...Flooded

 ... KidPak gets flooded, Braves keep winning, Grand Old Opry...

Mad Hatter Pepper

We have a mad hatter pepper!  I've been waiting for this mad hatter pepper plant to give us a pepper, and finally we have one on the way.  This thing has grown up so tall, and it seems to be doing well - just not much in the way of actual peppers.  Until now!  The tomatoes have been popping up here or there, and we still have three to go.  And of course, we have lettuce inside too, some of it still growing well.  We had that one mammoth pepper too.  But I've been waiting on a mad hatter pepper ever since we bought that tiny plant a few months ago.  

So Maddie was not at taekwondo tonight, mainly because of soreness from yesterday's extensive workouts.  She was at class this morning, and she's doing well at school.  We're super, super proud of her.  She's doing well driving too, by the way.  We're waiting on the insurance to get together with the body shop, and hopefully her car can get fixed up.

Quiet day really.  We saw the Braves beat the Rockies tonight, and of course we read tonight afterwards, moving forward through the pages of "Soul Music."  It's been fun, and today's lunch date between Ridcully and Susan was one of those items on a Discworld checklist that I didn't realize we needed to read about.  And then there was Foul Ole Ron and the Patrician - it's been fun reading these passages pairing up wildly different characters.  We'll see what happens as we keep reading.

After reading, we said our prayers and got the Plush Entourage tucked in.  Time for some sleep!

Silent Spectacle

Late tonight, we had another lunar eclipse, and tonight the weather was super clear to enjoy the whole thing.  Maddie, Mom and I were out there watching the shadow cross the surface of the full moon, shading the covered area in a sort of dull glowing red.  I got a few pictures of it tonight - we didn't have a complete coverage, but it was a treat to see what coverage we did see tonight, always a silent spectacle in the skies.

 Speaking of spectacles, tonight's Braves vs. Dodgers game was one for the ages.  Drake Baldwin gets a home run with the first pitch of the game... and that's the only hit throughout the entire night.  And while that was great, the real story was our pitcher Chris Sale, who pitched an entire nine-inning shut-out game versus an incredible opponent.  A bad call at the end should have ended it earlier, but he got another out after that - we'll call it a 28-out complete game shut-out, and it was magnificent!

Maddie was at taekwondo tonight, there for the more energetic class tonight by request.  She'll be sore tomorrow! 

 

We read tonight, and Maddie got to bed earlier.  But I was up watching that eclipse with Mom, and we were also doing that time-honored stay-up-until-midnight onboard registration thing for the Disney Cruise, which just so happened to be tonight too.  It's a pain of a process, as you're sitting there at midnight with the seconds ticking by and some glitch in the system keeps sending you back with no explanation whatsoever... but we did get registered, and yeah, it's going to be fun this year celebrating Halloween on the High Seas.

Okay, time for some sleep!

Kim's Big Night

So all of us were watching this battle with the Dodgers, baseball's evil empire of sorts - although the players are all pretty decent guys.  So this was a struggle that felt like the playoffs, each at-bat an intense moment... and it all came down to the bottom of the ninth with two outs, when who should walk up to the plate but Ha-Seong Kim.  To say he's had a rough year is to put it gently.  He may have historically one of the lowest on base percentages in baseball history.  It's been difficult to watch him at bat all year, just assuming it's an automatic out.  So here he is in this huge epic moment, and he's hitting the ball - foul.  Time and again.  Eight pitches... and then suddenly this:

This is the reason we love this game.  It was so great watching his teammates come out to celebrate with him, and so wonderful to hear everyone celebrating this moment. 

We were doing a good bit of work today - we got the October booklet completely done, and now we're off to doing November's book.  I was trying to come up with some visual inspiration to go with, and started to look back to this retro look that is making me super happy:

It should be a great series booklet!  I'm sort of moving forward quickly through these booklets now - using this new art tool and having fun with it.  I can't wait to see what it does with a "Whoville" sort of look.

Maddie was at taekwondo tonight, there for the more energetic class tonight by request.  She'll be sore tomorrow! But it's been good - she was watching the end of the game with us tonight, and then it was time for reading, prayers, and sleep!

Goodbye Dolly

Well, the news of the day was sad news - Dolly Parton passed away, and of course that'll be in the news cycle for a while.  I think Dolly might have been one of the most iconic and beloved celebrities in recent memory, universally adored for creativity and generosity.  We made our way to Dollywood repeatedly, of course, and we have some of her music that we picked up each visit, along with stickers, Funko pop figures, clothing and all sorts of other souvenirs.  And movies too - I was forgetting those.  Anyway, it was pretty shocking and sad news today, and it spread around to all of us so quickly.  It wasn't too long later that this was all we were talking about, and of course playing all kinds of her music as well.  

