Frog Prince

It's Friday, and we were off and running on the day pretty early.  Me, of course, on the treadmill.  My recent doctor's visit was encouraging, or at least the EKG was.  Maddie was not off and running this morning as she usually is - the reason for that is a day off of school.  She was enjoying a nice sleep-in.  Mom had tater tots ready when she woke up, a breakfast staple with hot sauce.  This goes back to our time in China where everyone served tater tots for breakfast, apparently a Chinese staple for breakfast.  Mom made me eggs and grits, and the current story about eggs is like all things - doom and gloom.  The price of eggs has gone up something like 60% in two years, and there are plenty of different explanations about that, but the bottom line is that it is something else we're having to suffer through.  Jokes are being made about Valentine's Day gifts including flowers, chocolates, and eggs too, just because they are so valuable.  We've been getting our eggs from Officer Monica, who has been raising chickens and collecting eggs as a hobby for quite some time now, giving us eggs every other week for a few years at this point.  She's a wonderful friend, but that's so generous of her.  We never have to worry about eggs lately, and on top of that, apparently the eggs are in fact a better quality.  Anyway, Easter is coming soon, and we might have to get some eggs from the grocery store for that.  We'll see how much those cost then, as things seem to continue increasing in prices.  Inflation has been challenging for many.

I was at work today, and we were working on Easter somewhat.  It's funny the things you have to consider early - horses, fake blood, casting Marys, choreography with large Isis wings, and things like that.  We were working on the dialogue for the production, which is somewhat different as John the Beloved is no longer the narrator of the entire presentation.  This year it will be Mary Magdalene, who we now think of more with the recent episodes of "The Chosen."  Our friend Skylar will be playing Mary, and she'll do a fantastic job.  We were together writing this - or at least Camille had written the part.  We adjusted it so it wouldn't sound like John speaking, and then had the luxury of having Skylar with us to read out loud her lines for the first time.  We were all making adjustments here and there, basic grammar ones and other things that just improved it with little tweaks.  It's going to be special.

Tonight we had taekwondo, of course.  We raced there and got there just in time, and it was crowded and noisy tonight getting there.  Lots of young ones in the parent viewing area.  But the black belt practice was going well, moving forward, moving forward.  Maddie is advancing towards that second degree belt, one class at a time.  Her leadership class was tonight too.  We got outside, and the temperature was plunging again.  It was already 38 degrees - the water in the dishes would freeze tonight.  The wind was brisk and the temperatures felt a lot colder.  I was listening to Garrison Keillor again today, and he had this funny remark about the wind chill factor, that temperature that shows us all what it actually feels like outside when there's the icy wind too.  He said it better, of course, but he mentioned that lower number is just there to make us all feel more heroic.

Anyway, we popped in a romantic comedy again tonight, part of our series of themed movies.  The there of us watched "The Princess Diaries," which I forgot how good it was.  We enjoyed that one, still laughing out loud at bits.  "GET OFF THE GRASS!"  

Afterwards, we read of course, both from the devotional and also from the Discworld.  Maddie had all the plush entourage with her, of course, along with the Frog Prince, who is still singing his song:  "Just one kiss!"  He's a Valentine's Day friend, and it's been great the past few weeks sneaking it underneath each other's pillows so that as Maddie gets in bed and puts her head on the pillow... the frog starts singing, "Just one kiss...!"  And of course Maddie returns the favor by surprising me in the same way!  It's a Valentine's Day tradition - I can't believe how long I've had this crazy frog.  But there he is, still singing away.  Just pop in some fresh batteries, and you have yourself a happy Valentine's Day!