...Photo Negatives

 ...camera obscura results, Divine, taekwondo special instructor, jaw crack, visit with a Grand Master, ... updates coming soon...

Talk Like a Pirate Day 2024

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day today, and in honor of the big date, I wrote the lyrics to this pirate song above, and then I plugged them into the artificial intelligence song generator with a few extra instructions, and that's what came out!  It's a fun little song!

[verse 1]

Ahoy me hearties, blow me down!  

Let all the pirates say.

Yo ho it’s time to celebrate

Talk Like a Pirate Day!

(Arr!)

[chorus]

Shiver me timbers!  Are you savvy? 

Set a course and here we go!

Pillage, plunder, find that booty

Talk like a Pirate:  YO-HO-HO!

[verse 2]

September 19th, walk the plank

and hoist your tattered sails!

Raise the Jolly Roger, shouting

"Dead men tell no tales!"

(Arr!)

[chorus]

[bridge]

You privateers and scalawags,

Heave ho and give some cheers

For on this day, you scurvy dogs,

We are all buccaneers!

(Arr!)

[chorus]

[verse 4]

Climb the crow’s nest.  Look for treasure,

and sail the seas afar!

Avast!  Join with the swashbucklers,

and give a hearty, “Arr!”

(Arr!)

Today we were at the office a good bit, and the decorations are coming up for our DIVINE Conference, which has some angelic decorations that are a bit on the large size, like this one here:

Mom's got these very large angel wings - that's the theme of things, angels.  There were some statues delivered, sitting about to be used as decorations here or there.

You can see Camille and Ansley here posing with one, because despite all the best intentions of these decorations, the only thing nerds like us think of are those Weeping Angels from Dr. Who.  In fact, here's a quick little video we made:

We got a few things done today, getting scripts done and homework too.  Maddie had some homework.  She also had taekwondo.  She's been making customized bead bracelets and giving them to her teammates.

Tonight's big movie was "Treasure Planet," because it's Talk Like a Pirate day.  Another great movie.  I remember watching this one on the Disney Wonder back in 2003.  We saw the movie in theaters before that, and of course because it involved pirates, I love it.  The rule for pirate movies is an automatic plus two on the die.  Meaning, if the movie is a six out of ten, you add two just because it involves pirates.  That being said, this movie is an eleven.  All of it is so good!

We read tonight, and then we said our prayers.  It's time to get some rest!

Play-doh Day

Meet Priscilla!  We had a fun little game today we filmed for KPTV, a battle to see who could create - in a very short span - the most creative Play-doh creation.  Camille made this one above, a fun character that now adorns her desk.  She's looking for ways to preserve it, because she's gotten rather attached to it.  Additionally, it's preserved forever with the videos, so there is that, right?  Here's another character we left on Isaac's desk before we left for the day...

Right?  Play-doh is fun.  Anyway, we had a decent day at the ol' office, while Maddie as working at school on different things like government, where she's learning about the US Senate, or Calculus, where she's learning... I have no idea.  But she's enjoying her art projects, including this realistic drawing of her headphones that she's nearly done with.  She's doing a great job with that one!

She had FCY tonight, and that was nice.  Mom and I watched "Wallace and Gromit" while Maddie was at church.  My stomach issues seem to be healing, supporting the initial idea that there was some sort of gastritis or at least an unexpected new allergy.  

So here we are in the Fall Season, so I pulled out the last hardcover RL Stine book I have in the collection I got a few years ago, and I'm reading one story a day here for a little while, and that'll be fun.  The first story involves a haunted house, and some kids that probably shouldn't be daring anyone to go in there.

We were reading Kingdom Keepers tonight too.  I read about three chapters with Maddie, although these three chapters are pretty short.  Ariel is back to help the Kingdom Keepers, and hopefully the day will be saved soon because we're running out of pages!  I wouldn't put it past the author to have a cliffhanger ending though - that's been done before.

Anyway, it was a fun day today.  We said our prayers tonight, and then got some sleep.  

