Fog and It’s Taco Tuesday

Here's an official GUMMY BEAR UPDATE from Maddie, who has been steadily adding colors and so forth to her creation, getting it looking really good.  It's a slow process, but it's totally coming out fantastic.  

Meanwhile, we need to talk about Maddie's Lipton Green Tea addiction.  Each week we get about two of these twelve-packs, and it used to be that these were shared with Nana and Maddie, of course with Maddie doing the majority of the consumption.  But now that Nana is living elsewhere, it is apparent that Maddie is the primary drinker of this beverage in our house.  I wish we could go back in time and keep track of precisely how many of these she has drank over the years, because it is immense!  She's clearly addicted to this green tea!

Maddie called today earlier, and this doesn't have to do with green tea.  But it does have to do with taco.  She loves tacos, and loves eating these each Tuesday.  No shame there!  I'm kind of wanting a taco now, in fact.  Taco Tuesday started so long ago with Maddie in our household, right about the time of "The LEGO Movie" and the second "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" movie.  They both featured tacos and Taco Tuesday too, and so that was somewhat of a gateway for Maddie for tacos.  In our house, though, she just has the taco shell, the beef, and then hot sauce on top of it.  Lots and lots of hot sauce.  She literally can be heard occasionally slurping the hot sauce from her taco!

It was super foggy again today.  Lots of fog this year, so thick that you can't see very far down the road.  It's worse at night, so I'm glad we weren't driving tonight.  But it might be challenging in the morning.  

This is a Valentine's Day project that Maddie is working on.  It's ongoing, but she's doing a lot of paper swans for her friends too.  She's got that origami swan figured out very well, and likes to make those.  

She's had homework, but there's also preparations for testing starting to go on.  She doesn't like school much, and that makes me sad.  I think it's just the classes.  Hopefully next year will be more enjoyable for her.

Tonight we read, of course, both from the Discworld and from the devotional.  We said our prayers, and we got to bed early.  It's chilly outside, but not cold enough for any frozen precipitation.  Time is slipping by and despite the precipitation we've gotten this year, the timing of the freezing temps has never worked out in our favor to make a snowman.  We might not get that this year.  We're holding out hope, but time is dwindling, and that's disappointing.  

Regardless, it's chilly still.  We were in bed under the covers with extra blankets again tonight, quickly fast asleep.

The Gummy Bear Massacre Continues

It's Monday.  Maddie had taekwondo tonight, but it's earlier on Mondays and Fridays, which meant getting to the school waiting in the car line.  I use that opportunity to catch up on reading or maybe even writing some, maybe even writing here on this blog.  We've been watching "The Chosen" each night, sort of at a frenzied pace so we can be ready for the premiere of episodes seven and eight of season three this weekend.  

As mentioned earlier, we had taekwondo tonight.  It's a longer night, but it's good to sit and watch Maddie practice with all the other students, all the while the parents sit in this area where there's a long table attached to the window so we can put books and computers down and do some work while we're watching the students practice.  Currently, I'm doing that now, watching this mass of students swinging around swords, nunchucks, kamas, and of course bo staffs like Maddie is doing now.  She is so proficient with that now, swinging it around with speed, strength and confidence.  Occasionally there's a goof-up - practice makes permanent - and she'll crack up at her own mistakes.  She's been even instructing the other younger students too, patiently correcting them or congratulating them for their small accomplishments.  She's been doing so well as a student - and an instructor too!

It was a quiet day.  We visited Nana, which is easier on Mondays.  Mom and I are starting to do some "research" for a future time traveling series by watching the "Back to the Future" movies, although truthfully, we just kind of wanted to return to these movies.  I've had Huey Lewis and the News marathon in the car lately, of course playing "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time" along the way.  Mom got me this incredible box set in 2015, the new one commemorating the Back to the Future series, one where the box itself is actually a flux capacitor that lights up.  It also had the animated series inside, which we've tried a few episodes of, and there are so many behind-the-scenes bits included.  It's an amazing collection.

Anyway, we had a good day - we read from the Narnia devotional, and we read from Discworld tonight, and then we said our prayers.  It was a decent day, and here's a few things Maddie wanted to share:

Maddie’s Pov:

Ok so today I continued my art project. It’s going along decently. It’s my first actual project with colored pencils and for sure first thing with shading with them and layering different colors to just get a dark red.

