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.”

Kathy has the sister to this car. Hope it doesn’t get a problem like this.

Sometimes Duolingo doesn’t accept an answer that is correct. This blog post explained what they do when you report something.

I get confused on this stuff.

OYB!

Español!

Looks like I’ll come out #1 this week. Pretty big deal to me.

Jesse and I took Kathy out to eat for lunch. We really enjoyed it. Sadly, my meal was cut short because my crown that was regaled on Friday came out again today. I’ll have to set up an appointment to get that squared away tomorrow morning.

My back was feeling bad again this morning. I spent most of my day in bed.

Watched the Harry Potter movie Half Blood Prince. I finished listening to it in Spanish last week. I got pretty much everything right. So that’s cool.

Kevin Kelly is one of my heroes. He’s never led me wrong.

I continue to dominate the league board in Spanish for this week in my group. Fun. I don’t see anyone catching me tomorrow. That’s when I’ll get my award from Duolingo.

OYB!

Washed off my deck. It was loaded with pollen.

Blew off the garage and driveway.

Gorgeous day. I was hoping to ride my bike today, but my back is still tweaked.

Went to Stone Mountain to record. This police chopper kept flying over the parking lot I was in. Had to wait for him to finally shove off before recording.

After cleaning the garage, I took a bunch of toys back to Goodwill. The whole back seat was full.

Harry!

Rested my back. I feel better.

Downloaded the episode of Verbal Surgery that I recorded this morning onto my Mac.