Tonight was the Cub Scout potluck/awards banquet at PVBC, which I thought was very well received and attended. We had plenty of food, which is always a worry for me if there's a change attendance may be light, but folks came through. We handed out the badges and awards the scouts have earned in the last couple months and the popcorn awards and prizes, and passed out the pinewood derby cars which we will be cutting sometime after the break.

Cub Scouts went rock climbing at the YMCA Tuesday night, and tonight we were back at the Y for Missy's gymnastics expo, or demo, or whatever it was called. All the gymnastics classes (Missy is in the lowest level) do their thing for parents and family to come see, sort of like a recital. They have everything set up in the gym and you can watch from the running track above.

Tonight the Tigers and Wolves were supposed to do the visit at the fire station that was cancelled last week due to an "emergency." However, there was a lot of snow late today so even though school was not cancelled, we decided pretty late on that scouts would be cancelled. So, we'll do it another time...again!

Today Beth begins her new job. It was pretty unexpected that she is going back to work, but it just all came together so perfectly it must be a God thing. The job is at the kids' school. She has gone into the classrooms to help out with Alex and Missy's classes since Alex was in kindergarten, and always gets raves from the teachers. So much so, that when a new position became available to help out with guided reading, three different teachers at the school specifically asked that the job be offered to her. So she will be working for 30 hours a week helping students that need assistance with reading, either due to language barriers or learning issues. She's really excited, especially since she never thought that a job with good hours for her would ever come by. This is going to help us out a lot, and I think she'll be great at it and will love it.

What better thing to do the day after Thanksgiving than geocaching? We sure didn't want to be anywhere near a mall today. It was a chilly but nice day today so we headed out south of town, towards Akron and Roann, and went looking for a total of 9 caches, but only found 5. I hate posting DNFs but a couple of them we found evidence of nothing being there. For Thanksgiving, we were at home. This is a year when everyone in Beth's family is busy with in-laws, so nowhere to go there, and Laura let us know earlier this week that she and Thomas won't make it out here either (too much work to do), so we were going to be here alone. But, in talking with our neighbor Linda, we found that her kids are both with their significant others families this year too, and she was just going to order something or microwave something. We didn't think she should have to be alone on Thanksgiving, so we invited her to have dinner with us and she accepted. No need to make a huge turkey, so Beth made one of our farm chickens Greek style and we had that instead.

The Tiger and Wolf Cub Scouts were supposed to have the tour of the fire station tonight, unfortunately when we got there the place was deserted because the firemen were all out on a call. Go figure. We waited around for a little while, but eventually we all just went back to the school and joined the rest of the pack making Christmas cards for soldiers overseas. I'll just have to reschedule the visit.

Today the elders and deacons all helped pack up and load DeeAnn from the house. We are all so thankful that she has sold the house without too much trouble, and she is moving into a much better situation. She's moving to southern Indiana on a lot that Marcelle bought and built a house on for her, which is adjacent to his house. So, she will live right next to her son and grandkids, and as of today, she's out of the old house.

Cub Scout popcorn is ready for pickup. It is all in my garage, all over the place. We sold $6461 worth of popcorn this year, a bit more than last year, which puts about $1800 in our account with commission, Yay. And our top seller, with a total of $1129 in sales, was...Alex Knight!

The Neers were having some tree trimming work done today, and since we still have the big branch on the hickory tree broken and hanging down from the storm last summer, we decided to grab the guys with the bucket truck and chain saws and ask if they could take care of it quickly. Which they did for a couple hundred bucks, however when they cut down the branch it bounced on its branches a couple times and made like it was headed for the picture window. It didn't quite make it there, but the main trunk of it did come down on and crush the porch swing that was on the patio, and miss the window by a few feet. So, they owed us $40 back to pay for the swing. Which we're just going to throw out and not replace, probably.

I am back from Vancouver again. Every time I go there, I am pretty sure it'll be the last time I go, but somehow I always need to go back again. Which is OK with me, because secretly I love going. I left early on Tuesday, right in the middle of the kitchen floor renovation, so when I left the old vinyl was all up and the new subfloor was down. As I posted on FB, it was already looking better than the old floor. Anyway, I got to Iotron Tuesday around 1 pm local time, and spent a couple of really long work days getting the real-time monoblock irradiation temperature experiments done. The good news, I also had plenty of free time while materials were preheating for hours on end, so I could get quite a bit of good geocaching in. I found some excellent woods to go exploring. And I'd like to share the log with you here:

OK, here we go. Little hike to the cache site...wow, steep trail. Aha, nice spot for a hide here, hey wasn't there something about a log held up by a stump? No, wait, that was another egg cache. Anyway. I can see where it must be from this little bridge...there in that giant stump. OK, not seeing it. Hmm. GPS is jumping all over, must be the canopy. Oh well, I'll just poke around here a bit more...nothing...maybe over there? Now the GPS says it's over there. Not seeing it...Not here...not here...not here...still can't get a good fix. Well, I'll just use my geo-senses. OK, not here...nope..nope...nope...almost out of time on my lunch hour...well, crud, I'm going to have to come back tomorrow. OK, I'm back again. I'll find it if it kills me. Now. The GPS is still pointing at the big stump. I looked in there several times yesterday but maybe I just overlooked it. Hmm, still not there. GPS is pointing here today, that's new...nothing here...nothing here...oh great, now the batteries died. Oh well, it wasn't helping out anyway. It's gotta be right around here somewhere. Nope. Nope. Nope. Getting frustrated...and dirty...what did the hint say? Better use the geocaching app to look at the page again. Roaming, so that'll be expensive. Oh well, let's go. OK, got the hint. Hmmm, from the bridge eh? OK. Here I am on the bridge. So it should be that way. Guess I have to bushwack a little...must be...THERE. Huh, it's not here. Not here...not here. It has to be here! Where is it!!? WHERE IS IT!!!?? OK, fine...I give up. Oh wait, there's another bridge over there. Let's take a last look...oh. There it is.

