Last Day with Disgust

We ended August with a Sunday, and a great morning at KidPak - the last Sunday of the series, and you can see how Disgust above feels about that.  Maddie had a great day at Camp FCY while we were at church - she's working about three hours, then a three hour break, and then three hours, and so on.  She's keeping busy, and she's enjoying what she's doing.  Mom took a few pictures this morning, but we were very understaffed (given that everyone was at camp), and so we had a skeleton crew doing the service.  I had Disgust and a few actors doing choreography to a song about David and Nabal, one called "Ew!"  And we had a lot of "core memory trivia" too.  Here's a few pictures from this morning.  

The rest of the day was restful, with Mom and I heading home to eat some leftovers from our outings, and then pretty much take it easy the remaining part of the day.  I got a new shower head in the bathroom, and Mom was cleaning up some tubs with random tools and bits in them in the garage.  We might attack that soon, getting rid of a lot of things that have been sitting there taking up space for a few years.  Tonight we saw another few episodes of "Brisco County, Jr." and these are such fun.

We were outside getting more spiders down, and we're keeping the bird feeders loaded because there's a huge family of cardinals that are dependent on us.  Maybe two families!  We had like ten cardinals out there on the back deck.  We have the other usual birds too, but not many squirrels lately, and that's a plus.  Out front, the butterfly bush is still attracting lots of beautiful butterflies, and the hummingbirds are getting filled up at Mom's feeder for their future travels.  Oh, and indoors:  the sea monkeys are still doing well!

I did some more walking today, getting another two miles forward on the Scooby Doo mystery, all while watching some Weird Al Show episodes from a long time ago.  They're still fun to watch!  And I finished yet another Psalm.  I miscounted earlier, but now I can officially say I have only 10 Psalms left to go on my project, setting them all to music.  For Psalm 129, I tried to have it sound like a Disney Channel Musical, and it actually turned out pretty fun!  In fact, there were two different versions that I'm struggling to pick a favorite from.

And that's about it for today.  We start a new series next week, and we might do a few things tomorrow.  September is here, the "Ber" months.  It's going to be a wonderful new season!

Ugly Face Jugs

Maddie's at camp today, and we texted a few times, although not much.  She's been pretty busy serving, but she said she's been having a good time too, and that's good to hear.  We haven't seen any photos of her up there, but I'm sure there may be one or two by the time all this week is done.  In the meantime, Mom and I have been having fun as well, back to the really nice Pottery & Folk Art Festival.

This morning we had reservations for a really fun activity!  Just as we've done the last few years, we were off to the Folk Pottery & Arts Festival in Sautee, but this time Mom had made reservations a few days ago for us to make our very own ugly face jugs!

This was a lot of fun!  We had about two hours, and all the supplies we needed.  Plus a little guidance from the instructors there, although I think we didn't need a much as some of the other students.  I say all this while also saying this was my first piece of pottery in thirty years or so.  It's fairly intuitive, I think.  At least, it's intuitive for those of us that like to use Play-doh!  Last night, both Mom and I came up with some design ideas.  Mom's is completely original.  My jug's face is based on one of those bells from a Claymation Christmas.  We actually drew out some ideas on small bits of paper, bringing those in for reference.  Again, it was great fun!  Afterwards, Mom and I picked a glaze that they'll use later on.  We'll pick up our creations in a few weeks when they reach out to us, after they've gone in the kiln.

We said our goodbyes, and after that we were outside walking around for a bit, checking out the festival as always.  It's just as it was the last few years, lots of tents with vendors and pottery and different crafts.  We were checking out all the pottery there, voting on our favorites in the main hall, and then going over to one of the vendors that we always visit to pick up some of my favorite handmade soap and shaving bars.  It's a fragrance called "Sherlock's Study," and I got a few of those, plus Mom got some other soaps too.

We didn't eat there, but we did sit for a really long time in the shade, seated in chairs listening to as many as fourteen bluegrass artists playing together on the stage there.  There was even a lady playing the saw, which is amazing to me.  The stand-up bass was there, plus banjos, guitars, mandolins, and a few fiddles.  It was really nice and relaxing.  No hurry, just sitting in the shade and listening to performers play for the crowds.

