A Memorable Memorial Day

We had a fairly low-key but fun Memorial Day weekend.

Craig and Emma, the walking wounded, spent much of the weekend playing tennis. Emma, who has never played golf, has "golfer's elbow", which is apparently inflammation of the tendons attaching the forearm muscles to the elbow bone. She's had "tennis elbow" (or lateral epicondylitis) in the past, but this is her first round of "golfer's elbow" (or medial epicondylitis). Craig pulled a leg muscle during a tennis match last Thursday and is severely hobbled. Neverthless, the two of them played father-daughter doubles at the Paper Cup in Pueblo this weekend. Additionally, Craig played singles in his age group. Emma, because of her elbow injury, had to serve underhand, could not hit overheads, and had to stick to the ad side of the court so she could limit herself mostly to backhands (she has a double-handed backhand, which takes some of the pressure off her right elbow). Craig, in spite of his restricted movement, won the consolation draw for his men's singles division, and he and Emma were runners up in the father-daughter doubles. They had a wonderful time and really enjoyed chatting with their opponents. They came away with new friends and exchanged numbers with several people whom they may hit with in the future. It was a great bonding experience for them, and Craig, as evidenced by the new Fitbit Daniel just bought him, knocked off thousands of calories, and took tens of thousands of steps. They came home with three absolutely enormous trophies (one would think they'd won Masters 1000 events). Oh, and a rather alarmingly hued T-shirt apiece.

They got home from Pueblo today too late for lunch, and Craig had to leave at five to fly out on a business trip this evening, so we had linner/lunner/dunch at four this afternoon. We did a vegan barbecue. It only took about half an hour to throw everything together. Vegan meat analogs mostly just need to be microwaved and then thrown on the grill for a few minutes. We had a few salads, vegan hot dogs and burgers, corn on the cob, chips and dip, watermelon, and some other sides, along with chocolate cake for dessert. It was raining (rain is welcome after our warm, dry winter), so we held off on the S'Mores. We will do those one evening when Craig is home and Paige, our resident bartender, is here to make us her wonderful cocktails. Daniel took Craig up to the airport after the meal.

Yesterday Laura went up to Elitches, a theme park in Denver, with a friend. For reasons best known to themselves, they love riding roller coasters. Laura's friend is an absolute gem. She stayed over last night as she and Laura got home really late. Laura worked for part of the weekend (she loves her job taking care of little kids) and spent time with her boyfriend. She's living an enchanted life at the moment.

Last Friday, I ordered some summer reading with titles culled from recent Common Reading assignments for various colleges and universities. Surprisingly, my books were delivered on Saturday evening (Amazon Prime). I ordered Visual Intelligence, by Amy Herman, Make Your Home Among Strangers, by Jennine Capó Crucet, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain, Hillbilly Elegy, by J. D. Vance, and The Joy of x, by Steven Strogatz. I'm hoping that the kids and I will read them over the summer and that we can enjoy discussing them. I have started on three of the five. Grinnell has not yet announced its selection, but speculation is that it will be Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, so I should probably order that too. Last year, Grinnell chose Born a Crime, by Trevor Noah.

Poor Craig has been texting to say that his plane has been caught in extreme turbulence. He will get in late and will probably get no more than two hours sleep tonight😟