......Wow, it has been a long time. Huh. Well.

Doug ended up simply refusing to sort the manga. It's all on Reading, and it's all on chapter 1. Grr. I've been surfing around reading sweet little series that are only up to chapter four or so. Sigh.

Anyway, Peter and I are starting an organization. We haven't quite decided on the name yet, though. It could be Freedom Fighters Against Algebra, or Freedom From Algebra, or Free Us From Algebra (Doug was helping with this), or.....oh well. We don't have to really decide until the balaclavas and AK-47's come in.

All right, it's final on who goes with Mom! Me, Owen, and Lark! Pity about Owen, but I suppose it can't be helped. Mom hasn't made it public yet, possibly putting off the fight with Dad, who always wants her to take Special Agent Doug. ’-’ But I'm happy, anyway. And Owen's going to do a positive happy dance. I can picture it now....-_-

Possibly going to town on Tuesday to get Lark a new crate. Old one's outgrown.

Library intake cut down to a book a week, Mom having thrashed the issue out with Dad. Geh. Dad and the younger boys just spent the afternoon fixing the sump pump; Christy looks pregnant again, going to offer to help whenever; trying to sell the kittens on Craigslist. Lots of replies, no takers yet. Got caught up to One Piece, reading Fairy Tail, in a shounen mood. Doug started a Manga-U account at last, too keep track of his manga. He hasn't started sorting into "Ongoing" and "Completed" yet, though. Says he'll do that once everything's up. So, for instance, Tokyo Crazy Paradise and Trigun are both on the "reading" list. Wonder if he'll do the wish list too....

Dad's taking up deep-fry cookery. He makes mean fried chicken, and the potato chips weren't bad.

We're all worrying about Baron. He's beginning to be a problem. For one thing, he mounts Lark a lot, and he's starting to mark when she pees. In short, he's a Very Bad Dog. We're going to have to do something before she comes into heat.....

Lark is beginning to seem large, especially when I pick her up: she's tripled in weight since she was a fuzzy little eight-pound puppy with a blunt nose. Mom still hasn't decided who's going with her when she goes to Co. between quarters, but if I go so will Lark. Exciting. Which brings me to this: next quarter Mom's teaching three classes, three days a week, and she's going to be so swamped with papers that she's paying me a dollar per paper for preliminary correction. Yaaay! I've been suggesting I do that for months, but nobody ever said anything about money.

Currently reading Patricia McKillip and Elizabeth Peters: polar opposites, but they both have style. Patricia McKillip does fantasy, and Peters is a mystery queen who used to be a major Egyptologist--which would, of course, explain why her biggest series is Egyptological. Peters is beginning to lose me, and I'm running out of McKillip, so it's a good thing I can get Chalice on Friday if we go to town. Please, please please please.......

Baron and Lark have started playing. The house may not survive, but it's a treat to watch--as long as you have a safe vantage point, or have tough feet and shins. Mine are all scraped up currently--happened somehow when Gan floored me, not sure how--and I practically want to stand on a chair. But it's hilarious. He's huge, and she's tiny--and he's really gentle. She, of course, is typical Fury, and it warms my heart to see her chewing on someone who doesn't feel it. Oh, for fur. Lark take immense unfair advantage of her size during chases, though, whipping under tables and chairs and between people's legs. (Fortunately Baron doesn't get quite as carried away as he might, and backed out slowly before he knocked me over.) I think I'm going to have to stick the two of them in the paddock for awhile every day, so they can do this full speed, whatever that may be. I'll have to clear Stein and Meathead out, though--just moved Stein in this afternoon, so we can give him alfalfa without everyone getting it (he's not feeling well-just weak and languid--no diarrhea) and Gan knocked me down when everyone was following the alfalfa (me). Flat on my back, all of a sudden. Grr. He backed off when I collected my little tin tub, which had contained hay a minute ago, and started swinging it at him and screaming. Dad sent the backup out as soon as he saw me out there sitting on the ground, and Peter knocked him around for me. Now I just have to wait for my bruised behind and jarred back to heal....and we're going to B's to help with some immense task tomorrow. With a concert afterwards. Nobody's told her what we think about the concert, and everybody can use some cash from the work, but....

