This was a great week for seeing stuff. On Wednesday Beth and I went to see the new “Top Gun: Maverick” movie while Alex was at work, and we both really liked it. It was better than the first one, for sure. Although I thought it was maybe just a bit predictable….but anyway.

Thursday Beth and I took Alex up to see a South Bend Cubs ballgame. That was the game that I won tickets for on Pulse FM last week. I only won two tickets, so I called the ticket office and asked if I could trade in the tickets for 3 other tickets that were together, and they let me in the end and said the tickets would be at the will call window. They didn’t even charge me for the 3rd ticket, which surprised me. But I’ll take it! Next time we’ll have to figure out a better parking situation because the roads at the stadium were really swamped and not moving, so we finally found a parallel parking spot about a block or two away. We thought it was odd that traffic was so bad for a minor league game during the week that was only half full, if that, but maybe we just didn’t find the right place to go. As for the stadium, it is really nice, and the seats we had were really good except for the sun. They were along the 1st base line so we were looking towards the sun for more than half the game. Made it hard to see fly balls too. It was much better after the sun finally went below the level of the stadium. Next time we’ll get seats along the 3rd base line if we go in the evening. The game itself was pretty good as well. Peoria went out in front early, the middle of the game was slow, but SB tied it up with a late rally, nearly won it in the bottom of the 9th but the runner was called out at home, so it went to extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th we got to see a 3-run walk-off homer to win it! 

Saturday was the event we’ve been waiting for 2 years to go to. Billy Joel at Notre Dame Stadium! Originally the concert was to be in June of 2020 but was postponed until 2021 due to Covid and then later postponed until 2022 due to Covid still hanging around. We’ve had these tickets for 2 years and finally got to use them! What an incredible concert! This was the first time either of us had been to the stadium for anything and we found the traffic to be crazy…we got into a long line of traffic that moved only differentially for a long time, and around an hour before the show was to start we decided we weren’t going to make it in time like this so we tapped out of the line and found parking at an office building across the street. For $50. But worth it because we made it in time! Pretty sure we wouldn’t have if we’d stayed in the line we were in. Then an incredible show! He did most all of the hits we wanted to hear, plus a few more, and 5 encores! And us singing and dancing along with almost all of them. What a huge crowd, too. There was a family of 4 in front of us, with two 20-something kids (I think) who were singing along with all of the songs just like their parents. And some 40,000 or however many people all singing along to “Piano Man.” And he nailed the high notes on “An Innocent Man.” And he started “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” just as the sun was setting but forgot the words in the chorus. And started the concert with the Notre Dame fight song on the piano blended into the overture to “My Life.” Oh my what an incredible show it was! Loved it.

Decent showing from the softball team on Tuesday; we played an A-division team so I thought we would get steamrolled but we held our own. Even though I couldn’t hit that day, we did turn a neat 6-4-3 double play at one point (I was the 4) and only lost by a couple of runs. We also saw one of the other team get ejected (rare in church league) for mouthing off about calls to the umpire. Wouldn’t stop after hearing “are you done?” from the ump once, so he got tossed. I guess winning in church league softball is pretty important to him.

Beth and I went to Nappanee on Friday to spend the $200 gift card for Kountry Cabinets that I won also from Pulse FM last week. Turns out, it wasn’t a $200 gift card, it was two $100 gift cards, and since they say ‘one per customer’ on them I couldn’t use them both at the same time for the same purchase. Yep. No matter how I argued. We didn’t find a whole lot there that we were very interested in anyway; there’s expensive furniture we can’t afford, and home furnishings we’re not interested in. In the end all we could find was a set of wind chimes for just over $100, but since they wouldn’t let us use both gift cards I had to pay the amount over $100. Sheesh.

