Of New Wards, Sadistic Party Games, and Hooses

Howdy doo. Alyssa and I just got back from our first ever meeting in our new ward. Good times, good times. Demographically, it's about the equivalent of both of our parents' wards--lots of older folks, empty nesters, and parents of teenagers; very few younger couples and children. I counted one baby, which I think will be quite a drastic change from the 30 or so we had in our previous ward. It was a bit startling to actually be able to hear people speaking for once. Last night we attended the birthday barbecue of Alyssa's friend's wife and her twin sister and some girl's husband (I'm a bit shaky on the details). T'was jolly good fun; we played guys-versus-girls Catchphrase and we dudes wasted their hinies in about six of seven rounds (yes, we really did play that many times). Then we all played a game where the object is to press a button before your opponents or you get shocked. I would have been fine except I MISSED THE DANG BUTTON. Ay ay ay, it's 16 hours later and I STILL can't feel my hand.

Just an update on the house (or the "hoose," as Alyssa and I call it in a Scottish accent because we're weird)... We've made a ton of progress this past week--pretty much everything is painted and we now have laminate flooring in the living room. Also, we had the banister switched for a new gnarly-rad one, and we spent a lot of yesterday staining the wooden parts.
Here I am at the top of a ridiculously high ladder, risking my life for the good of painting some ceiling edges that no one will ever see unless they've been drinking a lot. Alyssa suggested that I use the caption "The Height of Hotness" for this photo. Silly girl.

Don't even ask me what's going on here. Makes for a classic picture though.

Yeah, I know we already included a picture of our mailbox, but McKell was so presh that we just couldn't pass this one up. So sue us.