Ah, the Mystery Machine!  Or rather, the "Munchie Machine!"

Cute bat!

Some of the booths to look around in, including the one we visit each year to get Sherlock's Study.

This skull jar seems really, really hopeful.

Some of these pieces were created by Sid from "Toy Story."

Axolotl pottery!

Weird Al is sawing wood with a friend.

Alpine?  Desert?  Pizza?  Sort of Italian Bavarian Mexican food?

They be jammin'.

Honestly, one of my favorite parts of this visit.

Decor at the Old Sautee Store

Afterwards we were over at the Old Sautee Store again, and yes, we got a good bit of stuff there.  We got cheese, for one.  We ate some of that cheese tonight - I love the cheese there.  We also got a few beverages (cream soda!), and some Glögg mix for later on this winter.

We were hungry by this point, and we decided to check out the Mellow Mushroom in Dawsonville on the way home.

Mom's liking the wings they have there, and the usual Pacific Rim pizza was good too.  It's hot outside though, and we had to get home and get that cheese in a refrigerator!

Today was pretty quiet after that.  I did some walking, getting another two miles in on the Scooby Doo mystery, also watching a few episodes of the Weird Al Show.  Got my steps in!

We had a bit cheese plate tonight, different selections of cheese, and we sat down to watch a few episodes of Brisco County, Jr. again.  It's been a quiet day, once we got home.  Nice and restful.  Time to get some sleep, as we've got church tomorrow, and we're pretty understaffed for that - everyone's up at camp.  Should be a good day.  We're very blessed.  Time to get some rest.

Serving at Camp

 

Maddie was off to Camp FCY again, but this time as a college student/indentured servant in the kitchen - she was at the church for a good it today, and then on the bus once more for the pilgrimage north to Carolina Point, that resort camp area on the border of North and South Carolina.  It's going to be a bit more work for her this time around, but she's also going to have fun too. 

And we're alone again, naturally.  Mom and I didn't go straight home after leaving Maddie.  We said our goodbyes, spoke with several others, and then made our way over to the Mexican restaurant that Maddie introduced us to a few weeks ago.  Mom was hankering some of that food she tried a few weeks ago, and it was a good visit.

After that, Mom and I were off to the Mexican ice cream shop, just to make a themed sort of night.  We got some delicious ice cream - pistachio for me, and mocha for Mom.  That's the best ice cream in Hall County to us!

Nice day.  Maddie sent a text to let us know she was setting up tables for breakfast tomorrow, and I'm sure she got to bed some time tonight, or at least some time early in the morning.  That's the way camp goes.  We'll miss her.  :(  

Run In with the Zombie

The Scooby Doo adventure continues each day, and I'm just getting started of course.  Today I passed a certain point along the trail and got a post card, along with the first part of the story.  The walking itself is nothing interactive with the adventure - although soon I'll be actually watching seasons one and two of Scooby Doo as I walk, just to get in the spirit of things.  Right now I've got to finish up with the Weird Al Show, which I'm re-watching for the first time in many years.  I'm actually still laughing out loud at this show while I walk.  It was fun!

This morning Maddie and I went to chapel, and this is the North Campus of Free Chapel again - formerly the main campus.  This is, of course, where Mom and I got married.  The worship band was out there, and then following that a great message from Dr. Rich.  Maddie had her Bible and her notebook, which she uses very heavily.  Maddie is an excellent note taker - hugely thorough.  You can actually kind of see her in the congregation above, and by "congregation," I mean the students there at the college.  This is the college chapel each Thursday, and I'm seated with the staff, which is pretty great.  I'm excited about this new year.

We did some more work today on the booklet, slowly creeping towards a complete November booklet.  We're not quite sure what we're doing in October yet, as that's beyond our control at the moment.  But we're working on what we can, and that's a new series in November that looks fun with graphics.  Not sure what we'll do with the skits.  In fact, I'm not even sure what we're doing with that for September!  

Anyway, today Maddie got home and then went off to spend the day with Nate.  She did some packing when she got home, and Mom and I watched a few episodes of "Brisco County, Jr."  I've seen this a few times now, but it's been years and just had a hankering to revisit this amazing series.  It was so short-lived, but it's a lot of fun.  We've started it now, so now we're going to have to binge watch all the episodes - that'll be the next few weeks, I'm sure.

