Hanging out with the Princesses

Tonight Olaf returned, or at least it was me inside that big costume, hanging out with these princesses - the very little ones.  It was the Daddy Daughter Dance, and that meant all kinds of dads and little princesses, but of course there were the more grown-up ones too.  We had Jasmine, Tiana, Elsa, Anna, and Cinderella with us in the crowd, and yep, there was Olaf stumbling along in one of those ginormous mascot costumes that's so hot inside and you can't see very well - but the kids loved it.  We had our Daddy and Daughter trivia that went with the winter wonderland theme, asking questions about princesses throwing snowballs or the coldest NFL games ever recorded.  It all went very well.

Maddie was with us at the start, as you can see above.  She's hanging out with the other princesses here.  But then she was simultaneously at taekwondo tonight.  Yes, I made that work with transportation somehow, as she was not only at Edge Martial Arts tonight but also over at Nate's place right after that.  It was a tiring night, but of course rewarding.

Earlier, Mom and I were scrambling down to Braselton to pick up costumes, props, and set ideas for our upcoming baseball series.  That'll mess up our plans for tomorrow, but the stage needs to get set so we'll need to attend to that first.

We didn't have time for much getting home, especially because I was so tired.  But we did start this television series I remember from a while ago, "Jack of All Trades."  Episode one has already had quite a few laughs and that sort of silly adventure that's over-the-top with bad puns along the way.  I'm not sure how many episodes there are, but they're short, and we'll be no doubt going through those the next few weeks.  

Tonight we read a little bit from "Night Watch" before it was time for prayers, and a good night's rest.  Everyone gets to sleep in tomorrow!

The Cups

So I finally caved and bought a couple cups.  These are the new Chick-Fil-A cups, and they're a good solid plastic, but the idea is that like a collector's card, these cups come in a bag that you can't see the insides of.  When you open the bag, you get a cup, of course, and these cups are all throw-backs to previous cup designs that Chick-Fil-A released over the years.  Our friend Camille got a cup that honors the very first cup designs many, many years ago.  Oh man.  I remember that cup now back at Lakeshore Mall where there was a Chick-Fil-A there in the food court.  Anyway, tonight Mom opened hers and you can see we got the little lemon chicks, and we also got the old-school cows with signs on one design too.  Supposedly, if you open up one of these bags you have a chance of getting a "golden" cup, which enables you to have free Chick-Fil-A for a year or something like that.  Obviously, you go into these things with low expectations there, but still in the back of your mind as you open the bag you're thinking of Charlie Bucket, and how he got Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket!  Yes, this could be my big chance!  

Or not.  Anyway, it was a quiet day.  Maddie had chapel this morning and it was super brief - Emma and three others were guest speakers that were tag-teaming message points for the students, and that was fun.  The day was rainy, and there were storms too.  Tonight we saw big flashes of lightning in the sky.  I think there were reports of heavy hail nearby too, all interesting stuff for February.

Maddie had her taekwondo tonight, and I was walking on the college track, moving along virtually in Dublin.  I'm a bit behind on that walk, so I've got some catching up to do there.  But it's super pleasant walking out there - we had a break in the rain that worked out perfectly.

Tonight's feature movie was "Angels in the Outfield."  We'll be watching a lot more baseball movies, now that our "Spring Training" series is about to start at KidPak.  I forgot how many people were in this movie,  and it was a lot of fun too.  Classic old-school Disney movie with warmth and fun.  I had my Angels hat on while watching.  I'll never forget Mom all dressed up for the kids at KidPak so many years ago, dressed up as an angel with that same Angels ball cap.  I wear it to this day, and I always think of that. She literally looked like an angel!

Of course we read tonight before bed, moving along with "Night Watch," a bit of a time travel story in the world of the Discworld.  Things are just getting set up here, as Vimes has fallen through the Unseen University Library, and through time.  We said our prayers after that, and now it's time for sleep!

Spring Training Coming Soon!

Spring Training is starting soon - okay, it's already here for the baseball teams, but it's coming soon to KidPak.  Returning after a huge break, and it's going to be fun to get that baseball theme going again.  You can see the design for our series up top.  We've got all kinds of graphics and skits and fun coming up.

