Dad's at work right now, so we're all happy.

I finished Hanazakari no Kimitachi E, at last. Now I want all the books...Very satisfactory, and my throat is sore from laughing.....

And Arisa and I are corresponding. She is so much fun to talk to!

Reading Alice 19th now. It's by Yuu Watase, who did Zettai Kareshi. She likes fantasy/sci-fi-ish romance, and draws in a style I like.

I finished school around noon, and even Owen hasn't finished yet. Fufufufu. Having Dad at the other comp is restraining me only slightly. Mom got an audio/book course in Japanese from the library, and I'm doing a bit better with it. It's easy, and I'm learning pronunciation while I'm at it. The book also has the hiragana and katakana symbols, which is lovely. I lack the courage for kanji, but maybe I'll be able to read the effects when lazy scanlaters don't translate 'em.

Oh, so Blogger and the Mac are willing to cooperate now? Why not earlier?

Huge Hana Kimi update, thanks to Kyon, but the squee! has worn off, since I've caught up, and also because Kyon said two days ago that he'd add more yesterday. He hasn't, nor today. Oh, well. Or maybe AUUUGGH?

Mom and I went to Goodwill, which is pretty nice: the books are actually sorted. Imagine! Anyway, we managed to finally get me a pair of BDU pants. Only four bucks, too.

I have sore legs. Today I jogged/walked down to the road, which is a mile round trip. Yesterday Sid took us on a hike at, um, Red Rock, I think. Day before we went the Eagle Rock Mile for the *first* time. Geh.

Owen just finished Chariots of Fire and transferred to Dragon Tales on PBS. Gag. We watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Halloween night. It was fun.

Dad, at home with Baron, is wanting us back in less than a week, so we're going home tomorrow afternoon. Phil is supposed to show up at some point this evening. We certainly aren't holding dinner for him.

So on Tuesday Mom is taking the entire junior contingent to Co. We're leaving the dog with Dad.

OneManga added a bunch of new series. I'm on Hana yori Dango, Boys over Flowers.

We're pretty much getting away with being on the comp, somehow.

Dad's home.

Oh....

Apparently Eichi-kun died years ago. No wonder she doesn't mind dying.

Never mind.....

Fantasy scenario:

Mitsuki: Oh, Wakaoji-sens--ah, -san. Um, sorry about that with Takuto. He's a Shinigami now, and he didn't remember you or anything about his life. Unfortunately, you jolted his memory, and if he doesn't become a full Shinigami soon he's going to become a ghost instead, since he remembered too soon. Sorry about that.
Wakaoji-sensei: Could I have a minute to absorb this? And you nearly called me sensei just then--you really are Mitsuki-chan, aren't you? What are you doing hanging out with Shinigami? And why did you run away from home?
Mitsuki: Grandma wouldn't let me sing. And I can sing, now, thanks to Takuto! He can heal my throat tumour!
Wakaoji-sensei: What? And why do you look four years older? You look like your mom.
Mitsuki: That's Takuto too. Sixteen and healthy! But it only lasts for nine more months, then I'm going to die. I hope I can see Eichi-kun first!

.....and besides being cute, are also very funny.....yeah, I'm reading Full Moon now.

.....Or if, for some weird reason, I were to decide that Full Moon wo Sagashite is more fun and still has Shinigami....cute Shinigami whose heads match their bodies.....

Trying Death Note. I'll keep going unless something interrupts...such as, for instance, Hana Kimi fills....or if they uploaded more Crimson Hero (27 chapters doesn't last long)....or they added Wild Ones....I'll just stop here, shall I?

Brain.....melting.....

Darrel's son watches Rurouni Kenshin. Darrel's son watches Rurouni Kenshin. His wife is Japanese, and his teenaged daughter likes a lot of the same stuff that we do, but this is too much.
Arisa's favorite manga is YuYu Hakusho (we currently have all but four of the library's collection checked out) and we even have the same favorite character. And she likes Hana Kimi and One Piece, and Fushigi Yugi and Death Note which I haven't read, but she has explained to me who one sympathizes with in a manga about a guy who finds a notebook that kills anyone whose name is written inside (and proceeds to use it), which I'd wondered about. Fushigi Yugi is by the mangaka of another manga that I've read all through.
Arisa's younger brother has a very good Sullen and Bored Teen act going, so conversation would have been pointless. He does read manga, but when I asked if he liked One Piece, the answer was "It's been awhile." Bah.
Anyway, I'm on Cloud Nine because now I have someone to ask when I want to know what the Japanese is for "Shut up." And other things.
Baron was tied out while they were here, and her dad was pretty intimidated. He said that Baron was a very impressive Rottweiler. Very large. I said, after a few repetitions, that he as only most Rott and that maybe whatever else was in there had bulked him up a bit. Anyway, we sold the big aluminum gates to Darrel, and his son and grandson loaded them up. Oh, yes, and the little bookcase from Doug's room, which B wanted for Easton.
Mmm. Right. Arisa is nearly as tall as Doug, long black hair, very slim. Taller'n me. Her face takes after her mom, but I think her sandy-haired dad makes her hair lean a little toward brown.

Last night we watched 7 of Rain. It's the first time we've laughed so much. It's when they catch up to Cheza, Hana no Shoujo, and just watching how everyone reacts to her is hilarious. Tsume's expressions when somebody is blindly trusting her--eh.

Mom's on the phone with Dad right now.

Went to eat at Chipotle tonight. The boys got Star Wars: Best of PC at Target, and we went to Barnes and Noble to drool, since it was close. So many vols of Hana Kimi......so little money......

Reading Crimson Hero. I like a girl who punches when she needs to. Though I don't think it left a mark....

All right!! OneManga uploaded Fall In Love Like a Comic! Mehehehe.....after the first chapter, it just gets better. Now if they'd just put Wild Ones up...

Yesterday we had some ladies show up in a Hummer. They were on their way to garage sale in Lincoln, but they bought some stuff. And then this morning there was this guy and his teenaged son. Guess what they bought? Three dolls. Maybe there's a little girl with a birthday coming up. And one was in need of a wash, and the other two were wearing my makeshift outfits. I'll never understand that one.

Tonight when everything's done we're gonna go out to eat. Looking like Chipotle.

Only wolves can find the way to paradise.....

Well, it's about wolves, yeah. It's very dark, so far. Two sympathetic speaking parts have died so far, and we've only finished the second episode. Well, the woman might still live, but I doubt it. The wolves can disguise themselves as humans, which Kiba didn't like at first. He was won over by the ancient argument of "What good is pride when you're dead?" There are two independent pairings at present. Tsume, the leader of rebels, has Toboe, the boy who is more of a dog. He behaves more like one. Kiba and Hige are more equal. I don't think we've met any females yet. No, wait, I think Cheza might be a wolf. Eh.

Today we're cleaning out the garage, since we're gonna need it for our sale. Taking a break presently. More thunderstorms today. It was actually sunny this morning, making the 100% likelihood for precipitation in the forecast rather amusing, if correct.

Lately we've been listening to the soundtrack for an anime called Wolf's Rain.We don't really know anything about the anime itself, but the music is by Yoko Kanno, who did Cowboy Bebop. Enjoyment is therefore near-guaranteed. At least one familiar singer, Steve Conte, is an extra bonus.

OneManga is promising an update of Karin and the addition of a few new series. I practically live there these days.

Well, my room is once more a shambles, since Mom had me empty the wardrobe. Heh.

They added another chapter of Koukou Debut. Already finished it. Doug's still reading Perfect Girl Evolution, which despite the shoujo tag I'm not reading. I admit it's funny, I just don't want to start it.

We went to town yesterday. I checked out the other three Bardic Voices by Lackey and The Spirit Ring by Bujold. It's kinda funny: in the beginning the plot could become The Tempest--but it doesn't. One of the preventions is the fact that Ascanio is only ten, and I think he was Shakespeare's hero. The other prevention is that I think Author-san took a vow to never have a prince for a hero. And if he's a prince, he can't be young and handsome. Makes things interesting. Thur, the hero, reminds me a bit of Hugo in Heyer's The Unknown Ajax.

Oh, yeah. Utter happiness. Robin McKinley is running a blog. She says her editor gave her the choice between the blog and going on tour, and she has a horror of going on tour. I'll take the blog, thanks. I mean, we love her for her writing, yes? And here we get some of it every day. What could be better? Her address is at livejournal. It sounds to me like Blogger is preferable. She still hasn't taken the first step to getting pictures up, i.e. getting pictures into her computer, so we have to be content with hearing about the hellhounds and Peter. Peter is Peter Dickinson, her husband. He writes fantasy and sci-fi for kids and teens. Drat, that was what I forgot at the library. Besides that July issue of Shoujo Beat. Speaking of which, I got the latest ish yesterday. Aaaaaahh. Yummy.

Well, my room's looking better.....because Mom recruited Smear. Phew. I helped, yes, but she did most of it. And I painted the cabinet in the bathroom......and Mom's had us sort out the clothes for storage.....

I'm rereading Hana no Kimi. There is other stuff, but I've exhausted OneManga, and Mangavolume doesn't have tags or descriptions or anything, which is annoying.

Well, the goats and the chickens are gone. We loaded up Samantha and Baby, and even more recently the lady came for the hens. Hm.

Good grief. Hana no Kimi is completed, with over one hundred chapters, but OneManga only has 30. Now I'm reading Beauty is the Beast on Mangavolume, which has hundreds of mangas up, but is pretty disorganized.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUGH! IT"S THE LAST AVAILABLE CHAPTER AND IT ENDS ON A CLIFFHANGER!!!!!! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

Hanazakari no Kimitachie, of you in Full Blossom, commonly known as Hana no Kimi. It's much better than Power!!, maybe 'cause for the most part it's more serious. I mean, there is this guy who has a crush on Mizuki, but doesn't know her secret. He's comic relief. Since she's a student in an ALL BOYS school, he agonizes a lot. Heh. The hero is Izumi Sano, a high jumper who Mizuki has had a crush on for years. When she started high school, she transferred from America to his school in Japan so she could see him jump with her own eyes. =D Now.....well, duh. Narrative causality. But she still doesn't know that Sano knows she's a girl, because like all heroines, she is INCREDIBLY DENSE sometimes. It reminds me of The Masqueraders sometimes, although the things at stake her are pretty different.

We primed the mudroom today, and tomorrow Darrel is coming to pick up the goats. Mrs. Schultz knows someone who'll take the chickens, though apparently she doesn't want the rooster.

