Jiffy Popcorn and Darth Maul

Happy National Scrabble Day!  We actually have three different versions of this game, and tonight we brought up two of them - although we'll just be playing one here soon enough.  We used to play this quite a bit, and it might be fun to have a few rounds this week as it moves along. 

Tonight was Darth Maul night again, as there were another two episodes recently released.  We watched the first episode, and then decided to have some popcorn with the next - but not the traditional sort of popcorn, no!  

We had Jiffy Popcorn, the kind you have in that little pan that you heat up and you watch the aluminum expand as the corn pops inside over your stovetop.  Mom and I took turns shaking this pan over the medium heat flames there until we had a great big amount of delicious popcorn.  And it was really good, too!

We were watching the Braves for a bit today, but they lost the opening game against Miami.  It wasn't a shut-out, but it wasn't a close game either.  Oh well!  "...if they don't win it's a shame." 

Maddie had college this morning, more experience with dance and I think she's enjoying that.  I was out there early getting more mulch down and raking a lot of leaves out of the way.  Almost done with one side of the house there, and the goal is to work outside a little each day.  Meanwhile, poor Mom is working on the taxes, and it's just something she's been dreading.

Maddie had taekwondo tonight, and I was able to head over to the track to get my walking in.  I also got my reading in when I got back to the martial arts studio, occasionally looking up to watch the students train.  On the way home, I was getting peckish.  Mom read my mind from home, and when I called, she asked if I wanted something to eat.  It's a tradition after Easter to have egg salad sandwiches because what else are you going to do with all those eggs?  Mom and I were peeling those eggs and dicing them, and tonight we enjoyed some egg salad sandwiches for dinner.  Yummy!

We closed out the day with reading tonight, checking out the subterranean crime scene in the book 'Thud!"  We'll see what happens next as this unfolds, but it's been twenty years since I've read this, so I don't actually remember entirely.  It sort of comes back to me as I read.  Anyway, we'll see how things go, but it's been fun to read thus far.  

After that, prayers - and sleep.  We're still somewhat exhausted from the garden work this weekend, but we'll sleep well tonight.

Mulch-a-thon

KidPak morning!  We're in the midst of our "Level Up" series, although it's a bit shorter in a way because week one was Easter and the last week is our small group service.  You can see what we did this morning, the Wisenheimer invention - the one created by an actual retired Disney Imagineer some time ago.  Pretty amazing gift item!  The invention is always a huge hit, and this morning was no different.  Of course, the morning featured really great worship, a fantastic video, an animated video game race, and a really great message from Pastor Tucker.  We were talking about Rahab this morning, and it was all good!

We got home - or at least I did.  Maddie was with Nate all day, "yapping."  That's what she told us she did!  We have a yapper for a daughter!

Mom and I were continuing our mulch-a-thon, putting another 36 bags of mulch out there in the garden area, getting close to setting up for the fairy garden area, and a place for our gnomes!  I'll get out there tomorrow to continue cleaning up that area.  Lots of leaves.  We were out there working hard for a bit, and that was pretty much the day, and then we sat down to watch the Atlanta Braves attempt to win the rubber match of the series with Cleveland.  And yeah... we kinda' won.  What a fun game that was to watch, although it was blocked out on BravesVision, we were able to catch it on Peacock, and that worked out.  Because we got to see the Braves score thirteen runs.  They got nineteen hits.  Nineteen hits.  It was crazy.  So now Atlanta is actually the only team in the MLB to have not lost a series yet.  Cool, huh?

Anyway, that was fun to watch.  Afterwards, we read from our book, "Thud!"  And after that, it was time for prayers, and a good night's rest.  We were pretty tired from all the work out there in the lawn, but it's coming along!  Good night, and go Braves!

Toasted Uncrustables and Sumo Citrus

So one of the video breaks that repeats from time to time between innings on BravesVision is a bit about food, and there are a lot of other bits too, but this one struck me as funny because it was a player telling us about putting an Uncrustable in a toaster.  Basically, an Uncrustable is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich where the crust is removed and the perimeter is cinched and sealed.  The player recommended putting that into a toaster, so yes, I got a few of these.  I'm going to go ahead and tell you now I completely agree with this ballplayer, and so does Mom:  these are delicious!  That's all I have to say about that.

On to another interesting food item, something I saw at the grocery store today and had to pick up.  It's called a Sumo Citrus, and so tonight we'll be trying one of those.  A name like "Sumo" conjures up heavy-weight wrestlers from Japan, and sure enough, this is just a special hybrid of mandarin orange from Japan.  They've been cultivating trees in California for the past decade and so now we can have easier access to this unusual orange here.  It's an odd-looking thing.  It kind of reminds me of a gourd.

