Grand Admiral Stench

One of Madison's upcoming tests is over some of the geographical features and countries of the Middle East, or "Southwest Asia."  I know this is all a part of Asia, but when I hear the words "Southwest Asia," I don't think of Israel so much.  You think "Middle East."

Nevertheless, that's in fact what it is:  "Southwest Asia."  Unless the "The Middle East" is suddenly declared a new continent.  And why not?  I mean, technically, Europe and Asia area also attached, right?  It's not without precedent, so we can do that.  Truthfully, I think the folks in Japan would rather have Iraq and Iran on a separate continent.

Apparently, the Greeks are to blame for the whole Asia/Europe being two separate continents thing.  They just decided that's the way it is, and the rest of the world went with it.  So what if they're attached?  We'll call them two different continents, and everyone will go with it because we're Greek, and we're supposed to be smart.  And so time goes by, and rather than fix this, geographers decided to change the definition of a continent to fit that.  I mean, continents are generally self-contained sorts of things.  But everyone went with what the Greeks decided.

You'd think over time, someone would correct this.  You don't divide up a lake and call it two lakes.  Even oceans have geographical boundaries, right?

But instead of fixing this, some Swedish guy named Philip Johan Von Strahlenberg actually backed them up.  The rest of the geographical world was rolling their eyes:  "Philip, what are you doing?  A kindergartener can tell you that this makes no sense.  There's no geographical boundary, like with all the other continents."  And he told them, "HERE.  Here's the line.  It just follows some mountains, and a few lakes here, and ... uh... there too.  There's the line."  "You just made that up."  "No I didn't.  Trust me, I'm a geographer."

And so the rest of the geographical world actually bought it.  And now we have two continents, instead of one ginormous one.  The truth of this may be more sinister.  I think that the Asia and Europe were divided, because basically because the rest of the continents couldn't bare the thought of some super continent bragging all the time about how big it is.

Anyway, today we had storms.  Big storms.  They chased away the grandparents, who have been feverishly working on our yard, transforming it into something so beautiful.  Our yard has increased in size, and certain areas look amazingly pleasant now, as if they were part of some park.  There are all kinds of unique plants carefully placed and arranged - it's as if we discovered a new little park right next to our house.  The grandparents are so gifted.  They work hard on this, and we've been helping a little here and there.  Mommy has had drinks, fruit and snacks ready so that everyone shares a few moments of rest on the front porch.  It's there where the hummingbirds fly up and say hello, although they're visiting for a snack themselves:  Mommy's Rock City hummingbird feeder looks great there on the front porch.  She's been filling it up all summer long, and we've got some regular visitors as a result.

But the rain drove everyone off, and cooled everyone off as well.  Daddy was getting a haircut inside from the greatest hair stylist that I know:  Mommy.  We were cleaning up inside a good bit - it seems as if the spiders have decorated the house for Halloween a little bit too early.  They must have heard that Disney was doing - last week - the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.  In August?  Waaaaay too early!

Madison had piano today, and did well in her class.  She's got one more song in this current book, and it's Pachelbel's Canon in D.  Again.  She loves the song though, so it's okay.  She thinks it is a pretty piece of music, as do many others.

We were studying maps tonight, and focusing on math a bit too, although that's already outside of our range of thinking.  She's in advanced math, and it's so advanced that Mommy and Daddy aren't as much help.  But we'll do our best.

Madison had a good day at school, correctly calling out the location of Saudi Arabia, and doing something called the Fitness Festival, which evidently is so tiring that most of the exhausted participants can be found lying on the ground somewhere, incapable of any movement.

Tonight's post-piano "relax on the couch" time was spent with popcorn and a movie called "Bernie the Dolphin," which drew our attention because it was filmed at Marineland, where we just were not long ago.  Sure enough, we recognized the park and the water tanks there.  The movie was decent, but really the focus of it was Marineland.  Madison would love to go back there.

And we may be going back there sooner than later, at least to Florida.  Ba-ba's CT scan was today, and this time they got it right.  There was an error in the system as to what kind of scan, and this one may be more comprehensive.  Once the results are returned, we'll see what course of action is next.  It's just slow going, and of course everyone is impatient to deal with the situation.  At least, those who are affected by it are impatient.  It doesn't seem to have the same sense of urgency for others.

We prayed for Ba-ba tonight before bed, and prayed for a lot of things really, always ending with the Prayer of Jabez, and zerberts.  We read from our Star Wars book, and now we have a "Toy Story" devotional as well.  Our nightly ritual includes the usual hide-and-seek too.  Oh, and of course there are the usual things like brushing teeth, washing the face, and calling each other stinky names as we say goodnight.  It's been a good day.

Goodnight, Grand Admiral Stench!