Pshaw

I could type for hours and still not even touch on how absolutely lovely today was. Firstly, though, I’m going to touch on the not-so-lovely part of today, which happened this evening not too long ago.

Okay, so Jake often sort of pretends to punch people. This type of ‘punching’ is up close to one’s face, too close for comfort. I’m always sure he’s going to miss and accidentally punch me for real, and that is exactly what happened. Clara was (still kind of is) crying and nearly hyperventilating. Her nose might be broken. I’ve never been that scared after somebody gets hurt.

Now, I’m not going to say another word about the incident because I don’t want to keep remembering it over and over again. I saw it happen.

On to the holiday festivities (speaking of which, we still need to light the menorah):

Most of my family woke up bright and early this morning, or at least before 9 am, and then we of course proceeded to wake those who were not yet up, consisting of Jake and Lydia. Then it was time for the obligatory kids “walking to the presents” picture. We stand in a line in the hallway, oldest in the back to the youngest up front, and my mother takes a picture. Shockingly, she only took one this year. I guess she’s starting to realize that we don’t like standing still for oodles of photos in order to get the “right one.”

Next, of course, it was present time. I ended up getting so many presents over the course of the day that I couldn’t believe it. I was under the impression that this Christmas would be much smaller, but it sure seemed grander than ever. Maybe I received to many because the things on my list were all relatively low in price. Either way, here is some of what I received and some pictures from the websites to go along with them. I am pleased as punch right now.

^Lovely earphones, I think, but my mother hates them. Says they’re creepy and that she’s noticed that a lot of my presents this year are disturbing.

^It’s a music player! It’s a phone! Could it be…both? Yes indeed, and it was free after having my old, beloved phone for two years. It’s real spiffy.

^These are the most adorable little miniatures! Super detailed and I love them!

^All four are thigh high socks from welovecolors in gold, royal, emerald, and red (funny how they’re the four “basic” colors, eh?). My knee highs are always falling down (to my knees, which makes sense, but still) so I thought I’d get some taller ones.

^ Oh my goodness, that stuff is amazing! With my luck, of course, there was nothing really sour in the house to try it with, but we did have some clementines. I ate like, three of those. They tasted like candy! Delicious, healthy candy! Marvelous, it was.

^It just looks like a pile of floating books, but it’s actually a hidden bookshelf. Awesome stuff.

^That was my gift from Santa. It actually broke shortly after being opened, so we’ll be returning it for a non-broken one. It knits i-cord.

^It’s an ornament and much cuter in person. That is the best picture I can find.

^Micro Spy Remote– a universal television remote that’s tiny.

^On a t-shirt

^AMAZING! I saw it in theaters and loved it and I’ve watched it already. Absolutely fabulous. Highly recommended.

^The milk chocolate ones. It’s a tradition for my dad and me to each get a box of them.

Oh, and I also received some The Office related things, sticky notes and pens and such, including a stress ball of Dwight’s head.

Aaaand for Secret Santa it turns out Emma had me. She gave me an amazing purple umbrella and mini peach rings. I had Clara and gave her purple eyeliner and gold eyeliner. Last night I also received pajamas with lovely little triangular trees all over them.

Well, this post is long enough, I think, and it’s getting late. It’s been a long, fun day and a happy holiday indeed. As Travis from YouTube said (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nQJdQUX8uw), Merry Whatever.

Love you all to pieces.

EDIT: (I tried to add this last night shortly after posting, but the computer was being a douche again)

I also got an amazing dinosaur plant, as seen below:

It really is amazing.  It grew in three hours.

As one site says, it is:

• A Prehistoric evergreen that keeps coming back to life!
• Grows in one day! Unconditionally guaranteed to grow!
• Can “sleep” for fifty years and spring back to life in one day!

So, yeah, it is pretty amazing.  It actually looks a lot greener and leafier than in the picture.

Bye now.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

We brought home our Christmas tree today.  It was much quicker to find one than last year, probably because we chose one already cut rather than cutting one down ourselves.   It’s in the house now, just waiting to be decorated.

We also went Secret Santa shopping.  It was long, very long, but I think it went well.

I knitted a Soap Sack for one of the various relatives we have to make something for.  Many more to go.  I’ll probably make a few more of them.

In a little while we will be lighting the menorah.  Hooray!  The Festival of Lights has begun!  Happy Hanukkah, by the way.

I am VERY excited for tomorrow (holiday party in Child Development in the preschool, going to Ashley’s house to edit the video, etc.)  and the day after and pretty much every day after that for a while… many great events coming up.

Bye now.  I have David Bowie and Bing Crosby’s rendition of Little Drummer Boy and then, yipee, Hanukkah!

