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 ... Eat Your Jell-O Day, shopping for clothing, Chicken Salad Chick, back to the DANG place, taekwondo, Maddie drives again... updates coming soon...

National Corn on the Cob Day

It's National Corn on the Cob Day, and of course this is a day worth celebrating, right?  I mean, wow!  Mom put these out on the table today and Maddie and I were ready to duel with those corn holders just to get first dibs!

Earlier, we had stopped by Sprouts, a grocery store in Cumming with the purpose of getting some corn, but we also picked up some Brazilian nuts and some gluten-free bread for Mom.  While we were out today, we stopped by the library for a few things:

First of all, check out this community art project!  Each person puts in a color sticker on the grid there, a sort of 'paint-by-numbers' idea with stickers.  Pretty neat!  While we were at the library, we also voted!  Yep, the run-off for the primaries is next Tuesday, so we did some early voting today.  I printed out a cheat sheet for the girls, as there were about six run-offs for us this time around.  We'll know the results next Wednesday or so.

Another thing we did was get Maddie her very own library card!  Yep, she has one now.  I wish we thought of that before she got a book - right now the book she picked up is in our account, but next time she'll be able to get her own book on her account.  For now, she's borrowed a Star Wars book that she'll enjoy reading the next few weeks.

Oh, one more thing we did!  We donated puzzles.  We had about six puzzles we were ready to part with, so we dropped those off as well.  The library has a program where you can pick up puzzles almost like books, and just bring them back when you're done.  We've borrowed plenty of these over the years.

The biggest reason we were out was to get some new clothing for Maddie and Mom at Belk.  We're heading over to a wedding very soon, and these two were needing something to wear for the occasion.  Maddie came away with a dress that she was pleased with, and because we were in that same parking lot, we went over to the Hallmark store for a few cards for Father's Day and that wedding of course.  We also picked up our traditional chocolate from behind the glass - each of us getting a luxurious piece of delicious chocolate, different flavors and so much richness that you can careful finish one piece of chocolate.

Also, those Christmas ornaments from last time were still on sale - we picked up a Funko pop Ahsoka ornament for just $1.99.  Adding more to our Star Wars Christmas tree this year!  And speaking of Star Wars, let's do one more check on our Chia Pets!

Both are looking pretty big with growth.  Lots of greenery there - I've been keeping the water inside topped off, recycling that water that pools up in the plates below, just part of the daily routine.  These look great - it'll be a summer of Chia Pets, because we've got the Statue of Liberty one cued up next for the Semiquincetennial.  Let's check on the other indoor growing things:

These lettuce leaves are rapidly growing upwards!  We've removed the covers from two of pods already because the leaves have started to press into the clear plastic ceiling.  The growth is pretty fast.

So a routine night at taekwondo, of course.  Maddie drove us over there, and she first helped with instruction with the younger students. 

And after that, she was in her leadership class as well.  It's a shorter night, and incidentally, it's super hot out there, at least compared to recently.  The humidity is what you expect in summer in Georgia.  Translation:  not quite as fun.  But apparently it's worse up north - in Chicago the rain and threat of tornados was such that the Braves game was postponed.  That's okay, we had other things to do and watch.

Firstly, there was some more virtual walking.  I got further along the trail today, and got this post card too.  It's been great watching all this Mt. Everest programming while walking along with that incline setting upwards.  The last two days I've been watching a movie version of the "Into Thin Air" story, the retelling of the 1996 disaster.  I remember reading that book in the 90's, as were most of us really.  It's a harrowing sort of adventure, and I was surprised I still remembered so much of what happened as the movie unfolded.  It's a huge tragedy that changed the way the mountain is approached these days, a warning to all.  Turn around at 2pm.  

Okay, tonight we watched an episode of "Obi Wan," content to continue our Star Wars viewing.  Tonight I also buried a chipmunk in the back yard.  I love these friends dearly, and this was a big turning point in our relationship with a certain cat that we've endured.  Shadow, the other cat, is okay.  This new cat, however, is on my hit list right now.  Not to hit or anything violent.  This cat is just crossed a line, and now it is no longer welcome.

