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....