EPIC MOVIE

I spent this morning watching Lydia while my parents went Christmas shopping and then, from the day on to less than half an hour ago, I was at Ashley’s house filming the movie.  We’re now all done with the filming.  All that’s left is the editing, of which there is a great amount.  IT IS OH SO EPIC!  I’m going over to her house again to edit, along with Courtney, on Monday, the day after tomorrow.  I am SOOOO looking forward to the finished product.  EPIC EPIC EPIC!  Oh, also, we made Christmas decorations at my house this morning.  They are spiffy.

This is short, but doobee doobee doo, does that matter to you?

Farewell, evil robot killers.

Still more to do, but done for now

I typed up the Chapter 29 Outline for AP Euro this afternoon, start to finish.  Speaking of AP Euro, our teacher was absent today and yesterday.  Videos and discussion, oh joy.  Today we watched most of a video called “Gallipoli.”  I like it.  A lot.  Love love LOVE it.  This truly has nothing to do with the fact that the main characters are named Frank and Archibald, awesome names, by the way.

Christmas packages have been coming in the mail left and right, and I wonder- what on earth is inside them?  I’m not the sort to shake presents and guess what they are, but I do wonder…

I’ve been watching on and off television shows about people with rare skin conditions.  That is all to say about that.

A few minutes ago I brought Lydia outside in a sling all wrapped up toasty warm with a fuzzy green blanket that mysteriously showed up one day and my father’s Yankees hat in order to put my library books in the car so I don’t forget to return them tomorrow.

I hope it stops ice raining and snows instead, though I would rather it ice rain than nothing.  Actually, I hope it snows Wednesday night or Thursday morning, not tonight.  I don’t want to miss Club Day tomorrow, or Wednesday Club afterwards.

It’s a good day, my friends.  A very good day.

With love,

Hope.

43,109 Words and a Mitten

I finished knitting the first mitten today.  Pictures will be posted hopefully once both are finished.

I wrote about 3k today but I hope to be at at least 45k by the end of the night.

My parents bought a car seat and some clothing for the baby.  My mother’s due date is Friday and I am no less excited than when I first found out.

Now I am going downstairs to watch Journey to the Center of the Universe and write some more.

The climax of the novel is over with and writing it nearly made me cry.  It involved somebody being shot and killed.  That is all I will say, for now.

Twilight and Thanksgiving

Last night I went with Jake, his girlfriend, and her friend to the movies to see Twilight.  We saw it really late at  night, with the movie starting at 11 pm.  I didn’t expect to like it all that much, seeing as the books left something to be desired (how about character development, for one?).  However, I actually ended up liking it quite a bit, or enjoying watching it, at least.  There were a lot of parts that made me laugh that were supposed to be serious parts, but that made it all the better.

Now, Thanksgiving: I am tired from eating, as people always are after Thanksgiving.  The pecan pie I made turned out nice, as did the jello.  The turkey was delicious as well.

I finished the hat I was knitting and it ended up humongous, but I like it anyway.  I am going to be knitting some nice blue mittens soon, hopefully very soon, seeing as my hands are always so cold whenever I go outside.  And, now, I am going to type.  I am about 2000 less words behind, and I hope to make that number higher.

Goodbye.

I got some things done today but, still, no writing.

I baked two pecan pies for Thanksgiving and have one layer more to go for the jellos I’m making for tomorrow.

I watched the two episodes of The Office that I hadn’t seen yet and now I’m watching a movie with Nicholas Cage in it, titled It Could Happen to You.

Words cannot describe how surprised I was when my brother invited me to go to the movies to see Twilight tonight with him and his girlfriend.  The books are ridiculously awful and overrated, but I’m thinking the movie will be better.

Oh, also, I’m knitting a neato hat and I really want to get back to that and watching the movie, so goodbye.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, friendly beings!

Conversation between Somebody and a visitor who does not really care as well as things from my real life

“And where is that charming cat of yours?”

“You mean Duke?  He killed a man.  Now he is on the run with a fifty-thousand reward to whoever finds him.”

“Oh, how nice!  You always have been so good with your hands.”

A swirling vortex envelops the both of them.  “That’s what she said,” a voice mutters against their better reasoning.

—

Today I did a lot of reading, much like the day before yesterday or whenever it was.  Here is what I read, and then some other things-

[1]Edgar Allan Poe: Poems and Poetics*, edited by Richard Wilbur; this, being composed of selected poems of Poe, it was of course destined to be an excellent book.  And it was, though I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not been reading for so long and hungry for dinner.  I will have to read it again some time to appreciate all of Poe’s qualities.