Lark's nagging me to come to bed, and I haven't done the floor yet.

eye candy

This site. Such lovely large dogs. But, sheesh, when I first found it it didn't have half as much fancy-shmancy code stuff. It was info and photos. It was not video (much) or animations or frames or links to their talk radio interviews.

Smear brought Madison over last night. Madison's her four-year-old niece, and I'd never met her before. Turns out she's devastatingly cute. She's dark, like Smear and, I think, her mother. She likes dogs and cats but is perfectly willing to watch them without going and picking them up or something. And she wholeheartedly supports Sarah in the plan to buy one of the kittens.

I'm reading Elizabeth Peters' mysteries right now. They're very good: style, humour, and romance. I can ignore a little suspense, with all that going for 'em. She does insert a little irritating feminism now and then, but I can live with it, because she's hilarious. She does eccentric older females wonderfully. Most of the one-offs star nice young heroines, but she has three series going: Jacqueline Kirby, a middle-aged ex-librarian from Coldwater College in Nebraska (Peters is very cruel about us); Vicky Bliss, a statuesque young art historian in Munich (with a brother-filled Midwestern farm background: gotta wonder where Peters grew up--or not); and Amelia Peabody, a (I think) middle-aged Egyptologist about whom I don't know much because I haven't read nay of those yet.

We've got half the North Pasture fenced, enough so we don't need to herd, but those ridiculous sheep still come and stand wistfully at the gate around seven p.m. You'd think they liked being herded. Doug says it's 'cause they're masochists. I probably could do a little disorganized herding on my own; I can handle the sheep on my own, it's only when the goats were added that the boys joined in. Actually I had the wethers out last night while the boys were busy. I would have added the big 'uns if they'd come, but they would have taken too much persuasion and the goats were lurking. I refuse to herd goats alone, sheep or no sheep.

Lark is growing apace, and we may almost have the flea problem under control. Gonna have to change my sheets today. She's testing boundaries lately, in the form of the road. Sigh. It was nice when we didn't have to watch her every second. I still can't believe how cute she is.

And Mom's making us write four-page science papers. Doug hasn't chosen a subject yet, but, in a spur-of-the-moment decision made in the library stacks, I'm writing about coyotes. I'm probably going to die, but I won't know of what until I get started.

Oh, dear. This guy can write. Satire, satire.....

Well, I finally got around to going over and chatting with Christy, for the first time since she had the baby. I never really got up the nerve, before. Anyway, his name's Dylan, and he just had his first birthday. He's not walking yet, and can just crawl. Chubby little blond. It was driving me nuts, not knowing his name. Mike came home while I was talking to Christy. I'm always going to wonder just what he thinks of us, but I suppose we're lucky he tolerates us. Some people would complain to the village the first time a goat crossed the street.

I didn't summon sufficient gall to ask whether they're married. Never will. One of the boys said I certainly would've when I was five; maybe it's a pity that was ten years ago....

And to continue the theme of readerly indignation, that evil sadistic sorceress over at Days in the Life has posted an excerpt from her latest book, Chalice, just in case there was the faintest chance in five universes that any of her readers weren't going to stalk their local booksellers, or equivalent, for the next. . . .thirty-eight days until it's released. That's what really gets me: that she could have the cruelty to do that when there's this much time left. If it were the day before, or three days, or a week, okay. But five weeks?! It's reader abuse!

Siiiiiiigh............

