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 It's as if the Braves team is completely collapsing, offensively and defensively.  Very difficult to watch, but here we are, the faithful fans watching and wondering what the heck is going on.  We're still in first place, because we had such an astounding start to the season.  But the last few weeks have been really tough.  There are highlights here and there, but we're losing a lot of games and a lot of ground.  Hopefully things can turn around here.

Today Maddie was with her friends from high school, all of them heading out to mini-golf for a bit - Maddie won - and after that, it was time for some coffee at Starbuck's.

We'll have more in a bit... "At the Movies," Psalms, financial aid, a new dryer... updates coming soon...

Toy Story 5

Summer Xtreme Coffee Meeting!  We were doing a bit of writing this morning at Farmhouse, part of a longstanding tradition of meeting at a coffee shop to get some writing for Summer Xtreme hammered out.

It went well - we've already gotten a lot done previously, but this was all about enhancing it and adding flavor to the existing scripts.  Should be fun in the long run! 

And here's the final picture of Shrek Chia for the 2026 run.  We've done this a few times now, but it has run its course and besides, it's time for some new Chia pets.  We officially have four now, and one of the others is a patriotic one - a Statue of Liberty.  The final one is new, a hedgehog that I got for Mom.  We'll set those up this week.  And speaking of vegetation...

Our hydroponic lettuce is doing really well, growing pretty quickly.  The arugula didn't really work out - those are to the back and right there in those pods.  But the other plants are coming along nicely!  It's exciting to see the progress each day.  

We had work at the office today - after the coffee meeting of course - and that's where we decided some movies for our "At the Movies" series, amongst some other things related to Summer Xtreme.   Oh, and the Forward Conference too.  We just might use this one stinger I made up to play before the "Rock, Paper Scissors" tie breaker.

I was doing some other soundtrack things too, but I'll pick up on that later.  For now, it was time to head off to do some other research and watch the movie we're going to see at Summer Xtreme this year.  That's right, it was time for "Toy Story 5."

I had my Pizza Planet gear on, and we were ready to go!  As shared on this blog so long ago, the first movie Maddie saw in theaters was "Toy Story 3" way back in 2010.  And amazingly, the last time we did the "Summer Xtreme Unleashed" theme was in 2019, and the movie we saw that year was Toy Story 4!

As for "Toy Story 5," the movie was fun, more of a focus on Jessie than others, and that's not such a bad thing.  It's just that the core group has gotten lost in things, and I'm sentimental towards that gang - and I get it that some of those classic voices have passed on.  But there are a lot of new toys gathered up with each release, and it was like an avalanche of toy characters here.  Again, it was a fun movie, and we all agreed it was a step up from "Toy Story 4," certainly.  But nothing may ever top the original three.  For now, it's just great to spend time with these toy friends once more - it was nice.  One final note:  the closing credits song grabs a bit of the melody of Amy Grant's "Father's Eyes."  Those of us that grew up with that song can't unhear it! 

We got home and watched a bit of the Braves game before going to bed.  They lost again, but there's a lot of learning going on, and we're still six games ahead in our division, so there's plenty of time to get things addressed.  I believe a second wind is on the way!

Anyway, we read some tonight about Mr. Nutt and the game "Foot-the-ball" in the Discworld, and afterwards, we said our prayers.  Time to get some sleep!

National Onion Rings Day

Maddie has been accepted to Gainesville University of North Georgia, or GUNG maybe?  One could say she's "GUNG HO," which here in the US means she's enthusiastic, eager or energetic.  In China, where the phrase originated, it means she's simply "industrial cooperative."  Regardless, she's at GUNG, and not DUNG quite yet, which beyond being an acronym for Dahlonega University of North Georgia, has an entirely other meaning.

Anyway, she's excited about that, and today we decided to drop by with a few more questions, specifically some directed at financial aid.

How funny that their entire office was decorated - at one point completely overboard, I might add - for Star Wars.  There were Star Wars items all over the place like Christmas decorations.

We talked for a while and Maddie's got some forms to fill out and so on, but we're moving forward.  I even asked about finishing up a few classes myself, something I'll have to see another advisor about soon enough.  Maybe.  

Anyway, while we were out, we were sure to drop by a few locations - we got lunch at Zaxby's which does not serve onion rings, by the way.  Desperate for onion rings, we went across the street afterwards to Burger King, and yes, there we got ourselves a few orders of onion rings.  And why this obsession with onion rings?  

Today is National Onion Rings Day!  We made sure to stop and celebrate this important, landmark holiday with some proper onion rings.  We were almost as obsessive as the Onion Ringwraiths!  