I’m starting to do the blue one, but it’s so much harder than the red for some reason right now. I just gotta wait for the yellow one. *rolls eyes*

Anyway, school went as it’s usual course. Nothing new really. In my ap class, we kinda learned some stuff. My soanish class was going over preterite stuff, my ela with Julius Caesar, chem with stoichiometry stuff, early childhood with presentations, and Algebra 2 with log function stuff.

Random convo in math class-

Mrs Yeager: ok guys so this stuff is easy right?

Everyone: yeah, Mhm, other mumbles of agreement

Me: *under my breath* yeah, for now

Mrs Yeager about to speak: breathes in, realizes what I said, then laughs and looks at me

Me: starts laughing too

Black Panther Party

Wow, what a night.  So we've had a few near misses.  Let's start with traffic last night.  On the way home, we were starting to go through a light at an intersection, alongside another road.  It was a green light, so that part was normal.  What was not normal was a near miss - a car going over 100mph through the intersection, through the red-light, and nearly hitting us.  I felt something help me let off the gas pedal, and I'm going to give all credit to God, because had I pressed that gas pedal more, I would have driven our car directly into the path of this incoming 100mph missile.  It would have killed the other driver.  And Maddie was in the passenger seat.  Obviously, I was shaken.  But praying and thankful and all sorts of emotional.

We got home, and we started to watch "The Chosen" again, but right in the middle of that, I started to feel symptoms of yuk.  We're talking the same exact symptoms Mom had earlier, and I knew I was in trouble.  Can you believe that while Maddie was at that party, I had set up everything at the church, feeling completely healthy?  Suddenly, this struck, and the next thing you know I was up all night in the bathroom for reasons I don't feel compelled to explain at the moment.  The point is, things were ready at church, even though I wasn't there.  

The near miss of all this is how violent this sort of illness tends to be.  You know the kind.  Anyway, here's the near miss part:  Nana wasn't in the house anymore.  I cannot imagine what it would have been like if she had contacted this illness.  It wouldn't have been good at all.  I believe a hospital visit would have been necessary.

So we didn't go to church this morning.  I just couldn't.  I was too tired and weak and exhausted and sick.  And Maddie didn't go either, as she was in this house with two sick people.  So she slept in a bit, but we all watched church service from home together.  The KidPak service turned out alright, and we got updates on that throughout the morning from cast members, and of course Camille, Josh, and other friends.

We saw the upstairs service for the church, but I was also asleep.  I wanted to make sure I was rested enough to get Maddie to her friend's house tonight, because she was going there to have a Black Panther Party.  Since the sequel is released next week on streaming services, this week the Maddie went to a friend's house to watch "Black Panther."  I was pretty wiped out, but while at home I was watching "The Chosen" with Mom and even playing a "Cars" video game, "Driven to Win."  I just wanted to say I love the "Cars" franchise so much.  Anyway, I had just enough energy to go get Maddie again, and got home to do reading, and prayer.  My stomach was still churning, but I did manage to get some more sleep this night.

Another Sweet Sixteen

We had a pretty full day.  Maddie is seen above at a sixteenth birthday party for her friend, and yes there are a few familiar faces from taekwondo in there too.  It was a formal sort of affair, so everyone dressed up nicely, and it was a pretty fun night, as you can see from Maddie's pictures below.

Maddie's pov:

Ok so today started out with Demo Team practice. Today’s practice’s focus was tricking and all so we barely did any weapons. Honestly, it wasn’t my fave practice since tricking isn’t exactly my favorite thing, but there was this one kick that was kinda like a tornado kick but drunk and on steroids and I forgot the name of it, but it was fun. I fell a whole lot trying to do it (along with others) but hey, fun in taekwondo comes with pain sometimes lol. After we worked really hard from tricking, we did a like 13 minute conditioning work out and I hated it so much. I was dead afterwards so I had to take pain killers.

After practice, we went home and ate. I went and started to get kinda ready and then went to sleep so I could have energy for my friend, Lolly’s birthday party. Y’all can see what we looked like in the pics above.

My dad dropped me off at their neighborhood clubhouse and it was really fun. Everyone looked nice and my friends, Mia and Alexis, were there for Lolly’s birthday party too. Addison, Lilia’s best friend, was there too. I know her from last year’s birthday party. I had bribed Harrison (the little 2 year old) with veggie straws throughout the night for one thing or another, but in a good way lol.

