...

We're looking ahead to June at KidPak, although Easter is right here now.  Moses is here above reminding us that we're still in the midst of our Exodus series, and Passover actually starts tonight.  We were at the grocery store picking up Passover items, including some potato latke mix.  But we got the main items for the plate, and we'll be sure to have a Passover meal tomorrow night before all the Easter practices start during the week.  One thing not on the menu:  squirrel.  We've been catching them left and right, the magic number right now at 98.  Yes, that's a lot of squirrels.  I managed some more mulch today, getting that lined up, but we've got a ways to go on the mulch.  But things are looking great.  I need some weed and feed for the lawn, and I want to get out there tomorrow and get the fire pit area looking nice because the weather is actually kind of cool outside.  It'll be chilly tonight, and a fire at the fire pit should be nice!

Maddie and I had an honest speck of pirating this evening, back in Singapore for that level of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, and we completed our five-movie series tonight with "Dead Men Tell No Tales."  It's Maddie's least-favorite, but at least it's no "Dial of Destiny."  

INSERT PICTURE OF SANDCRAWLER HERE

Maddie had a good day at school - she's been doing some work with threads, creating a larger piece that looks pretty cool.  The bowl at the bottom - I keep joking with her that it looks like a Jawa sand crawler, if you know what that is.  But seriously, it's turning out well.  Maddie's other works are coming along too, including this interesting sculpture here:

She's super creative, and we're really proud of her.  Only a few more weeks of school left, and they'll be big ones.  We're looking into items for her for her Senior Spirit Week next week, where each day there's a different outfit to wear or item to bring along.  You'll see that soon enough.

We read tonight, more from "Carpe Jugulum," and now the story is moving along even more so.  I am remembering bits as we go along, as little hints are dropped and I have to refrain myself from going, "Oh, I know where this is going."  Anyway, it's another visit to the Discworld, and as such, the character DEATH has already made his appearance.  Maddie blurted out, "Oh, I love DEATH!"  And then she quickly added, "You know what I mean - the character."

Tonight we said our prayers and got some sleep knowing full well we don't have to set the alarms tomorrow.  That's good news for all of us... goodnight!

Dying Eggs

Tonight we had planned our Easter egg decorating night, and so we invited Maddie's friend Nate here for a fun evening together.  We stopped by the Race Trac because I had gotten a lot of points saved up and used some of them on a free pizza, and meanwhile, Mom and Maddie had made these really nice cupcakes for the night too.  We ate together, and then got to work on those eggs, which was pretty fun.  Lots of color and just a nice time with the egg spinner and the different cups of dye.  We've got some pics below here of the various eggs and our evening together.  Mom and I did a few eggs, but Maddie and Nate did the rest, and had a fun time.

Ah, the lovely ambience of the local gas station!

Free gas station pizza!

Mom and Maddie made these tasty cupcakes for tonight!

Interesting eggs tonight!  We used egg-wraps, the spiral tool, and traditional egg dips.

Mom did this interesting gold one with the bunny stickers.  
Fun fact:  those bunny stickers won't stick by themselves.  

Maddie did this one that looks like a sunset over the ocean.

This is the one I did, per Mom's request.  She always likes this one.

The dyes were cast

Maddie wrote some of her favorite scriptures on this egg. 

We had a decent night, and afterwards - or right at the end - there were some amazing storms rolling through.  We didn't get the hail that other places got - Oakwood got pummeled with lots of hail - but we did get some very heavy rain.  We got Nate home, and got back home after a bit of tense driving.

Maddie had some homework and a quiz to study for, and so beyond the storm and the fun with eggs, it wasn't a terribly eventful night here.  We got to bed early, and got ready for Friday.  Not too many days left of school now!

Promposal

Maddie was taken completely by surprise tonight after service, and given a proper "promposal" just in time too.  Back a few weeks ago, Maddie made a joke promposal for her friend that she's going to the prom with at East Forsyth.  She said she was doing that because it was unlikely that either one of them would get an actual promposal, and yet here we are...

She was so surprised, and so happy too.  Nate gave her a promposal, and she was very happy to say, "Yeah, sure!"  This was all quite a wonderful moment for her, and she deserves this happiness.   