I'm not even in town, but this is worth mentioning. Lincoln Elementary is doing a walk-a-thon fundraiser for PTO this year instead of selling crap like they usually do, which blows since it's right after the popcorn sale and I hate asking people to buy stuff...again. So does everyone else. So, this year they decided to change to the Race for Education and it blew them away with all the donations, they raised over $13k, way over their goal, and had a nice day for the kids to go out and walk!

A group at work did a "Phineas and Ferb" Halloween today. Left to right in front below, we have Perry, Ferb, and Phineas, in back we have Stacy, Lawrence, Isabella, Linda, Candace, and myself as Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

This morning was the annual YMCA Spooktacular 5k. I ran it, Beth was going to but ultimately she didn't feel well enough to do so. I wore the scarecrow costume that I have worn before, and had a pretty respectable time of 27:43, which was good enough to place first in my age group and win a nice little medal. I had a chance to win the costume contest afterwards but in the end they gave it to the cute kid, pfft. Last Wednesday was the Cub Scouts event of the week, instead of on the usual Tuesday, since we were combining with the PVBC youth group in the church's Fall Festival. We had a bunch of inside stations (where I was working) playing games, and a hayride/bonfire outside. We divided the groups in half and sent each half either in or out. Dodgeball work out really well, but extreme rock-paper-scissors may have been over their heads.

The Cub Scouts sold popcorn in front of Wal-Mart today. We sold about $325 worth or so, not too bad, I suppose, but it was a hard sell. It's hard to get people going into Wal-Mart interested in buying something expensive. Oh well, it all helps.

Cub Scouts sold popcorn at First Fridays downtown tonight. We did not do as much business as we'd hoped we would. We were thinking maybe we should have had something more than just the microwave stuff, which people don't want to carry around as they walk about downtown. The canopy also might have hidden us somewhat. But we sold a few.

I ran the Mosquito Run 5k today, and my time was 29:52. That's considerably slower than my last 5k. For some reason, it took almost 2 miles to find my rhythm. It felt like I was struggling from the start until then, and then it got better. Like a second wind, I guess.

The cub scout district Cubmobile race was today. It was clear, but BOY was it cold. We used the same cubmobiles the pack has used in the past...not sure how long it's been since we raced, but at least a couple years. The kids all seemed to have fun, even though we didn't win much. Plus, I'd suggest a different format than everyone district-wide showing up all at the same time and then waiting...and waiting...for your turn, then waiting...and waiting...for the next turn. They should divide up into pack time slots, or something. Anyway, most of the scouts were gone by the time we were done. Next year, I think we'll need to get the cars fixed up or build some new ones. Last Tuesday, the last meeting before the race, we had arranged to meet at the fairgrounds to practice racing downhill, but the gate at the bottom of the hill was locked so we had no place to do so. Plus, it started raining while we were there trying to figure out what to do and where to do it, so we wound up just playing some games in one of the empty pavilions.

We're back from another...yes another...camping trip. This one was the annual Wiessner/Pinkster/Knight/Beavers campout at Michawana. No bike wrecks this time, and ziplining for all, even Missy. THe weather was cool but not cold, it stayed dry, and everyone had a very nice time. Walldorff's and Plainwell Ice Cream on the way out comes standard.

I'm back from a short business trip to the Philadelphia area. Myself and another guy from work were sent to the UHMWPE conference and symposium at Drexel University. Sounds thrilling right? I was presenting a poster and getting a listen to what everyone is saying about vitamin E. Seemed mostly positive. I also had just enough free time to do a little bit of geocaching. Including a full body sprawl into a muddy trail though a thicket. But I found it!

We spent this weekend camping at Spring Mill State Park, down south. Unfortunately we ran out of time before we ran out of things we wanted to do, so we'll have to get back there again sometime soon. We left after I got out of work on Friday, so it was pretty late by the time we get there and got set up, but we had a very nice spot on a hill (which made us worry every time the kids went down it on their bikes or scooters). We had a really busy but incredibly cool Saturday, in which we first hit the orchard shops out in town. On the way back into the park, we passed a farmhouse with what looked like the world's biggest yard sale going on, so we stopped to look around. I think the family there travels around to auctions and such buying things to resell...there was some of everything there. Knives, video games, glassware, clothing, appliances, you name it. We all found a few things (Alex found a Game Cube video game and controller that will work on the Wii, Missy found a remote controlled robot dinosaur, Beth found some glass, and I found two softball sized geodes. All was cheap cheap cheap...the geodes were 50 cents each). After lunch we hit the Gus Grissom memorial at the park, then did the cave tour in a boat. The park has a cave with a river running through it that they take visitors through in a boat, which is really cool.  and hit the road again. We were on the road for a while after that driving down to Marengo Caverns, which is a commercialized but amazing cave system even further down south in Indiana. We took one of the longer tours which involved quite a bit of hiking through several levels, and seeing a lot of stalactites and stalagmites, cave bacon, reflecting pools, rock ledges that ring like a gong, flowstone, etc. Once back outside they had a panning for gems and arrowheads setup, with a long trough with running water.The kids had a blast. On the way back to the park, there was really heavy traffic going in, come to find out that the Persimmon Festival was going on this weekend and that night was the candlelight tour of the pioneer village at the park. But traffic was so backed up and so slow that we were moving in line for over an hour, and by the time we got to the village, it was almost closing time (don't know if they were going to keep it open longer due to the heavy traffic) and we needed to get the kids to bed. Late. So, we hit the village in the morning, when everything was over and almost deserted. Such a cool place though, and they had the sawmill setup and running. Amazing. We did the tour of the village ourselves...I LOVE the sawmill...and got in some geocaching in the park before hitting the road. We originally had planned to get to the railroad museum in French Lick but ran out of time. Bluespring Caverns will also have to wait.

