Perhaps I shall write a new post.

What about, what about...

There will be another dearth of blog posts from the me. Tomorrow morning, I will be departing with my family and heading up into some mountains far away from here for some camping. There will be walking. And pictures. And food. And cookies that are oh-so-amazing. AND A TRAILER. THERE WILL BE A TRAILER. Thank heavens. Last year both the tents leaked and there was much much rain. We had to cobble together beds in the backs of cars. Bad day.

I really wish I had taken pictures of my room last week or so. Why? Because I spent this weekend cleaning things and rearranging things. I still have cleaning and rearranging to do now, but there has been a big big change. A really big change.

My elbow is sticky, and WALL-E is an awesome movie. (Believe it or not, those two things are related.)

Well, mates, I'm off. It'll be August next time I post... and hopefully the start of big things!

Going Hiking

As several of you may have noticed, I have a new camera, and have been using it. Nowhere will this be more apparent than in this post.

See, I got off work today to hike to Timp cave with my family, and rather than blog about it with words, I'd much rather give you some pictures with comments. Easy for me. : D

(Oh, and I did not steal this from dearchilly. This was how I was planning to do this all along.)

We have arrived! The first thing Siri notices is the river below. The first thing the rest of us notice is the sign. "Walking on water is prohibited."
Patsy, holding Cait while we wait for Father to purchase our tickets for the cave. His indifference extends to both the baby and the person holding the camera.
Siri, looking entirely too cute with her hair up in ponytails. Oh, by the way, we did embark on this hike with a three-month-old and a four-year-old (as well as my 80-year-old grandpa.) You shouldn't worry about them, though. I was the one falling behind.
Here's Cait, all suited up and ready to hike... ride, that is. Mother carried her all the way up, and held her (as well as fed her!) all through the caves.
Boo is an amazingly cute girl when she stops to smile. This is about the best picture I have ever taken of her. She did surprisingly well the whole hike; just a little hyperactive, hardly any complaining. Huzzah!
There are 18 of these signs along the trail, and we stopped at each one so Father could read aloud from this book. Due to this, many many people passed us, and I was able to take pictures without falling further behind. Of course, whenever the camera comes out, Siri is quick to notice and get in the picture.
Here's... half? of my siblings, posing in a little tunnel. Behind them you can see a sign, one of many that my sister and I read in tandem with matching English accents. We were more than a little annoying.
This is a wall. Why does the wall have sharp rocks in it? So you won't sit on it and risk falling down, down down...
Red lines mean "High risk of falling rocks! Keep moving!" Some of these lines were incredibly long, and many of them were uphill. Often the walkway along them was frighteningly dented.
Somehow... I don't know... I took all these pictures up and back, but I didn't really care much in the caves themselves. Here's one shot, one that I decided to do without my flash. For no reason.
I had been stopping all along the way to shoot any trash I found, and on peeking over a wall, I spotted this hat. As I prepared to take a picture, however, my phone rang. Yes. I was halfway up a mountain, and my phone rang. I had a rather mundane conversation with the caller (probably mostly due to the fact that I didn't tell the caller I was halfway up a mountain), then took the picture.
Siri gets odd obsessions with certain numbers every now and then. Today was 13's turn, so i made sure to point out the 13 medallion in the ground. I took a picture mostly to help cheer her - she was seriously flagging by this point, and kept insisting she couldn't "walk properly."
"Um, where's Siri? Everyone, where's Siri?" "I assume she's with dad..." "Let's stop and wait, just to make sure." "Oh! There they are. Someone should probably take Siri; dad has Caiti already."
47!!!! (Also, we're over halfway down!)
What you see is nothing less than amazing. During the last quarter of the hike, my dad was carrying not only his backpack and Caiti, but Siri as well. Enjoy your hike indeed.
After conquering Timp, we tackled a nearby Wendy's. Mostly at my insistence. I really needed something to eat by then.
Not surprisingly, Siri was zonked at the first available opportunity. This was a lot for short four-year-old legs to go through. Her sleep was well earned.
Also not surprisingly, by the time Cait was through sleeping through the hike and being fed while Mother wandered the caves, she was alert, watchful, and... trying to eat her burp diaper.

