OYB!

Love them!

Took Everly to the Doggie Park.

Palabras!

Seems like a lot, right?

It was great to see my buddy Jon Paul today! Love him! We go back 25 years now.

We ate at Metro Cafe. I brought some food back for Penelope plus a big slice of cake for us to enjoy. Most of it was left for Ash and Miles.

Every day I walk around the complex to check on the kids, but no one is every outside. Today, I had a couple of the middle school kids ask me for help so I set up and worked with them. It’s always good to feel useful. I feel kind of dumb sitting outside by the table is no one needs help.

Harry!

Went by my office to check the mail.

Transported a squirrel when I got home. Endless. But I haven’t had any of them try and get into the house, so there’s that.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Building Blocks.” Excellent!

OYB!

Love my girls!

Everly and I went to Publix this morning to get fruit.

Español!

One of the students I’m competing against is named Heike. I wondered where her name came from. I’ve found the Germans to be serious competition.

They may not do much in the weeks before I get to them, but they definitely rise to the challenge and are difficult to beat. She more than doubled what she’d been doing.

Everly ate great. I like her eating vegetarian, although I never insist on it. For lunch I bought her a hamburger. Next time, I’ll get her an incredible burger and ask her if she can tell the difference. I doubt she’ll be able to.

Palabras!

Beauty!

Gorgeous weather. Still very cool in the morning.

Picked up Penelope. We hung out at the house for a while, then went to QT for a treat. They get slushies and a candy bar. Today I had a picnic with them.

They broke their candy bars into pieces. I’d ask one a question like, “Who is the oldest?” Then Penelope would take a bite. “Who’s the youngest?” Everly would eat a bite. Penelope came up with the game. Maybe they did something like that in class, not sure.

They really enjoy animals, although I never trust cats. This one was pretty chill.

Full sun moon.

Went by my office to get the mail. Processed the checks. I sign and alphabetize them, then take pictures and add them all up.

I deposited them when I got to the bank near my house. I always feel safer there.

All this studying is really paying off. I got almost everything I heard this afternoon. I listen for about thirty minutes a day.

Dropped off a squirrel.

Last night I had another exciting finish on Duolingo. A lot of the competition is figuring out how to make a lot of points fast before your competition can respond. Every time I finish a set of lessons, I get a double XP reward. I save a bunch of lessons which have been done except for the last lesson of the unit so I can get multiple rewards one after the other.

There is a special test that you can take that is only offered for four days and the last three hours of the competition. I saved all those lessons up so I could get the most points when they really counted. Robin and I went back and forth for #1 the whole week. As you can tell, we were WAY ahead of the rest of the competition.

At the end of the evening, I came out on top by a whopping 2,000 points. The main thing is that I’m learning a LOT.

Want to guess what this image is for?

Penelope wasn’t feeling well last Thursday. Everly and I went to get her chocolate. This is how she likes her slushies from QT.

OYB!

Español!

Quite cool morning, but turned out warm.

Went to my spot in Stone Mountain to record and talk to my Mom. I was distressed to see a LOT of trees with pink ribbons around them. That normally means they are targeted to get cut down which is something I’m never happy about. That’s especially because I depend on those trees to keep me shady in my car.

There are always a lot of movies being shot around Stone Mountain.

I’ve seen a lot of geese with their goslings lately.

I had a good talk with my Mom. Jessi came out to join our conversation too.

I ordered her a weather station for her house for Mother’s Day.

I realized to my chagrin that I didn’t have a hide a key for my car. Not sure when it fell off. Went to Lowes to get another made. Sadly, they didn’t have the blanks for it. Went to Home Depot to get it done. Also got another hide a key device for K to use. Hers was super hard to open.

If you don’t have these for your car, you should! Most car keys have a chip in them, but you can use one without the chip just to get into your car.

Harry.

Adelante. I really enjoy learning.

Spent most of the afternoon resting. My back is still bothering me but it’s a lot better. Amen.

I saw Harry Potter is on HBO Max now. I get it for free from ATT. I’m looking forward to watching all the films again just to see how much I’m getting from listening to the books. So far great!

I think it’s good to review things like gender with words.

Went to the bank to deposit checks.

Added the information to our spreadsheet.

Palabras.

OYB!

Ordered and picked up groceries today.

Finished cleaning up my staircase.

Cloudy and cool day. I actually wore my big jacket and knit hat this morning. Wow.

I’ve been seeing this tree with beautiful purple flowers recently. In the past, I’m pretty sure I mistook it for Wisteria. Turns out it’s actually the Princess tree. Dig that.

The bike rack keeps coming loose on my car. Decided to tape it to keep it secure.

Taped up all the loose ends as well. I like things to look tidy.

Harry.

Transported two squirrels today. I saw four of them at my feeders this morning. It’s that time of the year.

I downloaded the episode of Verbal Surgery I recorded yesterday as well as the one I recorded this morning onto my Mac.

My headphones shorted out. Can’t stand that. Ordered another set.

Cleaned my vacuum parts.

I love carnivorous plants. I find them fascinating. I was excited to learn that there’s a carnivores plant grower near me. I’ll be visiting his nursery soon.

Español!

OYB!

I love my orchids. These are the ones blooming now. I have flowers all year long, even during freezing weather!

The pollen on my deck is so heavy that I have to use a hose rather than a blower.

Cleaned my outdoor carpet. Keeps me from tracking stuff inside.

Cloudy and cool today.

Harry!

Recorded a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Phase Two Shoes.”

Blew and cleaned off the sides of my house.

