Christmas, the Komets, and the Matrix

Christmas was a pretty low-key affair for us again this year. There was a Christmas Eve service at church that we all went to (even Natalie), and Saturday (Christmas) we did our family gift opening in the morning like usual. The kids got me a Family Feud game (Missy), a BBQ apron and a universal socket  (Nat), and a Digipen t-shirt (Alex). They got the usual suspects: Alex got games and Pop figures, Missy got Pop figures and fangirl stuff (Labyrinth, especially), and Nat got clothes and accessories, and assorted other stuff for all. Good hauls all around, I thought, and they all seemed very happy with it. Beth also got the yearly glass ornament from Warsaw Cut Glass, and I’m getting her a new Keurig (with a promise to go out for coffee much less next year). 

I am officially boosted. Beth and I both got our covid boosters this week, me on Tuesday and Beth on Wednesday. No big reactions for either of us, but both of us felt tired and meh for about a day afterwards. 

Wednesday Beth and I went and got our new half cow. There was still a lot of beef left over from last year’s cow so we gave a lot of it away to folks we know that could really use it. But it seemed that this year’s cow was quite a bit smaller than usual. Not sure exactly but we seemed to get a lot less than we usually do, or maybe last year’s cow was unusually large. It sure looks like we didn’t get nearly the same amount of steaks as we normally do. 

Thursday Beth and the kids and I went up to Michigan for the day to visit with Marve and Beth. We met them for lunch at University Roadhouse over by WMU, which none of us had ever been to, but is really good. We exchanged presents and afterwards went to their house to visit for a while, and played Farkle until it was time to go. 

Friday all of us (except Alex) went out to see the new “Matrix” movie sequel. It was cool but I still don’t think it really was a sequel that needed to be made. The kids were a bit confused because they weren’t as familiar with the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies, and Beth and I both thought it was pretty derivative and ok but not great. While we were seeing that, Alex went with his friends at the same time. He had been hanging out with them at a coffee house and playing games at our house all day, and they all went to see the same movie at the same time as the rest of us, but just not together. He also said later he was a bit lost because of not being as familiar with the sequels. 

We all went to Fort Wayne to see the Komets game tonight. A really good game, too. Playing the last-place Indy Fuel, the Komets never trailed in the game and led by as much as 5-1. But they let the Fuel stay in the game to the point where near the end of regulation, the Fuel got on a power play AND pulled their goalie and looked like they might just tie it up. But the Komets got the empty netter with only seconds left (although they nearly missed it) to put it away and won 6-4. A really fun game.

The Beach Boys, Spiderman, and my Colon

Beth and I gave out Christmas presents to each other yesterday. Instead of normal Christmas presents, we went to a concert at Honeywell Center in Wabash. She just a couple weeks ago heard a commercial for the Beach Boys performing a holiday concert, so we got tickets to that for each other (mostly me getting them for both of us). We both thought it was funny that we were the youngest couple there (by far, in most cases), or at least anywhere around us. But it was a really good show. I enjoyed it more than I had thought I would; I like the Beach Boys well enough but I’ve never been a huge fan, but we had a lot of fun singing and clapping along with all the songs that everyone knows by heart. One lady moved away from us after intermission, probably because Beth annoyed her by dancing in her seat. Anyway, they opened with all the surfing songs and over the course of the show did everything else. Neither one of us could think of a single song that we knew that they didn’t do. And “Sloop John B” is stuck in my head now.

Monday was my first colonoscopy! The entire staff at the hospital told me that I had done the hard part already with the preparations…and they were right. Although I would describe the internal effects of the prep to be more of a power wash than a flush, but anyway. The procedure was a little earlier than scheduled because of a cancellation (I was just about ready for them to call and say they had to delay the procedure because of the current covid surge, but nope) but still was in the afternoon (which meant that I was pretty hungry after being forcibly emptied, and nothing by mouth since midnight). But when they finally wheeled me in the OR, one doctor pushed a little syringe of something. About a second later I said “whoa, I’m already feeling dizzy.” He said “Just shut your eyes.” So I did. And I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up. I had no idea how long I’d been out: Beth said around 20 minutes, but if she’d said 2 minutes or 12 hours I would have believed her. I don’t remember the doctor talking to us afterwards at all (Beth said I was still pretty out of it), but it looked good enough that I don’t have to do another one of those for 10 years. 

We took everyone out to see “Spiderman: No Way Home” on Friday. We saw the 7:30 showing, or I guess one of them because it was on several screens. I have not seen a theater packed like that in a long time, even before covid. Nobody but the kids and I were masked, either. I did look around at one point and wonder if it was a good idea to be there, but we weren’t going to miss it. It was absolutely incredible. And the audience was really into it. So many cheers, like when Daredevil was introduced, and all the previous Spidermen showed up. Some people were saying not only the best Marvel movie ever, but maybe the best movie ever. I don’t know, but I think it’s certainly the best superhero movie ever, and maybe the best movie experience ever. I mean, wow. Can’t wait for the new Dr. Strange movie!

Natalie has finished high school! As of Friday, her last day. Beth and I are not sure about what we’re supposed to do now – the graduation ceremony is in Indianapolis but we don’t really know when, and Nat doesn’t want to go anyway. She’s still enrolled in Ivy Tech to continue to become a CNA but we don’t know when that starts or how long it goes or what we have to pay for it. Nat doesn’t know much about that either. We’re going to have to find a few things out. And make a plan for her next act. We’re hoping everything works out with that, but not sure if her POTS will allow a full time job. Not sure what to do regarding that either.

Alex is home! Alex is home! Back from a seemingly successful first semester at college. He told us he didn't do very well on a couple of his exams, but he always says stuff like that, and he seemed to be doing fine otherwise all semester. Anyway, Beth's and my friend Scott who lives out in Seattle was able to pick him up at his apartment and deliver him to the airport on Saturday morning, and he got in to Chicago Midway around 8 pm. Beth and Missy and I drove in to the airport to pick him up. He was a bit nervous about navigating the airport by himself, and he had to change planes in Denver, but he got everything figured out and arrived with no problem. He'll be home until the 30th, which is a few days earlier than necessary, because the return flights were so much cheaper then than they were about any other day after.  

I’ve spent the day today getting ready for a colonoscopy. And staying close to home and a bathroom. They’ve got a very specific schedule of things to do, and lots of laxative stuff to take, and it does get you really cleaned out. That’s all I’ll say about that.

 Missy is a future Cardinal! She got the email last Tuesday that she has been accepted to Ball State U! SO cool. We just got the application in maybe a week and a half ago so that is awesome! She's pretty excited. Now to figure out how to pay for it....ha ha! Not only will she be about 2000 miles closer than Alex, she will be doing college for about 2000 miles cheaper, too...

Beth's second (probably final) soup show was the Wawasee craft fair on Saturday. It was kind of weird, it seemed to Beth that it was slower than previous years, traffic was lighter, and we didn't do as well. However when we totaled everything up we had sold about 115 jars...which makes that our best show ever. I actually thought we were doing really well during the show, but I didn't know that we'd beat our best show to date. So now I just need to total things up and we'll see if we have any money for Christmas this year. 

 Beth and the girls and I went up to Michigan Saturday to deliver soups and visit with friends and family. Beth's old friend Mrs. Kasik bought 10 jars of soup as usual, so we headed up north to deliver them and visit with the family for a while. Afterwards we headed to the east side of Kalamazoo to have dinner with Marve and Beth and Ted at North Eleven, which is always a cool place. It was snowing pretty hard by the time we left so Ted was trying to get us to stay overnight to be safe, but we figured (correctly) that the snow would quit not far south of where we were. 

Friday we took the girls out to see a movie! Two of them in a month now. I could get used to that again. We went to see Marvel's "Eternals" which we all liked a lot. I didn't love it but I did like it. 

Success! Beth's first soup show of the season was Saturday at the huge middle school in Columbia City. We went in with a dozen of each flavor and things sold really well. Beth was so stressed about how it would go and worried that she wouldn't sell anything. But by the end of the day she had sold 89 jars, good for over $900, and so I think that'll basically pay for all the supplies so far this year. Hopefully, she won't have to make too much more for the Wawasee show in a couple weeks, and what she makes there can be mostly profit. We need it. Once again, we sold a lot of the soups that she brought, and not a whole lot of the others. But it went well enough that she was very happy with it. It seemed busy, or at least steady, for the entire show. 

Tonight was the church's annual (I guess, since we did it last year and now this year again) Christmas season kickoff. Early, I think, but why not. But instead of a scavenger hunt of things around town, we were to go to locations starting with the letters in the word "family" and do an activity there starting with that same letter, then take a photo of it and post it. Such as Yoga at the YMCA, or Lying down at Lincoln Elementary. Missy was babysitting so she missed out on it, but the rest of us went ahead and did it. Not as much fun as the one last year but probably easier for the people with littles. We got everything checked off and then headed back to the church for Feasting at FCC. Cookies and hot chocolate, you know.

Thursday Beth and I took Missy to visit the campus at Ball State. It went really well; Missy liked the campus a lot and so did Beth. We had an orientation meeting of sorts at first, then did a campus tour, then had enough time to drive around the town a bit before having another tour with the art department. Everything looked really great, and the art department seems fantastic. They have an animation major which is what Missy is interested in, and one of their professors is a former Disney animator. I cam away thinking that Ball State would be a perfect fit for Missy. So did Beth. Beth hung out in the dining area for a while when her knee hurt too much to keep up with the tour, and she said the student body as a whole seems very nice. And Missy seems to have come around from her initial position (around a month and a half ago, when I first suggested Ball State to her) of "I'm not going to Bull $#!+ University, Dad." She even asked a question during the tour. I think we should get her application in as soon as possible. Now, remember not to pressure her....

I think my foot is not stress fractured after all. After I told nearly everyone that it was. I visited the chiropractor Wednesday and he adjusted the talus in my ankle; I had told him about it and described how it felt and he told me it was all the classic symptoms of a talus malalignment. So he pulled on it and it popped, and it hasn't been hurting much at all since then. I still haven't run on it since I hurt it, though, because I definitely need to buy new shoes before I run again. 