We are back from camping at Chain O' Lakes State Park, and Missy's face is messed up. It all started with the labor Day camping trip.... Friday after I got out of work and the kids got out of school, we hitched up the wagons and headed to the campground, where we were spending the long weekend with the McCoys and the Myers', who were back in town visiting from Cincy. We all got moved in and set up fairly uneventfully in the incredibly sweltering Friday heat, but that wasn't to last long. Friday overnight was as close to perfect as we've ever camped in, with the windows largely unzipped and perfect humidity levels. Saturday was also nice, long enough for us to go for a swim at the lake for most of the afternoon, when it started clouding up. And cooling down. We all had our smartphones watching the weather roll in, thinking maybe it would miss us, which it did until after dinner. We got a big tarp tied up in the trees for some semblance of shelter, which turned out to be a good thing. Just when we thought it would all break up and go around us, there was a HUGE lightning flash and a HUGE clap of thunder maybe a couple hundred yards from us, making most of the kids scream, and it immediately started raining buckets. We all scattered to our respective campsites and waited it out inside, us while we tried to calm Alex down (finally using Angry Birds and his Gramma blanket to do so). We got everything out of the rain as best we could but the evening was basically over, and it rained most of the night. We did get showers before turning in so we were presentable for church in the morning; we did lunch with the Boschains and Myers' before heading back. Travis, Brian and I did get some geocaching in Sunday evening (but only after we found a friendly campsite neighbor with some jumper cables, since the kids had watched a movie in the truck and run down the battery) that was really cool....you were led to the cache by small reflectors mailed to trees that would have been almost invisible in the daylight. I'll have to set one up like that myself. Anyway, It had been more or less dry all day, but it was damp and cool, so the overnight was pretty uncomfortable; more so on Monday when as we were packing up Missy and JoAnna had a crash on their bikes and Missy went over her handlebars onto the asphalt head first. Luckily the crash was right in front of a campsite inhabited by a paramedic, so she was rushed back to us and checked out on a basic level very quickly. I just heard a truck pull up with Missy in it crying, and JoAnna say she had fallen off her bike and hit her head, and came out to see her bleeding and with an enormous swollen lump around her eye. Beth and Tabitha ran her down to the hospital in Columbia City while Travis and I kept packing up, then we took the kids down to get them when we got an all-clear. No permanent damage, no concussion, nothing internal, nothing broken. Whew, lucked out. Could have been much worse. The paramedic had thought she might have broken her orbit. Anyway, we had to have the truck jumped again to get down to the hospital, but we got there just as Beth and Missy were being discharged (Missy threw up on the mat on way out the front doors, but felt a lot better right away). We just finished packing up and towed it all home to rest after that.

We are just about ready to roll out for Labor Day weekend camping! Summer must be about over.

The Cub Scout roundup was today. We had a lot of new kids sign up... and a lot of old ones not show up... and missing parents who said they would be den leaders... and not a single new parent indicated that they might be interested in becoming a den leader. We did the whole pitch but got nothing. We aren't just a babysitting service, folks....anyway, it looks like we'll have a lot of Tigers this year.

The Cub Scout 'board' or whatever we are called had a meeting this evening at the Lemp's. Still can't reach some of the supposed den leaders for this year. Hope they do show up. Anyway, I think this will be a good year for the scouts. We learned a lot last year that I hope we can apply to this year. The popcorn kernel's meeting was Tuesday in Fort Wayne. Like last year, I went to the meeting and got the spiel. Unlike last year, we are going to try doing a cash & carry sale. I think we can get in to First Fridays for October and sell then; the problem is how much to pre-order. We're taking a guess at 120 boxes of the microwave kinds, which might be the easiest thing to do. There's no sale-in-a-box like there was last year, though, so we'll have to make all that up ourselves. And the $600 level prize is a disc shooter instead of a marshmallow crossbow.