Moving on, Maddie got some early birthday presents from the extended family!  These were some really big, really nice and fun gifts!

She loved them!  She loved the little cupcake with the candle too!  Happy early birthday!

Tonight we read from "Snuff" a few more pages, and after that, we said our prayers.  The Plush Entourage was there to listen in on the story, and then get tucked in to close out our evening.  Got some other things to get done tomorrow - it's time to get some sleep!

National Ice Tea Day

Today is National Ice Tea Day, and lately we've been all about these obscure holidays as you can see above.  Mom had this delicious ice tea waiting for me when I was done with my daily treadmill walk - she had lemons in there and as a special bonus, leaves of mint from our own garden plantings!  It was super refreshing!  We sat together and had our dinner, although I'm eating nothing but soft foods lately.  Not that it matters, I love a good baked potato with all the trimmings - except bacon bits today.  The mouth is still pretty sore today, but healing up.  I even got to work today to the office, finishing up the Summer Xtreme scripts and then making props for this weekend, and of course there was a pretty big Kidpak Meeting for everyone. 

Maddie was with Nate all day, and she had a good day of course.  She got home in time to watch the end of the Braves game, one where we lost again, but another close one.  We just couldn't manufacture runs tonight - that's okay, we'll get 'em tomorrow!

We read a bit more from "Snuff," which has this long extended ending where things are wrapping up for the characters, but again, there's that other shoe that needs to be dropped:  a villain is out there, lurking, heart set on revenge.  We'll see how all that turns out as we continue to read from the Discworld.

We said prayers after that, and sleep came easy tonight.

Donald Duck Day

Well, ouch.  This morning I had a pretty big moment in the dentist, who pulled a tooth from the upper side and all the way back in the left there, or right if you're facing me.  It's been a source of infection and soreness for a long time, so the tooth is gone after a great deal of effort.  The idea is that the underlying areas will start to heal over time here, assisted by some antibiotics to begin with.  But it was a stressful drive down there in the pouring rain and traffic on the interstate, and then of course there was the hour and a half at the dentist with two people probing and pulling and needling inside your mouth.  No fun!    So... how do you make a day like get a little better?  

How about a Donald Duck marathon?  Today is Donald Duck Day, so I pulled out the ol' Disney Treasures collection and plopped on the couch for some healing.  They say that laughter is good medicine, right?

I had a meeting online today, or at least that was the best I could do.  We've been getting things set up for Sunday, and of course Summer Xtreme.  Lots going on there. 

Check out our hydroponics garden - things are moving along here with some small leaves showing up.  The lights turn on and off on their own, and the only thing to keep tabs on is that water level, which is pretty easy to do.  Can't wait to see these things grow more and more!

Maddie was here today, hanging out and resting a good bit.  Not much to do outside today, as the rain was pretty hard and pretty frequent.  We watched a Braves game tonight, and it didn't go Atlanta's way, some bad strike/ball calls behind the plate in the third inning sort of sealed our fate, but at the same time, it all seemed orchestrated to give a first-time MLB player for the Chicago White Sox to have an unforgettable moment behind the plate later on.  Can't win them all, but congrats to that guy.  It was one of those games that just seemed "cursed" for some reason, things just not going our way in pretty remarkable ways, and it all led up to that extra innings moment.

After the game, we read for a bit, approaching the end of our story.  There's a bad guy still lurking out there though, although everything is largely wrapped up.  All is well, but Commander Vimes knows this villain won't just run and escape to safety, choosing instead a terrible revenge.  We'll see how that all works out, but something tells me it won't go well for our bad guy. 

We said our prayers after that, it was time for sleep.  I should have asked for my tooth so I could put it under my pillow!

