Pictures from Governor Sebelius' Inaugural Ball (picture heavy) [View All]

[Mabus]

Okay, first off, my pictures suck. But, I had a great time. These are from Monday night (1/8/07).

The evening was called "Think Big" and featured posters of notable Kansas people and tables of food and drink from Kansas. It was held at the downtown Ramada in Topeka.

There was some red wine from a Kansas winery. I had a glass of it. It wasn't that bad but I thought it was a tad sweet. We (me and Rex) wandered into one of the rooms that featured Kansas meats. Oh man, there were buffalo burgers (about the size of a White Castle burger), prime rib, pork loin, and a whole bunch of other meats. For a carnivore, it was pure heaven.

Here are the table settings:

Not that there were many tables. It was more of walk around thing.

I ran into Steve Boyda. He said Nancy (D- 2nd CD) was still in D.C. attending some classes for new Congress Critters. I saw him later giving an interview with one of the Topeka channels.


The event started at 5:30 and shortly after 7:30 they had all of us line up along both sides of the main hallway while the recently (re)elected officials walked between us. I got in line a little late (:eyes:, like that's anything new) and ended up standing behind former Governor Mike Hayden and his wife.

The "march" started off with Dennis Moore (D-3rd CD).



And then went to the statewide elected officials, including the new State Board of Education (they got a huge round of applause and cheering)




Each group of officials were preceded by military escorts (usually accompanied by their wife or girlfriend - secretly I was thinking "someday, when America grows up, there will be same sex escorts")


Anyway, the crowd went absolutely crazy when (D)Paul Morrison's name was announced. And the craziness explains this picture I got of Morrison as he walked by


Gov. Sebelius (D) also got the crowd in a frenzy. Here's the picture I got of her.


Anyway, the marchers all went into the Grand Ballroom where our re-elected Governor Sebelius welcomed all of us and thanked us for joining her in the evening. We watched her on one of the big screen televisions in the lobby because the Ballroom was packed.


She introduced Thomas Franks, who mumbled so no one could understand a frigging word he said.


Then the Gov. spoke again and turned it over to her husband, Keith. He introduced the band and the dancing began. We did make it inside the Ballroom after a while but this was the closest I got to the dance floor.


It was a little claustrophobic in the Ballroom, so we headed back out to the main floor and wandered around talking to people. Here's our favorite DU associate talking to Douglas County DA Charles Branson (D) and his wife, the stunningly beautiful, Kathy Branson. Kathy is a grade school teacher here in Lawrence.



And this was just a part of the festivities going on around the Ramada (or, just some random pictures of what was going on during the evening).






Oh yeah. I got a commemorative book and some chocolate covered sunflower hearts called "Sunny Seed Drops" from a company in Lenexa.

edited to add "D" for Democrat.