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KidPak movie night, taekwondo, office scramble, Victoria Falls... updates coming soon...

Another "Perfect Date"

Well here we are at the "perfect date" again, April 25th.  The more that recurring memory strikes us, the more it cements the fact that we should probably watch that movie on this date each year:  "Miss Congeniality."  It's a funny segment, and a fun movie too.  

Today may not have been perfect, but it was a good day overall.  Maddie had another pre-cal test that was pretty big.  She had taekwondo tonight too, of course, helping with instruction and then attending leadership afterwards.  We got home after that and we watched the latest episode of "X-Men '97," which has been pretty heavy of late.  It's almost as if this were part of a "What if..." series, one where the mutant and human conflict really goes to the next level, with lots of casualties in the mix.  The loss of Gambit... we're still not over that one.  Gambit is of course, one of the favorites.  Okay, he is my favorite.  And this show actually killed him off.  Of course they didn't have the guts to kill Magneto for real.  Like that is supposed to make us feel better or something.  Anyway, back to Gambit.  The rajun Cajun is an absolute favorite of mine and yes, I gave the limited series of comics from back in the day, not to mention all the early X-Men books that feature him in them.  I do not have that first appearance, as much as I regret not getting that one.  Yeah, I should have picked that one up when I had the chance.  I do have Deadpool #1 and the first appearance of a few other characters like Domino and Jubilee.  And suddenly this one comic I have with Deadpool vs. Wolverine is a little more valuable.  But back to Gambit.  He was the coolest hero outside of Wolverine, who of course everyone loved and still does.  But Gambit sort of went under the radar, this suave and flirty Cajun with the long trench coat and exploding playing cards.  Playing cards?  What kind of weapon is that?  Don't think about it too much.  He throws cards and they explode.  As Stan Lee would say, " 'nuf said!"  

 

Anyway, Maddie and I watched that tonight, along with the in depth analysis we usually watch on another channel.  We might have to start watching the X-Men movies now, come to think of it.  And pull out those old comics again.   As Gambit might say, "I have no problem with 'dat."

We closed out the day with reading again, and we're approaching the end of the book.  The Death Star is about to go down, and things will turn around again.  And hopefully we'll see that with "X-Men '97" too.  And in the office.  Our KidPak office is in shambles at the moment, new furniture coming in and new paint on the walls.  It's been rough moving around so much stuff and keeping the other regular things going, but we're doing our best.

After prayers tonight, it was time for bed.  Not a "perfect" date, but not a bad one either!

KP Filming on Location

Today we were all over the place, including right near our house at Port Royale, which is less than ten minutes away and yet we've never really been over there.  It's a boat dock you can see from Browns Bridge, and there's a restaurant there too.  We chose this venue to film a few KidPak videos at because there was a topical vibe with the palm trees and all.  We brought a surfboard and that sort of helped out a lot.  The initial plan was to drive down to the actual Georgia coastline, but that might have to wait for another day.   Anyway, it was a day of adventure for us, filming at a few places, including Old Federal Beach, a place I remember taking Maddie too a long, long time ago.  We filmed some in the car I was driving - it was a loaner from the dealership - and since we were on the highway so much, we actually made it all the way to Jaemor Farms.  So why not grab an ice cream while there?  That's what we did, and I actually got a pineapple flavor ice cream.  Delicious!

We got back and I actually had to go over to Alpharetta after that to get our car, which is now fixed.  The AC officially works, and guess what?  The AC works in our house now too, so that's all ready for the hot summer.  The bills for this week were unfortunate, but that's life.

Maddie had a good day today, and she did well on her forensics test, doing really well in that class.  Tonight's visit with FCY was good too.

Here she is with a few friends afterwards - oh, by the way there was the ice cream truck.  Lately, our number one choice there (and I say that because yes, I had another ice cream) is the Spider-man popsicle.

Surprisingly, its face wasn't half-melted.  It actually looked like what you see in the picture above.  This was somewhat disappointing, as you sort of hope for this mutated Spider-man face.  But that's okay - it was still delicious!  Yes, I used the word delicious again.  Ice cream is delicious!