Last Friday in January

Today we were out shopping for some new items for Nana's new digs, getting a new teapot, a phone, and other things too.  We visited with Nana and things seem to be going better, for certain. She's confused at times, but pleasant.  She's lost at moments, but then she's smiling and grateful and complacent.  She's repetitive with the same questions, but in a conversational way to help her keep things in motion.  We got the television working, and she had The Carol Burnett Show on, and Mom and I probably got more involved in watching that.  Nana only watches things - I think - when we are gone.  But the television is there.  There are also options for activities.  She was playing a game of racketball while seated in a chair, using a flyswatter to hit a balloon as it came towards her.  She seemed to be smiling while doing it - we were peeking in on her as she was engaged with the others in the room, and we felt like new parents peeking into a classroom watching our girl to see how she's getting along.  Of course she spotted us and the gig was up - we went for a walk with her.  Indoors, of course.  The weather isn't great for the outdoor walking yet.  But we'll get there.  And we'll get to other things too!   

Taekwondo tonight, and the Swift-fest continued on the way there.  It's cold outside, but not cold enough for any frozen precipitation.  It's like, "What's the point?"  Why bother having so much precipitation and why have it be so cold if it's just going to be this wet cold stuff.  No one likes that.  Boo!

Regardless, we kept our spirits up today, getting ready fro KidPak with that evasive action - our set designer said we were going to have to be in Narnia one more week, and we were okay with that.  Maddie is at school, and I don't know much about that, but I do know she's reading Julius Caesar.  Hopefully they'll still be reading it by March 15, otherwise what's the point?  I've been wanting to go to see a certain other Shakespearean play for over twenty years now, and it's actually going to be at the Holly soon, so I might force everyone to see it.  Just to get into that Shakespearean frame of mind.  But maybe not.  We'll see.  I usually cave and instead look back on missed opportunities with regret.  Regardless, Maddie is apparently stuck in Shakespeare, which I am hesitant to say I did not appreciate that much in high school.  And even currently... I'm not sure about it.  For one, I'm not a big fan of tragedies.  Life has enough of those, so the idea of escaping life to see a play about more tragedies doesn't strike me as a great idea.  The Shakespeare comedies are fun though, right?

Anyway, we got home tonight, and we read of course, both from the devotional and our Discwordle adventure.  We're plowing through this one too, just like the angry Luggage plowing through all those that stand in its way.  Clearly one of the greatest characters in literary history!

January is drawing to a close, and it's been eventful, of course.  We're starting to adjust to a new family dynamic, and there's associated feelings of weird that go with it.  We've been so busy we're finally getting some of the last vestiges of Christmas down.  Fortunately, we have friends in similar predicaments, a camaraderie of tardy Christmas decoration removing.  Some wait by design or by sheer stubbornness or perhaps a hint of laziness.  In our case, we've just been either busy or sick.  It's been quite a month.  But we'll get the rest done soon, as new holidays are coming up next month, and we'll be seeing heart-shaped items along with plenty of pink and red soon enough.  

We have been watching "The Chosen," and it's just in our hearts and brains now, such a show that we're fully immersed in the experience.  We've been watching all the supporting videos and even watching episodes repeatedly.  We'd like to go see the finale of season three in theaters next weekend, but we'll see how everything times out.  Regardless, we're anxious to see it wherever we can, as we're fully invested in it now.  It's such a great and powerful show, and how wonderful to have Maddie turn to us afterwards and we immediately begin discussing the Bible.  Wow.

Literally have been having dreams about it.  Last night was a funny one, because right there - in my dream - I was near the front of the table (near where Andrew was seating) as Jesus was sending out disciples.  And in my dream, I was paired up with IG-11!  Yeah, obviously I was dreaming.  

Anyway, on that note, we said our prayers, and closed out tonight, a quiet day.

Gummy Bear Massacre

Maddie is working on recreating the image at the top of the picture here, drawing it below.  As you can see, she's chosen some gummy bears, and things are looking pretty good so far.  Although a friend has told her it looks - at this point - more like a gummy bear massacre!