We closed out the day with reading, and with prayers too.  Programming note:  I'm almost done with my "Psalms" project, where I've been setting all 150 Psalms to AI music.  I finished Psalm 118 today, and I have about twelve remaining Psalms.  I've covered all kinds of genres, and there are still a few to go.  I'm sad that I can't do a Junkanoo sort of sound yet, but the other instruments and styles have been really cool, from the theremin to the didgeridoo.  There's beach music, country, opera, polka, power ballads, Bossa nova, R&B, rap, stage musical, and so much more.  It's been really fun.  I'm saving Psalm 119 for last, because it's so incredibly long and I have no idea right now how to do that one.  But I'll get to it!

Okay, time for some sleep.  Labor Day weekend starts tomorrow!

Back in Brisco County

Maddie really enjoyed her class this morning at college, talking all the way home about a lesson involving rocks and building materials and deep scriptural insight that she hadn't thought of before.  In other words, a fantastic day at Free Chapel College, and we're just getting started.  Maddie's new Free Chapel College notebook is already broken in with lots of notes from Maddie, who is really locked in and enjoying the classes and the experience. 

I was over at the main campus working on our booklet for November.  We're doing a great job with this one, moving forward with it quickly.  We have a five-weekend November, and our messages are just spilling out, and that's a great thing.  Just a few more activities, and the booklet will be completely done.

Maddie had Team Edge practice tonight, and yes, it's a Wednesday night.  She'll have a few practices on Wednesday nights coming up, although not next Wednesday.  Things were busy for the studio on Saturdays so they had to move to Wednesday nights.  It's okay, as it all works out with the schedule.  

Mom and I are still on this detox program, which requires a precise schedule with various supplements and droplets.  It's been a bit rougher on Mom, but it's definitely doing something inside the both of us.  We have various videos to watch and all kinds of dietary changes.  It's been good to do this together.

Now that Cracker Barrel has reverted to what was, or at least made the appearance of reverting - they've brought back their old logo for a start - we might even swing by there again for a low-carb meal.  They took a tremendous hit this weekend, and it's funny because we were just there not long ago, and so not showing up this weekend wasn't a huge issue for us.  Still, reportedly, the parking lots of these locations were sparse, and that must have send the administration heads into panic mode.  First, there was this corporate-speak letter about the value of customers and so on, one that looked crafted by AI, and sort of went around in circles without making any big commitment in any direction other than to say that they were listening to customers.  And no one liked that.  So then came the next blunt letter which said, "Okay, fine.  The new logo is gone.  The old one with the guy and the barrel is coming back.  Now please, can you come back too?"  Along with that, certain things on websites and other changes were made.  An expensive lesson learned.  But hopefully the company can make a comeback.  We really are loyalists, and it was like our experience with Disney. We don't enjoy seeing these places suffer, but we couldn't reward bad choices.  Okay, time to move on!

Tonight we watched the pilot episode of "Brisco County, Jr."  This was a great, great series from the 90's, and I've seen it a few times, but each time I forget how much fun it is.  I actually have an autographed photo of Bruce Campbell somewhere, and I remember "Army of Darkness" and how much fun that season was.  Mom got me some "Army of Dark Chocolate" coffee recently, and it's actually really good.  But yes, "Brisco County, Jr." was a fun western science fiction series, a really wild mix of genres that just clicked with an amazing cast.  I forgot how long the pilot episode was, basically a full-length movie, but we stuck with it, because you just had to see what happened next.  The old-school serial western format is really fun, so yeah, we'll be probably revisiting all these episodes the next few weeks or so.  

Before bed, we read from Discworld for just a bit, about the nobility of Corporal Nobbs, and of the attempted poisoning of the Patrician.  "Feet of Clay" is just getting started, but we're enjoying the mystery as it gets started.  Reading has been great each night, and I'm glad to be going through all these Discworld books.  We prayed afterwards, and then it was time for some sleep.  Got another school day tomorrow!

