I worked on installing the Google Play store on Everly’s tablet for about an hour this evening. I think it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done on a computer. Got it working. I’m super excited about her learning to read with Duolingo ABC!

I crushed the competition this week in the leagues. It’s really hard to come in #1 against 30 people, all in the highest category.

Paid bills.

Español!

OYB!

I’m involved in a lawsuit that happened while I was in England five years ago. Still hasn’t been resolved! A heavy piece of wood fell from the wall and nearly killed a lady that was in the conference with us.

The shrub I planted about five years ago (I think) has finally bloomed. Love the fragrance of the flowers.

Mine is smaller than this. I wondered if it’d ever flower because it doesn’t really get much sun.

Had a fun talk with my Mom!

I keep going in Duolingo. There are about 50 Units to go. By the time I get there, I won’t be surprised if they haven’t added a bunch more. Spanish is the #2 language studied on Duolingo after English. Plus they have advanced lessons in every section I haven’t started.

These are also helpful. I’m really impressed by the quality of the lessons and how well thought out the process is.

Freaky.

The sunsets are just so beautiful this time of year.

Gorgeous full moon.

Looking forward to seeing the Lunar Eclipse tomorrow morning.

I have at least one person to give me some competition this week. We’ll see if she lasts.

I’m a language guy. I was talking to my buddy Anthony about this movie because it was built around guys that spoke Navajo which was a language no one else knew therefore the perfect code

Daylight savings time ended last night. Don’t like it getting dark earlier. Soon DST may be a thing of the past. The Senate has already passed it.

Hard to believe how much money this is. I think today they said it was up to 2.6 BILLION!

Good tip.

OYB!

Español!

Went to the bank to deposit checks.

I got sick of looking at my dirty shoes. These are actually pairs #2 and #3 which are biking shoes and mowing the lawn shoes. In the old days, I would always paint them. Now I clean them with Ajax at least once a week, but eventually when they become work shoes the white completely wears off. So I paint them. Amazing difference.

Unbelievably warm!

Pumped up the tires on my bike and went for a 12.67 mile bike ride. Felt great!

Beautiful leaves!

And flowers. The verbena always remind of my the Amazon jungle where I saw them growing wild!

Cleaned up my St. Francis shrine and my back porch area.

Paid bills. These first of the month bills always kind of sneak up on me. They’re due on the 6th and 7th which is kind of weird to me.

Dominated the other Spanish students this week. I don’t work gigantic amounts of time, I just get a lot of answers correct really quickly. I study about an hour a day, every day, plus listen to Spanish on talk radio from Madrid. I’ve been having a problem with my radio app lately.

I’ve completed 162 units of Duolingo. That’s a lot of Spanish. I don’t have a clear idea how long it will take me to finish the rest of the units. Months if not years. Spanish is the second most widely language spoken in the world ahead of English and behind Mandarin.

My buddy Anthony is in Mexico. I sent him this picture of a cool place to go.

I thought this article about Frances Densmore recording the songs of Native American Indians we really interesting.

I remember seeing this in Kenya and the Kikuyus going nuts. It was fun to review some of the Kikuyu words.

Español!

OYB!

Ordered groceries.

Turned drizzly.

K and I ate lunch at Mirch Masala. One of the best Indian food experiences ever.

Blew the driveway and porch. The leaves are really falling!

Picked up groceries.

Great to see Baylor beat Oklahoma! On the road no less!

Helped Kathy study for a Civil Rights test.

Dominating in the Duolingo leagues this week.

That’s a good point.

Duolingo is constantly changing it’s format to make learning better. Adding the speaking portion to the review section is something I find very helpful. Practicing speaking out loud rapidly makes me more fluent in real life.

I’ve also been practicing with this. It’s a rapid word match exercise. It’s very challenging. You have to do 155 words in 1:45.

I think this is good news for Democrats.

I called my banker about my mortgage. She was super apologetic about the hassle it’s been to get it set up. I’m trying to get an auto debit on a bi-weekly schedule. Doesn’t seem like it should be that hard to do, right? My banker doesn’t think so. I’ve gone to the bank six times now for this!

