More Mean Girls

This afternoon we were at the final City Springs Theater production, which was "Mean Girls."  I saw the high school version of it about two years ago, and it's okay.  Not my favorite, but we still enjoyed the performance, and it was nice to go down and see a bit play.  

Maddie was at the graduation party for Nate this afternoon, and earlier on, she and the rest of Team Edge were practicing together at the martial arts studio, where there were some important questions asked.  Like, "What kind of fruit or vegetable would you be?"  The answer for Maddie, or at least other people's answers for her:  a lemon.

She had a good day today, and then got home to join us for the Braves game against the Red Sox.  Mom actually got us some Cracker Jacks to enjoy while watching, and we destroyed that bag.  Those were delicious, of course.  The Red Sox got us this time, but tomorrow is another game and another chance to win the series with them.

Tonight we moved our story, reading "Snuff," and there's a mystery afoot to figure out.  No doubt Sam Vimes will be on top of this one.  We read for a bit, said our prayers, did some of our puzzles, and then yeah, it was time for some sleep!  We've got Kidpak tomorrow morning.

Nate's Graduation

Tonight was Nate's graduation, and Maddie was happy to be there and celebrate with him!  They had fun with the family together, and after that went off to eat.  When the manager heard there was a graduate at his restaurant, Nate got a super sweet delicious cupcake!

Okay, those actually look pretty good.  As do the tacos that Maddie got, of course.  I'm kind of wanting one of these street tacos now.  We'll have got go there again soon!

Here's the family there after the graduation.  Congratulations, Nate!  Maddie had a nice time tonight being there for Nate's big night.  There's a party or two tomorrow, and you know she'll be there for that.

Wow, tonight's Braves game was a thriller - extra innings, and Yaz came through with another huge hit to drive in the game winner and against his grandpa's old team, the Red Sox.  Maddie got home just in time to see the big play.

Today was a bit of driving to and fro, heading to the church to get a few things to set up for Sunday's service.  We did our reading tonight with the Plush Entourage, continuing with "Snuff," the final book of the Sam Vimes series in the Discworld.  After that, prayers, and a good night's rest!  

Goombay

You're looking at some Bahamas Goombay Punch!  I bought a few cans in Nassau, and imported them back home for lunch today, and Maddie had one too - she liked it!  It's basically a carbonated fruit punch, but I remember seeing these cans a long, long time ago.  I found one at the market right there next to the boat in Nassau, so I picked up a few cans.  I was going to drink them there, and then maybe later, and then it just worked out that I brought them home with me.  And that's just fine!  Anyway, it's good stuff.  We'll have to go back and get some more now.

So here are a few of our medals we got for the games the last few cruises.  We actually got the old-school ones before this, although I'm not sure where they are at the moment.  We've won quite a few trivia games, but keep getting the Donald Duck and Cruise Ship medals.  We'll have to go back and get some more now!

Here's the new Star Wars set-up Mom has on the counter there.  You can see our new rubber ducks and of course the C-3PO head there.  That just might be my new popcorn bucket!

The Braves lost tonight, actually shut out for the first time in a month of so.  Hopefully they can wake those bats up a bit soon, but even so they've got the best record in baseball, and are the first team to win thirty games this year.  There's a lot of good news here.

I've been a bit under the weather lately, and I think it's something I got on the cruise.  I'm sort of doing the medicine thing and taking it easy, but yeah, it's weird having a little cold when it's summer.  I put together a few fern stands for Mom, so her new ferns look great on that front porch.

We read tonight, and we're moving through the book "Snuff" fairly quickly now.  It's supplementary book, "The World of Poo" is what follows, but we're wrapping up the adventures of Sam Vimes and the City Watch.  There's still plenty of other Discworld books we haven't read yet, so no worries there.  

After reading, we said our prayers.  Quiet but good day.

Outback

Mom and I had a gift card to Outback Steakhouse, so why not drop by tonight?  We Maddie and Team Edge had a big performance tonight at the martial arts studio, and afterwards Maddie was hanging out at Nate's place for a bit.  So Mom and I had a date night, and it was pretty nice there.  

Here's something else nice - some flowers that Nate got for Mom for her birthday, or perhaps Mother's Day.  Either way, it was a nice gesture!

As for the Team Edge performance, it was great!  The team was showing off a little for all the parents and students that were testing tonight, and it was a really good run-through.

Today was a good day - we had some KidPak planning today for various upcoming events like Father's Day and Summer Xtreme.  We're keeping out exercise going with the walking - I've been watching old movies while walking "to the moon."  Today's flick was "Space Chimps," and wow, we've come a long way with CGI.  It's fun watching these older movies where animation studios were just starting to figure out computer animation.  Anyway, not a bad movie.  Next up is "Area 51," and after that I'm looking forward to "Muppets in Space."  

So tonight after watching the Braves win, we closed up things with reading from the Discworld.  We said our prayers after that, and it was off to sleep.

Keep Moonwalking

Got another post card from the Moon!  Still walking along this trail in space, following star dust and all that.  While walking, today's movie was "Space Chimps," which I'm about halfway through at the moment, keeping up with the whole space exploration theme.  I'm about 70% or so through this virtual walk, but it's been a good one, as there have been a lot of post cards, images and different moments along the way, but also all of these VHS and DVDs I've been watching on the television the whole journey.  Super fun.

Okay, so yeah I was back to work today.  Mom was still doing laundry.  Maddie was ... I'm not sure what she was doing, but I'm sure it was awesome!  We finished the Summer Xtreme booklet today, and that is going to be great to have all done and ready to go.

