First Place and "Les Miserables"

 

Maddie joined Team Edge for a competition early today in Acworth, a location we went to last year.  It was a fun day for the team as they did super good, winning first place in the team demo competition!

Meanwhile, Mom and I had those tickets to see a play down at City Springs theater.  Earlier, we were warned of a festival going on down there, the Blue Stone Arts and Music Festival.  The warning from our theater was related to parking, but we thought why not go ahead and visit the festival as well?

We had a nice lunch there, some barbecue from a food truck.  And then we were walking around as well.

This is the band Squonk, a unique band that was playing a good bit while also using a lot of unusual animated sculptures or lines of drums on the stage.

And then we were walking around the different booths.  We had our friend Ansley from the office with us, our stand-in for Maddie's ticket.  She had a great time!  Here she is adding some paint to this canvas - we were doing the same in a moment, a sort of thing all passing people were invited to do.

Okay, this is an unusual item, a ceramic fruit washer.  The water goes into the spout there, and then rushes into the bowl in a circular fashion to sort of spin-wash the fruit or vegetable you put in there.

After eating, it was time to head inside the theater and get ready for the production of "Les Miserables."

Our friend Isaac turned us into lower-class patriot revolutionaries.  Or something!

The place would be packed - this is pretty much a sold-out run of this show, a really popular production.  Our season pass seats are dead center at the main level there, front row.  Great spot!

As for the production, it was just amazing.  It was a moving, emotional, just fantastic.  The performances were spectacular, the costumes and set just amazing.  The story is epic and the musical numbers were iconic.  It was one of the best things I've seen on stage - not to say you'd want to see it time and again repeatedly.  It's a sweeping and emotional experience - no wonder this production was so popular.  And the version we saw today was as good as it gets.

It was a long play.  We left the theater quite impressed, and got out of the festival area with ease.  Time to head to one more destination:  Cracker Barrel!  

The reason for this stop on the way home:  National Pancake Day!  Cracker Barrel had an all-you-can-eat deal:  $5.00 for all-you-can-eat pancakes.  There's no way - no way - I can eat more than a plateful of these pancakes.  I can't even really finish one plate of three pancakes.  Still, it's fun to celebrate - those pancakes are delicious!

We got home and got to listen to Maddie's tales of adventure and fun over at the tournament, and got to see the medal for ourselves.  She was watching the Braves game earlier, and so that's what Mom and I did too, watching a replay of this afternoon's match against the Marlins.  It was a great offensive show from the Braves, who won pretty big.

We read tonight after this, and we said our prayers - and got some sleep.  Looooong day, but a memorable one!

Skellington's Suds

Ah!  Time to use a new bar of soap, one of the bars Mom got me called Skellington's Suds.  It's themed to "Nightmare Before Christmas," and I've heard it been told that Jack Skellington himself uses this soap, or at least that is what I've come to understand!  It smells great, a little fun too.  Perfect to use after getting off the treadmill, which of course I've been on daily.  Here's the latest post card:

I've been doing this virtual walk for around a week and am already at 20%.  It's got this feature where you can do a look around to see where you're at, so today I was able to stop and see the falls themselves from where I happened to stop.  Up until now, it's just been following a road from Lake Ontario southward, and while I march along I've been catching up on some fun POV videos at the falls.  The power station and Cave of the Winds have been favorites, and it was hilarious fun going through the Ripley's Believe it or Not there.  There have been a couple of POV videos walking up and down the walkway to various viewpoints, and a few POV videos showing rides onboard the Maid of the Mist and the Hornblower.  Oh, and a POV hike towards the Whirlpool Rapids too.  Lots to see.  Long time ago, I was on the Maid of the Mist, riding in a boat up to the midst of Horseshoe Falls.  I even got to ride a helicopter over the top of the falls as well.  I've always been fascinated by Goat Island there too, this isolated location on the precipice of it all.  Okay, anyway, walking was fun today.

Looooong day for Maddie.  She had college this morning, and then tonight more practice for her big competition tomorrow.  Hopefully everyone will do very well.  We're not able to go, as this thing was announced the day that Mom and I are going to see "Les Miserables."  Maddie was going to go initially, but we'll take Ansley with us instead.  Meanwhile, Maddie will be competing and doing all the other things there as well.  She'll have a great day - starts early though!

Mom and I were in Braselton taking things down there and getting a few things from there as well.  We made a few other stops along the way, and got back in time to see Maddie and watch the start of the last Braves series of the regular season.  Only two more games left of that regular season, and then off to post season.  It was an almost a "Maddux" game, and by "Maddux," I didn't realize that my favorite pitcher of all time had something named after him.  Yeah, I learned this today.  A "Maddux" is when a pitcher pitches a complete shut-out game in less than a hundred pitches.  The Miami Marlins didn't pitch a Maddux, but he did do a complete game shut-out.  Our offense was sad - just one hit.  Hopefully tomorrow we can get a little more excitement going.

We read from "Thief of Time" tonight, and then it was time for prayers and a good night's rest.  Big, big day tomorrow!

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Nana and Ye-Ye go to "Les Miserables" first, cool weather, coffee and Bible on the porch, chiropractor, Cracker Barrel, cardio fun... updates coming soon...

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Got a new medal!  These come in the mail a couple weeks after you complete the journey, but here it is, the Yellowstone medal, something you get for doing the 75 mile journey through the park, virtually of course.  Along the way, I was watching all those POV videos of people at the park doing various trails or walks around basins or waterfalls or wildlife - there were so many that I always had one to see while walking along.  