...Camera Obscura

INSERT CAMERA OBSCURA PICTURE HERE

Maddie is pretty much done with her camera project, and it's really cool.  She enjoying this class quite a bit, and of course learning quite a bit along the way.  We were talking with an old friend today - more on that later - whose wife did rather well as a wedding photographer.  That is a particular set of skills, the ability to recognize a good composition combined with the technical capability to pull off a photo adjusting for camera speed and lighting.  Looking at the photos afterwards takes a while too, as Maddie will spend a good bit of time on this very laptop each Sunday, editing, cropping, and getting things fixed up to her satisfaction.  This wedding photographer friend typically took a few weeks to edit her photos afterwards, this largely because of the other scheduled weddings.  But here comes AI again, artificial intelligence.  This new generation of photographers doesn't need to spend hours fixing photographs anymore, because they just grab the photos that were taken and let AI fix them up.  And just like that, it's done.  It's a challenging season for true photographers, because suddenly it's accessible to everyone with a cell phone.  Suddenly, we're all capable of taking gorgeous pictures with just our phones.  This is one reason why I'm so delighted that Maddie will be visiting the dark room and getting familiar with the smells and sensations of what photography used to be.  I remember the shift from developing film to using digital, and I remember the hassle of chemicals and light exposure risk and all the different steps we went through to get a roll of unprocessed film good to go for using to make pictures with.  Now, we just snap it on a phone and send it to a printer.  Or, in many cases, we don't ever print it, but rathe keep it on a computer or phone.  And of course the future is weird, because there once again is AI, which will create the perfect compositions, and it will get difficult to tell if this was taken somewhere or if it was just a product of a computer's vivid imagination.

Anyway, today we were in Braselton, Mom and I.  We were getting our dinosaur back from a friend who used it for their ministry.  He had it for a while, and to show his gratitude, he treated us to a meal at Cracker Barrel, which was great because it does have some bland selections I can eat.  Not that these are bad - it's just that what I had today wouldn't mess up my stomach too much.  It was a really great meal, in fact.  We sat and talked for a good bit, and then we were on our way home after that.

Maddie got her homework done, and her latest project has been making countless bead bracelets for herself and others.  She spends a great deal of time doing that lately, and thanks to her birthday, she's been gifted with plenty of supplies.  She enjoys making them.  Another thing we're enjoying is our time with "Marvel Superheroes 2," a nice return to the Marvel superheroes that is light and fun and different.  It's just an enjoyable time with our favorite characters.  We're loving this game!

Tonight's feature flick was "Hotel Transylvania 2," continuing our visit with Dracula and his friends.  These cartoons are so much fun.  We read tonight, and it appears as if the attacking brooms have been defeated for now, but there's a flood of water in the park and on top of that, the heroes have been separated.  We'll keep reading, of course.  But tonight, it was time for prayers, and then sleep.

... Groot Delivered

I dropped Maddie off at school this morning, and then it was time to get to the Botanical Gardens again.  Mom got the finishing touches on Groot, or at least a few of them - she added more later.  But we set Groot up in the front yard, and he turned out rather well!

Afterwards, we went over to the Botanical Gardens and carefully unloaded him from the car, placing him in the drop zone to get ready for the yearly scarecrow display at the gardens.  This would be our third effort, and again this was mostly Mom who did the work.  Although Ye-Ye built the body some time ago, and I drew out the eyes and cut out the face and top.  But Mom did everything else, and she does enjoy doing that.  So we set him up in the drop zone, and Mom put a few more finishing touches on Groot as an employee was dropping off their own scarecrow as well.  The employee even snapped a few pictures of us together working on Groot, and then posing with him.  Those might show up later although he used our cell phone for one of the pics.

It was a good day.  We got back and I had to finish proofing a book, but it's so lovely out there on our front porch, which is our new habitation of late.  Mom and I set up the infuser out there, make a couple cups of tea, and spend our mornings out there with devotional time.  This afternoon, I was out there reading through and making corrections to a booklet, one of the more tedious aspects of employment.  

Maddie had the tediousness of calculus to contend with, and it has been at such a level that she actually didn't go to taekwondo tonight in order to focus on finishing up some assignments there.  To help with motivation, we announced a break point, the moment when we'd both go out to Oakwood to get some boba tea.

INERT BOBA TEA PICTURE HERE

Maddie got some rose flavor, which she thought was good and might get again, although not her absolute favorite.  We dropped by the grocery store after that and picked up a prescription, plus a few things like more ice cream.  Can you believe that the Christmas flavors are already there?  Maddie got some peppermint candy cane ice cream while there, one of her absolute favorites.  All the Christmas blends were there, including egg nog and Christmas coffee.  We just went with the peppermint to start with.  

We got home to check out tonight's feature presentation, "Hotel Transylvania," which we first saw twelve years ago now.  We actually really like these movies a lot, but there's a nostalgia watching them too.  It's almost like the movie where we're the hotel and these characters we know and love are all returning so we can spend some time together.  It'll be great doing that tomorrow with the sequel, and then part three when they do the cruise.  Fun movies!