So that was my day today. Man, I'm so tired.

I Spy With My Little Eye

Star Trek: Voyager. (Boy is Janeway annoying on occasion. Plus, many dudes, most of the holographic, are dying. And I wonder why that one alien guy is threatening the hologram with a gun. I mean... what's that going to do?)

Baby swing. (Empty now. She's stopped liking it. Again. Even the white noise won't calm her.)

Draik holding Caiti. ("Hey little Caiti, what is with all the fight? Little bitty Caiti want to bite, bite, bite." See here)

Mother. ("Don't bother me.")

Bamboo 7. (Small and annoying, as always. Just finished yelling at Siri for being in his way.)

Siri. (Don't take away the cup... she will kill you.)

Shanna. (Sitting quietly in the rocking chair, in her own little world.)

Mac Mini. (Off, for once. Odd. Very odd. Oh, wait, it's Thursday - No Technology Day. Unless you've bought your own, as I have mine.)

Caiti. (Why am I holding her now? The rest of this will be very hard to type.)

Clothes. (How can we have so many clean clothes, yet none of them are mine?)

Wendy's. (Okay, so that's just wishful thinking.)

Oh, and I know you tagged me, Sam. That doesn't mean I have to comply! Ha ha ha!

I Was Wet and Cold, But Then it Was All Better

After not going to FHE, and then going to FHE, and playing in the sprinklers instead of listening to the lesson, and then ignoring my friends all the way home, I finally reached the safety and loveliness of my own home. I ate the happy, happy chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (oh heaven), and then decided I needed some real dinner (thank you, ward, for having sandwiches today). So I cut some potatoes, covered them with stuff, put them in the oven, and went off to take a shower.

Half an hour later, the potatoes were done. Being in a joking mood (why do I feel so good after ignoring my friends? This is a problem...), I listened to the steam escaping from the potatoes and told my mother, "They're screaming, mother! They're screaming!"

My poor, dear, sweet, and, at the time, very tired sister Siri got a very sad look on her face. "They're... screaming?"

Instantly I realized my mistake. "No, Siri! No! It's just the steam. I promise. They aren't screaming; they aren't alive."

Unfortunately, the damage was done. She was "sad" and "scared" (her words) for the rest of the night. Or until she fell asleep about half an hour ago.

Blast! I'll have to carry her down to my room as soon as Perry Mason is over...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the potatoes are delicious.

Twister

Last night, after shedding anger and becoming light as a bubble, I made myself some gluten-free macaroni and cheese. While doing so, I suddenly shouted to my siblings and cousins that we should play Twister, a game that I have recently found myself enamored of.

Problem: by the time we had all eaten, and I had taken a shower, all my siblings under the age of 15 had been sent to bed. Also, Patsy had gone to bed 'cause he's smart like that, and Draik wasn't home yet. Also, my parent's door was open, and they had gone to bed, demanding that we be silent if we insisted on being awake.

Solution: well, before we got to the solution we had to do my hair. Which meant that I did my hair while my cousins watched Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged with me. Once all my hair was in curlers (and, luckily, my brother had come home again), it was time to tackle playing Twister while being absolutely silent.

"Too bad my room's a mess... we could play it there. It's right under mom and dad's room, but that's better than being just down the hall from their open door."

After some discussion, I came up with a great idea: play outside! Which meant we ended up at the end of the driveway in the light of a streetlight - or, we were in the light of the streetlight until it turned off. At which point we were in the dark until it turned on again. And then it would turn off.

This wasn't the only problem. Draik had brought a laptop out with him, and he somehow that that it was more important to chat than keep spinning, even when the three of us (myself and my two cousins) were yelling, half at him and half in pain, as we perched in our precarious positions. Our yells were even louder when cars would pass, because more often than not we were in positions that presented our rear ends to the road.

There was also the problem that I had: I could never win. Ever. Either the pain would be too much or I would lose my balance for no good reason.