We had a more chill day today, certainly nothing as hugely scheduled as last week of course.  But it was nice nonetheless.  I got home and we all were watching the Braves vs. Cubs, basically the teams with the two best records in baseball.  We were number one beforehand, and we defeated the Cubs pretty well tonight to get even further ahead.  The Braves are doing really well, and it's just been fun watching this BravesVision, as the team is really fun broadcasting the game and other things going on.  I think it's the other things going on that add a bit of craziness, from hamsters, ice cream, second buttons, eel bites, giant sandwiches and more.  And then the other things being shown, ceremonies and post-game interviews and all kinds of interesting things.  It's been our staple this year!

 

National Twilight Zone Day

First, the Twilight Zone.  Mom marked down "Twilight Zone Day" on the calendar, and after a bit of searching I found a streaming channel that had all the episodes on it, so yeah, we watched a few old-school episodes tonight.  And we watched our very own KidPak version too, something we made a few years ago that was a lot of fun.

The day itself was pretty restful.  I was marching along this morning, back on the treadmill with my walk to the moon.  I finished up "Hidden Figures" while walking towards the moon.  Mom spent the entire day cleaning up, particularly doing laundry.  

We set up our new Disney Cruise souvenir here, the Cogsworth clock.  He looks great, and works just fine there.  That's a nice souvenir!  But now it was time for taekwondo, and the usual Monday routine... sort of...

New t-shirts and decorations at Edge!

The big event of the night was testing for taekwondo.  Maddie didn't feel like doing that tonight, probably because she just got back from a cruise.  But Nate was testing and she hadn't seen him in a bit.  She had the camera with her tonight and took a lot of great pictures for the team.

Maddie drove us over to taekwondo, by the way.  And then drove us to boba tea afterwards, because it's tradition!  And then... she drove us home, because it was getting late.

We watched another "Mandalorian" episode tonight, the one that re-introduces us to Ahsoka Tano.  We'll be moving through all these episodes again as we get closer to the release of the movie in theaters.  Should be fun.

And that was it for today - we read tonight from "Snuff," our latest Discworld book, and after that it was time for prayers.... and sleep!

Journey Home

And here we are, back at Port Canaveral.  Looking outside, you can see the port is filled with cruise ships, ready to take off on Mother's Day.  Yes, that's right, it's Mother's Day.  Most of our luggage is gone at this point, packed up and put outside the cabin the night before.  All that remains is to clean up, get our stuff together, enjoy a quick breakfast at the Enchanted Garden, and then it's time to disembark.  Kind of bittersweet, really.

Then off to the Enchanted Garden for one final meal aboard the Fantasy!

It was short and sweet.  It's sort of melancholy watching the big room gradually empty, the passengers leaving the room and eventually the boat.  Next, it was our turn to say "see you real soon."

It was a much easier process than it ever had been before, thanks to all kinds of facial recognition and so forth.  Convenient, and terrifying!  Anyway, we went down the gangplank and back on dry land.  Fun fact:  for the past four days, Mom and I only got off the boat for a total of maybe an hour and a half.

Anyway, we got back to the parking deck and said our goodbyes to Uncle George and Thip.  They were heading up to the cemetery, and then down to Miami.  We had a bit of a longer drive:  home.  It was time for the long drive home, and it wasn't so bad.  To help, we made a few stops along the way.

Oh goodness, first a rest stop not far away.  I already had to use the rest room!  Okay, let's try again.  Next stop!

We visited the Buc-ee's in Daytona, which was a big mistake in that the cars were lined up outside and it took a while just to get to the Buc-ee's.  The exit and turning lane was just so crowded, and it was like this last time too.  Okay, so next time we'll do the Jacksonville Buc-ee's and skip this one.  Just too many people!  But we needed gas, so I got there and filled up and we all went in to get some drinks and a snack or two.  We weren't in there for two long, we felt like molecules in some science experiment about an area being heated up.  So we drove out of there, no problems going around Jacksonville and across I-10.  We were listening to some Discworld radio dramas that Mom got me for Christmas.  Through the course of the day we listened to "Mort" and "Guards!  Guards!"  And soon enough, we found ourselves crossing the Georgia State Line again.

The Georgia Welcome Center!  They had a neat little semiquincentennial display there, a nice one.  We always pick up a few brochures while there, stretching our legs and walking along.  But now it was time to head up another eighty miles or so to... 

The Great Peanut of Ashburn, the World's Largest Peanut.  Wow, I remember when the hurricane knocked this down for a while a few years ago.  It's been restored and looking nicer than ever.  It's somewhat of a landmark here in South Georgia, this massive peanut.  But it's also nearby a store called "Carroll's Sausage and Country Store," which we enjoyed stopping at.  While there, we even got a few things to drink before moving on to get more pictures with the giant peanut.

Moving right along!  We had just one more stop, and I think you know what that probably was.  

We got a few drinks from the next Buc-ee's, filled the car up with gas, walked around a bit, and then just drove straight home.  This time, no traffic in Henry Country.  But still some traffic in Atlanta this time.  I had in all this old-school Disney music to keep me awake - I didn't sleep as well last night.  But it was fun listening to Mary Poppins in the car again!  

So we arrived home without any incidents, and Mom saw some new gifts for her birthday there - some potted ferns.  We'll order some stands for those and they'll look nice on the front porch there.

But we made it.  Always a wild thing at the end of these days when you look around at the house and all the ordinariness of it and then think back on the fact that this very morning we were having breakfast in the Enchanted Garden on the Fantasy.  

Tonight we managed to stay awake and watch the replay of the Braves game today - they defeated the Dodgers again, 7-2.  The Braves are having a really great start to the year, and that's been fun to watch.  Anyway, it's time for bed.  We read tonight, and we said our prayers, and it was quite easy to get some sleep tonight.