Cleaned and refilled bird baths.

After the yard work, I cleaned my “Phase Two” shoes. Not new, but not as rough as my “work shoes.”

Vacuumed the house.

Cleaned my staircase.

Woke up at 5:30am and read a text from Ashley that Penelope wasn’t feeling well. She has a sore throat. Ashley kept the girls and took P to the doctor.

I studied for about an hour. Then went back to sleep.

Paid bills.

OYB!

Rained hard.

Adelante!

Had so much fun talking with my buddies Anthony and Marcus today. I just laughed and laughed.

Rained about .5″

Harry!

Spent most of the afternoon resting. That’s what seems to help my back heal the fastest. Enjoyed playing Horizon Forbidden West.

Released Verbal Surgery “Perfect Trajectory.”

I was up at 5:30am studying.

OYB!

Never too much girl time.

Talked to Everly about voting. We went to early voting this morning. There was hardly anyone there, so it wasn’t too scary for her. She doesn’t like big crowds at unknown places. Who does?

I told her which buttons to push and she pushed them. In a bunch of races I had no idea who was best. I let her pick those. She had fun.

Palabras.

Ordered groceries.

Adelante! That number at the top right represents how many units I’ve passed. Each unit has six separate lessons. My score represents over 6,000 individual lessons. And the course just keeps growing! Spanish is the second most studied language in the world after, you guessed it, English.

This England hat is my favorite these days. It was looking a little dirty. Gave it a scrub with warm water, dishwater soap and a soft washrag. Turned out great.

Mas y mas.

Everly helped me spray all the pollen off the deck. It was a lot!

Went over to Evergreen for a swim. It’s so lovely there. I go when the place is pretty much deserted: never during the Summer, holidays or weekends. It’s good exercise for her. The hot tub helped my back.

We went to Burger King for lunch. I had the Impossible Burger. It really does taste like meat. I’ve been a vegetarian now for nearly four years. We also thought all the hundreds of drink varieties were fun.

K and I brought Everly back to Azalea. I took a nap with E for nearly two hours. I didn’t sleep enough last night. Penelope was complaining of a sore throat. E and I went to get her some food and treats. Seemed to help her feel better.

Went by my office to check the mail.

K and I went to eat at Piccadilly.

Gassed up my car and checked fluids.

Picked up groceries. I still don’t understand why everyone doesn’t do this. It’s WAY easier than going in. And only takes me an average of ten minutes there at the max. I couldn’t have even gotten the cart and gone in the store in that time. With $35 of purchases the service is FREE.

OYB!

Español!

Everly likes being creative.

Rained this morning. Made it perfect for bringing out the bubbles.

Hot and Cold with Everly. She eats well there.

One reason why I love hanging out with the girls.

The girls helped me seal the envelopes.

Then they put them in the mail. I thought they’d have fun with that. They did.

I went into cleaning mode at the mission. Cleaned the fan. it was hardly making any airflow at all.

Scrubbed walls and baseboards.

I got Everly in on the act. She does well.

Waves of heavy weather in the morning and late afternoon.

Got the estimate for the work one of my back molars needs. Wow. Dental is so expensive. Even with insurance!

Voting season again. I’ll be voting early. Maybe tomorrow.

Woke up about 5:30am. Started studying.

Realized that I still needed to write my newsletter. So I went ahead and wrote it and laid it out. Also printed out Ashley’s collage.

OYB!

Met up with the girls at Global Mall. I consider Tuesday the start of my work week.

Everly wanted to ride her bike. My back is still hurting me but I managed to follow her around and make sure she was safe.

Deposited checks and some cash.

Palabras!

Fun talk with my buddy, Anthony. He always cracks me up.

Adelante!

Took Everly to the “Library Park.”

Static!

She’s getting more upper body strength.

We went to the little pond to check out the turtles.

And geese. This one was by itself which is unusual.

Penelope helped me do the labels.

Everly was less enthusiastic and decided to do something else. She was tired and hungry. Never a good combo.

I work on Spanish a lot.

Penelope drew characters from a show she likes.

I produced my newsletter and printed it. Took it over to FBC Doraville to be printed on Wednesday.

Got more stamps. I cleaned out my box of letter stuff today. I found thirty stamps that had been left over from previous months. We have sixty letters right now that go out every month.

Got home and watered my plants. A couple of the wisteria had gotten too dry. It’s hard to keep up with on a daily basis.

Cleaned out my birdbaths and refilled feeders.

Blew out the garage. Some type of seed. Almost looks like wool.

I watched a Tic Toe video about how bad laundry softeners are for the machine. Stop using them.

I came in #1 in the league competition last night on Duolingo. Got to admit, I was pretty excited about it. There are a lot of really smart people out there.

Palabras!

OYB!

My buddy Anthony’s birthday!

Watered my plants.

Adelante!

Went to my dentist to glue my crown back in.

I had a good talk with my Mom. She also got to chat with Ashley, Jessi and Everly. What a blessing.

My Mom wanted some info about my health insurance agent.

I sent my friend Jodie Steger a text letting her know I was praying for her husband.

I took the kids out to LT.

Lovely.

Went to Walgreens to get a booster. They said they couldn’t do it because of mixing the vaccines. It’s what the CDC recommended!

I went on line to make an appointment with their app. I’ll still try CVS, they may do it.

This is what the CDC recommends now for the people having the J&J shot first.

Sent my buddy Anthony a gift card from Amazon. Hope he gets something he’ll enjoy.

I just keep going. The more I study, the more I get.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery “Snake Handling.”