Okay. So I'm reading W-Juliet II. The last two volumes of W-Juliet were finally scanned, I devoured them both, and we all breath a sigh of relief at getting through fourteen volumes. W-J II is, in the mangaka's words, dessert. Okay. So Makoto, who's taking the big-pay jobs so he and Ito can have a proper wedding ceremony and a honeymoon (they're registered but haven't had a ceremony), has been cast as the male lead in this adaptation of a "novel". AND IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT THIS "NOVEL" IS A MANGA BY THE SAME BLOODY MANGAKA!! OF COURSE THE WRITER WROTE THE CHARACTER WITH HIM IN MIND!!! AND HE'S DOING A MOVIE AND I HAVEN'T EVEN READ CHAPTER FIVE YET, BECAUSE IT'S NOT SCANNED!! *&%($(%(&%(&%!!!!!

That's better. It's funny, but the sheer nerve....

Well, I finally got around to looking at the new pics here. Were you guys there for a couple of days? And how come one portrait-format pic is vertical and the other is horizontal?

And I just gave Lark her first bath. She was utterly miserable, and she'll probably never voluntarily enter the bathroom again. I didn't have the heart to shampoo her. Next time, of course.....(Buahahahahaha!!!) She really did look so funny, though! I think she's forgiven me, but I doubt she'll forget. And it's times like this I wish we'd put a non-slip mat in the tub.

Huge thunderstorm last night. The power went out when I was in the middle of mopping the kitchen floor, and since one can't mop in utter darkness....I had gotten the vacuuming done, though, which is the important thing with Baron theoretically confined to the kitchen. Dog hair accumulation has shot up. I'm even running over the mud room now, which Baron hates. He's usually in the kennel when I'm doing the floor, and he always snaps at the vaccuum.

Mom is being stricter than usual about people getting on the comp during school, and so far it's one person getting kicked off per day. Peter was yesterday, Doug's today, and with any luck it'll be Owen tomorrow, since he's getting on everyone's nerves. He's trying to get me kicked off at the moment, but Mom's letting me blog. So kind.

And the single most-listened-to group at the moment is Rammstein. Doug's playing Los just now, which is one of my favorites. For the most part I prefer the Yoko Kanno station on Pandora. Some good stuff comes up, besides the Kanno of course.

These are the pics that show her coloring best. There are others that better demonstrate her cuteness, but they're on the other computer. Anyway, I took these yesterday at B's.

Amanda, dissatisfied with the front porch box to which her kittens were exiled when she kept attacking the puppy in my room, has moved them into a clothes bin in Doug's room. Or so I gathered. Nor do there seem to be any clothes in it, which seems....inconducive to comfort.

We spent today in the garden, Mom and Lark and I, while the guys worked on the fence. Lark found a nice spot under what we hope is a hollyhock, and slept all day. Again. Whenever someone makes a teasing remark about how much we sleep, I always say she's growing. I hope so. And I think we keep freaking Dad out. She tends to sleep like the dead, and he doesn't catch on right away when we say so.

I'll try to post the other pics later.

puppies, II

I've been putting this off since Tuesday, when Dad and I went up past Fremont to look at Aussie pups. They had one female, a black tri, for $225. Her name is Lark, she divides her time between the front yard and my room with a little bit in the garden and living room, and she's absolutely adorable. I'll post pics eventually.

Did I mention that I finally brought a ram home Friday night? His name is Gan, to match Stein, as their names both mean Stone but in different languages, but Gan's name hasn't quite adhered yet. I just think Gan Fall, who is completely irrelevant but whom you may find a reference to if you comb through all the posts labeled "one piece". Maybe. It'll be the Skypiea arc. Wondering if this post merits an OP tag.

Also Amanda is having her kittens in my closet, after an entire day of watching them wrestle for precedence in there. It was simultaneously amusing and unnerving. Court lost one of hers and is down to four. Dunno if Macchan is done yet, and if so how many there are. I'll check next time I go up there. She started out having contractions on my bed, having spent several hours there already while the kittens wriggled, and then moved to the closet. She took the box with the floor-level entrance, I was amused to note. Anyway, she is quite my favorite among our cats, and I am quite flattered by her choosing my closet, after almost having them on my bed. On towels, fortunately, so the slight mess she made before moving will not necessitate washing the blanket.