Aaaand Dad's out the door--for the second time today. Last time the Buick started making funny noises. Oh, well.

Finished Koukou Debut, the five available chapters of Penguin Revolution, and the twenty-two available chapters of Special A. Now I'm catching up on One Piece. Dunno what then.

Reading Koukou Debut still. When I finish that it'll be Special A, which was the preview in Shojo Beat this month, and OneManga has more'n 20 chapters up.

It isn't actually seven in the morning, but they're trying earlier than usual. Today we've been taking books and china and ammo to a storage unit here in town. Building 4, unit 14. Dad's going to be leaving in a few days. Today I finished painting the north wall of the living room, so next is going to be above the bench. Dad and Doug have been working on the upstairs bathroom, which they need to finish before Dad leaves.

One worry is Baron. If we can't find a place that allows pets, we'll have to shoot him. If you say you'll take him, Phil, you'd better be prepared to find a place that takes monster dogs and roommates that'll put up with him.

The parents are now getting Doug and me up at seven ack-emma.

Mangas to read when they are next updated:

Beauty Pop
Hatsukoi Limited
Karin
La Cordo Doro
Ouran High School Host Club
Thousand Years of Snow
Vampire Knight
Zombie-Loan

We went to B's this evening to take her cake, ice cream, a birthday card, and roses. This entailed going to Wal-mart, where! I found! the latest! issue! of Shojo Beat!!!! It's the Halloween issue, which is a royal pain, as for instance there was only one chapter of VK, and there's a good part in the next chapter. Bah. But there's a poster to make up for it. =D And there's the first chapter of a new manga, since Baby & Me ended in the last issue, and there is no preview of a book. I still haven't read much of it, since Peter and Owen were sent straight to bed and I had to do Pete's dishes. Oh, yeah, and June and John, cousins of B, are staying with her presently. They're nice, and John has common points of discussion with both Dad and Darrel, e.g., guns or cattle. His kids are choring for him while he's gone. I think when we move I'll try to make up a family tree on the Loden side with help from B. That counts as keeping in touch, yes?

Dad's home. It is nice to have him back. He's been complaining about Rick's kids. XD It's nice hearing him tell stories about the people whose appliances break, and general stuff about Montana.

Well, we're home. I'm mostly unpacked, in what is record time, since we only got home a bit after midnight. Dad is coming home today to spend a few weeks fixing up the house. Hopefully he's bringing a Dillon phonebook. Oh, yeah. Apparently Rick's found a three-bedroom apartment within our price range, whatever that is. I hear the word "apartment" and instantly shy away. It might not be half as bad as it sounds, but associations and all that.

On Wednesday Sid Seaman took Doug, Owen, and me to the Garden of the Gods for a hike and lunch. It was fun. The gift shop has these beautiful little porcelain horses with designs on them. For example, one had black saddlebags, exhaust pipes, and flaming legs. It just made you think "motorcycle". And it's a horse. That was just the funniest one. Sid works in the jewelry section, so we got a tour of the Navajo rugs from a half-Navajo friend of hers. Tina was nice, and funny, and educational.

Dad just called. He's crossed into Nebraska, but there are still four hours to go. He sounds very happy.

In Colorado Springs

We got here Friday night. Baron is behaving himself fairly well. Philip took Peter to Golden with him this morning. Mom's going to have us all doing school, except that some of Peter's schoolbooks somehow got left behind.

Philip took us to Barnes & Noble and the library on Saturday, and I got Dragonhaven and Making Money, but my fifty bucks has been magically reduced to nine and some change. At the library I got a Patricia C. Wrede omnibus, Shadows Over Lyra, and a couple of Lois McMaster Bujolds. We also went to Best Buy, where I was tempted by all the anime DVDs, but I withstood, fortunately considering my current state of finance.

We stopped by B's when we left, and she has a couple of boxes of books and magazines for writers. I brought a couple of the Writer's Digests with me, and they're pretty good.

Mostly packed. I'm taking a break from Power!! to read Chibi Vampire. This may sound weird, especially considering the titles, but I think that CV may be better.

Ugh. We're leaving tomorrow morning. Sara is going to take care of the animals for us, for three bucks a week.

I'm reading Power now, having finished Fruits Basket. It's basketball, but shoujo enough that I'll probably read it all. The art isn't much, though. I mean, it's okay, but I don't really like that style. But it's funny, and I like the heroine.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! Check came! Total amount: $448.27. Deduct 35 bucks for Susan, who was included in the lot but who wasn't mine. Leaves me with $413.27. Add to that $383.38, and...hmmm... $831.65. Muahahahaha.

Yesterday afternoon Darrel and I took all the sheep and Susan to Palmyra. Dale was there to unload them. There weren't very many lots there, but then it was still a few hours before the sale.

I'm at B's right now with Peter and Owen. Doug wormed out of it. B isn't very happy about us moving, and it doesn't help that Mom found out that she's been tearing Dad down to us--Owen and me. Peter and Doug aren't very satisfactory audiences. Anyway, it very nearly started a war, and we didn't come yesterday because B was sulking. So we got lots of computer time, especially Doug and me, 'cause Pete an' Ownie went to town with Mom. Mom's gonna come get us at 8:45 or thereabouts. You would not believe how slow OneManga is on B's computer. It kinda looks like Tohru is going to end up with Kyou, but we'll see. I'd kinda prefer Yuki. 57 more chapters, I think. Man, it's scary how different Momiji looks after his growth spurt. He is actually positively identifiable as a guy now. Nice change....

There's a trailer running on the Disney Channel for a movie called Sydney White. It looks like a high school retelling of Snow White, and it occurred to me: waking her up with a kiss is a waste of a first kiss. Not having seen the movie, I don't know whether it actually is the first kiss, but the question still arises.

Mom, Peter and Owen have gone to town. We have enough money to buy Peter a new pair of boots, which is why he went.

Still reading Fruits Basket. So is Doug, on his own.

Doug and I went to the Amens' after the route. They're going to be taking the job when we move, it looks like. Tomorrow, Saturday, and next week we'll be training them. Mr. Amen is, well, acting like Dad would. Telling them that it'll be a responsibility, etc., etc. Speaking of whom, Doug is a little taller than he is now. :-] So anyway.

Dad called. He told us to do devotions without Mom tonight. Owen kicked up a bit of a fuss. *sigh*

Reading Fruits Basket. It's starting to get serious. Ehh.... Oh, well. Can't be helped.

Spent the morning in town, starting with a trip to a little bakery for donuts, or rather, baked breakfast-ish goods. Not really donuts. Also went to Wal-mart, Barnes & Noble, and Super Saver. Got the latest issue of Shonen Jump, Vol. 1 of MeruPuri, and Full Metal Panic: Fighting Boy Meets Girl. I am now flat broke. Doug found some Bionicle books.

Mmm. The Ouran anime is pretty funny, but I wouldn't watch it for just the art. And--um--I'm playing the Gaia game. It's an even more elaborate game of dress-up than Yahoo avs is. Unfortunately clothes cost money, so it's a bit more than dress-up.

The boys are watching .hack Sign. The music is by the same person that did Noir's soundtrack. Emo.....

Reading the Beauty Pop manga whenever Doug isn't reading Ouran with me. It's really funny, despite the subject. I think my favorite of the guys is the black-haired one with glasses, Kazuhiko Ochiai. He's the one who keeps trying to manipulate Kiri into joining the S.P. club. The club president is the the one who doens't like her, 'cause she's a better hairstylist than he is.

Oooooh! Yay! Ochiai has a crush on Kiri-chan! Yessss!

Been sorting the books from Owen's room. We're flat out of packaging tape. Running low on boxes the right size. Mom's going to work tonight, so Owen's probably going to have at least one tantrum. Actually, he already had one this morning, but I doubt we can count on his having exceeded his quota.

Watching Bleach 127. We now have Noir, Bleach, and Eureka Seven music on Della. It's a pain depending on Owen for blank discs, though. It helps that we're buying them from them, since then he can't claim that they're actually his and he only lent them to us.

Eh. The problem with Bleach is that since Ichigo and co. run into all the most powerful people, they keep getting beaten all the time. Constantly. And Ichigo agonizes about it, too (with some justification, admittedly). So it's really dark and painful and stuff. *sighs* Shoujo really is more what I want to read/watch. One Piece is about the best shounen gets. Well, maybe Claymore too, except I'm not consuming that. I don't know which category Rurouni Kenshin is in. I think it fits them both, really.

Well, B took Owen to spend the night as well as tomorrow at the farm, which is an enormous relief, because he is never at his best when Mom goes off and leaves the four of us with the computers. Rather the opposite, in fact. Especially tonight.

On ep. 121 of Bleach. It's about all I can do without Doug, that I'm in the middle of at present. Noir? We're doing that together. Rurouni Kenshin? Ditto. Ouran? That too. Mattaku ne....and I haven't much to do between turns, because I still don't have any new books. Moan. Except learn Japanese, and there are limits when it comes to studying on a half-holiday, or whatever it is.

Owen found an anime music download site, so now we can burn CDs of our favorite anime music. *happy* Furthermore, Mom got him some CD-Rs for his birthday, and since there isn't much that he wants, Doug and I can have some.

Dad just left.

Okay, yes. Ouran is very very funny. And yes, the Club President is the other half. He is certifiably insane. She's good for him, though. Doug and I are reading it together.

Dad is leaving early tomorrow morning or late tonight, however you look at it. Looks like he's gonna miss Owen's birthday, for which we are inviting B and Darrel. The menu is deli sandwiches and mud pie. We got the dining room bookshelf upright and out of the way so there'll be enough room, and most of the books are boxed up. I still have to get the encyclopedias off the bench, though.

Just got back from B's. Man, my muscles are going to be sore tomorrow. We spent three hours or so at the pool, which is closing after Monday. B joined the party telling me to go off the diving board. I probably could have withstood her alone, but since Doug amped it up after she joined I went. It wasn't fun. My brothers kindly told the lifeguard to watch out for me, too. So helpful. B thinks this will make me more willing to go next year. Nope. I won't be thinking all winter, "Well, I did it and it was okay," I'll be thinking, "Well, I finally did it and I barely made it to the side." On the plus side, nobody rescued me.
And speaking of diving, there was this one guy, Doug's age or maybe a little older, who was great on the diving board. On the other hand, he had a tendency to depreciate other people's performances. My brothers', notably. They're working on flips just now, and he wasn't much of a help. It was funny how the lady in charge kept calling him to the front and making him pull his shorts up so his underwear didn't show, though. It happened three times. Sometimes redundancy is very funny.

