Jupiter's Moons

It was a clear night tonight, which is something given all the overcast and rainy nights we've had lately.  But the awesome thing about tonight has been the two brilliant stars hanging low in the sky towards the west.  Of course, they are not stars but planets.  The lower one is Venus, which is closer to us, and the higher one is Jupiter, which is bigger, but farther away.  I used the zoom lens on the new camera, and I didn't notice this until I looked at the pictures in the view finder, but you can actually see the moons of Jupiter in this picture.  The dots that line up vertically through the planet are in fact Jupiter's moons.  At first I thought this was the jiggling of the camera that caused the lighting effect, but when you see Venus, you don't see that at all.  So I inspected it further and much closer, and discovered that yes, you can see the moons.  Pretty cool!

Anyway, Uncle George arrived pretty late tonight, and it'll be good for he and Mom to go tomorrow to visit Nana, of course.  We had work today, a little Easter planning amongst many other things going on.  I actually got asked to do something else - write a baseball script for a radio commercial to be played during the baseball games on the radio.  I'm not going to say who it is that will be reading what it is that I'm writing yet, but he's a favorite of mine who happens to hold the NL record for saves and is a Cy Young Winner and... well, that probably gave it away.  Anyway, how cool is that?  I'm writing stuff for a baseball player to say.

Mom had a delicious dinner for us tonight, some chicken marsala that was just perfect.  Maddie and I are starting our latest book, "Eric," which has been fun to revisit.  Already we've met the wizards and Death and of course Rincewind and the Luggage.  On the treadmill in the morning, I've been listening to a podcast called "Radio Morpork" that's been a fun revisit with the various books.  We're in the Discworld big time now!

We were watching a little background video about the Jesus Revolution, the events of which we saw the motion picture about last Saturday.  It was an interview involving two of the people from the movie, and it was super interesting.  Maddie had homework, and we went to bed tonight after reading from our devotional.  It was a decent day today.

Hippy Hearts

Here's a bit of creative hippie artwork Maddie made for her early childhood class, and of course it isn't really hippy artwork, but it does have that general vibe to it when you think of the movie we just saw.  She shared this and other artwork with us recently, and I love it all.  

We were on our way to taekwondo tonight, but yeah, there was another big accident on Browns Bridge Road.  Basically, life on a lake presents its challenges, as some pathways through it all are over peninsulas connected by bridges.  A two-lane road on that one peninsula causes trouble for everyone when people drive too fast on a curvy little road like that.  It just takes one accident to shut things down for hours.  And that being the case, we found ourselves waiting and waiting in line, trying to make that decision to either wait or just turn around.  We missed the first class, but gave ourselves time to turn around, drive all the way back and around the other part of the lake so we could get to the second class in time.  And it was okay, despite the increased traffic everywhere else.  We made it.  Maddie had a good time sparring and working on form to improve it.  We're going to do another testing on next Monday, so there was a lot of wrapping up there.

They have the GTMA logo on the wall now, a new logo up here for the first time in over twenty years.  Or more.  They're cleaning all that up and the idea is to have the new logo up there for testing time, and other more formal pictures.  

We met with Nana again today, and in fact, she'll have three visits this week when Uncle George stops in to visit as well.  We covered today's visit, and of course we also were meeting with the staff there, who are recommending a serious turn of events.  They want her in the memory care area, and we're just not as impressed with that side of things.  The larger area is nice, the one for residents without memory care issues.  But where they are recommending Nana is something concerning for Mom and I, and it's a big deal.  Nana's memory is in serious decline of late, and though she goes down to eat at the diner area, she does not eat much at all, as she says she's not very hungry.  Clearly, some prompting needs to take place for several issues, so we're at a big crossroads decision here.  

It was raining again today.  It'll rain on and off this week.  We read tonight, from our devotional and from the Discworld, and then it was time for prayers and a good night.

VGPA Meeting

 

We had a revisit to a funny skit this morning, one that Maddie hasn't been a part of before, but she had a great time joining the cast with a Video Game Players Anonymous Meeting.  As you can see above, things go a bit awry when Jeremiah can't control his bad habit of playing Fortnite all the time.  Intervention was necessary! 

It's one of those skits where we have a great time poking fun at the amount of time we play certain games, like those farming games, for example.  The crops aren't real, Nia!  And then of course there's old-school addictive games like Pac-Man too.

The team there had their lab jackets and sedatives, which rather than a shot I went with large feathers and the medical crew chanting out, "Hey nonny, nonny."  Like Carl from "Jimmy Neutron."

It was super fun, anyway.  You can imagine how crazy it got in there with cast members running around through the auditorium with lots of screaming and pleading to play just one more game.

