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....