Mom is getting better, and that's good.  But these stomach bugs pass along to others so easily, so we're all creeped out.  We'r hearing of people in our neighbor's family going to the hospital with this thing, so we're grateful Mom is recovering on her own.  We all know she's a super hero.

It's cold outside.  We had taekwondo tonight, of course, and we're continuing with our "Swift-fest" moving on to the next release called "Fearless."  Maddie really likes this one.  This has one song in it that I know, and the only reason I know it is because Weird Al did a parody of it.  But we were listening to that on the way to and from taekwondo, and it was fun.  We'll listen to that a few more times before we advance to the next level of Swift, but so far, this one's pretty good.

Speaking of pretty good, we ordered a new martial arts uniform for Maddie tonight.  The studio is moving over to the GTMA from the ATA, and we won't go into any details as to why, other than to say that we certainly approve of the move.  That said, we'll be getting new uniforms for the black belt students and instructor helpers.  Maddie will have her new uniform soon enough so we'll have to share that picture when she gets it.

We had all kinds of things at work today - one of which being a Super Smash Brothers competition, because we're doing this video game series next called "Level Up."  We've visited with that series twice so far, and I've got a few new messages for it.  But in the meantime, we had to film some things for the online video portion, so we had this huge Super Smash Brothers tournament.  It was pretty crazy.  As there are two people that play this game a lot more than others, in one case a lot more, you can pretty much predict who won.  But as we always say in KidPak games online, "It's not fair.  It's KidPak!"  It's sort of a joke that says the point of all these things is to entertain and get people laughing, and that's where victory is.

Anyway, the other thing was a last-minute emergency change to all our plans this weekend at KidPak.  Crazy.  I had to do an entirely new message for all campuses, and we had to find videos and I even got to do a new skit within Narnia.  It's pretty zany, as it is a mad-lib.  And it involves the groundhog from Groundhog Day, or at least a misunderstanding about Mrs. Beaver, who they keep asking if she's seen her shadow.  If so, then they know winter is coming to an end in Narnia!  But it's pretty crazy and fun, and I'm actually glad I got to do some new things.  "The Last Battle" will wait until next weekend, and we'll be fine.

Tonight we were catching up on some programming, and we were also getting some ice hockey tickets.  Yes, we're going back to a Gladiators game next month, and the neat thing is that I got to buy three tickets this time, including one for Mom as well!  It's a very special game too, something called the "Teddy Bear Toss," which you'll read about soon enough.  It sounds fun!

After watching our television shows, it was time for bed and it was time for prayers and reading too.  We got the devotional read, and we followed that with our continuing visit to Klatch on the Discworld.  It was a nice day today, and Mom is feeling better.  Lots of good news.

Don't be a Thwomp!

Youth tonight, and you can see Maddie in the plaid there right in the midst of the group.  It's been a good night with the kids students enjoying the service and the post-service hangout.  It was a quiet day, although Mom was having an awful day with her health.  She just had one of those bugs that kept her up all night, and it's been going around.  Some people who have had it wound up in the hospital.  Fortunately, neither Maddie or I got it, and none of us decided to go to Manor Lake today to visit Nana, as we didn't want to bring anything there.  It's one of those things that just causes a lot of trouble, and leaves you weak and exhausted afterwards.

We're wrapping up our Narnia series, and we're working on new stuff for the new "Level Up" series.  Video games move on just as movies do, and there are new games and new themes to explore, so we wrote a few new adjustments, and one of my favorites, a message called "Don't Act Like a Thwomp!" 

 

     Ah, to be a thwomp! Wait a minute, do you even know what a thwomp is? Mario, Luigi and his friends surely do: they’re ginormous rocks that hover in the air, just waiting for anyone to casually walk beneath. Thwomps are quite territorial, meaning if you try to walk underneath a floating thwomp, you’d best get ready to be flattened! 
     No one wants to be around a thwomp. But maybe we should be careful before getting too judgmental. That means this: some people act just like thwomps. Some folks look down upon others, and just don’t think they belong around anywhere. Maybe it is because those others have less money, don’t dress well, or even smell kind of funny. Or perhaps it’s because of something wrong that’s been done in the past. 
     It’s bad enough that some people think they’re better than others. What’s worse is when it is taken a step further. Talking bad about people behind their backs can be such a hurtful thing to do! Your words can be more crushing than a thwomp, and they can hurt for a very long time. 
     In our Bibles, Jesus saw the Pharisees about to come down on a woman they thought was beneath them. They too wanted to crush her, not just with words, but with actual stones. 
     That’s when Jesus did what he does best. He told them the truth: “Has any one of you not sinned?” Urg! You see, we’ve all sinned, and no one is perfect. Furthermore, God loves us all exactly the same. That’s why we need to be careful not to act like the Pharisees – or thwomps! 
     Mario and his friends know to stay clear of a thwomp, because nobody wants to be around a thwomp. And if you find yourself acting like a thwomp, you’d best be careful. Thinking others are beneath you is just not right. Crushing them by talking about them behind their backs? Wanting to hurt them? That’s also really bad. 
     Don’t look down on others, and don’t try to hurt them. Treat everyone with love, the kind Jesus would be proud of. In other words, don’t be a thwomp! 