Before every service, here's half the cast prepping with lines and working out how to deliver lines or where to be and so on.

It's a lot of fun Sunday mornings.  Maddie's there on my couch, right next to Bob the LEGO man, and Ezra of course.  We have a lot of fun rehearsing beforehand, but when the time gets close to going out there on stage, we get pretty serious and ready... until of course we're on stage.  Then anything goes

It was a good day today, another full Sunday.  We got home and had a big meal that Mom prepared for us - we've had chicken parmesan and spaghetti, and the chicken of course is fried with something that is gluten free.  Good stuff!  

We got back to church after that for our final 4pm service of the series.  Better Together" may be the theme upstairs, but down at KidPak we were continuing the "Game On" series with a message that I delivered about the game "Hedbanz."  It was a good afternoon, and a good message.  Because it's a board game series, we get there early and there are four or five of us that sit down to play a board game in the office an hour and a half before service.  Last week we did Mario Life, but this week we tried a new game, "A Goofy Movie Boardgame."

It was actually really fun!  It's amazing that they can make these license games so fun, as we remember most license video games were just usually a bad game that had familiar characters in it and that was that. But these board games have been great lately.  This one featured four characters traveling across the country, collecting photos and memories as they try to get to the Powerline concert in time.  It was quite a race, but Maddie beat out Josh and Bryce, with poor Isaac not even getting to the concert!

We got home afterwards, and Maddie had homework to do.  Mom and I watched a movie we hadn't seen before, "Kate & Leopold."  It was actually pretty good.  Some of these movies you lower the bar for quite a bit and when you get around to seeing them, you actually enjoy them quite a bit.  We were glad to add this one to the romantic comedy collection for February, which is drawing to a close of course.

Tonight we had some ice cream in gluten-free ice cream cones, and we played some "Super Smash Brothers" when Maddie was done with homework.  We had time to have a massive "Ice Climber" match, where every player was two "Ice Climber" characters, which was about as chaotic as you think.  Anyway, that was fun, and it was brief too - we had to get to bed soon.

We finished "Reaper Man" tonight, and the ending is so sentimental that I've suddenly put this book at the top of my Discworld book list.  The Character of Death is certainly our favorite at the moment.  We loved this book, and tomorrow we'll continue with the Discworld books, probably filling a blank for Maddie as to what happens to Rincewind the Wizzard between "Sorcery" and "Interesting Times."  It's a book called "Faust Eric," and it's a shorter and more unusual book.  We'll begin that tomorrow night, moving along with the Discworld.  I got the final hard cover Discworld books for Christmas, the last of the novels anyway.  It's the entire novel collection in hard cover, although I don't have all the supplemental books yet, like Nanny Ogg's cookbook and so on.  But I'll eventually get all those too, as I'm a huge fan of all things Discworld.  Maddie seems to like it too.  I haven't finished reading every novel yet, but I'm enjoying reading these particular ones to Maddie right now.  

We said our prayers tonight, and we're thankful for a great Sunday.  Tomorrow is a somewhat eventful day as we meet about Nana.  Things are not going as well as we'd like there.  We went to bed early tonight, ready to tackle a big day tomorrow.

Jesus Revolution

We saw "Jesus Revolution" today, and the theater was packed.  Maddie, Mom and I brought a few small water bottles in and a few pieces of candy, and that was about it for snacks this time, as Maddie's thinking the popcorn butter gives her a bit of a headache.  No worries, Maddie.  That's saves us $20!  Seriously though, the movie was a great visit to the past, a historical sort of movie that looked at some of the revivals of Southern California in the late sixties and early seventies.  My parents were what you could call "hippies" and got caught up in the tail end of all of that, so it was great revisiting this story, hearing the music and seeing all the clothing styles too.  Maddie enjoyed the movie, as did everyone who saw it with us - the audience clapped quite a bit!  Now we'll probably have to go back and keep picking up some of those obscure vinyl records from Christian recording artists from the 70's.  There is some great music from that time.

Anyway, today we continued the Saturday pattern of "a visit with Nana and then a movie."  We spent about 45 minute with Nana, the three of us, and it's becoming painfully clear that her memory is diminishing very rapidly.  She's pleasant and can carry on conversations, although with repeated questions, and she doesn't seem that bad on the surface level.  But we're meeting with the staff there about her on Monday, and that doesn't bode well.  We're concerned.

We had Team Edge practice this morning, and that went well of course.  I went to work, putting the final touches on the services tomorrow.  It's going to be great!  