We are back from camping most of last week at Holland State Park, nearly the same site (just across the street) from where we were last year. It was a good week overall, although not quite what we wanted from the beach. Anyway. Last Saturday, the Cub Scouts had scheduled a trip to Pine Lake, a water park in Berne, just south of FW, a trip for the whole family. We decided, sure, we can all go and get everything ready for the camping trip in plenty of time. Not so much. We were so behind that Beth stayed home instead of going to the lake. The kids and I had a fun time going down water slides and such all day (except you're not allowed to go off the zip line into the water with a life jacket on, so Missy didn't get to do it, for which she was very disappointed...Alex did it and got yelled at) while Beth worked on laundry and grocery shopping. We left the park in the late afternoon, JUST as the downpour started. Alex also lost his glasses but we found them...stepped upon...in the grass where a towel had been when we first got there. But Beth got everything ready yay honey. Sunday we were going to depart for Holland as soon as church was out, but based on the weather reports and forecasts we waited a little bit because I didn't want to set up in a rain shower. But it was pretty nice when we got there in the late afternoon, and after dinner we decided we had time to go to the beach before dark. And we found out that the water was very very very COLD. Unseasonably cold. Unbearably cold. Something like 50 degrees, over 20 degrees colder than normal for this time of year. We returned to the beach on Monday, but it was still too cold for any actual swimming (I never got my trunks wet, and even the kids were only in for pretty short times). We had planned to be at the beach all day, every day, but with it being so cold in the water that plan was shot. Then in the evening the rain started, so after dinner we found a Redbox in town and rented "Rango" to watch in the camper in the evening. Tuesday we decided to go visit Dutch Village instead of the beach, but Beth and the kids didn't really seem in the mood so we aborted the idea and hung out at the campground instead. The kids played nicely and Beth napped, then in the later afternoon we went down to Lake Macatawa to see if the beach there was any warmer (it wasn't) but they did have canoe rentals so we did that. We canoed all around the lake checking out the big fancy yachts at the marina, the activity of which helped the moods. We headed back to Ottawa Beach in the evening for the sunset. There was a red flag and big waves (for Lake Michigan) going on, which was kinda fun splashing around in knee-deep. Wednesday we actually did go to Dutch Village. Missy skinned the dog food out of her knees on the way in by tripping on the brick walkway (we found that their "first aid station" at Dutch Village is a desk with a few band-aids in the drawer) but otherwise it was a very good time for much longer than I thought. We must have spent 6 hours there. The kids loved the farm (bunnies) and the pedal pumper rides the best, we saw some Dutch dancers (one lost his wooden shoe when he kicked upwards...must've gone 30 feet straight up), Delftware, candle carving, wooden shoe making, etc etc...and we got some really "gouda" cheese, har har. We got a free game of cosmic mini-golf with admission to Dutch Village so we did that afterwards. And Lake Michigan was still very cold in the evening. We packed up and headed home today, stopping in Saugatuck for the famous dune rides which were expensive but worth it. I highly recommend that. It's like a roller coaster along the dunes. Beth managed to trip over a limb at a photo op stop and skin the dog food out of her shin just like Missy did to her knee, but otherwise it was a blast. Missy was running down a dune and fell facefirst at the same stop, but she just sprang up and yelled 'I'm OK' and kept running. From there to home. We're back, it was a good trip even if the lake was too cold.

Drove Mom & Dad to michigan?

We are back from a family visit in Cleveland, sort of for my birthday. We left as soon as I got out of work last Friday, which happened to be a day we had a HUGE thunderstorm blow through Warsaw with what they call "destructive winds." The hickory tree lost a big branch and a huge limb, and another large limb broke but is still hanging on in the tree. However, I did not have time to deal with it, and there was nothing smashed on the ground (except the little sickly redbud), so we left it. We were in Cleveland late at night at Thomas' apartment building, which is a fantastic old converted factory building. We were there for Thanksgiving last year too. Saturday we all went to the Cleveland Zoo, which is a very nice one, although it was so HOT HOT HOT that the highlight of the zoo is the misters blowing here and there, and the cold drinks. But they do have a Foosa, which Missy loved seeing. On Sunday we all went to a go-kart an video game wonderland called Swings-n-Things, for which Laura had found a groupon, or some such. We spent the better part of the afternoon all racing go-karts (and I can honestly say, not all of the go-karts there were created equal) and playing other games, like the motorized inner tubes you steered around a pool and tried not to (or to) get splashed by the spectators with water cannons. We all went out to a very nice restaurant for dinner. We left and drove home with Mom and Dad in caravan (sort of) today.

This week has been mostly about the fair. Tuesday was $1 ride day so we took the kids. Now you would think that $1 would be plenty for these rides anyway, but usually they're $2 or $3 apiece, which is highway robbery just like everything else there. But anyway, someone paid our admission fees for us. We don't know who. They man running the ticket booth at the gate just told us we were paid for, handed us $12 worth of entry tickets, and told us to have a good time. Best we can figure is it was just a random stranger doing a good work, and we were just the lucky recipients. We didn't see anyone we know there at all. So saving that money, we gave the kids $10 worth of ride tickets each and were able to get lemonades for them as well without breaking the bank. We wondered if 10 rides would be enough, but it was...there didn't seem to be nearly as many rides this year as you typically see at a fair. Maybe it's just because we were at a different one last year. But after the kids did the fun house and slides and kiddie coaster they were set, and we did the ferris wheel last with all 4 of us. I also tried the hit the thing with the sledgehammer to ring the bell game but it was set much harder than at Indiana Beach. The guy gave the kids the inflatable hammer toys anyway. Thursday I was back at the fair with Alicia from work and Toni formerly of work, for lunch. Friday Beth and the kids and I went to the fair again in the evening, this time to check out all the booths and to see the big cat encounter (nobody paid our entry fee that time). Alex had practically thrown a fit about being dragged to the big cat show but he really loved it (especially since a one tiger peed and a another pooped during the show. Tiger poo really stinks, too.) and so did Missy (but we knew she would anyway). Friday night we finally realized that Mom and Dad were going to arrive in Indy Saturday and not Monday, so on Saturday Alex and I drove down to the airport to pick them up while Beth and Missy went to the zoo in Fort Wayne with Missy's brownies troop for a zoo campout. They got to sleep overnight in the zoo, how fun is that! They were back this morning while Alex and I were blowing off church since Mom & Dad were here.

First Fridays action tonight...the Cub Scouts had the dunk tank going on. And I must say it had to be the coldest July 1st in history. We were set up to have cub scout parents (and scouts, because we didn't know we weren't supposed to do that) in the dunk tank for $1 for 3 throws. I was in for a while, and there may have been ice floating in the water...we'd had Bryan come fill it up from his work truck and it looked a little skanky too, but I think it just came from the city fire main. Plus, just after we set up, the sky clouded up and it was threatening to rain almost the while time (never actually did). But, cold and murky notwithstanding, we made $201 over a 3-hour period. Everyone loves a dunk tank!

I am a softball champion, sort of. I've been playing softball in the Zimmer league this summer since our church is not having a team this year. Don't know why, but we're not. Probably because nobody volunteered to be the coach/leader/whatever. Anyway, I'm not exactly a vital part of the team, and only made it to a handful of games (it's inconvenient that all games start at 5:00 and it's all doubleheaders) and didn't exactly make a splash with the bat, but I played catcher competently (I think) when I was put into the field, and got a few hits here and there, but after 6 weeks of season the "Nomads" team (with members of DMO, B19, Research, ATS, Hip Development, and Extremities Development) was in first place and won the 1-game "tournament."