[2]I finished Between the Bridge and the River* (I got the title right yesterday) by Craig Ferguson.  It was a good book, granted, but, as the back cover claims, this book is, “…guarenteed to offend- regardless of religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, or profession.”  This book was ‘hysterically funny’ as mentioned, but really offensive as well.  It did not really offend me, seeing as I am never really offended by anything, but besides others owning this same characteristic I think it would offend everybody else if they read it.

[3]The Way We Talk Now* by Geoffrey Nunberg; this book is composed of essays that are ‘commentaries on language and culture.’  I thoroughly enjoyed this, seeing as I am interested in things people have to say on both of those manners.  His comments on slang’s changing part of speech throughout the decades was my favorite.

—

Other things I did-

[1]I knit for a bit (rhyme!) on my scarf.  It is four feet now, and as I mentioned yesterday I want it to be six feet in the end.  I am hoping the third time really is a charm, and tonight’s re-do re-do knitting sleepover will actually work for the better.

[2]I was (and still am) watching Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  I am only a few minutes in, but so far it is funny in a creepy sort of way.  For some reason, movies of the past decades always seem creepier to me.  There is just something about the fact that a movie was made before I was born that creeps me out.

[3]I became excited for tomorrow’s Wednesday Club.  It should be riveting.  I have five books to return, providing I do not make my way through any more tonight, which I hope to do on top of the knitting and movie-watching and all.

[4]I played games with Lydia, mainly advanced peekaboo.  The ‘are you still there behind the tree?’ edition is tremendously exciting to Lydia.

[5]I woke up to the sounds of Abie and Benny punching the floor repeatedly, for some unknown reason.  I complained about this but my mother ended up lecturing me for sleeping in the sunroom/playroom and then getting upset when people played in it, so I stopped doing so.  The complaining, I mean.  I already mentioned the knitting sleepover re-do re-do of tonight.

[6]Speaking of sleeping in the sun room, it gives me the strangest dreams.  The one I remember from last night involved mango slushies, of which I have been craving for the longest time.  There was something with people turning into zombies or something, too, so it all balanced out to a neutral dream in the end.

I am leaving now, to do the things I mentioned; [a]read, [b]watch the rest of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and [c]knit.  Farewell.

P.S. Apparently, we have internet again but are now going on Netscape instead of Internet Explorer.  So, hooray, I can for sure post on here now instead of relying on Lurker’s laptop!

*Also apparently, for some reason, the underlining is not working properly… so that is the reason for the lack of underlines in this post on the book titles.

Yet Another Verbose List of Repetition

I am really, really hoping I can type up enough for this post before something comes up that stops me. The computer still has a virus, unfortunately, but the internet sometimes still works so I am attempting to write the post anyway. My older brother is out somewhere and I cannot use his laptop without him because he has a password on it that does not allow you to log in unless you have it.

Okay, today… hmm, I think I actually did/did not do some things today. Here they are… and some other thoughts and miscellanious things.

[1]A minimal amount of more knitting. The scarf is now about two-and-a-half feet long. In the end, I hope to make it about seven feet, maybe a bit more. I like long scarves that I can wrap around my neck a bunch of times: plus, it would look like an inchworm was choking me, and that would be pretty neat.

[2]I attempted to set up our incredible sweater knitting machine. With it, I would be able to knit really fast. Plus, from what I remember when my mother used it a lot, it is really fun to use. I would even be able to make a vest on it, which would take a long time to make otherwise. Unfortunately, one of the pieces to it has become misplaced. My mother says she will try and find it soon, tomorrow maybe.

[3]My mother went to a yarn-dying class and dyed an amazing light blue, dark blue, and chocolate-colored yarn today. She says she may start up an etsy shop, if she can learn how to make it at home. That would be awesome, especially if it became really successful. Plus, we would have even more yarn at our house, and yarn is wonderful.

[4]I have been (and still will be) earning money from baby-sitting Lydia. I earned fifteen dollars this morning. Perhaps if I baby-sit a lot then I will not even have a need for a summer job (which I am still hoping and looking for).

[5]I watched all but seven minutes of a movie called Next. It is about this guy who can see two minutes into the future if it directly affects him. Naturally, the FBI find out about his gift and need his help in finding the locaction of a bomb that, when dropped, will kill eight million people. So, yeah, it is pretty realistic. Regardless, it is really good. I am sure the ending will be great as well, but seeing as there is no place to watch the rest of it (one DVD player is being used for Playstation II, one is in the room where Lydia is currently asleep, and the portable DVD player outlet cords are lost), I do not think I will be finding out anytime soon.

We had a typical summer dinner tonight; corn on the cob, burgers, tater tots, and cantaloupe. Hey, did you know that cantaloupe has the alternate spelling of cantaloup? There does not have to be an E at the end. That is terribly interesting.