We all got comp time. I finished Zettai Kareshi, and I've started Ouran High School Host Club, which may be a mistake. It's very funny shoujo, though. And the protagonist is a girl, which one is a bit doubtful about at first. If she ends up with that Taku wacko, or whatever his name is, though, I will be most displeased. On the other hand, is there anyone else who really seems like an option? Manga rule: if it's romance, you have to meet the other half before the second chapter. I've finished the first chapter. Looks like we're doomed.

Yes, I've been gone awhile. When I get on, I'm usually reading manga, not blogging. Last time we went to B's, I think it was last Saturday, I got the latest issue of Shojo Beat from Walmart. About 25% more happiness than Shounen Jump there. Shoujo are the girl-oriented mangas. Shounen is for guys. So is ecchi, only it's for older guys. Theoretically.

I haven't been watching any anime. I like to watch my episodes all at once, and since nobody's supposed to be on I can't even minimize, so I'm still in the middle of four different animes, including Full Metal Panic.

Starting Rex Stout. Nero Wolfe and Archie are fun. Mom says I have to survive the weekend without anything new, though.

Anyway, I've been boxing books. It seems pretty likely that we're moving to Montana in about a month. Dad will have a pretty well-paying job with Hank, and Doug can earn ten bucks an hour working for Rick. We're probably going to spend the first year or so in a rental house, where we won't be able to have any livestock. I'll have to save the money from selling the flock so that I can buy some purebreds or something. Doug says that we're going to restart our goat herd with purebred Saanen ladies if he has to use his own money to do it. Which he probably will. We're going to ask B and Darrel to take Baby and Samantha in honorable retirement, and Susan goes to the sale with the sheep. The chickens will go along too. Dad thinks that B will give me a horse and pay for riding lessons. He presumes much, and how the heck am I supposed to bring it up? "Oh, B, Dad wants to know if I can have one of your horses to take to Montana, and will you get me some riding lessons in the month before we leave and I'll be too busy packing to take them anyway?"?!! Probably. *inarticulate noise of frustration* Doug is planning how he's going to smuggle his Bionicles, which should be fun. My own contraband ought to be a bit easier. We're going to B and Darrel's tomorrow, which will give me a chance to ask stuff.

And when we get there, Dad's going to get us a YMCA mem'ship and sign us up for karate lessons. And we're going to be meeting people. Like Hank's kids. And classmates. *screams* And you are going to post a comment and say that it will be good for us, and I will tell you to shut up. Right, Phil?

Drat. Wanted! has only gotten to four chapters, it seems, and Toraware no Minoue is about the same. So far. Maybe it's the uploader's fault. Now I get to try to find Haru wa Sakura.....

Mom left some paperbacks from the library behind. *evil grin* Right now I'm reading Bolo! by David Weber, and she can thank Mercedes Lackey's tendency to write short stories for other universes that I'm not reading the romances first. Syrupy......that's what they are.

My mental alarm clock needs work. I wanted to get up at eight-thirty, and I woke a little after seven. Oh, well. Yesterday I finished Meru Puri, now I'm reading Wanted. Remember the Dread Pirate Roberts? His name has been changed to Scar, his distinguishing mark is a Death tattoo on his chest, and our little Buttercup signed onto his ship while searching for Westley, whose death she very reasonably refuses to believe in. He was taken prisoner a long time ago by Captain Scar. Who really ought to look older, if he hasn't been replaced, right? Armelia's name even comes from a flower too.

Dad is being sadistic. It's our last day on the net, and he keeps kicking us off. Peter is struggling through math right now, and at two we have to write essays on the verse "Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man." I'll manage all right, but Peter and Owen are going to be in pretty bad shape.

Hino Matsuri is a mangaka. She is very bad for me. Wheeeeee!!

Read up to Chapter 31 of VK. Chapter 2 of MeruPuri.

Gurk. We're getting the wall ready for Dad to patch. *groans*

The main scanlaters of Meru Puri so far is the sweet-lunacy team. So very appropriate. Their slogan is "Where the madness is honey-sweet."

Manga, movies, novels, fanfiction........Men never seem to realize that being told that he didn't mean it, or he got carried away, or he wasn't himself, DOESN"T MAKE HER FEEL ANY BETTER!!! If you're gonna kiss a girl, you can apologize. Fine. But don't. Ever. Tell. Her. That you didn't mean it. And yet, they always seem to do that. Okay, not always, or there'd never be a resolution or a denouement or anything. But it happens bloody often. And the girl always feels awful at the thought.

Finished all my books. We were cleaning out the barn loft a bit this morning.

Dad's on the phone and......yes......it sounds like it's a job! He'll be out of the house for a bit! Sounds like it's an estimate, for the moment.

Finished Clairvoyant Countess and Serpent's Shadow. Yesterday B and Darrel took us to the pool. I finally went on the long slide, because Easton wanted to and the lifeguard didn't say whether Owen could. Owen made a friend, Nick. He's pretty hyper. And we ate at Runza. Pete and I had double cheeseburgers. :p

Finished One Piece. The next non-filler episode come out on the 19th. I think that's Monday. Which means I'll be able to watch it, because the Net won't have been pulled yet.

Mom got me The Clairvoyant Countess and the Elemental Masters trilogy. Reading Countess right now. She and Doug left this morning before I got up.

Just finished OP 315. Coby and Helmeppo from when Luffy picked up Zoro are back, and Coby says that someday he's going to capture Luffy, whom he persists in calling "Luffy-san". Grandpa Garp has been training them. Man, the reactions when the crew found out that Luffy hadn't just spontaneously generated, and that furthermore his father is a revolutionary, the man most endangering the World Government, and that his father is Vice-Admiral Garp of the Marines, nick-named "Garp the Fist"--well, the faces were priceless.

Into a rant. When Mom gets home on Wednesday, the box will be permanently pulled; Internet to be used only by Mom, for school. Dad and us are all kicked off. What is wrong with him??? A spirit of mortification? And how am I supposed to survive with neither the library nor the Internet? Arrrggghh.......

Mom and Doug are leaving tomorrow at three am.

I found a website that has all three seasons of Full Metal Panic. Unfortunately, there's no point starting The Second Raid until after Doug gets back. If we get to watch before he goes, it'll be Noir or Rurouni Kenshin. The site

Too late.

If I'm very persuasive, I might get Mom to give the thirty-three, but it'll take some luck. I hope Dad gets that job with Halliburton. I understand the pay is very good, and he'd be gone for two weeks, then home for one, and he'd stiil get paid for the week at home. But in the meantime, I'm out nearly four hundred bucks. And it would have taken me a very long time to spend it all. Dad suggested that I buy more ECU. Is this in that distant and fantastic future where I am reimbursed? They owe Doug two hundred, too.

Annie, the Schultzes' collie mix, is driving me nuts. She nags me to go upstairs, my room being a safe haven, and she tries to stay next to me all the time. Furthermore, she has to go outside in the middle of the night. And she's a really nice dog, which makes it worse.

Aaaaahh. I happy. The check for the sheep came today....! Val went for $69, and the ewe lambs averaged $112.77 apiece. The total came out to $407.30, and after deductions I get $383.38. Rejoice with me. I never let myself hope for more than two hundred, and nearly four hundred!! I can definitely afford those books, at least.

In the middle of OP 110. All that's left is extraction.

Dinnertime.

Well, we finally finished 5. We're on ep. 5 of Noir, too.

Mom ought to have gotten me some books tonight, dunno if she did. She did return the others, since I've finished 'em.

Yeeessss! We finally took those of the sheep that were to be sold to the sale barn! That was Val, since Tag's replacing him, and the three ewe lambs. We haven't enough land to expand the herd, so I didn't keep any. That leaves Tag, the girls, and the two meat wethers. As soon as we get the check I can update my records.
Dad wasn't very happy to learn that we have to pay the sale barn to tag their ears. Federal regulations, instituted since we sold Johnny and the kids. That's the thing about NAIS--it's voluntary, but you have to have it. As Dad likes to say. And he's gotten another job in Firth, fixing another washing machine. Yay! Doug's groaning that he has to go with. His education is suffering, though it really depends on which education we're talking about here. He's learning about fixing things, but he's not starting Spanish or doing his math. And tomorrow we're taking the hogs to slaughter, eight months late. Another yay. And finally, if we're really lucky, we might actually finish ep 5 of RK. Hopefully I'll finish the other two while Doug's in CO this weekend again. Bleach and One Piece are nagging at my conscience.

Grrrrrrr.

So guess what Dad's done now? He's forbidden me to go to the library. At all. One of the two public places I really enjoy going to, restaurants discounted, and I'm not allowed to go anymore. Mom will have to smuggle books in. I'll be completely unable to browse. I bet bookstores would be banned too, if I went often enough for them to occur to him. The ironic part is that all he did when he was young is read. Grandma says she wishes she hadn't let him. Well, if she'd tried to prevent him from reading, I bet it wouldn't have mattered. This is annoying, and provoking, and it's not going to make a major difference.

Nearly finished episode 5 of RK. New character: Sagara Sanosuke. Every time I hear his name, I just can't help thinking of Sagara Sousuke, who is completely different, quite a bit younger, and in the habit of paying when he eats at restaurants. Sanosuke is a rebel type, although when he was a kid he was a sort of soldier, and he has a quite a grudge against the government--which Kenshin helped install. Fortunately that misunderstanding has been cleared up, mainly with the information that Kenshin got a job offer from an old military friend in the last episode, and refused. Heh. I hope Zanza/Sanosuke is here to stay. Also, if somebody needs to die, he can do it. Kenshin doesn't kill anymore, at all. Mainly because he used to so much. His sword even has a reversed blade, so that the edge is on the back of the blade. If he holds it normally, it doesn't cut. Anyway, Gohei, the problem from the first ep, hired Zanza to kill Kenshin. Zanza, not being an assassin, was very straightforward about it, especially because he'd already expressed interest to Kenshin in fighting him.
I seem to have gotten back into the habit of talking about the plot. Eh. I'm gonna go wrestle Doug into watching, and if that's unsuccessful, I'll go finish The Silver Gryphon. At least I still have Kaleidoscope for tomorrow, and on Tuesday Mom goes to work. Maybe she'll get me some more. I hope.

