baseball n wedding stuff
Mood:  bright
Topic: General
Took Joe and Chelsea to see a Reds game. It was our first visit to the new stadium. Kids had a good time overall although they did get a little bored towards the end. Neither of them are big baseball fans, so they didn't get into the game so much. They did comment about the rude guy behind us. He was talking about his sons baseball team. "There are what, 4 good kids on your team and the rest of them suck, right?" Was one of the comments he made. I glanced back and this kid was only like 8-9 years old. What kind of parent makes a comment like that to his child? Well we didn't have to look far as it appeared that grandma was also behind us. And she was ragging on the outfielders and was making fun of the Japanese player for Saint Louis. I guess the apple did not fall far from the tree.

Both Joe and Chelsea thought that her comments were rude - you shouldn't make fun of someone just because they are different. But we enjoyed the atmosphere nevertheless. I joked to Joe "How come I have to sit by Chelsea when you get to sit by two beautiful women???" His seat was next to two young women who were there with their boyfriends.

Vanessa has set a date for her wedding - Sept 10. We have a lot of planning to do between now and then. Did take the boat out on Friday. Cody and Joe, Morgan and Chelsea all went tubing. Chelsea tried to water ski, but that did not work out too well this go around.

fathers day
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: General
Chelsea had a fair showing with the basketball team. They were 2-2 at Miami. One of those losses was by 1 point, so that is pretty good considering that neither of their 6 foot players was there. Chelsea was so-so, she scored some and made some good passes.

Vanessa made an appearance this weekend. They checked out the gazebo at the American Legion. They want the wedding to be outdoors, so they liked the background by the stream. Still working on a date.

Chad took his Star Chief to the Cruise-In. His back is feeling better and he has done some work on the scrap wood by the barn.

Joe kicked the football some. For a fathers day present they got me a 'Dads ATM' T-shirt. I have always maintained that I am a walking ATM, this just confirms the fact.

Fishing n Football
Mood:  cool
Topic: General
Spent a Sunday with the kids. We dropped off Chelsea in her kayak, while Joe and I drove downstream to go fishing. She made it about a half mile when she ran into a barrier of downed tree's and had to paddle back. I caught 3 fish in the meantime. Joe was determined to use a piece of beefstick as bait and didn't catch anything.

I drove back to get Chelsea and showed her a good spot to try. She caught 2 rock bass fairly quickly. Some youngsters drove down the stream in a 4 wheel drive. I think it scared away all the fish, but we were about finished anyway. Joe didn't catch anything, maybe next time he will listen to the old man.

Joe did have some success on the football field. We drove to the high school so that he could practice his kicking with real goal posts. It took him several tries, but he finally kicked one thru the uprights. He kicked several more, but will need to be more consistant by July. Anyway I could tell that he was proud that he could do it. We celebrated with Blue Moon icecream at Barnies.

Kayak
Mood:  happy
Topic: Chelsea
Chelsea wanted a kayak for her birthday. So we used her birthday money to get a used one. She still owes me some money for it, but she will pay it off with earnings from her job. We took it down to a tributary of Twin Creek. It went fine, she handled it just like they showed her. I took it for a spin too and it was fun. If she stays with it, she will have shoulders like a linebacker by the end of summer. I wouldn't mind getting a canoe or a kayak myself if I could get one for decent price.

Went bike riding with Joe. I wanted to go out about a mile and come back. He wanted to go all the way to Gratis. I didn't want to be shown up by a 13 year old, so that's where we went. I was huffing and puffing - but it was fun to feel the wind whistling thru your ears when coasting down hill. It brought back good memories of long ago summers...

I raced Joe the last 100 yards, but my horse power to weight ratio is badly out of porportion in comparison to his. He won handily - this time.

Joe's kicking is slowly improving. Hard to tell if he is on pace to do any good this fall or not. I am going to take him to the football field and let him try to knock a few thru the uprights this weekend.

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.