 Another Saturday afternoon when we don't really have anything to do, so we find something. A road trip to Nappanee and shopping at Rentown! Woo hoo! Well, Beth needed some more supplies for soup and we actually didn't have anything in particular to do. 

Fight Club has pretty much wrapped. One of the last assignments was to make a wooden medallion with the Gun Lap logo on it and bring it to graduation, which is in another week, although it conflicts with our small group and I won't make it. Anyway another one of our assignments was to run a timed 5 miles, with a stretch goal attached to it. I had a goal of 45 minutes for 5 miles, which I didn't quite make but I did hurt myself somehow. I've known I need to get new shoes for a while now but it kind of came to a head Thursday when I went for a run and by the time I finished the usual 6+ mile loop I was only running because I wanted to finish it. My foot was killing me. Why didn't I stop running? Who knows. Searing pain by the end, I'm pretty sure I stress fractured it because I have been hobbling for days. Especially going down stairs. That really hurts. 

Beth is getting her soup stuff ready for her first show with a final push this week. The Columbia City show is Saturday, and she is really stressing about it. 

Natalie did her last ever ISTEP testing this week. Again, Beth had to take her up to Elkhart to do the testing. Beth waited in the car while Nat tested all day, which meant that Beth was bored out of her mind all day for two solid days.

The Komets had their Teddy Bear Toss game early this year! It was Friday, which was also nice because it doesn’t have to be the day before one of Beth’s big craft shows, like it has been before. I again raided the Goodwill store for as many decent stuffed animals as I could find, got 5 for around 8 bucks, and we prepared to toss. It didn’t take long. The Komets scored first about 5 minutes into the game. A pretty good haul, it looked like to me. I wondered if there would be fewer so early in the season but it didn’t look like it. Anyway, the game wasn’t bad but it seemed like the players on both sides were kind of lackadaisical, maybe it’s just still too early in the season. Until the last period anyway, when things started getting hot. The Komets had a 3-2 lead for most of the 3rd period, and late in the game the other team went on a power play AND pulled the goalie. Even shorthanded 6-on-4, the Komets broke away for an empty net goal and won it 4-2.

Beth has been ramping up for soup lately. It's still hard to find things, whether it's jars or barley or whatever. And everything is more expensive. She's ordered a lot of stuff online, and has concluded that she will need to raise her prices. So soup is going to be $12 this year. We've spent an awful lot of money so far, and she's busily making a bunch of them. But her first show was cancelled due to covid again this year, so she only has two now. And we're not sure how they're going to go, if they'll be super busy since they weren't held last year or deserted because now there's another new variant out there. Guess we'll see...

Dune, Escape Room, and the Dancing Guy

Saturday Beth and I had a date night and we did something we haven’t done in a long time…go to a movie! We went out for sushi and then to the theater to see “Dune.” Good movie, and it’s been so long since I read the book that I don’t remember anything that was left out. Missy went trick-or-treating with a friend of hers while Beth and I were on the date night Saturday. They went out and around the village in Winona Lake for a while. Missy was a random fantasy character: she had on elf ears, a flowing skirt, a corset, and carried a sword. Her friend was the Great Pumpkin, or at least had a big pumpkin head.

My group from work did a team-building exercise on Friday, sort of. One of the guys is leaving the company, and his last day was Friday, so we all went out to send him off and have some fun. We went to Fort Wayne to do have lunch (Thai), and then do an escape room! First time I’ve ever done one. The theme was kinda like the Saw movies, I think, wherein we wake up chained to a bench in a dark room with a bunch of pipes and conduits and such, and have to find clues to solve puzzles and unlock the door. We made it out with about 5 seconds to spare before the timer expired, although honestly the employees were being a little generous with our time. We were very close, regardless. There were 6 of us which was probably 2 too many for the room, if you were going to optimize the number in there. It got crowded, and noisy, with everyone talking at once. I had not idea what a couple of the puzzles were about because I was working on something else when someone found them or the clues to them. But anyway it was a good time.

Last Wednesday I had an annual health screening, which now that I am old includes a prostate exam. That is awful, but not as bad as I've had done before. And it turns out I have some high cholesterol, again, so I'm going to start taking fish oil and see if that has helped any in 6 months.

The church’s annual trunk or treat was Monday. Unfortunately since it has been so rainy lately we were forced indoors, but oh well. We had had the idea to make the trunk of the van into a used car lot, with a painted piece of OSB as the parking lot and a bunch of cars made out of painted 2x4s and PVC piping, and I was dressed all in big red sweats as the wacky inflatable dancing guy. It would have been better outside, but it worked well enough inside. Although our setup was smaller than most others, and I was surprised by how many people didn’t know what I was supposed to be. One kid looked at the sleeve extensions I made to cover my hands and asked if it was supposed to be blood. Turnout was good but not like last year, probably because of the weather. Good times!

The camper went in to Discount Tire today to get some new shoes. I noticed shortly after coming back from the trip to Terre Haute for homecoming that one of the tires on the camper was almost shredded. The tread on both outside edges was literally gone. I’m very sure that it wasn’t like that when I left, or even when I departed Terre Haute. If I’d seen the tires looking like they did I would never have taken the camper on a highway. So I’m glad the tire didn’t completely fail on the way home, because the spare is probably even less viable as a tire since it is so old. I told the guy at the tire place I didn’t know how old they were, and he checked and told me they were from 2010. So yeah, they needed to be replaced. 

Missy made her first college visit this past week. She had fall break this week so on her days off, Beth took her up to Grand Rapids to visit Julia and see GVSU. She got a tour of the college and a bunch of literature, and Julia showed her around too. Beth came back home and Missy stayed a couple nights, then Beth went up to get her again. Missy liked the campus (unfortunately she didn’t get to meet any faculty or audit a class or anything) but I’m not sure there’s really anything for her there. It doesn’t look like there’s much in the way of art or biology there.

My fight club chapter completed a group activity on Monday. Over the weekend (while I was away at homecoming) the guys all met to build a cardboard and duct tape boat. Everyone scrounged up as much cardboard as they could and wrapped it all in duct tape, and taped everything together into a boat. It was mostly done over the weekend, but we met again on Monday to finish it up (I helped build and add some outriggers to it to help with stability) and do the water test. One of the guys lives on Winona Lake so we launched the boat from his dock with Duke paddling. The challenge was for one of the guys to paddle it something like 100 feet and back, in the least amount of time, and preferably without tipping over. The boat turned out to be very waterproof and pretty stable. Duke’s time wasn’t great because he was fighting the wind a bit, and the paddles were not as waterproof as the rest of the boat, it seemed. But he did get there and back without any problems. The boat was bequeathed to another one of the guys, who let his daughters take it out on his lake. It still held up really well, he reported. 

Softball is over for the year. I never thought I’d say this but softball is over...finally. I was ready for it to be over a couple weeks ago, but I have had a lot of fun playing nevertheless. We played one game Tuesday, against FUM who had beaten us soundly a number of times during the season. This time we went the distance with them, and played well, but were never really in danger of winning. I myself had two all-star highlight reel plays at first base, one on a hot grounder coming right up the line and one on a sharp liner also coming right up the line. I had to run several steps to my left and reach as far as I could with my glove, but fielded them cleanly both times. The guy who hit the liner was flabbergasted that I robbed him of probably a triple. The girl who hit the grounder probably had a double if it got past me. My best plays of the season, saved for the last game. We were eliminated anyway, so just wait ‘til next year…

Beth went in to see Dr. Dick on Friday because of the month-long migraine and ear pains she’s had for a while now. Both of her ears are infected, which may help explain the migraines as well. The migraine pain was so bad that finally I took her in to the ER on Friday evening to get her some relief. We were there for a few hours at least, and she got a number of drugs. They don’t really know what will work for an individual so they have a cocktail they give progressively. By the time we went home, which was late, she didn’t have a headache any more but was feeling pretty doped. They had given her pretty much everything they had. Which was nice but the headache was back in the morning.

Both of the girls had their senior portraits taken on Saturday. We did the pictures over by Miller Field at Grace College, where they got some really good fall-type, foresty shots. They were both beautiful, of course, so I’m sure the pictures will be amazing. We will go see them in a couple weeks and pick out the ones we like.

Speaking of Fight Club, we also had a bonfire today at the church. Of sorts. It was one of the assignments for the week and I thought it would be fun to get together at FCC and use the fire pit that was built a few years back but seldom used. It was a kid’s Eagle Scout project, but it’s kind of out of sight from the building so it gets forgotten about. But Matthew and I put out the word and went over there Sunday evening, and found that for the past several years any time any branches or limbs have fallen off any of the trees nearby, they got thrown into the fire pit. So, there was plenty of wood there already. We just had to light it and it made a really nice big bonfire. Nobody had texted that they were coming, so we weren’t sure it wouldn’t just be him and me, but 3 other guys did come out for it. 

