I liked this from Seth Godin’s blog this morning.

Banksy is my favorite artist.

Full Sun Moon!

This irritates me.

I signed up for a Poem a Day. Here’s the first one I got.

Studied Spanish. I had a good conversation with my friend Manuel who came to work on my plumbing.

Picked up the girls!

The girls and I stopped at the fair on our way back home. It’s closed till 5pm.

Gorgeous day.

OYB!

I worked on these today!

I know all the birds I see and pretty much all their songs, BUT there was one I never could figure out. Today I saw the bird making the call. I still haven’t to make a positive ID. It looks like a type of flycatcher to me. I’ll keep doing research

Sewed Everly’s pants and my jacket.

Looks a lot better now!

We enjoyed our brownies.

Vacuumed the kitchen.

We had fun with bubbles.

Everly put all her dolls to bed on a pillow.

We had a good FaceTime with Nana.

We went to the Library Park to use our scooters, climb trees, and have fun at the playground.

My buddy Manuel installed a new part in the toilet so it won’t run.

Two men work installing a new cell receiver on the tower. That looks mighty high up.

Another new license plate. Perhaps I’m just becoming more aware of them. But Hawaii?!

Took the girls over to the other grandparent’s house.

Picked up more groceries and put them up.

Released a new edition of Verbal Surgery -834- “Four Fingers”

I have a friend of mine coming over to help with a plumbing issue. I talked with Ann because I knew that she needed some work in her shower. It’ll happen soon.

I thought this was sad.

Clear and cool.

Studied Spanish.

Listened to Pastor Tito’s sermon. He preaches in English then translates the paragraph into Spanish. It’s very interesting. And a great learning tool.

Also did some Radio Garden. From Madrid.

Brain Training.

Gorgeous day. I’d call it “Nakuru Weather.” It’s like this all year long in the Rift Valley of Kenya.

I knew what this meant, but I get the pronunciation wrong.

I had a discussion with my friend. I enjoy trying to say everything in Spanish.

OYB!

Mine broke. It’s been a great tool.

Stuffed the envelopes.

Watered my ficus.

Checked the mail.

Got the letters in the mail. We were a little late this month. That’s kind of typical for February being a short month.

Deposited checks.

Helped the kids at the mission. Enjoyed watching the grandgirls play.

New plate for me.

I got an egg sandwich at my favorite Vietnamese place. Took it to the PDK airport to eat.

I had some time before the kids got out of school. Went to a new place in the area called the Scavenger Hunt. I thought it was ironic on their trashcans.

Didn’t find anything good. I might go back for a couple of instruments that look like they were from Kenya.

Been awhile since I’ve seen 8-tracks.

Went for a bike ride! First time in months. I don’t like riding in cold weather.

The cherry blossom trees are so beautiful.

Always great to see all my girls!

Full Sun Moon!

Looked at some carnivorous plants. Some of these are just gorgeous.I liked the sundew from Madagascar.

The Xfinity tech came to our house to check out the TV. It’s been losing the signal. He thought if we went from the set top box to the TV inputs using AV cables instead of the coax cable it might work. And it did! I would have never thought that that could have been the issue.

I’ve got so much tech stuff related to recording audio and video it’s incredible.

Studied Spanish.

Penelope had a hole in the bottom of her pants. I sewed it up.

Took the girls to the Doggie Park.

Great to see emails like this!

Gassed up the Mercury. Cleaned windshield and checked oil.

My PT Cruiser is still at the shop. It’s been a real challenge for them to figure out what was making it overheat. We think it’s going to turn out to be the computer sensor for the radiator temperature. I talked to them several times today.

Went through my old map jackets to see which ones were in the best shape.

Ice cream on the way home.

She went at it hard today. Everly had an hour and a half nap before I woke her up to take her home.

Beautiful day today.

Sunset at the mission. None of the kids had any homework.

Went by the church to check on the mail.

I like this.

Colder.

Interesting.

We’re having trouble with the toilet running. I have my handyman coming to fix it soon, maybe Friday. I have the Comcast guy coming to work on the TV network tomorrow morning.

OYB!

Picked up the girls!

I use rubber bands to hold my hanging items in place.

Studied Spanish.

So much to learn.

Everly and I played with the Duolingo reading app almost 30 minutes!

Made pancakes for the girls. They’re really good.

T and G is still working on my car. It’s been a real puzzle with the overheating. Fortunately, it hasn’t left me stranded.

Everly had fun playing with play dough.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery -833- “Linking Thinking!” Vocal awesomeness.

New Whirlwind Labels ordered.

Got Ashley and my family’s taxes in the mail to our tax guy. I was able to get the stamp as well as “require a signature on receipt” all by using the self-service kiosk. WAY better than standing in that long line. I don’t know why people don’t use it. Probably the same reason they don’t use grocery pickup which is also WAY better. Great to have that job done.

I worked on the Donor List for our newsletter.

Ordered groceries. They had an opening for the same day. Groovy! I picked them up after going to the mission.

