Our Project List

This summer Doug and I started on the project list that we had made in order to get the house ready to sell.  I have been impressed with how much that we have gotten done so far.  Doug has had several trees removed, some stumps ground out, planted grass and even painted the basement.  I have worked more on the organization projects which have included sorting through tubs, cleaning out the toy storage room and downsizing our photo albums.  

As we have already made a lot more progress on our project list than I thought that we would, I decided to start looking at some of the smaller items that we should try to do before we put our house on the market.  One was an outside light that we just couldn't get to stabilize.  I asked my Dad for his opinion and he said that we could either replace it or try to fix it.  I liked the fix it idea as it wouldn't cost us much except our time.  

The golf course was closed today, so it was the perfect afternoon for my Dad to come up and look at the light.  We took it all apart, saw what the problem was and decided to fix it.  It wasn't quite back to normal, but after 45 minutes it was hanging back up and actually worked.  I sent a picture of it to Doug in Florida and we at least impressed him.  I appreciated my Dad's help and talked him into looking at some more items that need attention.  One small project down, a dozen more to go.  

Russell Crowe Movie Month

A couple of weeks ago I was listening to the Proof of Life Rewatchable podcast.  During it Bill Simmons kept talking about what a great actor Russell Crowe was.  I couldn't have agreed more and wondered why I hadn't watched more of his movies.  I was sure that he had made some recently that I hadn't seen and decided to do a little research on his IMBD.  As the long list showed up on my computer screen, I was actually shocked at how many of his movies I hadn't watched.  Since Doug was going to be traveling a lot and I had a few tedious paperwork projects to do while he was gone, I decided to make September "Russell Crowe Movie Month."  

Since I had seen all of Russell Crowe's Oscar nominated movies, I decided that I would start the month off with a movie of his that I had never seen.  I looked through the long list and picked out the 2018 film, "A Boy Erased."  I had no idea what it was about, but it had Nicole Kidman in it along with Crowe, so I figured that it had to be good.  As soon as it started, I was absolutely hooked.  The movie centered around a teenage boy who thought that he might be homosexual.  When his Baptist pastor father (Crowe) found out, he decided to send him to "gay conversion camp."  It definitely was not a positive experience for the boy and led to some emotionally intense scenes.  Thankfully, there was a happy ending which I prefer and overall I enjoyed the movie.

The next Russell Crowe pick of the month was "Fathers and Daughters" from 2015. It was a complete tear jerker and had a surprise appearance by Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I was engrossed in the movie from beginning to end.  As I talked about it to Doug tonight, I realized that it didn't matter what movie Russell Crowe was in - happy, sad, thriller, good, bad, etc., he is just a great actor and makes even the dullest movie better.  I am really looking forward to exploring more of his movies this month.  To answer the question that he posed as Maximus in Gladiator, "Are you not entertained?" Yes, actually I am.  

One for the History Books

Last night Bethany played Westview in Topeka.  The Warriors had been a tough match for the Bruins since Cameron joined the tennis team four years ago.  Cameron assured me that they were down this year and that it would be a lot closer than last year's score.  I was hopeful, yet skeptical, as the small, rural school always had good sports teams.

I arrived early tonight and was surprised to see that Westview only had nine players on their team, down quite a bit from years past.  As our team was warming up, I started to think that maybe Cameron was right.  Maybe we did have a chance at a team victory.  As the match started, however, I soon realized that although their team was smaller, they definitely were very good.  After the first half hour of play, Cameron and Breece were the only courts with a game win as all of the singles and #2 doubles were down 0-5.  

As #1 doubles made the switch at 1-4, I realized that the score didn't quite reflect how well Breece and Cameron were playing.  A coupled of double faults and a few too many unforced errors were the difference in the courts' score.  Once the boys calmed down, got into a rhythm and figure out how to return their opponent's serve, Breece and Cameron started to win games.  In fact they brought the first set score to 4-5, before losing the final game to end at 4-6.  Those of us in their fan group were impressed with their play and their comeback.  

Cameron and Breece built on that momentum and soon were in the lead in the second set.  As the #1 doubles court continued to rally back and forth, more and more Bruins players the spectator bleachers unable to find a victory on their own courts.  The two teams at #1 doubles, however, were as closely matched as I had ever seen in my ten seasons of watching high school tennis.  We all hoped for that Breece and Cameron could push the match to a third set as it was too much fun watching them play to have it end after two.  The boys soon found themselves in a second set tiebreak and easily won 7-4 forcing a third set.

Grandpa took advantage of the break in action to get Grandma and I a bag of popcorn from the soccer match.  I was thankful as the match was close to two hours long by that point.  The boys rested and talked with Matt during the ten minute intermission.  The third set was extremely intense with long rallies, awesome overheads and some incredible shots.  Cameron and Breece were up a break at 1-3, but soon Westview made a run and was up a break 5-4.  The crowd had grown, the energy was up and the boys held on to force a third set tiebreak.  Matt had told them that the most aggressive team would win tonight and to not let down their intensity.  He was 100% right as the Westview players went into a conservative mode and Breece and Cameron kept going for winners.  The strategy worked and after two hours and fifty minutes, Bethany won the court with a third set tiebreak score of 1-7.  Cameron felt really good about tonight as he said that that was the best that he had played this year.  Matt posted later that this was one of the closest matches in Bethany history.  So incredibly thankful that we got to witness it.  

Labor Day Weekend in Nashville

While Doug and I were visiting Brett and Meg in Bloomington and Cameron was enjoying Labor Day weekend in Ohio, Cal took off for Nashville with his IU friends.  They had visited the city before and absolutely love it.  They decided that the three day weekend was the perfect time to revisit and enjoy all that Nashville had to offer.  They even took Friday off from work to make their time in Tennessee longer.

