The Fun Doesn't Stop

Last Thursday, Yena (my daughter) was running in the county end of the season track meet and ran the 1600 meter, 800 meter and got third in each event. Her mile time was 6:07, which I think is pretty good for a mile for being 13. My fastest mile time was around 5:08 and that was my junior or senior year of high school. However, the event she ran all season was the 400 meter and the 4X400 relay. Well, she ran the 4X400 relay on Thursday night, the last event, and right as she started there was a mix up with the runner who handed her the baton and Yena got punctured by the other girl's spike in her foot. She ran the race and even caught up to several girls in her leg and then collapsed on the track right after she handed the baton off. Her team ended up getting first, but it took a while to figure out what had happened and before Zoe and I could get on the field to be with her.

She was lucky though because it went through a part of her foot where there are no major ligaments or bones and she didn't sprain or fracture anything when she fell. She was upset because she thought she wasn't going to be able to do her swim meet this weekend. Well, Friday she was pretty sore still and used crutches at school, but decided not to go to urgent care or anything because it was not infected and everything was looking as good as it could be. We took off swim practice on Friday, didn't go to the meet yesterday, but went for the last day. Despite everything, she did okay considering and did drop over half a second on the 50 yard freestyle, but added on the 200 yard freestyle.

We didn't get to go to the meet yesterday, but Yena and I did go to a Purdue baseball game because a colleague and friend, Suzanne, was not using her tickets. It was a beautiful day and Suzanne has great tickets behind home plate. For the record in nine years at being at Purdue, this is the first Purdue sports event that I have attended. And I have to say it has probably been almost fourteen years since I've been at a baseball game of any kind. My parents had season tickets for the minor league baseball team in my hometown, The Springfield Cardinals, and remember those being fun at times as long as it wasn't too hot or we were in the sun. Purdue lost yesterday, but thought they were going to maybe come back at the bottom of the 9th, but it didn't materialize. It was nice to go to a baseball game even though Yena lost interest in the last couple of innings and was on her phone, of course!

You can see the picture above of us before the game started. I am wearing a USA Swimming hat not because I am a competitive swimmer or work for USA Swimming, but I am a Stroke and Turn Official at meets. I have even done a couple of small college meets at Purdue. Zoe bought me the hat for the one summer meet that is at an outdoor pool to wear to keep the sun off my face. That is just another small "hat" that I wear along with everything else that I do.

I have been trying to work in the garden, but have quickly realized that I do not have enough sturdy and long enough switchgrass sticks to use for tomato cages. I am going to have to buy some and also for the peppers and tomatoes that I have tucked in at the other places in the garden.. I really hate to have to spend money when I can make stuff, but have also realized that it takes me a lot of time and they aren't nearly as good as the ones you can buy.

I did plant some basil around some of the tomatoes from seeds that we had saved last year. I knew we had saved some seeds, but had forgot about them. The basil flowers or stems were still on the drying tower that we have hung up in the guest bedroom, but I am glad that I found them. I love some shredded basil and cut up tomatoes with some olive oil on top and a little salt and pepper. That just yells "Summer" to me as well as tomatoes and cucumbers in vinegar with some sugar and salt. I bought cucumber seeds last fall (a bush type), but I don't think I have any space to plant them. There is never enough space for all the things that I want to grow!

I am going to have to break down and buy all the stuff for canning though this summer and get into that if I am serious about growing our own food and making it last all year long. I have done some amateur canning like referigerator pickles, but need to get with it. However, it is going to be hard this year with us going overseas for four weeks this summer from mid-July to mid-August.. There won't be a lot of time to devote to that with Yena's schedule, Zoe's schedule, and the start of the fall semester quickly approaching. I will surely blog about all of that though if this summer, especially when we get back if I try to get into canning. I guess it will have to depend on how the harvest goes this year.

I better wrap this up, we have some friends from Colombia coming to stay with us a few nights before they go with their son down to Alabama for his internship this summer. They actually got here on Wednesday, and we have seen them briefly already, but they decided to stay with some other friends for the first half of their stay here in town. Anyway, we like to joke that their son is "our" son when he is here and try to check-in regularly, have him over for meals, and all the stuff to make sure a college student is staying well and healthy.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time!