Mystery Machine Racing

This was an image I had AI make for the start of our new racing series, "Drive."  I wanted a Mystery Machine that looked as if it were on the race track.  And I actually added Fred there afterwards because it looked like the van was driving itself.  This is just one of the racers that shows up - another is one of the Wacky Racers, which I love, and then of course Herbie (obviously), and a few of the "Cars" characters, monster trucks, and yeah, the Weinermobile.  All kinds of fun!  The Mystery Machine is a theme I carry around to work each day - my wallet is themed to that, as is my lunch box.  As for the Wacky Racers, we've always loved those characters.  I remember getting to play a racing game with them much later, and although it wasn't the same quality as a Mario racing game, it still was a lot of fun getting to drive around as one of those iconic racers.

So yeah, lots of work towards the "Drive" series that starts this weekend.  And because of that, I put on that Cars vinyl album I have.  And others too - we were starting to play a few of the October records, including the soundtrack to "Monsters, Inc."  Fun!

Maddie was off to college this morning, and later on taekwondo where things were a bit more chill after the successful weekend.  She came back home in time to watch "Goosebumps" with us, always fun.  And she got to see a special delivery of more Bones Coffee - including a test coffee sample for all of us super fans.  

This is from "Bones Labs," and it's another sampling with no identification, so we're just going to taste it without any idea of what it is, and then do the survey afterwards.  Last year, it wasn't our favorite flavor, but this year's flavor already smells good.  We'll wait until Nate is here again before we break out this one out.  Should be interesting!

We read tonight, and here come the bad guys in our story, the Auditors.  "The Thief of Time" has been a fun book thus far.  Afterwards, time to get some sleep, after prayers of coruse.  Long weekend, long days!

...

 ...KidPak, high school reunion, Corpse Bride... updates coming soon...

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!