Loop Day

Things settled down today with Maddie heading back to school this morning, and me off to work too.  We all managed to get a little productivity in there.  Maddie's voice was a little hoarse - her teacher asked her if she was okay, and Maddie's reply was, "Camp."  Which the teacher knew immediately explained everything.  

We got the new series booklets and writings sent off to the printer, so that's in motion.  No church or taekwondo tonight, but it is Loop Day, so of course that meant sitting down to watch "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children."  Mom is working on the scarecrow in the dining area as she watches behind Maddie and I, who still enjoy this movie.  The remarkable thing is that we inadvertently started the movie at the moment where if you watch the movie, we got to the part where the bomb was dropping on the house and Miss Peregrine was looking at her clock, and about to restart the time loop... and her watch said the exact time it was here in the house!

It was a good Loop Day today, of course.  Great to have time to sit together and watch a movie.  Maddie really likes this one - we'll have to read the book together some time.  Right now, our current book is the latest Kingdom Keepers novel, which has our main character slipping through the oily portal to North Africa, and then back again with a useful ally against the Overtakers.  We didn't have time to read too much, but it's just been pleasant getting back together with the Kingdom Keepers again after all these years, like hanging out with an old friend.  We're both enjoying the book so far.  

Today marked the end of a mini-era for us with the Disney Movie Rewards program.  We made our last order this afternoon, pretty much after I realized the lithograph I was hoping for was gone.  But that's okay, because a lot of things were gone.  The program is closing down after many years, probably because people don't buy physical copies of movies anymore.  I do, but not as often.  The basic idea was that you bought a movie and got points for it, and then the points added up, and you exchanged those points for different rewards.  Over the years, I've gotten movies, lithographs, Funko pop figures, and even a television set with Tinkerbell on top of it.  Lately, the rewards have been dwindling to the point where it was mostly posters advertising for current things in the theater or television, which explains our last order:  Maddie saw a movie poster for "Loki" that caught her eye, and so we placed that order.  We'll have that replacing the framed Wonder Woman movie poster in her room, starting a new era there.  I think Wonder Woman has been on the wall for quite some time now, so it'll be good to have a fresh face up there.  Back in the early days of this program, there was quite a bit of enthusiasm.  I think my favorite thing I got from them would is an oddity:  "Frozen" themed dinner trays.  You know the kind with the little extensions so you can have one in your lap as you sit and watch television, or sit in bed?  Yeah, I got a few of them.  Such a random thing to get excited about, but the idea of us having these old-school trays was fun to me for some reason.  In fact, just yesterday I was eating dinner while watching a movie in the living room, using a dinner tray with Olaf on it.  I think it is a little nostalgia that brings the joy.  Anyway, there were always games and contests, and items you'd save up for.  I was bummed I didn't get that last lithograph, but Maddie will love seeing that poster come in.  We'll snap a photo of it when it gets on her wall, Loki peering down on her, reminding her of her glorious purpose.

Moving on!  It was a beautiful day today.  The weather was overcast, but it is cooler, as if Fall is wanting to tell Summer a thing or two after that super hot week we had last week: "Oh yeah?"  And suddenly we're all happy again, this internal mechanism that recognizes the joy that's coming with the beauty of fall, the fun activities, and the tranquility of sitting out on the porch with a cool breeze while watching fall leaves flittering down.

There was homework to do, and some chores as well.  I made a few appointments today, plus we're getting closer to figuring out what's going on with my insides.  I may have a quite sudden allergic reaction and/or intolerance to something.  It could be dairy, but we're still figuring things out.  I had a really bad reaction to some lactose free ice cream - I mean, really bad.  That was yesterday, and I'm still reeling.  Today was better.  The stomach has been unhappy now for three weeks straight, so hopefully I've got something figured out here.  Meanwhile, Mom has all things of things to help with ailments, and many of her solutions are immediately helpful for reflux or fluttering heart or insane migraines.  Dr. Mom has been fantastic.

Maddie and I have been watching "Rings of Power" episodes to catch up.  I think three were launched at once, and so we caught episode two tonight, earlier.  Suddenly, we're all about Middle Earth again.  I think it is inevitable that we'll be watching the movies soon.  They're so long - I think Christmas break would be a great time to catch them all.  Imagine that:  six movies, one after the other, three hours each.  Wowser.  that's a lot of time in Middle Earth!

Okay, we said our prayers tonight.  I got some walking and/or running in, a little thing called speed-play.  The Swedish translation for this is "fartlek," which is unfortunate.  It's useful in training, and it would be great if we could just call it speed play.  But trainers are sophisticated multi-cultural people, and of course we want to embrace Scandinavian methods, so therefore we need to use the word "fartlek" as much as possible.  In Sweden, I'm sure this word conjures up powerful imagery of Nordic warriors in training, pushing forward to find victory at the finish line.  But sadly, here in America, the word "fartlek" brings up other imagery.  Or at least an impression of an unpleasant odor.  So, yeah.

Not sure why I went down that rabbit trail.  Which makes me think of "Run, Rabbit, Run."  Which is from "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children."  Which takes place on Loop Day, September 3rd.  Which is today.  Happy Loop Day!