After that, it was time for reading, prayers, and a good night's rest.  Brooms are about to attack Disney, and the Kingdom Keepers have to figure a way to stop it.  We'll keep reading as we approach the end.  Meanwhile, I've dug out my last hard cover unread RL Stine book for the season.  Some time ago in a thrift store, I found four thick hard cover books, each one a collection of his novels.  I read the one with Sloppy first, of course.  Then there was a "camp" themed one.  And then a whole book with "monster blood" stories.  This last booklet is more of a random collection of short and spooky stories.  Should be fun!

Anyway, off to sleep now.  We tucked in the Plush Entourage, and of course we all said our prayers.  Time to get some sleep!

Hamm

Today marked the first appearance of a Toy Story character Hamm on our stage, and it was pretty cool.  Now we've got Hamm, Rex and Mr. Potato Head inflatables, and the goal is to have them all on stage next weekend for one big moment.  But this week, the skit was fun and the message about temptation being "Lotso" trouble was done well throughout the morning through videos, the skit, and eventually the message too.  Kids had a great time this morning, as you can see from just a few of Maddie's pictures below. She took a good bit, and we have those uploaded on the KidPak gallery, but these are a few highlights:

We picked up some Chinese food after that from Wang's, and Mom and I shared some snow peas and chicken to keep it safe for my current diet.  The stomach and esophagus still bother me from time to time. Maddie got her usually General Tso's chicken, plus she's liking the Crab Rangoons lately.  

After lunch, I actually earned my running badge for September on the iFit, which was pretty cool.  I have both September walking and running badges right now.  

Meanwhile, Maddie was making beads, and then working on her calculus, which we'll just say she needs to keep working on.  We'll leave it at that, but afterwards, the two of us played a LEGO Marvel game for a good bit, and that was pretty fun.  We were in Wakanda fighting off bad guys and collecting studs.  

Tonight's feature flick was "The Music Man."  We watched the 1962 movie, the one we have in our collection, although we talked about ordering the 2003 version some time soon.  The reason for watching this movie had nothing to do with our usual seasonal choices, but rather the fact that we're seeing this live next week at City Springs.  Their new season starts, and we're all pretty excited to see this play.  It's one of my favorites!

We read tonight, some shorter chapters, and this latest adventure of the Kingdom Keepers is getting closer to the end.  But we're enjoying it, and already asking the question what to read next.  We said our prayers afterwards, and got to sleep after that.

Spooky Gingerbread House 2024

Here it is, the 2024 Spooky Gingerbread House!  Maddie and I made this one tonight over the course of two movies, "Ghostbusters 2" and "Ghostbusters:  Afterlife."  We assembled the structure, and then got busy with the usual assignment:  Maddie did two sides and I did two other sides.  We shared roof duties, using some Booberry, but this time making stripes or layers of Booberry, plus the marshmallows, plus all kinds of seasonal cookie decorations.  Yes, there's the pumpkins there, plus plenty of candy corns.

It turned out well, and it was fun making it.  We were watching the Ghostbusters movies too, and laughing along with those as well.  Fun night!

Earlier today we were doing some work.  I was proofing the upcoming series, but we also went over for Team Edge Practice too.

Maddie was there for a few hours, and she's getting better and better with that flip, plus the aerials.  She's still working with the sword, and she's doing better with that as well!

We got home, and Mom had a great lunch for us.  It was a nice and relaxing day.  Any plans to go places sort of got put to the side because of the rainy weather that has set in, but in the end it was a really nice evening creating our gingerbread creation.

We read before going to bed, and of course we said our prayers too.  It was a good day today!

Groot Work

The rain is here, part of a system that came in from a hurricane hitting the coast of Louisiana, and due to a wedge in the atmosphere, apparently the rain is going to be here for a while.  Meaning:  several days.  So yeah, a rainy weekend is in store for us.  

I was in Alpharetta this morning, getting our car back, complete with four new tires.  Maddie was at school today of course, and I got her out of school from the earlier car line.  2:49 is the official time, and by gum I need to be there then.  And it's much better than previous car lines, where I would bring a book and read for about 30-40 minutes while I waited.  I kind of miss that, to be honest, as it gave me time to sit and read.  

