As I mentioned in last week’s entry, the big news of this week was the death of Bin Laden. News of this happening permeated all the conversations at work, on the TV and hopefully will make a difference at the gas pump now! We hit an all-time high on Wednesday with an astronomical amount for a single gallon of gas at $4.29…damn. This comes at a time when Ann & I cannot share rides due to all the meetings we have at work and practices we have at home. Needless to say, we can look forward to a very large gasoline bill this month. I loved staying up late on Sunday night and watching that huge crowd gather at the White House and Ground Zero. Before I get going this week, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special shout-out to Mom & Aunt Sue for their feedback on the Family Tree website – thanks ladies; I really appreciate your input and can’t wait to see how far back we can trace our roots! I will probably eventually pay for some sort of service to trace our genealogy. If anyone can recommend a service you’ve used, I would appreciate any input. I can’t wait to see how far back we can go on the tree!! Of course we missed the royal wedding in the UK of William & Kate due to having to work, but I’ve included it below in this week’s video section just in case you did too… That evening, Ann got us tickets to go see Grace Potter & The Nocturnals in a couple months which should be real cool as it’s a small venue where I’ve seen others play and the acoustics in the Egyptian room at the Murat are really good – should sound real good. Guess what, it stinkin’ rained all night, overnight, and continued in to the next morning.
On Tuesday, it continued to rain off and on all day again, causing lots of flooding in the area. I snapped off a few pictures on my way to work and back. It was Election Day today. Up for grabs were the primary races, including Abby’s best friend (Megan)’s dad Larry, who ran for City Council and won a Republican spot on the November ticket. I saw Megan at the polls before work. She was hanging out with her grandma and handing out paraphernalia. That day, my good friend at work, Scott, had surgery on his nose that was broke at work while managing an out-of-control child. That night after dinner, we made our annual trek to the courthouse to take Gigi her soda, as we have done every year for as far back as I can remember). Luke had a baseball practice game that evening. He went 2 for 3 with a pair of singles. He did better in the field making some good plays but he has GOT to stop throwing that ball sidearm. I don’t know when he picked up that lazy habit, but he’s gonna drive me bonkers this year if it doesn’t stop! We got home sort of late, as the game ran long. Ann had made salmon patties for dinner and went out with Amy to the movies (seeing Soul Surfer).
On Wednesday, you would be shocked to hear that it rained again! Yes, I know it is difficult to fathom, but it is our wet season. I think I am suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder!! I finally got my hair cut; it was so long! Luke also got chopped…now if we can just get the dogs in, we’ll be doing good! Christy was busy that night and dropped off Alex at Mom & Sandy’s house where I picked him up with Lukey and took the boys out to yet another practice game. Lukey went 1 for 3, getting out twice for not running at full steam down to first base. He really wasn’t in to it tonight, even making a couple errors on the field. This was over at North Park, a change of scenery (and quality of infield) that may have messed with his head a little. We were short 4 of our key players and had to move EVERYONE to a different position, so that likely had something to do with hit as well – everyone looked out of place and uncomfortable. We got hammered and looked like a bunch of 7 year-olds…oh wait, we ARE a bunch of 7 year-olds. LOL I ran the boys through drive through as the girls were at softball (well Bu was; Ann was napping in the car apparently!) and brought the boys back to our house to play. They played outside until dusk and then came in to settle down and have some ice cream (Ann bought Ben & Jerry’s for everyone!!) before Christy came by for Alex. When they came out of Lukey’s room, they were shirtless and had red bellies. When I asked what was going on, they proceeded to show us…you’ll have to see the home video below to find out what happened next! 😉 Ann made us cheesy popcorn with American Idol night (wasn’t real high on James’ song selection). Caught some highlights of the Reds finally. I see they are a game or so back of the division lead and playing .500 ball. I was excited to see they won tonight with a great come from behind victory on Jay Bruce’s RBI single in the bottom of the 9th!