Missy's birthday has been going on for several days now, and finally it's about over. Everything else has been going on now, too. Last weekend, Saturday, Laura and Thomas came over from out East to visit with Missy. While they were traveling, we held Missy's birthday party. She decided a while back that she would like to have a teddy bear tea party, whatever that means, so we gave that a go. We had about 9 little girls come over, bringing their favorite stuffed animal and dress-up clothes, and we had them make fancy hats out of paper plates and plastic flowers and bling, blow bubbles all over the backyard, play a skittles shooting game, musical chairs, and eat cake and ice cream. So that's what a teddy bear tea party is. After the party we thought we'd have enough time to visit Clayson's grad party before Laura and Thomas got here, but we were wrong. They beat us to our house by a few minutes. It was date night, so we got Erika and all went out to dinner at the boathouse and got Courthouse coffee afterwards. Thomas had to leave early in the morning to pick up Ben and head back to Ohio for an interview Sunday so that was about the last we saw of him, but Laura was staying on for a few more days. Sunday we all went to Pottery Bayou to paint pottery and dinner at Golden Corral (Missy got to choose anywhere she wanted). For the next few days, every night was movie night at our house because Auntie Laura had never seen "How to Train Your Dragon" or "Tangled" or "Megamind." Wednesday, Missy's actual birthday, Laura left in the morning (Beth took her to South Bend where she caught a Greyhound). That was also the day of Missy's real party, since neither Wrigley nor Rebecca could make it to the teddy bear tea party. Those two came over Wednesday evening, for dinner (pizza) and a sleepover. But first we took them to Somethin' Funn and Dairy Queen as well, and after their movie they got to bed (girls sleeping in the guest room downstairs) at around 10. Tennis was the next morning (today) so the girls went with Missy.

Memorial Day camping was a total loss, but we had a great weekend anyway. The weekend started with several days of watching the weather forecast look worse and worse for the weekend. When I went home for lunch on Friday intending to get the camper ready (very late) I remarked how unenthused I was about camping, a feeling Beth shared. We both wondered to each other why we were doing it. Wanna cancel? Yes I do. Me too. Let's do it. So we cancelled. Mere hours before our arrival time, so there was no refund, but worth it, we thought. The kids were disappointed to not be camping, but our first act was to soften the blow by taking them to see the Friday matinee of "Kung Fu Panda 2" in 3D, which we all loved (especially the bit with the cannonballs). Then we went out to dinner at Culver's. And in the evening, it stormed to beat hell, as dad says. Close lightning strikes, loud thunderclaps. Saturday morning, we took the kids out to breakfast and then to a workshop at Lowe's where kids got to build a biplane model for free. I did some work getting the camper water tank flushed out (would've finished that before, but left it) and in the afternoon we took the kids to the YMCA to swim. Later we went out to dinner at BWW with the Boschains, watched it pour down rain out the window, played trivia (Alex soloed with the trivia console for the first time, and did well enough to win, with help). Sunday was Cub Scout night at Pleasant View Church, which is the charter for Alex's pack, so Alex and I went there so he could help out in bringing up the flag and leading the pledge of allegiance before the congregation. Beth and Missy were at our home church, since we had invited several people (not camping) to our house for a backyard cookout right after church...but the McCoys were sick, the Horbetts were still recovering from Andersen's illness, the Boschains had to run to Kokomo due to a family emergency, and DeeAnn was exhausted from all the work/travel she's had to do lately, so the cookout was scrapped and we went out to lunch with the Boschains, the Hembrees, and Tyler the intern. Alex found a gumball machine that dispensed Pokemon cards, so as soon as we got home, he grabbed some quarters and we had to run back to the restaurant to get some. He got one that was all in Japanese and we spent a good amount of time looking for the translation online (finally found it). The Purvises came over in the afternoon because there were some severe thunderstorms going on in the area, and being in an apartment, they don't really have a shelter area. But the bad stuff never hit us, only heavy rain. In the evening we got Ritter's, which was sort of free because Beth had a pre-payment half-price coupon. Monday I got up early, and while everyone else was still asleep, snuck out and biked down to Winona Lake for the Race for Trace 5k, which I'd wanted to do but couldn't since we were going to be gone camping. I biked to the park because I thought it's be a good warmup. I've never seen such a crowd there...they 848 or so runners, a local record, I think, and it was a nice morning for a run. Easily 3 times the people as for the 5k at the Y last fall. My time (29:54) was a bit slower than the last 2 I've done but the sheer crowd at the starting line probably cost me a minute or two. Anyway, Beth and the kids were at the finish line waiting for me, which was good since at that time I didn't feel like biking home. We ran into the Monsmas at the race (Rebecca had run...she knew Tracy) so we invited them to come over that evening for a cookout that hadn't happened the day before. In the meantime, we got Subways for lunch and headed to the beach at Center Lake. We spent a couple of hours there (nice day...everyone at the park was probably packing up and saying 'why couldn't it have been like this all weekend?') while the kids swam in the ice cold water and I had a terrible allergy attack and couldn't stand the bright light. But I ran to get some cheap sunglasses and made it through. The Monsmas came over in the evening and we grilled burgers and hot dogs, and ate a lot of the food we had gotten for the cancelled cookout yesterday. Afterwards we got Ritter's (mostly free) again. So overall we kept busy and took good advantage of not camping by actually having fun. Can't imagine anyone camping had fun.