I thought the clouds looked swoopy today. Like gigantic waves, which they are!

Funny.

I went by the houses of the kids who usually need help. Everyone was ok, so I spent extra time watching Penelope ride her bike.

Cleaned and refilled bird feeders and baths. I’m so glad to have a nozzle again.

Swept the rug outside my door.

Ashley and Miles brought the grandgirls over Saturday afternoon. They just picked them up about 4:30 pm Monday. The blog reflects the long weekend!

Interesting.

Studied Spanish all three days.

I used the dialog box option for the first time this weekend. It was really helpful for clearing up some uncertainties about some answers.

Sunday, I achieved a milestone by being promoted to the Diamond league of Duolingo. That’s the highest level of achievement one can make on a platform of over 500 million people. It really just means you’re extremely consistent and get a lot of answers correct. Still, pretty cool.

I do a lot of different things to study Spanish.

I got a lot of XP by doing these timed tests.

I sit out on my porch when I’m studying. I repeat the sentence three times each, so I prefer to be by myself so I can really concentrate on getting the pronunciation correct.

I listened to some of this in Spanish. Then went to Carnegie.

I had a great night’s sleep on Friday. Saturday’s was one of the worst in a while. Fortunately, Kathy let me go back to bed for a couple of hours. That really helped.

Pretty mild weather.

Brain training.

OYB!

Saturday morning I got my taxes done! I tried to take them twice on Monday, but the line was out the door. I’ll drop Ashley’s package off as well. I have to stand in line at the Post Office to get a certified delivery.

Picked up the groceries on Sunday.

I enjoyed the girls so much.

They went to sleep around 9:00 pm each night.

Cuties!

We talked about this song.

Had to look this one up.

The word itself was recondite. How meta.

OYB!

Paid bills.

Sunday felt hot!

Ice cream!

We had fun at the goose park.

Very unusual zipper cloud. Looks like zipper on both sides!

I finally got a new hose nozzle so I could clean out all the birdbaths.

I tired ’em out.

I liked this article.

OYB!

I folded clothes and cleaned my sheets.

We cleaned the glass doors.

Blew the driveway.

Brushed and put pigtails in the girls hair.

Also trimmed Everly’s bangs.

Penelope, Everly and I put the labels on the letters. We’ll get those printed Wednesday morning, I hope.

Vacuumed the whole house.

I used my small vacuum to do my area downstairs.

Put the fresh bedding on.

I’ve had my car at T and G since Thursday. They were closed from Thursday until today. They finally figured out what was wrong and it’ll be fixed completely tomorrow.

Got cooler and started sprinkling Monday.

Dropped off the financial report at our treasurer’s house. I’m so thankful that Ashley has continued helping with that. Amen.

Deposited checks.

Long blog!

I wasn’t surprised by this.

Having my car overheat didn’t sound as bad as catching on fire!

Studied Spanish.

Brain training. I did well today.

Drizzly, but not too cold.

Fun talk with my Mom.

Produced my newsletter. This was the first time in over a year that I was able to type it because of the injury to my hand. I’ve been using talk to text a lot.

OYB!

Started getting our taxes together. Put all the documents in one envelope. I’ll work on the housing allowance next. One of the documents I’m waiting for said it’d get there before March 15th. I’ll probably wait till then before I sent it to my tax guy.

Our TV connection has been intermittently dropping out. Spent over an hour with Comcast and exhausted all the on line fixes. We have a tech coming by next Wednesday.

Kathy’s sister Ann was having phone and TV issues. I got her chargers and cables squared away so that she could get her phone and external battery charged up.

Didn’t take me too long to figure out the solutions to the multiple problems. Meant a world of difference to her. Who else would help? Cricket sounds.

Went to the Post Office to get stamps for the newsletter.

I stopped by my car at my mechanics to pick up the masks we needed for me and the girls.

Put gas in Jesse’s car. Eleven cents cheaper than QT.

I put a new screen protector on Kathy’s phone. The old one was pretty messed up. When I put on the replacement, I realized that the phone had TWO screen protectors on it when the outer one was broken. The original screen is still perfect.

The sheetrock corner outside the shower has continued to get wet. I sanded and masked off the area then shot it with spray paint.

Not great, but better. Putting sheetrock in that section wasn’t a good plan.

Refilled the bird feeders. The water needs changing too, but I don’t have the new nozzle for the hose yet.

The power blinked out at our house. Caused Kathy’s CPAP to malfunction. Fortunately, with multiple restarts it started working again. Thank you, Jesus.

It’s been a wild day.

I picked up my car yesterday from our mechanics. They couldn’t really find anything wrong. That’s never good.

Got to Global Mall without any problem.

The temperature gauge stayed exactly where it should.

When Ashley got there I could immediately tell she had been crying. She still did her best to not act too upset around the girls.

Miles had been in a wreck. He is ok, but the car is a mess. I called him and told him to let me know and I could come get him and then take him to my sister-in-law’s house where we kept Jesse’s car.