Today's story was mulch.  I saw that the mulch was on sale, so I went for three trips to Home Depot getting a total of fifty-one bags of mulch when all was said and done.  We were actually able to lay all fifty-one bags of mulch out along the one side of the house and the steps... but there is so much left to be done with the gardening.  Wow.  One step at a time, right?  

Anyway, one of those trips to Home Depot, I brought Maddie along with the promise of sushi.  The two of us stopped and picked up some from the Publix there, which actually has some pretty decent sushi.  And of course now you know where we got that Sumo Citrus from.  We'll probably try that tomorrow afternoon.

We finished our gardening, and Mom took a bath - we both cleaned up and had some rotisserie chicken that I picked up from the grocery store.  And look what I got in the mail!

Yes, it's They Might Be Giants!  I can't wait to listen to this CD, although I've already been listening to the digital files a few times while out in the garden.  It's a great CD, and I love the cover art.

One thing of note:  we've had a lot of carpenter bees lately, and that one carpenter bee trap we have is so incredibly effective.  I've been watching them fly around the house, and then they're gone, and sure enough, they're in the trap - it's pretty amazing how good this thing works.  We had four in there this afternoon.

Moving on, tonight's Braves game did not go well for the home team.  It was a frustrating game to watch, but hats off to the starting pitcher for the Guardians, who the Braves just couldn't figure out.   

Ah look!  It's a night visitor!  I don't know why, but I like these opossums.  I was about to bring in that plate for the night when I turned on the light and there this critter was, getting a light snack.  Cute!

Tonight's reading from "Thud!" introduced the book that Sam Vimes has to read to his son every night at 6pm, and that's "Where's My Cow?"  That itself was also made into an actual book to accompany "Thud!" and yes, I've got that too.  In fact, I first read that very book to Maddie - get this - sixteen years ago.  We'll get back to it once we're done with "Thud!"  It was a sweet portion of the book tonight, one where Sam Vimes has to do all he can to get back in time to read to his son this one book.  I remember reading to Maddie no matter what - sometimes from a hospital bed.  It's just one of those dad obligations.

Afterwards we said our prayers, and that was that for today.  It was a good day, but we're definitely worn out from quite a bit of garden work.  More to do tomorrow, but let's get some rest tonight!

Nice Day

 Today was nice - we were all at home throughout the day, although doing a good bit of yard work outside.  Mom was trimming around the trees and prepping areas for some mulch that we can lay down tomorrow, and I was finishing up the one side of the house with the leaves, although I think I'll probably be out there again with the leaf blower for some other areas that need attention.  Lots of leaves!  But while I was blowing leaves, I was listening to the sounds of the new They Might Be Giants album, "The World is to Dig," which is actually really good.  I'll have that in my rotation for a bit, but I am enjoying it.  An early favorite song of mine right now is "Character Flaw."  

Oh, I got the eggs down off the tree too.  Maddie went out and checked my work and didn't see any eggs leftover, so we'll just have to wait and see this fall when the leaves are off the tree, knowing then if we indeed got all the plastic Easter eggs off the tree.  There's always one, right?

The Artemis II crew safely landed today in the Pacific Ocean, returning to earth after circling the moon.  I was watching some more of "From Earth to the Moon" as I did my walking on the treadmill, moving forward on that virtual walk.  And speaking of which,  I got my medallion today for the Dublin walk.  It arrived in the mail and looks pretty sharp!  There's a lyre and a stained glass window you can actually see through, just behind the stringed instrument.  It looks pretty nice.

I got some chores done out on the road, getting the car's emission test, then the new tag sticker, then a trip to the post office, and then a swing by the grocery store for a few items.  After eating our Factor meals, we checked out the Braves game where the Cleveland Guardians came to town.  

We watched BravesVision tonight again, and were really loving the new retro uniforms the Braves were sporting tonight.  They crushed the Guardians 11-5 in the end, with three players hitting a home run in the sixth inning, and every player getting on base throughout the night.  The bats were really connecting tonight!

We read tonight, meeting Crysophrase the Troll.  And then after that it was time for prayers, and a good night's rest.  We get to sleep in tomorrow!

DQ'd

No, DQ'd doesn't mean "disqualified!"  It means Dairy Queened!  We made a rather spontaneous trip when I got home, because it was time for an ice cream break!  Mom's been doing taxes and bills all day, and so she earned herself a well-deserved break.

Last week, we bought one of those discount cards from a Boy Scout that was roaming our neighborhood, the sort of card that has discounts to various local businesses.  They sell these raise money for trips and so forth.  There are all kinds of businesses on the card, and of course all kinds of discounts if you bring the card to one of those businesses.  

One of those was Dairy Queen, where there's a buy-on-get-one-free offer on the card for Blizzards.  Maddie is a huge fan of the Cotton Candy Blizzard, which means that I get a free Blizzard now.  Mom went with her traditional caramel sundae, and the three of us enjoyed an ice cream tonight at the location about seven miles from our house.  Not too far away.  Incidentally, we've already earned our money back on that card already with two visits to Dairy Queen.  Something tells me we're not done taking advantage of that deal yet...!

