Day 438

Summer is officially here. DCC is out for the year so off to the pool on a Monday! All kinds of firsts for the season which we're all very excited about. Complete with a flyover by the Thunderbirds doing their site survey for their Wednesday AFA graduation show. The TimberCreek Church folks threw a little ice cream sundae party for Tracy to celebrate and thank her for leading the Kids Ministry. She has pulled back from that spot in order to go full force at her nursing degree.

Pondering when to transplant...

The water cannons are Jonnie's favorite

The first gin and tonic of summer!

And the first slip and fall at the pool

The Thunderbirds are in town for
Wednesday's graduation at the Air Force Academy

Thank you, Tracy!

Day 437

Tracy was honored this morning at church for having served as Children's Director for the last year or so. She's stepping back from that to get her RN degree. We hopped and skipped our way to Vaqueros for lunch while getting Fina and AJ to rehearsal times. Fina put in a few hours, and AJ was there for about 8 hours. He's very excited about hitting Kurt's big note in "So Long, Farewell." Meanwhile, Papa and Matteo went fishing at Palmer Lake. Four trout! And Carl's Jr on the way home for dinner. Jamie started in on Nehama Leibowitz's book on Exodus (New Studies in Shemot/Exodus). Some fascinating nuggets but mostly over his head for now; it'll just take some time and effort to get a grip. The layout/approach is unfamiliar, she references unfamiliar material, and she really gets into the nitty-gritty of the language.

Note the train in the background.

Day 436

Another huge day for AJ, starting with a reunion for his 2019/2020 year at School in the Woods. Despite being cut short by COVID, it was a tremendous experience I don't think he'll ever stop talking about. Their reunion today included a hike to many of the favorite spots on the property out in Black Forest. Then directly to a baseball game followed by 6 hours or so of Sound of Music rehearsal. Nana and Papa took Fina over to part of that same rehearsal for Sound of Music and stopped by Bad Daddy's Burgers for dinner while we waited. Oh, and Jamie attended the Friends of the SMVRR's Gala by Zoom between taxi service duties.

AJ's SITW Tile (#51)

Buttermilk Fried Bacon and Fried Jalapeno Deviled Eggs!

Day 435

Continuation Day! AJ is now a DCC Middle Schooler (6th grade)! Papa and AJ took an extra-long walk to school today during which he spent some time sharing how many of his Sound of Music lines he's memorized so far using LineLearner on his new (to him) cell phone. It was also pajama day for the littles. Part of AJ's celebration was lunch at Ted's Montana Grill. Jamie had a unique experience at his equine program volunteering activity - today was horseshoeing day! 

"I'm Kurt."

Flying Horse Foundation

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...