While I waited for his call, the girls played with dolls and sidewalk chalk.

OYB!

It was what I call “Nakuru weather.” Fabulous!

Certainly put a smile on my face to break out the Ecuadorian Fedora!

I found something for the girls to ride on.

After I got the call from Miles, the girls and I went to Doraville to pick him up at the car repair place. My car drove fine all the way into town and back. At the very end of our trip back home, the car started overheating again. Clouds of smoke rose from the engine and then the fumes came in through the AC vent! I quickly rolled all the windows down. There was radiator fluid all over the engine, but because the radiator had been completely filled up the day before, the engine never ran hot.

We made it to my mechanics ok. Miles’ dad came to pick us up and took us to Ann’s house. But now, the picture had changed. I needed the car, too! Miles’ Mom let him drive her car and I was going to use Jesse’s car.

I let the girls play with the dogs for a while and then we got in the car to go home. Sadly, the engine light came on! Now I didn’t know if I could depend on this car or not. Worst part was that our mechanics were closed because of doctor tests until next Monday.

I called Ashley and she came to get the girls after getting off work. Neither of them are going into work tomorrow so I won’t have the girls until Saturday afternoon. After she drops the kids off, they’ll go on to S. Carolina for a missions conference while I keep the girls over the weekend.

Studied Spanish.

Ashley’s phone’s screen got messed up. We have insurance on it.

I thought this was great news.

I think Al Franken is really funny. I enjoyed watching this.

Ashley thinks it’s fun to hear what the girls want to listen to. I sent her our playlist. This is just some of it.

This was wild! Sixty-eight pounds of wool they sheered off!

I like stuff like this.

I’m always a sucker for great tech! I’ve got a pretty good set up with stand lights.

Studied Spanish.

BEAUTIFUL day! Reminded me of Nakuru, Kenya.

I called T and G through the day to get updates on my car. They thought it was the radiator fan, but that was working just fine.

Now he thinks it was a vapor lock in the system that stopped the coolant from working properly. If it acts up again, (please Lord, no!) the next step is the thermostat replacement.

I also got my oil changed and new windshield wipers.

OYB!

Since my car was getting worked on, Ashley brought the girls around 8:00 am and Miles picked them up around 6:00 pm.

We had fun looking at things with the magnifying glasses.

The camellias are blooming.

Penelope and I worked on writing numbers. I’m always teaching them something, but sometimes we need to go back to just the standard stuff, too.

Jelly bread and mayonnaise bread for after dinner treats.

Play time strengthens people skills and imagination.

After I got my car, I blew the driveway and deck.

Cut my nails. The girls didn’t need a trim.

Full day!

This is crazy.

New week with the grandgirls! Always great!

OYB!

Every time I pass Rockbridge Baptist Church, I always pray for the Cordreys in Costa Rica studying Spanish.

So beautiful!

Incredible weather!

We went to Stone Mountain to walk up to our camp site.

They had fun digging in the sand.

I love the tiny plants.

And water on a big rock.

Beauty.

Everly peed on her pants so I had to improvise a dress made of the girl’s jackets hung in the front and back.

Ran the air conditioner!

Studied Spanish.

Helped the kids with their homework. Very little to do.

I watched Penelope ride her bike while Miles took care of Everly who was sleeping.

Full Sun Moon!

Catching some rays.

I got almost all the way home and while I was stopped in traffic, my car started to overheat! That’s not zesty! Went to QT to gas her up and check the fluid levels. Everything seemed to be fine. I got home and it looked like the antifreeze reservoir was completely empty. I added some then I realized it was completely FULL. That means that the radiator had been hot and filled it up.

I decided to take her straight to T and G while the traffic wasn’t bad.

Got her there just fine, locked her up and put the key in an envelope describing what had happened. I also want them to change the oil and the windshield wipers. Needs to get done.

I called Ashley and told her what the situation is. She said she’d bring the girls over to my house tomorrow morning around 8:00 am. Hopefully, it won’t take them long to fix my car. Radiator issues can be a real hassle in that car. Last time it seemed they had to take a LOT of stuff out to get at it.

I walked home. Kathy picked me up near the entrance to our sub-division.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery “Clock and Watch!”

Click on the title and GROOVE!

This has been a long time coming.

Studied Spainish.

Brain Training.

I’ve been trying to get the oil changed in my car. Monday is my only day when I can get it done and they’ve been slammed. Probably next week. I keep calling.

Transported squirrel #153. I think.

I had a good talk with my buddy, Anthony.

We talked about world music. I shared a couple of my favorites with him. Here’s one of them.

Mild today.

I enjoyed playing Far Cry 4 this afternoon.

This evening, I watched the new Frank Zappa documentary. I was a big fan of his and really enjoyed the movie.

I saw him play live three times. He was such an amazing composer and performer. In the last few years, I also got to watch his son Dwezil play his Dad’s music which was super cool.