Homecoming weekend at Rose-Hulman! I haven’t been in years, but since this year is my 30-year reunion I thought I would. I’ve also wanted to get down to campus for a while to donate the framed cross-stitching of the RHIT seal that mom made for me years ago. Beth and the girls went up north because this weekend was also the annual chili cook-off that Ric and Nickie have for Ric’s birthday, so it was just me going to Rose. I left work around lunch time, pulling the camper so I could save a little money on hotels and food (and the truck rolled through 200,000 miles while on the way!). Anyway, I rolled into TH at around 4:30, really hoofing it to make it to campus before everything was over for the day. It is not easy to find a place to park with a camper on campus on homecoming Friday! But I made a parking place up, and was able to make it to the office and deliver the cross-stitching before they closed. I did a brief walk-around to the new alumni center, at which I had missed pretty much everything, then headed to the campground to set up. I had an RV spot reserved at what used to be the Terre Haute KOA, but is now an independent campground. I know Beth and I camped overnight at the KOA once before, I think in October 1991, but I did not remember anything about it. It was obvious though from the setup and playgrounds and game room and store and such that it used to be a KOA. I got the camper set up, then started on dinner. I wanted to try out some Dutch oven cooking when it was just me waiting for it. I made a version of mom’s hamburg stew, which came out pretty good but needed some more seasoning. Easy, too. So I made camp food for dinner and headed back to campus for the pep rally at 8. Uncharacteristically for me, I saw an older man sitting by himself at the stadium and asked if he was there alone and if he minded if I sat with him. So I had someone to talk to for the rally. It lasted around an hour, followed by a fireworks show (an impressive one, actually) and finally lighting the bonfire by drone at around 9:45. Just like it used to be, it’s a stack of railroad ties around 30 feet high with an outhouse on top. I brought my old calculus book from 1987-88, because I have wanted for years to throw it into a homecoming bonfire. This was the year. I was afraid I wouldn’t get a chance because security was keeping the crowd back from the bonfire pretty well (not that you can even get near it for quite some time) but after around an hour or so people started running up to it to touch one of the ties and run back. When the crowd started getting close, I took the opportunity and had a random person video me running up to the bonfire, throwing in the book, and running back. Unfortunately I threw it too far and it went over the burning pile and onto the grass on the other side. So waiting for a chance to get it and try again, around a half hour later maybe, I saw someone retrieve it and run back with it. So I went over there (a group of students) and wound up talking with them for a good half hour about my Rose experience and what’s happened since. At maybe 11:00 I finally left, retrieved the two other old textbooks from the truck, went back to throw them in the burning pile that was left, and then went back to the camper. In the morning I went back to campus to run in the 5k, then back to the campsite to clean up and get breakfast ready. I fried bacon in a cast iron skillet on charcoal and them scrambled eggs, but for some reason the skillet never seemed to get hot enough. It took forever and wasn’t as done as I like. After that I packed up the camper, left it in their storage lot, and went back and did a massive walkabout on campus, visiting the open house on the lawn where scum pond used to be, getting some nice RHIT swag at the bookstore, getting lunch at the alumni tent, and walking all through the academic halls where I used to go to classes. The Sprite can is gone, but the same old combination still opens box #388. I went to the football game vs. Hanover College, which we won with a late comeback and defensive stand, 31-21. Closer than the score would indicate. There was just enough time to go back to the campground, shower quickly, hitch up, and go back to campus for the reunion dinner. My old buddy Doug Tougaw was there, and I had a great time catching up with him. Also I talked for quite a while with a couple of guys I knew back then, but not that well. A really good time, and I’m glad I went. One thing though, I wanted to save money and do some practice camp cooking, but meal prep took so long I never had a chance to go wander around Terre Haute. I should have just ate out and saved the time. Well, anyway. I got on the road for home by around 9, and was home after midnight.

When I got back from homecoming I was home alone, since nobody else was home from the chili cook-off yet. So Sunday morning I went to church by myself, mostly because I was driving the van that morning, and was asked if I would be able to help some people move. They had their rented house sold out from under them and had to be out by the end of the day Sunday. I didn’t know who else had been asked about that, but it turned out just me, it seems. I showed up at a house with 7 kids’ worth of stuff in it, and one guy working on loading things into a van. A few more friends and family did come over a bit later. But I’m glad I could help. The family is pretty new at church. Anyway we loaded up and unloaded the van a few times, hauling everything they own to a storage unit. The last one I was pretty sure was not going to fit, but we got creative and it did. They also got dinner since I helped all afternoon. I helped from around 2 until around 8. The last couple things were a firepit and some patio chairs, which wouldn’t fit anywhere, so I took them and put them in my garage for them.

Softball continues. They did set up a tournament for the coed league, 4 teams, double elimination. We were the 4 seed. Last Tuesday we played the top team and got mercied pretty quickly, then in the second game played Harrison Center, who have been up and down all season. It was close for a while but they have a tendency to go to pieces when things go wrong, so we pulled away and mercied them. Next week we will play until we lose, and that will be the end. Actually, I’ve been feeling ready for the season to be over for a couple weeks, to the point that I was thinking ‘if we lose, the season’s over…aw man, we actually are going to win now?’

The yellowjackets are out again. It’s the time of year for them. So Monday I was mowing the grass in the front yard when one of them got me on the ankle. Through my sock, which maybe helped me out a bit in the end, because it wasn’t nearly as bad as I remember it being last time I was stung. It hurt a lot for a while, but then it calmed down and didn’t swell up that much. Missy also happened to have gotten stung at school too, one got up her pantleg a bit and stung her when she swatted at it before she knew what it was. Anyway, that stuff don’t fly with me so as soon as I spotted where the nest was I got out the lethal chemicals. The can was nearly empty so I had to go searching around town for more wasp killer, it’s as hard to come by as anything else apparently. I found some that had fallen behind a rack at Walmart. By Thursday it seemed more or less abandoned (lots of dead ones in and around the entrance) so I dug up the nest. And had to spray all over again because there were many that had not come out yet. The nest was pretty big. Lots of eggs. I have wondered how they find empty caverns in the ground?

The softball regular season wrapped up Tuesday, although they have decided to do a short tourney. So we finished the regular season on a losing streak, getting smoked 13-1 by the top team and then fighting but losing 17-12 to a team that we can beat. We ended the season 3-9 and in next to last place, but the tournament is our regular season.

Saturday we all drove up to Nappanee to go to an apple picking. Unfortunately it turned out that it was just a farm market, with no trees. So not sure where the apples came from, but obviously elsewhere. They apparently tore down all the trees last year and planted new when they bought the place, so the trees are a couple years away from producing. Anyway, we got some produce including a bunch of apples. Afterwards there’s an antiques place in town nearby so we stopped there. There were some cool things that the girls all found: Nat got a little jewelry box, Missy found a Muppets glass, Beth found some cordial glasses. Nothing more than a few bucks each.

The camping finale for the season was this weekend, the annual Wiessner /Pinkster /Beavers /Wagonaar /Knight /etc campout, again at Michawana after a year away. It was a smaller group this time, since the Wiessner cousins and some friends couldn’t come, but there were several day visitors. Ted and Monica came over Saturday with their new puppy Clara (what an incredible cutie pie!), A friend of Judy’s brought her guitar Saturday night to lead some campfire songs, and some friends of Ric came over that turned out to have been taught math by Jim Daily back in the day. Anyway, it was a really good time, and the weekend seemed really short. Ric brought over a bunch of Beth’s dad’s army discharge papers he found and they spent a lot of time looking over those; Julia brought Willow so there was a lot of fetching going on; the zipline was open so we did that.

Softball on Tuesday was rained out, sort of. It had been wet the day before, so the fields were all muddy and they postponed because of that. So once again, games called for no rain.

I called in to Pulse-FM for “Fresh Outa Bed and Head to Head” again Tuesday and got on the air. Coincidentally the person I played was the 2019 tournament runner-up as I was the 2020 tournament runner-up. And I maintain that I should have won (I got 1 of the 3 points) but there was definitely a time delay with my call. On at least one of the questions I for sure rang in before I heard the other person ring in, but they heard the other person first. So, anyway. I was not a winner.

Went for a run together with some Fight Club guys Saturday morning, ran 4 miles with them then 8 more miles afterwards. On the run one of the guys lent me some bone-conduction headphones, which were nice, so when I said I liked them he gave me an extra pair he had. How cool!

Softball Tuesday was unusual: unlike several times this year when the games were called and it didn’t rain, this time it did rain and we played anyway. As Missy and I were driving to the fields, we could see lightning up ahead, so I thought we would never play. But we did. And the rain started not too long after the game, but we kept going. We did have a delay in the 6th inning of about 10 minutes, but we played while it was actively raining (and lightning off in the distance) for several minutes too. We lost the first game, handily, and came within a run (with a blown lead) in the second game. So the losing streak continues….I also misplayed a hard grounder a little bit, missed it and it bounced right off the inside of my left ankle. That’s gonna leave a bruise.

I have sold my RC plane stuff. The whole kit & kaboodle. I had an ad on Craigslist for a while, and had assumed that I probably wasn’t going to sell it, but some guy emailed me asking if it was still available. He was mostly interested in the controller/receiver, which as it turns out is outdated and sells for around $50 nowadays; I think I paid something like $120 for it. All those years ago. Anyway, I had the whole kit listed for $50; I told him to make me an offer and I took $35. So that experiment is now over. When was it that I bought all that stuff? 2012? And two successful flights.

Ran out to FW yesterday. The girls needed girl clothing so they went shopping while I went elsewhere. But I am just not that interested in the mall anymore. We thought maybe we should look for some cool antique places in FW while we were there, found one that was ok, found another two that were closed, and then nobody was in the mood for it anymore. We tried to help someone on the way home whose car had died in the middle of the road somewhere in eastern FW, but she was so upset that the screaming and cursing basically scared the girls off. There were some other people who stopped too to help push her car off to the side of the road so we just slunk away and went home.

 Among the Fight Club assignments for this week: deliver flowers anonymously to someone with a note that Jesus loves them and you’re praying for them. Beth and I delivered flowers to Linda across the street. Also this week included a neighborliness sort of challenge, where we set up something in our front yard or driveway to attract people over, and show the love of God. I set up the firepit in the driveway on Saturday and put up a sign for free s’mores, but there were no takers all afternoon. Maybe it was just too hot.

Also as part of an exercise in loving your wife, find creative ways to say yes this weekend. So Beth and I spent a lot of Saturday doing a bunch of little things that she’s wanted done for some time. We pruned all the bushes in the yards, planted a bunch of mums, replaced the broken headlight in the van, weeded the gardens, delivered the flowers across the street, put up the curtain rods and started working on shortening the curtains in Alex’s room, and cleaned the tub. Later in the day she says “I had so much fun doing all that stuff with you!”

Softball got rained out Tuesday. The forecast was for rain, the skies were dark most of the afternoon, and they called off the games before 5:00. It never did rain.