Just got back from B's. Finished The Black Gryphon, am partway through The White Gryphon. The series is Magewars. Watched ep 2 of Rurouni Kenshin. That is a funny series, though I don't think I'm quitting Noir. Went for a walk out to the lake; picked up some ticks. I felt kind of gleeful about going swimming, because no way could they have survived that, even if there were more than the two I found. There wasn't anything on TV. Just junk. There were two series we like on, and what I saw of the episodes wasn't very good. I think the boys may have been watching The Pink Panther, right before we left for the pool. It was the Beatrice water park. It's a pretty good pool. Two slides with a four and a half foot landing area; two diving boards; and a pretty good shallow end with a kiddie slide. Easton had lots of fun, and Owen is surprisingly good with him. Oh, yeah, and I found the latest issue of Shonen Jump at Wal-mart. The English edition is way behind: the One Piece chapters were way back on Drum Island, when Chopper joined the crew. Pity we couldn't get the last issue, though. It had some funny stuff with Zoro.
Rurouni Kenshin is really funny. He's a really good swordsman, legendary but incognito. Rurouni means wanderer, and Kenshin is his first name. I think the anime is pretty old, though. The style is old, and the sound quality is pretty awful sometimes. I bet it's older than Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet. Kenshin has red hair and purple eyes, and so does Alanna the Lioness. I refuse to consider that an anime this good borrowed something from Tamora Pierce. The other name for the series is Samurai X.
Well, I expect 3 has loaded.

So, yeah we went to town today. Shopped, and then Mom took us to the library, where we were supposed to stay while she went to her meeting at SCC. But Dad freaked out about us spending two hours or so at the library sans parental supervision, so he drove all the way to town with Doug and got us. Boy, was I mad. I haven't been to the library since before I went to Colorado. But then he took us all to Zesto for ice cream cones, which we really can't afford, but it was nice. Owen got ice cream all over his shirt, and since he got chocolate it showed up really well. And then Mom stopped at the library before coming home and got me a trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, and Kaleidoscope by Dorothy Gilman. It's the first of two about Madame Karitska, who, I believe, is clairvoyant or psychic or whatever. If it weren't Gilman I wouldn't read it. I forget what the title of the trilogy is, but it's Valdemar before its founding, and the titles are The Black Gryphon, The White Gryphon, and The Silver Gryphon.

Standards? Huh?

Um, no, not really. But, you know, when one or two characters have no sense of humor, you can have plenty of ROFL moments, maybe more than otherwise; but when nobody has any sense of humor whatsoever, even LOL moments are rare. Interesting. Anyway, Doug wants to average an episode a night. We're only on 2. Sheesh. I think I'm gonna start Rurouni Kenshin, and then I can watch that the rest of the time.

Tomorrow we're going to town. I've done my chores in advance. This'll be the first time I've been to the library since the Colorado Springs libraries. Gonna have to stock up.......as if they'll last. Mmmm. Mercedes Lackey, hopefully Patricia C. Wrede, can't think of anything else.

Coming out this September: Full Metal Panic: Fighting Boy Meets Girl on the 11th; Making Money by Terry Pratchett on the 18th; and Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley on the 20th. You just gotta laugh at the FMP title. Which is the point, of course. I've been thinking about the liklihood of their coming out in hardback first, which would be a pain, 'cause it'd come out to something like forty-five bucks. Come to think of it, is that the English release date or the American for MM and Dragonhaven? Hmm, how many things can we think of to worry about?

Okay, Noir is cool, but it isn't funny. We made it through the first episode without laughing once. Doug says he doesn't think we did for the first ep of FMP, but he's very forgetful. I don't think he remembers the entire episode. Anyway, it's a professional assassin who's probably in her twenties and a schoolgirl with no memories. Let's go, folks.

It seems we've given up on Season 3 for the moment. Doug wants to watch Noir next, which means it's what I'm doing next. Doug doesn't watch on his own time. Is irritating. All I know about Noir is that it's anime, has great music, and has a mystery theme. Except that that's just what Doug says: we'll see. We'll see whether I want to watch more than one ep. Actually I wanted to start Rurouni Kenshin before Peter and Owen find it. Phooey.

I've been looking at the names in FMP. The organization Sousuke works for is Mithril: the precious metal mined in Moria. The submarine Tessa captains is the Tuatha de Danaan: a possibly Irish name for elves. Getting a bit paranoid here, there's an extremely minor character named Dr. Goldberry: Goldberry is Tom Bombadil's, uh, wife, though it doesn't seem to fit her, also from Middle Earth. And Gauron's name is very similar to Sauron. The first two are indisputable references. I won't fight for the other two, though.

Doug and I have finished Season 1 and are trying to find a reliable source for Season 3. Nobody seems to have the vids. Veoh has two or three, and they're very available in, say, Italian, but not English. Strange.

Oh, yes, and Gauron the Immortal finally died. I think he was insane. Certainly a creepy weirdo.

Somebody has been goofing around on Ebay: Assault Rock.

And this is my 100th post.

AUUGGH!!! Sousuke beat Gauron again and he's still alive!!! People are starting to say he's like a cross between a cat and a cockroach! Grrrr.......What is he, immortal?!

Let's see. Episode 310 of One Piece, whenever I go back. Actually it's on hiatus until August 19, to give the manga a chance to get further ahead without using filler. Filler is annoying. And I'm on episode, um, 121? of Bleach. I have got to finish those. I'm probably not going to until I finish Full Metal Panic. Meh......

Okay, on ep. 15, been watching with Doug. Peter's turn is next, 'cause it's so convenient that he's on 16. We're in Sousuke's homeland, Helmajistan, tring to assassinate Gauron. Again. This makes the third time, though the first was years ago. The first time Sousuke shot him in the forehead: he says he survived 'cause he had a metal plate there. I forget why. The second time was in the Arm Slaves, and we don't yet know how he survived. He has a lovely new scar all down one side of his face now, though. Stuck with some grownups who don't want to take Sousuke's advice, even though he's fought this guy before.

We went to Olive Creek Lake, or whatever it's called, for dinner. Doug and Owen wore camo, against, Doug said, bug bites. Well, I've got plenty of those.
Doug drove us home. I think it was his first time driving at night, and the only mishap could just have easily have happened in broad daylight, and probably would have. He came into the driveway off New Hampshire, and didn't quite manage the turn into the driveway. The Buick is now sporting a lovely scrape and a broken taillight. Dad actually swore. He didn't lose his temper or anything at Doug, though, just carefully explained that there are certain things he tries to avoid, and one of them is having to turn into the driveway. Mom said he should have seen that coming.
Which reminds me that Dad rented Shooter, and watched it several times. It went back today. I've learned a lot of the plot. :p And no, I haven't seen it myself.

Oh, okay. Fumoffu is just the goofy bits and is based on the manga. There are twelve episodes of that. Then ther'e s simple Full Metal Panic, which has plot and is serious, relatively speaking. Twenty-four eps of that. Fewer contests picking up girls and more terrorists and kidnappings--though Kaname got kidnapped twice in Fumoffu. It's just that the situations were generally resolved in an absolutely hilarious manner. There was also the time when Sousuke thought she'd been kidnapped, but she'd just gone off with someone without telling him 'cause he hadn't complimented her on her new swimsuit. :D It doesn't count.

Interesting. I'm on ep 6 now, and there doesn't seem to be very much ongoing plot yet. I mean, they like each other, Sousuke is Kaname's bodyguard for some reason, complete with a faceless command that showed up only once, and he's actually a sergeant. In the first ep there was this snapshot of him at the age of ten or so, wearing a burnoose or something, holding a submachine gun. Heh.

I need to kill the boys. They've found another absolutely hilarious anime that could almost be tailored for this family, title Full Metal Panic. High schoolers again. Sousuke is this insane military genius who is also a walking arsenal. He's designed and trained for a certain environment, specifically a battlefield, and this isn't it. He has trouble wrapping his mind around this simple fact. In the first ep, there was this girl who had a crush on him, and wrote him a really soppy love note and put it in his gym locker. He noticed that the locker had been "tampered with" and blew it up, just to be safe. There was enough left of the note for him to decipher that the writer wanted to meet him behind the gym after school. Kaname, the heroine and the girl he's supposed to be protecting, suggested that it was a love note, and he said "What's that?" She stammered and didn't really answer. Anyway, what happened was that she hid behind the gym, watching the girl, until some guys came along and started roughing the first girl up. Kaname tried to help, but it didn't go so well, and then all three guys were shot with rubber bullets, and we find out that Sousuke has spent the entire afternoon behind the gym, in a ghillie suit, with face paint, covering the girl who has a crush on him. When she realized all this, she ran off crying, cured. Kaname slugged him. She does that a lot.
Owen's going to B's until sometime tomorrow. Oh, yeah, and B and Darrel are going to buy one of the hogs, which lessens the cost of slaughter enough that we're able to send them to the butcher. Finally.

119 is Ikkaku's history, or a bit of it, and he beats the Arrancar. Also, Renji thinks he should become a captain, to replace one of the three traitors. Ikkaku got Renji to leave him alone, though, with the information that he wants to die under Zaraki's command. Heh. Coming up is Hitsugaya.

I kept ice on the sting, and it didn't swell much. Now there's just a little red mark on my neck. I went for a walk again, blowing off steam after math, and the insect showed up again. I didn't give it a chance to land. Oh, yeah, and I saw Mr. Buhr when I went past, and he says I sound like Mom. I don't know what he based this on. For one thing, before he said that, all I'd said was "Hi." Maybe I sound more like Mom than I sound like he remembers me sounding.
I'm reading short story anthologies by Mercedes Lackey. Werehunter had some good ones, including the title story. Right now I'm on Fiddler Fair. Still haven't gotten to the title story.
Mom's got Doug and me reading Plutarch's Lives for school and summarizing what we read. Today we finished Lycurgus, and tomorrow is Numa Pompilius.

I went for a walk and something stung my neck. Join me in praying that this one doesn't swell up.

This morning we took 200 flyers to Firth and stuck them in people's doors. I'm sore. Firth is really hilly, and I already had sore calves from yesterday, because I took the dog for a walk and was chasing him. I knew better. I know better. And I'll probably do it again someday. And I was already a little short on sleep, because at about seven this morning, when it was still kinda misty and golden outside, I woke up hearing the sheep yelling unhappily. Turned out one of the lambs had a bucket on its head. Minor, but it was still just as well that I woke up, 'cause Honey had just decided that it was a threat and started butting the lamb, which had realized that moving around made things worse and wasn't about to run away. But I still don't like waking up that early.

