Merry Christmas! It's been a little more than a week since the last post but it seemed today was a logical breaking point for the week. Obviously Christmas was yesterday. Laura and Thomas are in an in-between year for visiting his family for Christmas, so they were here with us this year. They arrived on the 24th, coming from Michigan, and departed today bound for Chicago to visit Monica. Beth and the kids and I were at the Christmas Eve service at church when they arrived; as soon as it was over we (plus Mary Jane) went out to dinner at Texas Road House and spent the rest of the evening playing Wizard. They were staying at the Wyndham. Christmas morning, they came back to the house and we did presents (although the presents I got for them had not arrived yet, so I will hopefully ship them this week), then started getting the big Christmas meal together. Beth made a ham and we had enough other food to feed an army even though only 7 people were here altogether. Sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, pumpkin fluff dip, key lime pie, and a bunch of other stuff. Then more Wizard. This morning we all went out for breakfast at Bob Evans before they headed out again. 

Last Friday, Beth and I and the kids went up to Michigan to visit for an evening with Stephanie & John. We drove up in the afternoon after Alex was out of work, got there around dinnertime and had a nice dinner out with the Pinksters. Afterwards we played a new game that we hadn't heard of before, called 'Ransom Notes,' in which you have a handful of those little word magnets (like on a fridge), you get a prompt card (like 'Explain to the interviewer why you haven't worked in 3 years') and assemble a response with only your magnets, then the judge selects the winner (Alex's: 'I did drugs also alcohol' Missy's: 'afraid') based on what s/he thinks is funniest/best. 

The last week before break I wanted to take off from work, but didn't really have a chance because it has been so busy. We've got a lot of validations going on an all the data coming in from those, other research projects, blah blah blah... anyway the result being I didn't feel like I could. So I compromised and did a sort of half and half. I went in probably every day for a few hours (like usual) and spent the rest of the time at home, working on the computer or not. I did quite a bit of work on the downstairs: the old wood paneling is all off, I've insulated the cold water pipes in the downstairs bathroom (so they don't sweat and drip onto the drop ceiling panels), and I replaced the stained ceiling panels in the downstairs bathroom (see previous job). My group at work also did another volunteering with Habitat for Humanity on Wednesday; there is a lake house on Waubee Lake that apparently recently sold, and the new owners donated most of the kitchen cabinetry and fixtures, and a homemade bar that was in the rec room, so we volunteered to uninstall them and haul them away. The cabinets were all installed with a large amount of screws with a varying head type and some were very well hidden, but we eventually got them all taken out and got the cabinets out with a minimum of destruction. Habitat had a truck that we loaded everything onto and then unloaded it all at the Re-sale shop in town.

So today, I've been getting everything in the house clean and we're getting ready for Beth's surgery tomorrow. Now it's close enough that she's really nervous.

Missy is home! Friday Alex and I drove down to Muncie to pick her up for break and to help her move! The roommate stuff got just unbearable and she got a transfer approved not long ago. She had been dreading telling her (now ex-) roommate but it was no big deal and she wasn't sad to see her go. The roommate was already gone by the time we got there, so I didn't have to intimidate her or anything, and we moved all the stuff that is staying at college over to the new room, and all the stuff that is going home (at least for now) into the truck. She doesn't really know the new roommate, but has seen her and knows who she is and said she seems nice. I sure hope so. Anyway her bed was disassembled, but Missy wanted to get away without staying to assemble it before leaving even though I offered to. She got a call from Petsmart on the way home, so she is all (re-)onboarded and all set to work there over break and make a few bucks. She got paid for an hour just on the phone in the truck. Alex is all set at Kroger as well (he needs the money more than she does).

Beth did not accompany us to Muncie because her knee is horrible. Her surgery date is coming up soon, but it's far enough away that she is still looking forward to it. The pain can't be as bad after TKR as what it is now. She didn't want to be in the truck for 4 hours, but ALSO it just so happens that Friday evening was the Zastrows' Christmas party at their house. Beth went there without me, and I went after unloading Missy at home. We got everything unloaded and into her room, and then I turned around and said bye. It was a fun time. We played a game I'd never heard of before, called RiffTrax, which is like Mystery Science Theater 3000. They play a clip from a terrible movie, then everyone logs in and provides the next line. Then everyone votes on the best one. Kind of like Jackbox, but different. Anyway, it was a fun time!

Otherwise, not much to report for this week. Work has been crazy busy. Beth's been working all week as well.

Couple big things this week. Because it was Natalie's birthday last Sunday, I texted her happy birthday and asked if she would like me to bring the couch and loveseat and her other things over to her new place (she's now living on Ohio with friends). Her answer: Yes!! So I told her I would make arrangements to get a truck and bring her things out this week. I reserved a 15' U-Haul truck for Wednesday, recruited a co-worker to help me lift some things into it, and Beth and I took that loud rattling bouncy thing over to the sticks OH. We packed up the couch and loveseat from the downstairs, her bike, the big orange dresser, her old coffee table, her I'm not sure what it's called mini-couch or whatever, end table, and several boxes of stuff. The GPS took us through some real back roads in the middle of nowhere, but we made it and unloaded/carried in/set up everything we had. She seems to be doing well, I'm not sure who of the 4 living there is working or what they are doing but she's going to try to get a job at a care facility nearby. We also got her for her birthday a bird feeder made of glass tableware cemented together that Beth found at the Wawasee show, plus some birdseed and a shepherd's crook, and she seemed to be really happy with that.

Since a lot of the downstairs is now empty, I took the opportunity to get the carpets in the house cleaned. Mostly spurred by picking up Alex's room in preparation for him being here next week, and seeing how gross the carpet was (there was cat barf and scoot marks!). Also, when we moved the couch from downstairs, I found mold in the carpet. Old mold. So I quickly rented a Rug Doctor from Kroger and spent most of Friday and Saturday cleaning carpets all throughout the house. Special attention paid to the places where there were still pet stains from Nat's dog or from Ruby (did pretty well). Everything cleaned up pretty well. 

Also on Friday Beth and I were in line at Starbucks when we saw a young woman pull out of the line with apparent car trouble. She managed to get the car into a parking space, but couldn't go anywhere further than that. We could see the right front tire of her car was turned around 45 degrees and the left was straight, and she looked like she was basically at a loss as to what to do. Beth called over to her to ask if she needed help... she didn't know what was wrong with the car, but I looked and could see a broken steering linkage. Also as it turned out, she needed to go right then to pick up her 2-year-old at day care, and then she needed a ride for both of them back to the shelter where she has been living. She didn't know who to call, the only one she could think of was an abusive ex-husband. She's been trying to get moved out of the shelter but because of the move she basically had no money right now for car repairs so she didn't know how she was going to get to a job interview she had either. Beth and I gave her the rides she needed and picked up her baby with her, then dropped her off with $100 cash to help her with a tow or repairs.

The Wawasee Holiday Bazaar or whatever it's called was this weekend. Since we went to Seattle over the Thanksgiving holiday, Beth has been way behind in getting soup made since we sold so much at the Columbia City show. So she worked pretty much all week on making soup, and by the end of the week finally had pretty much all she needed. We went there to set up on Friday evening, got it all set, and she looked everything over and said it looked like we hardly had anything. Which was an exaggeration, because we set another record. We sold 158 jars of soup. Admittedly, we hardly had anything left by the time the show was over, which is ok too. Beth is hurting a lot (knee, back) and making soup hasn't been as joyous this year as in past years. She's pretty glad to have the season over and isn't going to worry about getting more sales from the ladies at work or church. 

We've had a bit of a whirlwind week. A few weeks ago, Beth and I were talking about the possibility of us going to Seattle for Thanksgiving, but I concluded at the end that it would be too expensive and we couldn't afford it. Beth was super disappointed at that, although she didn't complain about it, but I started looking for rates and fares again to see if maybe there was a way we could swing it. I finally found some good fares, though not with the best departure times, but it was the best we could do. So I told her we could do it after all, and she was sooo excited. Missy started her break before Alex, so Beth went and picked her up from school on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday, we all headed for Chicago to catch a plane. The plane left at 4:30 pm, so allowing for rush hour traffic and heavy holiday travel we decided to allow plenty of time to get there (O'Hare) and get through security. We thought maybe leaving at 11:00 would be about right. Well, we shot right on through traffic to get to the airport, dropped off the van in long-term, and got completely through security in about 10 minutes. So we had a LOT of time to kill waiting for the flight. Anyway the flight was otherwise uneventful, and Scott & Alex picked us up at Sea-Tac and delivered us to our hotel (Redmond Inn). The next day, actual Thanksgiving, Scott met us after breakfast and we all drove a half hour outside of town to check out Snoqualmie Falls (site of the Great Northern Inn from Twin Peaks). It was much more touristy than I was expecting, and more crowded too, but oh well. Alex had a thing with some friends so we dropped him off after the falls, then Scott took the rest of us on a driving tour of Seattle and then we hung out in his apartment. Later on, when Alex was done, we went back his way to pick him up and go out to dinner. The plan was to go to Tipsy Cow for dinner, but when we got there it was locked and dark. Google had said they were open Thanksgiving, but they were most certainly NOT. We spent the next hour or two looking for a place that was actually open before finally finding one (Google lied about others too). We went to Shari's for Thanksgiving dinner! That's a place that specializes in breakfast and pie. They were out of their TG special platter but we had pretty good burgers. Friday Alex had another party with friends, so we did a tour of Digipen and went to Top Pot before dropping him off, then Beth and I and Missy took his car and went to Seattle proper. We were going to go up the Space Needle, but it was bust enough that tickets were sold out until like 7:30 pm that evening. We were there at around 3:00. So we punted on the Space Needle and took an Uber to Pike Place Market instead. Did some funs shopping and Beth got to taste the fresh salmon (OMG that is amazing!!!) so we bought a pound of it vacuum packed to take home. Then we went back to Redmond and checked out the Town Center (especially the game store) before picking up Alex and getting dinner at Zaucer's. After dinner Alex took us to our hotel at the airport and we parted there, since we had an early morning flight, so we didn't have to fight traffic that early. As a contrast to Chicago, the line in Seattle for security was a million miles long and moved at glacial speed. By the time we got through, I was really afraid we were going to miss the flight. We didn't, but they literally shut the door to the plane behind us as we got on. Uneventful flight to Chicago, picked up the van and drove home (stopped at Schoop's on the way home). Today, I drove the van for church, and Missy hung around home until this evening when we drove her back to school. She wasn't ready to go back yet. Still having roommate issues and hasn't heard back if she will be able to switch rooms.