Marve and Beth came by Saturday. They were in Indiana looking at a truck at a used car dealer, and since they were close by they came over to visit and go out to dinner with us. We took them to Oak & Alley. They didn’t buy the truck, though, it seems the dealer they went to was doing something of a bait & switch. Honest mistake or not.

 The pool came down this weekend. It’s been cooler in the past week (although it was super hot for the weekend) and the water was really frigid, so it seemed like the time. Not sure what it was this year but the water stayed really clear, even though I was fighting to keep any chlorine in it all summer. Must have been the algaecide I put in it. Definitely will have to do that again next year. With a new pool, because I drained most of it with a utility knife. I let it drain for several hours before slashing the sides and cutting the whole thing up into smaller pieces that are manageable to put in the trash. We just couldn’t keep any air in the inflatable ring any more, and there were a lot of patches on it for small leaks over the years. So we’re hoping we can get a new one next year…they were hard to find this year.

Missy has quit Kelainey’s. The late nights closing were really getting to her. On school nights, they close at 9, so she was making it home by around 9:45 or so on a good night, but it had been almost midnight before school started and they closed at 10. Typically a bunch of people would come in just before closing and make a mess and order things that had just been cleaned or put away, and it was getting to her. The place is crazy busy during the summer but it was continuing too and she couldn’t stand working there any more. They were going to be closing in a couple months anyway. Maybe Missy will get another job, maybe not…

 The Fight Club group I’m in (Warsaw) had a breakfast meeting at Maria’s Saturday morning, and I went with Matthew up to “The Lodge” by Syracuse (a lodge, just like it sounds, on a large parcel of land owned by a Goshen church that’s very instrumental in the Fight Club organization) to do the makeup assignment. We hiked (not far) down the path through the woods to the lake, attempting to climb a rope at a halfway point (didn’t get up very far), then I placed a handprint on a wall and collected a block of wood that we’ll be using along the way. I’ve also started the workouts (the running isn’t a problem, but I haven’t done a single push-up or sit-up in a long time…) and can do the whole challenge each time, but only when the 40 push-ups/50 sit-ups/50 squats are divided into like 4 reps. With the block, we are supposed to place our last name on one side of it (creatively) and when done, pray with our wives for our families. I charred the surface, punched an outline of the letters with a nail, and put a yellow handprint over it. Looks pretty good to me. Another assignment was to leave some Gatorade on the front step for a neighbor with a note that you’re praying for them. Another was to write a letter to the principal of your local school and pray for the school and the principal. Those are the kind of challenges. Plus Bible reading and verse memorizing.

Softball Tuesday was blaaah. Nobody had anything. We were lackadaisical, only way to say it. We got steamrolled, twice, once by a team that we should beat. But to be fair, they have more players now than they did earlier, I assume some college kids came back or something.  

 Beth, Missy, and I went to the Blueberry Festival Sunday. We were looking in particular for the craft booths, I think Missy wanted to find something in particular that she had seen there before, but the craft shows there were pretty poor overall. A lot less than have been there in the past, was my impression. Neither Beth nor Missy found anything there that excited them. There were tons of food trailers though, which we weren’t looking for. It was certainly hot and crowded nevertheless. Anyway, we didn’t stay all that long. Just walked all around, and went back to the car.

Today for Labor Day we all decided to take a drive out of town and find a new antiques place. For July 4 a couple months ago we stumbled upon one and liked the trip, so we found one (Green Oak Antiques) in Rochester and headed there. It was pretty cool, they had a lot of stuff (I do like browsing through junk shops). Natalie found some sort of old purse (from the 60s, maybe?) and Beth found a glass that she liked, but had a big crack in the base so she didn’t take it.

 Getting used to the new normal without Alex around here. It still feels bizarre. But we're in the process of getting used to it. I have started some deep cleaning/purging of his room. There was a lot of dust all over everything, and junk/papers from years ago stuffed everywhere. I've gone through all his storage bins and thrown out (or recycled) a lot of old magazines, papers, and bits of plastic that he will never miss. Several very old and small pieces of clothing have also been donated (like, for example, the Batman costume from....2012?). I've vacuumed everything (including his collection of Pop figurines and Amiibos) including the walls, moved the furniture, got behind the computer, in the closets, on the molding, everything. Washed the bedding and curtains, cleaned the ceiling fan, disposed of the old decrepit and noisy desk chair. Recycled his old monitor and replaced with Dad's old TV. Scrubbed the computer desk. Everything is pretty clean now, and no funk. And then, I rearranged the furniture and moved my work desk and computer in there. That will be a much better working arrangement, since it seems I'm working from home even more indefinitely with the virus resurgence going on.

Beth and the girls and I went on an expedition to Plymouth on Friday, specifically to the Walmart because Beth heard there were some canning jars available there. There actually were! She got as many as they had, so now she has at least a good start on materials for soup. That is, if there are any craft shows this year. At this point I think they are planning to, but it might be kind of up in the air. And it is still hard to find those jars, just like last year. They are also more expensive. Anyway, we tried a new restaurant (Christo's) in Plymouth since we were there, and nobody was impressed. Really cool building, meh food.

Today we played hooky from church and went to South Haven. We figured that it was probably close to the last chance to go for the summer, and we haven't been in a long time. The weather was supposed to be good, and it was. Windy, though, so there were a lot of good sized waves (for Lake Michigan). The water was nice and the day was hot so swimming was great, and no rip current. We got to the beach by around noon or so, and stayed until 4 or so, at which time all the girls were pretty well burned and the clouds were starting to gather. We were all ready to leave anyway, so we tried to go get ice cream at Sherman's (a line out the door and down the sidewalk for miles....) but didn't want to wait that long. By the time we got outside of the town, the rain and thunder and lightning had seriously moved in, so it was good we left when we did. Better than to have tried to pack up and dry off in a downpour. Overall a good beach day.

I am signing up for something called Fight Club. Although, from what I hear, you’re not supposed to talk about Fight Club. But seriously, it is a 10-week, um, not exactly Bible study, I guess, so let’s say, spiritual growth program? for men, in which you have a series of challenges every week that range from being neighborly to exercising more to developing your prayer life. Matthew told me about it at the church on Sunday evening, and the kickoff was Saturday night, so I’ve missed it and there is a makeup assignment to do. Not sure what it is yet, though.

 I've returned from the Seattle area as of last night, Alex has remained. We left to take him off to college on Friday. He had a sleepover birthday party on Thursday night and wasn't able to get any sleep at all; he texted me at around 5 am to come pick him up as soon as I could. The flight wasn't until the afternoon so he could get some rest at home, while Beth and I got everything last minute ready for the trip. We left around 3:00 for a 6:00 flight from Chicago O'Hare. I always feel like we're running late when trying to get to an airport but we made it in plenty of time. The flight was uneventful, but when we got to Seattle I was immediately struck by how cool it was. All I'd been hearing recently was about how unusually hot the northwest had been. It was maybe 65 degrees when we got there. Anyway we got the rental car and headed out to our AirBnB, got there at around 10 or so and since we were both pretty tired, got to bed. Saturday was move-in day. We drove around Redmond to see what was what until it was time to move in, then found the apartment. He has an apartment a couple miles from the Digipen campus, which he will share with 3 other guys, and which comes with only a bed and a desk for each of them, washer & dryer, dishwasher, stove, microwave, and fridge, and that's about it. After dropping off his suitcases we went and found a Target and a Wal-Mart and did a bunch of shopping. Among the stuff we got was a dresser and a night stand which we also assembled. Towels, rugs, some tools, bathroom and kitchen things, comforter and blanket, basically all we could think of that he might need we got. Moving into a lightly-furnished apartment is expensive. Sunday Alex had a housing orientation all morning, so I did some more shopping while he was at it. I also checked out the bus routes and found a way to get from the apartment to the shopping centers and to the campus (although many fewer buses run on Sunday. I was waiting for one to come along when Alex texted he was done, and it was faster to walk from downtown Redmond to the apartment than to wait for it). I also got some new jeans for myself since it was so cool there. I'd only brought shorts and I was cold. After he was done with orientation (which had included walking from the apartment to the campus) I picked him up and we headed to the next town over because it had a Play it Again Sports, and we hadn't been able to find Alex a bike. Well, there are bike shops all over the place in Redmond, but the price points were a bit (a lot) too high. We got a good used one for $120. Later on we met an old friend Scott Mason (the guy who introduced Beth and me) for dinner; he lives in the area now. Still manages movie theaters. Monday was Alex's school orientation (I had thought there was orientation all week, but it's only a day during the week for each major) so he was off at that most of the day, so I got breakfast for us and dropped him off. Afterwards I took his bike and did some exploring of the bike paths in the city, including finding the path from the apartment to the campus and back (16 minutes to go back to the apartment, which is the uphill way) and did a good 12 miles exploring the city along the paths and parks and doing some geocaching along the way. After Alex was all done I took him and his 2 roommates (the third never showed up! Not sure what's going on with him) out for pizza at what is supposed to be the 2nd best pizza place in town (the best was closed Mondays). I had an early flight to catch on Tuesday and left in plenty of time (good thing because I forgot to get gas for the rental on the way back to the airport, and had to take the car back out, and then my phone couldn't find a gas station nearby for some reason!) but with the time change didn't get back to Chicago until pretty late, then sat on the runway for 2 hours because there were thunderstorms in the area and no planes were leaving, so we couldn't get to the terminal. I was home around midnight. Texted Alex a few times during the day, it seems he had a good day. He took his bike to Target for some new earbuds, and he also figured out Uber. Man, it felt strange to be leaving him there, but I think he's going to be all right.

A few days before Alex and I went to Washington, I made another attempt to fly the foam plane. Last Monday the kids and I went to the church parking lot and flew the plane, for less than a second by the video. The plane climbed rapidly, banked hard left, and nose dived straight into the ground. So, I've decided that it's going to be the last flight. I'll always have that one successful flight a few years ago, and a whole bunch of crashes, but by Tuesday I had ripped all the servos and the motor out of the wreckage and put the whole kit n kaboodle for sale on Craigslist. Controller, receiver, speed controller, motor, servos, battery, battery charger, it's all for sale for $50. The foamboard I still have and all the pre-cut parts I;ve already done are going in the trash. Done with it.

