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A League of Their Own

So in keeping with our baseball theme, we watched "A League of Their Own" tonight, and wow, I remember watching this one at Blue Ridge Cinemas back in the day.  That was a movie theater that was part of an outdoor mall that was pretty tucked away for some reason.  You had to drive the length of the parking lot to get to the theater, and the parking lot was way overdue for a repaving, and a lot of the stores weren't the sort that I even remember.  Eventually, the theater closed down, probably because of competition from the one at Lakeshore Mall and ultimately the only theater left in Gainesville, Regal Cinemas, which is over on Dawsonville Highway.  But once upon a time, I remember our choice of theaters with Cinema West, this one on Browns Bridge Road, and then Blue Ridge Theater, not far from there, and of course the one at Lakeshore Mall.  And yes, at the same time there was the theater over Sherwood Plaza on Enota.  That made four movie theaters in town at the same time in Gainesville.  Could you imagine that?  Eventually, Sherwood Plaza's theater turned to a dollar theater.  We used to go there all the time for an older movie, and that was good fun.  We'd drive all the way from Cleveland, because these were the nearest theaters and pretty much the big things to do over the summer, walking around Lakeshore Mall, visiting the one or two arcades to play Street Fighter... and that's about it really.  The other option for movies was watching a drive-in movie which was less than ten miles from our house.  Hard to believe it now.  I'd love to go revisit something like that, but the nearest drive-in movie is a little over an hour away from our house right now.  As teenagers we'd drive all the time to see all kinds of movies at the theater.  Nowadays it's not too often we go to the theater - I'm not sure, but I don't think we've even been this year yet?

Anyway, tonight's movie we haven't seen in a long time.  I forgot how good it was, so much nostalgia on so many levels.  We enjoyed it, and I think it'll be fun as we continue this baseball movie thing.  Along those lines, we were watching an actual spring training game again today, as the Braves defeated the American League Champion Blue Jays this afternoon, 9-5.  We had that on the laptop at the office, and Mom had it on the television here.  We're ready for some baseball.  

In fact, this morning I was finishing up the previous movie on our baseball series marathon, a movie I've never seen before, oddly enough:  "The Rookie."  I just never got around to it?  Anyway, I've been watching that as I've been on the treadmill, so it's been seen in sections, that sort of thing.  But I finished that one up as I was walking along.  I'm still moving along Dublin, virtually, about 30% of the pathway complete now.  I'm on pace to finish somewhere towards the end of March, a nice little themed walk for the season. 

Speaking of which, we're in full St. Patrick's Day mode around here.  The leprechaun salt and pepper shakers are on the table, the leprechaun nutcracker is at the fireplace, and there are all kinds of other decorations out here or there, along with the garden flag and the towels and so forth.  We've been munching on those boxes of Lucky Charms lately.  And that Shamrock protein shake has been delicious.  Each morning I've been playing some vinyl records of Irish music, and we're wearing a lot more green than usual.  It's a fun season!

Maddie was at chapel this morning.  Emma picked her up to begin with, and then the two went over to Starbuck's before chapel.  I picked her up after that, and after lunch spent the rest of the day at the office.  We're getting ready for Sunday, plus getting some things done for our next book - and getting ready to sell some t-shirts.  No profit at all for these, as we'll pretty much break even.  We just thought these new KidPak baseball shirts will look great.

We'll be getting one of those soon enough.  Or two.  Or three.  Anyway, the booklet is nearly done.  We had this goofy maze I made to go with the Gideon story - I drew up a maze and thought it'd be fun for the booklet, so here goes:

Yes, we're revisiting Gideon again.  And that unusual barley loaf.  Anyway, it was a fun day.  We read tonight before bedtime, and then it was prayers... and a good night's rest!

Curling's Back

Wow, curling is back!  Just like with the Olympics a few weeks ago, a few days before the Opening Ceremonies is when the curling games begin, so you can actually watch the events a little early.  Tonight we were watching the US vs. Latvia in mixed doubles in wheelchair curling.  There's no brushing, and these long poles are used to push the stones across the ice.  You can actually twist the poles in such a way to give those stones a spinning movement as they glide across the ice, so yes, the stones will curl as they slide towards their destination.  It was great seeing the couple from Latvia offer the US team some gift bags shortly before the game began, and then it was time to watch.  There were no announcers here - just the game footage.  But we knew enough to follow along and enjoy the match.  

Today Maddie had a mini-adventure on the Gainesville Square with the other college students.  The weather was gorgeous out there, and so the students went out to a few destinations like an antique shop and of course a coffee shop.  That would be Farmhouse, obviously.  Maddie likes that place a lot.  

Tonight's movie was "Luck of the Irish," one of our favorite seasonal offerings.  We have all kinds of decorations around for St. Patrick's Day, and tonight while watching the movie, we were literally eating Lucky Charms too.  Nothing more Irish than that, right?  Of course, I'm kidding.  But we like the movie (and the cereal), and it was nice to sit down and relax some.

We read before bedtime, of course, following Commander Vimes in his time-traveling story, and after that we were ready to journey to the present for prayers... and some sleep!

...Semiquincentennial Selenelion

 This morning we had something in the sky known as a selenelion, which you might not have ever heard of before.  If I were haughty, I wouldn't admit that I too had no idea what a selenelion is, having just heard about it now during this semiquincentennial.  Yes, this it was a Semiquincentennial Selenelion.  As a reminder, "semiquincentennial" is the 250th anniversary of something - our country.  And a selenelion is when you have a lunar eclipse in the sky while the sun has emerged in the same sky.  Two celestial objects - and the earth creating the shadow on the moon, and yet we can see the sun there... how does that happen exactly?  I'm sure there's an explanation for this, but fortunately we didn't need any such explanation... because the skies were overcast here and no one saw anything.  So let's change the subject.

