Is Joe Still Alive??

It's been a while since I last posted, but it's OK! Or I'm OK is what I should say. Circumstances just prevented posts.

Wednesday I left around 7 for softball and didn't get home until about midnight. Thursday was a similarly busy day when I left for golf at 3 and didn't get home until midnight. I golfed with Bill the Bear, Smitty and Nick and we went out for a few drinks after finishing 15 holes before darkness set in. Friday was supposed to be a nice dinner an movie night with Naperville Greg and Kleveland Kim, but they had to cancel, so it was off to Joliet for the first day of a softball tournament that I was going to miss.

And it was some kind of fun!! We won the first game and then got to play the #1 or #2 team in the COUNTRY. Yep, these guys get paid, by at least one account, $1,000 a weekend, free airfare, all expenses paid, and then performance bonuses. These guys routinely hit the ball out of baseball stadiums, 400 foot shots fairly consistently. But after one inning, we were up 6-2!! There's a 30 run slaughter rule after 3 innings so our goal was to get to the fourth inning. It didn't happen, though. Even though we were ahead after one, they put up 15 0r 20 in the second and then went up 38-6 by the third. Yeah, we didn't score any more runs. Unfortunately I didn't get to hit against them, but I did play in the field the second and third innings. Good fun.

So Friday was again a late night as our game ended around 10:30 or so. Unfortunately, LL got sick (possibly from me) and got a sinus infection. The weekend was tough for her with the limited amount of sleep we had. Saturday morning came quickly as we had batting practice around 8. We had one game, against a team from Oklahoma who was two levels above us. We were up 12-0 and then 20-15 going into the last inning and they scored 9 to go up 24-20. Unfortunately we weren't able to come back and that was the final score.

The afternoon was free now as that was our second loss of the tournament, so LL and I went to Oakbrook Mall and got some gift registering done. It's one of the many tasks still to be accomplished for our wedding, but it was a biggee. We aren't done, but we made great progress.

Saturday night was a birthday party for Terry from Mokena, where we go for Memorial Day, and it was only about 30 minutes from LL's parents' house. They had it a bowling alley where they had these crazy couples bowling games. Naturally I was awful, LL was good!, and we had fun. The birthday boy and his wife, Sandie, bowled on our lane along with Bill and Diana, an elderly couple that we see every year at the Memorial Day party.

Again we stayed out late, it was after midnight by the time we got to bed, and it was another early wakeup call on Sunday (8:15). For the 8 teams at our level, there was a special single elimination tournament which we've won, I believe, the last two years. We won our first game and then played right away again. The second game we won 5-4 with a comeback in the sixth inning to tie the game at 4-4 and to win it in the seventh. I worked a walk in the seventh to push the game winning run to second and he later scored on a 2 out base hit. Unfortunately, that was my only time on base the second game. In the first and third games though, I was 3-3. It wasn't enough though as we lost our last game 7-5.

After working out on Monday, bowling and running 3 miles on Tuesday, and then Wednesday through Sunday above, I'm beat and am really looking forward to sleeping tonight!