 Laura wrapped up her visit earlier this week. We didn't do anything major, I did still have to work, but we went out to eat a few times, did some shopping at the Village, went hiking on the trails a little, and we went to get ice cream at Kelainey's one evening when Missy was working there. She hit the road on Tuesday for Chicago.

Coed softball started up this week. We have 3 or 4 ladies on the team, which is fewer than are usually required, but they relaxed the rules a bit to try to get more teams. We had a ladies' team for the first time in years this year, so we thought a coed team would be fun as well. And the men's season was short. Anyway, the coed team plays a doubleheader every Tuesday for the next 5 weeks. We started this week, playing back to back games, getting crushed in the first one and winning a close one in the second. I played well, got several hits over both games, and even played outfield for the first time in a long time and caught a couple outs (one of our guys was struggling in the outfield and the other team kept hitting to him).

We're getting close to the point where Alex heads off to college. We have tickets for next Friday, it's starting to get real. Alex is pretty nervous. We took the kids all out to Rocket Science for what may be the last time yesterday for something fun to do together. And on Wednesday I paid for Alex's fall tuition and apartment: $19,100 for those. Sheesh. That buys about 5 months of college these days. Not included are meals, books, and whatever he needs for the barely-furnished apartment. 

 A lot of stuff happened last week. For starters, on Monday Beth decided to take the girls to FW for something to do before she's stuck at home post-surgery. They never made it, though. Somewhere out past Pierceton the left front tire on the van rather suddenly went flat. Beth called me, and I quickly checked the time (because I had to take Alex to work at 5), decided I had time to run out there, change the tire, and run back to do that. WRONG. I got out there ok, and everything started out all right as I was changing the tire, but then things went wrong all of a sudden. Problem 1: the van was sitting at the side of US30 on an upwards slope. Problem 2: I forgot to loosen the lugnuts before jacking up the van. Problem 3: I managed to slash my hand open on the lugwrench and bled all over. So I got the front end raised, yanked on the wrench a lot to get the flat tire off, then couldn't get the spare tire on so I raised it some more - at which point the van rolled backwards, toppling the jack, and fell. I was afraid we had just done some real damage to the front end, but the spare was in the wheel well so I think it kept the wheel from crashing onto the pavement. I was able to get the jack out because of that, set it back up, and lifted the van a little bit again, but I was afraid the van would roll again (the parking brake had been set, too) because of the slope. Plus, the van being at the side of the road meant that it was also listing to starboard some, so I was also afraid it would tip over. Regardless it didn't feel safe to raise the van enough to put the spare tire on, so we called roadside assistance from USAA. By this time, Beth had to run home to get Alex to work, so the girls took the truck home and left me there to get some help. I got things arranged for a tow truck to come take the van to Ab & Tom's (since I didn't know if the front was damaged after falling off the jack), then waited. I didn't want to sit inside the van while it was on the jack but after I brushed ticks off my leg 3 times I decided to just be careful about it. Beth eventually made it back to me (she needed to because the tow company can't take passengers any more....covid rules) and we waited for the tow. And waited. And waited. This is the one area where I've always been unsatisfied with USAA; it takes forever to get roadside assistance to you. By around 9:00, when it was getting dark, we finally got a clue and called Reichert & Knepp ourselves. They had a truck out within about 15 minutes. The guy told me that what had happened with the van rolling off the jack wouldn't have caused any damage, and he just raised the van and put the spare on, apparently unconcerned about the van tipping over (there was at that point a block of wood behand the back wheel for a chock). So I guess I could have done that. And all I had to do was submit a claim to get paid back by roadside assistance. So that's the lesson: call the tow yourself.

Tuesday was the big day for Beth's knee. After months of crazy knee pain she had her surgery early in the morning. I took her in to KCH and she went on through without any problems. However the doctor did say that there was a lot more arthritis in the knee than it had looked like on the MRI, and the meniscal tear was actually pretty minor. It seems like the arthritis is really the problem in there. So he cleaned up everything he could and repaired what he could, and probably there will be significant improvement in the amount of knee pain she has, but she's going to have some sort of bad knees until they get replaced. 

Also Tuesday there was a major panic event. I went in to work a little while after Beth went home, then back home again, and sometime around 4:00 I found Beth's wedding ring in my pocket, because she had given her rings to me to hold on to before going in to surgery. But, the anniversary band was not in there, and I didn't know where it was. I looked all though the van and the house but couldn't find it, went back in to work and found nothing. I told Beth and she was surprisingly the calmer one. I ran back in to the hospital, looking all over the parking lot (nothing) and went back inside; the receptionist called back to the surgery center, talked for a few minutes, then told me they had it back there. The nurse who brought it out to me was very sympathetic...she told me they knew someone would be coming for that ring sometime today! Apparently it fell out of my pocket when I took my keys out when I went to bring the  van around and pick up Beth after her surgery. So relieved they had it. 

Laura arrived here Saturday evening around dinner time. She's on the way to Chicago to visit her friend Monica and stopped here for a few days first. Wanted to see Alex before he leaves in a couple weeks...we took her out to Oak & Alley for dinner, then La Troje after church today. In the evening today, we all went on an evening cruise on the Dixie through Lake Webster. Interesting note: there is a music professor from Tennessee that has a lake house, and when he's there for the evening cruises, he plays the trumpet as the Dixie goes by. He played the "Popeye" music on the trumpet with the boat blowing the whistle to make the toot-toot sounds. That was fun! 

My work group took half the day off on Wednesday to work at a Feed my Starving Children mobile pack event! They are finally back post-covid, and there were a lot of volunteers to work. With a bunch of engineers, we got the whole system down to a science pretty quickly. I was loading a bag onto the funnel for a while but then switched and was scooping the vitamin mixture in for the rest of the time. We packed something over double what the entire group average was. At the wrap up meeting, we wanted to know who won, but they only gave us overall numbers about how many thousands of means were packed. But we won, I'm sure. Afterwards we all went to Mad Anthony's for lunch on ZB. I think we spent longer i the restaurant then we did packing meals for the hungry...

Beth has been trying to figure out things to do with the kids in the time we have left, so this week she took Missy and Nat to Black Pine Animal Sanctuary. Alex didn't want to go (he's been there a few times before) and I was at work so I didn't either. With covid and the short staffing they have, they had to make a reservation and follow a set path through the place, which they didn't like as well as just wandering around, but the girls had a good time. 

Beth's been getting all her labs and such done, prepping for her knee surgery next week....Nat starts school next week....Alex is getting close to the time to go to college, and is getting a little nervous....

Petoskey, Michigan, is now one of our favorite places. Beth, Missy, and I got back a few days ago from a great camping trip there with Judy & Neill and Marve & Beth. Backing up a bit, remember last week when we went to the Henry Ford and the swimming pool was making everyone sick? Well, by the end of last weekend Beth and Missy were better (although we did have to stop to buy some tissues on the way) but Alex and Natalie were both sick. In the end, both of them chose to stay home (I don't think it broke up either of them to stay home, but both of them would have enjoyed it) while the rest of us went Up North. We left Monday, at which time Alex and Nat were both feeling awful. I felt awful in leaving them home, but they're both 18 so that's what we did. Beth and I left them some money and food and the minivan, and they were fine. It's not like we were going to be gone for an extended period of time, either....anyway, it was about a 6 1/2 hour drive to get there, so Beth, Missy and I were there by late afternoon on Monday (my birthday). We got set up at Magnus Park in town, then hit the beach to search for Petoskey stones. Only found a few, little broken ones, although Missy did have a fun experience of fruitless searching for a while and then having to take a stone out of her shoe, which turned out to be...guess.....yep, a Petoskey!) then we grilled steaks (and Beth W made a carrot cake, since it was a birthday dinner, after all) back at the campsite. It was not a late night around the campfire, not any night we were there, not with this crew, but anyway. Judy and Neill and I went on bike rides the next 2 mornings, the first one out as far as the State Park, which looks much more like the kind of place Beth and I would choose to camp, mostly because the beach is much nicer. Tuesday was a bit cooler and windier, and the water was much choppier, so the hunting for Petoskey stones was much easier (since the rocks were wet further up the beach at the park). We all found quite a few, some nice ones too. We also hit the shops in town, Petoskey is a lot like Saugatuck, only bigger, I thought. We found some cool souvenirs and stuff and had lunch in a fun car-themed restaurant. Dinner was pulled BBW chicken in the crock pot. Wednesday we stopped at the "shop" (actually a garage) of an elderly man who runs a rock-polishing service, to get some of our found stones polished. I had seen a sign for it on the bike trail the previous day. We dropped off way too many stones we had found. Then it was off on a road trip up to Cross Village an hour or so away to have lunch at Legs Inn, which you have to see to believe. It's a stone lodge with all sorts of rustic and faux-rustic décor inside, and decorated around the roof line with old white-painted stove legs, hence the name of the place. On the way back we drove along the lakeshore through the "tunnel of trees" which was aptly named. Beautiful drive, I bet it's hard in the winter though. Thursday we had lunch at a cool brewery restaurant, and then it was time to pack up and head home, but we left feeling that we ran out of time far before we ran out of things to do. Beth and I both want to go back next year with everyone and spend longer. But maybe we'd camp at the state park instead. 

This weekend I began a new fixer-upper project with the camper. The side of the dinette bench, which is made of particle board, has been disintegrating for some time now, and it's starting to look pretty bad. Swelling and shedding bits of itself all the time now. So, once back home I figured out how to pull it off, and I'm now working on replacing it. I got a sheet of plywood and traced the pattern of the old one, and I'm sanding and painting it to match the color of the stain on the old one. Then I'll just pop it back in and it'll be good as new. I should replace the screen on the back bed, too, maybe later....