Missy's class had a field trip to Kelly Park planned for today, but it had to be cut short by the weather (typical for this spring so far....really wet, and storms thrown in). They all got to the park, and got a few games and activities and such in before the weather broke. Fortunately there is a shelter at the park, but it got bad enough that they had to cut things short and head back to the school. They had to wait for the rain to let up so they could make it safely to the cars but they had a good time back at the classroom anyway. Yesterday was the Kendall Camper cookout and Alex's cub scout advancement and awards ceremony. We were also supposed to have a t-ball game but, as is becoming typical for this month, we had too much crammed in and something had to go. Missy chose the cookout (I would have too) so after school she got to go play at the teacher's house. Alex got to carry the flag forward for the ceremony, got his Wolf badge and advanced to the Bears level.

This was the weekend of our neighborhood garage sale. We picked up about a dozen folding tables from church and crammed our garage full of stuff, mostly not ours. The McCoys, Boschains, Horbetts, and Purvises all brought stuff to sell at our house. Mostly Tabitha; she must have saved every piece of clothing each of her kids ever wore, and her stuff was crammed in every spare inch. I left work a little early on Friday to help out, but didn't need to because when I got there things had pretty much wound down anyway. It had been painfully slow all day, but we figured it would pick up on Saturday. It never did. We were open early morning and until late afternoon, but the traffic was light. We sold some things we were happy to see go, most notably the entertainment center, but overall things were just not busy. We made about $110 or so but had most of our stuff left over at the end, when usually by the end of the first day we're looking for more stuff to put in. The kiddie basketball hoop is gone now, as is the old stereo and a few miscellaneous toys, but we'll have to try again later on this summer to unload stuff. We think Tab just had so many clothes out, and most were very well worn, that people were overwhelmed and felt like they couldn't search through everything to find what they needed. Anyway, we also sold the old French doors for $150, on Craig's List instead, since we figured they would never go in the garage sale. The guy who bought them picked them up Thursday. I'm very happy to have them out of the garage; they took up a lot of space. Anyway, Saturday was also date night, so I got Erika after we wrapped things up and Beth and I got dinner (paid for with garage sale funds) and went to see the new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (ditto), which was just OK, a bit disappointingly dumbed down. Given the option, we chose to see in without the 3D, and I'm happy with that choice. Earlier in the week, Missy had her first t-ball game! She did well, and seems to like playing. Alex now decided he does want to play after all, but I'm sure that will pass.

Tuesday the Cub Scouts got a tour of the movie theater. Interesting to see all that new stuff, digital projectors and all. And found out why movies are so expensive, because next year all movies will be digitally projected and the theaters all need to upgrade them, and the projectors ain't cheap. Also, corralling a couple dozen Cub Scouts in a place where they can't touch anything is not easy. Getting them to be quiet isn't easy either, so I hope nobody in the theaters heard us. Wednesday I went back to the doctor to have the stitches in my back removed, and got the biopsy report...benign, it was just a mole. I also managed to tear the site open the first time I got out of a car after the stitches were out, so they probably didn't do much good the past week. On Wednesday, Missy also had her first t-ball practice. She was supposed to have one last week but we kind of spaced on it. It's been a long time since we signed up and it kinda went out of mind. Anyway, she did a good job but she's not nearly as aggressive as many of the other kids. Thursday Beth and I went to the elementary school to meet with Miss Zellers, who will be Alex's teacher in the gifted and talented class next year. I think that is going to be great for him. Friday, Alex had his first sleepover at the Monsma's house. They probably spent the entire time talking about Pokemon. Yesterday, we did yard work most of the morning and early afternoon, when it was time to take Missy off to girl scout camp! The camp is up by North Webster, and on the drive there, the skies got darker and darker....milling about in the parking lot, it started spitting just a tiny bit. And we had Missy's rain coat and umbrella, but nothing to cover her sleeping bag and clothes until she could get them into the cabins a quarter mile away. She could barely carry everything she had to bring, and she was supposed to carry them all on a hike? In the rain? But one of the leaders had a garden wheelbarrow just for such a thing and toted most of Missy's stuff for her. The skies were getting darker and darker as we were in the process of dropping her off, and shortly after we drove away, the heavens opened up and it started raining, hard. Lightning and all. But we let her go. Today we picked her up at about 10 this morning, and she had a great big smile on her face as she came to us. She had a great time, and the girls all stayed dry and had plenty to do out of the rain. Yay!

I feel so grown up...I had my first biopsy this week! Tuesday, I went to the doctor to have a mole on my back removed. I'd seen him a week ago and he thought it was "probably nothing" but agreed it was abnormal and should be removed. So, I had a chunk of my back cut off and sent away. A couple of stitches and some pain pills. Later on, the Cub Scouts roamed around the neighborhood of Lincoln School picking up trash along the roads. We got several bags full, but I'm not sure anyone will notice because there is a lot of stuff needing to be picked up. Friday, the Cub Scout pack was manning a table downtown at First Fridays, making and selling candy derby cars. We used icing as glue to stick M&Ms (wheels) and a gummi bear (driver) onto a small Snickers bar (car). We helped kids who needed help making them and sold them for 50 cents each. Overall, we turned a profit of $36, I think it was. The weather was a bit sketchy, especially at first, so I wasn't sure how the turnout would be, and overall it was kinda light. But we did good. I brought our canopy and set it up so we'd have some cover, which turned out to be a good thing because it did rain for a while. Saturday, Beth and I had a date night and went out to see "Thor" in 3D. Talk about a waste of effort...the 3D effects in the movie were worthless. The movie itself was OK...just another superhero movie.

