It was a rough week in patches. Natalie went to cheer tryouts Monday through Wednesday after school, but ultimately she did not make the squad and her best friend did. And her friend was a real shit about it. Tuesday we played the best team in the league and got to play a whole 4 innings with them before the mercy rule was applied; if the last out had fallen into right field instead of being a diving, shoestring catch, we would have scored another run and played another inning, but it was not to be. I gave up a couple towering homers, and otherwise they hit the ball pretty hard all night. I did catch a couple hard comebackers, including one that came like a rocket and it really blew away the batter that I caught it. Thursday was the 6th grade Chicago trip to the Museum of Science & Industry, which for some reason just seems to get smaller every time I go to it. Anyway, the group of girls I had to keep an eye on included Missy and her friend Abby, plus the cheerleader friend of Natalie’s and two of her friends. We stopped at a travel plaza on the tollway for packed lunch just before getting to Illinois then headed on to MSI, and spent all afternoon there. We didn’t pay extra to see anything but did go see the U-505, the mirror maze (the biggest hit, again), and everything else. We were going to eat dinner at the museum but they closed earlier than we thought, so we stopped at the same travel plaza going home and ate at the Hardee’s, which was totally unprepared for a crowd our size and it took over an hour to get everyone served. By the time we got our food we were in full scarf mode. We got home about an hour and a half late. Friday night, while Missy was at a sleepover at Hampton Inn with her friend Abby O, Natalie had been invited to go roller skating by some of her friends, including the cheerleader…Beth and I were not enthusiastic about leaving her with the crowd that hangs out there, but we let her go until 10:30 instead of their closing time of 2:00 am. But around 9:00 she called us in tears, the cheerleader had been a real shit to her again, lots of name calling, and someone there dumped a drink on her. I ran out to get her out of there as fast as I could. The rest of the weekend was damage control. Her older half-sister had a baby shower on Saturday, which she wasn’t sure about going to, but Beth went with her so she would go. She and Beth made a tied-together baby blanket for her which really impressed her. Her dad was there too, which almost made her leave up front. But it was all ok. Another rough crowd though.