Tonight we watched the penultimate episode of "The Bad Batch," which is hard to believe.  I mean, is there really only one episode left?  Tell me there's something else animated coming our way?  Maybe they'll announce something on May the Fourth, which is coming up.  I hope so, because this is an era of animated episodes - twenty years, right?  They've been great.  We squeezed that in, and then it was time for reading, yes another bleak short story "From a Certain Point of View."  We said our prayers after that, and soon after, the Plush Entourage was down the hall, tucked in, and ready for bed.

Seder

Mom created a wonderful setting tonight, as we did something we've never done before at the house.  We had our Passover Seder this evening at dusk, and it was very unique and memorable.

You can see above the different items of the meal placed in the appropriate spot labeled on the dish itself.  Mom ordered these dishes a little bit ago, and has been preparing the items today.  The salt water dish is nearby, and the horseradish is there, along with the bitter herbs, the roasted egg, the shank, and the charoset (a mix of nuts, apples, cinnamon, and honey).

We watched a live presentation of the Seder online while we ourselves participated, lighting the candles, listening to each reading, and of course eating the appropriate portions of the meal in order.  Of course "Seder" means "order," and when eaten in the correct order, each item represents a different part of the Passover story.  And afterwards, there were latkes, or potato cakes, as a meal at the conclusion of the ceremonial portion.

Maddie wanted hot sauce with her portion, and as far as I know, there's no scripture condemning hot sauce.  So sure, why not?  We'll just say it's symbolic of the heat of the sun that baked down upon the Israelites during their journey through the desert... sound good?

Anyway, it was very interesting and we were grateful to have done it.  And of course, we were praying for Israel this evening too, but that goes without saying.  So many hostages still unaccounted for.

Today was a better day.  Maddie had her school visit today at Chestatee again, and things are wrapping up for the year.  A few tests are this week, which means a bit of focusing at night on homework and studies.  We played some Battlefront II tonight, old-school.  It was fun working together to take down the Empire attack on Hoth, or do a raid on the Death Star.  I think reading stories "From a Certain Point of View" drove us back to that game for a small bit.  Inevitably, we might be watching "A New Hope" pretty soon at the conclusion of the book.  It actually might coincide with May the Fourth!

We got squirrel #75 today, and escorted him off to a new location, and today my walking/jogging concluded in Colorado with that series.  The iFit journey continues.  Also continuing is the "Sea Monkeys on Mars" adventure, which is currently thriving.  This next generation is made up of plenty of sea monkeys, all of them growing fast and moving around quickly in the tank, exploring the surface of Mars for food, while taking in deep breaths of the oxygen I pump in there a little more frequently.  

So things are going okay - other than the immense amount we'll have to pay to get AC back online for both car and house.  But these are first world problems, for sure.  

We read tonight, and said our prayers again.  And then it was time for sleep on this Passover night.

Muscle Beach Party

This is my favorite scene from this movie.  Imagine Dick Dale and his Del Tones right behind you, singing a surf song as they all hang out of their car driving down the highway.  And he's playing a guitar as they ride down the highway.  And there are surfboards everywhere, with a huge parade of cars, people singing, jamming and swaying to surf music.  What a scene! 

Tonight we watched another Frankie and Annette gem, a movie called "Muscle Beach Party."  It had the return of many of the characters from "Beach Party," including Frankie, Dee Dee, Cappy, Deadhead, and of course Candy.  Candy is just insane with these hyper dance moves that if properly harnessed, I'm sure could provide power for the greater Southern California area.  Cappy and Deadhead are favorites, and Frankie and Dee Dee seem to be reliving their same exact commitment issues from the first movie.  But none of that matters, because these movies are so light on plot that you could probably fit the entire story of the movie into a thirty second spot.  It's all about the era, the surfing, and the crazy comedy bits in between.  And the Peter Lorre cameo at the end.  Oh, and Don Rickles?  Yes, he and Buddy Hackett are in this one.  Maddie was busy doing homework while we were back to the beach.  We're committed though - we'll get through all of these too because this series at KidPak, we're going to "Hang 10!"

So today was a rough day for the wallet.  We are paying out close to ten thousand dollars in various sudden bills related to cars and air conditioning, and in one case, both.  The dealership gave me a similar car as a loaner as they fix our old car, and this place is so fancy they gave us this car that's got to be a hundred thousand dollars.  Here's something pointless that it does:  it projects the car logo on the garage floor when the car is parked.  Why?  Because nothing says money like projectors that do that.  If I got this car, I'd switch around the logo to something else seasonal, like pumpkins or Christmas trees.

