Hip Replacements. There has been a lot of press about FDA requiring analysis of metal on metal hip replacements due to concerns of metal wear and/or metal leakage into the blood stream.  I had been experiencing a slight burning sensation in my left thigh.  I have been concerned about playing volleyball (3xs/week) and it had been a few years since I had my hips checked so I scheduled a check up with Dr. Zahn.  They took lots of Xrays.  Dr. Zahn was really happy to see that bone wall has actually grown thicker where the tapered pin encounters my thigh bone.  It is very healthy bone mass.  The burning session seems to be due to a pulled ligament; treatable by over the shelf medications.  A reassuring visit.

Garden.  We have been eating asparagus 2-3x a week.  I have a row of peas that we are just starting to eat.  I recently planted a 2nd row that I expect will be ready to eat the end of July.  The end of June I will rip out the row we just started to eat and do one more planting that we will be able to eat in Sept. I planted 12 tomato plants.  I tried starting some from seed, but started too late, so I ended up buying transplants.  I have cucumbers, yellow wax beans and some acorn squash.  I am trying pole beans for the 1st time.  Supposedly the vines grow to 12′ so I have this 9′ teepee structure in the garden for them to climb.  It looks awesome and the beans are coming up nicely.  In theory it allows a lot of plants in a condensed space.  We will see.  I planted brussel sprouts.  Last year I did transplants and they were fantastic late growers.  This year I did seeds, but they have come up yet.  I will give them one more week and then I will try to find some replacements.

Frankfort AYSO Soccer Tournament. I took a team of 8 boys to participate in the U8 tournament in Frankfort.  There were 5 teams: 2 from Holland Patent, Frankfort, Mohawk and Ilion.  The tournament ran from 1am-2pm.  We played all other four teams.  We opened with a 4-2 loss to Frankfort.  I don’t think the boys were ready for the intensity of the other players and I was unfamiliar with a couple of players and may not have had optimal line-ups in play.  We had two quick goals scored against us before the team got going and pretty much played them even up from then on.   We blew out the next team 9-1 with Dylan going crazy scoring – they had no match for his speed.  We scored big again in our 3rd game and then broke for a 30 minute lunch break.  In our final game we played the other HP team and needed a win to secure 1st or 2nd place.  We were down 0-2 in the 1st half and according to Thomas “it was a disaster!”.  I told the kids to keep their heads up and play hard.  We rallied to a tie, and ended up in 3rd place in the tournament.

1st row: Charlie, Kalib, Thomas.  2nd row: Ryan, Trevor, Eric, Dylan, Sawyer.  3rd row: Jim.

Cookout.  After the tournament Trevor stayed at our house and we had our 1st cook out of the year at cook out corner.  Kathryn and I checked out the wet spots in Kirkland’s pasture to assess when I could brush hog the perimeter.  On our hike back we played a modified ManTracker.  The boys tried to ambush us from the hay pasture and we managed to get ahead of them and ambush the kids on the return trip.

Bella’s Birthday. Sunday afternoon we drove to Syracuse and met Ed, Phoenix and Izzabella for a late lunch at Hoffman’s Hothouse.  Afterwards we went to a park where Eric and Bella played, Phoenix showed off his latest codes and we chatted with Ed.  We had Carvel ice cream and returned home.

Lacrosse.  Eric is signed up for youth lacrosse this summer.  He and I practiced throwing and catching in the backyard for him to get the feel of the stick.