I've been reading most of the day. I started out rereading Heyer's Frederica, one of her most constantly hilarious. Then I finished Lens of the World, first in a trilogy by R.A. MacAvoy which I should maybe wait a few years before continuing. I like her, I like her characters, but I have a feeling it's going to be hard going. The single-volume ones were less ambitious and more enjoyable. I think I'll finish with Patricia A. McKillip, recommended by Robin and most of her fans. I started her Riddle-master trilogy after I finished Lens and Macchan had moved to the closet, and it really is quite good. I expect you,* being a fastidious snob who doesn't believe in reading for pleasure, would consider it quite unworthy of your time, but she has a clear descriptive style and engaging characters, humorously portrayed.

*Philip-oniisan, in the unlikely but precedented event that someone else is reading this.

puppies, I

Just got back from looking at Aussie pups. The owners met us in Wilber, and we all went to the park and let the dogs out. The father and his grown daughter were wonderful dogs, the mother was shy and undersized (maltreatment by past owners) and the male puppy was, um, favorable. I was looking at the female. We didn't take. She wanted to stick with her family, she didn't like being on her back.....I think she would have been a problem. So we're going to go look at a litter up by Fremont next weekend, see their two bitches, and then if I don't get one of them come back and look at this one again. Sigh. And I'll need $75 more for one of the other litter, because they're $225. Dad says I can work it off. Ack. Debt.

Back from Cortlandfest. Manned the Pioneer Games in period costume, saw the shootout, and I need to go back to Mrs. H's booth and get my crocheted cell phone holders. None sold so far that I know of. It's a relief having it all over.

In which the entire plot of the Lymond Chronicles of more or less spoiled

I like to write. Writing like this--blogging--is a type of talking, which I enjoy doing but feel too guilty about talking over someone when they try to say something to run on to a live audience the way I do in writing. But I also like to write stories, because I like stories. Stories are a large segment of my life. At least a quarter of any given obsession of mine is story-based. My main problem in writing stories, though, is a lack of sadism. Sadism is absolutely essential to a good plotter. A skilled author must be able to frame her hero for treason, with his sister being killed in the event he's accused of setting up and his brother believing the charges; convince the girl he'll marry* in the fourth book that he's a cad and a rogue whom she fears and despises; kill off one of my favorite characters in the first book, although I admit her death was necessary because her fiancee had to marry the woman the histories say he did;** have his brother nearly kill him; have his brother nurse him back to life, which, had you asked him at the time, was worse; have him covertly fighting a man everyone thinks is an angel and thinks he should follow*** who eventually almost gets him killed twice; force him to sacrifice the illegitimate son he was well on the way to adoring in order to take down the aforementioned fallen angel, leaving him to raise the illegitimate son of said enemy; have him learn he's illegitimate****; have him learn he's legitimate but his older brother isn't.....this series is really hard on its hero.


*One of those depressing "convenient" marriages in which there is mutual love, but neither party knows it's mutual, etc. etc. etc. I hate these, but I adore Lymond and Philippa and endure it with them. It took them ten damn years to work everything out though.

**I love her anyway. A wonderful character. The first female/love interest (not really, in Christian's case) to die.^

^Christian Stewart; Oonagh O'Dwyer (books two, three, and four); Joleta Reid Malett (safer to say "opposite female role" than "love interest". Remember Indy's Austrian slut in Last Crusade? Yeah); Kiaya Khatun/Guzel (mainly A Ringed Castle, number five); and lastly, Philippa, who shouldn't be on this list because she survived the last book but I couldn't resist ending with her.