Moving Along

Maddie enjoyed another good day today at school, and she made a collage - a mood collage.  Although another classmate thought it was called  a "moon" collage, which made for some laughs amongst all of them a little later on.  It was a good day though.  I got her home at 12:30 or so when classes were over with and she spent the rest of the day there.  Meanwhile, I've been working on some of these new booklets for November - mainly because we're not quite sure what's going on in October at the moment.  But November's booklets are moving along pretty well.  Here's a few pages that I came up with, credit of the artwork to some AI instructions I input.

Things are turning out well.  We're getting pages done a bit faster, and some of these look really good with all this artwork that technically belongs to us.  In mere moments, we'll have just about any image we want doing what we want, and it's a powerful tool for creating these booklets.  I'm not sure how book illustrators are overcoming this, other than perhaps by shortening their days quite a bit.  Personally, I would love to see a book that I knew was hand drawn, but nowadays, you can't tell so much.  These images below were created in a few minutes.  I had choices, and I picked my favorites and there it was, all done!

Anyway, tonight we watched "Around the World in 80 Days," because recently Mrs. Edge said the theme for Edgefest was "The Great Race," which is a multi-cultural sort of theme, with different areas and booths with different cultural themes.  Maddie may be embracing her Chinese heritage, while her friend Chloe is from Kenya, and her other friend Chris is from Korea, I think.  Anyway, the look will be cool.  Tonight we watched that movie just because I was wanting to see that theme again.  We have another two versions with the same title, and of course those are more accurate to the book.  This one we watched had Jackie Chan in it, and a lot of cameos too.  It's a lot of fun.  I might have to go back and see the Pierce Brosnan one next, and then the David Niven one.  There's a few more versions, including a new one.

We saw that, and then we did our reading tonight, and then prayers too.  It was a quiet day, a normal weekday.  There was the return to the Cracker Barrel logo, which was strangely a huge controversy this week.  They got a lot of negativity, and now the ship may be getting righted there.  It was crazy when none other than the President of the United States stepped into the conversation.  Then the logo returns, and hopefully things can head back to normal there.

Also, I'm in the SPOOKY SWAMP with the Scooby Doo mystery here on the treadmill.  That's a pretty fun bit with this daily treadmill exercise.  You get these images of the swamp, and a map of your progress which shows right now I'm a good bit ahead of that zombie that is also going the trail.  It's a fun season.

Scooby Doo Virtual Race

Mom got me an early birthday present, and I'm pretty excited about it!  Above you can see my runner's bib - I erased the name at the top, and I'm not sure who would seriously wear one of these each time they got on the treadmill, but I'm still excited about it.  So what is it?  It's a virtual Scooby Doo race!  

Basically, the idea is to cover 50 miles on the treadmill, and as you plug away at that each day, you input your distance, and it moves you along a virtual path.  You can see all the others along the same path, doing the race at the same time, but the other thing that happens is that along what way you discover clues to solve a mystery by the end.  You also get postcards and unlock other things, all leading up to the finish line where you get this super cool medal.  That'll be fun, and I'll be sure to post a picture of that here.  Until then, I decided to take a look at my profile on the race and actually add this picture of myself and Mom here, which I converted into a Scooby Doo look. 

Jinkies!  This will be fun.  As an added bit, I've got seasons one and two of "Scooby Doo!" on DVD.  I'll probably be walking along on the treadmill as I watch these old classics.  Zoinks!  

So today was Maddie's first day of the college classes.  We got up earlier and drove past the high school with all the drop-offs there, and went straight to the church with our lunchboxes and our start to a new day.  This is the new schedule!  I got to work and got busy, and Maddie did the same with her classes.  She sort of did a fun introductory class where they were working together to see which hypothetical candidates were most worthy of a parole, going into a field of work they're trying to get to.  Much discussion and debate ensued, but she had a good time with that, and she really does like all the people there, as well as everything else there.  Good start!

We got home, and I did manage to get a lot done for this weekend at KidPak.  I have this song done for Disgust, a song about the David-Abigail-Nabal incident from 1 Samuel.  It's called "Ew!"  I also got some great trivia slides done.  I felt good about the accomplishments of the day there.

Maddie went to taekwondo, and that was great fun for her.  She's starting up this new season, and there's even some thought already about Edgefest in October.  Lots of activities coming up there!  Also some slight schedule changes that might work out in our favor, but we'll see.