We heard from Cal several times while he was on vacation.  He had spent Thursday night in Indy with Mark.  They made it to Nashville in time to watch the IU football game on Friday.  They visited several bars, toured the city, and even rode mechanical bulls.  It was fun looking at his posts and pictures on Instagram.  I was glad to hear that he still had all of his teeth after his caption on the picture below read, "Many teeth were lost this weekend."  We were also thankful that the person lying on the fountain was Brock and not some random lost soul.  

Cal texted me when they got back to Indianapolis today to let me know that they were stopping for a late lunch and then heading back to Chicago.  I knew from what he had said that he had really enjoyed his getaway.  I was very happy to hear that.  He had had several stressful weeks at work recently and a few days off was exactly what he needed.  

A Weekend in Ohio

Last week, Avery invited Cameron and Samuel to spend the weekend in Ohio with him at his grandparents' home.  Cameron wasn't sure at first if he would be able to make it.  His back had really been bothering him and he was exhausted from a busy week of school and tennis.  Thankfully, he was feeling a lot better after resting his back and got almost all of his homework done by Thursday night. Thus, he was able to join group for a road trip.

Cameron, Avery and Samuel left Friday night after Cameron's match with Triton.  It took them close to two hours to get to Archbold, Ohio.  They spent the weekend playing games, cooking out, miniature golfing, go karting and making videos.  Although Cameron was absolutely exhausted when he got home, he said that it was a lot of fun and was really glad that he went.  It was the perfect way for him to spend the holiday weekend and a nice break from school.  We appreciated the Rusel family inviting him and that he had one more day to rest before his busy week started back up again.  

A Wonderful Day in Btown

Meg had to work the lunch shift at Bell Trace today and Brett had his regular shift at Storage Express.  That gave Doug and I some time to explore Bloomington on our own.  We first headed to the Union to look for Doug a new IU shirt.  He had one that he really liked, but it needed replaced.  Meg and I had looked all over Bloomington previously and never found one.  Thankfully, the bookstore had one left in his size.

After the Union, we headed down Kirkwood to check out the rest of their shops.  Our favorite stop of the day was at Tracks where Doug once again found something that he had been looking for - The Rolling Stones vinyl Exile on Main Street.  By the time we left, I had added America's Greatest Hits to our collection as well.  Our last stop was Fat Dan's for lunch.  The food was delicious and thankfully the rain held off so that we could eat outside.

Meg, Nick, Doug and I headed to Oliver Winery after she got off of work.  We each did a flight of five wines to try and had a lot of fun tasting them.  Only one made the never again list for all of us - Lavender Cucumber Chill.  Meg bought a few wines to take back to her apartment and Nick purchased an Apple Pie wine for himself.  We split up after the winery so that everyone could rest and Doug could work for a little while.

Brett was home by 7 tonight.  He had had a busy and successful day at work.  We left shortly after he arrived for Bucceto's for dinner.  Meg and Nick met us there.  Everyone enjoyed their pasta and calzone dinner.  The conversation started off revolving around books and movies, but quickly turned to Brett's top states that he could see himself living in one day.  None of us quite bought into his thoughts on living in Louisiana.  

Meg and Nick left for Kroger after dinner.  They had plans to drink rum and watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.  Brett, Doug and I returned to his apartment to play Ticket to Ride Germany and watch football and the US Open.  Doug and I each won a round of the board game making us all even on the weekend.  In the sports world Ohio State beat Notre Dame and Nadal moved on to the next round in tennis. We were happy with both outcomes. All in all it was a wonderful day in Bloomington.

A Great Start to the Holiday Weekend

Doug worked from home this morning and then took the afternoon off.  We had decided that since Cameron would be going to Avery's grandparents for the weekend that we would spend a few days in Bloomington.  Before we left, however, Doug wanted to plant grass seed in the backyard where the tree stumps were removed and in front where he took out the pine tree.  It took a little longer than he had planned as he had to replant several hosta as well.  While he was busy outside, I spent my time packing and working on the computer.  Thankfully, we were able to make time to take a long walk together before heading to Cameron's tennis match at Bethany.

Cameron took last night off from matches as his back was really bothering him on Wednesday.  They didn't need him then as South Bend Washington only had four players.  He did get the default win with Keegan, however, on the #2 doubles court.  Tonight, Matt paired Cameron in a real match with Breece at #1 doubles.  They played well together and won 6-0, 6-0.  It was fun to watch.  Cameron did finally break the strings from the replacement racket that we got on Monday from Ebay.  We knew that would happen as the strings were pretty old, but we were surprised that it hadn't occurred at Prairie Heights where his opponent had a killer serve. 

After the match, Doug and I headed to Bloomington.  It was an easy trip as there wasn't much traffic.  We also had the first half of the Illinois vs. IU game to listen to on the radio.  By the time we got to Bloomington, the first half had ended with IU in the lead.  Cameron texted that they had arrived in Ohio at the same time and that he had gotten to watch the game on his phone during the two hour drive.  Cal was doing the same in Nashville with his friends.

We had ordered breadsticks and pizza from Pizza X on our way into town.  An error sent us to the wrong restaurant.  I felt bad as I had read the phone number incorrectly on their website.  It cost us about ten extra minutes, but the nice part was that we received a free pizza out of it.  Meg and Nick came over to Brett's to grab some food and ice before heading back to her apartment.  Brett, Doug and I spent the rest of evening the playing Ticket to Ride Germany and watching the rest of the IU football game.  Brett was thrilled to have won a close game at Ticket to Ride and Doug was even happier that IU pulled out a close one as well.  Today was a great way to start the holiday weekend.