***Lymond isn't very susceptible to peer pressure.

****Somewhat incestuously so. 

Game of Kings
Queen's Play
The Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Frankincense
The Ringed Castle
Checkmate

Well, the goats have just come home. It's nearly eleven, and I foresee many spelling corrections, but I'm getting this in before bed.

We ended up getting three does and two bucklings, probably because of Leeza's lamentable but highly advantageous tendency to give kids away rather than suspect that they'll end up in the ring at Palmyra. I should look up what Paul says about Palmyra. Probably nothing useful. Oh well. Anyway, the does consist of Crazy Horns, with the one curled horn over her head from a botched disbudding; Winter Too, who having no mother around here with first rights to the name will be called simply Winter; and Snowflake, who will adore it here, having been waiting ever since she came of age for a chance to be a herd queen, and will assert herself promptly. The boys, as yet unnamed (we'll argue about this in the morning--we had to dissuade Owen from rechristening Winter Esme (I wouldn't object at all for an unnamed doeling, although I know it would be different if I were acquainted with the namesake here)) are about four weeks old and on two feedings a day. One will be meat.

Dad is telling me to go to bed.

Strange.

I feel quite detestably cheerful, somehow. Inexplicable.

Just got back from an appointment with the dentist next door to the bank across the highway. He was nice. Called me "young lady" and asked what my favorite subject in school is. I think he has grown-up kids, but I wouldn't have guessed it. Although, come to think of it, that is how a parent would think....I have three cavities, which are on the adult teeth coming in the back so he can't do anything about 'em until the teeth are fully erupted. Horrible context to use that word in. Also more detailed bad news about my impacted cuspids, in that he described the orthodontia necessary to bring them down. With sufficiently ghastly detail, even though he was vague about some bits.

Anyway. Mom and Owen are the only ones left. They should be in the chair right now. We all cam home as soon as he finished with us. So nice to live within walking distance of the dentist. Hah. Well, it's over with.

I finished before Pete again~! Muahahaha!

Regular weeding schedules have been established in the garden. Sigh.

Auuuuuugh.

So I was on my way upstairs between turns, and Dad ambushed me, sat me down, and asked me what my plans for the future were. Argh. I wasn't planning to start fighting about this for a few more years. So I stalled a little bit and then said I wanted to go to college and major in English. Further interrogation produced the statement that I'd like to become a writer, or maybe get a job in publishing, the addendum promptly falling by the wayside. He extracted the information that yes, I had written a few stories. Where were they? Scattered around. Could Dad read them? Over my dead body.* Why did I want to become a writer? Because I'd prefer to do something enjoyable with my life. Then he pulled out his specific counter-argument, which was not at all what I expected^, so maybe there's something in what Doug says about preparing specific counters to his arguments, i.e., it's futile.** Anyway. He said that I could not as a good Christian in all conscience go to college, knowing as I do that they are a device for the social engineering of anyone who might still be a Christian into mindless little drones. I think he was afraid I'll come home a lesbian. Um. So he ended up handing me Naomi Wolf's End of America, which I have too started, thankyouverymuch. He said we'll resume when I've finished it.**** I would like to point out that he started this when I had absolutely no possible backup or reinforcements available. Mom was at work, Doug was at class, and Peter, whose assistance would be questionable but might try to help, was in the study at Battleaxe, where he could probably hear but neither see nor interfere.


*In summary. More or less. Condensed form.

**Although I hadn't really tried, not expecting to have this discussion anytime soon.

***And I think I'm ashamed to admit that it only just occurred to me that that's a loophole to not have this discussion for at least another year. Not that it alone would hold it off that long, but at least then I could put it off indefinitely instead of resuming it of my own free will. And he might forget. Another way of looking at it is that he handed me a method for putting this off until I'm ready.

^Further(/other/expected) possible arguments on his part:

It'll all go down the tubes and you'll be away from home.
It'll all go down the tubes before you get a chance to go.
It'll all go down the tubes so you should at least learn something useful.

Any others?