Beth's second soup show of the season was this Saturday, the one in Columbia City. It's grown so much over the years that they had to move it out of the middle school gym and into the high school. We hoped that was an encouraging sign, especially since the last show was so slow. Well, no worries about that this time. The show opened at 9 and we were immediately busy. We sold out of the potato soup before 11. Sold out of Soala and Love soup before closing. All flavors sold at least some. Except Curly Noodle. But by the time the show was over, we had sold 153 soups, another new record! We were amazed by how much soup we moved. Beth was exhausted by the end. 

I did some more leaf work this weekend since just days after last weekend when I cleared the backyard entirely, you couldn't tell I had. So I cleared the yard, mostly, all over again in an afternoon. Interesting news on that: in addition to the itchy rash on my arm (which is largely gone, but still itches a lot more than it should) I've now developed an itchy rash on my upper right leg! I don't know if it's a flare-up from the first contact last month, or something new I picked up in the backyard hauling leaves last weekend. But it itches. A lot. 

Friday night was the Fort Wayne Komets Teddy Bear Toss! We'd told Missy that we would pick her up for the game and she could invite a friend and we'd supply the tickets, so she invited Kathryn Monsma, who is at Taylor University now. Beth went to go pick up the girls before I got home from work, and I went out there early to pick up the tickets as soon as I was done with work. I got the tickets and waited for Beth and the girls to get there. And waited, and waited.... seems the traffic on I-69 was at a standstill for unknown reasons, and it took forever for them to get from the south side of FW to the Coliseum. The finally arrived at 7:52 for the 8:00 puck drop. The game itself was up and down. The Komets scored the teddy toss goal 40 seconds into the first period, on a beautiful rebound from a blocked shot that the goalie had no chance on. Minutes later to Komets made it 2-0. By the end of the 1st it was 2-2. Then they went up 3-2, then Toledo tied it up again. Then they went up 4-3. Then 5-3. Then the K's made it 5-4, but the Fish got an empty netter near the end to make it 6-4 and that's how it ended. It was the first hockey game that Kathryn had ever been to and she had a great time. And Missy was so happy to get to hang out with her again. I took the girls back to drop Kathryn off back at school (she couldn't come home this weekend, too much work) so Missy and I got home pretty late. Beth didn't stay up for us. Missy stayed through the weekend and we brought her back to school Sunday evening.

Earlier in the week was a work group get-together at Biryani Kitchen followed by a gathering at Trey's house for axe throwing. He has a homemade setup with a bunch of hatchets and axes and machetes and logs and such in his backyard, so we all threw a bunch. It was a lot of fun! I even successfully stuck a hatchet in a log from 3x standard distance (3 rotations) thrown while standing (balancing) on a log, and someone got it on video. That was pretty cool.

Veteran's Day was pretty cool this year. I got a coupon from Jiffy Lube for $50 off an oil change. Yes, 5-0, five-zero, fifty dollars off. I figured the line would be crazy so I went early Saturday, but it wasn't really. And I got the oil in the truck changed for only a bit over $30. That was awesome.

Beth saw her orthopedist this past week. Her knee has been so bad she can hardly stand it lately. So she was going for another cortisone shot, and he took an x-ray to check on it. He says now that since the last x-ray it has gotten so much worse that he no longer thinks she's be a good candidate for a partial knee. He is now planning to do a total knee. The good news is he's using Persona, so maybe we'll get a discount. It's likely to be scheduled in January or February. Too bad not this year since we're closer to the out of pocket max, but I guess the good news is we'll hit that max early next year.

This weekend was leaf weekend. It's been dry and warmish and probably 75% of the leaves are down, so I spent most of Saturday afternoon blowing the leaves in the backyard back towards the fence and tarping them away to the back forty. Without them being weighted down by rain or snow, they went pretty easily. 

 So last weekend I went for a run Saturday morning, with a goal of making it to half-marathon distance (which I did) since I'm still considering running one of the actual halves in the next few weeks. But I just noticed two plantar warts on the bottom of my right foot, right under the ball of the foot, and they started getting pretty painful during the run. Wanting to nip that in the bud, I saw the doctor on Thursday to get them treated. He got out the liquid nitrogen and froze them, which didn't hurt all that much at the time. Later on one of them started to hurt and develop a blood blister. Then by the next morning it hurt like hell and I went back to see him again. Seems that happens sometimes, not very often. But he didn't want to drain it because of the infection risk and he put me on an antibiotic to be safe. So I just put up with it, even though it hurt worse and worse and by evening I was walking with a cane and it hurt like actual hell to walk or drive. Driving was worse. Aaaaand Beth's first soup show was Saturday, so I had to limp along to help set up on Friday night. By the end of the setup time I was hurting so bad that I decided this was ridiculous and I just went ahead and drained it myself with an x-acto blade. It felt much better immediately. Still hurts. 

Speaking of that show, it was the smaller one at the Brethren church on Center Street in town on Saturday. She really likes kicking things off with that one since it's smaller and friendlier, and she does pretty well in it. Beth wanted Missy to come home for the show so she went to Muncie on Friday afternoon to get her, then she helped us set up. This year the show was at the same time as a much larger show at Eisenhower School so I think foot traffic suffered quite a bit. The number of people was down a lot from previous years, and her sales were also down a lot. Altogether she sold 46 jars, down from about 60 last year. So not a bad show, but kind of a disappointment. Now she's worried that all the shows are going to be down, that people are over the soup thing, and nobody's going to buy her soup any more. I wouldn't go that far, but it was slow. We took Missy back to school Sunday evening.

Poison ivy is still really bad for all the guys who worked on that lady's yard. Drew's got infected. Mine is finally starting to go away but still itches an unbelievable amount. Both the antibiotic I got for the blood blister on my foot and the itching rash from the poison ivy reminded me this week though: I need the shingles vaccine. So after thinking 'I need to do that' for quite some time I finally did it this weekend. Got it Saturday, felt run down for a few hours on Sunday, feeling fine by the end of the day.

Trunk or Treat at church was the Monday the 23rd this past week. Seems a bit early for Halloween but we had an amazing turnout again. Beth and I did the fishing pond again this year since it was a big hit last year, and it was a big hit again this year. I did put some more work into the setup this year so it didn't fall down so much, and I wore the gigantic waders to look more like a fisherman. The entire setup was inside and outside this year, and the weather was so nice we were a bit disappointed to be inside, but it worked well. If we were outside it would have blown over, probably. Anyway the church had over 500 visitors altogether for the event, so much that we had to have people park on the grass. We had thought the inside games would be lost since there were all the trunks outside, but that didn't happen and we were hopping the whole time. 

My group at work had a service project this past week: hanging siding for Habitat for Humanity. We'd been contacted about clearing furniture and appliances out of a house that was going to be demolished so they could be hauled to the re-store, but instead they needed to get some siding finished at a house in Claypool so we were contacted about that instead. None of us had ever hung siding before, so we all learned something new. And who was afraid of heights. We had a short instruction course on how to do it (surprisingly not that hard), then nailed up the soffets and finished the siding on two sides of the house. We did about half a wall's worth on the front and back side of the house. Cool way the spend an afternoon. We did wonder how long it would have taken someone who knew what they were doing though, probably a fraction of the time it took us. But, they log volunteer hours, so we helped out with that.

Remember me talking about the service project our life group did for the lady at church? Well... I and all the guys that did yard work for her developed horrible poison ivy this past week. I have it on my right forearm going down to my wrist. Drew has it all over his arms and chest. Derek has it on his arms and neck. It's nasty. Blistery and painful. So far it's the worst poison ivy I've ever had.

I killed a mole this week! It's been a few years since I caught two moles in the backyard, and they haven't been back to my knowledge, until lately. Tunnels have been popping up in the front yard, so the scissors-style trap came out again. It took around a week, and trying in a couple different spots, but once I zeroed in on where the beast was I got it in a couple days. It was nearly broken in half, poor thing. Too bad for him. Shouldn't have gone digging in my yard.

Our life group did a service project yesterday for an elderly widow who lives next door to one of the couples. Judging from Google street view, she used to have a very nicely landscaped house, but these days she can't take care of it so her whole yard was pretty overgrown. There was a big garden area behind her garage that was so far gone we just hacked and mowed everything down. Her evergreen trees were all over and had a lot of other plants growing through them, so we cut off all the lower branches and dug out all the other weedy stuff. She also had on overgrown trellis with a lot of vines that was out of control and rotten so we took down the trellis and dug up the vines. We felled a few other trees and raked leaves. Overall a hard days work, we were planning on 3 hours but it was more like 6 that we were there. Pizza afterwards. 

Last Thursday Beth and I went to see Josh Gates speaking in Indianapolis. Missy would have liked to go too but school night. I took off from work a bit early so we could drive down there, and we got there in plenty of time. The event was held at Clowes Hall at Butler University, which started looking familiar when we got there and I recalled that it was where I saw the Mighty Lemon Drops back in 1990. Anyway, Josh talked about his times on Expedition Unknown and Destination Truth, how he came to be a travel show host, about how Covid had impacted travel shows and how Josh Gates Tonight came to be during the pandemic, stories about doing shows with William Shatner and Christopher Lloyd, and stories about the various travels he's done for the shows. Then a big Q&A session, during which most people wanted to talk about "The Secret" but it seems he's not planning another show about it. Then someone gifted him an original manuscript from the book, so we'll see. That was a really fun time even though we got home really late.