B came by today. She was hoping that Owen could help her with Eastin again, and was very tragic when she heard that we're doing school today. It is true that Dad has decided that Owen's spent enough time at B's for the present, and that Owen's probably being spoiled (which he isn't, not when he's babysitting) but B still gets on my nerves. So did her reaction when she heard that the neighbor, Mike, is now a dad. They live in a somewhat run-down trailer, and B does not approve. This news is the cause of some gloating on my part, though, because I thought she looked pregnant and Mom disagreed. Enter B again. She says when she was my age she "could always tell." I can't "always tell." Anyway. It's a boy, according to the sign that I think the hospitals always issue, as advertisement for the quality of their OB/GYN staff or something.

Since the Suburban is Dad's work vehicle, and it's what we took to Firth this morning, a bucket of stain in the back got spilled when we were getting the seats back together. Dad was very carefully not hitting the roof about anything during cleanup, which is currently paused. It's strange and worrying seeing him in that mood and not mad at any of us. Actually I think it may have been my fault, but he hasn't asked or anything. Is strange. We're running out of baking soda. At least the bucket that I was offering to livestock is safe.

And we have a nest of wasps in the window cavity next to the front door. Mom got stung on her forehead, and Peter and Owen are running around calling for the insecticide, which we're currently out of.

Busy day, huh? And it's only one o'clock.

Ikkaku is fighting an Arrancar, and Rukia owned another one. Her sword is really cool. Asano, the lunatic from Ichigo's class who's really hyper and all, is going to have Ikkaku and Yamichika, which I think is Pretty Boy's name, or near it, staying with him. He's also watching Ikkaku fight and being instructed by Pretty Boy in the basics of "How Idiots Who Like to Fight Think". More or less.
Matsumoto Rangiku is staying at Orihime's house. They had a girl talk about how Orihime's jealous of Rukia, 'cause Rukia can get Ichigo out of the dumps really fast. I don't think a whole lot of guys paid much attention, though, since Matsumoto'd come out of the bath to talk. Lol.

Still reading The Lark and the Wren. We have a library card now, but I haven't had a chance yet.

Ugh. The Vaizard recruiter in Ichigo's class is going for Orihime. Can't imagine where Tatsuki was. Ichigo had to take care of it for once. Um. Uryuu swore. He wants his powers back that much. And some Shinigami are coming to school......

ICHIGO'S DAD OWNS!

We have a new Shinigami in the cast. He is SO COOL!
"I'm a non-interventionist when it comes to parenting."
"Hey, that's not true! You're really strict with your daughters."
"That's different! No, not different--an exception."
He's known about Kon the whole time, too. If he'd known about Rukia living in Ichigo's closet, though, I think the skies would fall. Doug says Ichigo never finds out. *is sad* Not even that his dad has taken care of the feud with the Hollow that killed his mother. Anyway, we're meeting a new type of Hollow. The Arrancar are Hollows that have broken their masks and become a bit like Shinigami, for the sake of more power. Ichigo's new classmate, on the other hand, is a Shinigami with a mask, more like Ichigo's Hollow.

Finished the Soul Society arc and skipped all the filler to the Arrancar arc. Uryuu's dad has shown up, and it goes both ways: he's a complete bastard who seems to hate his son, has all the Quincy techniques mastered, and doesn't want Uryuu to hang out with Shinigami any more. On the other hand, he can restore Uryuu's powers, on the condition that he stay away from his friends. He's very cutting, too, about Uryuu. It doesn't help that he's got the title of "Last Quincy", even if he technically isn't. Though, come to think of it, since Uryuu's lost his powers I guess he isn't really a Quincy anymore. Man, this bites. Anyway, in the middle of 111. The last Soul Society ep, an hour-long special that includes fight recaps, was 63. Yachiru says that Zaraki has "learned kindness." "Don't say it like I'm a dog." Doug says that wasn't in the manga, though. Who cares: it's another minute with Ken-chan and Yachiru.

Dreamed I was in a library this morning. I couldn't check anything out, regardless of library cards, because Dad was there, but I found a bunch of what looked like old Regencies. It was funny--there was this one, it was the typical "man entering ballroom framed by door", but all the men visible--no females--were wearing the Marine Captain's uniform and had white hair. Probably not actually a Regency, but you know, cover illustrators mess up so many things. I think it was a different one that I actually started reading, though. Don't remember much of the story.

Okay. Aizen took out Hitsugaya and Hinamori. Captain Unohana and her lieutenant, Isane, came and discovered the conspiracy. Aizen and Gin left for the promontory where the executions take place, where Tousen had just brought Renji and Rukia. Isane, as ordered, sent a message detailing Aizen's treachery to all officers and the ryoka. Ryoka are non-Shinigami, and refers in this case to Ichigo and company. Unohana's kinda neutral: her main concern seems to be that everything end as quickly as possible, with minimal bloodshed. I finally figured out her hair: it's crossed in the back and braided in the front. I'm envious; her hair is so long. Anyway, Aizen wanted Rukia because Urahara had hidden something that crosses Hollows with Shinigami for more power, as I understand it, inside her soul. He got it, since he's the most powerful character so far. He, Tousen, and Gin have joined the Menos Grande, the super-Hollows. Byakuya saved Rukia at the last minute, and apparently she's his sister-in-law, not simply adopted. Everyone was there to see Aizen and co leave except for Hitsugaya and Hinamori. All of Ichigo's friends; Ichigo, who was on his front in a puddle of blood; Kuukaku and Jidanbou; Yoruichi and Sui Fong; all of the captains and lieutenants except Hinamori and Hitsugaya (Ukitake and Kyouryaku's fight thankfully ended when they had to come see what was up); and Ikkaku, who may or may not have been the only third officer present.

Eeech. Ichigo's Hollow took over when he was fighting Byakuya, which, btw, means "white lightning". Very appropriate. Anyway, fortunately for Captain Kuchiki, Ichigo managed to shove him back into whatever room behind Ichigo's brain he lives in. Anyway, Kuchiki decided that since Ichigo destroyed his sword, Ichigo won. Therefore Rukia has one less Shinigami trying to kill her, and it has been established that the reason he was trying to enforce the rule was because if the most powerful clan of the nobility doesn't follow the rules, who will? and that Ichigo was not so much fighting Byakuya as he was the rules themselves. Eh. That's about all that's new.

Was editing my chatango profile. Somehow zaraki81 got onto my friends list. I'm not sure whether he added me to his list, or whether it's automatic when you talk to someone. I didn't add him. Oh, well. He's nice. I'll leave him. And some guy my age tried to chat. Probably because I like Bleach, which he evidently does. I asked him why he was talking to me, and he left. I probably could have done that differently. But really, do I want to talk to someone, for no real reason, whose username has something to do with retarded chickens?

I've just made a really good reason not to put the blog address in my profile. A really good reason. And I was seeing how exact the location was if I put my zip code in, since Zaraki's just says UK, and it was way too precise. So I dug a Lincoln code out of the phone book, which feels better. Even better than Beatrice. But man, it's a pain that you can't just make it a question mark again.

Dad wants me to put the sheep into the tree belt to graze it down. We're trying to rebuild the southern windbreak, which was only possible by fencing the belt off from the pasture, but the grass and weeds are enjoying it too. We have mulberry and poplar (?) and some others too, like elm, but I think we need some evergreens. What good is a windbreak if the effect is halved in winter?

On 57.
Zaraki's fight with the foxy guy who had a bucket over his head ended when foxy (Komomura?) ran off to see why the 13 Squads Commander General had released his zanpakto. The ComGen is fighting captains Ukitake and Kyouryaku because they destroyed the execution zanpakto after Ichigo stopped it.
Our side: Captains Zaraki of 11th, Ukitake of 13th, Kyouryaku of I forget, and possibly Unohana of 4th. Yoruichi, former Commander of the Secret Mobile Squad. Hantorou, who's some sort of officer in the 4th. Shiba Kukaaku and Jidanbou the gatekeeper. Sui Fong? She's the present Commander of the Secret Mobile Squad. She used to adore Yoruichi, but when Yoruichi left without her, she felt betrayed. I think she may come over, if Yoruichi ever gets around to apologizing and explaining. Also Abarai Renji.
Ichigo is fighting Captain Kuchiki, and Ikkaku is fighting one of those lieutenants over who has to go buy more sake, with Janken for the advantage in ground. Pretty Boy beat the other one with his shikai, which eats the opponent's reiatsu. "Don't tell Ikkaku or the Captain. I don't want them to hate me." Apparently, in 11th Squad, reiatsu-related shikai are for sissies.

54 has been officially named "Best Episode" and "Best Last-minute Rescue of the Decade". Renji is providing getaway while Ichigo holds everyone off. Don't forget to watch episode 55 for the long-awaited owning of Kuchiki Byakuya!

Zaraki just beat Captain Tousen, the peace-loving one who's also blind. His Bankai creates a world where the only sense remaining is touch. Zaraki loved it. Know how he won? He let Tousen skewer him through the body and then grabbed his hand. Nuts. There was this funny bit where he was thinking of what various people in his squad would tell him.
Yachiru: "Use your intuition to attack!" "That's what I'm doing."
Ikkaku: "Isn't it that after all? See with your heart's eye." lol "I can't see with something like that!"
Pretty Boy: "If it was me? Yes, I would give up beautifully." "I don't know you."
And then he came up with his own solution, which no one would ever recommend to someone else. The closest I've ever seen was when Zoro and Sogeking were cuffed together during a fight. Zoro said they'd play Rock, Paper, Scissors and the loser cut his wrist off. Additionally, he'd run to Chopper to have it sewn back on, but still. But Zaraki's solution worked.

I think Zaraki has gained Zoro status. Zaraki Kenpachi and Roronoa Zoro: two guys who really really rock. Kenpachi is rather older, though. Zoro's twenty-one, tops. Kenpachi might be forty, though probably not. They both have really evil faces sometimes.

Zaraki is fighting two captains: the black one who likes peace, and the one whose face isn't visible through all the basketwork. He wanted to fight their lieutenants too, but Ikkaku and watsisname stole 'em 'cause they wanted fun. Zaraki was carrying Orihime on his back along with Yachiru. A girl for each shoulder, and the lieutenant seems jealous. Yachiru does not like to share her Ken-chan.