This is completely random, but I took this picture at Dollywood a few years ago.  It’s a picture of a puddle from a recent rainfall, and of course, there in the reflection was a mural of Dolly illuminated by sunlight.  

It’s sort of symbolic in a way, a”light of the world,” a bright and shining face standing out amidst all that grey.  That was her, a splash of sunlight, a positive presence in a dark world.

Today we finished up the racing theme book for October, the series we're calling "DRIVE."  I did that booklet pretty quickly, and am moving on to the next booklet right away to get ahead of things - it's our November booklet.  

Tonight was a big game for the Braves, and they won against the Dodgers in a nail-biter sort of game that just felt like an October kind of game.  There was such tension and every at-bat held meaning and importance and... well, let's just say it was an exciting game.  And we won, and that made it so much more delicious.

It's time for bed though.  We read tonight, and then said our prayers - time for sleep.

International Waffle Day

 

Today is International Waffle Day, so yes, we had to celebrate.  It was rather last-minute, but we did have these protein waffles available, and they're pretty yummy.  Mom and I had waffles for dinner tonight, and no regrets whatsoever!

Maddie was at college this morning, and taekwondo later on today too - so it's been a busy day for her.  I was out getting groceries, and doing more book work for our October series.  It should be a good booklet, I think.  

I did get my walking in, and that's been fun lately.  Tomorrow I'm doing a virtual walk towards Trout Lake in Yellowstone.  I've sort of been seeing all the trails, big and small, crowded and desolate, grand and off-the-radar.  They're all good as I march along.  And check out the soap I get to use afterwards in the shower:

That's right.  Venom's very own soap.  It's Symbiotic Plunge, and each time I use it I'm afraid I'm in danger of being taken over by some sort of symbiotic alien.  On the plus side, I might develop superpowers, so there's that.  But yeah, it's a great scented soap.  Makes me want to go watch the "Venom" trilogy of movies.

But not tonight:  tonight Maddie was all about "The LEGO Movie," this after our adventures Sunday at the Brick Fan Event.  Not only did we watch that movie (which is still really great, by the way), we also saw an episode of "LEGO Master Builders" for the first time, and it's something we might be watching more of in the days to come - it was a cool show!

Okay, tonight we closed things out with more reading from "Soul Music," and then it was time for prayers... and a good night's rest.

THE Big Fat Panda

 

I've got the ridiculous panda suit on again, and it's super fun!  This morning we continued our "Path of the Warrior" series, and Mom had the idea of me wearing this inflatable panda suit again.  It got some big laughs and excitement.  It was a good morning today at KidPak, and Maddie got some really excellent pictures as always, also taking pictures of the younger ones down at KidPak Discovery.  Here are just a few of the pictures of our service that Maddie took this morning.

Super morning, and a relaxing afternoon that followed.  One really fun thing that happened this morning was outside of service, but one of our friends from KidPak gave me something because he was thinking of me, and it was more meaningful than he actually realized.  A few weeks ago, BravesVision offered us some tickets to go see a game, and I picked a day where we could get a bobblehead doll of Javy Lopez if we arrived early enough.  I got the parking garage tickets all set up and we were ready to go until... Mom wasn't well enough to go.  And I wasn't going to go by myself.  So I gave the tickets to our nephew, and he had a great time, although I don't think he got there in time to get a bobblehead.  So I was bummed about that.  But lo and behold, God was looking out for me here with this minor little thing:  our friend went to that game the other night, part of a business-related perk, and he even got the bobblehead doll.  He doesn't collect these, and so he began to think about who to give it to... so yes!  I got my Javy Lopez bobblehead doll after all!  Super, super cool!

So the rest of the afternoon was a bit of relaxing.  I'm still marching along virtually through Yellowstone walking by the Firehole River area now.  The POV hiking videos have been so great to watch as I'm on this treadmill.  Today I was walking a trail to Mystic Falls, but there are so many other trails to wander along.  

Maddie's been doing homework, something that's on the increase lately of course.  We did go and take a break though, heading over to Dairy Queen and using our BOGO card yet again to get a couple of Blizzards.

The Braves won their game today against the Brewers at a little league field in front of a lot of those young players, and it was a really neat thing to hear... we were listening to that while I was working on the next LEGO project in the dining room.  Tonight's movie was the third Men in Black movie, which we like a lot - actually, all three are pretty fun, and a definite tradition each year.

We read tonight before bed, moving along with "Soul Music," where the band is coming together to play for a huge crowd in this massive cavern.  Susan is visiting to see what's going on here, because technically, the lead singer and guitarist should be dead by now!  We'll see what happens next as we move along.

The evening was closed out with prayers, and getting all those members of the Plush Entourage down the hall and safely in bed.  Mom and I did a few puzzles before bedtime, and she was actually doing some shopping online.  But now... it's time for some sleep!