 

Coincidentally, we were playing this Sunday afternoon, a level of Mario Party where the characters explore the land of the Whomps and Thwomps, who have always been one of my favorite obscure characters from Mario World.  Anyway, we were writing that one, and there's another message themed to Minecraft, because that game is still pretty big. 

Also on the list was a production meeting dedicated to "Esther," where we're considering writing large scale project that people can come to see.  Dawn has been with us, and it's been great to have her with us driving this forward.  We have the tools, but she's the one that really pushes things forward, and we're glad of it.

Anyway, we got home after FCY tonight, and did our reading pretty quickly, back to the Discworld, and of course reading from our Narnia devotional still.  We said our prayers, and it was time for bed!

Nana's New Digs

Long day today, but Nana is at her new residence tonight, and here are a few pictures of her first day at Manor Lake.

These are of the room this morning, but we came in and got it decorated somewhat, with furniture and pictures, and plush friends as well.

Here she is, speaking with Uncle George.  She was really, really shaky arriving today, but settled down a bit.  She's emotionally all over the place, and mentally in as much the same position I think.  Sometimes she thinks she's moving on to somewhere else after this, and sometimes she feels this is where she's settling down, and sometimes she is wondering why she's here while other times she understands there is an issue that got her here.  The good news is that she seemed okay at the end of it all, and that she was even wishing us well as we left for the night after a really long day.

It was a big day.  We were there, or at least back and forth from there, all day long.  Mom and I got a lot done, and her mom seemed okay at the end of it all.  We got home in time to watch some television, but we were pretty tired.  I think we watched the latest episode of "The Chosen," and after that got to bed, where we read from the Discworld, somewhere in Klatch, actually.  Rincewind, as usual, is ready to get out of there.

We said our prayers tonight, and got to sleep quickly.  We were worn out!

Squirrels Dance of Pain

So we are back into our rhythm of school and the mundane day-to-day things of life, and that's okay.  You get to the end of Christmas and then there's yet another holiday with MLK day, another three-day weekend, and I think that's okay for obvious reasons of course to honor the individual the day is named for.  But beyond that, this month is in dreadful need of something exciting.  Otherwise, all we have is New Year's Day, which is basically just a parade somewhere and a lot of people trying to get over the fact that they have to put all those Christmas decorations up soon or else the neighbors might start applying peer pressure.  So we have that little token Monday off there, and we could go and do something if we wanted to, which we used to do, but lately we've just stayed at home because the weather is cold and miserable and in fact so cold that the bird bath is frozen over again.  So why not stay inside and clean up a bit?  That we did, although we watched some programming that we were catching up with - like the latest National Treasure episode, which is moving along the series with quite a bit of dilemma.  We're anxious for the next episode, of course.  

Today I was writing messages at home, new ones for our "Level Up" series.  We're visiting "Level Up" again, and it'll be fun to go back to that one.  We're adding a few new messages, just because we have a few new things we want to say, so I think this will be a good thing.  One of the messages is based on Minecraft, which Maddie played a lot back for a time.  She might pick it up again as the season moves along here.

Our position of neutrality with the local squirrel population has drawn to a close.  Despite our generous gifts of seed and food, they've overstepped their bounds with invasive policies that have left our other avian citizens left wanting for food.  Furthermore, they've damaged our bird feeders, knocking them to the ground and in one case, breaking it completely apart.  The history of the present squirrel population is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over this back deck.  We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold these squirrels as Enemies in War!  