Friday Natalie also found out somehow that we have cancelled the graduation party we’d been planning for her in Michigan at Judy’s cottage. She was pretty angry about that, it seemed when she showed up at the house Friday evening to collect some more of her stuff. I’m not sure what she expected though. She doesn’t really like any of the family and we certainly weren’t going to transport her friends there. So yeah, cancelled. 

I went on another 30-mile bike ride with 2nd Mile Adventures on Saturday. We looped towards the southwest and back up through Pierceton. Nice ride. I wonder if I’ll wind up a biker instead of a runner. 

 Missy has departed, at long last, for her Adriatic Odyssey! Wednesday morning the tour group left at about 8:30am, rolling out from the high school to O’Hare. It seems they arrived in plenty of time because they didn’t take off until about 4:45 Warsaw time. But they were doing currency exchange and all that, and checking in a big group, and keeping a bunch of kids together…so I’m sure “plenty of time” is a good idea for them. Anyway, finally! After 2 years of delays due to covid, Missy gets to go! She’s so excited. We’ve chatted a bit on WhatsApp so we know what they’ve been seeing so far. By now they’ve been in Italy for a few days and seen Rome (Colosseum, catcombs, marble stuff), the Vatican, Florence, Ovieto…and they even had a birthday celebration for Missy and 2 other girls having birthdays during the trip. The teacher leading the group has been texting photos…incredible. Such an amazing adventure.

We FINALLY have the van back! After over a week in the shop. And about $1700 worth of repairs to the suspension, steering rack, and brakes, plus an oil change. But it drives a lot better now…as it should. It has just been a good thing that we had the Honda this past week.

All this week Beth and I have been helping out at our church’s VBS. We were guides for a small group of 2nd graders; we gathered them together at the beginning for the opening and worship song/dance, then led them to the game and craft stations, with a snack and small group time in the middle where we had another activity. Really good time! We had as many as 5 and as few as 2 kids in our group during the week but we always had a fun time and we had good kids. Everything went really well and the kids seemed to really have a good time. I think this was our first VBS after 2 years off due to covid, or at least with an in-person VBS instead of virtual. Which I’m not sure how that went, but anyway. Fun times!

Softball was called off this week due to the heat! It was so hot and so humid this week that we had heat advisory warnings, and the league decided to postpone the games until July (when it could be even hotter, but anyway). I didn’t mind, since I was helping at VBS and unlikely that I would have been able to make it to the game on time anyway, so it’s all good. 

I have entered the Fresh Outta Bed and Head to Head Hall of Fame...again. I had quite a haul this week: initially on Tuesday I won 2 tickets to Indiana Beach, then an inflatable bowling set, a fridge magnet, and 2 tickets to a South Bend Cubs game. Plus, I was entered into a drawing for a $200 gift card at Country Cabinets & Home Furnishings in Nappanee, which I also won. So now I'm a 2-time member of the hall of fame and get to play again in the year-end tournament!

Today was the Father’s Day celebration at church! Saturday I went in to help get everything set up (tent for the petting zoo, tables & chairs, etc) and back again Sunday morning early to finish the setup (bounce houses, table services, canopies, etc). There was an outdoor service at 10 followed by lunch (grilled burgers and hot dogs, plus everything that normally goes with that). Then the inflatable obstacle course and bounce house, petting zoo, face painting, bingo, and general fun! Then I stayed after to get everything packed up and put away. Good time. And it wasn’t too hot.

No sign of Natalie this weekend. 

This was a week that was crammed full of stuff. Some good, some not so good. On Monday, I took the van in to Ab & Tom’s again, because it’s been driving so rough lately. Last time they saw it they told me that the ball joints were going, and they must have gone by now. I brought a bike with me when I dropped it off, then used it to ride to work, and later on to lunch. Then I had something happen that had never happened to me before: I got a flat tire. There was a little piece of sharp metal in one of the bike tires so I had to walk it home from Subway at lunch. That may have been a sign of things to come. As I write this, they’ve had the van for a week and it is still not done. The ball joints and tie rods needed to be replaced, and also the steering rack (which was under warranty). They were so shorthanded that it’s taken all this time to get that done, and they haven’t even done anything with the brakes, which have been pulsing a lot lately. So maybe it’ll be done on Monday, maybe not.