Nighthawk

 

Well, here's Maddie at Gainesville College - or what used to be Gainesville College.  She submitted an application here today, and we stopped by to ask a few questions about the admissions process, being big fans of talking to someone face to face.  It didn't take long, and we snapped a few pictures before leaving just because it's a nice little moment.  Maddie's been here before to see a few plays in the past with the GTA, but this is probably the first time she's been in the main part of campus.  I, of course, was here a lot back in the day.  I got a degree from here and moved on to another college after that, but this was a fun place for a while.  I actually walked into that student center today with Maddie and Mom, and some memories came back of this campus and the teachers and time I spent here.  Maddie is aiming to become a "Nighthawk" now, although back in the day... and you'll get a kick out of this... the mascot used to be a "fighting goose."  More specifically, it was the Gainesville College Lakers, part of the "Fighting Geese."

The college joined up with North Georgia College, which had the mascot of a St. Bernard dog, which represented the team name of "The Saints."  Both mascots were dropped when the two campuses became Dahlonega University of North Georgia, and now it's just the Nighthawks.

Which is one of my favorite paintings ever.  But it has nothing to do with what an actual night hawk is, which is this here:

I've never seen an actual nighthawk before, but they are here in Georgia and North America in general, pretty much anywhere there are insects.  And you can also find the night hawk in the Bible in Leviticus 11:16, basically a commandment of God for the Israelites not to eat them.  

All that said, Maddie will be a Nighthawk soon enough, if all the best-laid plans go well.  We'll know more about specific classes, specific schedules and specific costs, but here's the first visit.  Which of course makes parents think of this first visit...

Anyway, the rest of the day was quiet.  Mom and I enjoyed a really nice Factor meal together, some filet mignon - it'll be the last solid food I eat for a bit, given my prognosis for tomorrow.  There was a lot of rain tonight, and so I drove over to taekwondo with Maddie.  She had a great time there, as always, and then it was time to head home where we finished off the "Ahsoka" series again, catching up on all that happened that we happened to forget.  Which was a lot!  But we're caught up again! 

We read more from our current Discworld book, "Snuff," and then it was time for prayers.  It's raining, and it'll be raining a lot through the night.  That's okay.  G'night!

I Ain't Eatin' That

Another great morning at KidPak!  I was hesitant about repeating a skit from last summer, but if it's good, why not?  This is a musical skit, a choreographed story that I created using AI.  It's a song about the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den, a song called "I Ain't Eatin' That."

It was super fun, particularly having all those band members marching out and doing a bit of a goofy dance - all while dressed up as food!

And the rest of the morning was really good too, of course.  We had all kinds of fun games, and yet another powerful morning of worship.  The message was about Daniel and standing with faith, and all was well again in KidPak.  A great morning, and Maddie took a lot of good pictures to share, some of which you can see here on this entry.

Oh, and another thing about this morning.  We're doing a "Hall of Faith" series about Bible heroes, some of which mentioned in Hebrews 11.  We had these corinthian pillars just left in our hallway by another ministry recently, so Mom came up with this idea to create these marble busts of Bible heroes to put atop the pillars.  I used AI again to create the images, and sent them off to be printed on a thicker material so they would stand up against these styrofoam blocks also on the top there.  All together, these look really good!

Fun idea!  We'll be talking about some of these heroes throughout the month.  I can't believe we're at Summer Xtreme in a little over a month.  Wow!

So we got home after church, and had a nice meal together.  Mom made delicious spaghetti - the tomato sauce she makes is legendary!  That was so good, and we were watching the Braves play again about that time.  They were doing a Sunday afternoon match with the Pirates, the last in the series.  They were going for the sweep, and that was a close game - but the Braves won, thanks to a huge well-timed double from Michael Harris II.  Super exciting!

Here's our hydroponics garden, already sprouting a bit in places, although you can't see that from these pictures.  Mom and I pulled off those plastic lids to peek in, and sure enough, you can see the seeds sprouting already.  So exciting!

The rest of the day was relaxing, although I was marching along virtually up Mt. Everest.  I have the incline up and the speed about normal, though I'll get all that increased as I move along.  Regardless, I'm approaching the halfway point up the mountain.  I was watching this "Ultimate Everest" show while walking along.  

