Memorable weekend
Mood:  surprised
Topic: Vanessa
Well this will be a Memorial Day weekend to remember. Vanessa was coming up to visit from Louisville. Eric had to work - or so he told Vanessa. He found someone to fill in for him and so he arrived at our house maybe an hour before she did.
He parked his car behind the barn where she would not see it.

So when she came down the sidewalk he greeted her and proposed to her on the front steps and gave her the engagement ring. Very chivalrous of him. Vanessa was not entirely surprised as she noticed that his toothbrush was missing that morning - so she had suspisions...

We visted Erics parents in Covington. Seemed like nice people, we had a bbq and sat around and talked. No date or location has been set yet. Sounds as though it will be in the fall and will be local.

Joe and Chelsea are out of school now. Chelsea had an end of school party on Friay - 10 to 12 teenagers showed up. It went well and everyone had a good time. Joe had Cody come over night so that he would have a friend. Joe wants me to get the boat in the water so that he can take his friends out for a day.

Dancing Joe
Mood:  happy
Topic: Joe
Joe went to the last Junior High dance of the year last night. Originally he was not going to go. But he had two girls ask if he would dance with them, so he obliged them. He had a good time. I asked him if he started any Conga lines this time - "No, that's kind of old."

When he went boating, Joe found a unique piece of driftwood that he is making into a cane. He is using my dremel tool to carve some tiki type markings. It looks pretty good so far.

AAU over
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Chelsea
Well Chelsea's AAU season is over. She saved the best for last pretty much. She had good games on Saturday - may have been high or next to high score in the second game with 10 points. She was shutdown on Sunday, but did a fair job on defense. She was disappointed with the season overall, but felt that she did improve some. We will see how she does when South has it's camp in June.

Joe had a good time with Kyle. He stayed overnight, then got to go boating all day on Sunday. I left to go watch the star wars movie at 7pm and he still wasn't home. So they must have had a good time. We have been working on his place kicking. It seems to be improving although he still has a way to go before he can even do extra points.

Chad went with me to go see star wars. It was nice to talk with him. Generally we are out working on some project or another and don't have time to sit and talk with one another.

School is out at the end of this week. Chelsea has some friends coming over for an end of school party. That should be an adventure.

BB - Columbus
Mood:  not sure
Topic: General
Chelsea had a tournament in Columbus. We made a trip to visit an Indian Cave after it was finished. It was small - nothing like Ohio Caverns. We also worked in a trip to Panera's and Cold Stone Creamery. We ate well even though her team did not win a game. The last one went into overtime, but they couldn't pull it out.

I have been working with Joe a little on kicking the football. He will need a lot more toe to do much good. He seems to like it, so maybe it will be a direction to go as he will be small next season. He helped Chad on Sunday with his lumber project. Salvaging the good scrap wood out of the remnants of the old barn. Chad is about finished and soon the scrap will go up in flames.

Chad has some friends from a young adult group at church coming out for the 4th of July. So the event will be a bit bigger this year.

Vanessa mentioned that she will probably visit over Memorial Day weekend. We have her truck up for sale, a few tire kickers but no buyers yet. I figure I can use it as a farm truck in lieu of her paying her debt to me if we don't get any good offers.

Fishing - Derby - Mday
Topic: General
Took Joe and his friend, Joe Kasserman, fishing at Grandpa Jacks. The bluegill were biting, I caught a small bass. Joe and Joe found a couple of water snakes and a toad. On Sunday, Joe gave me a hand doing some cleanup around the farm. He got to drive Vanessa's truck. We saw a cow laying under a tree in the bottom field. I told Joe that we should investigate to make sure she was OK since she was away from the rest of the herd. When we got close, Joe found the reason why she was laying there - a new calf! It was not alarmed at Joe, but when I got close it bolted.

Vanessa had a busy weekend. The Kentucky derby was well attended this year and they provided ice by the semi truck load. They brought in some extra help from out of state to keep up with demand. They worked the guys until after midnight and had them up and delivering ice the next morning. Several of them stayed over night at Vanessa and Eric's apartment. She provided breakfast and supper and kept things running on the home front while Eric kept things running for the derby. If Home City Ice has the ice concession, I want a piece of the mint or the julep business for the derby. Hmmm, how much can I make off of a truck load of that???

We barbequed shrimp on the grill for mothers day. I used a new marionade which Becky and I liked, but Chelsea did not. We grilled hot dogs for Becky's father (The Preble County version of surf and turf???)- so we told her to help herself to one. Becky and Chelsea watched a DVD, "The Notebook" - it was a tear jerker and even Chelsea's boyfriend, Ron, was misty eyed.