Here she is right before service tonight, sitting with friends about to hear a few words from Pastor Jacob and then watch a movie with some popcorn.  Tonight's movie was one the students voted on, and it was "Jesus Revolution," which Maddie actually voted for too.  I loaned my hard copy to let them show it, and so it was a good night there at FCY.

But for Maddie it was especially a good night.  She got to the car, and in the seat was a bag that said "PROM?" and inside that was some of the candy that she likes - her friends were asking this earlier with a text conversation, and now Maddie new why.  That plush cow?  He's a part of the family now, no doubt, a part of the Plush Entourage, probably right up there with the most important members.  

Maddie had a good day, and again, she deserves it.  She'll be going to two proms this month, the one at East Forsyth High School, and on top of that the one at Nate's school.  Going to the prom with a boy?  That was an unexpected thing on her list, but she's not complaining at all.

Ain't No Thing

Okay, this was kind of a funny moment.  The nearby Chinese restaurant has an online ordering system, and there are a few misspellings here or there, and the appetizer here listed at $9.95 is singular, as you can see.  It just says "CHICKEN WING."  So when you order this appetizer, are you getting a plate full of chicken wings, or is it exactly as advertised, a singular chicken wing?  Is it a really big chicken wing?  This was the big discussion at the office, of course, not terribly long of a discussion and mostly for laughs.

Of course, it's a plate of chicken wings.  Nevertheless, we set up this shot when we got home, and sent it back to the office for the joke.

Anyway, today was a quiet day.  We had an oncologist visit this morning, and that was a routine sort of trip where they do a few tests and check on things, and Mom got the all-clear for another year.  We went to the office afterwards and continued our work towards Easter and this weekend's material.  Can you believe this Sunday is Palm Sunday already?  Yeah, wow.  We got the palms ordered and stored away in a refrigerator.  We've got a lot of other things going on right now, a fairly collection of things on the "to do" list.  One at a time...

Maddie had some math homework tonight, but we did continue our Pirates movie fest with "On Stranger Tides," which was another fun movie.  Afterwards, we dove into our new book, "Carpe Jugulum," and so we're on our way with yet another tale from the Discworld.  We said our prayers after this, and it was late again - we'd better get some rest!

At School's End

We have a portable sauna now, and today we actually gave it a try.  I'm not going to lie - it's a little funny-looking, sitting there with your head popping out of this big black box thing, the only purpose of which is to make you sweat a lot.  I don't know much about saunas, but I know there's one in "Frozen" and "The Lemon Drop Kid" has one with a bunch of heads sticking out in just the same way.  I also know now that apparently there are toxins that come out with this previously mentioned sweat, and therefore this sort of thing is a healthy habit.  So there's that.  Anyway, I set it up and Mom and I took turns sitting there and sweating!

Which wasn't too bad, really.  We have a few health center tools in the house now.  Of course, there's the treadmill - I was moving forward towards the next badge this morning, all while watching "Tombstone" on the television set down there.  We also got something in the mail today, something Mom ordered, a vibration plate unit that is supposed to be good for bone density issues, amongst other things.  We'll try that one out too.

Maddie was at school today, back to work again.  She's only got something like twenty days to go, and that's coming up fast.  Wow.  Hard to imagine.  School's End.

Speaking of which, tonight we watched "At World's End," another chapter in the Pirates movies.  Maddie did have some homework to do as well, some calculus.  Only twenty more days, Maddie... you can do it!

In other news, we got squirrel 96, and we had some free points at the Race Trac, so I think you know where this is going:  We were off for a multi-purpose trip, dropping off the squirrel and getting ice creams for the three of us.  There is this watermelon sherbet there, and with all kinds of toppings, it's delicious!  And ... it was free!  It's been a while since we took the ol' "squirrel and an ice cream" trip.  

It was a late night, so we didn't get to our reading.  These pirates movies are pretty long!  But I did manage to write this skit for Sunday, something I thought would be fun to have set to music and acted out while the voice sang the verses.  Here's the song, and the script below:

KidPak Adventures:  Exodus
Pharaoh said “No!”

 

CUE TRACK:  1 MARKETPLACE (end at 1:03) 

PHARAOH is at CENTER STAGE, with WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA behind.

CUE SLIDE:  “EGYPT”

MOSES enters STAGE RIGHT

[intro]

Back in the day 

the Pharaoh had his way

That is until he saw a man come

up to him and simply say

CUE TRACK:  2 Pharaoh Said ‘No!’ 