The booklet is filled with characters and games and messages.  One of the more interesting things has been creating music for a baseball series, finding that balance of prompts that can get something that sounds like baseball.  Of course, there's the old organ that plays in a ball park.  But we've also been creating things that sound like "Centerfield" or anything from the soundtrack of "The Natural."  Pretty soon, we'll be watching some of these baseball movies to sort of get us into the spirit of the thing.

We had meetings at KidPak today, talking about our Daddy Daughter Dance coming up - and this new series too.  Maddie had classes this morning, but the rest of the day was somewhat chill.  It's a patriotic week, just celebrating all those gold medals and success.  The Olympics were just great - sure, there were some hard knocks and near misses at the podium.  But there was also unprecedented success, and just some wonderful stories.  The heart warming images of honor, good sportsmanship and joy - it's what we watch the games for.

Unfortunately, the media and social media are filled with dividers.  Especially this week, these folks just seem like bitter, cranky people that probably hate Christmas too, the type that would complain about an elementary school choir full of cute kids singing, just because they didn't like the song.  I don't ever remember much of the media actually complaining about Olympians before.  I learned a lot this week about our media, just when I thought my opinion of them couldn't sink further down.  The best strategy is to not read the stories, not click on the links, and certainly not engage in any online conversations.  I stopped that a long, long time ago - something like twenty five years ago right after 9-11.

Speaking of which, in other news, our nation is prepping for something big with Iran again.  I'm not sure what that entails, but anything in the Middle East is always worth paying attention to.  We certainly pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Okay, enough chatter.  Tonight we watched "Kung Fu Panda 2," which is a fantastic movie.  We revisit this one from time to time, and perhaps seeing the gold medal skater dressed as Kung Fu Panda the other night inspired our choice of movie tonight.  Regardless, it was great. 

Before bed, we were reading from "Night Watch," and moving along with this next story in the City Watch series.  We're off to a big start!

Pac Man Maze

Okay, so this is not AI created.  I wanted to make a maze that looked like a Pac-Man maze, and one that would actually be a solvable maze that had only one route through the labyrinth.  I had to do it myself, and I think it came out okay.  We'll be using this in the next booklet that we're working on, the one with a video game theme to it.  Leave it to me to be thinking of older video games.  Yes, this book will have to have some sort of Street Fighter reference in it, won't it?

Maddie had college this morning, and got out a little early - she was home today fairly quickly, although I had to get back to work.

Mom and I actually watched the State of the Union speech tonight, one big reason being that the US Ice Hockey team was there for a big moment.  It was pretty cool seeing those gold medal Olympians get honored in that place.  Great stuff.  

This afternoon we got something in the mail that Mom ordered:  this protein powder that can make a Shamrock Shake at home!  We tried some of that right away and it was really good, and unlike the other Shamrock Shake, this one is probably be better for us.

We read tonight from our book, and we said our prayers afterwards.  It was a good day today!

Singing Houseflies

Just to show you the abilities of AI, we asked it to create an image of a fly singing songs - completely unnoticed by the cast - alongside those performers of "The Greatest Showman."  We just thought it would be hilarious - we were singing "A Million Dreams," and then got to the bridge, and for some reason sang it in high pitched voices, imagining this little fly singing along at the top of its lungs.

Okay, anyway, today Maddie had college.  And we had a pretty big cold snap here, with temps in the twenties early on.  We were putting out Easter decor nonetheless, and returning furniture to its pre-Christmas state, and vacuuming up needles in all kinds of places.  It's amazing each year for how long you could find tree needles in the house.  

It was a quiet day today.  We had taekwondo tonight of course, and Maddie was there for a few classes while I was watching on.  Tonight we saw the movie "Miracle," inspired by the game yesterday, which took place on the 46th anniversary of the game in 1980.

We read tonight, said our prayers, and got to sleep.

USA! USA! USA!

