Join Tiernan

This event will cost $5.25. A real three ring circus, with clowns, tigers, elephants, trapeze artists, etc. Meet around 7pm outside Burton 2 lounge to drive over to the Blue Cross Arena. C'mon, when's the last time you got a chance to go to the circus?

Yay elephants! And acrobats, etc. Events even included the rare white royal bengal tiger, who got to stand on a disco ball and look pretty for us, as well as perform tricks. Favorites include the baby piglet who got to, well, act like any baby not wearing a diaper would. Additional events included two acrobats swinging from the rafters; a girl being shot from a canon across the arena; tight-rope walkers who actually rode bicycles, on each other's shoulders; and a performance by elephants. Who were boy elephants. It was obvious.

We also got the chance to eat cotton candy, and Katye brought home a nice little souvenier: an actual Fez from the circus. For some reason, this circus has made a trademark out of the fez.

California Rollin - 29 March

Raw fish and chopsticks. Notable events included Jon discovering that wasabi is *not* meant to be eaten on its own. Also, Jon and Dan got to have the cucumber salad, whose name is somewhat misleading: there were more tiny tentacled animals in there than cucumbers. Consensus included just some random tentacle, a tiny octopus, some clam, and something whose name I forget. We all tried to show Jon how to use chopsticks properly, and failed. Genearlly some good times.

Brunch for March of Dimes - 30 March

Crystal and Jenny will be cooking brunch as a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. Cost will be $3, and will buy you scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, cinnamon rolls, orange juice, milk and apple juice.

Crystal and Jenny made some rather attentive assistants: Justin, obsessing over the frosting of the cinnamon rolls, and Aiza, who felt the need to offer everyone toast, because she wouldn't stop making more. Reports are that we managed to raise $50, and Crystal and Jenny are willing to entertain offers to purchase the leftover supplies, including 3 and 1/2 packs of bacon.

Finally, we would like to point out that all who didn't attend missed the novel experience of seeing scrambled eggs served from a wok.

Self-Defense Seminar - 30 March

For a retention project, Cyrus will be teaching a small course in self defense, including basic tactics for avoiding problematic situations and self-defense maneuvers. Cyrus has had a black belt in TKD for years, so this is an opportunity you don't want to miss! Loose clothing and no shoes are recommended.

Perhaps in addition to wearing loose clothing, some might have benefited from pads. Certain defense mechanisms proved more defensive than planned, and a spontaneous playful "practice" attack landed one poor guy in a chair with a rather pummeled groin. His victim (also known as his girlfriend) was highly amused.

Aside from that effective strategy, participants also received the Paranoid's Handbook, a set of tips on avoiding dangerous situations, and learned sesveral other techniques for breaking out of holds. Our sympathies to Cyrus' "assistant", who had the lovely job of playing victim for the entire hour and a half.

Quadapalooza - 12 April

The Tiernan Project, the Burton-Lovejoy Hall Council and the Burton-Lovejoy RA's are co-sponsoring a picnic event: games, bands and free grilled food. Tiernanites will be helping set up; cook and serve hamburgers, cheeseburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, and drinks; and clean up. There will also be cotton candy for $1 a cone.

The most remarkable event of the day for any was quite probably the cotton candy machine. Initial (and continued) events to get cotton candy on the cones led to being covered (head, face and shirts at least) in cotton candy. Also, thanks to the wind, there was a least one report of flying cotton candy pieces ejected from the machine on the lawn in front of Wilson Commons - with the cotton candy machine between Hoeing and Lovejoy!

We managed not to run out of food until almost 4, possibly because we started late: the grills didn't want to heat up. The funniest event was probably the "chefs" wearing hats and googles to keep all the smoke out of their eyes, a fashion started by Steve.

All in all, Quadapalooza was a success. Lots of people showed up to enjoy the surprisingly warm weather, and we even almost broke even on the rent for the cotton candy machine; that isn't even the final tally; since we have the machine until Monday, we'll continue selling cotton candy out of Jon's room until then.

Bowling - 19 April

Things would have started out better if anyone had actually thought to check directiben reacts to yet another first bowl of 9 pinsons before we left....we knew where we were going but not how to get there. Which means that what turns out to be a seven minute trip straight down a road from UR to the bowling alley turned into a 45 minute scenic tour of Chili and the back end of the International Airport. Crystal more or less went nuts when she realized how short the trip was supposed to be.

Bowling itself was less of an adventure. Katye had the honor of being the most remarkable bowler of the night, managing to get six frames into the first game before my score broke into double digits. And she honestly was trying to hit the pins the entire time.

Unfortunately, Katye was unable to meet her goal of having only half the score of the person next above her, scoring 50 to Crystal's 91. Crystal, not being pleased with her performance in the first game, went one to get the highest score of the night. Ben suffered (see picture) the annoyance of constantly (five frames in a row, at one point) knocking down nine pins on his first shot. Poor Ben.

Pizzaria Uno Fundraiser - 30 April

A fundraiser for Tiernan: show up any time during the day and present a ticket, and 20% of the bill is donated to Tiernan!

The trip got off to a decent start as we tried to fit everyone (over a dozen people) into two cars. This was made all the more difficult when Jon's car failed to start. The group who had trekked all the way to Hill Court then hung around and searched for his batttery (yes, it was in the hood, but no, it wasn't obviously located!); Security finally came to give Jon a jump....but when he turned his headlights off the car died, again. Fortunately Jenny's resources were able to provide us with a car, and off we went.

Dinner itself was fairly tame; or at least, as tame as any event with so many Tiernanites at can be. Overall, much fun was had, and hopefully we'll be raking in the benefits of our trip.

last updated 2005.01.18