Perched Hummingbird

This little territorial hummingbird is perched right near the feeder, surveying the area for rivals.  Or perhaps just taking a rest.  I took out the other feeder that goes in that ring this morning, as I was off to school dropping Maddie off and the squirrel kept coming back to that particular dish for mealworms.  When I got back, I found the hummingbird perched there, looking over his kingdom.  I'll go out and replace the dish in a little bit.  There's a new bluebird fledgling that needs worms.  Meanwhile, there's also a cardinal fledgling that is adorable - whenever he or she needs food, she semi-flaps her wings and makes that loud staccato chirp sound I've come to recognize from the cardinals.  In fact, I hear it right now...

Today was "Taekwondo Monday," which meant Maddie had leadership class and black belt class as well.  Nana and I were off getting groceries, and while out I managed to pick up the kit for our next spooky gingerbread house, which I'm pretty excited about making.  We also got some more cans of soup, which we're building up more and more of as the cooler months approach.  It's also a practical thing to have more of should the power go out.  We're stocking up on more items like that, not exactly expecting the power to go out, but getting things like that just in case.  Another item we picked up were "plumcots," which are part plum and part apricot.  We did this because the word of the day in Phoodle was a five-letter stumper, the word PLUOT.  First, this was an annoying choice of word, as we've never heard of this word before.  I asked the grocer today if she'd heard of it, and she said no.  But there were "plumcots," so we picked up four of those to try out later.  

I had to wait in the parking lot to pick up Maddie today, and I actually had enough time to finish an entire book while waiting.  I read another RL Stine book, because it's the season for that sort of thing, and I never - until last year - read any of those books.  It's like being a kid again, as they are so campy.  This one is literally campy, as it takes place in a camp.  We got these nice hard cover edition collections last year, and it's fun seasonal reading.  Meanwhile, Maddie is reading "The Book Thief" for her ELA class.  She likes the book, but not the class so much.  She's not a fan of too many of her classes, actually.  She does like Early Childhood Development, and she's enjoying art too.  In fact, she was showing me some of her "upside down" drawings she was working on for assignments.  These are pictures she reproduces by drawing them upside down.  Of course, you just turn them right side up to see the actual picture, but it's a challenge to draw something upside down.  She did a great job with these - I'll have to get a picture of them to share here.

This morning I was walking in Rome, or at least on the treadmill virtually.  Nana and Ye-Ye are literally walking in Rome, and as it happens, Maddie's upcoming Homecoming is a "Rome-coming."  The theme for her homecoming dance is "When in Rome," which seems so random for the East Forsyth Broncos second year dance.  But sure, whatever.  It does seem coincidental about the grandparents trip and this dance theme.  Also, we just watched "Pinocchio" and "The Italian Job" without really thinking about it, so suddenly there's all this unplanned Italian theme going around.  

Anyway, tonight we sat down to watch "Wallace and Gromit:  The Curse of the Were Rabbit."  Which never gets old.  It is so brilliant and fun that I never get tired of seeing it year after year.  The technical aspects of the movie are just amazing, but the writing is equally fantastic.  It's one of my favorites, a nice seasonal movie we pop in this time each year.  Too bad we didn't have any Wensleydale with us at the time, although we've been munching on that all year round now.  It's more common to find than it used to be, frequently at Aldi's or Publix, making appearances here or there.

Tonight we read from our book, and things are getting intense on Nomansan Island.  This is to be be confused with Nomanisan Island from "The Incredibles."  This Nomansan Island is the location of quite a few daring adventures of the the Mysterious Benedict Society, who are trying to escape the vicious Ten Men.  Each chapter is a thrilling challenge to escape danger and rescue Mr. Benedict, who finds himself once again in the cunning clutches of Mr. Curtain.  

We said our prayers after that, and soon after that... we were asleep.  It was a nice day today!