I made the announcement Friday. I will be retiring from derby, effective June 8.

Working 2 jobs and derby was taking too much time away from my family - and as a result stressing me out. I always said if it ever came to the point where derby was effecting my life with my family derby would loose.

It is time to slow down, take a deep breath, and RELAX.

I wont be disappearing entirely, I will likely become a rabid fan, or announcer.

The weekend was simply packed to the gills with friends and family. What more can I hope for? Saturday we attended a book signing for the book of Grants late (1965) Grandfathers poetry. I was more than a little confused as to how a author who has been dead over 40 years would sign the book. Little did we know that Grant and his Dad would be doing the signing since he did the data entry and his father compiled the poems. While we were there I played with the dogs, a Germain Sheppard, Anatolian Sheppard, great Pyrenees, and 2 Pitt bulls. We went home and Grant crashed out.

Dinner brought a happy event, I had dinner with Rose (a very dear friend from my sophomore year at OSU) and her husband Justin (incidentally I sold rose to Justin at a date auction - this led to their first date), Kathy (Justin's mom), and the Hobbits. Girl Hobbit is 7 now (I was there when she was born), and Boy Hobbit is 5 (I saw him when he was about a week old). Dinner was great and the kids are sooooo cute! It seems like every time Rose comes to Tulsa she brings a torrential down pour, this time was no exception.

I ran home to try to wake up Grant - no dice. All the while I was experiencing a severe case of cabin fever.Fortunately Kellie let me know that she was at Fox and Hound so I headed up there for a beer. As I was parking the sky began to once again open up - rain was pouring down in sheets. 1 beer in it was time to head home to wake up Grant and head over to Jocelyns to properly christen the new fire pit! It was a linguine, beer, wine, salad, and music kinda night. With the guys (and gal) from the band talking shop and Erin an I inhaling smores.. Then home to bed at 3AM.

Sunday was catchup day. It was nice to have a weekend with friends we don't see often, friends we do see more often, and family. I look forward to more of these!