This is a deep dive into learning about the ascent up this mountain, although I've read a lot about it in the past, so I'm familiar with landmarks and challenges.  This has been a deeper look though, and it's pretty amazing.  Getting to the top - believe it or not - is something I would have tried if I was younger.  The only thing that scares me is honestly the oxygen and air pressure.  It just seems so unpredictable what that height above 8,000 meters will do to your brain.  But seeing those few people all banded together at the top of the world like that fills me with a sense of joy.  I remember being atop Guadalupe Peak in Texas after a long climb, and it was just me and Nana there atop Texas.  It was a thrilling hike, and it was a little steep in places and by no means anywhere near the difficulty of an actual climb up a Himalayan Peak.  But nevertheless, the isolation and the view from atop a mountain is just a magnificent thing.  I loved it.

Moving on, I watered all our new plants today, and rain is coming soon so hopefully I won't need to do that tomorrow.  We watched a few episodes of "Ahsoka" tonight, and will probably finish that tomorrow because there's no ballgame tomorrow.  And tonight, we read from "Snuff" some more, and we should wrap up this week, just in time for the World Cup in in Atlanta next week.  We'll probably tackle that Disworld soccer-themed book next, partly because of the World Cup, but also because it's a book that's tied to a National Year of Reading campaign - the publisher is giving away 10,000 copies of the book to promote reading time.  I already have a copy, of course, and I read this one about twenty years ago.  Nevertheless, I think that's the next one on the list to read, and as a bonus, Rincewind has a small part in it.  Haven't heard from our favorite wizard in a while.  Or rather, "Wizzard."  

Anyway, we said our prayers after reading, and after that, it was time for some sleep.  It's been a good, full day!

Hydroponics Garden

 

We started a hydroponic garden today, something that I've always wanted to try out.  You can see Mom carefully placing the tiny seeds into the different pods.  Step one is filling the tank there with water, and a carefully measured amount of nutrients.  The plastic baskets contain these soil cones, and next you see Mom doing the placement of those lettuce seeds.  We're doing three different kinds of lettuce and some arugula, some easy items to start out with when trying this for the first time.

Next step is covering the openings there to limit the light into the slots there, because more light will cause the growth of algae in the nutrient-rich water below.  And then there's the plastic caps that help contain humidity and heat as these little seeds start their growth.  

"Just make believe... you're a tiny little seed... a tiny little seed that's reaching up to meet your need..."  I was at EPCOT for the opening season in Orlando, and I remember visiting the pavilion for "The Land," and I'll always remember the hydroponic plants there and thinking how cool it would be to do that in our own house. 

Anyway, you can see the gauge that shows the water level here, and of course the light setting is on for seed growth.  That light is programmed to show for sixteen hours, and it turns on and off automatically each day at particular hours.  There's a phone ap that helps you keep up with the progress, lighting and so forth, and so here we go!  We'll have fun looking at these plants grow the next few days.

So Maddie was with Nate's family today, celebrating Nate's grandfather's birthday.  She got back later on tonight as we were re-watching some of the series "Ahsoka."  Earlier, we had the Braves game on, and we watched Atlanta win yet again, which meant that they won another series.

I'm still climbing Mt. Everest, virtually of course.  But in the meantime, the medal from my last virtual walk just came in the mail.

Pretty cool stuff!  It came with a smaller pin, one celebrating the fifth of these medals total.  This makes six now:  Scooby Doo, Thanksgiving, Elvis, Forbidden City, Dublin, and the Moon.  This trek up Mt. Everest continues, made even more fun when watching some of these Mt. Everest episodes.

We've had such a huge amount of birds with us on the back deck.  We've had a lot of fledglings there.  There's been a fledgling robin that's been with us, but our favorite lately has been this really, really young bluebird.

That's the bluebird family.  And here's that fledgling robin that also just dropped by. He's been here for about two weeks now, so he's getting older.  But he's still welcome here at the back deck!

It's been a great day.  We closed things down with several pages from "Snuff," that Discworld book.  Commander Vimes has saved the day again, or possibly - there's some smugglers to chase after, and of course a terrible villain to hunt down.  

We said our prayers after reading, and it was time for bed.  Got to get up early for church tomorrow!