A Stump of a Guy

Meet Bill Bonderud, my father-in-law. To say my father-in-law is a character is a redundancy. Three weeks ago he devised his own weight loss program: come to Sonoma, eat only heathly food, wake up at 6:30 every morning to a grinning granddaughter, and spend the remaining moments of the day doing obscene amounts of yardwork. The biggest challenge in our yard has been stumps. We had half a dozen stumps to remove and Bill took them out. The one pictured here took 3 days to conquer.
His plan worked, he has dropped 24 pounds in 3 weeks. However, we have been the real beneficiaries. Aside from the obvious fact that our yard is 10 times better thanks to his efforts, Stefanie can pick up the kids and leave the baby napping, Marley can listen to nutty stories at 6:30 am when everyone else refuses to wake, Asher has a challenger for his games, and Ella has a grandpa to help build fairy houses. Our whole family has appreciated his help much more than he appreciates losing the weight. Some people have a real problem with nutty father-in-laws. I sure am glad for mine.

Rounding the Bases

I don't think I have ever heard a baseball coach tell a kid to slow down as they run the bases, but that might be the case for Asher next time he is on the field. In his game last week, he was running the bases on one of his hits and caught up to the player in front of him at home plate. As the first boy turned around, he collided with Asher and caught him in the mouth with his batting helmet. At first, I thought his lip was split, but it seems Asher's tooth went through his lip from the inside to the outside. Besides a lot of blood, it wasn't too bad. However, he still has a fat lip a week later and some tissue in his mouth that is hanging loose and has yet to heal.
He sat out for 1/2 an inning, but when the time came to bat again, he was back in the box. I guess it wasn't as bad as it seemed.