Came in #1 this week in the Semi-Finals of the Duolingo tournament. The competition seems very tough this week. Hopefully, I’ll be in the top five.

Year end report.

Got an email from a guy who I talked with years ago. Looks like I’ll have lunch with him and his Pastor next week.

Our heater isn’t working that great. It’s heating but the fan isn’t blowing the air much.

Cold.

OYB!

I met with my banker Kaberi Besu at PNC at noon. She has helped me out a lot over the last few years. She explained to me exactly how much I ended up paying this year. I wasn’t sure the exact amount because they just sent me a big check to reimburse me. She also gave me the good news that our house will be completely paid off August 2026. I’ve been paying every other week and that accelerated the end date. Originally the mortgage would’ve been paid off in April 3030! That’s nearly four years early. I thought that was pretty good.

Not sure what happened to this. I sent their letter to our health insurance agent.

Apparently, there was a massive data leak at Bank of America. I had to change the passwords on the Whirlwind Missions and my personal account. What a hassle. Once I got the mobile app working again, I ordered some more checks for Whirlwind Missions, Inc.

I let Jon Paul and Ashley know about the change.

Mileage for the month. It sure was nice to have a break from driving over the holidays.

Frigid weather on the way. Yow!

Good talk with Nana.

Everly colored a picture for me. She also made a little book and read it to me.

Went by the church to check the mail. Nothing there, which was kind of surprising.

The girls put up the tree this weekend.

Picked up Penelope after Drama Club.

I set up Penelope’s new monitor. Got her a new Roku clicker that also adjusts the TV’s volume for her on the way.

Ashley brought us a form to fill out for K in case she wants to renew her driver’s license on line. The DMV in Gwinnett County is really good.

Went to Azalea to check on the kids. They don’t have much homework if any. I gave some gloves out and dripped the sink to run overnight. In fact it’ll probably run constantly for the next five days.

I set the mission back up after the Thanksgiving party.

Picked groceries and put them away.

I’m getting a new case for my Mac air. Ironically, the case usually cracks when I’m trying to put it on. It never actually hits anything.

Interesting graphs about Duolingo. I’m glad that Spanish is the #2 language. It’s a very good course.

Push.

Did some research about K renewing her license soon. Apparently, she has to have her eyes tested, which is what I had assumed.

I asked Ashley her advice. She told me they were booked for over a month.

I’ve enjoyed watching this movie “Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose.” It features a poem by Yeats that I like.

Tweaked my Jedi video game.

Baylor beat Kansas Saturday night 45 to 17. That’s six in a row. Didn’t see that coming.

OYB!

Good talk with my buddy, Anthony.

Made PBJs for J.

Set up an appointment to talk with PNC bank about my mortgage tomorrow at noon. Sent my banker an email, though I’m not sure I’ll see her tomorrow.

I’ll come in an easy #1 this week. Next week is the finals.

This guy is such a grifter.

I downloaded iOS 18.1.1 last week. One of the additions is the ability to change where the app icons can be placed. I’ve redone the screens to make the apps easier to access.

Cold!

OYB!

I thought that the heater in our house might not be working properly. I changed the filter. That seemed to help. I will call these guys back and cancel if it continues to work.

Good talk with Nana about her upcoming move to our house. Amen.

Good chat with my buddy, Anthony. He was waiting at the airport to pick up his son and his son’s girlfriend.

Ordered an extension cord for Penelope’s PS4 set up.

I finished typing up the Amazon reimbursement project. I did 2024 and 2023 today. Also summed up the totals. I still need to print them out and write the checks so I can take them to Jon Paul to sign.

I’ll come #1 this week.

I deposited the disbursement check I got from PNC bank from my mortgage overpayment. Amen.

I’m always learning something new about my iPhone.

Made PBJs for J.

OYB!

Español!

Cold and getting ready to be even colder.

Went to the GoodWill in Stone Mountain and in Snellville looking for nice monitors for the PS4 I gave Penelope for her birthday.

I had to figure out how to power the TVs up, how to connect them to some type of input and find an HDMI cable. I basically took over that section of the store, plugging things in, finding cables and checking out how they worked. A man came over to help me. He actually works on fixing TVs! So he gave some good input. It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of. It didn’t have a price on it so I talked to one of the warehouse guys and told him that the rest were about $25 but this one was smaller than those. He came back with the TV after about ten minutes with a brand new price tag of $15.99. What?! So I had two guys do me a solid today. I’m usually the guy helping someone else out. It was nice to have the shoe on the other foot!

I gave it a good cleaning with a washcloth with a damp soap/water mix when I got home. That made the screen look like new again.

Went to Stone Mountain to record a new episode of Verbal Surgery called, “The Unknown.” Excellence in audio!

Hard freeze is on the way. I put on protectors for the two outside faucets.

Put the TV I got from GoodWill back in my car and covered it up.

Adelante!

This show looks like it could be fun.

Good idea.

Talked with my buddy Anthony this morning. His Dad just had a heart attack.

OYB!

Español!

Cold weather is coming. I brought my carnivorous plants back inside.

I haven’t been reimbursed for business expenses that I’ve entailed with Whirlwind in over five years. I’m working on cataloging the expenses and totaling them so I can get reimbursement checks.

The bulb in my desk light broke today. Ordered another one as well as more printer paper.

My roses in my front yard are looking lovely.

