I put a new hard shell plastic cover on my Mac Air last night. The corners on the old cover had cracked off. Rather mess up a $10 case than my Mac!

I regularly get up before 6:30 AM but that’s when the alarm is set to go off.

The PM alarm is for going to Walmart to get my groceries. I have an appointment for 7 PM generally.

OYB!

Español!

Coordinating the car is tricky sometimes. Usually works out just fine!

Love my girlies!

Went to Publix to pick up some fresh fruit.

We ate all the watermelon, strawberries and pineapple today.

The girls helped me clean and refill the hummingbird feeders and all the birdbaths and feeders.

I refilled my water jugs for cleaning the raccoon’s water bowl. It’s the one gallon dog bowl on the ground. They mess it up pretty much every night when they put the dry dog food in it to make it soft.

Lovely little rose bloom this morning.

Two trees growing together.

Blew off the back deck.

Took the girls to Hot and Cold Buffet. They ate well!

Hot and steamy today.

Picked up the groceries.

Went to Walgreens to check on Covid boosters. They said it was ok to get them but had to make a reservation. Before they told me they wouldn’t give it to me Because my booster was Pfizer and not J&J like my initial shot.

I had a chat with my buddy Anthony and this movie came up. Seen it?

We had some confusion with the hotel this weekend when I checked in. Got in contact with Expedia about it.

OYB!

Español! Duolingo made some big changes. They’ll effect how many points I can make at one time. Kind of sucks.

Picked up the girls at Global Mall.

The girls said they wanted to get a key for their house. We went to Walmart, made keys and got them each a lanyard. Later, we went to Dollar Tree and got a small pot, flowers and some rocks where we could hide a third key outside.

Took them to the “Lazy River” pool aka the Mountain Park Aquatic Center! What a big day! They actually started swimming! What?!

Drying out the “wet bag.”

Mild today.

I have a team coming this weekend. Making arrangements for that.

My lady that has helped us for years at the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market has gone to another shopping center. I got in touch with her about coordinating the food order with the new person. Always good to have a chance to study Spanish in a real world environment.

I’ve had some really busy weeks/weekends lately with our trip to Texas and then to Tennessee. I haven’t been able to record as much as normal. Believe it or not, in 2020, right before the pandemic shut down, I had recorded three episodes that I’ve been saving since then! I’m finally going to release them! This is the first of three.

Released Verbal Surgery “Head Light.”

I’ve watched the first two episodes of Season One of Game of Thrones. It was huge when it was playing. I’ve never seen them until now since I have access to HBO Max.

The girls and I packed up the hotel room and put everything in the car. We left Chattanooga around 9AM.

Traffic was very fast back home. I averaged around 75 MPH and was getting passed constantly.

Got back to Azalea with the grandgirls around 11AM. Ashley was at the grocery store. When she got back, K and I stopped by the QT on Jimmy Carter to fill up Ann’s car. She had let us use her car for the trip. The gas cost to go to Chattanooga and back was only $35! I’m sure it would’ve been over $100 in the Mercury.

Per gallon.

I also checked the fluids in the car.

Got back home and I unpacked everything from Ann’s car into the house. Then took her car back to her house.

Brought my car home. Enjoyed a nice rest.

Went to eat at El Torerros. So good. Even to ice cream on the way home. Nice end to the vacation!

Español!

Watered my plants.

Beautiful day in Tennessee!

OYB!

Español!

We had a great time at the Chattanooga Zoo with the Grandgirls!

We wanted to see the Fennic Foxes the worst! Six years ago K and I went to the zoo and got Penelope a stuffy Fennic Fox which became her favorite over the years. This zoo is where she was “born” so that’s cool.

Meerkat!

Goats!

Gombe research station.

White cheeked gibbon chilling.

We went to Los 3 Amigos for lunch.

Studied Spanish!

Read the OYB!

We packed the car and picked up the girls.

Ate at Sabor do Brazil in Marietta!

We had a fun time at the swimming pool at the Day’s Inn Lookout Mountain.

Had delicious pizza at Mr. T’s.

Then up to the top of Lookout Mountain.

Point Park!

OYB!

Español!

Sunrise at Global Mall.

Ashley wears her scrubs on Friday. Medical Girl!

Added a Donor’s address.

I had a fun day with the grandgirls! Started at Lilburn Park.

Water fountain!

Big swing.

I like this sculpture.

We then went to Stone Mountain Park which also has a nice, shady playground.

The little park started to get crowded, so we went on to Stone Mountain Village. We have an Annual Pass, so we go in all the time.

The dinosaurs and the 4D movie with Dwane Johnson were really fun.

Run away!

Beauty!

Dino Hunters!

Then to the German Bakery! I saw these flowers outside. The Picture It app immediately tells me what it is.

Someone photo bombed us.

My name is on the list!

After such a full day, the little sweethearts were super tired. I’m always glad when I can get them to take a nap. Amen.

I picked up my sister-in-law’s car.

I’m trying to get the passenger side mirror repaired. No luck so far.

I completely vacuumed it out and and scrubbed the entire inside of the car with a Fabreeze concentrated cleaner I use of when I deep clean my carpets.

Scrubbed all the foot pads.

Interior fabric surfaces.

Cleaned the windows.

Took the girls over to Miles’ parent’s house. They were looking forward to that!

Cleaned my shoes and my hat. If done regularly, all the white stays looking good.