Anyway, the other thing is the air conditioning in the house.  There has been a "catastrophic leak," which never is good.  The word catastrophic usually means something like "expensive."  And indeed it is.  But our air conditioning unit has been around for fourteen years, so that's about average.  The other air conditioning unit is older and working just fine, which just goes to show that they used to make them to last, whereas the new units are built to replace in a few years so the manufacturers can continue making more money.

Tonight was taekwondo.  Maddie was having fun, and Master Edge requested an AI-generated country song about "Mrs. Edge's Fit Class" that turned out so funny that he was laughing and laughing... and then getting Mrs. Edge to hear it, and she had no idea what it was and was surprised to hear her name in there, and then she got the whole class to stop what they were doing and come out to hear the song I was playing again.... it was pretty funny.

Tonight we were preparing for a Passover meal tomorrow, still collecting ingredients and learning a bit about the ritual and making sure we get it as close to correct as possible.  It won't be perfect, but we'll do our best.  Mom has got all kinds of good food prepared, and of course all the proper food prepared as well.

A few notes from the back yard:  I'm still leaf-blowing.  Got a lot moved today, but still have plenty of moving to go.  We caught squirrel #74, and released him elsewhere.  And we've got plenty of birds out there at the deck too - this is a yellow-rumped Warbler, a regular customer of ours.  We have a few of these birds.  There are a lot of cardinal, bluebird, and mockingbird parents we're spotting, feeding each other in ways that look like a kiss, and I've been seeing a thrasher up on the deck a lot lately, collecting worms to bring elsewhere.

It's been a fun day.  We're closing in on a million hits with this site.  Maybe Wednesday perhaps.  Tonight we read a point of view from Obi-Wan Kenobi, and after that we said our prayers.  It's time for bed.  Everyone's tucked in, including all our friends from the Plush Entourage.  Time to say goodnight!

Hang 10, Dudes and Dudettes!

Today began the start of a new series, "Hang 10," which had all our characters back to the beach for the first service in quite a long time.  We used to do these "beach" themed series a lot, and it's good to be back.  You can see the Big Kahuna back there sitting down in his chair, taking a siesta.  Just like in the movie "Beach Party," he's a character that will sit there for the entire series, as the cast waits to see his toes twitch and his head arise - and then suddenly he'll say something really profound!

In the meantime, we're all just here ready to surf!  The skit was fun today, as was the message, an overview about the Ten Commandments and their importance.  

We found the old surfing races, these animated races that pit three surfers against each other, and of course everyone is wearing Hawaiian shirts, or in Nerdo's case, a "lifeguard trainee" shirt we just made for him yesterday.  I printed the decal and Mom ironed it on.

Notice the shark's tooth around my neck there, hanging lower.  Mom made that yesterday, and it came out so well that several people were really taking a good look at its detail.  She did a great job.  Also, that t-shirt came from the Georgia Aquarium a few Summer Xtreme ago.  

Finally, that inflatable surfboard... it's been in a package, waiting for this moment.  We picked it up at this book store on the Georgia Florida border, a place we used to go to all the time for books and resources, just to look around.  It was a great resting point, just stopping to see what they have.  We got so many ideas from that place that we used in KidPak, one of them being this series.  They had overstock of all kinds of VBS material, including this inflatable surfboard that we picked up over fifteen years ago.  It says "Hang 10 - Surfing through the Scriptures."  Great prop!  I picked that one up on stage and was ready to go off surfing with it!

Maddie and the younger cast members were with Camille this morning, doing some more acting exercises and then looking up things in the Bible to talk about.  They were testifying about miracles and sharing stories in that direction.  It's been so good.  Camille is good to continue this, and Maddie and her friends are good to continue with it too - everyone's been enjoying it quite a bit.

After service there was another KidPak Meeting about safety and security, and we were also cleaning up that office and preparing it for the Great Whitening.  The whole church is being painted this brilliant white color, with our area as usual being the last thing thought of.  But we got a lot of things moved around again.