Soup season is in full swing now. Beth has a show in 2 weeks and is racing to get everything done. It's not easy with bad knees, bad back, and cracked ribs. Anyway, it seems the big thing for shortages this year is instant potatoes. We just can hardly find any of those. And potato soup sells really well. Hope we can find some.

Soup season appears to be in full swing. Beth and I got all the stuff out of storage downstairs, did something of an inventory, and began buying supplies. Jars seem a bit easier to find now but there is a wide variety of pricing. At Meijer, they are $18.99 a dozen. At Menards, $12.99 a dozen, if they have any. So we're getting them at Menards if we can. So far we've done all right. I even finally got a spreadsheet together to figure out our profit margin on each type of soup so I have an idea of how much we spend to make soup money. First show is in just a few weeks...

For the first time in a long long time, Beth and I saw a movie in theaters twice. Missy wanted to see "A Haunting in Venice" so Monday evening we took her out to see it. She really liked it. So did Beth and I, enough to see it again with her. I hope Sir Kenneth keeps making the Poirot movies, I've really liked them. We took Missy back to school Tuesday evening. Beth and I both had bible study so we took her back after we were done, which meant we got back home after midnight. Poor girl didn't want to go back to the drama and all the crap she's been going through, but no choice. 

The annual donut dash 5k was Saturday. I almost didn't go run because a) it was kind of rainy and b) my knees and hips have been so sore lately. I saw the chiropractor last week and he adjusted my hips and it feels better, but he said my pelvis was a bit rotated. Like, backwards or something? But anyway, I did go run, and had a fair to middling time of about 27:30. Not great, but I've been sore. But, I did win my age group, because the older I get the easier it is to win my age group. And I ran the course twice so I got 6 miles in and lapped a few people on the way.

Beth saw the doctor on Wednesday because after the fall she took in Michigan last weekend she's not getting any better, and actually feeling worse. Turns out, she has cracked ribs. Plural. And nothing to be done about it except take tylenol or motrin, and put up with this level of pain for a few weeks. 

Ric's annual chili cookoff was this weekend! And we have quite a story. It is also Missy's fall break weekend, so she has school off until Wednesday. Friday, Beth went to go get her and bring her home, and we found that she had bleached her hair, sort of. She and a friend tried to color it blonde but they didn't know how much colorant they needed, so they only had one bottle and ran out way too soon. So, about half of Missy's hair was blonde on one side, and the rest was unchanged. Saturday morning, Missy and Beth went out to find a hair salon to get the rest of her hair done. So she is totally blonde now. Later on Saturday, we headed up to Michigan for the chili cookoff. Beth made a crock pot full of the chili she was sure was going to win: a jalapeno popper chili. With jalapeno slices and cream cheese and everything. It smelled great, and she was kind of playing the audience, so she was optimistic about her chances. We got to Ric's around 6:30ish, by which time the crock pot had been unplugged for a few hours, which is a good thing as you'll see. Carrying the pot out to the deck, Beth tripped on a stone lining a flower garden next to the house and fell flat, and the chili went everywhere. They had to hose some off the side of the house and off the deck. There was a big pile that the many dogs there seemed to be enjoying. Beth bashed her side into the stones, smacked her shin, landed on both hands hard, dented up the crock pot, and got the chili all over her new blouse. So she spent the rest of the evening sitting down and did not win the cook off, although she was awarded a special honorable mention ribbon by nomination of Sam. We stayed longer than we should've, probably, but left around 10. Stopped at Judy's briefly because she said she had something for me... which turned out to be a Michigan State sweatshirt that she found at a thrift store. It didn't fit me, but it fit Missy perfectly, so it's hers now. The rest of the weekend was not really full of activity because Beth was so sore she could hardly move. 

I finally got Natalie moved out of her now-ex-boyfriend's house. She's been in FW for a month or so but he still had some clothes and things of hers. She asked a couple weeks ago if I could get her clothes back so I've asked him a few times, and he finally put everything all together for me to pick up. There was more than I expected. I was wondering when I was going to get a chance to bring it to her when she solved that problem for me by showing up at the house unexpectedly. She was hoping to get some of her warmer clothes out of the closet here, so I was able to get all of her stuff to her then. Her friend was driving them in a Mustang so things were pretty crammed in, but they got everything they needed and got the doors closed. She also said they were moving out of their place and she and her friend & friend's fiance are moving to Ohio. So I hope things continue to work out. Maybe she'll be able to get all the rest of her stuff out of here. 

 The annual Wiessner/Pinkster/Knight/etc campout was back on this year after the hiatus of last year! The camping crew is quite a bit reduced, though. I took Friday off work and was going to leave early Thursday so Beth and I could get to the campground (Michawana again!) at such a time that we wouldn't be setting up the camper in the dark, but it didn't quite work out that way. I was busy at work so it was around 4 o'clock before we finally headed out, then we had so many last minute things that we just couldn't seem to get moving. And once we did, the truck was having problems. It was the first time we've tried towing with the "new" truck, and all the way up north it was jerking and stuttering. I tried controlling it by taking it easy on the gas and using a manual shift, but it was just driving awful. Enough so that I stopped at Napa on the way out of town to ask if anyone there had any ideas as to what it was doing, and they suggested I stop at Montieth and ask there. At Montieth, they had a few suggestions as to what it could be, but it was late in the day and they didn't have anyone there to do anything with it. So when we left there, I sat in the drive for a bit going 'crap crap crap crap crap....' and wondering what we should do. Not really feeling great about driving (with a camper) all the way up north and not knowing what the truck was going to do halfway there....but in the end I decided to see if I could get it to drive ok shifting manually. It did all right, not great, but more or less under control all the way up there, although I was still despairing a little bit. We made it to the campground around 7:30 so it was getting dark, and we set up in the dark again anyway. But not a problem. We had us, Marve & Beth, Ric & Nickie & Lauren, John & Steph & Trevor, and some friends of the Pinksters, so small group this year. And nobody stayed up as late as we usually have on this campout, even though the weather was really nice for camping. Not too cold, not too wet. We did really just a lot of hanging out at the camp Friday, except a town run for coffee and a few groceries, and even had a surprise when Judy & Neill showed up with their camper, since they were supposed to have been departing for a European river cruise that day. Turns out they volunteered to get bumped from the cruise which got them their trip moved to next summer, a cabin upgrade, and it was totally comped. Completely free for them now. So they could camp with the family this weekend instead! In other news, Ric and Marve and I looked over the truck for what might be causing the jerking, and we found that the (brand new) trailer hitch assembly was a bit loose: the ball was not completely tightened down onto the receiver. There were a few wrenches in the camp so we improvised a rig to tighten things down, and hoped that the loose ball was the reason for the jerking. Saturday Ric and I went on a bike ride (a much hiller one than I am used to!) and we did a lot of hanging out at camp. On Sunday, we packed things up. Due to family drama there was not going to be a big group lunch at Walldorf's but Beth and I went to lunch with Ric & Nickie at a restaurant in Otsego on the way out, and also hit Plainwell ice cream. Rolling out, it seemed to be confirmed that the loose ball was the cause of the jerking and stuttering, because it didn't do it even a little bit all the way home. We got home around dinnertime. 

Beth and I went out on a double date of sorts with another empty nest couple from church on Friday. We went to see the new Kenneth Branagh Poirot movie "A Haunting in Venice" which we all really liked. The other guy we went with is really jumpy and there a a couple of jump scares in the movie, hee hee...before the movie, we went to dinner at Ledgeview BBQ which they had never been to before. 

The Wednesday evening bike ride was really good this week. An older gentleman who often rides on Wednesday and Saturday had a heart attack a couple months ago, and he's been doing better enough that he joined the ride again this week. He said he's never felt better. We put in nearly 30 miles. And he did another ride on Saturday morning.

Beth finally got her new crown on Friday this week. It's been a couple weeks since she broke one of hers and she's had the temporary one for a while, so she'll be glad to finally eat popcorn again.

Beth got a text from Missy on Saturday, saying in effect "so I forgot that this was parents' weekend..." We were at the time just tooling around town, running some errands, having just gone to the Winona Lake farmers' market for the first time ever.... so we texted her back and said "we'll be there in 2 hours" and we left. There wasn't really anything that Missy wanted to do around campus or town, but we took her out shopping at art mart and Wal-mart and got coffee and listened to her. Things with her roommate have not been going well this year. I can sympathize, I had a horrible roommate at college.

Beth and I ran out to Natalie's new place again this weekend, because she and everyone else in the house has been sick with covid and they are about out of food. She asked if Beth would make her some soup. Beth made her like 6 jars of various soup, and we ran to FW to drop it off. It was the first time Beth has seen Natalie in a long time. It seemed to go all right, they even hugged even though Nat was possibly sick. 

Kyla texted Beth and me Thursday afternoon, asking if we were interested in going out to see "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3" with them and the Rogers'. Well sure we were! We went to a Friday evening show, and the movie was ... ok. Not great, kinda thrown together, forgettable, but cute and harmless. We had a good time going out to a movie with friends and for some dinner afterwards.

I took down the pool this week. We've hardly gotten any use out of it for the past few weeks because late summer this year has been what I would call unseasonably cool. The pool water was freezing. However it has also been very dry lately so I didn't have much of a problem getting it drained and flipped over onto all of our patio furniture and resting upside down to dry. It was harder to get it put into the garage before the rain was supposed to come (which never did); I had to bundle it with cargo straps and hoist it onto the truck bed cover and drive it to the garage. Then just hump it onto the camper. Usually, I've had a couple of kids to help me get it put away...

