...

 ...sleeping in, flying a skiff, taekwondo dodgeball, writing devotional, new vinyl records!  Updates coming soon...

...Cinco

"Hang 10" continued this morning with a couple of great services.  We have this conch shell that I can blow to make a trumpet sound, although this morning we used it as a "shell phone." The other object was a little tiki guy on a surfboard, which was used to help illustrate that Second Commandments.  Nerdo was putting his trust in this little thing to help pass his lifeguard test, and as you can imagine, it doesn't go so well.  It was a fun morning!  Maddie was with her small group led by Camille, one that's growing somewhat now that the word is getting out.  Camille's doing an excellent job with that group each Sunday morning.  I was all over the place with all kinds of responsibilities, but it all got done and we had a fantastic morning at church.

It was Cinco de Mayo today, and the other day I got a large amount of Mexican food for the celebration, including some street taco kids and some mini-tacos.  We had Baby Yoda out there with his sombrero, and some Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass vinyl records playing, just like always.  Got to stop and celebrate these moments!  We enjoyed our afternoon feast after getting home from church.  Here's the H2-D2 song that I had AI make up to celebrate H2-D2, the little droid with a sombrero atop his head.

The rest of our day was a relaxing one, as Sunday mornings are a bit taxing.  Our game hadn't quite downloaded yet, but we played some other things today.  We were also researching some options for Mom and her recent testing.  We might be getting a special device soon enough, one to help her out.  It's going to take up some space, so we might be moving things about in the basement again.

Anyway, tonight we had a Monk marathon to close out our day.  We watched a few episodes of "Monk," all part of season six.  It's been so long that I completely forgot about that twist regarding Captain Stottlemeyer's girlfriend.  Yikes!  We've got about two and a half seasons to go, so we'll probably be still watching these deep into the summer.  It's been so long though that I don't remember all of these, so we're like Maddie, as if watching them for the first time. 

Tonight we read "From a Certain Point of View," skipping over some story stuff to get to this one story about a space journalist who was responsible for propaganda.  Which is sort of redundant when you think of it.  I mean, these days, all journalists are propagandists.  But that's beside the point.  This one journalist is a space journalist, and that makes her cool.  Plus she supports the rebellion, so that's even cooler.  And she wants to interview Han, Luke and Leia, and that's even way cooler.  Things happen though, and we're not quite done with the story yet - we'll finish it up tomorrow. 

After reading, we said our prayers, and that was it for tonight.  We tucked in the Plush Entourage, and got to bed fairly late.  Maddie can sleep in tomorrow because it's an at-home school day.  Her favorite kind of school day!

May the Fourth

May the Fourth be with you!  It's a Saturday, and we had a fun day today, starting out with Team Edge practice of course. I was over at the church getting things set up for tomorrow morning while Maddie was with the team, getting closer to perfecting their routines. She said today wasn't a perfect day on her end, but mistakes happen from time to time, and Maddie's not known to make too many mistakes at all with the routine.

There was some trouble with squirrels this morning, as they broke a potted plant on the back deck.  So the squirrel trap came out again, and by this afternoon we got #76 transported away.  While out, Maddie and I picked up some high protein stuff for Mom, some drinks and cheese and crackers too.  We've got to build up Mom's bone density.  There's a doctor's appointment about this very thing next week, and we're anxious to start what we can with more calcium and protein in the diet.

This afternoon, we had a long visit with Nana and Ye-Ye, just catching up on a lot of things.  They are going on a trip to Minnesota and then over to Montana to finally visit Glacier Park, so I can live vicariously through them for a bit with the traveling. I don't think I've been past the Mississippi since 2008.  Anyway, they're stopping by some places they've always wanted to see, and that's wonderful of course. Maddie had a lot to share with her grandparents, and it was a nice visit.

The weather today was made up of heavy clouds with tremendous rain falling here and there, although never on us.  You could see it all over though.  We were crossing the bridge over Lake Lanier and you can see all the way down to the south this tremendous heavy downpour.

One fun thing this evening was our traditional look at the Kentucky Derby.  We started watching a half-hour before, and each of us raced to the couch considering the options and picking our horses to win.  We were looking online at the names of the horses, finding out what their number was, and making our usual educated guesses.  Here were this year's picks:

Maddie - Fierceness

Mom - Catching Freedom

Dad - Mystik Dan

And the race started, and I was so absolutely into this one because Mystik Dan was in the top six pretty much the entire way.  His odds were 16-1, and I just had a hunch about him based on his rider, and wow... what a race!  I actually stood up at the end when they crossed the finished line, cheering.  It came down to a photo finish!