Called my dentist about insurance and when I’m supposed to come in for the implant. I left a voicemail and then realized they have Friday off.

Left a voice mail for the youth director of Cottage Hill BC in Mobile, Alabama. I LOVE repeat customers!

I talked with my buddy Anthony. He always cracks me up. He’s in Mexico right now. Glad they’re getting some sunny weather. I gave him a word to try.

I blew the driveway. Five minutes later it looked like this.

Cleaned out and refilled birdbaths and feeders.

Called T&G about my car. Got the AC fixed. Cost a bit over $500. The part alone was nearly $400! That was just the top hose! It’s made of a special metal. It’s under a lot of pressure with the freon in it.

I bought some wiffle balls for Penelope to practice hitting with.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery “Wet Concrete.” So good!

Killing it on Duolingo this week. I feel pretty much untouchable at this point.

Cool! I really enjoyed my trip to Niagara Falls.

OYB!

Talked with the receptionist at my dentist about when I’m supposed to go back in for the implants. I need to know how much the insurance will pay for. I’ll take Jessi to her appointment on Monday and should be able to get it squared away then.

Another early morning for me. Was at Azalea by 7:30AM.

Mileage. Sent pictures to Ashley.

Everly has been sick with the flu. She’s been running a temperature for over a week. Little sweetheart.

I took her to Lowes today to get a key made.

It’s a spare key to get inside their house. We hide it in a flower pot.

Christmas decorations.

Since she’s been sick she’s hardly eating at all. Took her to Taco Veloz for beans and rice. She ate the beans pretty well.

I love their salsa verde, but it’s mighty hot.

She had a good rest after we got home.

She was running a temperature again this afternoon. Hate that. We’ve nearly given her the whole bottle of Tylenol.

Had a promising phone call from a youth director today. I sent him a message with our website for the teams. I’ll call him personally tomorrow.

Since Everly has been eating so little, I even try to get her to eat ice cream. I figure that might help her stomach feel better. She’s been complaining about a stomach ache for weeks. The doctor gave us some good ideas, but hasn’t really helped much. She barely ate two bites, of ICE CREAM!

Everly has seen me studying Duolingo for Spanish a LOT. Today, I showed her the reading version for her age group. She worked on it for over an hour and a half! Duolingo really is a world class operation. I love that they have all these learning scientists constantly figuring out the best way to make things “stick.”

Worked with the kids at the mission. We had pretty much finished all the work yesterday. Just a couple needed help. Everly worked on her shapes and Penelope had fun adding numbers. I helped another with elapsed time questions, geography and cell structures. One has a project for social studies. That class has a project nearly every week! Crazy.

Listened to Harry Potter in Spanish on the way home. I prefer to listen to Cadena Ser radio from Madrid but I couldn’t tune it in. It’s WAY harder than listening to one guy read. But it’s also more like real life with lots of conversations going on at the same time at high speed.

Checked the mail at my office and on my ficus.

I’m dominating the league this week.

Español!

OYB!

Cool in the early morning.

Always looking things up.

Just keep going!

Beautiful sunrise.

Love Penelope’s art.

Did all the work on this one.

Opened all the windows in the apartment to get rid of flu germs.

Beautiful high level clouds.

Everly enjoyed playing with her sea turtle. It swims in the bath tub with her.

Helped the kids at the mission.

Beautiful sunset to end the day.

Madrid radio.

Terrible traffic on the way home. Multiple car crash with two fire trucks on the scene. Three lanes blocked off. Not zesty.

Woke up at 3:15 AM. Never really went back to sleep that I could tell. Got up at 6:15 AM to leave to be at Azalea before 8:00 AM. Got there way early. Studied Spanish.

OYB

Español!

New word I really wasn’t sure about or how to pronounce it.

Everly is still sick. She was cool all day but hardly any appetite. Took her to Walgreens to get a little toy. I left Azalea around 7:45 PM and she was running a 102 degree fever. Sad.

