Stained Glass Shepherd

I'm just getting going with this Christmas book, and here's an image generated for the message about the Great Shepherd.  Each message will be related to a different portion of the Christmas story, and we've got this cover design that Ansley did with stained glass, so I thought the interior of the booklet could be similar in concept.  Maybe one page per week could be a different stained glass design where the kids could color in the window sections.  Getting started is sometimes the biggest hurdle, but today I got a good bit done on this book for December, and that's pretty early for a booklet, given that it's still technically September here.

Nana and Ye-Ye came by tonight and we talked for a good bit.  They're heading up north to visit a host of places including Niagara Falls and Sleepy Hollow, so Mom has them prepared with a big list of headstones and gravesites there where many of our ancestors are buried.  Meanwhile, they gave me an early birthday gift:  a t-shirt with the number 24601 on it.  That number shows up repeatedly in "Les Miserables," as the number given to the protagonist as a prisoner, and sort of became an iconic number there.   How many people have that as their PIN number, I wonder?

We were doing some packing for an upcoming trip today, and today's Braves loss was crushing, the sort of roller coaster you don't like to get on each fall at baseball time.  Tomorrow's game will be the deciding one if the Braves can move on through the rest of October, but this one did hurt quite a bit.

Random thought here, but the sea monkey population is growing again, all from that same packet of eggs over three years ago.  Right now there's this younger generation growing up in there, as the two big ones have passed on, so we're at what I call generation five I think.  The pattern is a bunch of little ones all grow until there are the dominant ones that basically dwindle down to two for a while, and then it starts all over again.  

Tonight's movie was "Hotel Transylvania 2."  Mom made some brownies and vanilla ice cream, which is delicious, but might be a thing I need to avoid soon.  Not sure if I am becoming dairy intolerant or what.  But it was delicious going down, and the movie is always great fun.  The third movie is one of my favorites, the one where they go on a cruise.  I am soon going on a Halloween on the High Seas cruise, and sure enough, I'm bringing that Dracula Hawaiian shirt with me to wear on the first day.  

We read some more from "The Thief of Time" tonight, and Igor is having his doubts about this clock that Jeremy is building.  Something looks troubling for the future of the Discworld, and we'll see how our heroes will deal with that in the coming week or two.  It's been a fun read tonight, and I'm glad to still have our reading time each night.  We said our prayers after that, and then it was time for sleep.

Post Season

Here's Mom, showing off her team spirit, sending a picture of herself to me just before the game.  She was all geared up, but was I ready for the Braves playoff game?

You bet.  It was one of those days where once the afternoon game started, it was hard to concentrate on anything else.  Then came the big inning - Pastor Lance was upstairs, screaming when it happened:  Riley got a huge home run.  And that was pretty much it for the game - the Braves won today in a dramatic come-from-behind late innings smash, all of us screaming really, and the entire city exploded with joy.  

It's been such an investment watching these guys play all year long, just about every game.  So this was a very rewarding sort of day.  And Riley's home run was just electric, one of those moments that had everyone screaming.

We had a good day today, working on a good bit of the new Christmas book and getting some grocery shopping in.  Guess what?  I found the cheese!

Not just any cheese, but Aldi's themed October cheese.  Also not pictured - I picked up a Wensleydale Pumpkin Spice cheese as well.  Now we're officially ready to go!  In fact, tonight we watched "Hotel Transylvania," per Mom's request, and we're hunkering down for October.  It's going to be a great month!

Afterwards tonight, we did some reading and we said our prayers.  It's been a good day.

Mystery Machine Racing

This was an image I had AI make for the start of our new racing series, "Drive."  I wanted a Mystery Machine that looked as if it were on the race track.  And I actually added Fred there afterwards because it looked like the van was driving itself.  This is just one of the racers that shows up - another is one of the Wacky Racers, which I love, and then of course Herbie (obviously), and a few of the "Cars" characters, monster trucks, and yeah, the Weinermobile.  All kinds of fun!  The Mystery Machine is a theme I carry around to work each day - my wallet is themed to that, as is my lunch box.  As for the Wacky Racers, we've always loved those characters.  I remember getting to play a racing game with them much later, and although it wasn't the same quality as a Mario racing game, it still was a lot of fun getting to drive around as one of those iconic racers.

So yeah, lots of work towards the "Drive" series that starts this weekend.  And because of that, I put on that Cars vinyl album I have.  And others too - we were starting to play a few of the October records, including the soundtrack to "Monsters, Inc."  Fun!

Maddie was off to college this morning, and later on taekwondo where things were a bit more chill after the successful weekend.  She came back home in time to watch "Goosebumps" with us, always fun.  And she got to see a special delivery of more Bones Coffee - including a test coffee sample for all of us super fans.  