Oh, and look at this guy!  I was so happy to see a walking stick that I did a video call to Mom to show here this amazing insect.  I haven't seen one of these in a while, and it always brings a smile to my face.  Maddie spent a good bit of time with Nate today at taekwondo, and then over at Nate's house - while I was waiting in the car.  But I usually watch Penn & Teller while I wait in the car, a magical tradition of sorts.  I measure time waiting in magic routine times.  I watched three, so I knew it was a longer wait!

Anyway, we got home, and there we saw "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2," which is a great parody of "Jurassic Park," movies, with lots of aggressive food, and a hilarious strawberry.  It's lots of fun, one we hadn't seen in a while.  By the way, the scratch-and-sniff on the cover of our Blu Ray still smells like a strawberry!

Afterwards, time for some more reading, and prayers.  We got to sleep a little later tonight, but we'll make up for that tomorrow I think.  

Hooked on a Feeling 3

We had a good morning at KidPak with another fun skit involving the characters from "Inside Out," each cast member doing a really great job with their part, and just a fun morning overall.  It was all about praise and worship, and our skit once again returned to the emotions inside David's head, sort of deciding who would take charge in the morning, first thing.  It was fun!  Maddie took those photos above, and she put a much larger collection on the church's site as she does each Sunday morning.

After church we got home - I got a nap in after a Factor meal, and Maddie was talking with friends on her phone.  We did some LEGO Batman 2, and after that watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," mainly because recently I tried sardines again and that got me thinking of this movie.  The sardines were for a quick source of protein, but I gotta be honest:  not my favorite.  The movie, however, is a great one.  And we all agreed to watch part two tomorrow.

We did our reading tonight, and after that it was time for prayers, and bed.  We're getting up early tomorrow to start college classes, and that should be fun!

Bu-ddy

Here's just a quick picture of the butterfly bush outside our garage.  This time of year it is hugely popular with butterflies, moths, bees, and hummingbirds, and when we pull up to the house, there they all are visiting with the flowers, and it's just a nice welcoming committee.

It was a rainy day today, and a quiet one.  The rain was in the morning, and it gave way to grey overcast skies the rest of the day, and cooler temperatures - quite pleasant, actually.  We had dropped Maddie off for Team Edge practice this morning, as that's up and going again.  Afterwards, she was with Nate all day playing games and spending the day over there.  

Mom and I were getting a few things done around the house.  I was having some difficulty with the ol' esophagus, which might lead to a visit with an endoscopy, but we'll see how things progress here.  I did get the walking on the treadmill done, and finished the last episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" while marching along.  My next target on the treadmill is watching the entire Weird Al Show series, but that's just 13 episodes.  Anyway, it's been great to get that exercise in each day.  

So our country is interesting.  There's this desperate attempt to make peace between Russia and Ukraine, but instead of an entire world focused on ending wars, social media is ablaze about Cracker Barrel changing its logo.  That's been the talk this weekend online, which I think is an interesting snapshot about humanity in general.  For the record, we're probably going to take a temporary break from Cracker Barrel, as apparently not just the logo is changing with this restaurant chain.  Man, we've been loyalists too.  This issue is like the one with Disney - we just loved these institutions so much, and then they do stuff and go down roads we can't really go so much.  Seriously, they were like a "part of the family," and now there is a little bit less of that connection.  We certainly don't run out to see every Disney movie anymore, and hadn't been down to Orlando in years.  And now, our visits to Cracker Barrel might be more limited too.  We'll see how they respond next week.  I really do like going there because of the nostalgic atmosphere and ambience.  But if all that goes, what's the point?  Disney seems to be righting the ship a bit, but our general enthusiasm for a lot of this has greatly dwindled.  And maybe that's okay.

Changing the subject, I finished 1 Samuel today too, reading over that interesting passage where King Saul goes over to Endor.  Not the forest moon of Endor, but in fact the place in Israel.  The discussion about familiar spirits ensued, and how this one imitated Samuel and basically spoke the truth about what was to happen.  Certainly an unusual spot.  We're moving forward through 2 Samuel after this, but it's been fun diving deeper and reading commentaries about all of this.  I've been in the Perry Stone commentary Bible and it's a thick one with lots of extra commentary and insight, and it's all been pretty fascinating.  It's best to go through some of these and not just read it to read it, but rather to stop to work out details and motivations and understand the events of the time.  