We had another really great morning at KidPak, and in regards to the skit, we had a lot of fun with that with a song called "Jelly and Peanut Butter Together," or something like that.  I wrote this really simple song that went along with bottom line - we were talking about Jacob and Esau this morning, about their struggles and about their eventual reconciliation too.  Anyway, the skit was a song that had a similar thing going with it, goofy fun.  Here are a just a few of the pictures that Maddie took over the morning:

So the big question is "Where were you when the USA won the hockey match?"  The answer is at church, due to the time difference between here and Italy.  But right there at the first service and in the break, the game was going on and a few of our volunteers had it on their phones, anxiously peeking from time to time to see if the US Men's Hockey Team would have its first gold medal victory since 1980.  I can't believe it's been that long.  We would rewatch this game later on at home, but the gold medal winning shot came right there before the second service, and the entire KidPak office erupted into a massive patriotic wave of excitement, running out of there to spread the word:  USA wins!

I think this picture below is the most touching of all.  That jersey belongs to a player who tragically passed away last summer, and to honor him, the team hoisted that jersey up during the ceremonies and if you look at this picture, you'll also see his kids there for this incredible moment.  Not a dry eye in the house!  One of those kids, it was his birthday.  And speaking of coincidental timing, today is actually the 46th anniversary - to the day - of the last time the US Men's ice hockey team won in 1980 with the "Miracle Game."  And of course, it's the 250th anniversary of America itself - what a way to celebrate with both the men's and women's teams winning that gold medal! 

We got home and immediately watched the replay of this game, and what an epic contest.  Much will be said of our goalie, and rightly so, the salvation of the US team.  And that first goal was simply one of the greatest goals ever scored.  That third period was just a miracle that we survived.  I mean, USA was 100% on power play kills, and the best was saved for this game with a 3-5 power play kill.  Insane.  It's just such a great moment.

We didn't do much today except watch the Games.  This was the last day for the Olympics, and we basically vegged on this programming the last few weeks.  This afternoon we saw the figure skating gala, which was a lot of fun.  Maddie couldn't wait to see the gold medal winner striding out there, somehow skating in a Kung Fu Panda costume.

And yes, there was Jackie Chan to greet him when he came back.  This was pretty crazy.  The gala is a fun little thing that would be really amazing to attend some day.  So relaxed after such tension with competition, and all the talent and joy there.  It looked like a lot of fun.

That led us to the Closing Ceremonies, which we also watched tonight, after eating dinner together.  These games came to an end with a really nice Closing Ceremonies, honoring Italy's past and showing off a lot of really amazing technology.  Basically a merge of the past and new as a fantastic visual treat.  It was bittersweet of course.  It was all good.

So yeah, we did a lot of watching today.  It's cold out there, windy too.  The temperature is going to the twenties, and the wind is really strong, rattling trees and making all kinds of noise out there in the frigid darkness.  This is translating to something huge up north, a massive blizzard that's supposed to have a pretty strong impact to those folks.  Down here, we'll just be cold again, back to the twenties when we wake up.

Tonight we read from our Discworld book, "Night Watch," and after that it was time for a short prayer, and for a good night's rest.

Return to Hoppy Hollow

Maddie had Team Edge practice this morning, and that was good.  I was watching her training, but I also got a few things of work done too while I looked on.  I have a little office window there, plugging away at different assignments as I watch the team train.

Maddie went over to Nate's for the rest of the day, so I went home where Mom and I were putting a lot of things up from Christmas, believe it or not, and putting out some new decor for Easter and for St. Patrick's Day too.  One big thing for Easter:  Hoppy Hollow.  

 

 

Yes, that's right, it's the return of Hoppy Hollow Easter Village.  This Dollar Store Empire has been in the family for many years now, and even though it's ultimately not worth much more than it probably was back then (I think I paid $20 for the entire set), it's of great sentimental value to me now.  We got it for Ye-Ye as somewhat of a prank gift.  Imagine getting an entire village like that.  Anyway, Nana didn't like it that much and wanted to get rid of it.  So we wound up getting it back, and Mom and I are kind of attached to it!

As you might expect, we were watching some more Olympic events today, including the bobsled racing, both four-man and the two-woman sledding too.  We've pretty much seen all the events the last few weeks, entire sessions too.  I mean, we sat and watched bobsled for over an hour.  And yes, we were cheering when the Jamaican bobsled team showed up.  I was watching a little of all that while I was waling on the treadmill.  I'm still virtually walking around Dublin, Ireland, just in time for St. Patrick's Day.  

Maddie got home and we read, then said our prayers.  It was a good day, but I'm a little tired.  Time for some sleep!