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.