Speaking of reading, we're still doing our Kingdom Keepers book, and that story is moving along.  We're glad to read about Finn and Amanda again, the old school Kingdom Keepers from before.

We attempted to get Maddie signed up for the SAT test, but their online registration process is a test in itself, one that we apparently failed.  We spent a very long time trying to register, getting exactly nowhere.  Their site is not friendly.  But that's the lesson of the day, fighting the system to get to the goals you really want, and realizing that these big educational and governmental systems are laybrynths of torturous mental anguish and trials of patience.  

But enough about that.  The rest of the day was good.  

For example, take a look at this amazing scarecrow that Mom has been working on.  The theme is "Hallo-wings," which is about the flying creatures that help pollinate the flowers, and so Mom has all kinds of flowers, bees, and butterflies flying around this scarecrow.  The existing body is from a few years ago, but we made the mask this week, mostly Mom.  It's coming along nicely!  Sunday, we'll pose it for a shot in the yard, and then we'll leave it in the lot at the Botanical Gardens where they'll put it in place, along with our family name.  It's a fun tradition, and it's usually all Mom doing the work.  She does great!

So Maddie had her taekwondo, and of course the team was there working out.  Oh, you should have seen this giant caterpillar there.  Bright green and thicker and longer than my index finger.  Huge guy, right there in the parking lot!

Maddie did well tonight, of course.  She had a brilliant moment where an opponent was holding a leg up at a right angle, using it as a guard against attack.  He kept it up a little too long: Maddie did a spin-hook kick that had the other student falling backwards to the ground!

We got home tonight and started our Ghostbusters marathon.  We've decided that this marathon is comprised of the first and second movie, and then "Afterlife."  The opinion of Maddie and I is that this most recent movie is okay, but not really something we need to see too much.  It was okay, and possibly in fifth place if we were to rank the movies.  So tonight we watched the first one, and of course it still makes us laugh.  And after watching it, I finally have an idea for my pumpkin carving this year!

After that, we were reading from Kingdom Keepers, and we said our prayers as well.  We got to bed on time tonight - tomorrow we sleep in a little.  It's going to be a rainy weekend, but we'll have fun!

...Fall is Really Here Now

It's officially fall now, folks.  I got the big three Monster Crunch cereal brands!  We were doing a little tiny bit of grocery shopping and I had to go by Wal-Mart to see if the cereals were there.  Sure enough, they had the new boxes of this year's Monster Cereal collection.  There are five different boxes, as Carmella Creeper is back.  I'm a completist, so I was torn about that one.  But ultimately, I just didn't like the flavor as much, so I'm sticking with the big three:  Frankenberry, Booberry, and Count Chocula.  This year's gimmick is the focus on their pets.  Yes, the Monsters now have pets, and peer pressure must have been severe, because all four now have pets.  Carmella has a pet snake, Count Chocula has a spider, Frankenberry has a bat, and Booberry has probably the reasonable pet, a cat.

So anyway, I'm ready for October now.  I'm armed with my Monster Cereal.  We'll play that game again soon too - I'll make sure of that!

In other news, Mom has been working a lot on our scarecrow, and Groot is turning out really, really well.  She painted the head we made, and additionally we've used sunglasses for the dark eyes, painted with a ring on the inside to add a little depth.  We'll share pictures in a bit, but it's coming along really well.  This Monday we have to move the scarecrow over to the garden center.  

Meanwhile, I'm driving around in a new Mercedes.  Not that we bought a new one.  It's just that the dealership gives you a loaner for bigger projects.  We're getting new tires and the hatch fixed, all so we can move that scarecrow on Monday without worries.  

So we did have taekwondo tonight, and it was fun.  Maddie was an assistant teacher first, and then she had her leadership class after that.  Her senior year has been a mixed bag.  She's talking a lot about photography and art, but not so much about calculus or ELA.  Those classes feature the most homework and probably stress.  Regardless, she's moving forward in this year.  Here we are in her last September in the public school system... oh, and speaking of which, did we talk about the homecoming dress yet?  

INSERT HOMECOMING DRESS PICTURE HERE

Maddie is super happy about her new dress.  She's got it on the mannequin in our house, sort of standing there and reminding her of that next Homecoming that she's looking forward to going to so much.  It's the first weekend in October, and should be nice.  We're still talking about where to take some of those Homecoming pictures, and it could be that we take them at Bradley's Farm.  Maddie is still deciding on that, weighing out options.