 Four of us (Nat chose not to) went on a road trip to visit the Henry Ford Museum this week! The primary driver of this trip was Missy, because the Henry Ford is hosting a Jim Henson exhibition for the summer. They have a display of his whole career, from the early TV days to the Muppets and Labyrinth and beyond. So those of us who went, departed Monday for the Detroit area. Alex and Missy had Moe's Monday with the youth group - one of the last times for Alex - Beth and I had lunch at Panda Express next door. We got going after lunch. We had a fairly new hotel in Dearborn, arrived around dinnertime and just hung out in the hotel (it really took a long time to find a place for dinner, surprisingly, since we didn't know where to look and we ended up in a sketchy looking area. We found an Applebee's eventually. We did the museum all the next morning. Missy was incredibly excited about seeing the Henson exhibition, and she wasn't disappointed. Especially with the original costumes from Labyrinth's wedding scene. The mannequin's crotch was even padded. Beth liked the glass exhibit the best, I liked the steam engines (especially the one with the cast iron gothic arches, how cool is that!), Alex didn't seem terribly interested in much of it but he said he enjoyed being there. There were a lot of cool cars and trains too. And a big math exhibit that was awesome. I would have stayed for another couple hours probably, but everyone else wanted to leave by around 3.After the museum we went back to the hotel and went swimming, which was the mistake of the trip. There was something jacked up with the pool chemicals; my eyes were burning by the time we were done, Alex had a bad headache afterwards, and Missy and Beth were both having allergic reactions. Beth felt awful most of the next day and I was all itchy. So anyway Wednesday morning we drove home, and by the end of the week both Beth and Missy were sick.

 Beth's orthopedist appointment was this week, so now we know for sure what's wrong with her knee. A lot, it seems. Torn meniscus (we thought we knew that) and arthritis are the big ones. No real idea when the torn meniscus happened, but she did fall on her kneecap a couple years ago and was in great pain after that for a while so we're guessing it was then. But apparently the arthritis in her knee has been developing (like it does) and it's just gotten to the point where it's now bad. The doctor said that with arthroscopic surgery he can probably fix about 75% of her pain, but if she were 10 years older she'd be looking at knee replacement. Which means she probably has TKA to look forward to in 10 years (or, if we can wait 11 years, she'll be on Medicare and it will be a lot cheaper). I'll be nearing retirement age then but I may still be at ZB, so maybe another discount there. Get her a Persona with Vivacit-E. In the meantime, we went to CVS and found her a cane to help her get around. Especially since we're going to the Henry Ford Museum next week.....

Softball had an incredible victory this week. We fell behind by a few runs early on, but came roaring back with a vengeance. Had a couple innings where we batted all the way around (even with 15 players). Jumped all over them, let them score a few of their own (they're not bad players!) and won the game 24-13. That was a really fun game to play, and Beth said it was a really fun game to watch. I even got a few good hits, scored a couple runs, had a couple RBI. And the good news/bad news: we are going to make up both of the rainout games the next 2 weeks...but we'll be gone so I won't be able to play in them!

I've been getting all the arrangements for taking Alex out to Washington next month to start college at Digipen. We have tickets on Alaska Airlines because it was so much cheaper than even Southwest. I also found out that renting a car for 4 days is about twice the cost of plane tickets to and from there. I found a good rate through USAA, though, so that was good. Now lodging....hotels are expensive there. Haven't got one of those yet, maybe I'll look for an AirBnB.

Beth and I had the communion meditation in church today. We try to connect it with our lives of late so we went with 'graduation' and 'commencement' and how the disciples world changed before and after the cross. Neither one of us were really happy with it but we got good feedback. 

Nat has been house/dogsitting for Mary Jane again this weekend as she goes back to Indy. She didn't lock herself out this time (but she did spend too much time at home, judging by to dog poop and pee on the floor of the kitchen when I dropped her back off there), but overnight Saturday something happened with the front door; when she got up Sunday morning the door was ajar, and she had been certain she locked it when she went to bed. That really freaked her out, big time. She thought somebody must have broken in. Nothing was missing, though, and the dog was still inside (she said she heard the dog barking during the night), so when we called Mary Jane she said the door has blown open during strong wind storms before a couple times. So we're guessing that must be what happened. 

Holiday weekend. We're finding that the kids' work schedules can really put a crimp in things sometimes, but sometimes it works out. Take Saturday, for example. Alex worked all day, and the rest of us had nothing planned. We though geocaching would be fun for the rest of us, so we took off in the direction of Roann to find a few I'd solved puzzles for last year during the lockdown. On the way we found a couple others too, and one was conveniently right near an Amish grocery store. We stopped in there because Missy had to pee, but it turned out to be a really nice shop with all sorts of bulk foods and goodies, plus a garden center and outdoor furniture. So that was a good find. Just a bit later we went through Roann and there was an antiques shop in the "downtown" area with a sign saying 'antiques and other neat stuff' on the wall, so we stopped because we all like neat stuff. The girls all found a few things they liked and bought. We found a couple more caches, didn't find a few others, then over to Wabash for a drink an heading home, but since the pet store where we originally bought Nibbles was right there, we stopped there too. So it was overall a really good expedition.

On the other hand, Monday I had the day off so Beth and I thought we should all go to the beach. We checked out the Lake Michigan beaches and thought Warren Dunes would be a good choice, but Alex was working in the evening so we downsized the plan to Waubee Lake instead. Then none of the kids really wanted to go so Beth and I went by ourselves, which was fine with us!

Softball was rained out again last week, and again I should use air quotes because it literally stopped raining for good just as soon as they called it off, which was around 4:00. The rest of the evening was clear and dry.

Beth had another MRI this past week, same place as before. This time though it was on her knee, which has been much worse than her back lately. The bulging discs they found in her back seem to be doing much better (with a lot of chiropractic, acupuncture, and PT), but the knee is worse and worse. However unlike with her back, she got a physician's referral for the MRI on her knee, which means it gets covered by insurance and therefore is a lot cheaper. So now she goes in to the orthopedist next week to have it analyzed and see what the path forward is.

 We returned a few days ago from a nice camping trip to Clifty Falls State Park! We spent the day Saturday getting everything ready (including a new foam mattress topper for Beth and me, since her back has been so sore lately. Better more recently though. We left last Sunday, again taking the van as well as the truck to pull the camper. It just makes it so much more pleasant to go around town and on day trips in the van instead of the truck. We got there in the early afternoon, so it was good and hot for setting things up. However, unlike last year the pool was open, so we headed there for a while after camp was set up. It was nice to be able to cool off although it was a bit chilly. Anyway we spent a while there, then went out to dinner at Red Pepperoni in town for calzones. At night we realized that Beth had forgotten to pack a part of her CPAP, which really panicked her for a while, but with the AC going in the camper nobody really heard her much. So anyway early Monday morning Beth and I went on an expedition searching for a medical supplies place in town where we could get one. We actually did find one that had the part in stock and were able to buy it from them, so that was quite a win. The rest of Monday it was overcast and drizzly, so we went on a day trip to Corydon IN to take the tour of Indiana Caverns. Unfortunately Beth's knee (probable torn meniscus) hurt too much to go on the tour. She couldn't walk down the slope to the cave and walking down the slippery stairs and however long the tour went. She tried but it just hurt too much, so she bowed out just inside the entrance. Which is a shame because the tour was really cool, with lots of formations and the second half of the tour is a boat ride through the cave. Lots of stuff to see in there, including all the prehistoric animal bones. After the cave tour we stopped in town to get ice cream at the famous Butt Drugs. The rest of the week at the park it was very nice, mostly cloudy but no rain and cooler, maybe only 75 degrees at most. Which meant we had to do some shopping for some clothes because Alex and Nat hadn't brought any jeans or sweatshirts or anything to wear when it was cooler. We also hit the antiques Lumber Mill, and some of the other cool shops in Madison. We did some hiking (turns out trail #8, which goes by the top of the big falls, does not provide a very good view of it), saw a lot of turkeys, I took the kids through the tunnel again, we hit the pool again, and we did some hiking along the creek bed where we found quite a bit of washing-away (trees, rocks, signs, etc) having happened from some pretty severe storms that came through a few days before we got there. We left Thursday morning, stopping in Indy for lunch and to visit with PJ. He found a really cool old pizza place in an Indy burb. 

Even though we were back from camping, I took Friday off. Beth had an appointment in FW to get to, which was why we didn't stay longer. Then we went out to lunch at Crazy Egg. We had a couple of graduation parties to visit over the weekend, and at one of them (Mayson's) we found out that the McDonalds had been camping at Clifty Falls the same time as us! They were there for a vintage camper rally, and had been there the week before (including the huge storms that knocked out power to the camp and felled a bunch of trees and branches, and sent a flash flood through down the canyon. We got there on Sunday afternoon, and they left Monday morning, and neither knew the other was there. We could have had dinner together and hung out around the fire or something if we'd known. 

VBS was this week! We haven't helped out much in a few years, but I was asked if I would be a group leader, which I would. Beth wasn't going to because her back and her knee have been hurting so much lately, but her back has been a lot better and she thought she'd be ok, so she was with me for the week. They divided the kids up into groups with age differences (to keep the same-age kids more separated, to help maintain order) and had only a few kids per leader. We only had 3 kids in our group, which went to the various stations with a few other groups with their own leaders. That way there were plenty of leaders, to help maintain order. The theme of the week was 'I am a treasure!' and we had a lot of fun with the songs and games and lessons. There were over 75 kids each day, and we raised over $1600 for Arabic-English Bibles for a certain north African country!

Tuesday I left VBS a bit early because there was an 8:00 softball game, and we were a bit short handed... because of VBS. We played all right, and I tried a new position I've never played before, being third base. I did ok with fielding, making throws is a bit shaky though. About halfway into the game, Norm at first base was in a big collision and got spilled pretty bad, landing on his face and getting a big scrape. The game had to be stopped because he was bleeding quite a bit. He just wanted to rub some dirt on it and go on, but rules are rules. He didn't want to come out of the game either. We kept on, but shortly thereafter I did trade places with him and took first myself but only because he didn't have sunglasses and could see the ball coming to him. Anyway, as I said, we played all right, but in the end we lost 10-9. We had our opportunities.....