Matsumoto prevented Ichimaru from killing Hinamori. Hitsugaya can take care of himself. Ichigo is still fighting Zangetsu, and Renji has come to share the training area while he works on his own bankai. Rukia is thinking about how unworthy she is of having people risk their lives for her. Sheesh. And that brings us to the news that her execution is noon tomorrow. It keeps getting moved up. And someone is trying to steal the execution, uh, tool, because its power is that of a million zanpakto, and five times that at the moment of execution. The main suspect is currently Ichimaru Gin. My spoilering brothers may disagree. Drop dead, boys.
That brother of Ganju's that Rukia says she killed? Apparently he was just like Ichigo. The only physical difference is hair color and I think it's a little longer in the back. Kaien was his name, and Rukia worshiped him and his wife. Lol. He was possessed by a Hollow, and she killed them both when it went for her.

While the eps are loading I'm reading Mercedes Lackey's The Lark and the Wren on Baen Free. It's not bad, at least by my standards. Music is the main theme.

We're having flashbacks, Hinamori's. "How She Came to Worship the Ground Aizen Walks On." The main characters, aside from those two, are Renji and Kira, Ichimaru's lieutenant. They were in the same class with her. She's a mousy type, most of the time.

I didn't start this blog so people could spam in the comments.

Status:
Uryu: in 4th Squad Relief Station cell. Bandaged.
Ganju: same cell. Bandaged.
Chad: same cell. Bandaged.
Orihime: 11th Squad, somebody's bedroom? Captain's, I think. In company with the Captain, the Lieutenant, Ikakku, and whatsisname. I can't keep calling him Pretty Boy. Not allowed. Oh, well. Zaraki says he's gonna stick with her so he'll meet Ichigo again. He wants to. Zaraki has a nice smile, in a scary way. He's cool.
Ichigo: somewhere with Yoruichi and Zangetsu, trying to master bankai. Ain't going so well, though he's learning.

Oh, cool. Ichigo is gonna learn bankai so old man Zangetsu, as Ichigo calls him, can come into the real world in his human form. And he's gonna learn this in three days, as opposed to the usual ten years. Yoruichi is teaching him. *grins*

All right, Ishida won in 44. He's just bumped into another captain, though. The peace-loving one who wants to get back to normal. The one who will therefore not hesitate. *sighs* And Uryuu just sacrificed his powers as a Quincy in order to win......matane...

I'm shamelessly lifting these off the net. This picture has no bearing on the series, except for having the characters in it. Chad, Orihime (looking strangely hostile), Ichigo (this is the default expression), and Ishida, whose head has been cropped. The birdlike things in the air are Orihime's fairies, for lack of a better word.

Oh dear. Guess who the present enemy's last Quincy "research subject" was......Ishida's grandfather. Uryuu says he's glad that Inoue-san isn't here to watch this. She can't stand to see people hurt, even enemies. And Uryuu is going to kill this sadist. That's a Hollow he's just killed; Doug says this is from his duel with Ichigo.

Great. The captain of Squad 12, the icky hammerheaded researcher with the made-up face, is after Orihime. He's unfamiliar with her technique (the fairies are pretty unique, apparently) and wants "to study her until she turns mushy." Ishida is fighting him, and is still learning all the stuff the bastard can evade. We don't know yet what he can't evade. On the bright side, Ishida isn't hurt yet.
Man, who knew Tatske had taught Orihime any karate? First grade black belt level? Man......

Philip, I told him.

Okay. Ichigo and Zaraki both fell over, but Zaraki stayed on his feet enough longer to say that Ichigo won. His call. And Yoruichi has been revealed as an extremely......um....a girl. And we've got Rukia's evil adopted brother cornering Ganju and Hanatorou in the tower with her. Meep.

Um. I think I should mention that these days, most shapeshifters are not in the habit of coming out clothed. Ichigo couldn't handle it. Anime has this lovely dark shade of red......

Mom and Doug are home.

Whaddaya know. Zangetsu in person. Things always look up after he shows up. Mainly 'cause they sure can't get worse.

Did I mention that Zaraki cut Ichigo through Zangetsu? Ichigo's gonna have to fix his poor blade. What does he do it with, just reiatsu?

Well, Ichigo managed to cut Zaraki, but we're having one of those time-outs while he gets his body back under control. This happens a lot. I think the medic kid is gonna be unhappy again. I mean, he just had to stitch Ichigo up last night, and now it looks like his breastbone's been cut. Something like that. He has a high-risk lifestyle.

I'm not going to watch Inuyasha until I finish Bleach, and I'm gonna watch it subbed. Dubbed is.....gimme a minute for the mental thesaurus......inferior. That'll do.

Owen's started Inuyasha, and I, like an idiot, am watching with him. At the same time that Chad is fighting whatsisname. And he refuses to watch subbed, even though this dub is kinda dumb. The sage lady sounds like she's reciting lines from Shakespeare. Exactly like that.

Dad is being "encouraging" to Rick on the phone. It's negative encouragement. Would you like to be used as a battle cry the way the Alamo was? Me neither. It means you're dead.

Speaking of Dad, I did a crummy job in the bathroom, then said something that has been true for years, but was, in retrospect, unwise. Anyway, for those acquainted with one but not the other, a belt is worse than a strap. Oh, well. It's been awhile anyway. And it's best to keep one's mouth shut as far as possible when having dirty bits enumerated.

Mom and Doug are on the way home, which means I just finished the route for the last time--until next time Doug goes somewhere. Gag. Man, I'm hot. My dress is soaked with sweat. Which reminds me: can't wear this dress biking. I like it, but the skirt is really full, and full skirts get into the brakes. I had to kilt it up above my knees, which is a pain, and my skirt doesn't stay below halfway down my thighs. Is pain. I should probably put my hair up out of the way, but I never do, cause it feels so good if there's a breeze.
The guy who lives across from the Shoemakers was kind enough to air up my tires. I hadn't even realized they needed it. He had the compressor hose out when I came by, which may be why it occurred to him.

In Bleach, Ichigo is fighting Zaraki Kenpachi. If it weren't for narrative causality, I'd say that Ichigo will never be able to beat him, but if Zaraki wins, Ichigo is dead. Really dead. Narrative causality forbids the death of the hero when he hasn't even rescued the heroine yet. Chad's fighting the flower-petal ossan with the pink kimono, basket-hat or whatever it's called, and secretary-ish lieutenant. That guy is very good at dodging--and deflecting Chad's attack with one hand.
ETA: His name is Captain Kyouraku.
And I forgot to mention that Captain Aizen has been murdered. He looks like a sweet, nerdy type, but from what Peter says, he's a jerk. Yeah, the nice ones are never pinned to walls. I'm still not certain that he's really dead, though. We'll see. And it would be complicated if he were still alive.

So I'm only kicked off for today. Dad's trying to call a "day of reading", but he's at work, instead of here to enforce it. Val was bloated too, but he should be okay. I dosed him with olive oil and burped him. Like a baby. : p

Episode 33 is filler. Don Kanon'ji is back. He's nutty. In 32, Ichigo beat Renji, who happens to have been a childhood friend of Ruukia's in the Rukon District, the slums, until the Kuchiki clan adopted her. He blames Ichigo for her present imprisonment on death row, but now he's decided that maybe Ichigo really can rescue her. Join the club, Abarai Renji. With the gatekeeper and Ikkaku, you're in good company.

Oh, yeah--Don Kanon'ji is a purely filler character who stars in a TV show where he goes around exorcising ghosts or something. At least, he can see them, but he's still an idiot. Anyway, his show is hugely popular, and everbody is always imitating his special "muahahahaha". Ichigo and Karin hate it. Ruukia only does it to bug Ichigo.

The best milker died tonight, of bloat. Kirsten was eight or nine years old, and once went two years after a kidding without drying up--and missed a pregnancy. Her only failing was a tendency to lose single kids. She was Doug's favorite, and very much his goat. She will be missed. We have only one of her kids, Susan, future breeding stock and a regular little hellion while she still can.

I'm kicked off the computer for an indeterminate period, since it was at least partly my fault and Dad is decidedly unhappy. I don't know whether I'll still be kicked off in the morning or not: we'll see. So I don't forget, I'm in the middle of episode 30.

Ichigo won, and Ganju (the thug) finally won his fight with the pretty boy. The powerful pretty boy. Who is also a biased jerk. Anyway, Ganju won. Blowing up a firework in the guy's face was either irony, or poetic justice. Probably irony. Ishita has won his fight, and Yoruichi is avoiding everything. Well, he is a cat. It figures. Man, I hope Orihime likes Ishita as much as he likes her. She's wasting her time on Ichigo: he and Ruukia are kinda inevitable.

Dad's at his first job, seeing what'll need to be done for a drywalling job so we can go to Menards. We've been cleaning out the vans for the scrapyard. Is pain.

That's right, his name's Ikkaku. Actually, nobody's called him Pachinko Head yet, but we'll get there. And it's easier to remember.

Pachinko Head is complimenting Ichigo, and they're both bleeding.

Eep! It's Pachinko Head! The insane powerful bald Shinigami with the Luck-Luck Dance! Heh.

All right, we're inside! Unfortunately the group seems to have broken up on entry......

I think I'm going to kill Owen. It seems that the bulb protector thingy on my ceiling fan fell down and broke because he forgot that my fan can be turned off with a switch and pulled the wrong thing or something. Man, the next time he wants something out of my room, he'd better ask.
On ep 25. Ichigo finally managed to make a spirit-shield. I'm watching subbed eps instead of dubbed. The Shinigami Captains are assembled. I've met Matsumoto and her captain, who is a silver-haired kid/"boy genius" named Hitsugaya. A few words about Matsumoto: she's blonde, and I've never seen her without some cleavage showing. 'Nuff said.
It has been explained to me about the name. Apparently what Shinigami do is purify, or clean. Bleach is one of the strongest cleaning agents around.

Whoa, his sis is a terror. She's going to get us into the Soul Reaper area, in the most terrifying way possible: through the air. Of course.
How did I end up with a subbed version for 24? Oh, well--I ain't complainin'.

Okay. We are supposed to only have four minutes to get in and out. I think the only explanation is that time passes differently inside the spirit world. Please note that the only reason I call it that is that I can't remember the Japanese name. Chad's found his cockatiel-possessing little friend. Ichigo has found the leader of the local equivalent to a biker gang, though maybe he isn't a complete thug. Maybe. He rides a boar.