That "10" pin there is for doing ten of these virtual walks thus far.  I'm sort of hooked!

The hummingbirds are still out there - we keep the feeder full of the good stuff for them, and it's nice to see them perched out there resting and taking long sips.  Won't be long before they migrate though.  It's colder, and fall is here.

...updates coming soon...

Fall is Here

Cooler weather is here, and that makes a good bit of sense because today is the first day of fall.  One big story of the season is the complete lack of hurricanes in the Atlantic.  This is the first time there hasn't been a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean - up until this date - in 112 years.  Meanwhile, all the big storms are over there in the Pacific causing trouble.  We're getting rain here, but nothing violent.  The occasional rumble of thunder adds to the atmosphere, but wow, it sure feels great out there on the front porch, sitting and reading.  Mom and I spent some time there just seated, reading, enjoying the first day of fall.

We had a thought about doing a skit with Johnny Appleseed this weekend, and coincidentally, this Saturday is Johnny Appleseed Day.  All that said, I was writing the lyrics of a Johnny Appleseed song for Sunday for a skit, and for inspiration, Mom and I were watching a 1948 Disney classic, "Melody Time, which we haven't seen in its entirety since 2013 or so.

This movie features the "Johnny Appleseed" short, plus a whole lot of other animated bits that are all really good.  We set out to just watch a few including that short listed above, but were enjoying it so much that we just watched the whole thing.  Later on we came back to the television to watch the Braves play what is pretty much a meaningless game now that they've clenched the National League East.  That being said, they lost pretty much trying out some pitchers again.  The offense was sort of asleep, but hopefully things will wake up a good bit more when the playoffs start.

We read a bit tonight from "The Thief of Time," and then it was time for prayers, and some sleep.  Nice quiet day.

The Ol' Magoo

Mom and I were over in Oakwood today, there for a few reasons, so why not drop by and get something to eat?  This was our first time sitting to eat at Huey Magoo's, which of course made us saying a few times, "Give her the ol' Magoo" or "Magoo'll get you in - Magoo will gotcha out."  

In case you don't get the reference, it's from "Christmas in Connecticut," and brought up a few times by this guy here, a big fan of "the ol' Magoo!"  What is "the Magoo?"  I think it's just a way of saying, "be charming."  I'm not really sure how "Magoo" became synonymous to this guy with the word "charm," so maybe that's something worth investigating further here...

Of course, none of that has anything to do with what we ate.  Nor does this guy either, just in case you're wondering.

ANYWAY, as for the food, it was decent.  This may be a controversial thing to say with the folks I work with, but we sort of prefer a few of the other chicken places more so.  Maddie is a big Zaxby's fan, although there's some sentimentality there.  As for me, I have to do grilled chicken, and I'm a big fan of Chick-Fil-A.  Not saying we had bad chicken at Magoo's, not at all.  We had a nice lunch there, and then were off to a few places.  We stopped by the church for a few things, donating some other things over at Goodwill too to drop a few things off, and pick up a few things too, including a vinyl Carman record, which was a great find for a dollar.  

After that, we were on our way to do some grocery shopping, and that was great picking up a few seasonal items, and some other things for our upcoming trip too.  Not too many days to go.

We were at the church for a little bit today, and I'm still loving this mural they've put up.  They're still working on the KidPak office area, getting things ready to go there for us to move back in.  

Tonight we finished the Pirates trilogy with "At World's End," opting to stop there for now.  Such great movies, and we've seen them so much.  But Maddie was wanting to do these starting Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day, and we're all on board for that.

We read a bit more after that, and then time for prayers, and a good night's rest.

Back to the Auditorium

 

We had a great morning back at our KidPak auditorium!  The offices aren't quite ready yet, but the kids could come in the auditorium, and that was great.  I had some animation created for backdrops, and we ordered these cookie costumes as we talked about Amos from the Old Testament.  Only, there was some confusion about Amos from the Bible and Amos, who has famous cookies.  The song was really fun and really catchy, and the kids were singing along with it - a lot of fun!  Also fun:  after our service, we actually gave all the kids a bag of Famous Amos cookies as they were leaving to go home!

Here are a few pictures that Mom took this morning - Maddie was at another church with Nate this morning.  But Mom did a good job with the camera as well as getting costumes together for everyone.

When we got home, we had some lunch and then watched the Braves do something great:  finish off the race for the division crown.  

They won against Houston again today, and in doing so, won the National League East Division, beating out the Marlins, the Nationals, the Mets, and of course the Phillies.  There are still six games left in the season, and then the post season begins.  Go Braves! 

Here's my first post card for the Niagara Falls path.  I was walking along today, watching Jacob the Carpetbagger and his vlog trip on both the Maid of the Mist and the Hornblower boats that both go past Niagara and into the midst of Horseshoe Falls.  A long time ago I did that.  I remember the thunder and noise of the waterfall.  We even rode over the waterfall in a helicopter.  My last trip to Niagara Falls was in the middle of winter when it was bitterly cold and there were these huge icicles hanging from the railings.  So cold!

Tonight's viewing was "Dead Man's Chest," per Maddie's request.  She's wanting to watch the original trilogy, so "At World' End" will be coming up soon too.  In the meantime, it was fun revisiting this one - a movie that's twenty years old now!  We were talking afterwards about that year-long wait to find out what happened to Jack Sparrow, and all the theories of what will happen next popping up on the internet.  

Anyway, what happened next here was that we read another few pages of the latest Discworld book - and then we said our prayers.  School is early tomorrow, so it's time for some sleep!