This afternoon we got a rotisserie, and we got some rest too.  Maddie and I were back at Middle Earth and we're about 95% done on our return visit, thrilled with the Mithril Hairbrush that changes people's hairstyles when you whack them with it.  

Tonight's movie was "Teen Beach Movie," of course.  We hadn't seen this in years.  But it holds up well and all of us really enjoyed it.  Thus, we shift from "Exodus" movies to "Beach" movies on and off.  It'll be fun.

We finished a story about that lonely creature in the trash compactor on the Death Star this evening, a rather curious little tale.  And then, prayers... and off to sleep, dreaming of totally righteous waves to surf on!

Apefest Concludes... for now!

Apefest continued tonight with movie #9, and that of course is the final movie so far, "War for the Planet of the Apes."  None of us had seen this one before, but all three of us enjoyed the big finish to the most recent trilogy.  These last three have such heart, and characters you really care about.  Maddie liked these last three better than the originals, of course, but they're all fun in their own way.  In just a few weeks, we'll see the tenth movie in the franchise, which should be pretty fun to go see in theaters.  Maddie's first Planet of the Apes movie in the theater! 

Okay, so today was a quiet day.  We had a lot of "Hang 10" prep to do, including costuming for surfing beach characters on stage tomorrow.  We went to a few thrift shops, and on top of that, Mom was making me a shark's tooth necklace, which actually turned out really well.  You'll see that on the stage tomorrow with the rest of the service material.  We were out shopping for a few items for the KidPak service, but we were also grocery shopping for a few items for Passover coming up.  Mom got the plates and some other things to help us through a Passover Seder, which of course is next week.  We'll be studying up on that so we can do it properly.  

While we were out, we got some ice cream from Dairy Queen, a few Blizzards and a non-dairy Dilly bar for me.  It was all pretty good for a hot afternoon.  We got home and played some games, including a visit to LEGO Middle Earth, which we're almost done with.  It's such a large world, and it's been a lot of fun spending this time there.  We'll be back again, probably starting from scratch again.

Tonight was a cooler evening by far, and that was a much-needed break for us, especially given that both the air conditioner in the car and the one in the house gave out simultaneously.  We're getting both looked at next week, and going on from there.  

Maddie had her training again this morning, her practice time with Team Edge.  I was at the church getting things ready again with some music cues and printouts and so on.  Tonight we went to bed on time, reading some more from our latest Star Wars short story, and then after that - it was time for prayers.  It's been a decent day.  Tomorrow we start a new one with "Hang 10!"

Prom

Maddie's first prom was tonight, and she had a wonderful, wonderful time.  That was such a blessing.  For one thing, the weather was clear, and although warm, there wasn't any rain in sight.  This made for some great opportunities for photos of Maddie and her friends.  We took a few pictures at the house, but it didn't take long for us to travel over to a place we visited earlier, Vampire Penguin.  It's located within a place called "The Cumming City Center," which as you might suspect is in Cumming, which 

This was what today was all about!  These were pictures from my camera before the prom, and as for the event itself, things took place at an event hall called Astro Celebrations, further down from Cumming.  It wasn't too bad to get there, and the group had a great time.  Maddie said they ate first, and one fun thing she spotted right away were soft pretzels!  There were plenty of good food items to eat there, and when the dancing really got going on the dance floor, Maddie and friends joined the class for a few dances, even joining in on a conga line!  Afterwards, they were out of the building in an outer area where there was a small fountain and swimming chairs and just places to to relax.  There were plenty of pictures taken there too.

It was a great night though, a really memorable one.  Super glad of that!

Maddie spent much of her day preparing, and Mom and I were preparing too - although we were preparing for "Hang 10" this weekend.  Although there was this Wisdom Club luncheon too, something Mom and I signed up for at noon, and that was really nice.  We saw "The Voices of Lee" there, a really impressive fourteen-member choir from Lee University.

That was nice having lunch and seeing such a great musical act.  I have a soft spot for this sort of live performance - such talent.  Listening to that perfect blend of harmony and voices is just heavenly, so rich and wonderful for the ears.  It can bring such peace, or it can also get everyone up and clapping too.  Great, great talent!

It was a good day today, and I'm so grateful Maddie had a good time.  We went to bed a little later tonight, but we'll sleep well!