Leaving the driveway, Maddie reminded us of the lone egg hanging in our tree in the front yard.  Yes, we apparently didn't get all the plastic eggs last year when we put them on branches at Easter time.  When it came time to take them down, I must have missed one, and because there have been leaves on the tree, I didn't realize there was a plastic egg in that tree all year long.  We've gotten to the point where we just want to keep it up there.  Might as well, given that Easter is less than 40 days away, right?

Meanwhile, Maddie was calling it "The Lone Egg" on the way out the neighborhood, followed by an impressive list of other Star Wars-related egg titles:

The Phantom Egg

The Attack of the Egg

The Revenge of the Egg

A New Egg

The Egg Strikes Back

Return of the Egg

An Egg Awakens

The Last Egg

The Rise of the Eggwalker

Rogue Egg

Egg Solo

The Eggmas Special

The Egg Wars

The Book of Egg

The Eggalorian

Eggdor

Eggles

Eggsistance

The Bad Egg

Eggsoka 

I have no idea why this was so funny.  It just kept going on and on, and that's okay!  Anyway, we got home tonight, and we were playing Super Smash Brothers somewhat, and pretty much just getting some rest.  We read tonight, of course from the devotional and also from "Reaper Man," which we're nearly done with.  We said our prayers after that, and soon after that, it was time for sleep.  KidPak comes early tomorrow!

Inching Forward by Degrees

We had taekwondo tonight, and our march to the second degree black belt continued with another black belt class (and a leadership class too).  Maddie's next testing is coming up soon, March 6th on a Monday.  It's the last testing before the final testing cycle of her first degree belt.  She should be a second degree black belt by this summer.  There are alterations and adjustments to her form - I will have to record that when she does that for everyone.  But she seems relaxed about it, or at least not stressed about it.  Everyone seems happy with the change from ATA to GTMA.  

It is raining again.  Yep.  I'm not sure where we stand on rainfall records for January and February, but surely we're somewhere towards the top.  This rain is a part of an interesting weather pattern where things have been unusually warm and then tomorrow they go back to being chilly again for a few days.  It will come as a shock, as most of us usually are dressed for whatever weather is out there, which the last few days have been short sleeves.  Tomorrow we'll all be cold again!

Tonight we were checking out the latest episode of "The Bad Batch," which according to our favorite show review is basically "The A-Team" in Star Wars.  That comment made me happy, as I was a huge A-Team fan growing up.  I cannot defend this, other than to say I was super young.  I just remember Mr. T, Face, Hannibal and Murdoch.  Mr. T couldn't fly without being involuntarily sedated, Murdoch was crazy and wanted a trash bag, Face was cool and smooth, and Hannibal loved it when a plan came together.  Got it?  I'm not sure if I want to go back and watch an episode or not, as it might be better in my memory than it actually is, if that makes any sense.  I think the members of the Bad Batch aren't duplicates of the A-Team, but the concept behind the show is the same - if you have a problem, and if no one else can solve it, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... the Bad Batch.  

It's Friday, and that's nice as we can sleep in a bit tomorrow.  We might even go and get some boba tea, for the first time this year, actually.  We played some Super Smash Brothers again, a game of choice for Maddie and I, who team up and try and defeat our opponents as ridiculous characters like "Duck Hunt."  That's one of our favorites, although I'd have to say Donkey Kong is my go-to character.  Maddie always goes with Kirby.

We read tonight, from our devotional and from "Reaper Man," which is rapidly drawing to a close.  It's been a great novel to read.  We've got some new ones coming up though, and maybe a change of pace soon as we could have a return visit with the Kingdom Keepers.  The plush entourage will like hearing whatever it is we read - it's been a nice close to every day.

Weapon of Choice

Somewhat of an ordinary day today, but that doesn't mean it was a bad one!  We had rain again, after a slight absence of precipitation.  The weather is so warm outside, warm for February, but just ideal when going outside for a break from the cold office area.  It's super nice out there, and I'm glad we got to go on a little day trip the other day to enjoy it before things pass.

We had taekwondo tonight, or at least Maddie did.  I must admit that I probably wouldn't quite fit in with the taekwondo class like Maddie does.  She was helping with instruction tonight, and then in her leadership class she was flinging her bo staff around like a professional, which is the result of a lot of practice of course.  Not as much practice as her instructor, who has about fifteen years on her.  Still, she's pretty handy with the bo staff, that much is certain.  It's her go-to weapon of choice.  Which is a great phrase.  Makes me think of Christopher Walken dancing.    

