Ho-Hum

It's now almost mid-March; hard to believe the semester is almost half-way done, and spring break is just around the corner...and shortly after that, Bode will be done with school and will be a 4th-grader.  Ashley and I recently realized we have been married for almost 18 years, and Bode has been around for more than half that time.  Scary.  The little Dude is doing fine--he spends a lot of time with his dog, Joey.  I tried to get a good picture of the two of them playing, but this was the best I could do.

Bode has a swim meet this past weekend.  He swam great, but didn't place very well.  This is because there was an 8-and-under category and a 10-and-under category.  Bode is a young nine years old, so he was swimming against guys that could be close to 11.  His times were improvements over any of his previous times--his 100-individual medley time was 1:51, which I thought was very good.  Sadly, he was DQed (again) for a bad turn.  He was really upset when the judge told him--neither Ashley nor I realized what he did was a DQ.  Fortunately, I filmed the race, and I think I now understand the rule.

The bad turn occurs at the ~1:06 mark.  I think Bode's body has to remain mostly horizontal until he touches the wall.  In this case, his body was coming perpendicular when his hand touched, which made it an illegal turn.  He also swam the 50-yard butterfly, the 100-yard backstroke, and the 200-yard freestyle (the last one was probably too long, but we're proud of him for finishing it).  The meet is very well organized, and there's even a scoreboard with the swimmer's name for each heat and event.

Here's an action photo of Bode getting ready to start his backstroke.

Finally, a sweet one of Bode and Mommy.

Afterwards, we let Bode pick the lunch location.  Ashley has brain-washed the kid, and all he wants to eat is Waffle House (the boy is a true southerner...)

The weather has been unseasonably warm, and I am tempted to try to put some of my plants outside...but I won't fall for this deadly call of the Siren.   I'm sure we'll have some hard freezes in late March or early April.  My indoor plants are going great--I've moved the pumpkins and corn to bigger pots.  The melons are also going strong, and my hope is to have an edible honey-dew melon in late August, but I do need to figure out how to keep the bugs off my fruit (short of keeping chickens, which is a definite no-go).  Pleasant week to all.