We had a great time at Ashley’s house today. She cooked a lot of food. I appreciate her having us over. Miles and the girls were doing great! I gave Penelope my old PS4 and the VR head set for it.

We had fun playing Apples to Apples.

Keep going.

I’ve been doing research on walk in showers.

Banksy is one of my favorites. I’ve seen several of his works in London and Jerusalem.

More scams all the time.

I downloaded a new section of Horizon Forbidden West called “Burning Shore.” It’s made specifically for the PS5 and just looks incredible. They have a photo mode that you can use to tweak the exact picture that you want.

OYB!

Everly enjoyed playing with the Silly String.

Set up K’s phone so she could tell where I am.

Ashley was having a problem with her Jeep. I called AAA to tow her car to Garmon to have a looked at it.

They showed up at her house in less than ten minutes! What!?

Español!

Ashley had decorated the house for Penelope’s birthday and Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Gassed up my car and checked the oil. I added about 1/2 quart.

Refilled the quart container.

Went to my office to check the mail and process checks. Thank you, Father!

Deposited the checks.

Ordered more Scotch tape. It’s one of the most useful tools ever.

Wrapped Penelope’s birthday presents.

Push.

I connected a new cable from my USB hub to my Mac Air. Hopefully, that will solve the signal issues I was having. I looked into what the hub would cost if I need to buy another one.

This is the second time I’ve seen someone hit a mailbox on my street.

Really cold weather on the way. Glad all my plants are inside.

Pastor Bill came over to my house to take a look at turning one of my bathrooms into a walk in shower.

Kathy went over to Cheryl’s house to pick up the grandgirls.

I drilled out a new hole on my belt. I need it tighter when I’m wearing short pants.

Went to UPS to send back the cable I didn’t need.

Met K and the girls at the Doggie park.

I sent J’s health insurance check in.

I took PE out to eat at Hot and Cold. Penelope liked her fortune. Tomorrow is her birthday!

Went to Brisco park to exercise and feed ducks and geese: Moscovy & Mallard ducks with Canadian geese.

Everly is quite a climber. I told her to spit on her feet. It helped a lot.

I have an app that identifies the animals we see. When I share the picture, people let me know what they think it is. So it’s AI plus people.

Since it’s Penelope’s birthday tomorrow (#9!), we went to a couple of different Good Wills. I got a couple of hats I like. Also went to the Dollar Tree.

Came home to play with some toys. We got a birthday balloon to celebrate.

The girls have fun in J’s hammock.

Don’t stop. Won’t stop.

Anthony said they got some rain but not a lot in the Midlands of England.

Came in #2 last week.

Set up Netflix on my PS5.

I upgraded to iOS 18.1.1 last night on my iPhone.

Barker’s blog on losing weight.

Wasn’t familiar with this term.

OYB!

Beautiful weather.

Watered my upstairs plants.

Good talk with my buddy Anthony.

Finished clearing the leaves from the South side of my house.

Got rid of the sticker plants.

Looks better.

Jessi helped me get a game save from my PS4 onto my new PS5. I appreciated that!

No one will even get close to my score this week.

Just in case you wondered.

Studied how to transfer files to my new PS5 from my PS4.

The games look nearly photo realistic.

OYB!

Worked on trimming bushes and cleaning out the flower beds. It was a lot of work.

Español!

WX! Beautiful day. Getting ready for a cold blast in a week.

Listened to music in Español for a while, then switched over to Don Cheto.

Decided to work on the flower beds by the front of the house first. There were tons of leaves.

I used a tarp, a rake and a blower.

Full of leaves. I’d say about half of them are still on the tree.

Fixed the downspout extender.

Tied up the Wisteria.

Trimmed the bushes back. I’m going for a cleaner look. I took this picture early. The final product looks different.

The tarp, rake and blower make for a good, fast combo.

Looks pretty bare now.

I worked for about two hours than folded up the tarp, wrapped up the cords, and put all the equipment back up.

Next big job was to transfer files from my PS4 to the Playstation Network. Then I cleaned every piece of equipment, rolled up the cords, and put tape around them to keep them neat. SUPER dusty job. I also had a PSVR set up. That was the hardest to take apart, clean, and put up.

I had a lot of physical games as well. Now I download them.

Unboxed the PS5. It was on sale and happened to have the 2025 Basketball game with the device. Don’t care about that at all.

Checked out the cables and controller. Didn’t take me very long to set up.

I’ll use my PS5 for all my streaming services. I really only use/have two now, Netflix and Amazon Prime. I’m still setting things up.

I’ll come in #2 this week again. I don’t have a problem with people working harder than me.

This mass deportation thing sounds like it’s going to be super bad for our economy.

I’m very interested in the Ukraine war. Russia is about to collapse.

Still working on getting Jessi’s health insurance squared away.

Español.

OYB!

Español!

We had someone knock on our front door last night. I covered the glass portion today to add privacy.

Blew the roof and cleaned the gutters.

Cleaned off the deck.

And the driveway and facing the street.

Raked the heavy parts.

All looks clean now.

Released an episode of Verbal Surgery called, “Phase Two.”

Keep going.

I’m diving into iOS 18.1.1. I’m not big on change. But what the heck.

I ordered my new PS5 on Black Friday through Amazon. Priced down to $374. Could no longer resist. Should be in tomorrow.