The Accidental Boilermaker

 I’m home from my short trip to Cincinnati. Katherine flew in Monday for a conference that doesn’t start till tomorrow. So I drove down to meet her and hang out since Cincinnati is so much closer than Los Angeles. We arrived at our Airbnb at practically the same time Monday afternoon. We relaxed, got dinner, and then relaxed some more. Tuesday we headed out for coffee and breakfast, bringing stuff to work on while we were out.  Then it was back to our room so Kate could hop on some meetings while I worked on my Bible study and read.  Before dinner we walked around downtown a little more. We had sushi and Thai for dinner and then ice cream for dessert.  Back once more in our room, we got to hear all about Evelyn’s basketball game. My parents drove over Monday to help with getting Evelyn and Jameson to and from school, so they got to watch the game too.  Wednesday morning we got coffee one last time before I dropped Kate off at her hotel and then headed home....

 Another busy-ish Saturday. Jameson’s upward basketball coach’s wife went into labor on Friday.  So Nate was promoted to head coach and I was called up to assistant coach. It was fun though and the boys won. With only 5 players, they had to play the full time so they were tired but everyone got a basket which always feels good.  Evelyn missed her upward game today. She was at Circle the State, a state wide choral event. Several area elementary choirs spent all day practicing their songs and then put on a show in the afternoon. In addition to the elementary choir, several middle school choirs also performed. It was a nice event and Evelyn said she had lots of fun. 

 Evelyn is 10! She wanted donuts for breakfast so we woke up early and picked up a few for us and 6 for her to bring as a treat for her basketball team. Then we opened a few presents.  Jameson picked out big cat stickers that Evelyn can use to decorate her room. But they were both excited for all the sticky toys that came from Isaac and Joshua. That was the hit gift of the morning.  Most of the day was spent at church playing basketball. Jameson had a good but frustrating game in the sense that the score wasn’t what he wanted it to be and he maybe didn’t play as well as he hoped. Evelyn had a doubleheader.  Her team won the first game and lost the second by 2 points.  While picking up donuts, Evelyn decided she wanted ribs at Ziffles for dinner. We waited a while for our table and a while for our food.  It was worth it and everyone was understanding, but it did seem to wear Jameson down a little. Evelyn asked for an apple pie for dessert. Pies are not my th...