Getting my gear together for the short trip this weekend. Still has to be thought out. I carry quite a lot of tech gear with me.

OYB!

Rained pretty much all day long. Sometimes powerful storms.

Big weather patterns.

Español!

Another weird car situation at Global Mall. This time a van with all the tires stolen.

Rainy, so we met under the overhang at Global Mall.

Gassed up my car at QT on Jimmy Carter. .24 cents cheaper than near my house.

I introduced the girls to Mr. Bean. They thought he was funny, especially Penelope.

Penelope wanted a hamburger at Metro Diner. We enjoyed it. I missed my buddy Jon Paul. We usually eat there with him.

Chocolate Mousse cake was the bomb dot com.

I brought a lot of food back home to eat later.

Went to Good Will to scope out toys. They got some fun stuff.

Also found some comfortable shirts for K while I was shopping. She seemed to like them so I was glad.

They played with their new toys while I took a nap. I’ve been waking up super early, like 5:30 AM.

We had a family discussion as to how much cheaper it is to use powder rather than liquid detergent. Seems like you get about 15% more when it’s powder.

Released a new episode of Verbal Surgery -959- “Building Blocks 2.”

I got a response back from Libsyn Tech who said the error message I was receiving meant another podcast had the same name. Since I’ve done nearly 1,000 of these podcasts, it’s easy for me to come up with the same title from time to time. I just had to add the 2 to the name and everything worked fine.

Español!

OYB!

Went to Global Mall to pick up the grandgirls!

I saw this car in the Global Mall parking lot. Still can’t figure out what happened to cause this kind of destruction.

Cooler today and extremely humid.

These mushrooms were sprouting from a log in my yard.

The Picture It app gave me this identification.

Took the girls to Hot and Cold buffet. They ate great!

Doggie Park for exercise.

I let Miles know that we were planning to go swimming if it worked out with his schedule. I have limited my driving into Chamblee until school starts again. NONE of the kids at the mission are outside. Just too hot. So Miles has been coming to my house to pick his daughters up.

Kept getting hotter.

Took them to the Aquatic Center. It’s a cool place.

I tried last night and this evening to upload an episode of Verbal Surgery for release. For some reason it’s giving me error messages. I contacted tech support tonight. I’m sure they’ll figure it out. They’ve had some recent “upgrades” which I figure is causing the problem. We’ll see. Still frustrating.

I called my buddy Anthony in England today. They’ve had over 100 degree heat with no AC! What?!

Español!

OYB!

K was with me today. That’s always good! Girls love having her around. We drove into Chamblee to meet Ashley since we were going to stay in Doraville to skate.

I worked on getting this tangle out of Everly’s hair. She wanted to see what it looked like.

Big thunderstorms barreled through the ATL today.

We went to FBCD to let the girls skate in the Fellowship Hall since it was rainy outside.

I reglued the big globe. After it was completely dried, I decided to take it back to my storage area.

T&G got Kathy’s windows working. Going to cost over $400. Ouch.

We went to the Buford Highway Farmers Market for lunch. The girls ate really well. Back to the mission to wait for Miles. While we where there it poured down rain.

Everly got a little henna on her hand which immediately stained her finger. She kind of freaked out about it. Once she calmed down, I was able to get a scrubber and pretty much get it all off. She was happy about that.

Cool clouds.

Tried to release an episode of Verbal Surgery this evening. The website wouldn’t allow it. I’ve learned it’s best not to get too freaked out. Just let it all settle down and try again tomorrow. I have a couple of things I think might work, but usually it’s a problem on their end.

My hat from England has the Saint George’s Cross on it. I looked up some information about the symbol. The Red Cross on a white background was used during the Crusades.

Mailed in the questionnaire for Kathy’s jury summons.

OYB!

PNC bank recently told me that they were not going to be dealing with the Earn Up third party bill payment company. Now I’m paying my mortgage directly to PNC. I had to go back to the bank to change something and to make sure that the account for Earn Up had been canceled. Glad I did that because it hadn’t been done by the bank.

I got a couple of new forks from my Mom when I was in Texas. They’re her wedding silver. I have two forks and one spoon which is plenty. I don’t keep the sharp knives in that mug.

Español!

There are seven books in the Harry Potter series. Each of them is around 25 hours long. Today I finished the seventh book for the second time! That’s around 350 hours of listening in Spanish. I’m using it as my baseline for listening comprehension. I’m constantly adding to my knowledge base and understanding more.

I’m starting back over with book 1.

A little cooler today. Amen.

Had a good talk with my Mom. Always a blessing.

I’ve been growing Venus flytraps for over fifty years. This year I pollinated the flowers and collected the seeds. They are super tiny! I planted them among the other carnivorous plants in my gardens, specially the sundews. I hope one day I’ll see super tiny little flytraps!

These are the dried flowers and seed pods. The seeds are smaller than a grain of sand.

We got the insurance for the mission at Azalea squared away.

Kathy dropped her phone a few days ago. Fortunately, I had a glass screen protector on it! I swapped the old one out for a new one this afternoon.

The screen on her iPhone would have looked like this! That would have cost $100 to fix. I can buy two protectors for $8!

Picked up my groceries.

I refilled my bags of food for the birds and raccoons.

Kathy and I are taking the grandgirls to Chattanooga next weekend! That should be a really fun trip! We are spending more money than we normally would so it’s nice for the girls and has a pool.