Not So Manic Monday

Mom and I had a much-needed off day today, although we were all about getting a few chores done in town.  We managed to do that and the plan was to go to Panera for some of this soup that Mom has been enjoying this summer.  Alas, that was not to be, as the soup was now gone, a seasonal entry and also one of the few remaining things left on the menu that is gluten-free.  So we went over to Outback next, and it's suddenly becoming our place to be.  The service was so good there, and the food was really good there again.  This time I had a steak, and Mom had grilled chicken and shrimp, and I even had a little Tasmanian chili.  For dessert, we had the Chocolate Thunder Down Under, and I didn't have any serious repercussions from the dairy in that, so maybe I'm not as sensitive, or maybe there's something else going on - still not sure, but the point is, we had a good meal there and a good day on the whole, driving about getting things done and then getting back home for Maddie.

We registered Maddie for Camp FCY, and we got some grocery shopping done as well today - I managed to do that while Maddie was in taekwondo.  I didn't get to see her too much, but things are amping up a bit for her Team Edge involvement - she may be actually in tournaments eventually.  We'll see how that turns out, but the team is certainly more interested in competing, and they definitely have the talent for it.

Maddie's school work has been back on schedule, the same sort of news from last year, just classes each day and learning new things here or there.  She's learning about the French and Indian War, which involved the English too, but they won the war so they can call it whatever they wanted to, I suppose.  People in France called it "The War of Conquest," which sounds a lot more epic really, and of course slightly less confusing, given that the Indians involved in the French and Indian War were fighting on both sides, not just with the French.  But whatever.  Anyway, she's studying that period of time still, and in other classes studying pre-calculus stuff that is in essence another language to me, like French.  But more fun would be the signature she's made for her pottery pieces, the little add-on that identifies all her pottery as creations of Maddie.  She's made a little design after coming up with a few ideas and settling in on one final, and that end product looks good.

Tonight we continued our "Rush Hour" marathon with the second movie in the trilogy.  The movie starts out in China, and we were remembering that bamboo scaffolding while we were Beijing, and sure enough it was featured here for a big action sequence.  It's hard to imagine bamboo scaffolding, but they really do use that and I'm sure it's sufficient.  It just doesn't look as modern and you're thinking is that safe?  And of course, in the movie, perhaps not.  Anyway, we enjoyed the movie together, of course ready to take on the third movie in a couple nights.

We closed out the day reading from our book and it is just a lot of fun to go back to this one.  Maurice and His Educated Rodents are great characters, and it's easy to just keep on reading this one as it is written so well.  We prayed after that, and soon enough, we were all fast asleep.