MOSES gestures as if talking to PHARAOH

[chorus]

Moses said, "Let God's people go.

You can't keep slaves you know."

But Pharaoh's heart was hard and so

His answer here was "NO!"

PHARAOH, WYATT, BRIELLE, and VICTORIA taunt and do a happy dance around MOSES

No, no, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no!  OH NO!

MOSES looks disgusted as he exits STAGE RIGHT

MEGAN and EMMA enter from STAGE RIGHT AND STAGE LEFT, each holding a sign, one reading PLAGUE ONE and the other reading PLAGUE TWO.

CUE SLIDES:  PLAGUE ONE and PLAGUE TWO when mentioned

As PLAGUE ONE is mentioned, MEGAN hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.  As PLAGUE TWO is mentioned, EMMA hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.

MEANWHILE, PHARAOH, WYATT, VICTORIA and BRIELLE react to PLAGUES (looking frightened at river of blood, looking horrified at imaginary frogs all around).

[verse 1]

And so the first plague came in like a flood

The Nile river was turned to blood

The second plague, it was no dud

Thousands of frogs hopped from the mud

PHARAOH gestures to MOSES off STAGE, and MOSES returns.

[pre-chorus]

So Pharaoh said, "Come back!

Let's sit and talk this through.

Moses, cut Egypt some slack,

What can I do for you?

CUE SLIDE:  “EGYPT”

MOSES gestures as if talking to PHARAOH

[chorus]

Moses said, "Let God's people go.

You can't keep slaves you know."

But Pharaoh's heart was hard and so

His answer here was "NO!"

PHARAOH, WYATT, BRIELLE, and VICTORIA taunt and do a happy dance around MOSES

No, no, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no!  OH NO!

MOSES looks disgusted as he exits STAGE RIGHT

MEGAN and EMMA enter from STAGE RIGHT AND STAGE LEFT, each holding a sign, one reading PLAGUE THREE and the other reading PLAGUE FOUR.

CUE SLIDES:  PLAGUE THREE and PLAGUE FOUR when mentioned

As PLAGUE THREE is mentioned, MEGAN hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.  As PLAGUE FOUR is mentioned, EMMA hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.

MEANWHILE, PHARAOH, WYATT, VICTORIA and BRIELLE react to PLAGUES (scratching itches all over, swatting away a swarm of flies).

[verse 2]

And so the third plague came, it wasn't nice

The Egyptians had all kinds of lice 

The fourth plague after was no prize

For buzz, buzz, buzz were swarms of flies

PHARAOH gestures to MOSES off STAGE, and MOSES returns.

[pre-chorus]

So Pharaoh said, "Come back!

Let's sit and talk this through.

Moses, cut Egypt some slack,

What can I do for you?

CUE SLIDE:  “EGYPT”

MOSES gestures as if talking to PHARAOH

[chorus]

Moses said, "Let God's people go.

You can't keep slaves you know."

But Pharaoh's heart was hard and so

His answer here was "NO!"

PHARAOH, WYATT, BRIELLE, and VICTORIA taunt and do a happy dance around MOSES

No, no, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no!  OH NO!

MOSES looks disgusted as he exits STAGE RIGHT

MEGAN and EMMA enter from STAGE RIGHT AND STAGE LEFT, each holding a sign, one reading PLAGUE FIVE and the other reading PLAGUE SIX.

CUE SLIDES:  PLAGUE FIVE and PLAGUE SIX when mentioned

As PLAGUE FIVE is mentioned, MEGAN hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.  As PLAGUE SIX is mentioned, EMMA hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.

MEANWHILE, PHARAOH, WYATT, VICTORIA and BRIELLE react to PLAGUES (looking grossed out by imaginary dead cows, looking horrified at their own skin).

[verse 3]

And so the fifth plague came like a battle

A pestilence struck all their cattle

The sixth plague hit Egyptian soils

Every person there had icky boils

PHARAOH gestures to MOSES off STAGE, and MOSES returns.

[pre-chorus]

So Pharaoh said, "Come back!

Let's sit and talk this through.

Moses, cut Egypt some slack,

What can I do for you?

CUE SLIDE:  “EGYPT”

MOSES gestures as if talking to PHARAOH

[chorus]

Moses said, "Let God's people go.

You can't keep slaves you know."

