Vashti

Tonight's reading was about Queen Vashti, which is actually a pretty awesome name when you think about it.  I have no idea what it means, so let's look it up now.

Vashti as a girl's name is of Farsi and Persian origin meaning "beautiful".

Oh, it means beautiful.  Well, that seems to be fitting, as the book of Esther does in fact say that Queen Vashti was beautiful.  Too bad she wasn't as smart.  We started the book of Esther as promised, and Madison was laughing at the chauvinistic men and what they were able to inflict in Persia there, all because of Queen Vashti.  Let's just say the Queen didn't affect the lives of women in the kingdom in a positive way. 

Anyway, Madison was back in school today.  We saw one grade posted, another 100 on Georgia studies.  The Civil War is being studied in school, and so we drove by the cemetery here where General Longstreet is buried.  Madison wasn't terribly impressed.  I'm not sure if she's a big fan of Georgia studies.  In fact, I might say that's a big "meh."  

One thing she is a fan of is taekwondo, which we just barely made it to tonight, this because of some car trouble that we've had earlier.  Not that we broke down or anything, but we did get the car going in the driveway, and then got it to the dealer.  $890 later, we should have the car tomorrow.  Tonight I'm driving a rental.  I was hoping for a monster truck, but instead they just gave me a Nissan Sentra.  We didn't drive that to taekwondo, but instead drove the other car we have, which of course we're super grateful for.  We're especially grateful for the feature that heats the seats.  It's been cold again, and that's sort of the nature of things.  It's winter.  But it's like 39 degrees or so, and wet, and there's nothing to show for winter.  No one flake of snow to cheer any of us up.  So it really is a dreadful month.  

As for the car, there was a nail in the tire we didn't know about, and a leaky water pump too.  I saw the evidence of that inside the engine.  The squeaky brakes were fortunately not what we thought, and therefore not an arm and a leg.  But the rest of the process was enough for them to give us a complimentary car rental.  So, ouch.

We saw a movie tonight, "The Third Man on the Mountain."  If you haven't seen this one, you should.  It's my favorite mountain-climbing movie currently, as most of the movies from the late nineties feature quite a bit more mayhem than you'd expect on a realistic mountain climb.  This movie does a great job bringing you to the atmosphere of the early mountain climbing days in the Alps, and has some wonderful scenery to it.  Nana and I sat and watched this gem, and although I've seen it twice before, I still like this one.  I even got a few ideas for the skits this series, which is the reason I watched the movie in the first place, to draw inspiration, quotes, and maybe some jokes.  

Tonight's reading from "Scoundrels" had us back in a room where the eleven scoundrels are overlooking the mansion they want to pull a heist in.  We're developing characters and moving forward with the plot.  I really think this would be a great Star Wars show in the future.  It's just a lot of fun, and Madison is enjoying it.

The skies have been overcast the last few days, so there's that feeling of claustrophobia setting in, this intense desire that just keeps burning inside that we have to break out of all this.  No better is the national mood of late.  It's a similar gloom, and any thoughts of unifying the country have been tossed out the window with the suggestion of impeaching a President who has only eleven days to go in his Presidency.

Madison had some math homework tonight, but not much else there.  After taekwondo, she was at the table, watching videos on her computer, and not long after that, ready for bed.  We all were tonight.  It's cold, and those blankets are nice and warm!