Day 434

Today's the penultimate school day of the 2020-2021 year. Matteo had a band concert this evening (and wore Jamie's black dress shoes!). And Walter's supplied lunch for the adults and dinner for the kids (though they weren't terribly hungry after their very special visit to 7-11 for penultimate day treats). Jamie joined a Zoom meeting of Treasure Box Tours about Denver streetcar history. Very much like his Parlor Car Chats. Looks like that group does some interesting tours...

The walk to school. That's Jonnie in the lead.

AJ's class.

Fina's yearbook

The quilt top is done!

Our DCC Elementary kids; one going on to Middle School.

Slurpees after school.

Day 433

Swim lessons for Jonnie and Lexi today. Serafina had her cohorts over to the house most of the day, including some playtime at the end for jewelry perusing, mineral viewing, and a trip down memory lane back to Suzuki violin days. Nana dove into her jewelry stash to find just the right turquoise pieces to take on our upcoming New Mexico trip. Lexi's class has been doing some plant "esperimens": do they need water, soil, sunshine, etc.? Not sure what they've concluded yet, but she's quite "into" it.

Lexi is mothering her plant to the max.
So far so good.

Day 432

Got the hard copy tax return sent to California because they couldn't figure out how to accept my e-filing. Also got the dead car title off to the insurance company. And Lynn got her cortisone shot. Lots of errands this morning. Finally, lunch at El Padrino's with what has become my absolute favorite form of nachos: chips, their chili con queso with chorizo, and lightly-fried jalapeno slices. Lynn found a new favorite today, too: Mexican scampi. First thing at the van stop, Matteo had to show me his achievement award! So, of course, I had to take a pic. Fina and her parents found her replacement car, another Lexus (at the Mercedes dealership!), but this time two years younger and midnight blue. They managed to be at the right place at the right time - three other buyers were interested in it. I got into researching what a certain passage in Genesis meant by "evil" and ended up with books everywhere. I'm gonna need a bigger desk... We also managed to "recycle" our trash today by bringing the full can back up to the house before it was emptied.

Turns out the Hebrew word for evil, ra (resh ayin), is quite interesting. It encompasses a lot. It's unusual in having only two consonants. Most Hebrew roots have three consonants. This has led to numerous 3rd consonants being added to further detail what kind of evil is being talked about. Ra may well come from the name of an Egyptian god, Ra. In Genesis 47:9, Jacob speaks of "few and evil days." Evil here could also mean hard, ill-fated, calamity, and/or difficult. It's interesting to note that the Hebrew looks to me to be in the plural here (ra-im), suggesting it may mean all manner of bad things.

Look who came home with an achievement award!

Gonna need a bigger desk... All for one word...

Day 431

Lots of blooming going on now and this did not escape the kids' attention on the walk to school. Nana's gotten a few hours in on her quilt lately. Nana and Papa took AJ to another Sound of Music rehearsal in Falcon this evening, so why not have dinner again at Frankie's Too. This was after running back into town to get a Zelda book for David at Barnes and Noble. P.S. taxes did get filed today.

Day 430

First Sunday at TimberCreek Church where we're all back in one service. And as it happened, the Kids area had to move to the big gym (testing going on in the small gym) so as a whole church family we were closer than ever together (the big gym is right across the hall from the sanctuary (theater). A huge day of rehearsal in the afternoon for AJ (1pm-9pm) and Fina for much of that, too.

Day 429

Huge day for AJ - Royal Gorge Route Railroad! It was a birthday present that Matteo got to enjoy, too. But before we get there... The day started with an AJ baseball game. He played well, but the team lost. As AJ put it, it was a "mercy stop" to the game when the other team got 10 runs ahead. Nana and Papa ran Fina out to her rehearsal in Falcon and had lunch at Nana's Kitchen (what a coincidence!). AJ also had a rehearsal for 3 hours, his first coming in cold after the casts had been rehearsing for about 2 weeks. He did super well. Then the big event, the train ride he's been waiting for since the twins got to do it a couple months ago. And boy did he, and we, have a great time. Oh, and Cold Stone ice cream on the way home. All the pics are here. We got home about 11pm.

Nana's Kitchen in Peyton.

That's a cinnamon roll to the right!

Day 428

Remember the very yellow dandelions Lexi picked on the way to school a week or so ago? Well, they've matured. Nana and Papa closed the deal on their new car (may the GLA rest in peace). It was a 4.5 hour process; Jamie barely made it to horses - with the new car! And Lexi found peace swinging to her music.