...

 ...KidPak, day at Nate's church, skiing, Leap Year... updates coming soon...

...Post Card from Dublin

Well, here's a nice view from Dublin!  I got another virtual post card as I'm doing the virtual walk around Ireland, and it's been a nice little journey thus far.  This morning I walked quite a bit, in fact.  I was over at the track at the college, and I did a 5K, running the last bit, getting better.

Maddie was at Team Edge practice, and Nate was there too.  Glad to see him back in the mix again, feeling strong enough to do some training.  Maddie spent the day over at his place, and the two had fun hanging out together.  Meanwhile, Mom and I were doing a lot for KidPak, including some Summer Xtreme stuff, believe it or not.  Here we go again with Summer Xtreme - we were making graphics for that.  I was also finalizing some stuff for tomorrow, and getting some advertising ready for the new t-shirts we have for our Spring Training series.  It's all going well at KidPak!

Mom is getting ready for Easter - she got this gorgeous new table runner for Easter dinner, and she ordered some new plates that should be wonderful.  We were fixing up one of our wall hangings that we got from China, and we actually hung up a new one that my parents got for me this past Christmas, one with Godzilla on it!

INSERT PHOTO OF WALL HANGINGS ON IT

We had rainstorms today, but in Florida it was pretty nice - I know that because we were watching yet another Spring Training game with the Braves while doing a good bit of work.  I was vacuuming upstairs while Mom was cleaning up Maddie's room a bit.  We even had some more Paralympics on - we watched some biathlon races, and then the sled hockey game where USA absolutely crushed Italy.  Wow, talk about domination - it wasn't pretty.  Italy scored first, and we scored the next 14 goals.  Yikes.  

INSERT PHOTO OF VALENTINE'S DAY PASTA 

For  dinner, we had some heart-shaped pasta that was really good, and then it was time to wrap things up for the night.  We read of course, and after that it was time for prayers and a good night's rest.  Tomorrow is the dreaded one-hour-earlier day, so we'd best get to sleep earlier tonight to make up for it!

Double Rainbow

 

We had a big thunderstorm come from the south, and the way to taekwondo tonight was that mix of brilliant sunlight glaring at us from reflective surfaces - all while the windshield was on full strength.  Mom told us it was rainbow weather, and she wasn't wrong:  we saw one right away.  The weather was so odd you could see the end of the rainbow in the field across from the high school, or right there in front of you along the road.  The water was pooling up mightily, and the drive was a little slow-going.  But wow, check out that double rainbow above - in person, these can be such a thing of wonder.  We were chasing this rainbow, heading right beneath the arches for pretty much the length of Browns Bridge Road.

Maddie got dropped off at taekwondo, and I got over to drop a few things at Goodwill, and then it was time to do some grocery shopping.  I got pretty much everything on the list, and then a few things not on the list, like Lucky Charms - it's St. Patrick's Day, right?  Speaking of which, I got some of this delicious cheese.

Okay, this St. Patrick's Day themed cheese looks fantastic, and we had it right away tonight, sampling some at dinner time.  And after dinner, we watched the Opening Ceremonies to the Paralympics!

It was pretty cool!  There was one musical bit that featured a theremin, glasses full of water, and three of those long alpine horns... it was a pretty epic combination.  We loved it!  It is so inspiring to see these athletes, and coming into that stadium - or seen at other locations ready to compete - they're already winners.  We saw a curling match already, but over the next ten days we'll be sure to watch a few other events.  

Before the rain, Mom and I were out working on weeds and cutting back bushes, doing a bit of pruning.  It felt like spring today!  

We did some reading tonight, and we said our prayers afterwards.  Pretty decent day - I got my walking in, nearly 40% of the way done with this virtual path around Dublin.  But one of my favorite things of the day is the gift that Mom gave me:

It's a LEGO kit where you build the Tabernacle in the Wilderness!  Step by step, just as you read it in Exodus, you put together the Tabernacle... only with LEGO bricks.  It comes complete with the menorah, the Ark, and all the sacred furniture - it'll be super fun to put together.  Updates coming soon!

We had a little time to read tonight, which we did of course, and then prayers - more rain on the way tomorrow!

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.

So Purim is going on, and the war in Persia is too.  It's a a monumental, consequential season we're in, something I thought wouldn't actually happen.  I remember the hostages in Iran so many years ago, and how could they do this to us?  And that was forty-six years ago, and a lot of other incidents later.  Wow.  There are things going on here, of course, like the effect on the gas prices here, which are going up.  And the parallels between the story in Esther and the current events going on at Purim.  Lots to think about.

Completely unrelated, it was Dr. Seuss' birthday yesterday, and to celebrate that we watched "Horton Hears a Who" tonight.  I was telling Maddie the first time she saw that movie back in 2008 at the White Swan Hotel play area down somewhere around the lobby.  It was a little spot for kids and there was a television on, and I remember Maddie and I down there when Mom had to be somewhere else.  I remember that, sitting there with Maddie watching the movie, and then crawling around with her riding on my back.

Tonight we read more from "Night Watch" a bit tonight, and it's been good.  I remember reading this a long time ago, but I've sort of forgotten a lot of it.  Yeah, I'm not sure where things are going.  But it's been good!  After that, it was time for sleep.  

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!