This is from "Bones Labs," and it's another sampling with no identification, so we're just going to taste it without any idea of what it is, and then do the survey afterwards.  Last year, it wasn't our favorite flavor, but this year's flavor already smells good.  We'll wait until Nate is here again before we break out this one out.  Should be interesting!

We read tonight, and here come the bad guys in our story, the Auditors.  "The Thief of Time" has been a fun book thus far.  Afterwards, time to get some sleep, after prayers of coruse.  Long weekend, long days!

I Spy

We had a great morning back at KidPak's auditorium this weekend, and that big screen is really working nice.  Also, check out the "I Spy" game I created, using AI - this is just a small section.  The kids don't see the screen, and then the host calls out an item and the first to locate it is the winner.  I wrote down every item in this list - I was surprised it all worked out.  Super fun, and it'll certainly be something we do again down the road, given that you can probably change the theme around.

Here are some other pictures that Maddie took this morning:

Another great morning at church.  Our series wrapped up, yet another "spy" themed series - and next week we return to an automotive theme that should be pretty fun.

Today I visited with my old buddies from high school, and it took a horrific car accident to get us all together again this time.  Alan's wife - after fifty days - should be discharged from the hospital this week and go straight to rehab for a long, long time.  He and his family were driving when they were t-boned by a driver running a red-light, and the damage will take many years to recover from.  She nearly died three or four times, depending on how you count things, but the good news is that she is recovering, and she will be discharged.

Despite the circumstances, it was good to be with these old friends again.  We discussed a lot of things from the past - the good ol' days - and a lot of what's going on now.  In some ways, it was as if we hadn't had any breaks between conversations, even though it's been a few years since we've all been together.  It was good to be down there, and some time next month we'll probably meet again - hopefully for the new Street Fighter movie.

I got home after an interesting drive through a deserted north Atlanta, amongst all these high rise skyscrapers towering overhead and yet hardly anyone around.  Sunday afternoon, I guess?  It was like one of those apocalyptic scenes, a super interesting drive that I seemed to have all to myself.  But I got home and Maddie was wanting to watch "The Corpse Bride," and there was no argument from me on that one!

We read tonight, and we said our prayers after that, and yes, it was time for sleep.  Long day - long weekend!

First Place and "Les Miserables"

Maddie joined Team Edge for a competition early today in Acworth, a location we went to last year.  It was a fun day for the team as they did super good, winning first place in the team demo competition!

Meanwhile, Mom and I had those tickets to see a play down at City Springs theater.  Earlier, we were warned of a festival going on down there, the Blue Stone Arts and Music Festival.  The warning from our theater was related to parking, but we thought why not go ahead and visit the festival as well?

We had a nice lunch there, some barbecue from a food truck.  And then we were walking around as well.

This is the band Squonk, a unique band that was playing a good bit while also using a lot of unusual animated sculptures or lines of drums on the stage.

And then we were walking around the different booths.  We had our friend Ansley from the office with us, our stand-in for Maddie's ticket.  She had a great time!  Here she is adding some paint to this canvas - we were doing the same in a moment, a sort of thing all passing people were invited to do.

Okay, this is an unusual item, a ceramic fruit washer.  The water goes into the spout there, and then rushes into the bowl in a circular fashion to sort of spin-wash the fruit or vegetable you put in there.

After eating, it was time to head inside the theater and get ready for the production of "Les Miserables."

Our friend Isaac turned us into lower-class patriot revolutionaries.  Or something!

The place would be packed - this is pretty much a sold-out run of this show, a really popular production.  Our season pass seats are dead center at the main level there, front row.  Great spot!

As for the production, it was just amazing.  It was a moving, emotional, just fantastic.  The performances were spectacular, the costumes and set just amazing.  The story is epic and the musical numbers were iconic.  It was one of the best things I've seen on stage - not to say you'd want to see it time and again repeatedly.  It's a sweeping and emotional experience - no wonder this production was so popular.  And the version we saw today was as good as it gets.

It was a long play.  We left the theater quite impressed, and got out of the festival area with ease.  Time to head to one more destination:  Cracker Barrel!  

The reason for this stop on the way home:  National Pancake Day!  Cracker Barrel had an all-you-can-eat deal:  $5.00 for all-you-can-eat pancakes.  There's no way - no way - I can eat more than a plateful of these pancakes.  I can't even really finish one plate of three pancakes.  Still, it's fun to celebrate - those pancakes are delicious!

We got home and got to listen to Maddie's tales of adventure and fun over at the tournament, and got to see the medal for ourselves.  She was watching the Braves game earlier, and so that's what Mom and I did too, watching a replay of this afternoon's match against the Marlins.  It was a great offensive show from the Braves, who won pretty big.

We read tonight after this, and we said our prayers - and got some sleep.  Looooong day, but a memorable one!