Whew. Ichigo's five days of fighting Urahara have increased his strength a lot. Come to think of it, they've all increased power. I think Uryu fights the current problem: Gin, captain of Squad Three. Are all the Gins in anime demonic fighters? There was this guy on Baratie.....only he converted, sort of. We sympathized, anyway.

I feel very sorry for the poor cat who's leading the gang. Ichigo is another of those people who don't listen to plans. Luffy is another. Neither dies for it. Both are the despair of wiser companions.

Oh, lol. Urahara, or whatever Mr. Hatandclogs' name is, is going to train Ichigo so he can go save Ruukia from the Soul Society. "I have ten days to torture you in." One of those frank trainers. Urahara is cool. Anyway, apparently we have one month before Ruukia's trial and execution. Plenty of time, and Ichigo will finally get some education.

Dad's in bed, having apparently gone upstairs when the boys came down. I got the milking done first thing, and got Peter to chore, but Owen still hasn't gone outside. Good thing the chickens free-range.

Ep 16. Ruukia is trying to run away, because the Soul Society is after her. It is a serious crime, punishable by death, to have one's Soul Reaper powers transferred to a human. Ishido is down, and Ichigo has taken a hit to the shoulder. Not going well for the home team.

Whoa, Ichigo has a lot of power. He just beat back something that no normal Shinigami can beat, and it retreated. There are so many good lines. Uryu Ishido's grandfather was killed by Hollows, and Ishido always blamed the Shinigami, because if they'd cooperated with the Quincys like his grandfather wanted, they'd have come to help. Ichigo pointed out that Ishido's grandfather would have been unhappy that his grandson hated the Soul Society, and Ishido sort of apologized to his grandfather by saving Ichigo's life after the battle was over. (Ichigo's reiatsu was overflowing, and the pressure buildup could have killed him. Ishido released the pressure gradually by standing on Ichigo's sword, which transfers reiatsu to him, and firing his bow, which helps because the reiatsu is what the bow seems to be made of.) Anyway, after that little crisis is over, Ichigo goes, "Man, I can't beat this guy up. He's too pathetic."

Ichigo and Uryu, if that's how to spell the Quincy's name, are already fighting back to back. Not getting along, of course, but working together. Man, Orihime took down a Hollow on her own. How unexpected.

Incredible. It was.

Hey, was the sage's name Kumadori? That sounds about right.

Ichigo is dueling this guy from his class, who is a member of some group that fights Hollows, but kills instead of exorcising them. The group is called the Quincys. I can't remember his classmate's name, so, since he apparently is the last of them, I'll just call him the Quincy until his name hits something sticky in my head. Anyway, since Quincys fight Hollows, and Shinigami fight Hollows, guess what this dude chose for the rules of the duel? He broke this coin/tablet-ish thingy, which attracts Hollows to the area. Whoever kills more Hollows within twenty-four hours wins. Ichigo naturally is rather--angry--about this type of duel, since Hollows are indiscriminate about damage. So the Quincy is standing on a bridge, calmly shooting Hollows out of the air with this extremely cool bow that looks like it's made of blue fire and materializes from the trademark Quincy cross bracelet, and Ichigo is rushing around trying to find his family so he can protect them. Chad, whose reiatsu (the English is spirit energy, which sounds relatively dumb) is high and thus attractive to Hollows, has bumped into Karin, whose reiatsu is almost as high as Ichigo's, and seems to have KO'ed a Hollow while protecting her. Chad is cool. He and Karin are pretty funny together. She calls him "mister giant guy" and stuff like that, and he calls her "Ichigo's little sister". There's this really funny bit, after the fight--he's just asked whether she's okay, and she says that the only one who isn't all right is him, and he says that that's okay then (he has this creed, only marginally less irritating than Sanji's, that doesn't allow him to fight on his own behalf, only others') and she gets mad, because in her view, it's not okay that anyone be hurt, and she starts kicking him and calling him names. And while she goes pelting off to get her dad, who runs a clinic, he says, "I can tell she's related to Ichigo. She kicks....just like him." Chad is very cool, and he's also incredibly handsome, and gets great grades, and he's unstoppable. I still like Zoro better, though. They're both nearly indestructible. Chad is extremely fortunate in this, since he never does anything about damage, he just takes it. If he can run, he will, but he can't, he just stands there and takes it.
Anyway, apparently Quincys don't like Shinigami because when a Hollow is exorcised, as the Shinigami do, the soul of the person who became a Hollow is able to find peace unless the were originally evil, in which case they go to hell. The Quincys disapprove of such merciful treatment; they do not take into account that any soul that finds peace didn't want to be a Hollow in the first place, and had nothing to do with the atrocoties committed as a Hollow. Vengeance, they say. Unkind. But apparently, haven't yet heard how, this policy led to their downfall and near-extinction. Indeed, the Shinigami were under the impression that the Quincy clan was extinct.

About to start ep 11 of Bleach. Ichigo and Ruukia make such a cute couple. Wait--no they don't. Neither one is cute at all. I think 10 was filler. Just before that was learning about how Ichigo's mom died. It is sad....but One Piece is better at making so sad, and cry. Bleach has not yet accomplished this. Maybe because the flashbacks are interspersed with fights, instead of our having it all at once? Hmm.
Why the heck is it called Bleach??

Survived the paper route, no thanks to the fact that there's a new start. Lloyd Otto, last house on the right on Apple, if you're reading this, Doug. Tell Mom that Dad misses her. He's been carefully talking to me as if I was five, but when I was five, I couldn't have gotten away with wishing out loud to hit him over the head with Lloyd Otto's newspaper. Which reminds me: Sarah did the route with us. I felt a bit guilty about talking Bleach with Peter, since she couldn't join in, but we didn't do it constantly. Which isn't much of an excuse, if any.

Waiting for Peter to get off Battleaxe.

Well, Doug and Mom left this morning before I got up. The milking has not gotten off to a good start. Neither goat has a collar, and the "milkstand" has no sides. I have sore muscles, having had to assume a very uncomfortable position whose sole virture was that I could reach to milk at the same time that my knee blocked Kirsten's way out. Gack. And Dad is trying to get the house into a state of cleanliness. Right now he's reconnecting the light in the front room.

A couple of episodes left of One Piece, but last night I started Bleach, since Doug was busy. Presently I'm on episode 6. I'm going to watch the dubbed version until I run out. Kon has Ichigo's body.

Oh, no--Dad's made a do-list. Scream and run away, as Doug would say.
..................................
Kitchen, dining room, study. Fortunately Dad suggested an ice cream break.

Rip's leg is much better, but she still limps. Few more days, it should be gone.

Just finished Sheepfarmer's Daughter. It was only published last year, looks like, so there aren't any sequels. It looks like it's supposed to be the first of a series, though. Gack. I knew better. I really did. I saw "Book One" on the cover and thought, "Uh-oh." But I read it all the same. And the ending is fairly complete, it's just that there's lots of room for more. Thank goodness I'll be able to watch Bleach without Doug. All the same, books are better about stopping places.......

Lucci's dead, finally. That cat was durable.

Managed to finish 308, and watched 309. Luffy won at the very end of 309. He very nearly didn't, except that Usopp is very good at hitting the right buttons to get his captain off the floor. I'm hoping to finish OP tomorrow so I can start Bleach. Beginning to feel treacherous, but I'll watch new OP episodes first, once they get out of the filler arcs. It's occurred to me that Doug's going to be gone when the new manga chapter comes out. That is dratted, since it's more fun reading with him. Peter and I went with him on the route today, since we'll be doing it while he's gone. Gack. Oh no--who's gonna be stuck with the hogs?!??

Finished painting the front room, but I haven't gotten all the masking tape off yet. The next person who paints it is gonna be going, "Hey, this room used to be green???" Trust me, it shows. It just isn't obvious to the casual glance.

Better go see whether the rice has come to a boil yet. It's leg of lamb tonight, and Mom's at work.

So on Friday Mom's going to head for Colorado. It looks like Doug's going with her, too, as insurance against flat tires and stuff. No way will she get one if someone's along who can change tires. This is always a big arghh, since I'll have to milk for him, and both of the people I can actually talk to will be gone, if only for the weekend. Still, I expect Grandma will be glad to have Mom, and it's possible that Mom will be glad to have Doug.

Paksennarion is following her Duke against the Honeycat, after that personage's troops killed a bunch of the Duke's soldiers, including one of Paks' best friends. Well, two, I guess. I suppose so. In between being on the comp I'm rereading The Unknown Ajax, which is Heyer.

I don't think Rip's leg is as bad as it was. The sheep and goats are all making free of the garden. It gets extremely irritating after a while. I was kinda surprised that Val didn't take exception to being shoved out like that, but he put up with it. It's gonna be a bit of a pain training a ram like that all over again with Tag, but it'll be worth it for the genetic variety and the reduction of the shearing ordeal.

Luffy has almost beaten Rob Lucci, and now his crew are having to fight off Marine Captains and Commanders. All the best fighters are always the weirdos. Fighting my way through 308. The computer has frozen up at least once, and we keep getting interrupted.

So Mom very kindly told Dad about Rip. Livestock illness is always much more stressful for us after Dad hears about it. I think maybe the worst bit is asking how many lambs that ewe had this year, and that sort of thing. I'm not sure whether it helps that he seems to have gotten the impression that her leg was broken. But he always drives me nuts.

NICO ROBIN'S HANDCUFFS ARE OFF!

Episode 300 is on the list of my favorites. The first half is all Zoro, and he has a new technique. It's like 119 in Arabasta, only better. Total ownage. Just finished 301, which ends with Robin slapping Spandam with six arms at once. Sogeking has a star moment, fulfilling all the dramatic yearnings of his soul. And Merry is on the way. Luffy is fighting Lucci in Gear Second, and the Buster Call has begun. Ah--in case I never mentioned it, all of CP9 has had its collective behind kicked through three or four walls. Most of the members are dead, or seem to be. I hope Kaku isn't: he was the nicest.

Paksennarion has survived her first battle, and I'm on chapter 11.

Mom is talking to Philip right now. Grandma Jane is in the hospital from a stroke. It seems to have been pretty minor, as strokes go, and they're going to keep her in hospital for a few days.