Mystik Dan won the day, and that was one of the most exciting races I've seen.  Pretty fun!  I think we spend about a half hour on a horse race every year, and with all our equestrian knowledge, we usually do pretty well.  I think Mom placed fourth, and Maddie's choice - the favorite of the day - didn't do as well this time.

We went into Star Wars mode after that.  We saw the new episodes of "Tales of the Empire," and we even ordered a few new Star Wars games for the Nintendo Switch.  They're actually old games, but they've updated them for the Switch, and we'll be visiting with those soon.  The last week, we've been having fun making up these Star Wars songs with an AI program.  We did a "They Can Fly Now" polka, a 50's song about Willrow Hood running with his ice cream maker, a funky groove song about Greedo called "Macklunkey," a 40's big band song called "I Have the High Ground," a country song called "I Don't Like Sand," and even a song about Maddie's little astromech, "H2-D2," a song called "Astro Taco Fiesta."  

Tonight's feature flick was "A New Hope," of course, because it's still an incredible movie.  We were watching this one tonight, still amazed.  Could you imagine today's filmmakers having a six minute scene inside a trash compactor?  That's not the key feature of the movie, of course, but it does make for an exciting scene.  What makes the movie is the story and the characters, and again, this movie was so robbed of an Academy Award.  Time has proven this argument right - sorry, "Annie Hall."  Does anyone remember "Annie Hall" like they do "Star Wars"?  I could go on and on about the lines of people wanting to see this movie, the action figures, the sequel movies, the television shows, the cartoons, the novels, the clothing, the conventions, the amusement parks, and more.  It was such a big part of my life growing up. I still have so many action figures, books, comics, t-shirts and more.  Anyway, Star Wars is a big deal, and tonight we closed out the day reading from our Star Wars book, the latest entry in "From a Certain Point of View."  

We said our prayers, and soon we were off to sleep.  May the Fourth Be With You!

A Thousand Screaming Argonauts

Tonight we watched "Jason and the Argonauts," part of our ongoing visit with Mr. Harryhausen's collection of movies.  We actually haven't seen these in a while, and it's been really fun going back to them.  There's just one more to watch in the current box set, and that's one about Gulliver's Travels, "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver."  This was a great box set Mom got me, one with interviews with Harryhausen or behind-the-scenes stories that are pretty interesting.  So many filmmakers were influenced by his work.  We'll probably watch "Clash of the Titans" afterwards, and then we'll get into some new territory.  I've always wanted to watch "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" because it looks so typical of those 50's sci-fi movies.  And there's others like "It Came from Beneath the Sea" and "The Beast from 20000 Fathoms."  Tonight's movie was a great watch though, maybe the highlight of Harryhausen's career.  There were plenty of adventures and monsters.  Talos may be my favorite creation of Harryhausen, this looming Colossus of Rhodes, reaching down to grab the good ship Argos, and yep, there go a thousand screaming Argonauts.  Or, at least a ship full of them.  One thing I never really thought about watching this for so many years...  what happens to the initial villain Pelias?

Okay, I just looked up the Greek story online.  Let's just put it this way:  it's not pretty.

Anyway, it was a decent day.  Maddie did well on her history test, and she's got some pottery in the kiln.  She had a good bit of Team Edge practice tonight.  I had finished up Leviticus this week, so I did a quick study of Nahum.  Assyria was on God's naughty list, big time.  Anyway, today we were writing for the upcoming Castaway Cove series, and still fixing up the office.  That work will continue into next week.

Tonight's reading was about the Wampa ice creature that attacks Luke Skywalker.  Of course we feel sympathy for this beast throughout this story, but I suppose with a title like "From a Certain Point of View," you can't help but feel sympathy for a sad little hairy snow monster that wants to maul Luke Skywalker to death and tear him into tiny pieces to feed to his family.  How dare Luke Skywalker fight back? Wampas have rights too, don't they?

Anyway, it was a decent day.  Maddie had fun at taekwondo, and the team is looking good with their demo.  They'll be performing in front of the younger students in a few weeks, and then later on in June there's a competition.  That'll be fun!

We said our prayers tonight, and that was it for the day.  Everyone's worn out, and we've got a fun day tomorrow.  Let's head to bed!

Heading back to Castaway Cove

Gosh, has it been that long already.  We weren't even thinking about the anniversary until a little later when Maddie was about to go off to school.  It's the date we saw Maddie's image for the first time, a few pictures sent by email on this date, a promise of things to come in just six weeks time.  Of course we've written about the day itself here a few times, posting emails and congratulation notes.  It was an unforgettable day.

Mom and I were at the office, cleaning it up and organizing.  The new furniture has been coming in this week, and there's still plenty to do.  I was on the treadmill like always, and we started a new series on that one - I'm now walking in Canada for the next week or so, right there in the Canadian Rockies.  It's beautiful up there.