It has been a good weekend. I have blisters. It's been raining almost continuously for a couple weeks now but there was a good break in the weather for the weekend, so things got done. Saturday Beth and I did a lot of cleanup outside the house, getting more of the leaves that fell after the snow started last winter and accumulated around the garage and behind the house raked up and dragged away. Brad and I went out to the fairgrounds to reclaim our Cub Scouts dunk tank. In the afternoon, Beth and I had planned to go to South Bend looking at some of the furniture places for a new TV stand to replace the entertainment center we've hated for a long time now, and moved to get the carpets cleaned behind it, and didn't want to move back, but we found one we really like in Warsaw so we didn't have to make the trip. So, with the time saved, we all went out geocaching (first family caching trip of the year) and found 5 altogether, but were prevented from finding another by the high water. We wound up in Pierceton looking under a porch behind a jewelry shop, go figure. Sunday was help a neighbor day through the church; I had signed up for physical labor and Beth and the kids to play bingo at a senior center. I spent a few hours raking, mowing, and cleaning gutters for an elderly lady in town with a few others. For as much work as there was, we could've used a few more people, but we got a lot done and she was very grateful. The rest of the previous week was pretty ordinary.

We got the letter from the school today...Alex has been accepted into the gifted and talented program for next year!

Aaaaaaah....clean carpets. If ever a houseful of carpets needed to be cleaned, it was ours.

Saturday was a busy day...we had been promising the kids we would take them to Bremen Bounce again for a while now, so we did, but as a reward for being good while we shopped for furniture. Our couch is literally falling apart and we've known it needed to be replaced for quite some time now. We looked around JB's for a bit, then Warsaw Furniture, where we've bought some things before, and found (re-found, in a catalog, the same couch we'd seen a year before and really liked) a really nice couch/loveseat set for a good price ($1142.76) and, since we should have a good tax return soon, I decided to just go ahead an buy it, much to the surprise and delight of Beth. So after this, we headed to Bremen armed with a coupon that Beth had found online somewhere that turned out to be not as great a deal as we thought because it required buying candy and pizza and all. Plus, when we got there we found that it was closing in about 20 minutes. So we let the kids bounce for 20 minutes, but at least they were kind enough to let us in at a discounted rate since we wouldn't be there for long. We got home in time to get Erika for our date night, but nothing was playing that we wanted to see so we did some shopping and got dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and played trivia all evening. Today, we just took the kids bowling. And I moved the entertainment center into the kitchen, which was a lot of work, but we're getting the carpets cleaned this week and I want to get the area under and behind it.

Tabitha's birthday this week. Why do our friends always want to go out to dinner at Hacienda? WHY? Well, they don't, but even once in a while is enough. We went out with the McCoys and some other friends tonight to Hacienda for dinner. During dinner they asked us to move because they had put us in the back room, and they needed it back for some reason, so they compensated us for the hassle by offering us free desserts. Which we accepted. At least that was good stuff.

Missy went to the ENT today. And her tonsils are coming out in June. The choices were either on the 26th or the 15th...so we chose not to give her a really crappy birthday present.

It is late, I am tired, and I am glad to be off the road. We are back from spring break vacation. We spent the past week in Alabama visiting Judy and Neill and had a very good trip altogether. I wasn't sure we were going to make the trip at all for a while because Missy was so sick. She missed almost the entire week of school (she made it on Monday, then went downhill) to the point that on Thursday the 31st she was at MedStat getting a scrip for suppositories to stop the vomiting because she can't keep anything down, and we left town on Friday the 1st. I truly had no intention of leaving on schedule, but Beth seemed to think there was no reason not to go on time, so we did. Alex hadn't been sick at all, bless his heart, nor had I, but I was like "you're not seriously thinking we should go, are you?" but she was. Anyway, Missy seemed fine almost right away when she could finally stop throwing up. Friday I took a half day off and we picked up Alex after school and headed out. We had Katie staying at the house and taking care of the kitties. The plan was to get to the other side of Louisville the first night and find a hotel, but being the first day of spring break everyone in the world was on the same road we were. Traffic on I-65 southbound was reeeeeally heavy. By the time we we ready to stop for the night, there were no vacancies, anywhere. We pulled into 3 or 4 hotels before someone at one told us that there were no rooms anywhere and we should try Elizabethtown. There, they told us to try Cave City. There, they told us Bowling Green. There, we drove a few miles off the highway to see if we could find a place, and we finally did. At 12:30 am, over 100 miles after we first started looking for a place. Beth had taken over driving by then and I was trying to get some rest because I had resigned myself to driving all night already. But we found a good place a few miles off the interstate, for a lot cheaper than most places on the interstate had been getting. So anyway, we made it to Birmingham at a reasonable time the next day without being too tired to do anything. We had a very nice time seeing the Vulcan, the Birmingham Zoo (Lorakeets...really cool!), the McWane Science Center, the Peanut Depot (twice), playing mini golf, and hanging out at Judy and Neill's beach. The last couple of days, it got hot enough that we agreed to let the kids swim (to us, the water was barely above freezing, but kids don't care). We also played tennis with the kids, did some shopping, and visited the cafe that inspired the movie 'Fried Green Tomatoes' which turned out to be anticlimactic, then Missy got most of her lunch spilled in her lap (not her fault) so we had to do some more shopping. Alex got sick and threw up one afternoon but felt fine right after, and I felt kind of worn-out-sick for a day and a half or so, but otherwise our overall health was good all week. Saturday there was a little festival of sorts going on at Mt Laurel, with booths and sidewalk sales and all right there, and it got to about 90 degrees. We stayed until early afternoon before hitting the road, then drove as far as Bowling Green to stay at the same hotel we were in on the way down (this time, however, we got a room on Hotwire.com for cheaper than before and the knowledge of where we were going to stay that night). And since we were in the area, we took the kids to visit Mammoth Cave on the way north. We spent a few hours taking a cave tour, during which time Alex met a boy he really hit it off with and they talked about Pokemon most of the tour. The kids really seemed to like the cave, and have already asked if we can go back there someday. We told them sure, but I'm not ready to do any more driving yet.

