It's been a rainy week, but it always seemed to hold off when we needed it to. Tuesday, for example. It was threatening rain all day, and it did rain some, but it dried up in time for the softball game, which was a rout, not unusual, but we won it, which is. We won the game 20-2, jumping all over the team that beat us in the opening game. We won mostly because their pitcher wasn't there and their backup walked something like 13 in the first inning. I walked 3 consecutive at-bats myself, without a single strike thrown. It felt wrong. Anyway, Beth was at a work dinner party at the Boathouse so she missed a win again. Back to the rain, Friday evening was a fundraiser sale of Nelson's chicken for the Cedar Point trip, and it threatened rain but didn't. We sold out by around 7 pm, including some 50 or 60 people who bought tickets but didn't show up to claim their food, so we re-sold it. An older couple showed up to get theirs just after we sold out, but it says on the ticket to claim it by 5. Missy was at a birthday party while we were selling chicken. Funny story about that. Not one but both kids forgot major amounts of homework this week: Alex was supposed to turn in a large algebra study book by Friday and did not, Missy was supposed to do several reading counts tests and did not. For both, serious drags on their grades. Beth not happy. She had to run a lot to try to get things taken care of by the end of the day (including getting Missy away from the party at Pottery Bayou) and could not, so it'll have to be taken care of on Monday (had to talk to all the teachers). Both kids got themselves grounded from electronic games until school is out. Missy almost lost going to the party but it almost seemed more punishment to make her go back to it. Then it rained most of the rest of the weekend, so we cleaned house!

Memorial Day weekend is over, and once again we did not camp. For the second year in a row, we took stuff up to Milford to sell at the town garage sale at Jessica's sister's. We made about another $150 on leftovers from the garage sale at the Harrison's a couple weeks ago, plus $50 for the older freezer, the one that had the meat meltdown last summer. Mostly kid clothes again though. But while the ladies were at the sale all day Saturday, Patrick and I were at my house splitting wood. For like 5 hours, he split, and I loaded, hauled, and stacked. I don't know how many loads got split and carried off but it was a lot...a LOT...of wood. Only a little bit remains. And a lot of sawdust. Patrick already has told me that if we get any other trees cut down he does not want them. Sunday we took the kids to see the new "Avengers: Age of Ultron" movie...wow....Today was the Tracy Yeager Memorial 5k, my first run since ending the course of steroids, and I had a respectable time (for me) of 25:38, not too bad. I didn't place though, since there were over 600 people in the race.

FCC softball dropped both games of a doubleheader tonight, both close, but we also lost our pitcher. Fairly early in the first game Dig had a comebacker hit him just below the left eye. I was playing first base and didn't realize it had hit him, I thought he had gotten his glove on it and it bounced off that. I didn't realize he was down until after I had chased down the ball and turned around again. He was dazed and bleeding but he stayed around until midway through the second game, when he tried to come back in and pitch, but his vision got blurry. He was looking pretty rough.

Pizza Hut tonight! No, not for dinner, for working. Alex's class is fundraising to go to Cedar Point, so we took over the serving duties in exchange for tips. I'm sure we are all more in the way than anything, but hopefully it helps. I was getting drinks ready for the most part while Alex helped bus tables.

Today I went to see Dr. Dick because something happened to my ear yesterday. Not sure what. Beth and I took the kids to the pool at the new YMCA yesterday evening, and after swimming for a while at some point I put my finger in my ear, as we all are wont to do when swimming, and the moment I did there was a loud clanging noise in my ear, as if someone had struck a hammer on an anvil right next to my head, and it rang and rang and rang and rang and rang. It didn't really hurt, but the ringing went on for hours and is actually still going on. I don't know what happened but my ear must have been filled solid with water and my finger enclosed it and made a shock wave or something. The doctor did a hearing test while I was in today and thinks I may have lost some hearing in the left ear at high frequencies. I have an appointment with a specialist to see what's what but it won't be for a couple months. In the meantime, my ear is still ringing and I'm having a hard time hearing out of it.

A win! A win! Only the second game of the season, and we won! We defeated the other team 14-11, and get this...we hit 3 home runs tonight, including 2 grand slams, one by me! Not over the fence of course, but really not far off. I hit it about as squarely and as hard as I ever have, and it exactly split the left and left-center fielders, over their heads and just out of reach, so by the time I was rounding second one of them had just picked up the ball. And from then on I gambled that he couldn't throw it back all the way in time, and ran right past the 3rd base coach telling me to stop, and scored easily. Wow, my first home run since...looking it up now...August 6, 2002. And where were my wife and kids? At the Orthopaedic Capital Center for Alex's D.A.R.E. graduation, which apparently was an awesome event and featured nationally renowned speaker Retro Bill. I had no idea until after we were all home again that it was as big a deal as it is. Alex won one of the self-esteem awards, which is also awesome, and got his t-shirt by all his friends and Retro Bill himself.

Garage sale weekend! We took a bunch of stuff over to the Harrison's today to help them out by making their sale look bigger. And we wound up making over $250 which was a lot more than they did. And that without any big ticket items, really, mostly clothes. Some dishes. Missy's old bike. Some books, some CDs, and some junk. The Harrison's big stuff did not sell, which is a bummer for them. Alex was at a sleepover for most of the time we were doing the sale. That is a brave family. They had several boys over, and the evening before, took them all out to dinner and to a Fort Wayne TinCaps game (which did get played in it's entirety, despite a threat of heavy rain) and kept them until around 5 the next day. Video game overload there I imagine. Last Wednesday, a tree guy I ran into at the credit union a couple weeks ago came to take down the big oak tree that leaned over the house. Now, it's an e-freakin-normous pile of logs and sawdust, and a stump with some 150 rings in it. And ants. Big black ones, mad that we cut down their house. The Purvises have claimed the wood, and by their faces they did not really know what that was going to mean. Getting this wood split and carried off it going to be a big job. During the week, Alex had his last orchestra concert on Monday, as he is not going to continue with the viola. Since it was on Star Wars day they played the theme music, which was cool. Tuesday the softball game was rained out.

Help a Neighbor day was today! We split up again, Beth was doing laundry love with Missy while Alex and I were at Warsaw Meadows. I was on the crew building raised flower gardens for the residents and cleaning up around the building.