Missy had to pick me up from work on Monday so we could get to the final pre-departure meeting for her trip to Europe! All about the last minute things we need to do or make sure we have done or things to buy before departure day. Missy is getting so excited about it. And nervous. But I know she is going to have a great time. 

In the meantime it has been a good thing we have the Honda. Beth went up to Michigan with Missy on Tuesday to visit with her Aunt Halo and Judy and Ted, so she was gone all day. Alex and Natalie worked most all day. Softball had a doubleheader in the evening at 6 and 8: we won the game at 6, 10-9, and lost the nightcap, 10-5. 

Wednesday, Natalie was out all day and when she came back in the evening she had a dog with her. It was her boyfriend’s dog, but she insisted it was hers too, and she was keeping it here. I told her no, that it had to go back to his house and it could not stay here. To which she got very huffy but allowed she would see what she could do. I let it go there and went to bed. Beth, Missy and I went to Ball State on Thursday for an orientation for Missy. She got all registered, we had another tour and met some of the faculty and staff. Missy also met several of her soon to be classmates. We were done with it by late afternoon and headed home, and the dog was still there. Alex told us she had just left it at home while she went to work. So a big fight ensued where we told her that the dog could not stay at the house and it had to go back to her boyfriend’s. A lot of yelling and cursing happened, and her response to me telling her that the dog couldn’t stay here was “tough $#!+.” In the end I went to his house myself and told him that she couldn’t keep the dog at my house. He apologized and said he would come get it later. Instead a little later another friend of hers came by with her boyfriend, and Natalie grabbed a few things, the dog, all of her meds, and left. But before driving off she dumped a bottle of weed killer all over Beth’s flowers. We did not see or hear from her again until Saturday afternoon when she came by with the same other two friends and got most of her clothes and a few other things. We assume she is living with those friends but don’t really know. All we know for sure is that she does not live here any longer. She said she’d be back next weekend for the rest of her things. I hope she’s ok. 

Missy is a high school graduate! It still blows my mind a bit that our kids got old enough to graduate from high school. Sigh...time passes. I can remember when it blew my mind that we had kids at all. Anyway, the practice the day before went off without a hitch except it being super hot. Judy and Neill came for the graduation and the graduation party, which was nice. The actual ceremony was Friday, and we had about the same seats as we did last year for Alex's graduation. Unfortunately we were just a bit behind Missy so I couldn't get many good shots of her face during the graduation. But anyway it was nice, the weather was as good as it gets for something like that, clear & sunny & not too hot, and not too many super long speeches. She found a few of her friends after the graduation was over but I think she mostly wanted to get out of there. We went out for ice cream afterwards. 

The party was Saturday. Again we had Jack's big 10' x 20' tent and a bunch of tables and chairs borrowed from church, and this time we had Chicago dogs. Missy chose Chicago dogs and fruit for the refreshments to go with the cupcakes and the Ball State decorated small cake. So I grilled and Beth chopped the condiments (or found them - specifically sport peppers which we found to be hard to find). We had a really good turnout and Missy got a good haul of presents. Then she took off to hit all of her friends' graduation parties that were on the same day :)

Speaking of Missy we also got her a new mattress this week. We've been intending to do that for some time because her old one (that she's slept on since she moved out of the toddler bed) is pretty worn out. We found a good one at Mattress Firm where Beth and I got ours. 

Softball turned in a rare feat this week: we got shut out. 14-0. We absolutely could not get anything going, and got mercied after the fourth inning. Third and a half actually, they didn't bat in their fourth inning. We only went through our batting lineup one time. And nothing went right in the field either, while they made no mistakes. They were just a lot better than us.