Tonight was the 1st annual talent show at church! I had never planned to be in such a thing but after it was announced, Dave W suggested we do an act of dueling dad jokes. Of sorts. It sounded fun so I was in. We met a couple times during the week to rehearse, first for dinner at El Comal on Wednesday evening and then at their house on Saturday for pool/BBQ. Running through the material, we decided that 20 good dad jokes each would fill in the appropriate amount of time, so as we went through what we had Beth and Cindy gave us some feedback as to whether or not they were any good. I had a few that I thought were pretty good but the feedback was "I don't get it" so I left them out. Like this one:

Rumors of a dessert shortage at this year's Spoonerism conference are just a total lack of pies.

Anyway... we picked our 20 favorites and we decided to finish up with the Dracula on the nuns' car joke. On the day of the show, there were a few comedy acts (there was an improv group, a couple of kids did stand-up, Todd sang with his dog, and us), one singer, some cheer routines, some gymnastics, some little kids showing off drawing or lawnmower-identifying skills, and the like. Very well received, lots of fun, and hope to make it an annual occurrence. Don't know if we'll do dad jokes again next year, though.

In other news, on Tuesday I called in on a whim to "Fresh Outta Bed and Head to Head" again, for the first time in quite a while. I didn't win, but they had some tickets to get rid of so they sent me 2 tickets to the South Bend Cubs game on Friday. Alex had plans with some friends and Nat wasn't that interested, so Beth and I went to SB Friday evening on Pulse-FM's dime. They even included a parking pass. And oh boy, are the SB Cubs bad this year. Oh yeah. They're in last place in their division, and we saw some really bad baseball going on. They were no-hit for almost 7 innings, gave up a grand slam in the first inning, and got nothing done offensively until the 9th inning en route to a 5-1 loss. We had seats on the 1st base line again, same as last time, so the sun was in our eyes for a few innings but still good seats.

Missy has returned to college. The nest is emptying out again. I took Thursday off so I could help her move and we could all go out to breakfast at Crazy Egg Cafe, and just after brunch we all headed for Muncie. I had the truck with some of the bigger things, like the bike and chair and fridge, and Missy drove her new van. Well, it's not new and it's not hers but she's keeping it with her at school. She didn't want to drive on the interstate all the way down so we took a shorter but slower route through Wabash. We got everything all moved in, and she was very adamant that she did not want us to help her unpack and put things away and organize the furniture. So we just got her loaded up and found a place she could park the van, and then we took her out to Roots Burger Bar for some really good craft burgers. Then the rest of us headed home and she is back for her junior year. 

Softball is over for the year. We lost to the last place team on Tuesday, but in our defense they lost a lot of very close games over the year and they are better than their record. We beat them when they were short a couple times. But they kind of roughed us up this time, we never got anything going. So that's that for this year, and I'm looking forward to rehabbing over the offseason. No way I'm playing coed league...

Speaking of rehabbing, on Saturday morning I was out on the group B bike ride and had a smallish spill. Inevitable, I suppose, since I cashed in some Ignite points from work just last week and used them to buy a Garmin watch on Amazon, and I had it for maybe 18 hours before crashing and landing on it. A bit. What happened is I was riding too close to the edge of the pavement and went off onto the shoulder, and there was too much of a drop-off from the surface to the dirt so I couldn't quite get back up onto the road and went down. Scratched up the bezel of the watch but not too badly. Gave myself 3 separate road rash spots on my left knee and another on my left shoulder, but didn't hurt my hands or elbows somehow. Finished the ride, we were about 8 miles from home. Bruises showing up on both knees now...

After the bike ride, Beth and I went up to Michigan to visit with Marve and Beth at their house. They were hosting a pool party, but I gather there are still some hard feelings among some in the family because Ric/Steph were not there. Judy & Neill, Ted & Monica, and Beth & I were all there though. We swam in the pool for a while and had BBQ chicken. Then we played Trivial Pursuit, a 1984 edition of the game so I rocked. I haven't played that game in years and years. Beth and I left for home around 9.

The softball tournament started this week. We usually say that the tournament is our regular season, but I'm not feeling it this year. Not that we're not enjoying playing, we are, but we have been in quite a slump. And I've got more aches and pains this year... I pulled or sprained or strained something in my hip several weeks ago and it still hurts, and I re-hurt it every game. So I have put myself at catcher for the remainder of the season. Anyway, this week we had 2 games. We won the first one 16-12, and then an hour later we lost the second one 13-3. First Baptist is leading the division and they smoked us 3 times including this week during the season. So win or we're done next week. You ask me, either way.