Anyway, meanwhile, I was doing some overdue grocery shopping.  Mom made this ginormous list, and I managed to get it all but one item, which is unavailable.  Given the grocery shopping climate, this is an accomplishment!  There's always something that you can't find, and that trend goes on for weeks or months.  Lately, eggs are the item of dilemma, a low supply and high prices.  We've got a private supplier, and Officer Monica's hens have the best eggs right now.  We're spoiled!  One thing I have to get at another grocery store is Lucky Charms, because here we go, zooming towards March.  Got to have the green stuff!  Mom ordered some St. Patrick's Day themed pillow covers for the couch, and we're putting out a few decorations already.

Another thing approaching quickly is Summer Xtreme 2023, which we had a big meeting about today.  Mom was with us as we were discussing some time travel elements - that's the theme of things this year.  For this reason, we've been watching time travel movies and so on.  We'll be watching quite a few more in the coming weeks, just to embrace the theme.  Already we've knocked off the Back to the Future trilogy, although there are more things to watch in that box set.  Mom got some new batteries for the box set so that the flux capacitor is now fully functional.  Anyway,  each night of Summer Xtreme should be pretty awesome if things go the way we're thinking.

We read tonight, from our devotional and from "Reaper Man," which is approaching a climactic confrontation between Death and his adversaries the Auditors, who somehow think they have a chance.  It's been a good book.  Maddie had her small group tonight, and that took up a good bit of time, and that's okay.  Camille had some big news today, and the girls are still having a great time on Thursdays, talking and sharing and hearing from one another.  It's going on three years now for that small group.  We don't do the games as much as we used to, as the girls just like to take with one another, and that's okay!

After prayers it was time for bed.  Mom and I were determined to finish up our online games like Wordle tonight, and we did, but Wordle was a jerk today, and really a few times this week.  Those words with more than one "r" in them are annoying.  Riper?  Really?

FCY February Block Party

 

There was a FCY Block Party tonight, and you'd think that would be somewhat risky given that is FEBRUARY and the Block Party was at night.  But lo, the weather was the warmest ever tonight, an amazing 73 degrees and no threat of rain.  So the students had a great time eating Mexican food and riding rides and playing games and just enjoying the evening together.  Maddie was with her friends, and I got there for pick-up but spotted that carnival game again where you squirt the water at a target and race fourteen others to the top.  Yes, I won again tonight.  I gave my plush prize to a girl who was trying to win all night.  It was a funny moment - number 13 wasn't doing well with the races, and the girl next to me had 13 and wanted to trade with me, knowing just that.  She was this older girl, and she had cut in line in front of all the students and that's where she wound up.  I was thinking for a moment that this seemed right that she get that one, and then I thought a moment further and figured I'd trade with her anyway, as she'd have a better chance and I was just there to win for someone else anyway.  So we traded and I told her, "It'll be just even more humiliating when I win though, you know that, right?"  And the game started, and yep:  I won.  Meanwhile, Maddie was eating food and going on the sidewinder afterwards, which she said is not a recommended tactic.  Lessons learned!  But she had a good night nonetheless.

Mom and I were watching a movie tonight, "The Lake House," and Mom's reaction to this movie was so funny.  She hated it because it was so confusing.  It kind of made sense, but given the rules of time travel that we tend to stick to because of Back to the Future movies, things were all over the place with the storytelling, and I see her point of view.  It was just an okay movie.  But it was funny because she was still complaining about it later on, and I've learned not to bring it up!

It was a super warm day outside today, at least for February.  We were outside from time to time at work, soaking up the sun and getting warm, because it's so cold inside the office.  But it was a good day today - we got things done.  I taught my class again with Josh, as we do each Wednesday, and we got things set up for Sunday, with a little more work to go in that direction.  Maddie sent a text and told me she got a 100 on her gummy bear project, and that was pretty awesome.  The end result was actually really well done.

We read tonight, checking out the Discworld as Bill Door looks ready to battle the Auditors once more.  We read from our devotional too.  It was another later night, so we got to bed after that, right after pulling in the bird feeders.  The opossums are back - we've spotted them on our deck a few times, so we're being careful about what is left out there.  We like the little guys, of course, but you have to be careful with raccoons and possums.  Anyway, it's late, and we were tired.  After tucking Maddie in and remembering to get Terry Loco the panda from another room to join her, we said goodnight and said our prayers, and were soon fast asleep.