So here's something else she did.  You might recall a project where she was highlighting some famous people in the history of photography, making them into polaroid pictures with small bios about each.  Along with that project, she actually made a reproduction of a polaroid camera.  Pretty cool, huh?

Maddie did some homework after class tonight, and we watched a short:  Muppet Haunted Mansion, which is great, by the way.  I love this one, but I have a soft spot for Muppets and the Haunted Mansion.  So there's that!

Before bed, we read from Kingdom Keepers again, moving along quickly through our story.  And after that, it was time for prayers and sleep.  Time to get some rest!

All You Can't Eat

Tonight was FCY, and Maddie was there to see a message themed to "All You Can Eat," which we noted was ironic because there was no food served tonight as there usually is.  But that's okay - it's usually the official food of Free Chapel:  pizza.  Maddie isn't usually thrilled with that, but she'll eat it if desperate!  They also serve waffles, and that's really fun.  I've had some from time to time, and they're delicious.  Of course, lately, my diet says "no!"

No spicy food.  No dairy.  No nuts.  Nothing really!  I can do oatmeal and grits, but not real butter.  I can do rice and fish, but no spice or dairy.  We have lots of food, but I can't eat any of it until this stomach gets better.

Maddie enjoyed the message though, and she's glad to be at church with her friends.  They spend a good bit of time talking afterwards, so I'm usually one of the last parents to leave at the end.  That's okay, unless of course there's something else we're supposed to be doing afterwards.

It is September 11th, which is a date that seemed to awaken us about the threats of terrorism, although we seem to be fast asleep once more.  We sort of slumber a good bit.  But that's the historical pattern, I suppose.  We only wake up to attack each other, although we did spot some nice bipartisanship this morning, as our President donned one of those famous hats advertising for an opposing candidate.  Those moments are such a breath of fresh air, and I think a lot of us wish there was more of that.  Election season is so hostile!

It was a decent day today, with a good bit of KidPak planning.  We're going to do a movie night upcoming, one where we show a Toy Story movie on the themed stage, so that should be pretty cool.  Also cool:  we ordered this Hamm costume, and that will mark Hamm's first appearance on the KidPak stage.  We'll have him this weekend, because he has a very important thing inside him that will basically solve our ongoing story's dilemma.  It's been a fun series though, and it's great seeing these kids watch the Toy Story movies with such reverence.  They want to see more each time we shut off a scene.  We're basically paying a few scenes to help illustrate points that we're sharing.  This weekend's point is about Lotso and the temptation of Sunnyside Daycare.  Of course that temptation to abandon Andy and move on leads to trouble for our characters.  And temptation in our lives can lead to big trouble too - that's our theme for this weekend.  

We read a bit from Kingdom Keepers tonight, and the chapters are short and fun.  We just met Dr. Facilier, who seems savvy to the plans of our heroes, so they'd best watch out.  Meanwhile, Cinderella has made a visit to Finn's and Amanda's house, riding in on her carriage of course.  It's been fun to read to Maddie, and the Plush Entourage too.  Everyone got tucked in after prayers, and after that, it was time for some sleep!

Headphones

Here's a still life that Maddie has been working on.  It actually looks like a real set of headphones if you don't look close enough!  Maddie set this up and has been working on this illustration for a good bit of time at school, and it's turning out really fantastic!

So tonight was the first debate between a the Republican candidate and the Democratic candidate who has never even won a single primary state in two election seasons and yet somehow is all the way here.  Interesting stat.  I get a little stressed this season every four years, and I don't like all the political back-and-forth so much.  My mind is usually made up pretty early, as I'm generally focusing on issues and so forth all along.  So therefore, tonight's debate was pre-empted in our house by a screening of "Scooby Doo 2," of course.

Yes, it features Captain Cutler.  Which is one of the reasons this is one of the greatest movies of all time, friends.  Don't attempt to argue with me about this, because you'd be wrong.  Also, Captain Cutler will come out of water and harpoon your car.

Anyway, we watched this classic tonight while the Presidential candidates were debating.  Well, it wasn't really a debate, and more of an ambush.  The one candidate was like a player in Mario Party who suddenly gets two extra assisting characters.  Still, from what I understand, the underdog candidate in that scenario did okay, and honestly, the polls probably won't change from any of this.  It's just a lot of back-and-forth for the next few months. 

So we went to bed tonight after reading another few chapters of Kingdom Keepers.  Maddie had a few bits of homework tonight with ELA, but it was a relatively quiet night.  Tomorrow will pick up a good bit.