But Pharaoh's heart was hard and so

His answer here was "NO!"

PHARAOH, WYATT, BRIELLE, and VICTORIA taunt and do a happy dance around MOSES

No, no, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no!  OH NO!

MOSES looks disgusted as he exits STAGE RIGHT

MEGAN and EMMA enter from STAGE RIGHT AND STAGE LEFT, each holding a sign, one reading PLAGUE SEVEN and the other reading PLAGUE EIGHT.

CUE SLIDES:  PLAGUE SEVEN and PLAGUE EIGHT when mentioned

As PLAGUE SEVEN is mentioned, MEGAN hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.  As PLAGUE EIGHT is mentioned, EMMA hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.

MEANWHILE, PHARAOH, WYATT, VICTORIA and BRIELLE react to PLAGUES (looking fearfully upwards, and running about to avoid getting struck by imaginary hail, pointing and looking very scared at imaginary locusts swarming all over).

[verse 4]

And so the seventh plague came without fail

Egypt was smashed with lots of hail

The eight plague had a bad focus

As their crops were eaten by locusts!

WYATT, VICTORIA and BRIELLE beg and plead with PHARAOH

[instrumental]

CUE SLIDE:  “EGYPT”

PHARAOH gestures to MOSES off STAGE, and MOSES returns.

(here we go again!)

 

[chorus]

Moses said, "Let God's people go.

You can't keep slaves you know."

But Pharaoh's heart was hard and so

His answer here was "NO!"

PHARAOH, WYATT, BRIELLE, and VICTORIA taunt and do a happy dance around MOSES

No, no, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no!

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no!  OH NO!

MOSES looks disgusted as he exits STAGE RIGHT

MEGAN and EMMA enter from STAGE RIGHT AND STAGE LEFT, each holding a sign, one reading PLAGUE EIGHT and the other reading PLAGUE NINE.


CUE SLIDES:  PLAGUE NINE and PLAGUE TEN when mentioned

As PLAGUE EIGHT is mentioned, MEGAN hits PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign.  As PLAGUE NINE is mentioned, EMMA does not hit PHARAOH and/or WYATT, BRIELLE and VICTORIA with sign, but rather holds up the sign with a sad face.

MEANWHILE, PHARAOH, WYATT, VICTORIA and BRIELLE react to PLAGUES (looking as if they are blind, arms extended and feeling around – and then when the final plague is mentioned, they drop to their knees in defeat).

[bridge]

And the ninth plague came, and rather stark

All of Egypt was left in the dark

The tenth plague left them torn

For that night they all lost their first born

MOSES returns as EGYPTIANS are on their knees

[emotional sad] 

No, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no, no, no

No, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no… Oh no!

CUE SLIDE:  “EGYPT”

MOSES gestures as if talking to EGYPTIANS.

[chorus]

Moses said, "God's people are blessed.

And you have failed the test.

Pharaoh's heart was sad.  He had been bad.

So his answer here was... "YES!"

MOSES exits STAGE RIGHT.  EGYPTIANS exit in different directions, except for PHARAOH, who is alone on stage, moving from left to right with exaggerated sorrow.

[instrumental]

 

[outro]

What's the moral of this story?

The point of it I'd say?

Just listen to God.  Do what is right

and make good choices each day!

PHARAOH shakes his head sadly and exits STAGE RIGHT, moping.

[end]

FADE LIGHTS.

Sunday Exodus

Fun day today at KidPak!  We started our series "Exodus" once more, and it's a shorter version of it, but it will still be a lot of fun.  This morning we talked about Moses and the Burning Bush, about the big moment where God tells Moses to go and set His people free.  We had our usual fun with games and a great message from Pastor Tucker, but also a pretty fun skit with three of our cast members dressed as cows, mainly because the sheep costumes are in Braselton.  It was actually a lot of fun, as the cast members added quite a bit of energy to the morning.  Maddie took pictures as she usually does, and shared those at the church's website - but here are just a few from this morning's service, which went really well.

After church, we picked up some Chinese food from down the street, and got home to enjoy a feast.  Maddie took a fairly big nap this afternoon, and we enjoyed the rain pouring outside.  It was a nice afternoon with the occasional boom of thunder way overhead, the pitter-patter of rain on the leaves in the woods - it was a nice afternoon.

