Boys & Baseball

Alex and Jack both got into baseball this summer.  Alex (at 5 yrs old), joined t-ball and played on Tuesday evenings in Appleton.  We're fortunate to live close and could attend almost all of his games.  Most of the time he really enjoyed it (especially at the end when the two teams form the "Good Game" hand-slapping lines), and mainly liked to be the catcher, which is a glorified position since the kids hit off tees, but the catcher gets to touch the ball a lot so he liked that.



Early in the season, Uncle Steve gave Alex a bat that had been Jack's and he felt pretty special having his own bat at all of the games.









Early in the summer, Jack was playing soccer but was able to start playing baseball as the summer progressed.  He was chosen to represent his team (the Cardinals) in the All-Star game, which I attended earlier today.  He did really great with some good plays and good batting.  It was a hot day, but he played hard and we went for ice cream after the game.  Even though his team lost by two runs, he was able to hit in one of his team's runs and he scored the last run for his team.



Prior to the game, Jack and Dad did some shopping and Jack got his own batting helmet and he selected an orange one that really stands out!

Unbelievable Weather

Mini sunflowers "planted" by the birds

This has been the worst summer (for people and animals).  June was very chilly and rainy most of the time; July has been extremely hot and humid.  My tomatoes and other hot-loving plants are going crazy -- which is really great.  Also, the high humidity brings rain almost every day in some fashion or another.  My hydrangeas are big and beautiful, but tend to wither in the late afternoon sun; apparently, they don't like it any better than we do.  The butterfly garden is growing like crazy and something really cool:  all of those sunflower seeds dropped by the birds have sprung into mini-sunflowers (about 2-3 feet high).  Today, they're in bloom.

One of my pink hydrangeas.

The special sunflower cultivars that Steve & Stacy sent for Mother's Day are at heights from 2 1/2 feet up to over 5 feet high right now.  They all have blooms (some have multiple blooms!), and I'm just waiting for them to open.

Overall, I'm really pleased with my gardening success so far this summer.

Front Page News!

Last week I was able to attend a Harry Potter marathon at the local theatre -- showing the first three movies on Wednesday, and the next 5 on Thursday culminating with the midnight showing of the newest movie.  It was a lot of fun, and I didn't realize it but I was actually photographed by the Post Crescent while I was coming into the theatre to get my bracelet.  Then, I was interviewed and the whole thing ended up on the front page of the paper.  Ian in particular got a kick out of it.


http://appletonhub.postcrescent.com/article/20110714/APC0503/107140488/Photo-galleries-video-story-Last-Harry-Potter-movie-creates-excitement-Fox-Cities?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Cimg%7CFRONTPAGE

Hello Again

Going to get back to blogging on a regular basis, but tonight my left hand isn't working very well so typing is a problem. I've had arthritis for a long time, but this summer has been really bad for some reason - perhaps it's the high humidity we've been experiencing.

Anyway, I love the background of my blog page as we're in the middle of garden season. My tomatoes must have grown a foot over the past week with the high heat and humidity. All of them (4 regular and 3 cherry plants) have flowers or small tomatoes. I'll also gave zucchini and cucumbers if everything goes ok this summer.

Not sure what it is but I cannot get things to grow in those "strawberry pots". The things I started from seed sprouted, but then died. Then I put very healthy transplants in there and they died. If I really want something to grow, I think I need to dump the dirt and sterilize the container and start over.

More thoughts when my fingers are working better...