The chat engine on OPseries.com is causing my punctuation to degenerate. *sigh*

Facing the lack of library books, I am partially relieved by the discovery of a source of books on the Internet. The Baen Free Library is a source for sci-fi and fantasy on the Net. Presently I'm reading Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Book One in The Deed of Paskennarion. Eep--looks like it's time for One Piece. Yeeha!

Okay. Franky has owned Fukurou, Chopper beat up the sage guy whose name never stuck, Sogeking and Zoro are fighting (sort of) Kaku and Jyabura (the giraffe and the wolf), Nami is fighting Califa, Sanji is lying on the floor completely owned by Califa, and Luffy and Lucci are about to start. Lucci has a very evil smile when he hears Luffy catching up. He really wants this fight, though probably not more than Luffy does.

Rip, one of the ewes, is lame in one foreleg. I think it may be in the shoulder, because for one thing I can't find anything wrong with her hoof or leg, and for the other she was caught in wire the vening before the lameness showed up. Maybe she bruised her shoulder pulling against the wire? Meh. She's been grazing on her knees. Not good.

Do you know, we aren't sure about this, but Doug and I think that Luffy made Robin actually laugh even before she joined the crew. Quite an accomplishment, that.

Goodness. 280-283 are all filler, made up of recaps of crewmembers being rescued by Luffy. Yeesh. 280 was fun, though, 'cause it was Zoro. :D

Last night Doug and I got clear through Robin's flashbacks and to the point where she says, "If I am allowed to declare my real wishes, I WANT TO LIVE! TAKE ME OUT TO SEA WITH YOU!!" That's the end of ep 279.

Oh, yeah. Ep 280's opening is the first one, but sung by the Strawhats. Happiness!

*sighs* Peter and Owen are back on.

Oh, dear. Robin's flashbacks. I like Saulo. : D

So now we're cleaning up the basement. Big pain. On the bright side, Mom's running errands and Dad told her on depature to get the makings of root beer floats.
Peter and Owen are both kicked off the comp for the day, oh joy oh rapture. Peter called Owen an idiot for some mild hypocrisy, and Owen retaliated by not letting Pete plug in his headphones. The fight came to Dad's ears, so now they're both off and I'm on. Lucky me.

Spent yesterday biking all over town with the little brothers, sticking handyman flyers into people's doors. Today we've been painting in the front room, and there's a new shelf in the basement, about where Philip's desk used to be when he lived at home. My room is a mess, because Dad finally took the warped back off the wardrobe a couple of days ago, but the new back is also a little out of shape, so it's lying on my floor being flattened from being walked on, and in the meantime the wardrobe (Dad calls it an armoire, which is extremely annoying because a) he can't pronounce it and b) he only does it because "wardrobe" reminds him of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.) is pulled out from the wall, with no back, and the old back is also still in my room. Gack. And Amazon is out of commision, because I can't seem to get the monitor out of standby--it just stays blank. I should probably get the ultra-junk one from Doug's room and see whether it's the fault of the processor or the monitor. The colors will be weird and stuff, but at least I'll know.

In OP, Luffy is fighting Blueno, the member of CP9 who looks kinda like a cow, and Blueno is in the process of getting owned. They're on a roof right in front of Spandam's office: they'd be visible from the window if anyone looked. Blueno is a Devil Fruit user: if he touches something, he can turn it into a door. This includes the atmosphere, and enables him to travel silently and invisibly through the air. Cool, but it's a pain. You should see Luffy react to this. Sogeking has picked up the two giants, Oimo and Kaashii, who were tricked into being gatekeepers on Enies Lobby. The deal with the government was that the pair would work for the World Government for one hundred years, and at the end of that time their former pirate co-captains will be released from prison. Well, those captains aren't imprisoned at all; in fact, the crew met Dorry and Brogy on Little Garden, on the way to Arabasta. Sogeking informed Oimo of this, and now he and Kaashii are out to get revenge on the WG by helping Luffy's friends before going home.
Spandam is scum. He's been gloating, practicing his maniacal laugh, and beating up Franky and Robin--both of whom are thoroughly tied up, of course. Franky's in better shape than Robin, though, because even when he's tied up, he can still bite. LOL, in the sense of LOTS of laughs. On ep 272. Better hurry up if i'm gonna watch it before bed.

So Dad's trying to start a handyman business. Gonna cost, but there'll be less initial overhead than there was for the corn stoves. And this time he'll try to have a job in the meantime, thank goodness.

Sanji and Sogeking got owned on Puffing Tom, and now they're back on Rocketman. Luffy is on Enies Lobby, having sat through the statement of the plan, looking serious and concentrated and nodding at the right moments AND EVIDENTLY NOT HEARING A WORD!!! And his crew is always surprised when this happens....

The crew has learned about what happened to Robin's home island of Ohara when she was eight years old, and why she's so terrified of the Buster Call.

Dad and Doug are getting the front room ready to paint. Got a new phone with an answering machine (finally!) for Dad's handyman thing. Working on the message right now. I think we're gonna write one out and have Doug read it; he has a good reading voice.

A couple of months ago Mom and I went to a library sale and she found some books from the very early 1900's--kid's books, stories about kids in various countries, written for the purpose of interesting the kids in geography. Anyway, I'm working on putting them on Ebay. It's a little more complicated than it should be, sionce we have to figure shipping costs, and we need to find the camera batteries before we can take pictures for the listing.

DAD, GET A JOB!!!

So starting Sunday night, our bedtimes are nine-thirty and ten o'clock, and Dad is trying to get me up at eight. Not much success there, but not for lack of trying. He, unlike Mom, can get me up and moving simply by bellowing my name at intervals. Drives me nuts. But I managed to stay upstairs until about nine-thirty, with help from a difficult hairstyle that keeps everything out of the way.

On ep 258. Sogeking has arrived and has conveyed to Robin the information that she isn't going to get away with this. Through a window. Franky is fighting Nero of CP9.

Gonna go watch 259.

Back from B's. Watched three Pokemon movies in a row (Lucario and the Mew, Pokemon Ranger and the Sea Temple, and Latios and Latias), then went outside. Groomed Hoshi and Bunny, came inside, plowed through episode 249 (Franky, beat up by Lucci, has a flashback about Tom, his old teacher), refreshing three times while I was at it, and then it was time to go.

Looks like I'm not gonna be able to get stuff from the library for a while. The card expires tomorrow, and it costs forty bucks to renew it. Gack.

Gonna go watch 250.

Waiting for B to come pick us up.

Yesterday we got to Chopper, Paulie, and Iceberg stuck in a burning building. Nami has been captured by angry Galley-La carpenters, I think Luffy is stuck somewhere, and last time Zoro was seen he was sinking. Fortunately he can swim. He and Sanji are the official Rescuers of Drowning Devil-Fruit Users. Usopp is hanging out with Franky and the Squares, having a nice cup of tea. CP9 is on the way, though.

Assassination attempt on Iceberg, the mayor of Water-7. Strawhats framed. Actual perpetrators: CP9 and Nico Robin. Robin has told Sanji and Chopper that she's leaving, that she framed them. Nami tried this too. She even pretended to kill Usopp, stabbing her hand to add authenticity. The problem here is that Luffy tends to pick up a certain type of woman, one that makes extremely powerful enemies at the approximate age of eight, surviving through betrayal until she meets Luffy (Nami did this for ten years. Robin did it for twenty.), at which point she stays with him for awhile, enjoying herself more than she has since she was eight. Then something comes up and she leaves. The Strawhats follow her, and she informs them in no uncertain terms that she is through with them. Conference. Decision to go after her. Fight a bunch of grunts. Inform her that she's stuck with the Strawhats. She resigns herself to having some great nakama who are willing to risk their lives for her. Fight a bunch of really powerful people. Beat them. Recuperate, then party. It's fun! Vivi wasn't like this at all, but she is a princess, a basically nice girl, was stuck with them until Crocodile was dead because Croc was gunning for them too, and aware that she couldn't keep Luffy from fighting Crocodile anyway. Furthermore, Vivi didn't stick around after her problems were solved, being a princess and all.

Finally got the boxes of books from the hallway out of my room. They were going to go back in the hallway, but Dad didn't want the bookshelf there, I forget why, so they're all in his room now. Nice and organized. Old picture books and Search the Scriptures booklets on the bottom, history and philosophy/religion second, then adult fiction, then kid's fic, then old translations, guides /handbooks, and languages on the top shelf.

So to hook Amazon up to the Net I need a network card (fifteen bucks at Wal-Mart, cable included), either a wireless router or a really really long cable (seventy bucks or so--ack), and probably a new hard drive to make it worthwhile. Gotta ask Philip what the point of Linux is. Which reminds me--thanks to Dad's advice, I now have Wordpad, Calculator, and Paint. Paint isn't good for much, thanks to the sparse color selection, but it's something to mess around with. And Wordpad is to Notepad what Della is to Amazon. More or less. I'm on Della right now, since Battleaxe is better for contraband activities, being in the study. This blog is contraband too, but it's easier to save and close if Dad walks past than gaming is. Or watching video.

Went to Wal-Mart yesterday. Needed groceries, and had to take Dad to the chiropractor. Got some five-dollar headphones. More comfortable than earbuds. Note: Mom owes me ten bucks.

Watched ep 236 and most of 237. Luffy and Usopp duel over Merry. Surprising to see that Usopp can give Luffy such a hard time. Usopp lost, of course, but Luffy gave Merry to him. Just as well, since there was no point in keeping the ship.

Been rereading Lord of the Rings. Only gotten as far as the Prancing Pony in Bree.

Well, the fireworks show went pretty well. The cheesecake tasted great. B and Darrel got here in time, and Sarah from up the street ended up coming over. There was no problem with that, especially since she brought some fireworks with her.
Tag was hanging out next to us when the fireworks started, being a conversation piece, trying to eat the fireworks, making B object to the smell, and trying to get in Dad's lap to see into his coffee-cup. When the boys started letting things off, he did not like it. I had to carry him to the barn, which will probably give me some sore muscles. The others went rushing into the barn partway through, apparently having been grazing in the south pasture. Nobody came very close again, though Tag was considering it at first. Baka.

I'm done with the kitchen, gonna have to go to bed soon. Man, the weather is really warm. Wangled a turn on Battleaxe while Peter was washing his dishes. The Mugiwara Kaizoku wreaked vengeance on the Franky Family for beating up Usopp. Lovely sight to see, and strange to think that we're going to be fighting side by side with that lot on Enies Lobby. Luffy has a new attack, Cannon.