Some rare good news on the automotive front: The van (which we're planning to send to college with Missy) has been starting really slowly lately, many times not at all on the first turn of the key. I suspected the battery was getting run down so I took it to AutoZone before the camping trip, and indeed the battery was nearly dead but after they installed the new one I bought, they tested the charging system and it registered as bad. Meaning, the alternator may be on the verge of failing too. So anyway I made an appointment to get it into the shop when we got back, and they reported that everything looks good and the alternator seems to be charging normally. So only a little labor charge and we're good to go.

And the bad news on the automotive front: the truck started showing the check engine light just before we went camping. I had actually already made an appointment to take it in to the Ford dealer, just to fix the rear set belt that doesn't latch, and I had hoped to get it before leaving for camping but couldn't. The light was on and off several times during the week of camping. So when we got back and I got the truck in, I asked them to check out the light. As it turns out, the light meant that 2 of the O2 sensors had gone bad, which means the fuel/air mixture may not be right. So I got those things fixed, which was a lot more than I was hoping to spend on just the seat belt fix. They also didn't have the new seat belt buckle in black, so I had them put a tan one in. Rather get it done faster than worry about matching.

Saturday Missy was working, so Beth and I did some shopping for her. The Warsaw Big Lots, which has been open maybe a year, is closing, so we checked it out to see if we could find any good deals. They had a nice chair like what Missy has been wanting for her dorm room so she doesn't have to sit in a dorm chair all the time, so we picked it up for her. We also went to Walmart and got her a small fridge for her room, since she'll have a single room this year and she used her roommate's last year. 

The truncated family went on a camping trip this week to Clifty Falls State Park. I say truncated family because Alex and Natalie chose not to go. We'd told Nat that we didn't want Churro in the camper, and for a while she was planning to come with us and sleep in the tent with the dog. And, of course, he had to be leased all the time. However, as we got closer and closer to the departure date, the weather was looking more and more like it was going to be nasty. Very hot, very humid, chance of thunderstorms every day we were there. In the end, the horrible forecast chased them both off. Alex doesn't handle the heat well; neither does Nat. So they both chose to stay home, and it was just Beth, Missy, and me. I think that was the right call for everybody, though. We left on Monday around 10:30, leaving some cash and instructions for the kids staying behind, and drove through some rain and temperatures around 90 F. We got to the park around 4:00 pm, and couldn't go to the campground right away because a work crew was still busy clearing a big limb that had fallen down across the road. So we walked down to Big Clifty Falls, which had a much lighter flow than I would have thought with the recent rain. Anyway, we got all set up by around 5:30 and rather than cook in the wet heat we hit the campground pool, which was closing in 5 minutes when we got there, but they let us in to get a quick dip which felt amazing even if only for a few minutes. For dinner we went out to Red Pepperoni in Madison. Early night. The thunderstorms rolled in around 2 am. So it was crazy hot and crazy wet all over the next day, which was a Boschains day. We were going to go to the park pool again after breakfast, but we found it closed due to the pump having broken or something like that. So we hit the public pool in Madison for a few hours instead, which has been remodeled and upgraded since we were there last, with lap lanes and a deep end with a diving board and a water slide. Very nice. Missy got sunburned pretty good though. Later in the day we headed to Louisville to meet up with the Boschains at Momma's BBQ (awesome) for dinner and then to their new house. Their new adopted daughter is just an adorable lil punkin! We got back to the park around 11:30, and it rained overnight again. Wednesday we hit all the antique/junk shops in town and did half of the downtown shops and the Red Pepper for lunch (awesome). Then we did our one and only time to make dinner at the campsite, tinfoil dinners (awesome). Then it thunderstormed all evening. Another early night. Thursday Missy and I went on a hike in the morning to the creek bed, hiked as far as the side canyon to tunnel falls and back. I made a dutch oven pull-apart French toast for breakfast which turned out pretty good but we have some notes and improvements in mind for next time. Then we hit the other half of the downtown shops and went to the city pool again, as the camp pool was STILL closed. As we were leaving the pool, they blew the whistle to close it because of the approaching thunderstorm, which went on for a couple hours. The Boschains (including Jake now!) came out our way in the evening and we met them at Red Pepperoni (again!) for calzones. They could only stay for dinner before heading back. Rain overnight. Friday morning I went on a solo hike to do the Four Falls Challenge, which I did and then some. Some 7.5 miles altogether hiking the length and breadth of the park. By the time I was done with the hike, Beth texted me about when I would be back because the rain was on the way again. We got packed up and headed out on Friday and drove away as the rain began to beat down, again. So anyway, it was a good call for Alex and Nat to stay home, but it was a good trip nonetheless. I don't know that it was the hottest camping trip we've ever been on (possibly), was it was without a doubt the wettest. 

We had to get back home on Friday instead of Saturday as planned originally because the bridal shower for Julia was on Saturday. Beth wasn't in the mood for traveling again but she and both girls packed up and headed to Michigan Saturday morning.