A few updates

The company Olympics came and went.  My team has won gold medals in over half the competitions, so it appears we are the runaway champions yet again.  I wish I could say I contributed as much this year as I did last year.  I played the same two events:  golf and bowling.  Though I repeated my showing in golf (2nd place), I did not come close to approximating my dominance in bowling.  I bowled a measly 118/133, though the 133 was good enough for 3rd place.  Those scores are a far cry from the 186, 142 I bowled last year.  My bowling this year was not accompanied by cheers, or a first place finish for my team.

Everyone kept asking what was wrong.  My practice throws were strikes and spares.  When they counted, in 22 frames, I bowled one strike and 9 open frames.  I said I just wasn't throwing well.  My ball was just not doing what it normally does.  One of my colleagues who bowls frequently and wins several tournaments a year, however, said it was the lanes.  Watching him bowl a 103, 99, I thought maybe it was for him, but not for me.  Then my mother-in-law bowled the same lanes later in the week.  Most of you probably already know, thanks to a very public Facebook taunting, that my mother-in-law is a good bowler and beat my 171, 179 series when we played a few weeks ago.  On the lanes we bowled the company Olympics, she bowled 97, 119.  Maybe it really is the lanes (though she is blaming the balls).

Next week our daughter returns to school.  The last few weeks have been difficult for her because she is at home all day instead of just a half day.  It really is harder on her that it is on us.  She likes the interaction with the children and the learning.  We've been working with her, though.  She knows how to spell "dog", and several words that rhyme with it (bog, hog, etc.).  She has learned that evaporation is how the sun makes the water disappear and that if you put your feet together on the swings you go faster because of aerodynamics.  She also knows that you ask daddy if you want ice cream and mommy if you want pickles.  Thankfully, she doesn't ask for them both at the same time.

I'm finally loading the pictures from our team building and rafting trip.  I've had them since the Monday after and just haven't made the time to load them.  Anyway, here they are (I'm the goofy looking Caucasian).