Just got back from visiting Levi

We took three dozen gingerbread cookies and talked for about half an hour. First of all, he looks bloody awful. His eyes are a special kind of bloodshot, huge dark rings underneath, he can't open his mouth very far. Presumably because it's wired shut. He has stitches underneath his lip where some gravel went through. He was pretty lively, though. He's into WWII now, and knows quite a lot. Tanks, conspiracy theories, the works. I was impressed. Ethan and Ben weren't much in evidence. Ethan came in for a bit. He seemed a bit more hyper than usual, which is a terrifying thing in Ethan. Ben was quiet. Mrs. Amen is in rehab, with what sounds like a concussion. She sounded disoriented and stuff. Mr. Amen was pretty normal. I didn't ask whether the sheriff is pressing charges or not. Wanted to, though. The dog--a new addition--was hyper and adorable, normal adolescent canine. I love 'em at that stage. His name seems to be Ranger, and he was delighted to have someone to play with. Levi's grandma was there too, looking after him in his mother's absence. Apparently she married or nearly married--not clear on this, obviously--a nisei Japanese from North Platte who was drafted. So we discussed internment a bit. We stayed fifteen minutes past when we were supposed to come home, it was so interesting. And now I really need to go make spaghetti, being already late and all. We promised to bring Doug next time; he missed because tonight's his first Krav class.

This day shall....etc.

I finished school before Peter did!!! I can't remember the last time this happened! It was really close, too....all he had left was to check his math...

And I brought home two more sheep today. Two Katahdin wether lambs, weaned, and barely tamer than the girls, who enjoy the ancient tradition of "Anything shorter than me and not my own baby=golf ball." Which is why I had to put up a quick corner pen for them with two panels. I have to buy a bale of hay from Darrel, too, because they've been on hay and I can't put them right out to grass.

Kathy has a really nice place. Goats, cows, dogs (big dogs!), a couple of miniature horses, poultry, and sheep. She's currently doing it all herself, because her dad's in the hospital and her mom's taking care of him. She's at least fifty, I'd say. Good luck with all the work. Two of the dogs were loose when we were there: a huge Great Pyrenees that looked like a woolly cushion, or maybe a futon; and an extremely handsome German Shepherd who flattered my by asking me to pet him, in a tentative and unassuming way. Not shy, but standoffish. The GP took anything I was willing to give him. And some of the goats were beautiful little ladies. There were several Saanens; one of them tends towards quadruplets, and she's currently pregnant. She's so stretched out her sides stick out at least a foot, either side.

B took Owen today, so he's going to miss the movie. We're going to go see "Expelled", about the institutional attitude toward people who question evolution. Mrs. Freeouf says she went to see it on opening night--we stopped at Luke's because Dad needed welding help. Luke stood him up. Mark was there the first time we stopped. We stopped again on the way back with the lambs, and he and Luke had gone to see a movie. Dad wasn't very happy. A little grim, maybe. But look what I got out of the whole thing! Funfun! And we stopped at Burger King on the way home. :p

Cool, 200 posts!

Today was rainy. It was also Arbor Day, so Dad stayed home. Mom and I went to town. The library was closed, but we went to B&N for Shojo Beat. This ish had a short story instead of a preview, and it was from Hana-Kimi, and precisely calculated to make me happy, because I've wished before now for H-K from Kayashima's POV. Thank you! So fun! I also found both volumes of Don't Call Us Angels, the prequel to Hands Off!!, on the shelves. The omakes are especially cute, containing the reactions of the characters of Hands Off!! to the history of Udou and Kiba. Poor little Kota. Tatsuki, of course, was cool, unruffled, and superior about the whole thing. On the other hand, he had some warning, because in a Hands Off!! omake he once saw a little of their high school experiences. We didn't learn anything from it, though, because he just made a sort of barfing noise--that's how Yuuto described it, anyway--and didn't say a word. Anyway, I bought both volumes to complete my collection, since I already own all eight vols of Hands Off!!. Ten, now. Also because nobody's scanlated it.
We also saw The Adventures of Johnny Bunko. I read a little, standing there. Can I read your copy when we come for graduation, Niisan? 'S funny. The Naruto poster, in his actual office--heh!