Almost as interesting as something my mother told me today- that people from the home state of presidents often move to Washington D.C. after a president from their home state is elected… if that makes sense… it sounds a bit verbose, but I do not feel like going back and correcting it right now. I am in a hurry.

The knitting sleepover did not work out too well- Jake stayed in the room pretty much all night on his laptop, so there was no privacy for playing truth or dare or anything. Plus, I kept getting freaked out and too scared to sleep because of thinking so much about sleep paralysis. Ugh, I should not have even typed that… we played an extremely short game of Would You Rather and the question was, “Would you rather get ten shots or have sleep paralysis?” As much as I despise needles, I chose the first. I would hate hate hate to have sleep paralysis.

Okay, I think this post is almost long enough… these usually are about seven hundred words, I think, and this is so far six hundred seventy-eight words. Almost there…

Wow, I have tons of emails from long ago that I have never deleted, and I have still used up only three percent of my memory. That is crazy.

It is so weird, looking back at the things I wrote a long time ago. I sounded so… stupid. Chances are, I will read this a few months from now and think the same thing.

Okay, I still have nothing much more to say. (Ugh, verbosity… if that is a word…)

Farewell. If I do not post tomorrow, it is because of the computer virus.

Happy Father’s Day, from me to you… happy Father’s Day…

Yeah, I just think of a certain tune whenever I think of Father’s Day.

So, as is extremely obvious because of the above statement, today is Father’s Day. We did the usual get-up-around-7:30-and-go-to-the-grocery-store-and-get-things-for-breakfast-in-bed thing. After breakfast, which was eggs, bacon, bagels, strawberries, and blackberries (picked from our yard- the blackberry bushes are now ripe!), and the distributing of presents (mainly handmade cards, chocolate covered pretzels, this special chocolate syrup, the newspaper, and a few other things), we brought the chicks outside.

Archie is getting so big that it is crazy. She has nearly all of her adult feathers grown in, though you can still lift up one of her wings to see all of her chick fluff, and she is much bigger than she was when I first saw her. I will try and take a picture sometime soon to post on here.

Other than Archie, the rest of the chicks are also growing up nicely. Abie’s two chicks, Dennis and Eliza (can you tell I picked the names and convinced him to agree to them rather than his original choices of Bippy and Boppy?), are the two tallest of the chicks. Benny’s, Violet (I suggested this name as well), still has the sweetest-looking face. Everybody, including me, says that Archie has the prettiest feathers. I cannot wait until she starts laying blue eggs- I may just start liking eggs again… at least, I will try them. I cannot guarantee that I will like them.

Remember the project I was talking about making last night? Well, I started with it and am now just about finished. It is a purse/bag made out of crumpled construction paper.

Valerie gave me the basis for the idea- the day before yesterday, at Courtney’s surprise party, she was talking about how in elementary school she crumpled paper many times and rubbed it on the edge of her desk until it got soft, then made bags with it. I pretty much kidnapped that idea and put it to my own use, making a construction paper bag out of glued-together layers of different colors of construction paper. The outside is green on one side, orange on the other, with the lining (bottom and sides) out of black paper. I am not finished with the strap yet, as I am not going to glue the other end to the bag until the first end dries and I know whether it is the right length. Its shape is actually holding up rather well, so I think the project may be a success.

We just finished cleaning and straightening up the sunroom, the prerequisite for tonight’s game night. We are going to be playing Apples to Apples and Trivial Pursuit.

Before that, though, we will be having a sort of cookout. We are going to have barbeque ribs and other cookout/picnic-related foods. Potato salad and baked beans and all of that.

I think I am going to spend the beginning of tomorrow watching the movie In America, that one we got from Netflix a while ago. I am such a procrastinator- I keep saying I will watch it that very same day and I never end up doing so.

Oh gosh oh golly, oh gee, Wallie just commented on a post and said he missed everything about school. I have been caught up in other things, but I just realized that this is true for me as well. It is so weird not going to school each day. For every day so far, I have woken up at the normal school time and then thought, “Oh, I do not have to wake up this early,” and then gone back to sleep. I keep thinking, “Oh man, tomorrow we have school again,” but we do not. And, really, I wish we could have a sort of school day at least once a week where we just go to the school and see everybody and then sign up for whatever class you want for a day. It would be nice and I am sure it would cure part of this missing of school thing.

Dinner will be ready soon and then game night will be here, so farewell now. Have an excellent Sunday.

Oh man, it is Sunday. I will need to take out the trash.

P.S. I just remembered to say something about the comments I have been receiving lately on old posts. They have a combination of random words. I have gotten two so far, from two different people, and am confused. Could somebody possibly explain the crypticness?