Paradise Gardens

 

This is a picture Maddie took today, and it wasn't something any of us were thinking we'd be taking about 24 hours ago either.  Nevertheless, last night I realized Maddie had off of school today, and not only that, we didn't have any doctor appointments or urgent shopping needs.  So we were thinking what to do with the day - the earlier plan was to go to work, and possibly Maddie could come with us, as Mom was wanting to come as well.  But the weather is so warm outside right now, and there wasn't any forecast for rain, so we decided that yes, we were going somewhere.  But where?  After a good bit of deliberation about Augusta and Atlanta, we instead decided to go west to Summerville.  That's where Paradise Gardens is, a collection of the works of Howard Finster, who is easily the most famous folk artist ever.  Bands like R.E.M. and the Talking Heads put him on the map even more by featuring his art on their album covers and music videos.  Mom and I have had this destination on our bucket list for twenty years now, and we kick ourselves for not going while he was still alive.  But we did make it, and despite the fact that it is February and there's nothing in bloom, and it's been a good long while since the gardens were taken care of personally by Reverend Finster, things still looked pretty good there.  We enjoyed walking around and exploring, and Maddie was grabbing the camera for a lot of photos herself.  It's a highly unusual destination, but again, it really is the ultimate Mecca of Folk Art.  There's a wheel chair access ramp he constructed in the middle of the garden, one that allows viewing of the garden from above, but also has a lot of artwork inside it.  We were there for a few hours, and it just never got boring.  And we had the entire place to ourselves, outside of the two employees or volunteers who were at the gift center area at the front.  So we quietly wandered around the grounds, contemplating one piece of art after the other, looking at all the recycled pieces, reading the scriptures, and marveling at the creativity all around us.  It was a super pleasant visit.

On the way there, we had a brief stretch on interstate I-75, and that's when we noticed a sign for a big travel center that Maddie has been to before, at least at a different location further down in South Georgia.  It was a Buc-ees Travel Center in Calhoun, and it was about four miles off from where we were traveling, but we all decided to go there first and just check the place out.  Again, Maddie's been to one before, but we hadn't.  It was huge.  We needed gas, so we filled up there.  But this place had so many people in it, like a mall.  There are gifts, t-shirts, and all the food that you usually expect from one of these sorts of places.  But there were so many people, the barbecue just kept being chopped and mixed and sliced right in front of us, sandwiches made right there and then - given that Mom can't do the bread, we ordered several slices of barbecue, and oh my, it was good.  Maddie had a sandwich herself.  And of course, given that Buc-ees is trending with clothing items lately, she got a Buc-ees shirt with a baseball theme to it.  We even got a Christmas ornament from there!  Mom got a shirt too, which looks great on her.  We spent easily 40 minutes there, looking around at all the gifts and t-shirts, and even the food.  We posed for a few pictures with the Buc-ees beaver out front, and of course filled up for gas.  The bathrooms in this place were huge.  It was a fun stop that we didn't plan at all, but God is good, and our entire day was blessed.

When we got home, we remembered it was Fat Tuesday today.  That's why we chose to return to "The Princess and the Frog" for our movie of the night.  We watched that together, because why not?  We were pretty tired after that though, as you might expect.  Our destination was a few hours away, so that was a lot of driving today.  But it was fun.  We read tonight, just briefly, and then we were off to sleep.

Below you can see some of the photos from today, some taken by Maddie and some taken by myself.  This may be the most photos ever shared on one blog post here.  It was quite an adventure!

We'll start with the Buc-ees pics, outside, and a few of the merchandise inside.

A ladybug on Buc-ee's nose!

Maddie wound up getting one of these shirts.

Meet Lucy.  She's the "guard dog" at Paradise Gardens.

Maddie took these pics of the pets there, while we looked around the initial gallery.

Maddie used her cell phone to capture a lot of great shots.

This is the ramp where viewers can see the gardens outside from above, and of course the artwork inside.

Many, many, many mosaics.

Really cool shot inside the Mirror Room.

Howard Finster built this vantage point so we could take pictures from it.

Next come pictures taken with my camera.  You can see Maddie to the left, and Mom to the right, both exploring.

Mom had a great day today!

Mom and I with the World Folk Art Chapel behind us.

Lucy poses before we head out to explore Paradise Gardens.

Maddie and Mom in front of the World Folk Art Chapel.

One of the many large-sized Coke bottles he decorated.

Mom overlooks some of the floor paintings and messages.

Maddie took a lot of close-up shots throughout the grounds.

The famous Bicycle Tower, the one used in a very early R.E.M. video.

Maddie took several close-ups of the Bicycle Tower.

The sidewalks were filled with mosaics all throughout.

Yes, that's a giant cement shoe.

Mom in the Mirror Room.

Maddie and Mom in the ramp, looking at all the folk art.

Two Towers!

Wise words.

One of his famous Coke bottles.

It was a really nice day together, and a great destination.  We only planned to stay a little while, but were so amazed, we were there for hours!

One final look back...