This has been one baseball-filled weekend. I am in Chicago with Rose and Shirley. The Sox are hot, and Chicago is hot for them. We've watched the Cardinals get crushed twice by the Astros and now are watching the Angels battle the Sox. I have to call Scott and Chris often during these play-off games to get info about players, rulings, and baseball in general. They certainly have followed in their father's footsteps. Each knows all the subtleties of sports in ways I don't even begin to fathom. So, I just call them when I want to know, for example, why I may never get to see Roger Clemons pitch again.

Rose did a nice update but failed to mention that Brother Donald traveled from Birmingham on Monday to attend Joe's Man of the Year Award Dinner. I want to correct that oversight. And I want to add my two cents about what a wonderful evening it was. Truly the gang was all there!

Tomorrow Shirley and I will fly to St. Louis where Chris, our attentive and loving airport shuttle, will meet us. Rose will return on Tuesday. This will be a short week. Shirley's sister arrives from Covington, LA, on Thursday, then the four of us will go to the lake for a few days on Friday. This is our semi-annual get-together during which we usually play cards, specifically poker, for money. We like to refer to Shirley's sister Loretta as the "Mississippi Gambler" because she has a way of going home with some of our $$$. After several years of this, we no longer can call it 'luck.'

I am having new siding put on the lake house. That work should begin while we are there. I took Pete's advice that 'cheapest is sometimes most expensive,' and have selected someone that my sons--biological and adopted--approve even though the his cost is above other estimates.

Sad to say, Brayden hasn't given us dear old ladies a second thought since he went off with his dad yesterday. Needless to say, we are missing him terribly.

We have lots of photos to post, but they are in St. Louis. We'll try to get them 'blogged' before we leave for the lake.