a great time and i was glad so many people were able to come out for Tank IV!
...we'll see how the next in the series holds up...
<:><
anyway, enough of that. this past saturday was 'Party at The Tank IV'. as you may have guessed from the name, it was the fourth official party at The Tank and i must say that our parties have not suffered any ill-effects of 'sequel syndrome' yet. in my opinion, and that of many others in attendance, the tank parties have proven to be progressively better than the predecessor. this one was going to be risky since it's winter semester and a heck of a lot colder...some of our traditional tank events were in doubt (at least in the planning stages) and organization was pretty crazy at times...but we pulled it off and i think everyone had a great time! so before getting into anything else, thanks to everyone who came, and i hope you all enjoyed yourselves at what was by far the biggest party at The Tank thus far!
because of some events on friday (which is an entirely different, but also entertaining story), there was little cleaning and preparation done until the actual day of the party...but why i wouldnt i set myself up to be stressed out up until the last minute??? needless to say, damon and i got the supplies together, coupled with a new idea for the punch, tentative plans for cold-weather flip-cup, and our best guesses as to how many people to expect. thank goodness our friend beth showed up early, as she helped with everything from figuring out how to work my iron (damon needed it, not me) to logistics with the snacks and keeping everything running smoothly from that end. thanks beth!
the proposed starting time was between 8-9pm, but of course most people came after 9...but it was generally in steady force and the kitchen, living room, and eventually basement quickly reached capacity and beyond! james (who was absent on a ski trip) room became the storage area for a mountain of coats (thanks for your help with that sarah) and the overflow went into storage for later sales on e-bay. if you are missing anything, i'll gladly sell it back to you. there was also some confusion as to the shoe policy, but that eventually worked itself out with similar results to the coat-overflow solution.people in attendance ranged from all groups of our friends, fish labmates, the fish nerds, the SPH crew, friends from high school, neighbors, MSU & EMU students, SNRE folks, and family...the diversity of numerous group pictures was pretty indicative of those present. although we don't have exact numbers at this point, it was definitely well over 60 people over the course of Tank IV...at several points we couldnt even hear the music over the conundrum of the numerous conversations.
there were some new and old aspects of tank IV as well...we kept up with the fish tours for the newbs present (special thanks to kate for helping out with those, as i would have been doing that for much of the night without her help!), and yes, we eventually moved out onto the deck (in below freezing weather) to play flip-cup...which has been a tradition since Tank II. as could be expected, Team BOWFIN returned in full force and went on to dominate the competition over the course of the evening! nice job to the team members, you know who you are :)
and let's not forget the latest addition, the beverage of choice for a party at The Tank...fish tank water! you read it correctly, and if you were there, you probably tried it...even if you hesitated upon first look. special thanks to erin for the recipe for the 'invisible punch' used for the recent party at her place. i thought this would be perfect for our party since the beverage is perfectly clear (and therefore won't stain) and also tastes really good. we modified the recipe to taste for ourselves, and came up with the idea that this beverage should definitely be served from...yeah, a FISH TANK. we set up a new 5 gallon fish tank complete with an airstone and pump to keep things bubbling. people thought it was a normal fish tank (although it appeared empty) until others started filling their cups from it. the comment: "wait, the fish tank water IS the punch?" was heard many many times over the course of the evening, and was just as entertaining every time.
since this is already getting quite long (i've gone back to intersperse pictures from the party throughout the thread) i'm going to wrap things up with bullets so you can check out more pics from the party.
- i should also (and very importantly) add that ALL the david siblings (yes, even rachel made the trip up) were in attendance, and our cousin from seattle, sunny, was also there for the festivities.
-there was much speculation as to whether or not damon and i coordinated our shirts...i assure you we did NOT! we decided early on that we would dress up a bit for this one, but the fact that the shirts looked similar was pure coincidence! next time we're just going to go ahead and get t-shirts that say 'event staff'.
-swedish fish were also a big hit...although not mixed with jello shots like last time, they quickly went extinct. i remember fishing one or two out of the 'fish tank water'...-the mounted alligator gar head ended up wearing sunglasses by the end of the evening. today james pointed out (the gar is still wearing the glasses) that gars wouldnt really need sunglasses, and he's never seen one wearing them.
-if you are missing a scarf and a pair of gloves, please reference the e-bay comments earlier in the entry.
-although they were very few in number, the 'casualty' stories by the end of the party (reviewed the next day) were quite entertaining.
-hal's coat looked like the gore-tex coat george costanza wore...
-i believe i told kara i'd give her nalgene back (a sort of re-gifting) when she graduates, and that i had not in fact melted it down into a plastic cube.-ly & vidya were more interested in the fishes/tanks than anyone else i have seen come through The Tank thus far.
-sarah does NOT know how to order a latenite (4am in this case) pizza, but she does know how to fight for the last piece...i believe my half was bigger though! on a related note, hilary did not present the marinara sauce until all the breadsticks had been consumed...i was not necessarily pleased.
-double D and gwen are doing better with their arrivals to the tank parties, they went from 3am (Tank II) to 12am for Tank IV, good improvement people.-there were more indians present at this party than any other tank party; surprisingly it didn't make me nervous either (as indians can sometimes do, haha). i believe the count was around 10...too bad we didn't get an all indian pic, but we did exploit several combos, including the asian-south-asian theme.
-shaw was rummaging through our freezer for some reason. i don't know why this is, but i'm now missing a couple hot pockets and some smelt.
-julia has some explaining to do the next time we hang out...-we discovered (when they made a surprise -and welcomed- appearance) that our neighbors had not been building a time machine in their garage (as james/damon/and i thought) but in fact constructed an artificial intelligence-operated drink maker: A.I. Bar. fascinating.
although i don't believe i actually got to sleep until 7:30am or so, it was a great time and i was glad so many people were able to come out for Tank IV!...we'll see how the next in the series holds up...
<:><
posted by Solomon at 2:03 AM
3 Comments:
Whoa...I checked your blog (from a PC I might add) and your template was changed....a green, blue and black scheme. Huh. Maybe PCs are inferior ;)
Kyle and I had fun at Tank IV, even if we weren't there very long...and I'm sorry that I missed the Flip Cup game! Looks like you guys did ok without me though.
j.
Solomon:
Thanks for sending those Tank IV pics to me. It looks like everyone had a great time and what an adorable (albeit totally creepy) idea to serve tankwater punch! I seems like everyone had a bass...er, I mean...a blast! (sorry, I thought a lame fish joke was in order) :)
xoxox
you certainly did promise to give me MY nalgene for graduation! end of april, buddy; you better enjoy the hawaiian flower adorned perfectly sized bit of plastic while you can!
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