 Labor day weekend was this weekend, and we had no specific plans for the long weekend so on Friday Beth went down to Ball State to get Missy. Missy has been having roommate difficulties so far this year, and they're bad ones, so she's been pretty upset lately, so getting away was a good idea. Besides, I think everyone was supposed to leave anyway. We still didn't have any specific plans, so mostly we just stayed around home. We did take her shopping around town a few places, including PetSmart so she could check up on the kittens. On Sunday we also took her to the movies to see "Barbie" which we all enjoyed a lot, me more than I thought I would. We took her back to school today, she didn't really want to go back but didn't want to not go back either. I get it, I had roommate problems in college too. 

Saturday at lunchtime, we were at Mad Anthony's and Beth felt something break in her mouth, and suddenly there was a sharp edge on one of her molars. She apparently broke a tooth, kind of out of the blue. Of course it was early on in a long weekend so several days before she could see a dentist, but she did get a hold of a call service who called back and forth with a dentist and told her what to do. Which wasn't much. She's supposed to come in to have it checked out early this week. 

I had to run out to Natalie's new place this week, because she was out of heart meds and they came to the house. She seems to be doing all right. I hope so. Anyway, the meds came on the day she ran out of the last of it, so I ran out there to deliver them as soon as I got them. And then Adrian dropped off a few things of hers just after I got back, so I sent those in the mail. I figured with gas prices these days, it was cheaper than driving out there again. 

I am back home, and Alex is back at school. The move was pretty easy this time, and I could have gone home sooner but I needed a cheap flight so I cam home Monday. Alex and I left on Friday for an early evening flight from Indy. We left in plenty of time, which means that getting there, checking in, and passing through security is a breeze, of course. We had plenty of time to kill and to get something to eat at the airport, and then the flight was even delayed a half hour. Scott came and picked us up at Sea-Tac and we got dinner, and by that time it was pretty late by Eastern time so Alex and I just went to bed (crashing at Scott's apartment). Scott had to work Saturday so he left early, and Alex and I headed out to do some shopping at Target and get him checked in to the apartment around noon. It is a nice apartment, like a townhouse with the bedrooms upstairs. He shares the place with 4 other guys. It has a small deck, fireplace, fair kitchen, entrance on the main level and the upstairs, and close to campus (between the apartments he had the last 2 years). We made 3 or 4 trips back and forth to the storage unit and got him all moved in and set up by around 4:30 or so, then got dinner at Zaucer's. I headed to Scott's, then worked on getting the backup camera installed in Alex's car (very frustrating). Sunday, Alex and I got breakfast (Scott was working early again) and then looked around for something to do, not finding much open yet... in the end I got his bike out of storage and went for a bike ride around Redmond while he went back to the apartment and did computer stuff. Later on we went to the city center to browse and to dinner at a cool burger place called Tipsy Cow. After dinner Alex dropped me off at Scott's since he was taking me to the airport early in the morning, and I crashed pretty hard... Scott said when he got home Sunday night he found me sound asleep on the bed, fully clothed, lights on, glasses and Kindle next to me, and he just left me to sleep. I woke up early enough to wake up Scott to get me to Sea-Tac on time, fortuitously since neither one of us had remembered to set and alarm. Again I sailed through check-in and security and had time to kill. And the flight (on Southwest, paid for using the voucher they gave us for losing our luggage) had stops in Oakland and Las Vegas, kinda like the Raiders. Back to Indy by around 8:30 and home by around midnight. Alex started classes today.

Last Tuesday, Beth and I went to the CCAC to watch the game for the other FCC softball team. We saw them win relatively easily, which meant they keep playing. We couldn't stay for the subsequent games, but I found out later they won 4 games in a row that night and therefore won the tournament! Cool, they thrashed us last week....

I had to run over to Natalie's new place today. She has moved out of her now ex-boyfriend's house where she has been living for the past year or so. Apparently, she got tired of the cheating and left him, and is now living with friends in Fort Wayne. She had a doctor's appointment in Warsaw though and asked if I could get her and bring her to it. I did so. I figured she really needed it because she does need meds and I do want her to be all right. Luckily the doctor she sees also has an office in FW so she can go there from now on. 

The softball season came to an ignominious end on Tuesday. The other FCC team, as we were hoping, lost their first game of the day so they immediately turned around to play us. However, the metaphoric wheels came off. We were tied 1-1 after the first inning but then started dropping fly balls (it had been cloudy all day, and one of the outfielders didn’t bring sunglasses, so of course it cleared up completely as the game was starting) and they hit it harder and farther than they had all year. By the end of the 3rd inning we were trailing 24-1 and the game was ended. We only batted around once. They just destroyed us. 

Missy is back at school. We took her back to Muncie to move into the dorm on Thursday. I took the day off, and we drove both (loaded) vehicles down to Muncie just around lunchtime. Our old friend Mikey who lives in Columbus drove up to meet us for lunch (we went to Cammack Station) so we got to see and visit with him for the first time in years! The kids didn’t have any memory of seeing him last time, which was 2008, when they were 4 and 5. We had a good lunch catching up, then Beth and the kids hit Wal-Mart while we stayed and talked some more. When they were done, we all headed to the dorm and started unloading, and Mikey headed back to Columbus. Then we did the unloading and loading and unloading to get everything to the room and get it set up; I think by evening she was ready for us to get going. Beth didn’t even cry this time. Missy’s classes start Monday, I think this weekend is all just moving in stuff. 

On Friday a guy from TruGreen was in the back yard aerating the lawn (although I don’t think we have the back yard in the plan) and apparently ran over a nest of yellowjackets. I was at work but Beth texted me about it, and said that the guy was covered in stings. On his face, ear, shoulders, and several times on one arm. I guess the aerator came too close for them. He just left the equipment and ran, and someone else came and got it later. Beth asked if he needed to go to the ER or anything, and he just said no, it’s just part of the job.

Helped the Burson's move on Saturday. They are moving into a much larger place than their tiny condo. Bob was there helping as well, and he brought a clever and handy strap rig that two people use with harnesses and a wide strap that connects to each - which transfers load to your shoulders and allows 2 people to fairly easily carry heavy stuff. We used it to move dressers, a couch, antique hutch, a buffet... it worked so well and it was the first time he had ever used it. It was kind of amazing what we could lift easily with it.

I rented a pressure washer from Menard’s this weekend, and unlike last time, this time was a very disappointing experience. As with the last time, the first one I brought home simply did not work, and I had to return it right away since I was burning daylight. The second one I brought home did work, as well as it does, I guess. Maybe the last time, they were renting out more powerful units, but this one didn’t have the same kind of pressure as last time. It had barely enough pressure to take dirt off the concrete in the patio, and then not easily or quickly. I did clean the wastebaskets around the house and the cat litter boxes, which was really the driving force behind me renting the thing this time, but it was disappointing that I couldn’t clean the patio. 

Today was the kickoff for the new men’s ministry at church. It’s still in the planning and setup stages, I think, and we’re still figuring out exactly what it’s going to be. But there seems to be big interest in it, as evidenced by the fact that it was probably the #1 thing identified as lacking in the vision meeting a couple months ago. Anyway, it was at the Haughee’s farm, and was attended by at least a hundred men, I think. Probably more. There was a cookout first, grilled hot dogs and associated items, then we went to the clearing in the woods where the bonfire was and there was an introductory message about what this was and what we want to do with it. Then the kickoff activity, which was to divide into teams of 5-7, go back to the field, get a pallet, crowbar, and hammers, disassemble the pallet and reassemble it into a stretcher-like device, and use it to carry one of the team members from the field to the clearing. First one back wins. Well, not to brag but my team got the pallet turned into a stretcher in mere minutes and had our guy carried back before there was a second place team even attempting a lift. It was several minutes before second place showed up. Then, there was a worship service and a message, followed by some more fellowship time. Overall a good time and I’m hopeful for a good ministry. Only downside was there were sweat bees everywhere.

The softball team got dropped into the loser’s bracket this week. The tournament started and right away we basically got nothing going against Fellowship Baptist. We didn’t play bad, just not really good either, and lost 15-8. Since we lost, we played again right away, and we picked things back up again for the 2^nd game. We played First Baptist and beat them 8-7, so we are alive to play some more next week.

I wrote checks (electronically) for both kids to go to school this semester. It was on Judy this time, she’s been helping a lot with the money. Between the two, the bills for tuition and housing came to over $33,000.

Beth and Missy picked up Missy’s framed puzzle on Friday in FW. The puzzle is amazing looking. Unfortunately Beth left her wallet at the Hobby Lobby so she had to go trek back there to get it the next day.

I finally got the "new" truck back from the shop on Monday. Everything is fixed and working, and it does run smoother (I noticed a slight scraping noise that was always there somewhere in the front is now gone. I'd thought maybe it was just truck noise because it was always there.) So I hope that this is the last repair work that needs done for a while because it cost $2100, even with a family pricing that they were nice enough to give me. But it seems ok for now, fingers crossed.

Softball had the last game of the regular season Tuesday, against the first place and undefeated team (Shepherd of the Lakes) which is loaded with young players of actual ball. This was to make up a rainout game a few weeks ago. It may sound weird to say, but I thought we played really well against them and held our own...weird to say because we lost 20-8, but we did play well. They just crushed the ball pretty much all the time. Tournament next week, which is our regular season...

I finally had a good day to ride with the Wednesday evening group B at Trailhouse, and made it on time. Rode with 3 others that I don't think I'd ever met before. We went out for about 28 miles, a good ride out towards the west and back.

The "un-garage sale" that Beth's work place puts on every year was this weekend. They've been working pretty hard to get it set up. It's gotten big enough that they had to stop taking donations a few weeks ago, and it was being set up in the gym at Presby instead of wherever they did it before. The deal is, everything is free. Racks and racks of donated clothes, toys, games, housewares, everything that goes into a garage sale, is donated from the community and it's all given away for free. Beth and I worked the sale, the first few hours checking kids into and out of the free child care area, and also cleaning up afterwards. The whole place was packed, and over 800 people did shopping there. It seems you have to get there early to get the best stuff, though...and several people asked me incredulously, this is all free? Everything? Even this? And this? All free? And yes, yes it is. It seems you have to get there early, though, because the good stuff went fast. Obviously. There was still a lot of stuff at the end, though, and I helped pack it all up and haul it away to Goodwill at the end of the day, which was still a big job. Amazing.