No Braves game tonight, so we concluded the live-action Spider-man movies with that last one released thus far, "No Way Home."  This sets up our trip to the theater later this summer to see the next Spider-man movie in the theaters.

It's been a decent day today.  I got a lot of stuff cleaned off the lap top going back to December with all our monthly series just piling up and using up space.  We store these on back-up drives for future use later on.  Maddie went for coffee with Emma this morning, and then off to chapel.  Jonathan was there for worship, and delivered a message on Psalm 23 with anointing oil at the ready.

Today I got a special treat from They Might Be Giants.  As a member of their IFC (Instant Fan Club), we get all kinds of special treats, and today's was a nice one - it's' their latest release, "The World is to Dig."  This was a surprise to me, as the official release date is a week away or something like that.  I got the digital files today, and another CD is supposedly on the way, the last item in my IFC membership for this go-round.  As for the actual music, I only could listen to half of it in the car (busy day today!).  But I'm anxious to listen to all of it tomorrow.   It's listed as their 24th studio album, but I have so many of their other albums that are just as good as a studio release - I'm not sure where we're at with numbers, but I do know I have all of them, and they remain my favorite band.

Okay, moving on!  Tonight we read a little from "Thud!" but not too much - I was falling asleep!  Time for prayers, and time for bed!

Chop Chop Pop Pop

Maddie was at college this morning, and it was cold out there to begin with.  The temperatures have been pretty cool in the mornings, which is quite an unexpected thing even though we're supposed to be expecting the unexpected when it comes to weather around here.  Anyway, she was at the college and I was with the team finishing our latest book for our upcoming Boot Camp series, which is basically a version of our "Call of Duty" series that we've done quite a bit in the past.  

Maddie was with Nate after college, because Nate's on Spring Break this week.  I was on the way home and called Mom, and yep, she's got the Braves game on.  

We've been quite addicted lately to BravesVision, so we watched all the way to the eighth inning where we saw the Braves beat the Angels 8-2.  The Braves' pitching staff currently has the best ERA in baseball, and the bats are starting to really wake up.  It's a fun team to watch!

We stopped watching when we saw the time though - Mom and I went off to church tonight.  We're visiting a church over in Dawsonville.  It was a great worship set, and a good teaching after that - we enjoyed the service and will probably be back.

Getting home, I was surprised by a really fun gift Mom got me:  four of these amazing pans of Jiffy Pop popcorn!  So we didn't make it tonight, but yes, that's on the horizon now!  We'll have fun making some popcorn soon.  Anyway, tonight watched a few short things on the television, but not much because it was time for bed pretty much.  We read from "Thud!" a good bit, and then it was time for prayers and bed.

Patriotism

 Today started out colder, and that was a funny surprise, although I'm not sure why I'm surprised at all about the weather lately.  I just assumed the closer you got to summer, the warmer it got.  Sort of simple concept, right?  Not that it's been too cold or anything - in fact, this afternoon was downright pleasant.

Maddie was at school this morning, and her elective with dance had her doing something easier and more enjoyable with Emma, and that was nice for her.  Afterwards, Maddie went over to Nate's place to spend basically the rest of the day together.

It was a day of rest, pretty much.  We were packing up a lot of Easter things - like Hoppy Hollow, for example.  But we did put up the Patriotic Christmas tree!

I got the little tree up, fluffed, got the lights on, and all the ornaments too.  We have some new ornaments, a new Grover Cleveland one and a few new Semiquincentennial ornaments that we got recently as well as the two ornaments in Mom's Easter basket.  The tree is really covered in lots of patriotic ornaments now - we might have to upgrade to a bigger tree soon!

I was decorating the tree as a huge moment was going on:  four astronauts were going around the moon.  Just before they left radio contact to go through the dark side of the moon, one astronaut told the earth, “Christ said in what was the greatest command, was that it was to love God with all that you are…. (and) love your neighbor as yourself… we love you from the Moon.”  It's been over fifty years since any human has been around the moon, and the space program has been so inspirational lately.  This event has filled us with pride, along with another recent national event:  the rescue of an American pilot deep in enemy territory.

This afternoon Mom and I had the White House Egg Roll on the television, and it was fun as always to see the kids guiding those eggs across the lawn there.  We have a few of those eggs now, this year's semiquincentennial eggs.  We'll keep those out for decorations in the years to come.

We read for a bit tonight from the Discworld.  Vimes and Angua are going deep in a case, way deep because it's really far below ground level beneath Ankh-Morpork's surface.  The dwarfs have a murder case going on right now, something that could spark massive trouble if things aren't figured out quickly.  It's been a good book thus far.  We said our prayers after that, and soon enough it was time for some sleep.