Based on the fact that I’ve sweated through about 15 shirts this week – summer is upon us (which means in Michigan we only have about 8 more weeks until snow!) – so I’m going to run down some of my summer things –

Merthiolate: I’m not sure if many of you remember or recognize this word/name – but I think I can jog some memories.  When I was a kid in the summer – skinned knees and elbows were pretty common – you would run inside, with blooding dripping all through the house, yelling for help like you were just shot.  My Dad, bless is born-on-a-farm-raised heart, would get out the “Mathiolade” (as he called it – it was the cut and scrap cleaner – that actually wasn’t cleaner, but an antiseptic) that would dye your skin bright pink – and hurt worse than the actual scrap or cut!  I think my Dad actually did this to me early on in the summer, so I wouldn’t ever bother him again the rest of the summer with minor scraps and cuts, because after he doused me with the this “acid” and branded with a “Scarlet Letter” of bright pink – I definitely wasn’t going to go back and ask for his help again.  I remember coming home with dried blood down my leg and soaked into my sock and having him ask why I didn’t come home for a band-aid – and telling him it wasn’t that bad – but thinking I wasn’t going to have get off on torchering me with “Mathiolade”!

Mint Chocolate Chip: I’m not sure there is a better flavor of ice cream in the world!  The only thing better than a cone of mint chocolate chip, is a bowl of Cold Stone Creamery’s Mint Mint Chocolate Chip – which is some combination of mint ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie, and fudge (side note – it might actually be worth the $23.95 per bowl that they charge – almost). Plus, for some reason my sons don’t like mint ice cream, so I don’t have to share it with them.

Sunflower Seeds: We play a lot of baseball in the summer at our house and I’m usually coaching 1 or 2 teams.  This means throughout May, June and July I’m probably sitting at a baseball diamond 5-6 nights per week on average.  As a coach, or even a parent, you tend to have a lot of nervous energy and nothing to do with it – so like most baseball players – I eat sunflower seeds.  To put this into perspective we buy the 5 gallon bucket of sunflower seeds from Sam’s Club.  It can’t be healthy eating a 5 gallon bucket worth of sunflower seeds.  Ironically, this is the only time I eat sunflower seeds – I don’t even think about eating them at any other time.