After a good fifteen minutes of quick games, I begged out; Siri was with us and I knew she wouldn't go to bed until I went with her. I left my brother and cousins sitting on the Twister mat at the end of the driveway, discussing my brother's girl troubles.

As far as I know, my parents have no idea how we managed not to wake them while playing Twister last night. Somehow I don't think they'd much like the idea of us playing Twister at midnight at the end of the driveway.

Party at My Place

There was a party at my house last night (though I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this blog was either there or knew about it, so why bother saying so?). It was quite the fun party.

The first people to arrive were Board people, followed quickly by a few of my 'real' friends and more Board people. (Interestingly enough, Board people outnumbered 'real' people until the very end.) Within an hour, I had almost twenty people here. And an hour later, about half of them were gone. Whatever.


One of the die-hard attendees, who was there until about two-thirty in the morning. But was she there for me... or my baby sister? The world may never know.

One of the high points of the evening was when yellow m&m called Sam looking for directions (he assumed) back to my house. Ten minutes and many directions later, he realized she wanted directions to the house of a girl she was supposed to be picking up. Amid much laughter, I took the phone and gave m&m my friend's number so she could get some helpful directions.

Another high point was my cake. First we couldn't find any candles, and then we found 39. And we decided to put them all on. Here's my cake, and my torso. And my name tag. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." Everyone there knew my name, most of them both of my names, so I got creative.

While we were in the kitchen eating cake, my dad took over the TV and started watching a show about the world's 10 creepiest places. While this might sound scary, watching it with my dad, my cousins, and my friends made it hilarious. Unfortunately, after that we decided to watch another ghost show and were throughly freaked out. So we all fell asleep in the living room watching Men in Tights.

And now my brother, who stole some of my friends and skipped the entire party, is getting mad at me because I won't let him have the wii turn he thinks he deserves.

As the Swan in the Evening

Well, it is evening, and I am dressed in white...

Okay, I have a white shirt on. That's close enough.

This is a shout out to my good friend chillylint, not only because she is giving away a game... she's also totally awesome!

Anyway.

Chilly is someone I always love to chat with online. Talking to her brightens my day, no matter what has happened to me. Her blog is updated regularly with interesting stories and beautiful photographs.

For a writer, I sound incredibly second grade. : p

Did anyone have a good Fourth? I did. I was paid to watch the Stadium On Fire show (okay, I was paid to work, but that's basically what it boiled down to), and when all was said and done, my paycheck for that event was calculated to be about the same as what people paid to get in. And while Miss Cyrus is not someone I would pay to see (thank heavens for earplugs... those fangirls are loud), it was really cool to see Blue Man Group.

I think they got things the wrong way around. Miss Cyrus should have opened, and Blue Man Group should have headlined. Honestly... "I know God has an ultimate plan, so I'm stoked"? About the war?

Note to reporters: do not directly quote Miss Cyrus. It only makes her sound unintelligent.

My Genius Brother

I believe I have spoken of him before? Patsy McCoopington?

I shall now proceed to update my blog, periodically, with stuff I stole from him.

Maybe someday he will get his own blog.


"In My Living Room, October 18, 2007. The Unanimous Declaration of Me,

"When in the Course of human events, I get Royally Ticked Off by certain People in Charge, I decide to declare Independence from said People in Charge. Certain Peer Pressures push me to use their Computer and Printer one last time to do so.

"As the Declaration of Independence states, certain unalienable Rights include the Pursuit of Happiness. When People in Charge take away my Games of Video, it becomes my Right, it becomes my Duty, to Go Off and Do My Own Thing.

"Besides Confiscation of Games of Video other Grievances they have caused include -

"They have refused to give me substantial amounts of Money for No Good Reason. -

"They have made certain that my Freedom of Speech does not include Swear Words. -

"They have pressured me to get Good Grades in school. -

"They have forced me to go to Scout Camps in Cold, Leaky Tents. -

"They have allowed Scoutmasters to take me on said Scout Camps. -

"And they have said they Don't Give a Rip when I say I could use certain Portable Game Consoles.

"I henceforth declare Independence from these People in Charge, and I am taking the Wii with me.

"Signed, [Patsy McCoopington]."