winnin'

My readers have been sitting on pins and needles awaiting news of the Men's church league division A (that's the top, you know) championship of Champaign-Urbana.  We got off to a small early lead and kept it through the end, winning 9-5.  Another pull-over championship windbreaker is on the way (but not the B league version this time.  A all the way)!  Our defense was superb throughout the playoffs, and we used banjo hitting throughout the lineup to score runs.  Case in point was me:  I got either 3 or 4 hits in each of the playoff games, with nearly all of them being singles.

 Janny has crushed another milestone.  She can ride that there tricycle all by herself.  She also figured out that by whining about being hungry at bed time, she can stay up later.  We're actively working against this trend.  Initially, we only offered leftovers from the healthy parts of dinner.  Now we are pushing much harder on eating bigger dinners and having snacks an hour before bedtime.  Honestly, we're losing.  But we keep trying!

 Clara starts another year of preschool tomorrow.  She'll again be in the Tues / Thurs class at our neighborhood Lutheran church.  She is super excited about going again, but already this morning expressed concern about waking up before 8am to get ready for school.  Kids these days have it rough!

It hasn't rained much this month and the hot weather is returning, so we're playing in the sprinkler.  Last night, I started watering our garden and got distracted with bicycle assembly (maybe more on that next time).  I did remember first thing when I woke up this morning.  The plants seem to have enjoyed the long bath.

Last weekend was our ride around Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin trip.  We stayed at Jessie's family's cabin on the east side of the lake and enjoyed a fabulous sunset on Saturday night with Jarrod, Jessie, Jim, and Beth, and the kids.

The night itself was short-lived as we woke up at 4am to get ready for the 90 mile ride.  Jill and I rode mostly alone, but occasionally we would pick up someone that enjoyed our draft for a while.  The ride itself was quite nice, as there was a nice mix of very rural roads, small towns (Oshkosh!), and lake views.  The trouble was that often I just wanted to be done so that we could start the 5.5 hour drive home (plus N rest stops for the girls) and get some sleep before work on Monday morning.  Note to self:  if there is a next time, take Monday off.

We finished the ride in a clock time of 5:50.  Not too bad!  Jill hasn't ridden any long rides this year, but she is in solid 'boot-camp' shape.  We arrived home at 10:45 pm.  Not bad.  By the following Saturday, I was feeling quite refreshed.

Jill's mom and dad are visiting this week.  Good times.