Missy's birthday was this week! I feel bad for her, she had to work on her birthday. It was pretty busy too. No party either: the pool is still freezing cold, we're getting ready to go camping next week, and many of her friends are away, so there was no good time for her to have one. Beth and I got all her presents from Amazon so she did have something, but we're hoping that she can have friends over for some sort of party soon this summer.

 Judy and Neill came to visit this week. They felt bad about missing Alex's graduation so they stopped by while out & about to visit for a bit. They left their giant motor coach somewhere and just drove the car here, but they'd also emptied their fridge so they had a bunch of stuff for us to store for them. We packed our fridge and all of our coolers with their stuff. They got here on Friday; Beth and I took them out to dinner at the Boathouse. We spent Saturday with them (went to get ice cream at Kelainey's while Missy was working), and they took Alex out to dinner wherever he chose (and he picked Wings Etc, of all places) then on Sunday they met us for church! They left after the service, and were gone by the time the rest of us got out of Sunday school, back to Michigan.

Natalie has been housesitting for Mary Jane this week, while she is visiting her son's family near Indy (just had her first grandbaby only days ago). There were actually times over the weekend when all 3 of the kids were gone from the house and Beth and I were completely alone! Nat brought her overnight stuff to the apartment and took care of the dog and cat fir a few days. Then of course we get the panicked call around 10 pm on Friday that she had locked herself out of the apartment in her pajamas. Since we didn't have a key either I wasn't sure what we were going to do, I guess call a locksmith, but MJ said she had gotten in before with a credit card so I went over to try it. I had no luck whatsoever with that, but MJ called a friend who it turns out also has a key, and he came on over to let her in.

Also this week since graduation is all over, I have set up the pool. Dragged it out of the garage (it had been on top of the camper in the garage since last summer, and we'll need the camper soon!) and started the usual filling up with the hose which takes some 12 hours, I reckon. It still has some leaks, but the ones in the inflatable ring are more troublesome than the pinhole water leaks along the sides. I was hoping they would have magically fused shut over the past 8 months....

Softball was rained out this week. Although I should say we were "rained out" with air quotes because although it had been drizzling a bit most of the day, by game time it had quit and the sun came out. It was called just around the same time I was thinking 'I guess we'll get to play after all!'

 We are the proud parents of a high school graduate! It's all over. Alex had an AP English test on Tuesday (after the end of the school year because he forgot about it a couple weeks ago in school. A teacher asked him why he wasn't taking the AP test....) and that was it. I got a notification soon after that Digipen had received his final transcript and his enrollment is complete. So he'll be heading off to college soon. But first, the celebration. The graduation itself was held Friday evening, a nice hot day, but we sat in the bleachers with our backs to the sun and there was a nice breeze. Nearly 500 students graduated, which meant that it took a long time to read all the names. I had taken Friday off to help get ready for the party which was Saturday. Mostly getting the yard all nice and getting the tent set up. We borrowed the big tent that the church camping group owns; on Thursday I went over and picked up 6 tables, 50 chairs, and the tent (2 trips). By Friday afternoon everything was set up, although I wasn't sure exactly where all the chains and ropes went, so I guessed (wrong). The party was from 11-2 on Saturday in the backyard. We had bought 100 hot dogs and a bunch of veggies and watermelon, and got a bunch of cupcakes, and we were grilling the dogs and going picnic style. We had a good crowd, most everyone we were expecting came by for a while and there was pretty solid traffic the whole time. Marve & Beth came from Michigan, so did Ric & Nickie and Ryan. All of our church friends came over, and many of Alex's friends from school. Alex took off at exactly 2 even though there were still people there, but he had other parties to get to before they ended.....

Meanwhile on Friday, the washing machine died. Or at least was dying. It's been making grinding noises and not spinning like it should for a little while now, so I took a brief video of what it was doing and popped over to Smith Appliance to show them. It just so happened that they didn't have anything scheduled for their service tech that afternoon, so we got same day service. He found that a spline fitting on the tub spindle had worn all the teeth off, and he had the part in his truck, so it got repaired right away.

Missy had her second driving test on Thursday, and passed with flying colors this time! So it seems my insurance is about to go way up again. Two licensed teen drivers, oh my....

The church softball team had a good win on Tuesday. The game started out as a pitcher's duel, more or less, with us leading 1-0 for a few innings, until things broke open, more or less. They scored a few runs over a couple innings, then we had a big string of hits and scored 6 runs late in the game. I finally even scored my first run of the season, and had a couple nice hits....

Memorial Day weekend, and not much going on for us. The school year ended this week, which means that Alex is done, although not quite done, with high school. He still has an AP test outstanding to take next week, and there is graduation, but basically he is done. Beth and I got some noisemakers and blared the song "All Star" when we picked up he and Missy to celebrate his finishing high school. We also let him pick out the place he wanted to go for dinner and he chose Red Robin, so we hit there and Barnes & Noble on Sunday....

I ran in the annual Memorial Day 5k today, and I made pretty good time too. For me, anyway. My official time was 25:50, so it's the first time I've broken 26 minutes for a 5k in a while. I tried to run hard and acknowledge that I was going to stop at 5k so I could really hit it hard for that short a time. 26th place overall out of 68, and 4th in my age group....

Softball lost again this week, although we did have a lead for a while. We had one of those innings late in the game, where they scored something like 10 runs and blew a close game wide open. We lost 19-5 in the end.....

 Missy began her first job this weekend! Well, she's been doing some babysitting for that small group, but this is her first job she had to fill out a W-2 for. Working at Kelainey's in the Village, it was quite a time to start off, since it was the weekend of the Bike Festival in Winona Lake, so they were of course slammed all weekend. But she did just fine, said she had a good time working, and made some money. Sunday she worked all afternoon, supposedly just until 9 but it took them until after 11 to get everything cleaned up and closed. I hope she's not going to be that long after her scheduled end time, every time she works until closing. But anyway, she got to work with a friend of hers on Sunday, and Beth and I dropped in on her to get some ice cream at one point on Saturday. She needs some new shoes, said her feet were worn out.....

Speaking of Missy, she had her road driving test this week. She didn't pass, which we were kind of expecting and not expecting, because we thought she was a really good driver. But not many kids pass their first time. Perhaps deliberately. Anyway, she kept stopping too close to the cars in front of her, and came too close to hitting one. Made the instructor grab the sh!t bar. So, she has another appointment in a couple weeks.....

My group at work got together for the first time in a while last Friday to celebrate my 20-year service anniversary at ZB. We gathered at the boss' house and he grilled burgers and hot dogs, and we played Yardzee. I got to show off the catalog of all the nice prizes I can choose from. I think I am going to pick the luggage set, and gift it to Alex since he'll need some for going to and from college.....
My next yard project is up: I am going to try to spruce up the shed in the backyard a bit. It is looking a little worse for wear around the edges so I got some paver base and some concrete blocks, and I'm planning to line the shed with them (also to keep ground hogs out from underneath it). It'll hide the ragged bottoms of the side wall panels, and should make it easier to keep the weeds and grass under control. I'm also going to mulch the sides of the ramp where the doors swing open, since those spaces aren't really good for anything.....

Beth had an MRI on her back last week. It has been hurting so much, and we have been spending so so much on chiropractic, acupuncture, and regular doctors. But insurance wouldn't pay for an MRI until after every other option was tried and exhausted. But it just so happens that Dr. Wayne knows a guy in Fort Wayne that runs an MRI business, so he referred us to him. And, it was hundreds of dollars cheaper than if we had had it done at the hospital or somewhere from a doctor's referral. It cost $419 out of pocket, but that might even have been less than our copay if we'd had the referral. Anyway, the MRI revealed that Beth has 4 bulging discs in her lower back. But wait, there's more! Her knee also "popped" this week and she has been in terrible pain with that ever since. We thought we should have had the MRI place do one on her knee as well. She wound up seeing our PCP about that, and he sent her to get an x-ray, but no MRI. Looks from the x-ray that she has some early arthritis in her knee, but that doesn't explain the acute pain. My guess is she has a torn meniscus, and my other guess is she's had it for a while because this isn't the first time her knee has hurt like this. It is the worst, though. She got a cortisone shot in it for the first time...

Nibbles the bunny is no more. I was working on mowing and cleaning up the yard Saturday and let her out of the hutch so I could move it and clean underneath it. She hopped around a little bit, then I saw her jump at the side of the hutch and fall over on her side, and just lay there breathing rapidly. Missy came out and picked her up, and she had lost a lot of weight in the last week or two. Beth called an emergency vet in FW, and while we were on hold Nibbles hopped around some more but was running headlong into things and falling over. We were able to get her in to be seen at the emergency vet, who quickly deduced that in the shape she was in, we would either have to hospitalize her, or euthanize her. I'm very sorry that we had to do that with Missy's bunny but there really was no other option than to put her down.....

Natalie had a huge disappointment this weekend as well. Her new boyfriend invited her to go with his family on a vacation to Tennessee a couple weeks ago. Beth and I didn't love the idea but we decided to let her go, with an understanding of what we expected of her and some training about getting all her meds right while she was gone. And that we would not be able to go get her if things got bad at any point, so she was going to have to take care of herself. Well, she had an episode at his house last weekend and they came close to calling 911 because of it, and if I was to guess I'd bet that they got spooked about taking her because of that. Her boyfriend gave an excuse about having to take care of his dad (who has a heart problem and needs a transplant), but Saturday (they day before they were leaving) texted her that he didn't think she should go. She was pretty upset and disappointed about it, who wouldn't be.....

FCC softball got smoked this week. We got absolutely nothing going all game. I only batted once, it was that kind of game. We lost something like 16-3....