Browns Bridge Sunset

Check this shot out on the way back from taekwondo. You can tell which direction we're going on Browns Bridge Road when we head home:  due west!  That sun is balanced right on top of the horizon, just waiting for us on our way home.  Pretty cool.  

We were at taekwondo, and Mom was working a bit on our scarecrow's head.  Can't wait to share it here!  Today I was drawing the mouth and eyes, and then cutting that part out.  But Mom's added some carved lines to make him look even more wooden, and soon they'll be paint.  And then the eyes... we have to get Groot to the Botanical Gardens on Monday, but he should be ready by then.

So Maddie is doing taekwondo, of course, and she's learning a weapon she's not exactly thrilled about - or has ever been thrilled with:  the sword.  For one thing, she was hit by a sword recently, as well documented here.  But all along, she's just never really liked it.  Still, she's going to give it her all and try to learn it well.  I need to get that lightsaber up and going so we can have her do a routine with the lightsaber too!  That would be fun!

Today was about readjusting my diet, as the working theory is that I have gastritis, which affects the stomach lining.  Therefore, it stands to reason I don't want to eat anything that troubles that lining.  Which is a lot of different food.  But I'll fast a lot of my favorite foods for the time being, just hopefully long enough to get healed.

While making Groot's head, we were watching "Chicken Little," a seasonal favorite of ours.  And tonight, we checked out a new "seasonal" thing, which is really only seasonal because it involves the Munsters.  It isn't a traditional Munsters movie or episode - it was just a really peculiar promotional movie for a park called Marineland, which features aquatic animal shows like SeaWorld.  I have no idea why the park marketing folks thought that a giant Frankenstein character and his Halloween family would be ideal characters for marketing a fun day at Marineland, but it was still a fun little trip.  Not saying we'll watch it again year after year, but it was an interesting thing.  Munsters purists probably have this one on their list too.

Okay, I guess that's about it for today.  We closed out the day with reading, and then prayers too of course. Decent day!

Beautiful Sunday

Maddie was back on stage this morning, and you'd probably be forgiven if you didn't recognize her!  There she is dead center as Mr. Potato Head, who had a pretty good part in our ongoing Toy Story.  We're moving forward, and I've even ambitiously added yet another character for next week that I'm excited about.  I ordered the costume, and I'm just hoping it all works out.  Anyway, it was a good morning here, and a busy one too for all of us.  Maddie was taking pictures during worship, and we had the skit of course with the big cast, and there was greeting and a memory verse game that was pretty fun too.  Maddie had these pictures below - and a whole lot more - to add to the online photo gallery.  You can see worship, and you can also see the kids posing with our characters between services.  It was a fun morning!

We got home after that and ate some safe food for me, and it's still troubling me somewhat, but things are better than they were at least.  Soon after that, we decided right there that the weather was really nice, and why not head over to a few of the farms we like to visit.  

First we went to Burt's, and yes, they already had their pumpkins spread out.  No one was really there today, or at least not many.  It was too early, even for us to buy a pumpkin or anything like that.  But the advantage of going early was simply having the place to ourselves, largely.  The sea of pumpkins is there, but you don't have the astounding crowds.  It was so quiet, and that was perfect.  Maddie got the camera and went throughout the pumpkins taking all sorts of really awesome photos that I'll share below.

We also did a few portrait shots which came out nice.  Some were amongst the pumpkins, of course.  And there's the usual signs to poke your head out through, plus the tractor, and the covered bridge.  They came out nicely!

It was a quick stop on a beautiful day.  Or to quote Maddie imitating Proximus, "What a wonderful day!"  We had one more stop though, and that was Bradley's Farm.  Again, pumpkins weren't out yet, but Mr. Tony was there to greet us, which was nice.

We got some of those amazing Muscadine slushies - so good - and we sat and talked for a good bit.  Bradley came by, and his wife even joined us, along with their newborn daughter Presley, who is just eleven weeks old.

That was nice.  It was a pleasant afternoon - just wonderful, really - and we had a good time driving along into the west, listening to the fall music and getting ready for the season a little early.  It was very nice.

We got home and watched "Scooby Doo" again, and on top of that plenty of Paralympics replays.  We'll catch the closing ceremonies replay tomorrow, I think.  It really was a wonderful day, and we ended it nicely with our continuing adventure with the Kingdom Keepers.  Then it was time for prayers and time for the Plush Entourage to get tucked in, and ready for a new day tomorrow.

Goodnight!