Well Hello!

This is one of Daddy's favorite animated characters designs, this wobbly little guy named Finis Everglot.  He's attempting a smile here, which is quite difficult because of the way he was created - I love this guy.  Tonight we saw him and the others again in "The Corpse Bride," one of my favorites to see this time of year.  We've got the soundtrack memorized and in fact it's in the car right now.  Madison is working on and off with Victor's piano solo, and of course we have that Christmas ornament we hang up each year of Victor and Emily at the grand piano.  It's a great seasonal movie, lots of fun.

Today, Mommy had a great deal of progress decorating the front of the house.  We went out to get mums nearby, and also made a few donations to the library while we were out.  It turns out that not only can you donate books, you can donate seeds - and pick up seeds as well.  We got some seeds that Mommy was excited to try out, and we'll have them in stock when spring arrives and we can plant them in good soil at the right time.

Madison was off to school, bringing along with her a scientific calculator.  She'll be the first one in the family that has a clue what half the buttons on a scientific calculator even mean.  I get as far as the numerical digits and whether you want to add, divide, multiply or subtract.  And there's an equal sign and a "clear" button.  And then I'm done.  But it was recommended that Madison get a scientific calculator, which has roughly the same amount of buttons on it as a computer laptop.  And now she's off to school with it, learning how this thing operates.  You might as well hand Daddy an abacus!

We had piano tonight, and Madison has been assigned the task of playing - in November - a piece on the piano that was composed by an American.  This is more challenging than I thought for her, because she's actually not as familiar with American musicians as she is with other nationalities.  Go figure!

She did well on her math test - a 95!  That's a big grade, a summative.  She's doing well this year, as that lifts her average upwards a bit of course.  She's still on the line with ELA, but we'll focus on that and work hard there too.  She's doing well.

It's still hot outside, hot and dry.  We stayed indoors mostly, and when it was night time we put on the ceiling fans and the air conditioning.  We read and prayed, and got to sleep earlier this time.  We'll need some rest, because there are a few busy days coming up.  Hopefully cooler ones too!