Saturday was prom night for Missy! She's been so excited for it. She didn't have a date, but she and a friend were going to hang out together. She got her hair done earlier in the day and looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress. The prom itself was being held at the fairgrounds, under a big tent outdoors, due to the covid protocols (which remain even though most people are acting as if everything is all over). Things started at 8:00; we dropped her off there (saw one stretch Hummer limo on the way) and she met her friend there. Unfortunately her friend had to leave early for some reason, so Missy came home an hour earlier than the prom actually ended, but she said she had a blast. She saw several of her friends, and did dance some. The downside was it was really crowded, especially on the dance floor, and literally there was almost no room to even turn around, plus the dance floor was so loud you could hardly hear the music. All those heels on the temporary dance floor, I guess. And she said she saw 3 other girls that had her exact same dress (but I bet they didn't wear it as well as Missy did). So she was home by 10. Beth and I just looked at each other when she got home, thinking that she must have been really disappointed with the whole thing, being home so early, but she said she had a really good time.....

Earlier in the week, Missy had a job interview at Kelainey's in the Village at Winona. A good friend of hers works there already - was promoted to manager after just a few weeks, it seems - and even though her friend is not the hiring manager, Missy was hired on the spot. I wonder if they're having the same staffing problems that everyone else is too. So Missy starts her first new job next week!....

FCC softball recorded our first victory of the season this week! We played FUM and actually ended the game earlier than planned. We kind of jumped on them early and often. I remarked during one point that if we weren't careful the game was going to be ended soon, and a few batters later it was called. The umpire called over to the dugout asking how many runs we had scored. I yelled over "six!" and he yelled back "ballgame!" So we invoked the mercy rule on them, 16-4....

We had a pop-up get together with Brian and Deanna Myers this week. They recently moved back to Arizona from Cincy, but they were in town for their daughter's graduation from Grace College. We met them at Oak & Alley, which hadn't opened by the time they moved out of Warsaw all those years ago. It was good to see them again.....

The biggest event of the past week was the return of FCC softball! I was notified not too long ago that we are definitely having a season this year, although for some reason it will only be 10 games and there is no tournament. We've had a lot of people sign up, including several new players; enough that we had thought maybe we'd be able to field two teams, but there aren't quite enough. There may be a ladies team, though, if we can rustle up a couple more. Anyway there were 15 at the first game on Tuesday, I think. We played pretty well, although we came up a bit short 11-9. I was 1-3, 2-3 if you count reaching base on an error (we usually do, why not).....

Unusual event this past week; Missy had a Sunday night to Monday sleepover. She spent the day with her friend Megan then stayed overnight at her house. We allowed it since Monday was an e-learning day, and she didn't have to be anywhere. 

Missy took the SAT on Saturday. By the time we got her signed up, there were no spaces left in Warsaw, so we had to sign her up to take it in Nappanee at NorthWood HS. She and I got up early and headed out, and since the test was supposed to be over by 12:30 it seemed pointless to go back home, then back again to pick her up. So I wandered around Nappanee and Bremen geocaching. Less successful than I would have hoped, but I did find 3. There really are not many interesting caches around there.

We all went to our first drive-in movie on Saturday! Beth got some tickets online for the 13-24 Theater in Wabash. It was only $8.50 for an entire car load. Wonder Woman 1984 was playing. Beth had thought the movie started at 8:00 so we really hoofed it to make it on time after Alex got out of work, but it turns out that 8:00 was the time they started letting people in, so we were very early. The movie started at around 9:30. We also weren't sure how it works to hear the audio, with a speaker or the radio. The speaker stands are all still there, but there are no actual speakers, it's all on the radio. We turned the van around and the kids sat in the back with the lift gate open, and Beth and I were in camp chairs. Which wasn't great for hearing the audio, so after a while I got in the van and turned backwards in the driver's seat which was better for hearing but not seeing. It started to rain after a while, too, so Beth wound up in the van too. I was worried about the battery dying from running the radio with the engine off but it was fine. Overall I wasn't the best movie experience but it was kind of fun. We'd do it better next time. Might be better if everyone had their phone's radio app for the audio.....

Mother's Day turned into a little bit of a debacle this year. As usual, I took Beth shopping for flowers to plant in the gardens around the house. Since her back has been hurting so much lately, it's likely me that will actually plant the flowers this year, though. So we went to Menard's and bought everything she wanted on Saturday, then on Sunday she asked me where we were going out to dinner. I hadn't made any plans for a special dinner so I quickly decided on BWW, since Beth does ask to go there once in a while. She looked a bit off-put but agreed to it, but on the way out I drove us by Yamato just to see how busy it was. It was packed. So, dinner at B-dubs for Mother's Day, and Beth told me later she thought I must be joking when I said we were going there, but she went along with it. She did apologize later, said she was embarrassed at the way she acted, being angry about not being taken to the "right" place for dinner. Well anyway, I'll have to do better next year.....

I am making another attempt at growing some new grass in the yard. However I'm doing it in the side yard instead, nothing has grown there in years. It gets so hot on that side of the house that stuff dies, at least that's what we've assumed. So this week I turned up the bare dirt that's been on that side and planted some hardy grass seed. Hopefully it takes. I also filled in the hole where the stump by the driveway was (it finally rotted away enough I could get it all out with a shovel and fill the hole with dirt). I'm going to see if I can get some grass to grow over that as well. The good news is that it did rain quite a bit in the couple days after I planted so maybe it'll get a good start.....

 Something of an adventure on Tuesday. When the kids and I left for school, I noticed that we were nearly out of gas (it said 6 miles to empty) so I thought we would have to stop at the Citgo quickly to get some. But then I found I didn't have my wallet with me. There wasn't time to go back home and get it, so then I was just hoping we had enough gas to get them to school. We did, so then I just hoped we had enough for me to get home. I didn't, or at least I don't think I did. The gauge said 2 miles to empty when I left the school, but then there was a train  in town and while I was waiting for it, it went to 0 miles to empty. So immediately I pulled over into the bank parking lot and parked the van there, and walked a couple miles home. Got the truck and a gas can, got some gas and brought the van home, leaving the truck for Beth and I to get later.....
Wednesday we finally got something done that has needed to be done for a long, long time...carpet cleaning. We had Stanley Steemer come in to clean and deodorize the carpet throughout the house. The carpet downstairs especially hasn't been done in years, but Nat did get her room all picked up and things off the floor so it could be done. The charcoal stain from her art supplies in her room will never completely wash out, but the chocolate milk did, and all the miscellaneous stains throughout the house did too, mostly. $299 for the whole house, worth it.....
Friday Beth and the girls and I went to Fort Wayne to return a few things and look for something Missy can wear over her prom dress, like a shawl kind of thing, since her prom is going to be outside and may be a little chilly. We didn't find anything like that, though. We did also see that since the mask orders are being lifted and things are more and more re-opened, it's harder to get in to a restaurant. The wait at Chili's was 2 hours, so we cancelled that idea and ate in Columbia City instead....

 Thursday the girls all went to get haircuts. A pretty wide range of results ensued. Beth got a regular trim and it was fine. Missy got an undercut which she has wanted to get for some time, and wanted for sure to get before her prom. She loves it, a lot. She was so excited by it and couldn't want to show it off at school. Honestly it looks super cute on her, and when she has her hair down you can barely tell she has it. Natalie cried for a long time after they got home because she hated her new cut so much. It wasn't what she had wanted at all, it seems. I'm guessing she's never going to go back to Erika again.....
Also Thursday we received a purchase that we used some of the annual ZB bonus money on. I told Beth we should buy something she's wanted for a long time, some big thing that we didn't have the money for usually. I got my new grill by the same premise. Beth chose a Dyson vacuum cleaner. It's pretty sharp, I must admit, and it does a lot better than the crappy old Wal-Mart special we had before. It was even fun assembling it....
Went to Fort Wayne again this weekend. 

It has been a pretty good weekend. Alex wasn't scheduled to work on Friday, so Beth and I thought it would be fun to go see the Komets since they were in town, and the season isn't going to be going on much longer. We knew they were doing all sorts of social distancing and such in the Coliseum, including pod seating, so we couldn't get a group of 5 seats all together. Weird ticket sales rules for the pandemic, I guess, but the only place I could find a group of 3 and a group of 2 close together was in the 600 level, higher up than we usually sit. On the way to the Coliseum we had to make a detour to the mall because Alex's jeans ripped. He sat down and they just ripped right down the seam along the back pocket, and there was no hiding it without typing a jacket around his waist. We were able to find a pair of joggers at Penney's, but no jeans that fit him. Anyway, the seats actually were really good, we had a good view of the whole ice, except the cameras were right in front of us so I would suggest being on the other side next time. I'm not sure how big the crowd was, but it was much sparser than usual. Less than a quarter capacity, I'd say. Nevertheless we had a lot of fun. It was a good game, and we got to see a lot of stuff: a hat trick (Brandon Hawkins), a shorthanded goal (that was sweeeeeet), a goalie (theirs) take a puck right in the nuts, and a 6-2 win over Wheeling. It's more fun with a big crowd but it was a lot of fun anyway.....
Alex worked on Saturday, so the rest of us went to Goshen to drop off Nat at a friend's house (she met him at her other friend's party in Columbia City a couple weeks ago) for the afternoon. We tried to go get something to eat at a new restaurant there, and at first they said there was no wait but that turned out to be wrong as it was prom night. We waited for a while but then it got close enough that we decided to go back to Warsaw because Alex was getting off work soon.....
Today we all went out to the country to go geocaching with the plan to wind up at the Igloo. So we headed out towards North Manchester, got a few in town there, then a couple in the middle of nowhere between NM and Silver Lake, then ice cream and back home....
I called the woman that called the church asking for help cleaning up her home a couple weeks ago, and it turns out that she has a court date soon and doesn't want to clean it up until after that, and anyway she doesn't feel like it is safe to be there right now, so we're just going to wait until we hear from her again about it.....
Beth and I both got our 2nd covid vaccines this week. We just brought the little cards to the pharmacy at Meijer and got them right away. So maybe we're immune now. Hopefully it's all going to go away soon....
Alex had an honors recognition reception this week; the Tri-Kappa society got all the honors seniors together at the PAC at the high school and handed award certificates and honors cords for graduation. Alex is graduating magna cum laude. There were a whole bunch of former Zillionaires there with him. We couldn't be more proud of that kid.....