Tonight Maddie had taekwondo, and the Edges are back from their holiday - no, not National Onion Ring Day.  They're back from vacation, and they're well-rested.  Maddie drove us over there to taekwondo, and while we were there, the rain just suddenly started pounding the area.  It was a super heavy downpour.  And then, just as suddenly, it was gone.  We've been seeing a lot of deer in the area on the way home.  We got back, and I had a walk to finish:

That's right, I finished the Mt. Everest climb today, and I did so while watching another guy ski down Mt. Everest.  This one was more recent that the Japanese team's effort in the 1970's, and I'm not sure how much of the mountain was actually skied down, but the idea was that basically he climbed to the top and went to the bottom entirely on skis.  One may ask the very important question:  why?  I have no idea.  Anyway, it's been great education and a great theme climbing upwards in the Himalayas, learning about the surrounding mountains, the culture the process of climbing up Everest with sherpas and so forth.  I've always been fascinated by this climb, and the idea of the beautiful desolation up in a place where you can be away from everyone else.  The lack of oxygen part is probably one big reason why.  And the cold.  It takes a special type of person to do this sort of climb, that much is certain.  I was just happy to do it all virtually.

Moving on, we read tonight after watching a few Clone Wars episodes.  The Braves game was late, so we didn't catch all of it, but it's okay as they're in this offensive skid lately, not collectively hitting the ball anywhere near as well as they were earlier in the season.  Hopefully they can shake themselves free once more.  They're still in first place by a decent margin, but they're not making it easy on themselves.

We read, and then said our prayers tonight, and after that, it was time for some sleep.

...Fathers Day

  

Rally Caps

Mom and I were watching the game this afternoon and it was looking dire so we put on those rally caps!  For those of you not in the know, with baseball there's a tradition that takes place when your team is behind, you put on your baseball cap either inside out or in some odd or unusual position.  So yeah, Mom and I did that because we needed to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth today - and sure enough, it seemed to work!  Matt Olson got a single, and right after that Ozzie Albies got a two-run walk-off home run to win the game.  We saw a lot of rally caps while watching the game, and we joined in with some rally cap power - and sure enough, the Braves won big today, all thanks to us.  Okay, the talent of the actual players probably had something to do with it...

 

Maddie was over at Nate's today, all day - they were hanging out and finishing up that big Star Wars puzzle they started a few days ago.  Nate's going on vacation with his family next week, heading over to Hilton Head, which sounds nice.

Mom and I had a nice breakfast on the back deck this morning, the weather so nice and perfect out there.  She served it all on this skillet for a really, really pleasant meal together.  Coffee, good food, a beautiful wife, and the songs of all those birds in the woods nearby.  We have so many!  We keep the feeder stocked and there have been a lot of visitors, and a lot of fledglings too - baby robins, baby bluebirds, baby titmouse, and a baby mockingbird too.  Lots of birds and songs.

Mom and I cleaned up the front porch today, and had plans on getting it pressure washed a bit.  And here's where I introduce my bone-head moment of the month.  So I saw an ad for a product that was really well-produced, and for some reason I didn't do any research.  I saw a video about a product by a company called Aquoxis. 

Because what you see on videos is all true, right?  Answer:  no.  Of course not.  So we got this "pressure washer" device by a company called Aquoxis.  We hooked it up to the hose, thinking at least we can get a little of the grime and dust off the front porch.  And right about that time I realized I should have instead bought one of these:

This is that Time Machine from Napoleon Dynamite the one that Uncle Rico sends money off to buy.  It's just about as effective as the Aquoxis Pressure Washer, as both have about as much value.  In fact, at this point I wish I got the Time Machine instead.  Yes, Uncle Rico was just throwing away his money.  And that's what we did with this Aquoxis product, because it didn't do anything from the commercial.  It was about as effective as our current garden hose.  So yeah, the bottom line here is:  stop and research. 

Fortunately, we had a real pressure washer at the house, and we used that to clean up the front porch.  I spent a good long time out there getting all the corners and dirty places, all that mold, webs, and piled up dust.  The front porch looks sparkly now.  I even used the pressure washer to make an American flag on the sidewalk!

Okay, don't be too critical.  I was being spontaneous and did my best with a pressure washer.  Not my chosen medium!

Anyway, it was a relaxing day.  Tonight Mom and I watched this old movie "Sneakers," and afterwards, we read a bit more from "Unseen Academicals."  The Plush Entourage made its way like a herd, moving back to Maddie's room to get tucked in for a good night's rest.  We've got KidPak tomorrow morning - time to get some rest!

Princess Body Wash, Part Two

Behold season two of the Bath & Body Works Disney Princess collection!  I got these some time ago for Mom and was waiting for just the right moment to surprise Mom with them.  Today was that day, and these along with a Crunchie Bar, got just the right reaction.

The first round of these came out last year, and of course I had to get them all for Mom back then too!  So here we are again running through this year's scents.  Mom had a nice luxuriant bath, trying out the "Aurora" body wash first, because today was a nice refreshing day.  Meanwhile, I was over at taekwondo with Maddie, at least to begin with.  The majority of the time I was grocery shopping in two different stores, completing a massive list and getting us all completely caught up with the shopping.

Tonight the Braves had a huge win over basically one of the greatest pitchers this season, a guy whose  average hurling speed is about 101mph.  What?  Add to that his incredible height and release point, and it's no wonder this guy has been leveling teams the last eight games or so.  That is... until now.  We actually won this game, and we won it after a losing skid too - it was the perfect combination of triumph, a huge moment of celebration, and an almost playoff feel.  Go Bravos!

We read tonight from our Discworld story, and after that it was time for prayers.  It was a good day!