We got some rest and did a few things this afternoon.  I was on the treadmill for a bit, and Mom had a nice luxurious bath.  I went upstairs and assembled her sauna, which actually wasn't that big of a deal, but I wanted to set it up and have it available for her to use.  I think that we'll both be trying it out tomorrow.  I've actually never done anything related to a sauna before, so that might be an interesting thing to do.

Tonight we continued our Pirates marathon with "Dead Man's Chest," which is one of those movies just filled with great imagery and characters.  Love it.  I remember dressing as pirates and going out to the theater to see this one.  Interestingly enough, this movie premiered in Disneyland exactly nine days after the day Maddie was born. 

Afterwards, we played a game of Liar's Dice versus Marty and Pintel.  We were a little fuzzy on how to play to begin with, but we rallied after a bad round and wound up winning pretty handily and being declared honorary pirates with our own gift chicken.  All worth it!

So we'll get some rest tonight, and that'll be good.  The rain came throughout the day and was pretty constant.  It was nice at one point sitting on that front porch, reading and just listening to the sounds of the rainfall.  Tonight we closed things out with the final pages of "Maskerade."  We closed out Spring Break too, as Maddie will be back in school tomorrow.  We said our prayers, and after that, it was time for some rest!

Pirates and Onion Jam

We're looking forward to Pirate Night on the upcoming cruise, so in that spirit we started watching the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies again this evening, beginning with the first one of course, which is pretty much the best one.  But we enjoyed all five of them, and that will probably be the set course over the next week or so as we navigate these well-charted waters.  

It was a good day today, although another quiet one.  We started out with Team Edge practice, of course, where the team is getting more and more in synch with weapons and movements.  Speaking of which, we ordered Maddie a new sword today, a bit pricy but well-deserved.  Hopefully it'll get here long before the upcoming team competition so she has time to practice with it.  

This morning she was doing well though, as was the rest of the team.  They were also training up the junior team members, a new squad of much younger students ready to perform at various events.  It should be fun to see the two teams doing their thing.

We got home and Mom had a really nice brunch prepared.  I picked up some gluten-free English muffins for her, and we had hash, English muffins, and eggs too.  The stand-out was some of this jelly we picked up yesterday:  Vidalia Onion Jam.  I've been looking for this jam a long time, and was super happy to find it at the Blueridge Honey Company Thursday, so yeah, I got a jar of it.  Mom and I tried it out today, and we both really liked it.  It is surprising to have onion as a jam, but it's actually really good.  We had a nice brunch together this afternoon.

After that, it was time for some work.  There were a few things we did online, such as order a sword and get things more lined up with documents for the cruise.  We did a few other online things before I just got tired of working on a computer and decided it was time to get outside and enjoy this day.  It was getting cooler later on, which was good because it was pretty warm mid-afternoon.  Mom and I were out there leaf-blowing and putting out more mulch and clearing out areas of the garden.  It's looking better and better as we move on.  Tomorrow we get a lot of rain, but maybe Monday we'll get back to it.

While we were working outside, Maddie was on a video phone call for over three hours.  True story.   She's got a little get-together with this individual next week - he asked if they could meet up for lunch next Saturday.  Maddie's looking forward to that, and then heading over to his place where his parents are afterwards. 

Anyway, moving on!  Beyond that it was time for our movie, which of course was "Pirates."  After that we had a little time to read.  Tomorrow, we'll finish "Maskerade," and move on to the next thing.  We said our prayers tonight, and got to sleep quickly - it was time to sleep, so we could get up early for church.

Phantom Movie

Last day of Spring Break!  We had a decent day, a quiet day too, certainly when compared to all the action of the last few days.  In fact, I was pretty worn down the entire day.  Still, the show must go on as they say, and there was a service to plan for this upcoming Sunday at KidPak.  I got right on that at the office, and can't do anything without Mom's help.  She was there for a bit, gathering costumes and working hard to help things get going for Sunday.  It'll be a good day, the start of our series "Exodus," and a return to that story from the Bible.  Earlier we had watched "The Ten Commandments" in honor of that, and soon we'll have to watch "The Prince of Egypt," particularly with the passing of Val Kilmer recently.  Along those lines, on the treadmill I started watching "Tombstone," just because it is one of the top five western movies ever made, right?  Maddie will have to watch that some time.  

