The same guy I let borrow the car a couple weeks ago borrowed it again last night. He has not returned.

Beth and I took the kids swimming at the YMCA yesterday morning and shopping for clothes later on. We spent about $450 on the both of them altogether. Today was also my fantasy football draft day. I think I did pretty well, but I’ve thought that every other year too. I got Vince Young and Reggie Bush, at least.

Tonight after work was Gail’s annual cookout at her house. The funniest part was that Toni got lost on the way and had to call for directions (and the phone was naturally passed to me to give them, after what had happened last week). It was rainy so nobody was swimming (which disappointed the kids).

Today was orientation day for Alex and Missy both at preschool. After work we took them to get oriented. Alex has been chomping at the bit to get back and was ready to hit it as soon as we got there. Missy hid behind us when we got to the classroom for a few minutes, but by the time we came to pick her up she practically threw a fit about leaving. Alex was the same way..."Daddy, 2 more minutes!" when I came to his room.

The weekend started with finding out that Clinton and Stacy were having a garage sale Saturday, and us piling things together to put into it. Most significantly, the Little Tykes playset in the backyard. Which, of course, needed a good cleaning. Alex and Missy were more than happy to get some rags and help scrub the dirt off and hose it down, and it was looking pretty good until Missy (barefoot) got stung by a bee of some sort on her foot. I whisked her inside and got the stinger out, but it didn’t look so bad and never swelled up that much. But there were enough bees outside that even Beth was getting nervous. After wrapping that up, we loaded up the van and dropped off our stuff, then headed to Bremen for Toni (from work) and John’s pre-Pulse Festival party at their house, where they were having friends over for cookout/bonfire. Alex was looking forward to it all day, but nearly got severely disappointed when I forgot the map at work, realized it too late, and we got lost. Well, not exactly lost, but I couldn’t quite recall the details of the map and we thought maybe we could just drive around Bremen and find the place. Anyway, I couldn’t remember enough and we couldn’t find a street name that was familiar. Some nice older folks at the supermarket knew Toni’s father-in-law (deceased) but not where we could find them. Nor could I find a detailed map of Bremen, nor was Toni’s number listed. We were close to going back home, to the near-crying strains of "But I want to go to Miss Toni’s house!" but it just so happened that I knew someone else from work that lived near Toni and I found his number in a phone book at a gas station. I called him and asked for directions, and it turned out we had been fairly close. There were a lot of kids there for Alex and Missy to play with, and they got rides in a big backhoe to boot. Marshmallows later over the bonfire. Saturday Beth went early to work the garage sale. I completely disassembled the playset and MAN was it gross when I got it apart, so I hosed and scrubbed some more. I got it and the kids to the garage sale by 10:30 and we let the kids play on it to advertise. It did sell, as did the alphabet/animal play mat, old small TV, old VCR, all of Beth old stamping stuff, a lot of books, and some old shoes and general junk. Overall we topped $200 by a bit. A good chunk of that was spent in the evening, when Beth and I hired Katie to babysit and went out to dinner and a movie ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" - good, book is better). Today after church I got some Kilz and got to work in earnest clearing out the storage room upstairs and getting the trim and walls painted.

I lent my car to a guy I don’t even know last night. A guy who lives next door apparently has some medical problems and needed to go to the hospital in Fort Wayne, but his car isn’t running, so he came over to ask if he could borrow mine, and have it back in a few hours. Big reservations....but...I let him do it. Holy crap. But he had it back right when he said he would, so it all worked out. Big relief.

We went to Michigan for Mom G’s funeral service today. First off, however, was a birthday party for Alex to go to. Isiah’s (from preschool) birthday party at Central park. That was a great idea, having a hot dog cookout at the park and letting the kids all play on the playground stuff. Afterwards, we headed to Michigan. I got a room for tonight for $64 on Priceline...at the Radisson! We first went and cleaned up the gravesite, also where Beth’s dad and Becky are buried. We all had a meeting with the pastor afterwards. Virgil & Sherri came up to MI for Mom G’s service, they got there during the meeting with the Pastor and afterward we took them to Plainwell Ice Cream. Alex and Missy got their first cones. Sunday after church the whole family went to the cemetery and we buried Mom G’s ashes, even the kids helped shovel on the dirt. The memorial service was a little later and we went right there after the burial. A catered dinner was afterward. Almost all the little cousins were together to play. I was funny seeing them all running down the corridors of the church together. From the fellowship hall, through a door to the corridor once in a while you would see: there goes Ryan...Sam...Julia...Alex...Avery...........(wait for it)...........and Missy. The Johnsons, Wilhites, and Sams also came to the service. Overall, I think it pleased all the siblings, even Judy and Pam both.

This was Missy’s preschool orientation week. Alex has been jealous that she gets to go to school and he doesn’t. By Thursday he was saying "how about I go to school today instead of Missy?" Missy has really enjoyed it. We’re glad she does, because maybe it will provide her a little more incentive to get potty trained. She’s behind the curve on that.

It’s been rainy for several days now, and I tried to mow the grass because there was a little break in the weather. During mowing I noticed a BIG bug flying around a when I looked closer, I spotted a giant bee dropping down into a hole in the ground. Great, just what I need.

Jenny babysat tonight so Beth and I could go see "The Bourne Ultimatum." We had rented both of the other Bourne movies last week because we wanted a refresher on the Bourne plotline, and we hadn’t seen the second one at all. The movie was really good! Better than most Bond movies. Best action movie I’ve seen in a while.

Beth asked me to stay home from work this afternoon so we could both go take Alex to the dentist. We went, and Alex was a champ. He went right in when he was called, sat up and opened his mouth to let the dentist see his teeth, and didn’t have any cavities. I read to Missy while he was in there but in reality I didn’t need to be there. Beth said she wouldn’t have asked me to go if she’d known it would go that well.