My final four didn't even come close. 0-for-4. Overall I was 35-28 in picks which is pathetic. My champion Duke lost in the sweet 16 and VCU was supposed to lose in the opening round. And Michigan State did lose in the opening round. Better luck next year...

Today was Pinewood Derby day for Alex's Cub Scout pack. Next year, hopefully Alex will listen a little bit to me...this year, he was convinced that if his car was heavier it would go faster, and thus he would not have any more wood removed than a tiny triangled bit in the front. I couldn't convince him that all cars would be the same weight by race time. Anyway, it was less than aerodynamic, but he didn't want to work on it with me either so it didn't get worked on. I won't do it for him unless he wants to work on it with me. Anyway, next year maybe we can check out some tips on how to make it go faster, because he really wanted to win but came in 11th overall out of 16. Two Tiger Cubs were 1st and 2nd overall. Alex was pretty upset about not getting a trophy...last year he did get one but it was for 2nd place among Tiger Cubs (there were only 2 racing). Anyway, the race itself went off pretty well. We held the race at the church instead of at the warehouse where we did it last year, which worked out great. The church youth group was also having a derby race in the morning, and we just set up ours after they were done. We had a carry-in and used the same PA system and all that had already been set up, then took everything down and put it away. There was a good turnout, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Tonight was the first Komets scout night our pack has been to! What a great time. The Komets wound up losing to the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (I had no idea they played hockey in Louisiana) in a shootout 3-2, but it was a fun evening. We had a decent turnout for an event like this, with around 4 or 5 families represented. There was a decent fight in the 2nd period too, and I'm afraid some of the adult leadership (me) didn't use it as a teachable moment. When the two guys started locking up and throwing punches we started cheering, and when Shrock knocked the other guy over backwards we cheered even louder. We should have taught the kids that fighting is wrong and to never use violence to solve a dispute. But it was more fun to cheer on the fight.

The NCAA tournament starts today! It's the most wonderful time of the year.
So my final four this year is: Kansas, Pitt, UNC, and champion Duke.

We had quite a scene signing the kids up for little league today. Missy decided she wants to play this year, and luckily she is still young enough, since she won't be 6 until after the season starts, to still be in t-ball. I didn't want to start her in coaches pitch if we didn't have to. So she's happy. Alex wanted to play minor little league, but he is in the age group where he could play either coaches pitch or actual baseball with the 8-10 year old kids. I really don't think he's up to playing at that level, especially with 10 year olds, so I tried to convince him that it was a better idea for him to be in coaches pitch again this year. He got really upset, and didn't want to play coaches pitch, then after talking to him about it he said he didn't want to play anything. He was crying and I felt like it wasn't so much that he wanted to play as it was that he thought I wanted him in the lower level because I thought he couldn't do it. I don't know. But eventually, he told me that he did want to play baseball but not coaches pitch, so I decided we would give it a try. This will be a make or break year, I guess. I am really concerned that he just won't be at the level that most of the other kids are and he'll never want to play again. We had almost the same scene yesterday too; Beth and I took the kids bowling (to the other bowling alley in town because they were running a special for kids) in the afternoon, but Alex started getting upset because he was in last place. We were all 4 of us bumper bowling, so Beth and I were way in front of the kids, and the kids of course just got random pins with each roll. But Missy was beating Alex, by chance. And he got so upset we had to have several discussions with him about being a good sport and just having fun. But he was pouty anyway and ultimately we finished up without him so we could get out of there because nobody was having any fun. I hope it's not just like this during baseball season each time he makes an out.

I'm back from ORS. First time going, and it was held in Long Beach CA this year, nice. I flew out last Wednesday, and met up with a few colleagues for dinner the night before everything opened. There was a pretty sizeable group of us, plus some people we knew from Boston, all together at a really excellent seafood restaurant (King's Fish House) where I had the Hawaiian Ono for the first time, never heard of it before but it's really good. Back at the convention, I had two posters on display so I had to man them for all sessions, both days. For the most part, Chinese people walked past, took a photo of the poster, and moved on, but a few people did take an interest, especially one who was surprised to see Zimmer there at all ("I thought you guys didn't do conventions") which shows the lack of presence on our part for several years now. I went to a bunch of presentations as well. More seafood in the evenings. Thursday, here's a picture (taken just outside the convention center) that I texted to Beth during a break in the action:

...and the one she texted back to me from home a few minutes later.

Thursday night a group of Zimmer and DePuy (fraternization!) people walked over to the Queen Mary (the ocean liner, now museum/hotel/restaurant/event center) for a very nice and fancy dinner aboard ship. Friday was more of the same at the convention, but Toni and I ducked out for a few hours to go catch a whale watching boat tour. It departed from just down by the convention center so it was pretty handy, and they didn't need us there anyway. The tour took us out a few miles from Long Beach, where you can see all the thick smog hanging over the LA basin, but we also did catch sight of a female humpback and followed her for a few miles, and we also checked out all the sea lions hanging out by the oil platforms offshore. Back on land, we continued to get really good seafood...especially the fish tacos. I got a bit of geocaching in as well, just around the convention center, on Saturday. Everyone headed back Saturday; I had the same flights as Satish and we barely...barely...made the connection in Dallas. Pretty successful trip overall.

We picked up Opal and Iris from the vet today after they spent the night getting fixed and de-clawed in front. I hated to do the de-claw, but they've been climbing. The screens, my jeans, whatever they can get their claws into. The cat condo I built really does help, and they love being able to climb it by the rope windings or the carpet, but overall I prefer the guilt to a shredded house. 2 cats fixed and declawed, $449.50...ouch.