Thursday Thirteen: NFL edition!

1. One of the ways I knew I'd made the right choice about my recent job change was discovering my new company had an active football pool.
2. And a baby pool wagering on when a pregnant staff member would give birth.
3. Imagine how excited I was to discover there were three ways to participate in the football pool(s)!
4. I don't have gambling problem - I swear! ;-)
5. I joined a football pool for the first time at my first job because I genuinely enjoy professional football. I didn't realize the $35 I spent was the best investment I could make to make connections with my coworkers.
6. I have been known to tell soon-to-be or newly graduated female engineers that participating in sports pools like this is a investment in the future of their career.
7. At my second job, one of my good friends and I printed the results from company football pool every week, highlighted the winners, and kept them all posted on our wall.
8. That was one of our many ongoing morale-type projects... we also chose one word each week to post to expand our team's vocabulary, and kept a list of memorable quotes said by our teammates and other coworkers.
9. I'm playing fantasy football for the first time this year. Mostly because my boyfriend organized the fantasy league and promised to help me maintain my team.
10. I was really tempted to draft a high school classmate of mine who is an NFL tight end--but restrained myself when I saw how low his fantasy ranking is!
11. I almost had to do my first trade already after Saturday's roster deadline, but thankfully the player who had been cut found another team. What a relief!
12. I am not a fan of Thursday games. I always have a hard time remembering to turn in my picks prior to the start of those games!
13. Also, I am a little annoyed with the NFL scheduler: I am trying to be good and go to bed earlier now that I have an earlier work schedule and having my team be part of the 2nd half of the opening Monday night doubleheader is going to make that very difficult!