This week, Maddie has been dealing with tests and wrapping up the school year.  She's also been hard at work with her pottery, glazing a few items as well.  She's added color and things are looking rather nice.  Tonight she had taekwondo, of course, and she was instructing again.  She does enjoy that.  At the school she's interning with, Chestatee, there are plenty of kids coming up to her to give her a hug.  She likes it there, and I'm sure she'll miss it.  But tonight she was instructing older kids in the ways of taekwondo, and she was doing well with that.  Afterwards, there was leadership class, which she enjoys quite a bit, especially getting to see all her good friends there.  

Afterwards, we were back home and Mom and I were finishing up "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger."  We were trying to place one of Sinbad's faithful sidekicks, and laughed when we realized he was one of the Wise Men in "The Nativity Story."  We'll continue our Harryhausing a little later, but I've got to get some surf movies in.  And perhaps some Castaway Cove movies as well.  We're working in that direction, a new Castaway-themed series in June.  It's been a long, long time since we visited that series, so there's a lot to write and re-write.  Also some new graphics too.

Camille's a big fan of the show "Survivor," so you can see how this one is looking so far.  Still, I have lots to write, which was going on today and tonight.  Maddie and I watched the latest episode of "X-Men '97" tonight before bed, and we got started on our new "From a Certain Point of View" book, the one that takes place over the course of the events in "The Empire Strikes Back."  Tonight's story was a good start to the book - we  enjoyed it.  We said our prayers tonight, and then it was off to bed.  

Getting Ready for Tropical Freeze

Tonight was FCY for Maddie, and it was time again for "Listen to the Youth," where students sort of "took over" service with worship and the messages.  Maddie had a good time with her friends there, listening to a student panel and of course the food and games afterwards.  At that same time, Mom and I were relaxing, watching a Harryhausen Sinbad movie, or at least the first part of one.  "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" came out the same summer as Star Wars.  I remember liking "Eye of the Tiger," but of course with the first Star Wars movie out there, who would want to watch anything but Star Wars?  Oh, and speaking of which, all these years later, here we were watching Star Wars even tonight.  When Maddie got home, we finished "The Bad Batch" series this evening, and it was great, great, great.  We love these Star Wars animated shows, and I'm hoping we'll hear about some new series coming out soon, something of the same tone, same animation, and hopefully even the same era.  We'll see.  Anyway, this series ended really well, with all kinds of emotional drama.  We enjoyed it.

Maddie's been doing tests this week, and she says she's doing okay on them.  We were working at the office towards Summer Xtreme, which has this theme of "Tropical Freeze."

We have this logo, and we have about three messages done and a decent idea towards the skits.  We just have a lot of work to do in this area.  Not much in the way of "related media" with this series though.  I mean, how many different "Tropical area gets frozen" movies and books are there?  Of course we just saw the latest Ghostbusters movie, which has that theme somewhat.  Minus the tropical area.  And we could go down to Blizzard Beach if we were really concerned about research.  But the best thing to do to get us in the theme is what I just did:  order a copy of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze.

Maddie and I will be playing this one soon. For research, of course.

So the KidPak office is transforming with new paint on the walls and new furniture that no one seems to like that much.  It's growing on us.  But it initially strikes us as furniture you'd see walking into a place to change your life insurance policy.  It's somewhat dull.  Oh well.

Tonight we wrapped up reading one book, and tomorrow we start the new Star Wars book, "From a Certain Point of View."  Tonight was a short story by the writer of the Origami Yoda books, so it was fun getting to visit with him again.  This first book was hit-and-miss, which is what you'd expect from a book with so many different authors.  We enjoyed it though, and again, we're starting with the second book tomorrow.

After reading, we said our prayers, and the Plush Entourage went down the hall to get tucked in.  It was a decent day.

A visit with Gomez Addams

 

Tonight we got to see a really good version of "The Addams Family" play locally here at Gainesville High School.  We got these tickets at the last minute, wanting to support our friend Caleb, who got the part of Gomez Addams, which he absolutely nailed.

It was a really good  night!  We enjoyed the performance and the vibe, and you know something?  I could come back and see this again.  We've seen it before at the Holly a few years ago, so the story was familiar. But the performances were fantastic!

The rest of the day was quiet for us.  Maddie had a big test in ELA today, but it seemed to go pretty well.  She was studying a bit tonight, but it was late enough that we went to bed right after that.  I read a bit from our book, which we're wrapping up soon enough.  In just a few days, we'll start off with "From a Certain Point of View" for "The Empire Strikes Back."  Maddie was good with that.

We said our prayers tonight and got to sleep quickly.  Tests this week, the school year wrapping up!