On Thursday, we received the kids’ school pictures. I thought they turned out pretty good. I hate that they are doing pictures twice a year now. They send home this great big packet and we’re such suckers that even though I scan them for use on here, we can’t turndown pictures of our kiddos. I drove the truck in today (There was widespread frost on all the car windows). I worked out in the flower beds all day, removing all the old mulch, scooping it up and loading it in the truck – all by myself. …and when I say that it was full, I mean that the truck literally couldn’t hold any more as it was heaping full and the truck was so low that it was nearly bottoming out on the frame. I did it alone and OMG, I ended up leaving work early due to sheer exhaustion. I came home and took a nap until Lukey woke me up just before baseball practice. Abby went to dance class with Ann as I took Luke out to the ball diamonds for a simple practice where we worked on defense, defense, and defense. They should be able to hold their own for their first game on Saturday…if they can get the whole team to show up – which they haven’t had all week…TGIF…I was so ready for Friday. Although it rained again in the AM, I ended up back in the mulch again today. Thankfully, my guys JT & Philip were able to help me otherwise I would never have made it! I was wiped again that night and absolutely collapsed when I got home – now I remember why I stayed in school and got that college degree…physical labor is for the birds! Matt stayed the night with Joel that night. Ann went to the movies with Amy again. Luke & Bu were fighting and I just wasn’t in the mood – so off to bed they went for the night. Abby’s pictures came in from Star Quest. There are a few that are outstanding. Luke brought home a sweet Mother’s Day gift of a flower he grew from a seed.
Saturday was Opening Day for Lukey…and it shockingly rained during the first portion of the game. In preparation for my big night, Ann & I got dressed before the game and then had to leave early to head up to LaPorte for the Slicer Football Association Hall of Fame induction ceremony!! He went at least 1-2 including the team’s first home run of the season (and proudly displayed his ticket for a free soda for doing so!)! …only thing is we missed all but the first 10 minutes of the game and didn’t see his big hit. ??? Christy called us to fill us in and then Luke went with her and Alex where he stayed the night with her and then went to church with them the next morning… turns out, we could’ve stayed for the whole thing and left afterwards…LP is on central time. So not only did we make great time (about 3 ½ hrs), we also had an additional hour to kill. I chose to take Ann on a thorough tour of the Maple City – turns out the city has changed a lot in the decade or so we were there last (Megan’s baptism) – Maple Lane mall is boarded up and empty; LPHS has a new field house and has changed the main entrance to the other side of the school; Boston tore down trees and houses to make a practice field and possibly a PE field so the kids don’t have to trek down to Kiwanis each day (?); the Indian holding the broken arrow at the courthouse is gone; there is literally an Arby’s drive through lane directly across from our old house on Rockwood (which looks run down again) – as does the whole neighborhood; the Kenwood house looks good but Stoewer’s looks especially bad; the baseball diamonds out by Larson-Danielson are completely gone; there is a skate park in Fox Park; a new huge time share condo on Pine Lake out by Johnson Rd and much, much more. We even had time to document all the lovely purple houses and living room furniture in front lawns…not pretty… Eventually made our way over to Silver Palace; 1st med up with Coach Strieter and Billy Wilmsen; they both look great – Coach hasn’t aged a day and Billy is now principal at Kesling! TK was sick and not able to be there; Boardman, Wili & Coach Bunce were there and they all sat at our table. We swapped stories all night; the food was much better than I expected; Once the induction ceremonies began, I started feeling queasy; at one point I got so dizzy that I thought I was going to fall out of my chair (thanks to Dave & Ann for settling my ass down!); I had started to write out something a couple times and couldn’t find the right words; I went over it in my head probably 50 times, looking for just the right amount of anecdotes, thankfulness and raw emotion. I wanted to say so much but didn’t want it to come across rehearsed, so I decided to take Boardman’s advice and just talk from the heart. So I went up there totally unprepared and had no idea what I was going to say…so I just talked off the top of my head and went for it. I forgot to say a couple things I wanted to say like thanking my mother, talking about my last game and talking up some of my other teammates that aren’t in yet…but it was all a blur up there and I wasn’t even 100% sure what all I said until I watched it back today while compiling this week’s clip video. It was all good; we had a couple beers, talked football, caught up and then had to part ways as we were already losing an hour going home and it had already been a long day. Thankfully, the ride home was uneventful and we made phenomenal time (just a tick over 3 hours). We relieved Mom & Sandy (who was awfully comfy under that blanket) – thanks to them both for keeping an eye on the kiddos for us. Gracie stayed the night with Abby, so we still had five kids that night. I had a great time going back home and look forward to being invited back in a couple years to help usher in the next group of men…and will likely stay the night next time and we’ll go out for drinks with the other guys – something we missed out on this year.