Tuesday, the softball team played a doubleheader. For the first time in a long long time, we played a game on one of the smaller fields. That was the first game, a makeup for the game a couple weeks ago when we didn't have enough players to field a team. The other team let us make it up, so we played an extra game. We played well, and won a close one 8-7. In the second game, we played one of the top teams in the league. They have a lot of young players that hit really hard. So, they were crushing it all night and I was afraid we were going to get mercied and shut out again, but we actually held our own and stayed fairly close, eventually losing 17-12. Most notably for me, I hit a hard single over the head of the left fielder (he was playing me really close) and decided to go for second, believing that with the big turn he had to make after chasing down the ball, I could beat a throw or at least beat a tag on a ball coming from the opposite side of the bag. It would have been close but I think I would have been safe, but anyway the throw got past the 2nd baseman and I did not slow down making the turn because I knew there was nobody close to the ball to get it and make a long throw the third. And there was no throw...so I will count that as a triple. I think that may be my first triple ever.

I went mountain biking again this week. It was fun going last week so on Sunday when I had nothing else to do in the evening I went again by myself. The trails were a bit muddy but not that bad. I rode from and to home so that added a couple miles. 

We finally took a puzzle that Missy completed earlier this year to Hobby Lobby to get it framed. It's been sitting on her floor for a long time now, and we really needed to get it up. Sometime last spring we found some puzzle glue somewhere so we used that to glue it together, it seemed to work pretty well. We told Missy we would get that done for her birthday so I'm glad we finally are.

The "new" truck went in to the shop at Ab & Tom's this week. Basically because it has been making a horrible squeaking sound when I turn left from a stop, but which goes away after a few miles. Plus the AC does not work very well. Anyway, the truck went into the shop on Wednesday, and by Friday it was almost done but I let them keep it until Monday so it could be done and tested out without being rushed. The squeaking may have been from the rear brakes (since they were worn away to almost nothing) or the front wheels (because the emergency brake assembly on both front wheels was trashed: one was sticking and one was completely frozen, and neither worked at all). In their words, "this is a big deal." Unfortunately. So, we will be without the truck for a few more days and play a big bill for it, it seems. 

 Softball had something of a comeback this week! Playing the baptists, at first I didn't think we were going to have enough players, again, but apparently several guys weren't having their texts go through to the group chat so some were playing but I hadn't heard from them. We did have to borrow a pitcher from the other FCC team but otherwise we were fine. This after I asked the other team to send players and I got 5 offers to come play for us... they came early, but weren't needed as it turned out. But we did well, ended up beating them 14-7. It was a close game until the late inning s when we pulled away. 

Wednesday I was all set to join the KCV ride at 6:30 but failed to remember that the rides are at 6. So I missed the group ride but did my own ride around the Winona trails and Grace College campus. Kinda bummed that I missed the group ride, those are more fun than riding alone.

File this under the 'who needs this' department: in the last few days the pump for the pool filter has been making a grinding noise. The motor is going. Not sure exactly what's happening with it, but I had to go to the pool supply store and buy a new pump/filter assembly for $500. 

Kinda cool thing happened this week. A couple weeks ago the fam came back from vacation in New Mexico, and I left my Kindle on the plane in Indy. I didn't notice it until we were well away, but I reported it to lost & found when I came back to get the baggage the next day, and I submitted the lost item report on the website. I'd gotten a couple messages since then saying that they didn't have it and didn't find it anywhere, so I was expecting that it was gone forever. Well, I got a message from the airline last week saying that they had found it and asking for shipping information. I got it back on Friday. Which, however, was several days after I bought a new one on Prime Day. So good news/bad news, I guess. Total surprise that they found it.

Speaking of riding, Trey extended an open invitation to the group to go ride the mountain bike trails with him at lunchtime on Friday. Apparently there are "sorta" group rides twice a week, basically not group rides but people go show up the same times twice a week and ride. Friday he was going with his oldest son, and I took him up on the offer. He loaned me one of his mountain bikes, and we rode the entire length and breadth of the trails over an hour or so. I forget how much fun mountain biking on the trails is, I need to do that more often. 

Saturday I was riding again with the 2MA group. However this must have been a busy week for people, because only 4 people showed up for the Saturday morning ride, all A group riders. I was going to beg off and let them go without me, but they all protested and insisted I come with them. They were definitely slowing down for me, but I rode with them as far as Patona Bay before peeling off and heading back. It was a good ride. I wonder how much I am limited by my equipment as far as riding goes, with a steel bike from the 80s that wasn't high-end even then. But anyway. I came back via Leesburg; I should have waited around by the depot because the rest of the group came back that way around half an hour later. I had about 26 miles at the end, they had around 40. 

In the evening on Saturday, the kids wanted to go to the mall in FW so we went. Had dinner, they walked around the mall a while, and we went home. Sunday there was a work party for the place where Beth works, which was mostly a get-together at the boss' lake house on Winona Lake. Nice place. Nice people. They had pulled pork BBQ and some frisbee games, and the kids went out with a couple of the grownups to go tubing or just boating. 

 The week after vacation is never a good time. Two events this week in particular fit that bill... on Tuesday, softball returned after a smoke-out and July 4. Unfortunately, there was also the fair this week and camp and other summer things, so we only had 5 players show up for the game. When it became apparent we weren't going to make it to a legal team, the other team agreed to play and loaned us a couple players, we also were able to "recruit" a couple more who were at the park but not actively playing at the time, so we played a game with 9 against 9. And, sort of chutzpah I think, we won. However, it was reported as just a scrimmage and not a real game, but they agreed to make up the game later on in the season. Which they didn't have to do, so that was nice.

On Friday, my group at work had another get-together for lunch and boating. After the morning, the group met up at a colleague's house on Barbee Lake and took their boat to Lakelife Restaurant for lunch. After lunch we just boated around the chain of lakes that is Barbee for a while until it was time to head home. It's amazing how much Barbee has grown/improved since Beth and I moved into the area. It used to be a pretty shabby dump but now it's quite big and new.

In the evening, the whole family went up to South Bend for my Father's Day / birthday present. Beth adn the kids had gotten me (and them) tickets to see a comedy show at the Morris Center. It was sponsored by Pulse FM and was a "clean comedy" event, with 3 comedians in the entire show. Two of them were really good, including the opener who made some jokes about "Flippin Arkansas" which Beth and I thought were very funny. The middle comedian was not good. He was just kind of an angry ranter and made silly faces and yelled. Un-funny, really. The headliner, a guy called Michael Junior, was really good and funny and had a great witness. So, 2 outa 3 comedians were good.'

The weekend was pretty chill, the kids worked some, I did quite a bit of yard work. Not a lot else. But that was cut short Sunday afternoon when I was mowing the grass in the backyard and went over a nest of yellowjackets. I got stung on the ankle first, which I thought at first might have been a thorn or a stick in my shoe, but I knew what it was when the second sting on my calf and the third behind my knee came within moments, which sent me running for the house. Then a few seconds later came the 4th sting, on my left butt cheek. It must have been just like the cartoons, with the wasps forming up into an arrow shape as they chased me and making an electric buzzing sound as the arrow hit my rear end as I ran. So I stripped and got in the shower right away, and the welts started coming up. By evening the swelling was going down a bit so maybe it won't be so bad. They do itch a lot though.

Land of Enchantment!