This is AI of course.  It's a mascot for a team called the Trash Bags - I was wondering if we could create some goofy baseball mascots, and sure enough there it was!  We're working on things for our Spring Training series and having a great time as we move along with this one.  Meanwhile, we're setting up to actually watch some Spring Training games on the television as well, which is pretty cool.

cloudy morning, college, mascots, Horton Hears a Who, Dublin walking, war continues, gas prices... updates coming soon...

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Testing on Purim

Here's tonight's testing group, not quite as many as usual, but they all did really well.  Maddie was on hand for her first testing as a third-degree black belt, the first of eighteen testings that she would be taking should she want to pursue that fourth degree belt.  That's many years down the road, too many to worry about now.  But presently, the night's festivities went on as they usually do, with sparring and breaking boards and demonstrations of form.  Maddie did well with all of it, and was happy to see Nate come by to support her.  Nate has been sick lately, recovering the last month in such a way that he hasn't been able to actually participate with martial arts.  But he wanted to come and support everyone tonight, so he sat next to me as I took a few pictures as always for the team.  Here are just a few I took of Maddie tonight:

Afterwards, we continued our long tradition of going to get some boba tea to celebrate!

Maddie and Nate shared a boba tea, as did I at our favorite little boba tea place in Oakwood.  And after parting ways with Nate, it was time to head back and celebrate Purim!

Last night we had already watched "One Night with the King," the story of Esther - but tonight we watched the other great version of the story, the one told by VeggieTales.  And to add to the fun, Mom had made some hamantaschen to eat as well! 

They weren't perfectly triangular in shape, but Mom didn't have the right materials and did her best.  We just explained these away as Haman's hat after he was trampled by the guards.  Notice the noisemaker there!  Mom had that ready so that when we heard the story of Esther tonight, we made noises and yelled out "Boo!" each time we heard Haman's name, part of the tradition of blocking out his name.  Of course, in order to block out his name from our memory, we had to remember each time the name was said, so...

Anyway, it was a fun night.  Today was a quiet day though.  This morning we had a special chapel service that was for all-staff and the college students too.  

That was a really nice morning together.  Mom and I met with our nutritionist at the office shortly after this, at least virtually.  That's a monthly meeting where we sort of cover all the issues related to the detox we're currently doing.  I did some walking after that, gaining some more ground in Dublin - again virtually!

It was a nice day today, a little busy though for certain.  We closed out the day with reading and with prayers.  And then sleep!

St. David's Day

We started our day today at KidPak, and that's where we started Spring Training!  We used an old animated race from the last time we did Spring Training, which was a long time ago!  Maddie took some pictures of the skit this morning, which featured a bit of superstition about an old unwashed sock, and there was a solid message about Joseph in there.  All in all, a really nice morning at KidPak.  Mom had some great ideas with the set, and the costumes too.  It all worked out really nicely.

Purim is tomorrow, so we watched "One Night with the King" tonight, somewhat of a new tradition for us each year.  We broke the baseball movie marathon for that.  Odds are, we'll be breaking the baseball movies a few more times to squeeze in some St. Patrick's Day movies here or there.

Today, however is not St. Patrick's Day.  It's St. David's Day, which is more of a Welsh holiday.  We celebrated this a little, given that Mom's mother was pretty Welsh.  We have a  nice little table setting, and the big thing of the night was potato and leek soup, which was astounding!  

This is somewhat of a staple in Wales, and Mom did a great job making that.  We had a rotisserie chicken as well as the soup, and it made for a nice meal.

It was a good day today.  We read at the end, and said our prayers.  Time to get some sleep, as tomorrow is a busy day!

Getting Set

Here's a post card I got from my recent journey around Dublin, at least virtually.  We can see teh Dublin Mountains from here and a few other landmarks in Ireland.  Today's the last day of February, but it still feels like March a bit early.  I've been playing the Chieftain records and other Irish songs lately, and it's been a load of fun.

Maddie was over at Nate's today and she was having a great time there just hanging out pretty much all day.  Meanwhile, Mom and I were working on the basement some, and after that we were over at the KidPak stage, setting things up for our upcoming "Spring Training" series.  the set looks good!

We got home and we were pretty zonked, so we watched another baseball movie, this one a made-for-television sequel to "Angels in the Outfield."  

It's called "Angels in the Infield," and it's largely forgettable but fun.  In fact, we've seen this before, and the only reason I'm watching it now is to get in the baseball series frame of mind.  We start Spring Training tomorrow morning!  Anyway, this movie's not too bad, but certainly nowhere near as good as the first movie.  One thing interesting is that there are some pretty good parallels in story between this one and the much better movie "The Game Plan." 

Anyway, Maddie and Nate came back a little later, and it was fairly close to bed.  Mom and I were exhausted after doing the set for a few hours, so it was time for some sleep.  We read from our book a little while, meeting the character Lu-Tze, who of course appears in about five other Discworld books.  Though I've read all the books, I don't think we've read one of these with Maddie yet, so it's a new character to her.  Later on we'll meet him more in depth with "Thief of Time."

Okay, so we read tonight - and then we said our prayers and it was bedtime.  This is a dark season I think, one where we have the classic story of Purim and Persia celebrated as simultaneous, a tremendous war has erupted in that same land, and one involving Israel.  It's a spiritually heavy season, prophetic things lining up.  These are the seasons where we need to pay attention closely, and yes we are.