By the way

1) "By the way" is one of my boss's new catch phrases. As is, "like I said." (Both of which replace his old "at this particular point in time.") Actual quote from the first team meeting we had in Las Vegas: "Like I said, welcome to CES." What? Who's opening line references a sentiment that hasn't yet been uttered? It doesn't even make sense! Just as humorous, he uses "by the way" to follow a statement of the obvious. Example: "that meeting was brutal, by the way." Really? It was? It's not like I was suppressing the urge to poke out my own eyeballs or anything.

At any rate (my catch phrase), this post is a bunch of random left-overs from the past few days, so I thought the title was fitting :)

2) In the great competition at Main Event last Friday, no one managed to out-bowl the VP of Engineering. Not even close. My 129 (3 strikes in a row followed by a spare) was easily one of the top 10 scores of the day and was a far cry from his 193. I also managed to score 40 points in pop-a-shot (man, was I in the zone!) and while our team did not "win" any one event (no movie tickets for us), we did manage to not come in last. No fridge cleaning for me this year!

3) Kyle + Nate + 9 Scotsmen = a recipe for disaster. That's right, my husband still thinks he's 25 or something. He went out drinking Friday night with 9 (count 'em 9) crazy, pub crawling, pint drinkin' Scottish nationals - one of whom is a jujitsu (?) 3rd degree black belt by the way. (Heheheheh, had to do it). And he didn't go down alone, oh no, good 'ol Nate went with him (Nate's pictured in the shirt with the stripe). Now, while Kyle was able to function minimally on Saturday (we went to Ikea and got shelves for The Boy's room), Nate was apparently in bed until 4PM. Poor Laura. When Nate finally did get up, they had to drive from Cedar Park to downtown and get his car. But back to the black belt bit -- at one point Paul (pictured in the Navy blue shirt) actually fell asleep at the table with a full pint in his hand. Someone went to take his glass so he wouldn't spill it on himself. Paul woke up thinking they were trying to steal his beer and gave them quite the murderous look. Not so smart to get on the bad side of a hammered guy whose hands are deadly weapons ;) Oh yeah, I almost forgot. When the group first got downtown, their parking spot was right by a bunch of Grackle infested trees. Kyle was the only one who ran, trying to avoid a direct hit -- and was the only one to get pooped on, right down the front of his shirt!

4) In a fervor of activity to make up for his decline on Saturday afternoon, Kyle spent Sunday evening -- after the baby palooza -- building everything we'd gotten at Ikea the day before. A stool for The Boy to sit on while he's practicing his guitar, a set of bookshelves to get the books and toys out of his closet, and a new decorative shelf for over his bed (the first one we bought had already fallen out of the wall once and had been leaning precariously ever since). He ran out of time and steam before he was able to build the shelves that support one end of the desk we got a while back (they had been out of stock). Thus, the desk isn't quite finished, but a recent coat of Boise State blue (wouldn't have been my choice of blue, but we left the decision up to Drew) on the wall behind his bed, some birthday fatheads, and the new Ikea additions, The Boy's room is now totally decked out! (still have to take a pic to post)