The 13th Annual Umali Awards, celebrating the Year 2013, took place on June 28, 2014 at Microlights in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Hardboiled won the Umali Award for How I Like My Eggs, and Left Hand Brewery's Nitro Milk Stout unseated 6-time champion New Glarus Spotted Cow for Most Consumed Beer. Also, there were four babies in attendance. It's been topsy-turvy year.
 |
 |
 |
 |
A bunch more thoughts about this year's edition are on this blog post.
In the ceremony, we celebrated DIWITTY-POTS (Days In Which I Talked To You, Person Other Than Sarah*). This shows the official DIWITTY Top 10 list, the one where my wife rules. Since there was a tie for 9th, there is no 10th place.
| 9th | 8th | 7th | 6th | 5th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 1st |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Carl Bogner
|
Michelle Oddo
|
Sarah Buccheri
|
Marisa Wall Riepenhoff
|
Gary Williams
|
John Myers
|
Joe Riepenhoff
|
Sarah Burgundy
|
| Kevin Collum Tim Dries 52 DIWITTYs |
* The intent of the modifying phrase "Person Other Than Sarah" refers to one particular Sarah, not all the Sarahs that I know.
While #1's DIWITTY total came down a smidge from 354 to 352, she did manage to set a new margin of victory record: 271 DIWITTYs.
The Top 10 DIWITTY featured three newcomers: Tim, Kevin, and Marisa. At the show, which celebrated DIWITTY POTS, we also lauded Laura, who came in 11th with 51 DIWITTYs .
Long-time observers will note the absence of Steve Wetzel, my long-time collaborator. 2013 was the first year he did not make the top 10! His lower DIWITTY numbers simply reflect the nature of friendship, the natural cycle of orbits being in phase and out of phase. I urged the writers to come up with some way to honor this man's accomplishments. In turn, the writers urged me to find that video of him playing a remarkable drum solo some dozen years ago at a show in a small bar in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. "You had always wanted to digitize it!" I thought it would be the perfect tribute to him. Alas, I found tons of miniDV tapes but none of the first Paragraphs tour. You'll have to imagine it.
John Myers again designed this year's program, each featuring an inside graphic that shows 5 of the Top 10 DIWITTY recipients of all time. There are two versions, one for the even-numbered and the other for the odd-numbered in the ranking. We needed to separate the two sets because the graphic got a bit unwieldy with all 10 lines.
 |
 |
I also made Set Two of the DIWITTY/Rate Calendars. Each very small calendar visualizes a specific person's DIWITTY count of a particular year as well as the "rate" those days received. I made cards for the Top 10 people, as well as for the presentators and all the people who responded "Yes, I will be attending the event" to the FaceBook post. See? There is value to responding postively to FaceBook events!
Finally, I ordered a bunch more DIWITTY buttons, this time with Carleton College colors. I had wanted to use the colors associated with Elmurst, Illinois in advance of my presentation at the Elmhurst Art Museum, but the white and blue didn't do it for me.
Awards were handed out in the following categories:
Top 10 DIWITTY POTS, presented by Seth Goodman and myself
How I Liked My Eggs, presented by Naomi Shersty and Frank Straka, borrowing heavily from an exchange among Arsenio Hall, Prince, and an audience member
Most Consumed Beer, presented by Nicholas Frank and Chuck Stebelton, with haiku by Stephanie Barber, and an impromptu beer judging by national certified beer judge, Michael Mikulay
Most Frequented Restaurant, presented by Katie Katchever and Bobby Ciraldo
Best Dining out Experience, presented by Rhonda Nordstrom and Randy Russell
Most Famous Person Spoken To, presented by Jennifer Geigel Mikulay
Best Bingo, presented by Eric Ziegeweid
Best Day, presented by Kara Mulrooney and Eric Ziegeweid
The event was photographed by Travis Hale.
 |
 |
 |
 |
I |
II |
III |
IV |
 |
 |
 |  |
V |
VI |
VII |
VIII |
 |
 |
 |
 |
IX |
X |
XI |
XII |
 |
 |
 |
 |
XIII |
XIV |
Blog |
Flickr |