We've had a busy week/weekend. Friday was our first night in a new Bible study small group. We had lasagna and mostly a get-together night to talk about what we're going to do. Alex and Missy napped late Friday so they weren't fed when we went there and then were too overstimulated to eat, so they were all hyped up and cranky. Saturday we took Gary and Renee (our new associate minister at church) out and about geocaching with us, out to points near South Whitley and North Manchester. We found four caches, all Indiana Spirit Quests. At the last one we got a wasp in the van, which flew into Alex's face on the way home and scared him to death. When he started crying I thought it had stung him and the whole van flew into a near panic. We stopped quickly and got the doors open and I winged it with a shoe, after which it landed on Missy and nearly crawled into her face as well. I thought it was going to sting her then, but I did finally kill it and get it out. Alex was incredibly freaked out by the whole thing and now is scared by all flying bugs. No stings, though. Our first night of league bowling was afterwards, in which I did great in the first game (176) and sucked in the 2nd (106) and 3rd (121). I'm trying something new this year with my ball delivery but it wears my wrist out, and after the first game I couldn't hold it steady. Today was my fantasy football league draft day. I may have a good team, but I thought that last year too. I hope Detroit's Kevin Jones is all he's cracked up to be.

Beth and I did some geocaching yesterday. We were going to ask Gary and Renee to come with us, but they were busy taking the youth group to World Pulse Festival...and winning a car. I got my passport the other day, and heard that the company is curtailing all international travel. So I guess I'm not going anywhere. The church softball season is over, ending the way it began...with a string of losses. It wasn't as much fun this year for reasons I won't go into, but deal with who's playing and division of labor. Anyway, I was a lousy 9-27 overall (0.333) for the year, one of my lowest averages ever. Next year I may play in the Zimmer league instead. Last week we took the kids up to Michigan to visit Stephanie, so she could do Beth's hair. Steph is in beauty school and did a new cut for Beth for cost. I just watched the kids all day (like I do pretty much the entire time every time we go up there anymore). And I also had to bomb the yellowjackets again because they came back. Important lesson: use Raid instead of store brand. This time, there were no survivors. And I dug the nest up good too.

Today I had my eye doctor appointment and I am right now wearing contact lenses for the first time in about 10 years. They feel funny but I'm having no trouble with them. I found and destroyed a yellowjacket nest in my front yard yesterday without any stinging involved (see 8-10-2003). Boy, I hate thinking about the first time Alex or Missy gets stung...I had a pretty severe allergic reaction to yellowjacket stings when I was a kid. Last week the house changed such that the casual observer might not even recognize it: we FINALLY got the two replacement windows upstairs that we ordered in JANUARY (For all the jerking us around and possibly outright lying to us about these windows, they ultimately gave us a 15% discount over the delay. Big deal. Probably not enough to keep our business.), we had the living room and dining room carpets cleaned (BIG difference), and we got the sectional sofa we ordered in June. We hadn't decided whether to put it upstairs or downstairs, but the decision was made for us because it didn't look as big as it is when we saw it in the showroom. It couldn't go downstairs. So the old sofa is downstairs and we may sell the futon.