Today's first repercussion was a shock-and-awe sort of moment, a direct show of our power.  No longer are we using the salt gun with small attacks on fleeing squirrels.  Today's assault was a siege upon their food source!  We loaded down the meal worms with hot sauce - not just ordinary hot sauce, but the ghost pepper variety that brought a joy like Christmas morning when we looked out the window to watch the squirrels on their typical afternoon raid suddenly stop and begin shaking their heads back and forth violently, licking the wood of the railing, or leaping elsewhere to safety, only missing the target because of the blinding heat of the hot sauce sprayed all over the seeds.  The birds can't taste the seeds, so they don't know what's up with the squirrels.  They just know that the squirrels are no longer safe!  Amusingly, the blue birds sit there on the railing nearby, completely aware that we are just a few feet away going after a squirrel, and not flying away at all because they know we are their sworn protectors!  We'll have to let you know how things go, but from what I understand, squirrels can't even stand the smell of hot sauce, so I think we may be on to something.  In any event, it was great to see the squirrels do their dance of pain!  I'm not a terribly vindictive person, but for the good of all our birds, something had to be done!

Okay, moving on.  Maddie had taekwondo and homework tonight, although not too much homework yet.  We're still moving through the first three seasons of "The Chosen," which is a simply amazing show.  Each episode leaves you with so many emotions - there's so much power.  Maddie, Mom and I are loving it.  Afterwards, we were back to bed hopefully at a reasonable hour.  We read from the devotional, from our adventure in the Discworld, and then we said our prayers before going to sleep for a good night's rest.

KidPak's Mom

Maddie brought her Polaroid camera to KidPak this morning, and you can see a group shot that was taken of her her friends.  Oh my, if you could see them today - all day long - playing Uno online.  They've been playing a lot with actual cards, but when they started playing online, they were hooked and it just lasted well after church and then some.  It's been fun!

Anyway, Maddie's been taking polaroid pictures today, and she can give them away too, as well as send a digital copy of them to any email address.  Technology is funny, because ultimately, the camera is still the same thing, and the images might look better coming from a cell phone.  But there's so much fun in a polaroid, and I'm glad she got one for Christmas!

One amazing thing about this morning was that Mom was back at KidPak.  After two years, Mom was back at KidPak, and she got a little teary eyed about it.  I would be that way too.  She's been home with the family dynamic as its been, but today she was back, and she got to see her costumes in action.  She also got to see Aslan on the big screen, and hear the kids say out loud from the audience, "That was so cool!"  The actors interacted with Aslan, who of course scared the White Witch and her minions away.  We had Mr. and Mrs. Beaver back, and a full cast up there in Narnia - plus Aslan.  It was so great to see!  We've been doing new thing after new thing, and it's always such a challenge, but the full audiences this morning were very much into our production, and that was great to see.  Another wonderful thing was having Mom in the audience, snapping photos to post online.  We've had a weak spot in that the last few years, so it was just fantastic to see some great pictures of our service posted.  I'll share just a few of those here below.

It was a great, great morning, part of an incredible and amazing series.  Each one has been unique and filled with things to make the kids say, "Wow!"  Even though this week we had no movie clips to share like we did the last two weeks, it still featured Aslan, a full cast, all kinds of fun, games, and a great message to go with the story of "The Silver Chair."  We have only one message left this series, and that one is for next week with "The Last Battle."  It's been just so good!

We got home and we had leftovers.  Maddie was doing homework, and after a bit of rest, we played a Mario Party game on the Switch for a while.  Mom's been catching up with laundry, but after that, we sat down to watch the last episode of season two of "The Chosen."  Such a great show.  In a strictly "memorizing facts" sort of way, Maddie is now able to name eleven of the twelve disciples - sorry, Nathanael.  I imagine as we start this next season, she'll be able to name them all soon.  But beyond that, the show is so good, humanizing so many stories we already know.  It's a series that is growing in popularity more and more, as hesitant churchgoers check out an episode or two, and are suddenly wanting more, based on seeing some of the classic stories of the New Testament come to life.

Later on, we caught up with an episode of "The Bad Batch," which isn't in the New Testament.  It did feature the talents of the character Tech and a pretty cool race sequence.  They weren't pod racers, but it was pretty fun.

Anyway, we closed the day out after that, reading from the Discworld and saying our prayers.  It was a really nice day today.