Yesterday we got back from a family vacation to New Mexico! The biggest reason we went there was because it was Mom's favorite place (or at least, on the short list) and we wanted to scatter her ashes there. Like we did with Dad at the Grand Canyon a few years ago. We left Warsaw a week ago Friday, headed to Indy for a Park-Sleep-Fly deal and stayed overnight in a motel near the airport where we could leave the van. I realized too late I forgot my hat and sunglasses. We had a late morning flight and connection in Dallas on the way to Albuquerque, which meant that we didn't have time to get lunch so the bag of snack mix had to do until we got there. We got lunch and the rental car (Hyundai Santa Fe - nice) and headed to the AirBnB that Thomas found. It was a modern cabin located inside Santa Fe National Forest, accessible only by a few miles of bumpy dirt road. But what a place! Right by a stream, with a hot tub, deck, 3 BR, secondary cabin with bedroom and bathroom (Alex took that), fully stocked kitchen, everything. What an amazing place. Sunday Alex and I went on a bike tour of the town of Santa Fe with Lauran and Thomas, while Beth and Missy hit the shopping downtown. The bike tour was a lot of fun, although we hit too many art galleries. I didn't really want to stop and look around most of them. Except maybe the wind sculpture ones. Anyway, afterwards we all hit the Railyard district to relax a bit, got some green chili cheeseburgers, and then Alex and I went to a big.... I don't know what to call it.... art installation? Weird escape room? called Meow Wolf, which Alex was super excited about ever since he found out about it. Apparently all his online friends know about Meow Wolf and are super jealous that he got to go. It's sort of an artsy setup of ~70 rooms built into an old bowling alley building, with each one by a different artist and with a different out there theme, but with maybe a third of the rooms built as a mock-up of a family house and connecting in with some overarching story about weird experiments and crossing dimensions. Cool, but more Alex's thing. We grilled dinner back at the cabin. Monday, we all headed about an hour up the road into the desert to New Mexico Whitewater Adventures to go rafting. At first we thought it was a full half day trip, but by the time it was over we'd only been in the river for around 2 hours, maybe. But it was a great 2 hours. We rafted the Rio Grande, through maybe 6 or 8 good rapids, and floated/paddled the rest. What a fun time. In the evening we went to a restaurant that Mom had really liked called Tomacita's, which we thought was ok. Tuesday was a chill day, mostly, we relaxed at the house, did a bit of hiking in the forest, and in the afternoon we scattered Mom's ashes in the national forest, by a flowering cactus and a desert juniper tree. In the evening we all went into Santa Fe to catch the new Indiana Jones movie, which we all really liked. Wednesday we hit the road, on the way to Carlsbad. The drive from Santa Fe to Carlsbad is full of nothing at all. Empty land. Desolate. Nowhere to stop for a bathroom break.... we stopped in Roswell to see the UFO museum and get lunch, but it was kinda disappointing. A lot of reading to do in the museum there, not much really interesting. And the visitor's center was closed. We got a few pictures in front of a UFO mural and that was about it... and drove the rest of the way to Carlsbad another couple hours away. Once we checked in (to a very janky hotel room...with a very non-level floor so all the drawers and doors wouldn't stay shut) we went to the National Park for the evening bat flight program. There is a stone amphitheater at the cave entrance, and every evening at dusk somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 bats fly out of the cave for the night. Not all in one huge group, but a constant stream of bats that is really cool. Thursday was cave day: we all did the cave tour. Missy and I walked down the natural entrance with Thomas and Laura, Beth and Alex took the elevator. But walking took longer than we thought it would so I was pretty sure that Beth and Alex must have already been and gone by the time we got there. We went on for a while, then Missy needed a restroom (which they have down there) and as we walked back to the central area, there were Beth and Alex! They had been waiting for us to show up for a while. Good thing Missy and I showed up when we did because they were about to go on without us. And Missy had been ready to exit. But I'm glad we found each other because the rest of the cavern was incredible! Like Mammoth Cave x10. We walked the whole length and breadth of the big room, over a mile, before coming back out. Amazing. Then we hit the road back to Albuquerque and overnighted at a casino resort. We had thought we were staying at the same one Laura and Thomas did but were mistaken, so we said goodbyes over the phone since they had an early flight Friday. Our flight was early afternoon, so we had time to hit the restaurant from "Breaking Bad" which is Los Pollos Hermanos in the show, but Twister's in real life. The kids thought that was cool. The food was ok. I forgot to gas up the car before pulling into the rental return so we had to go back out again but we still made it with plenty of time. The layover in Kansas City got longer and longer as the layover progressed, so ultimately we were there for around 5 hours. By the time we got back to Indy it was 12:30 am Saturday, and YAY our checked bags were not on the plane with us. Apparently they never got off the plane in KC and went on to St. Louis. At least it wasn't too far....it was 2:00 before we had things taken care of at the airport, the hotel shuttle stopped at 11:30 so we called an Uber to get us to the hotel and just got a room there again for the night. They had our bags at IND by 10 in the morning, so we picked them up and headed home. Oh yeah, I also left my Kindle on the plane and have no hope of ever getting it back.

Busy week...I had a business trip this week starting on Monday. Just after work, another guy and I headed to Chicago to catch a flight to Sioux Falls, and drove to Sioux City. Tuesday morning we started with an initial supplier audit for a new electron beam irradiation company called NextBeam, which interestingly enough occupies a section of the building that Gateway 2000 computers used to have, back in the day. They've been gone a long time, it seems. The audit went on for a couple days and we went back Thursday morning. Also interestingly, the city is right in the corner of the state, so on Tuesday evening we drove from the hotel in South Dakota through Iowa to the restaurant in Nebraska. Took about 10 minutes. Had a really great meal that actually went over the expense limits, oops.... we also found a nice big nature preserve that used to be a homestead back in the day where we went for a 7.4 mile run one evening, just one big loop around the property.

Because the trip was over a Tuesday, I was missing the softball game, which turned out to be ok because the games were all cancelled due to heavy smoke from the Canadian wildfires. It wasn't in SD while we were there but it was awful in Chicago when we got back Thursday. 

Friday was a work group lunch get-together at James' house for smoked meat and Kubb, which is one of those games where you throw wood blocks at other wood blocks that you find at Menard's. It was a good time but I had to cut out a bit early to get ready for the big New Mexico trip tomorrow.

I went bike riding with the 2nd Mile B group again Saturday morning. The B group was smaller than usual, and at first we were trying to keep up with the A group because we were all riding the same direction. The one who was actually the leader of the B group wasn't really leading the group, because by around mile 10 or so, the A group started really leaving the Bs behind. And the B leader was with the As and I don't know if he didn't notice us (2 of us) fading back or decided we'd be fine, or what. Anyway, after a little bit we lost the A group entirely, so we just went our way and headed back home when we were ready to. We ended up looping through Oswego and back, about 28 miles.

Saturday was our final 'dinner for 6' group. The group got together at the Peytons' house and he grilled ribeyes for everyone. We all had a nice visit. John and I talked military service again, but it's always nice to have someone to talk about that with. Beth and I have enjoyed this round of dinners a lot, we'll have to make sure we do it again. 

Today was the annual Father's Day extravaganza at church! Always a great time, but as usual I was overbooked. I had van duty, including a lady that was helping out and needed to be there early, and my riders all wanted to go home at different times. So I had to do a return trip on the van while I was supposed to be in the dunk tank. No problem though, I got my turn later. I missed bingo, though. Beth even won a $10 gift card from the Winona Village merchants. I spent most of Saturday morning at the church helping to set everything up (I seem to now be the expert at setting up the big canopy) and I was also there pretty late in the afternoon today helping tear it all down, too. 

This was also VBS week at church! Beth and I were guides once again for the 4th graders, and we only had one kid that ... shall we say... tried our patience this week. Most everyone was having a fun time but there is always one kid that won't listen, won't do what he's told, won't participate.... but most of the time it went really well. "Keepers of the Kingdom" was the title, and putting on the full armor of God was the theme. Knights and kings and princes and princesses and dragons and swords and armor and such. Good times.

This week had a few disparate things. 

Beth and I were both invited to attend a leadership, uh, retreat? conference? seminar? Not sure what to call it, but a consulting group called Effective Elders (E2) was brought in to do some leading/teaching for the church to develop a 3-year plan for evangelism, discipleship, and leadership. I've been asked to attend elder training coming up soon, and am kinda being treated as an elder already....as evidenced by the fact that I was also asked to be on the leadership ministry committee for this. Not exactly sure what the duties will be, but we're going to start rolling things out over the coming months. Anyway, the seminar was over 2 days, Tuesday evening and Wednesday all day, so I took a personal day Wednesday to attend. It was also Tuesday evening, so I couldn't attend the softball game. We got crushed again, I heard.

Wednesday Alex dropped of Missy at work, and on the way back home he accidentally ran a red light. Basically he didn't notice that it had changed. And a police officer was right there and pulled him over and gave him a ticket. Looks like that's going to be something like a $160 fine. No accident, thank God, and hopefully this will get him to pay attention better. Also I'm glad this happened here and not in Washington.

Friday evening the family went out to see the new movie "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" which the kids both loved so so much, and Beth and I liked all right. It was long but crammed full, and frenetically paced. But the animation was incredible, as expected.

I rode with the 2MA group B on Saturday morning, part of the annual Storm the Fort fundraiser. I chose the 24-mile ride since the next shortest ride was 44 miles and I thought that was a bit much. The pack that was doing longer rides left us behind fairly quickly, and I hung back with a couple of older men. One of whom was Trey's dad. Not as fast as the pack, but a good ride nonetheless. The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet since the kids were both working at least one day. 

Monday was Memorial Day! A free day off work. We had no plans, other than Beth and I wanted to go see the parade in Pierceton. Unfortunately the parade was actually in Leesburg, which we found out when we got to Pierceton about 15 minutes early and found absolutely nothing going on there. Beth mad a phone call and got the real story so we moved on to Leesburg as fast as we could, and only missed some of the keynote speech. The parade was fun, there were the police and fire trucks and a lot of old cars and such, all with people throwing candy at the kids in the crowd. Only lasted half an hour at most, but it was fun.

The softball team accomplished something rare: we got shut out for a second straight week. This time it was 13-0, though, so a little better. Once again we just couldn't hit or run or field. I don't think we got anyone past second base, and only a couple that far. 

James and I went out to visit Restoration Medical Polymers in Columbia City on Wednesday, it seems we're going to be doing some business with them fairly soon.

There were a couple graduation parties to go to this weekend, in particular Kathryn Monsma and Derek Guthrie from church/softball.

Softball on Tuesday did not go well. We could not get anything going at all, and the team we were playing had several hard hitters. They ran away from us early, and we got mercied for the first time this year. We couldn't hit, couldn't field (self included), and couldn't stop them. We lost 15-0 in a game stopped after the 4th inning. 

There was a meeting at church Wednesday for people who are volunteering to work VBS. Turns out Beth and I will have 4th grade again this year, which is good because that's what we were hoping for and Beth had thought she heard we had the preschoolers, and she was dreading it. It's "The Keepers of the Castle" this year, medieval theme it seems. Should be fun.

Missy has a new job! She's going to be working at Petsmart this summer and get as many hours as she can. Maybe not her dream job, but probably the best of all possible summer jobs she could land. Looks like she'll be cashiering, so she'll need some good shoes...

Stryper!

Tuesday, instead of playing in the church softball games, I went to Wabash with several friends from church to see Stryper in concert. I myself have never been a fan, mostly I would say that I have been aware for a long time that there is a band called Stryper that plays Christian heavy metal, but I was never particularly interested in it. In fact, Matthew asked me how much I knew about their music walking up to the venue I could tell him 'nothing,' and I heard everything I've ever heard of Stryper in that concert. But months ago when Matthew asked me if I'd like to go to a Stryper concert with him and some other friends, it sounded like fun and I didn't know it would be on a Tuesday. I probably would have declined and played softball instead. I didn't understand a single thing they were singing, and most of the songs all sounded the same. But anyway, we did have a lot of fun at the concert and it was fun seeing the pastor rock out. It was a good time but I don't think it's turned me into a Stryper fan.

