vaca and crashin'
Mood:  lazy
Topic: General
Went to Cambridge for a few days of vacation. Well the first day we did go to grandma Susan's and did some work on the fence. We went fishing right before a storm. Joe got a big bite. We thought that he had a snag and told him to stop reeling, but the rod tip was bouncing around - he had a big fish on the line. About 5 minutes in to the battle, Joe relaxed because his arms were getting tired. The fish took advantage and threw the hook. We had to fly back to the dock as the storm approached.

Joe was able to land a catfish later in the week. We went out at night and it was a full moon. Salt Fork lake was scenic. We sat for a while with the lights out and the music off and just watched the stars. We were reluctant to go back but had promised to go in by midnight.

Chelsea gave us a scare after we returned. On her way home from her boyfriends she went off the shoulder of the road and over corrected and went into the opposite ditch. Then she flew over a drainage pipe and when airborne. Finally she hit a utility pole and splintered it. She finally came to a stop pointing back the direction that she had already come.

Luckily her seatbelt held her in place. She had a rope burn and bruised from the seatbelt but was otherwise OK. She did go to the hospital for checkout since she stated that her head hit the roof. I quipped that all they would find was rocks. Anyway 6 hours later she was released with a clean bill of health. The wreck happened about 10:45pm, we did not get home until daybreak, about 6am the next day.

The car is totaled. The passenger side front fender impacted the pole and was crushed back into the engine. It impacted at an angle indicating that the car was airborne and leaning forward. In a way it was fortunate that she hit the pole. The car probable would have flipped several times had it not.

She is grounded for 30 days. That is the standard for any accidents or tickets. We will search for another car soon.

Vanessa and Eric visited. They only stayed a short time because of his work. It is always nice to see her. Chad is back with April. A moth drawn to a flame. I feel that she will stay with him until someone better comes along and his heart will be broken again.

crawdad ranch & cheese cake
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: General

Joe got a few aquariums from grandma Susan. He put his guppies in one of them and the biggest one he is catching crawdads and placing inside. He wants to begin raising them. The roundups should be interesting, don't know how you would go about branding them...

Chelsea got some recipe's out of magazines she got from grandma Freedmans. One experiment was a cake she brought for after the viewing. I called it a lava cake. She made a hole in middle for some sort of filling. It was a soft filling and when you cut out a slice of cake, it kind of oozed. But I had to admit it was tasty. She misunderstood what it meant to garnish with mint and actually placed the mint in the cake mix. Eric thought that it added a toothpaste quality to the mix.

Her second experiment was with cheesecake. She made a reecie cup cheesecake for her boyfriend Ron. It was a hit. She made flowers on top with a couple of small reecie cups and some sort of candy flavored pringles looking things that looked like the petals. I told her she may be the next martha Stewart. She quipped, "I'd like to be like her except the jail part".

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.

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.

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.

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.

Easter
Topic: General
Had a happy Easter. Everyone made it for the main meal. I think that they all had a good time. The girls brought their boyfriends along.

Chad is tearing his tractor apart. He is redoing something with the hydraulics and putting in a new clutch. Sounds like a lot of work, but he seems to think that he will have it up and running in a few weeks.

Joe stayed over at Cody's a couple of times during spring break. Chelsea just hung out.