Amens

Woman, son hurt in fall from tractor

By the Lincoln Journal Star

Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 - 04:14:02 pm CDT

A Cortland mother and son were in stable condition late Wednesday after being seriously injured Tuesday evening in a tractor accident in Cortland.

According to the Gage County Sheriff’s Office, Sandra Amen, 38, and her son Levi, 13, were riding in the bucket of a front end loader on a 1948 John Deere tractor being driven by Amen’s husband, Douglas Amen, 42. The couple’s 9-year-old son, Benjamin, was sitting on Douglas Amen’s lap.

Witnesses told the sheriff’s office that Douglas Amen was raising and lowering the bucket during the ride.

As the westbound tractor approached First and Lincoln streets just after 7:30 p.m., the dump bucket suddenly released, causing Sandra and Levi Amen to be dropped from a high position onto the roadway. The tractor then ran over Sandra Amen, the sheriff’s office said.

Douglas Amen, while trying to avoid running over family members, swerved the tractor to the left and stopped the tractor on the southeast corner of the intersection, near a stop sign. The sheriff’s office said Douglas Amen immediately shut off the tractor and ran to aid his family.

During the incident, Benjamin Amen’s right hand and wrist were injured when they struck the tractor.

Sandra Amen was taken by Star Care helicopter to BryanLGH Medical Center West in Lincoln. The two boys were taken to the hospital by a Lincoln Fire and Rescue ambulance.

Sandra and Levi Amen remained in the hospital Wednesday afternoon in stable condition. Their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening. Benjamin Amen was treated and released.

Investigation of the accident was continuing, Sheriff Millard “Gus” Gustafson said Wednesday afternoon.

I just left a message on their answering machine offering to help with the route, since it'll probably be Ethan doing the route by himself. Or with Ben, but since it sounds like he hurt his right arm....anyway.

It is so incredibly strange, not to say jarring, hearing familiar names, faces, voices reduced to the simple, factual phrases of a writer at the Journal Star.

We actually saw the ambulance and the helicopters. Dad was drilling us in case it was an attack. I was doing the dishes....washing out peanut butter jars for Dad to use in the garage. Everybody else was being assigned to a post to keep watch.

What's cognitive dissonance?

My girls

Lizzie is on the left, with lighter wool and only the small ear tag. Starling is on the right.
Doug came up with their names. The underlying rationale is that they're Suffolk/Hampshires, and should therefore have European names.













Starling to the front, Lizzie in back.
So Starling is a European bird, and Lizzie is....a good strong English name. And Hampshires are from the south of England anyway. Not sure where Suffolk is.

YAY SHEEP!!

And I'm a shepherdess again! Today Mom, Owen, and I went to see Lana and her hubby, who were both very nice. And their toddler, Jordan, who wasn't very into us. Anyway. I got two nice little ewes, Starling and Lizzie, who both had triplets this year and are around five years old. I'm kind of wishing I'd gone with the other one I was considering instead of Starling, because for one thing she has extra teats, but we survived that with Lily and if it were an actual problem Lana would have gotten rid of her much sooner. She's a pretty strict culler, I guess, because she gets tons of triplets. She never bottle feeds, either, even though one ewe this spring had quadruplets. Raised 'em all, too. Next year she's going to call me.
We didn't even get lost on the way, even though our directions weren't exactly confidence-inspiring and I was just waking up when I wrote them down. Turns out they were perfectly adequate.
Oh, and the dog. A Border collie, who's a half-trained working dog. Kind of a pain, because he's not fully trained, but oh well.

And the visit to Lana has been postponed to Saturday afternoon because of rain. Drat. Oh well. And we'll probably go see Kathy sometime next week.