The new worship minister for our church finally got his stuff moved this weekend. Saturday was his moving day, and it must have been quite a day for him because he was originally supposed to arrive in town with the moving trucks at 3, but it kept getting later and later in the day until by around 2, it became more like 6:00 before they were going to make it to town. Beth and I had our dinner for 6 Saturday, which was at 6:00 as well, so it looked like we were not going to make it to help them get moved at all. I heard there were several people who had to cancel because it got so late. Anyway, since I couldn't help there, I texted Matthew and he texted back that there was another move going on right then where they could use some help. A woman in our church getting married was moving from an apartment into a new house, and they only had 4 people and one small pickup truck. So I headed over there with our brand new 2013 F150 that isn't even titled yet, and we loaded up and headed out. It only took a couple trips, with all the small stuff crammed into the cars and the bigger stuff in the trucks, and we had her all moved by 5:30 or so. I even had time to shower before the dinner for 6.

Speaking of which, we had a very nice time. Our hostess for this month's dinner was one of the older ladies from the church, one whom I had not met before our group was put together. She hosted at her house just north of town, and I think she was very excited to be doing so. She made a roasted pork tenderloin and several desserts, and we all had a very nice evening together. One of the group is an older man who was in the marines for many years so we swapped sea stories for most of the table conversation. A nice dinner, and Beth and I are enjoying this group even more than we expected.

This weekend was the fat & skinny tire festival in Winona Lake, but I didn't do the community ride because it was rainy. Bummer, maybe next year.

The softball team suffered our first defeat on Tuesday this week, likely not our last. We were pretty well matched with them but basically they have more hitters than we do and they pulled away at the end. We lost 15-11. Next week we have a doubleheader to make up the rainout game, but I'm going to miss it...

Saturday morning was another group bike ride, we went to Larwill and back again, but this time by a slightly different route back. Smaller group this time, 6 of us altogether. One guy got a flat on the road, which makes me think I really ought to put together some sort of pack with emergency stuff like that to carry on those long rides. If I'd got a flat, I'd've been hosed. Anyway we did a good 25 miles or so, despite the fact that it was raining (well, sprinkling to a light drizzle) for most of the trip. I really only noticed it when we stopped. 

The whole family went out to Nappanee Saturday, since Beth thought it would be nice to hit some antique/curiosity/junk shops. We went to one we've been to before but it didn't seem to have much that anyone could find that was interesting this time. We were on the way to another when Missy spotted the Oliver family entering one of the shops just across the street from where we were. We went over there and visited with them for a while. Turns out, Dave has a side hustle where he finds older furniture pieces at estate sales, refubishes them, and resells them to this furniture consignment shop in Nappanee. He built a really cool end table out of a slab of wood and metal base, pieces he got at garage sales for about $15, and the table is marked there at around $200, I think. Not a bad profit margin. All of us went to a bookstore next, then they introduced us the Sweet G's ice cream shop before we parted. 

Later in the day Beth and the kids and I all went out to see the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. That's one I've been looking forward to for a while, and I wasn't disappointed. Loved it!

Today we all went out to Menard's to buy Beth her Mother's Day present, flowers as always. They seem to be a lot more expensive than last year, but we got a decent batch to plant in both front and back yards. 

 Missy is back home again! She finished up the last of her finals on Wednesday, crushed them all, so as soon as I was done with work Beth, Alex, and I headed for Muncie. With both the van and the "new" truck, so we could load 'em up and head 'em out. Missy had most of her stuff packed up in boxes and totes already, so it was mostly just a matter of carrying everything down. Plus the bike. At first I didn't think we'd need two vehicles but it turned out to be a good thing we did, because we were both full. After she emptied out the room, she took us out to her favorite restaurant in town, a burger place called Roots. So neat that Missy has her Peanut Barrel! Then we headed home and unloaded, and Missy can put a bow on her freshman year!

We all went out to see the "Super Mario Bros." movie on Friday. Alex had seen it in Washington, but he wanted to go see it again with all of us. I will say it was a gorgeous movie, visually. I liked it, it was fun, but the kids liked it a lot more than Beth and I did. I give it a 70%. Alex and Missy LOVED it. 

With the recent improvements in the weather, the 2nd Mile Adventures Saturday rides are back on! On Saturday the A and B group rides went out, same m.o. as last year. It was a larger B group this time though, because someone I don't know had his 75th birthday and was celebrating with a 75 mile ride. The group rode with him for the first 25 miles, on a route that went from Winona Lake to Larwill and back along the same route. Good ride, I made a few more Strava connections. And I kept up even though I hadn't been on a bike since January.

Those recent improvements in the weather did not apply earlier in the week, as softball was rained out. Well, more like mudded out. It had been cold, wet, and crappy for a couple days and the fields were pretty much a mess, so the games were called off. It had stopped drizzling by game time, but I wasn't that sorry the game was postponed, it would have been awful playing weather.

Been continuing drywalling work in the basement lately, trying to get the downstairs straightened up for the kids use this summer, so I pulled down another couple sheets of paneling this week. And found the skeletal remains of a mouse. Must have fallen down into the wall sometime in the last 15 years, since the last time that wall was opened. What a horrible way to go, starving to death trapped in a cell. The mouse had also tried to escape by chewing his way through the hole in the stud that a wire passed through, but he couldn't make the hole big enough. He also managed to chew the wire insulation off all around the hole, so I suppose it is possible that he electrocuted himself, probably preferable to starving. So I had to do some wiring work too, pulling the old wires out and replacing with nice insulated ones. I got the drywall panels up, but I wonder if maybe I should have blocked off the openings at the top. 

We're just back from a mini-vacation to Louisville to attend the graduation party of Jacob Boschain! Beth and Alex and I hit the road just after I got out of work on Friday, swung by Ball State and picked up Missy (who has finals next week, but no way was she going to miss this), and drove down to L'ville. We stayed in a motel not far from the Boschain's church, Saturday we arrived well in advance so we could help set up and such, and stayed throughout the open house. Several other families from Warsaw came down too. The church had two graduation seniors so the reception was for both of them, but of course Jake was the main event. Afterwards, we stayed to clean up, then when we were done a large group of friends and family went out to a really good Mexican restaurant for dinner. Then back to the motel. The next day (today) we all attended Sunday services at the church, then much of the same group went out to lunch. The BBQ place we were going to go to was waaaaay full so we punted and went to the food court at a nearby mall instead, where the adults could all catch up and the kids could shop or whatever. We left town at around 2:30 so we could get Missy back to school at a decent hour, then headed home.

Bart the truck is no longer with us. On Friday, after a week of waiting for the repair work to be done and the funding to come through, Beth and I took possession of the "new" truck and left the old one behind. So after 14 years and 110,000 miles (we left him with 207,000), we have a new ride. I'm just hoping that this one lasts long enough to pay it off without putting a lot of repair money into it. We'll see. 

On Wednesday we hosted FCC's new worship minister (Todd, the new Jeremy) for dinner. He's in the process of moving from Illinois and away from his family so several families in the church have volunteered to host him for dinner this week. Given the choice between chicken enchiladas and grilled steak, he chose the enchiladas, so that's what Beth made. We really hit it off. He and his family really like games so we're going to try to get some sort of game night going at the church again. He's also into biking so I'm going to let him know about the 2nd Mile weekend rides. I also invited him to join the softball team when he was here a few weeks ago, and he has (although he's on Dave's team). 

Speaking of softball, the season is back on again! We had our first game Tuesday, playing against Christ's Covenant. I wasn't sure how good my team was going to be before we started, and I'm still not sure, but I think we might be ok. I had more cancellations than I felt good about having for the first game, so I borrowed a couple from Dave and called Bob out of retirement, but we filled the roster and won 13-12. I had a couple decent hits, and this was even a come from behind victory! Anyway I'm hoping that more guys can come regularly from now on. Maybe it was the weather....game day was cold and wet.

 Alex is home for the summer! I went out the Seattle to get him this week and summer break is now underway for him. I found the cheapest flight out there from Indy, which is a much easier path than either of the airports in Chicago, so I went with that. Unfortunately the return flights to Indy are more expensive, but I'll take it anyway. Early flights are the cheapest, so I thought I would get a park-sleep-fly deal but then the truck broke in half, so I wasn't going to drive it as far as Indy and back. Beth went with me and we stayed overnight in a motel near the airport, then she dropped me off and went to visit Missy. I got to Seattle around 9:00 am Thursday morning (I sat behind someone on the airplane that looked JUST like Beth's late sister Pam), and Scott picked me up. He was off work Thursday, but had some business to take care of downtown, so he took me downtown and left me to wander around Pike Place Market while he did his stuff. I had some of the most amazingly incredible salmon that I've ever tasted there, but didn't see them throwing fish. The line for the original Starbucks was not as long as it was last fall but I still didn't feel the need to go there. Scott picked me up again after he was done; I stayed at his apartment while I was there so didn't need to get a motel. That saved crazy money BTW. At dinnertime we picked up Alex and I took us all out to dinner at Red Robin in Redmond. Alex had been studying all day and wasn't done yet, so we just dropped him off after dinner and let him study more. I took the Honda so Friday I could get it in for service, specifically to check out the battery issue he still keeps having. Friday morning I was up early, big surprise, so I left early to get things taken care of. First off I checked the battery and found the terminal cable was very loose - hanging off the terminal - which probably explains why it wasn't starting but then would if he slammed the hood. I tightened that up and the problem was gone. I got a car wash, bought a bunch of cleaning products, then found the nearest Honda dealer. Last fall the guys at Jiffy Lube recommended changing the brake fluid so I wanted that done at least. All the fluids were pretty dirty apparently so I got new brake fluid, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, coolant, and oil (even though Alex drove barely 1000 miles since last August), plus they found an old rodent nest in the ducts and cleaned that out. Done around noon. Alex's last final was at 1:00, he was done by 3:15 and said he was terrified. I picked him up and took him to Zaucer's for pizza, and while we were there he found out he got an 87 on the final, way to go!!! After lunch we did some moving, getting the large stuff moved out and into the storage unit. Packed up all the clothes and bedding he doesn't need for the summer and whatnot, and moved the dresser that doesn't really fit into the car. Then we parted again for the evening, and I went back to his apartment Saturday morning and the packing up began in earnest. We made several trips to the storage unit, and got everything put away or packed by afternoon. Alex had a get together with friends at 2, so he took the car and left me in Redmond. At the time, I thought he'd be done by dinnertime and pick me up then, but dinnertime came and went. I walked a lot that day, from the apartment to Digipen (to drop off apartment keys) and back to Redmond to find a place to hang out and read (Starbucks), but they closed at 6:30 so I lost my hangout, and walked around until making it back to the Subway by Zaucer's. I got dinner and hung out there for a while. Eventually they were closing soon too, and my phone was dying, and Alex was still with his friends. So, Alex ditched me. Without other options, I texted Scott, who interrupted his own dinner plans and came got me with his girlfriend. They had been just going out to dinner, so I treated. Afterwards he dropped her off at her place and we went back to the apartment to wait for Alex, who finally got there at around 12:30 am. I had texted him a few times reminding him that we had an early flight. So we spent the last night at Scott's, got the Honda parked into a good spot at his place, and he dropped us off at SeaTac in time for a 10:30 flight, and we were away.