We met the bus with Penelope at 2:45 PM. Of course she was not happy that Everly got a toy and she didn’t, which was reasonable. I took them both to Walmart and go them something else.

Penelope came out and worked with the rest of the kids. I really enjoy her drawings.

Checked the mail at my office.

I’m still having issues with setting up the bi-weekly auto debit for my mortgage. Frustrating.

Also having a problem with my new iPhone holder for my car. The gears just don’t work very well. I ordered a new one and will get the old one replaced so I’ll have a spare. I didn’t keep the original packaging to send it back in.

Funny!

Did great in the Duolingo Español Leagues last week!

OYB!

Español!

Low cloud cover this morning.

Got my newsletter over to the FBCD to get it printed. I left a little gift for the church secretary when I picked them up.

Picked up the mail.

Went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market to eat lunch. Saw my old friends the Zamoras when I was there. Blast from the past. They’ve had lots of hard times. These last few years have really been hard on ministries.

Went by the Post Office to get stamps for the newsletters.

Ordered new labels for next month’s newsletter.

Labeled and stuffed the newsletters.

I listened to Spanish radio while I worked. I hear this word a lot. It has many meanings. Here are just some of them.

Got all the letters ready to mail and got them in the post.

We had a good group for the candy throw today. Fun.

Gassed up my car and checked the fluids.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery called Wooden Spoon.” Excellent tool!

We got great use out of our annual passes for Stone Mountain. The grandgirls and I had fun with them. We got to see the Christmas and Halloween spectacles. That was super! We probably went up the cable car and rode the train at least ten times.

The girls spent the night with us last night. After we got them to sleep, I went down to my bed, but left the lights on on the stairway and in my outer room so Everly could find me if she needed to. At around 2:00 AM, she came down to get me to give her some Tylenol. She wasn’t feeling well even when we went to the festival last night. We didn’t stay much more than an hour or so and came home. I stayed up with her till 3:30 AM then went back to sleep in my bed. I felt pretty tired all day long and kind of sad because it don’t like it when the girls are sick.

OYB!

I’m always learning new words in different languages.

I worked really hard on Español this week. I got beat out for the #1 spot in the last fifteen minutes of the night. It’s fun to have close competitions like that. I don’t really get upset if I don’t come in first place all the time. Good for other people to win too!

Ashley and Miles came to pick up the girls around 11:00 AM. Everly wasn’t feeling well. Made me sad.

I did three poems for the JHA Halloween Special: Jabberwocky, Poison Tree and Antidotes for Fear of Death. They all had kind of a scary groove to them. I’ve been practicing them the last couple of days. If you’re going to perform them, you have to practice them out loud. Still kind of scary to do stuff in front of a group. No big deal to read stuff, or do it off the cuff, but memorized stuff is way more challenging. There was about fifty people that attended.

I wrote and produced my newsletter and printed the labels. I’ll drive into Chamblee tomorrow morning to get those printed. I’ll have everything done and in the mail by tomorrow afternoon if all goes well.

Had fun performing the poems. I did my best, which is pretty much awesome.

Anthony was a great host.

Very tight finale of this week’s competition. Fun!

Sometimes I learn about English from studying Spanish! I’ve been doing this wrong my whole life.

Español!

OYB!

Cool day.

Had a fun chat with Anthony.

K and I enjoyed Masala for lunch.

I thought this chunk of ice looked cool. It was left in a sippy cup on its side when it froze.

K and I took the girls to Stone Mountain for the Pumpkin Festival this evening. It was packed out.

Penelope and I liked our black light teeth!

I’ll be performing these three poems tomorrow night for a conference that my buddy Anthony is setting up.

Grandgirls sleeping over. Everly wasn’t feeling well. Father, help them sleep well and heal. Amen.

Final score for the evening. I don’t really mind coming in second. I just like to be in the top three. That’s what Duolingo actually counts. I study way harder when the competition is tight. That’s why I like doing the leagues. Keeps me motivated.