My boss gave me four tickets to go see a Wagon Wheel Theatre production last Saturday. He gets season tickets and couldn't go this time, so Beth and I went with the Johnsons to see "Charley's Aunt." A pretty good production, but their line delivery was as rapid-fire as a high school show. Sunday we went out on Lake Wawasee with the Schneiders and Johnsons on Dave's dad's boat (very nice). Overall, it was a pretty busy weekend. And the baseball players may strike again? I hope the baseball players strike. I hope the series gets cancelled again. I hope we get to listen to the players whine about how hard it is to get by while on strike like the basketball players did a few years ago. Heck, I hope all the baseball teams get contracted. It's boredom with a score, anyway. It's very very difficult for me to make myself care.

My boss gave me four tickets to go see a Wagon Wheel Theatre production last Saturday. He gets season tickets and couldn't go this time, so Beth and I went with the Johnsons to see "Charley's Aunt." A pretty good production, but their line delivery was as rapid-fire as a high school show. Sunday we went out on Lake Wawasee with the Schneiders and Johnsons on Dave's dad's boat (very nice). Overall, it was a pretty busy weekend. And the baseball players may strike again? I hope the baseball players strike. I hope the series gets cancelled again. I hope we get to listen to the players whine about how hard it is to get by while on strike like the basketball players did a few years ago. Heck, I hope all the baseball teams get contracted. It's boredom with a score, anyway. It's very very difficult for me to make myself care.

Yesterday was my birthday. 33 years old doesn't feel a lot different than 32, really. Beth and I and several friends went out to dinner at Teel's in Mentone for their all you can eat seafood buffet dinner, which includes crab legs. For Indiana, they're pretty good. The buffet as a whole is, however, not like Captain George's in Virginia Beach. We all played Catch Phrase at the Wilhite's afterwards. Two of the kids from the accident were with the group; one (Lindsey) was hurt pretty badly but is doing much better except for still being very sore in her knee. The day before (Thursday) was Lindsey's 12th birthday so we stopped by for her birthday party. One of her presents was a lava lamp, just like the one that her friend Catlyn (the girl who was killed in the crash) had gotten for her birthday about two weeks ago. That's going to be a very special present for her forever, I bet. She also got some finger paint so everyone who was at her party could put their handprint on her bedroom wall and sign it on her birthday. That was really cool. Wednesday Beth and I babysat for Scott (the children's minister) and his wife Jennifer while they went to group counseling. Tuesday our softball team lost again, but almost won when our best longball hitter nearly got one out on the last at-bat of the game. Had he hit it 10 feet longer, we would have won, but we lost by something like 13-11. I was 2-3 in the game, and am now hitting 20-43 (0.465) on the season. If I hit 3 for 3 in the last game I can get to 0.500. Long shot with the slump I've been in (the game after the one my mom saw, I was 0-4). Monday was Catlyn's funeral. Two other guys from church and I put together the video slide show for the family and I ran it during the service. I was happy I could do something for them, but man was it emotional. The whole church family has been through a lot in the last couple weeks.

A few days ago there was a collision between our church's van and a semi. The driver (our children's minister) and several 10 and 11 year olds were injured and one girl was killed. It's been a hard week

This was the first year in quite a while I didn't do anything fireworks-related during the week of July 4th. I had plenty of other things to do though. I had Thursday and Friday off. Wednesday night (7/3) I drove up to Michigan to spend the rest of the day with Beth (she's been going up there a lot to be with her mom, who was still in the hospital) and Thursday (7/4) we drove down to the South Bend area to spend some time with friends from church who were camping at Potato Creek State Park. A whole bunch of people were there, similarly to camping at Chain O' Lakes State Park over Memorial Day a while back. We also went to see Men In Black II with them while we were there, then returned to camp for hot dogs and smores. Later that night I headed home while Beth drove back up to MI. Friday morning I set out for southern Indiana to the St. Joseph Valley Grotto campsite, since the grotto was having a weeklong campout there. As it turns out, the campsite is located on private land and is leased from the landowner. There's a big field with a woody area with a clearing in it (and a sinkhole), the campsite is in the clearing. Anyway, I got there at about 1:00 pm on Friday. I didn't know what it would be like or who would be there when I got there, but the place was deserted, so I just went about setting up the tent. Picture if you will and old movie entitled "The Three Stooges Set Up a Tent in 94 Degree Heat" with the parts of Larry, Moe, and Curly all played by me. People began to trickle back in from caving a couple hours later. Another guy who was arriving for the first time that day (many others had already been there for days) and I got a little caving in; he and I and his son and nephew went into Elrod cave for a while because we were itching to go and the kids had never been in a cave before, and they were antsy. After a trip in (which we weren't really prepared for; we were just going to walk around a little and come back out, but would up going in quite far, and anyway hadn't put on our coveralls or pads) we went back to camp and did camp stuff (sit & talk around the fire, eat hot dogs, etc) until later. I found out that our nice expensive air mattress has a leak in it because I woke up sleeping on the ground the next morning. The next day we went on a caving trip through Lost River Cave, in which I bashed my shin pretty good while walking through waist deep water. I stepped on a rock that moved. (Big cut, lots of blood.) I had to make an into-town run for bandages and peroxide. I stayed at the campsite until after dinnertime, because one of the grotto members was making her famous jambalaya for everyone for dinner. I drove back Saturday evening. Anyway, I hope to get in on some surveying in the Lost River Cave soon. It's a cave that the grotto members discovered just a few years ago and are still surveying; 16 miles so far and no end in sight. More leads are found every time they go surveying.