In other news, before I went to Seattle, on Tuesday I got the prospective new truck in to Ab & Tom's for an inspection, which was a mixed bag. I'm coming to terms with the fact that money will dictate that I need to get a truck a little older and rougher than I really want. Anyway the inspection was ok, they found some oil leaks, some brake wear, a blower motor with a bad bearing, and some bumper rust. Other wise it was ok and the price was more or less reasonable. I was teetering on the edge of pulling out of the sale, but the guy offered to fix everything "like new" for $1000 more and I took it. So they will have the truck in the shop until next week sometime, and I will get the loan finished from USAA.

Just a week this week. We met with Dave and Cindy Williams for dinner and going over the softball rosters on Wednesday, and I think we have 2 solid rosters for softball this year. Starts in just a couple weeks, but no schedule yet. On Saturday, Beth and I went to South Bend to meet with John & Stephanie & Trevor for dinner at Crooked Ewe. Although it was great it was honestly a little disappointing because they have changed their menu a bit since we were there last, and they didn't have the same kind of platters available. And they were out of the brussels sprouts side dish that was so good. But we had a good time with them and pretty much closed the place down. 

Saturday Beth and I were running some errands and decided why not, let's go look at the trucks they have for sale at the place next to Dunkin. There was a pretty blue one sort of like mine but a bit newer. Well, there was a guy on the way there to buy that blue one, so it was not available, but they did have a few others that looked nice enough. We drove one, a black 2013 F-150 4-door Lariat, that drove really nice and seemed sound, while they looked over the old one because they were interested in buying it. But as it turns out, the broken frame was a deal breaker on that. Yep, the srsly rusted frame that was found a few months ago has gotten worse, to the point where the truck sags in the middle. You can see it in the gap between the bed and cab. It's much wider at the bottom than the top. The guy told me you can see the cracks in the frame go all the way over the top and back down now, so it is toast. Probably could fail catastrophically at any time. So the trip to Indy next week that was going to be with the truck, won't be. They said they would offer me $500 for it, basically as a parts truck. The doors alone are worth that...but I'm sure not going to part it out. So I gave them $300 earnest money and made arrangements to take the truck to get it checked out next week. Looks like a new to us truck will have to come sooner rather than later.

Something happened this week that has never happened before: I won an NCAA tournament pool! This was such a goofy tournament that by the time the final four was set, only 4 of around 30 brackets in the pool had ONE team left. And all 4 had a different one. I had UConn as runner-up in my bracket and them winning overall got me over the top. No prize, except getting to say I won, which is cool in itself.

This week was mostly about Easter. It's one of my weeks for putting the slides and such together for the Sunday services, but this week there was also a Good Friday service so I had double the fun. I worked all evening on Wednesday to get things done and still had a lot of work to do, so I worked most of the evening Thursday to get it done as well. Two different services is a lot of work. Especially when all the various pieces and parts of the presentations come from different sources (a text here, an email there, an email to another account over there....), but it all came together fine. I actually wasn't scheduled to flip the slides and such for Good Friday but since we also have new cameras now it takes someone entirely separate to do the production for them. So Jack was a bit overwhelmed so he did cameras and I did slides. Beth went down to Muncie to pick up Missy for the weekend so she could come to the services, but the traffic was really heavy all the way down there...like at a dead stop for miles...Google Maps was flashing red on the road she was on....so they went an alternate route back home and got the the church just a little bit late. The GF service was really awesome though. It was like Infinity War, where you're left with the feeling that things have all gone terribly wrong but you know there's Endgame coming and things will be made right. We went out to dinner at Applebee's afterwards. Saturday, Missy was working on homework most of the day, so we didn't do a whole lot, but Sunday we had one of those big holiday dinners that Beth always overdoes. We had one guest (Mary Jane), and enough food for 10. She made a brisket this time though, instead of a ham or turkey, because we had one from a recipe she found not long ago that was amazing. We had an afternoon supper and took Missy back to BSU in the evening.

Saturday I also saw someone get arrested right in front of me. Bridget who lives with her dad next door in the apartments and comes over here occasionally because we may be the only ones who are nice to her has had a warrant out for failure to appear / parole violation. We knew about it, but she said she was going to turn herself in. Well, I was working on fixing her bike chain in the driveway with her present when she suddenly said something like 'cops coming, gotta go' and bolted. I turned around and saw a cop car driving down the road, which sped up when she ran. Stopped in the road in front of the apartments, cop jumped out and chased her inside. Another cop car came by in a moment and they brought her out in cuffs a few minutes later. I thought I was going to get questioned since I had been right there when it all went down, but I didn't. So Bridget may be away for a while...

This was a week of getting miscellaneous things done. Beth and I both had dental appointments, I had a routine appointment for an annual physical (which included a prostate check! Love those so much! Not. But it was a million times better than some I've had) and got a refill on my script, got my eye exam (basically no change from last year), bought some new jeans, and had our taxes done. Usually I do them myself, but there was a snafu for my 2019 taxes (due to Mom's IRA) that I paid for this year...a lot...and I started doing them myself for 2022 but decided after a while that I better have someone do them for me. Decided that when I was getting that I owed over $3000. A tax professional did things correctly and I owed $790 or so. That was because of not withholding enough when I withdrew some money to pay for the kids' college this year. So anyway, it's done and should be done right. Hopefully no surprises. 

Friday night Beth and I went up to the Four Winds Casino in South Bend! No, not for that. I was looking for live entertainment because we haven't gone anywhere for that in a long time. One of the restaurants in the casino was having dueling pianos, which sounded like fun! So we went up there for dinner at Edgewater Cafe, which is on the 4th floor of the casino. We were a bit early so we walked around the casino floor for a while, with the intention of maybe doing a little gambling with a few bucks while we were there, just for kicks. After walking around a bit, though, both Beth and I started feeling like it was all so sad. So many people just sitting there feeding the machines all evening...sad. Neither one of us was interested in gambling at all while we were there, so we saved the few bucks. Dinner was excellent, though. I had an incredible couple pieces of sea bass...so good...and Beth had the salmon which she thought was a bit overdone. At 8:30 the piano players started. Both of them are really good. There was a decent crowd (the cafe is very new, so maybe not as well known yet) at first, but as the evening went on there were fewer and fewer until around 10 it was just us, another group of about 8 people, and a few at the bar. Then just us and a couple at the bar. But they kept playing until around 11:30. They just had people shouting out a song to play, and we suggested more than a few, and they played them all except "I've Been Everywhere," instead doing "Ring of Fire." It was a really good time.

Alex’s spring break was this week! It didn’t coincide with his birthday this year, bad luck, but he was able to get his friends together for a birthday party / sleepover on Wednesday anyway. Not at the house this time, due to some other responsibilities with the friends it was held at another friend’s house. We supplied the pizza and cake and pop and chips. They supplied the video games. Alex nearly crashed the truck on the way there trying to save the cake from falling off the seat, broke the side view mirror, but all good. On Tuesday, since Beth was out for the evening at Bible study, Alex and I went bowling. Yeah, bowling. Beth said ‘you and Alex should go bowling or something’ since she would be out, so we did. I’ve lost a lot of bowling ability since the league ended what 15 years ago? Alex isn’t very good either but we had a good time. On Friday we all went to the Komets game in FW. They were playing the Rapid City Rush and were kind of uneven through the game. They fell behind 3 times and tied it back up, then went up 5-3 and blew the lead in the last 10 minutes. After a scoreless overtime, they lost the shootout, so they lost 6-5 but did get a point. Saturday he went back to WA, but first we all headed down to Muncie to spend some time with Missy. We went out to lunch at Cammack Station, a place we’ve said ‘we should try there one of these days’ for a while. It’s a really cool vintage gas station converted to a restaurant. Good food, fun place. Then Missy had to go to the art mart and check out a student art sale at a student center on campus, so we did that for a bit. Alex found some stickers for some anime that he bought from a student. Missy’s roommate was selling some stuff and had done pretty well for the day. After that, we hit the road to get Alex to the airport in Indy but first, we had to make a stop at Uranus Fudge Shop in Anderson. Just because we’ve snickered at the billboards for several months now. Yeah….a lot of the same joke was repeated all over the store. But the fudge was really good. They also had a lot of branded swag for sale which we passed on, but it was fun browsing the shop. Kinda touristy, but fun. The Indy airport is about a million times easier to deal with than O’Hare or even Midway, I must say. We got Alex to Indy in plenty of time for his flight, and had a little time to kill. Then headed back, dropped off Missy back at the dorm and went home.