In the meantime, tonight's viewing was "The Phantom of the Opera," at least the musical movie.  None of us had seen this before, the movie version of the play that wasn't too bad.  The music of course is really good, and I'm fairly close to having the entire first act of it memorized as I listened to it so often back in the day.  Self-control had me not singing along the entire time and annoying everyone about that!  So the reason for the viewing was our recent Discworld book that we're reading, "Maskerade," which we're nearly done with. We read some from that tonight, and I think we'll actually be done with the book tomorrow.  I would have finished tonight, but I was so incredibly tired that I was falling asleep while reading it out loud.  Have you ever done that before?  It's such a surreal thing reading a book out loud and falling asleep while you do that.  Maddie's like... ?  And I sort of return and say, "Ya know?  I think maybe we take a break here and finish up tomorrow?"

Anyway, we enjoyed the movie.  Still like the stage production better, of course, although there were certainly some things the movie was able to do better.  The nostalgia of that time, the hugeness of the stage production in its initial run - it all seemed so important then.  It was like "Hamilton" a few years ago, where only the most blessed had tickets to see this production, and if you saw it in London or Broadway you were incredibly fortunate.  We did see it back in the day, and in fact I saw it a few times in person.  Maddie has not, but I do think she will inevitably see this play should it come around again.  

It was a sunny day today, and it's really warm out there - nice weather!  Although I think it's supposed to get colder again soon?  Spring weather up and down.  But wow, we sure did time things right with our trip.  Thank you, Lord!

So what did Maddie do today on her last day of Spring Break?  We mentioned going to taekwondo, of course.  Maddie spent a good bit of sparring.  She sometimes really likes it, other times not so much.  Let's just say it's "hit or miss."  See what I did there?

Anyway, it was a good day, and an early sleep for me, at least.  We'll sleep in a bit tomorrow, but there's taekwondo, and maybe some other things tomorrow night to do.  We'll see you then!

Flying Pigs

See the flying pigs?  Yes, we came back to Old MacDonald's Mini-Golf Course.  Last year we had a really fun thing happened - over the course of a  few different games, each of us had gotten a hole-in-one on the very last hole of each course.  It's a challenging thing, and doesn't happen terribly often (it didn't happen today for any of us!).  So for all three of us to get this was pretty cool, and what was the prize?  A free game!  Yes, last year we won three free games, and we had up to a year to redeem the free tickets.  That's why we returned here this morning for a really fun time playing mini-golf!

By the way, Mom beat both Maddie and I pretty handily, getting three solid holes-in-one, plus about a few more near misses.  She was on fire today!

Of course, today was the last day of our stay at the Inn at Christmas Place - for now.  We had our really big breakfast buffet with all the good food, and there was Santa there again for pictures and greeting.  We got in our Santa picture for the year again, and that was a nice little bonus to the day!

And of course there were other photo ops outside that we did again, which are always fun!

Ah, another nice meal outside here.  Just watch out for the static electricity!  These chairs are high up and plastic, so there's no grounding here.  So yeah, you can build up a good static charge to zap your grounded neighbor if they are standing nearby... ZAP!

Outside of the zapping, this meal is super pleasant in the mornings, and this was just a good way to say goodbye to the Inn for now.

The ride home was nice and easy.  You can see the rubber chicken has been with us again, a hilarious response to the "no honking your horns" sign that is in front of the Pigeon Forge tunnel.  Maddie rolls down the window and honks this rubber chicken over and over again the entire length of the tunnels in Tennessee.  Awesome!

Here's Joey at one of our stops on the way home.  Somewhere south of Clayton, we stop at the Blue Ridge Honey Company to pick up a few things like jams, honeys, and a honey sweetened cream soda that Maddie likes.  

But we got home in time to get ready... and go out again.  Yes, Maddie was at taekwondo tonight, and that went a lot later than usual, just because Maddie was hanging out with students.  When we got home, Mom was ready for a movie - and in honor of our recent trip to Dollywood, we rented "9 to 5."  Maddie liked that one - I hadn't seen it in decades, but there were certain lines that I really remember for some reason.

After that, we did our reading from "Maskerade," and a likely culprit has been finally discovered.  We'll see how things go from this point on, but things are winding down with this story now, which we're both enjoying.  Afterwards we said our prayers, and everyone got tucked in for a good night's rest.  

Wow, what a full day!  It was fun though!