Taekwondo Portraits

Maddie posed for some photographs this afternoon, an opportunity that's returned to the martial arts studio after a few years.  These were going on for a bit and we just didn't have time for it back then, also having pictures of Maddie for ballet and school.  I actually brought this up with Master Edge several months ago, and hopefully enough people will be getting pictures with their kids to justify the trip for the photographer.  He had everything set up in the studio, along with computers so that we could see the end results, and make decisions about purchasing this photo or that.  We won't get the photos for a while, but it was great to have a professional photographer here to do the shots, and the backgrounds should be a lot of fun too.  There were some patriotic backdrops that just screamed Rex Kwan Do, but nobody was ready for those - we picked some nice backdrops and placed our order for about seven pictures that we'll see in a little over a month.  

Afterwards, the four of us went over to Chick-Fil-A to have dinner, and get this:  we ate indoors.  We ate at the location, something I don't think I've done at that Oakwood Chick-Fil-A since 2020.  I miss these places and the older times when we go places and we could afford food.  Of course, we can afford food now, but it's much pricier than it used to be and we have to be a bit more selective than we used to be about going out to eat.  

Maddie did her taekwondo class tonight, changing into something more appropriate for class.  She and the others were practicing with nunchucks again, which reminds me of something:  we ordered some new weapons for Maddie today!  We ordered her a new bo staff, one we should hopefully see by this weekend or so.  They let you pick colors and combinations and stripes and accents and so on, but I had to make up a format on keynote to sort of plug in the colors to see what the combinations would look like.  The end result of what Maddie was looking for came out something like this:

We'll see how close they get.  It seems to be inspired by Perry the Platypus, doesn't it?  We had this odd thing where it was nine dollars short of free shipping, and unless we found something nine dollars or more, we'd have to pay something like $50 in shipping.  Which is a nice way of saying, "order something else or we'll bill you $50 extra."  SO... we ordered her a new set of nunchucks too, and somehow felt as if we were saving money?  Anyway, happy birthday, Maddie.  Enjoy those nunchucks!

So here's the news today:  it rained.  It hasn't rained in maybe two weeks here?  So we got a lot of rain, and it kept going on and on and on this morning, and it was perfectly pleasant.  I always love the sound of rainfall in the woods.  Add to that the sound of our new wind chimes, and all the birds rejoicing at the downpour.  

We wrapped up our binge of "The Mysterious Benedict Society" tonight, although we're still a pretty good ways from the end of the first book.  There are definitely differences, but they're both still enjoyable.  I know that sometimes when you read a book you realize that the thing you watched with the same name is nowhere near as good as that book, sometimes even after you've enjoyed the movie or series.  Then you go back and watch it and realize is isn't that good and lament, "If only they made it like the book!"  For me, one big example of that was "Patriot Games," which I thought was a pretty fun movie.  Then I read the book and loved it so much that I think the movie isn't all that great at all!  Another terrible, terrible movie was "Congo," whereas the book was so good, that I literally read it from cover to cover without really stopping.  Of course, in that case I was trapped in an airport and had nothing to do.  But the point is, the book was incredible.  The movie was a horrible disappointment.

There have been some great translations to the big screen though, so it's hit and miss.  "A Series of Unfortunate Events" was a really well done television series, from what I remember, really coming close to the book series.  And though it's often impossible to duplicate exactly what is in a book, the point is to get the spirit of the thing right.  "Jurassic Park" had all kinds of differences, even with some of the characters - the lawyer wasn't such a sleaze and the game warden was an action hero - but in the end, the essence of the story was the same, as was the spirit of it all.  Anyway, I digress.

We said our prayers tonight, and fell asleep quickly.  It was a long day, but a good one.