Tonight, we watched "Encino Man," as Mom was wanting to see that again.  Maybe because of this classic line of dialogue from Weasel:  "If you're edged 'cause I'm weazin all your grindage, just chill. 'Cause if I had the whole brady bunch thing happenin' at my pad, I'd go grind over there, so dont tax my gig so hard-core cruster."

That line of dialogue cracks me up every time, this California slang at the time, with a lot of made-up stuff no doubt.  But there's a lot of other fun stuff in the movie too including the epic line from Nicodemus himself:  "No Wheezing the Juice!"

This started out as a mini-Brendan Fraser marathon (with "George of the Jungle") last night, but might transition to a Pauly Shore marathon here.  I'm from the generation that watched movies like "In the Army Now" and "Son-in-Law."  Never saw "Jury Duty" or "Biodome," but maybe a bit of old-school is on the schedule here.  Anyway, we were having a fun time watching this one tonight.

Okay, enough about that.  Time for bed.  We read from "Feet of Clay" tonight, already an intriguing mystery going on, and after that, time for prayers and a good night's rest!

 

Bubble Massage

Maddie, Mom and I were at the chiropractor today, and it was fun visit as always  The punctuation mark was Maddie getting to use the bubble bed, this relaxing sort of massage bed after her adjustment.  She enjoyed it, grabbing the phone and texting while lying down.

We had a few visits after this, including lunch:  Texas Roadhouse.  We got a great lunch there.  Mom loves the steak there, and I've just started to eat more salads for meals, but that doesn't mean I can't have steak too.  I had a steak salad that was just delicious as always.  And huge.  This thing was very filling!

Afterwards, it was time for another Invisalign visit at the dentist.  We were there for perhaps the penultimate visit, at least with the current mouthpiece situation.  Things are starting to line up, and although she's gotten used to it in her mouth, I think she'll be ready to be free soon.  Not long left!

Maddie was just at the Alpharetta campus yesterday as a part of her tour, and she was surprised to know that the church isn't that far at all from our dentist.  In fact, it was less than two miles!  So we dropped by there to see it, although no one was there today.

We got home, and rested a bit, getting caught up on some things.  But soon afterwards, it was time for taekwondo!  Maddie and I went over there tonight, and I actually got to relax somewhat, catching up on the latest book I'm reading, "Riders in the Sky," while Maddie was working on her sparring and form.

Later on, we watched an old movie, "George of the Jungle" tonight, and that was fun.  Now I've got that song stuck in my head.  We worked on some other things too, like a skit for Braselton and the latest effort on a Psalm song.  I've got about sixteen left to go.

We ended the night in the Discworld, and after that prayers.  Nice day, cooler evening with the wet weather out there.  Time for some sleep.

Arthur Blank Hospital

I went to a new place today, the Arthur Blank Children's Hospital.  I was there to visit Pastor Lance's little girl, who has been dealing with a "complicated pneumonia." 

Our plush friend that we brought as a gift also is wearing an oxygen tube!

 It's a nice place, and huge too.  Very tall building!  It was a nice visit, although traffic on the way home was horrendous.  Three accidents made the trip take hours to get home.  Atlanta traffic is so frustrating.

Maddie spent the day with Nate, as they both had off of school today.  Mom and I were wrapping up day three of our detoxing, so that tomorrow we can take a break.  I did some writing for Braselton again, more writing for their children's ministry - plus we finished editing and proofing the booklets for September, so there was a lot done there.  I've been steady on the treadmill, and watching the whole Monty Python series - just three episodes to go there!

But tonight we didn't watch much.  We were over at Nate's parents after taekwondo, and we were talking about a possible upcoming vacation.  Maddie will like it.  Mom will too. 

We read from "Feet of Clay" for a bit, and then after that it was time for prayers, and sleep too.  Rain, rain, rain in the evenings.  It cools things down and is very nice and pleasant outside.