BB & movie
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea had an up and down weekend of basketball at UC. She played really well in the second game - but for some reason the coach limited her playing time, particularly in the second half. She seemed to playing fair D, and grabbing rebounds. But she didn't score well - maybe that was the reason. She had a better all around time on Sunday, scored some and played decent D; although her team lost.

We visited the Cold Stone Creamery, it is a chain of fancy icecream shops. It's a bit pricey, but it was delicious.

Vanessa visited this past weekend. She is going to try her pick up truck and so she signed a POA so that we can sell it for her. She also brought her cat up to have it neutered. That cat will probably never want to visit our house again. She mostly sat around and watched movies. Her job is going OK, she inspected medical equipment. She still has not signed up for college, so I am hounding her.

Chad is pulling some old lumber out of the barn. I told him that I would be burning what is left soon. So he is working hard at pulling out all of the usable 4X4's and so forth. He is putting the leftovers into piles that I can burn. He plans to use the lumber to build a lean to on the East side of the school house to store a couple of his cars in.

Joe came to work with me last Thursday for children at work day. He had a fair time although he got bored towards the end of the day. He got tired of shaking everyone's hand. Everytime I introduced him to someone, they shook hands. He did get to write a simple java program. Last night he and I went to watch Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. We both enjoyed the movie.

Slo week
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: General
Not much to report on this week. No tournament this weekend for Chelsea. Although her art teacher called to report that she has been acting up in class and needs to get her assignments in on time. Chelsea reports that she does not talk to the teacher in the class. So am I to assume that she sits in class quiet as a churchmouse and the teach is making all this stuff up??? I told her that she needs to straighten up, any more phone calls or missed/incomplete assignments and she is grounded.

She did report that her AAU coach is spending more time with her. She felt like he was spending more time with the 'star' players, while the so-so players didn't get much coaching. She is the only one not to miss a practice, so she deserves some attention for effort if nothing else.

Joe went to camp Campbellgard(sp) with the 7th grade class. I suppose that this is a warm up to next years class trip to DC. He said that he was bored most of the time although he liked the animals in the nature center. It sounded like a ward for crippled animals - owl with a broken wing, lizard missing a leg, etc. It must get pretty rough at the camp. Oh and on a hike he found a 1/2 pint whiskey bottle. It had no threads on the lip so it must have been an old one.

Both kids spent some time with Pappaw last night. He is in pain and was feeling low. So they tried to lift his spirits a little.

bb
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea had another up and down weekend of basketball. She was high points in her first game, 5 in her second, and was shut out in the last game.

Joe is excited about an over night camping trip that the 7th grade class is going on. He is borrowing my gym bag. Good thing he checked the contents - there was an old pocket knife that I had forgotten about in one of the side compartments. He said that he could have gotten suspended from school if it had been found.

Misc.
Topic: General
Joe got in trouble in school – with his mouth. He was suspended from school. He may be acting up to get attention. I have been trying to give Joe more attention since this has happened. Hopefully he will straighten up and fly right. He has been helping me with concrete work and also doing carpentry in the workshop in the barn. Once I get the truck back, we can do some fishing and stuff as well.

Chelsea has another tournament this weekend. She did so-so last weekend. She scored some points - nailed a couple of three's and basket, but was shut out in one game and was disappointed. I told her that it was just the first tournament – so don’t be so disappointed. Plus they went up against some tough competition. The Dayton Lady Hoopstars were there and a similar caliber team from Fort Wayne.

Not much word from Vanessa other than she has started a new job doing parts inspection.

Chad is working on his Oliver tractor. Not sure what he going to do with it once he has it running… He went out last weekend, didn’t catch the name of the girl that he was with.

Buckler
Mood:  happy
Topic: Joe
I had Joe give me a hand putting together the workshop in the barn. It is finally starting to take shape. Joe asked that I give him a hand putting together a buckler. He had found a round piece of aluminium and so we got some wood and leather to make a servicable buckler. We used some Neatsfoot oil for the leather and even though it was ancient, it softened right up. He is armed and ready for battle if we are ever invaded by any Carthaginians.

Chelsea has her first AAU tournament this weekend. They will only have like 6 players on Saturday. So she will see plenty of action.

Vanessa got a job in Louisville. I think that it is a parts inspection job similiar to what she did here in Ohio. Chad did some more work on the little red car. I guess that she is going to try to come back up in the next few weeks and take it to Louisville again. I am hopeful that all of the bugs are out of it this time. I worry about her driving all that distance and breaking down.

Chad is working on his Oliver tractor. He seems to have no interest in getting the Plymouth Duster ready - even though I put all the money into parts to get it on the race track...