Glancing over the plot of "The Stagman", a story by Robin McKinley published in her collection The Knot in the Grain, it seems rather old-fashioned in its cliches. Princess in distress, rescue, conquest by her prince, marry the prince and have five sons. But at a closer look, one finds the princess, Ruen, resigned rather than engrossed. She doesn't want to rule her kingdom; she doesn't want to live the fairy-tale; she doesn't want to marry the prince and raise sons. But she does, because she is a princess, and she has a strong sense of duty. Given the choice, however, she would happily spend her days living quietly in the mountains with Luthe, the mage arranging all this; learning, reading, and seeing her stag whenever he appears. And when she has fulfilled her duty, has seen her kingdom happily prospering under the rule of the handsome (naturally) prince Gelther, has raised her sons, and is certain that she will not be missed, she leaves. Her stag has come for her, and she can go back to the mountains, where for the only time in her life she was happy. And it could not be otherwise with McKinley as the author, because she is militantly against the cliched heroine being rescued by the hero. Her heroines go off on their own, slaying the leader of the attacking army or redeeming the artifact that will save the kingdom. They do not languish in towers or work on embroidery. Her best-known heroines are tall, awkward, and horrible at sewing, with a complete lack of heart-stopping beauty, because they don't have time for makeup, and a thorough brushing of their long curly hair is out of the question on campaign. Actually Aerin's hair lasted through about half the book and then never grew past her jaw again. Ruen, while not quite fitting this mold, which admittedly is hardly adhered to in the short stories, is still not happy in the place she is. Had she been permitted, she would have been quite happy to be an Aerin; but she had no loving father, no indulgent cousin. She was Lissar, with no Ash and less illusive power. No friends, no family but her cruel uncle, no pets. No books even, as far as we can tell. So she grew into a small, quiet woman, who never laughed and was pitied by her subjects. Their love, admiration, and gazes went to her handsome, typical husband, who had refused to be crowned in favor of his wife.

You know you aren't a very faithful blogger when your computer's address memory doesn't contain the blog's address. Speaking of, Robin McKinley has finally switched away from Livejournal. It is still a work in progress, but it's running.
One annoying thing about blogging is you have to be at a computer. Which means that if you think of something, it's no good if you aren't at a computer, because if you don't write it down you'll forget it before you get a turn.

Right. Currently reading Charles deLint, who is a very good writer. He pretty much invented the urban fantasy genre, with his city of Newford. I love the stories. They aren't all that light: they can be dark and poignant and depressing. But they are also hopeful.

Kathy is supposed to call me today with a price on her Katahdin laddies. If she doesn't, I'm to call her. And I have yet to get back to Lana on her ewes. Which I need to do, because I doubt she'll wait forever. Besides, I think we've pretty much decided we want to buy, and I wouldn't change my mind until I actually visit her farm, which I haven't.

Having bad vision is maybe a bad thing, but it's also a blessing. I mean, before, when my vision was normal, I took seeing things clearly for granted. That was normal. But now, without my glasses, things are fuzzy if they're in the middle distance, or especially far away. And when I put on my glasses, it's a bit of a shock how clear everything is. It's beautiful. I can see individual buds on the maple. I can see the pattern of the new green grass mixed with last year's dead stalks. I can see clearly the bark on trees, I can see trees a block away and they are clearly defined and sharp. Everything is beautiful outside.

So I visited Mrs. Schlake at her office on the way back from getting the mail this morning (my manga came from Bargain Book Closeouts--yays!) and had a nice long chat with her. Her granddaughter Lana raises sheep, and Mrs. Schlake gave me her phone number, so I can call her after devotions.
Mmmmm, anything else? Mrs. Schlake took me out to the place on Apple with the Boers, which is owned by Ron Boden's (her cousin's) ex-wife. Who seems to have absconded with her beautician a long time ago, which however much ancient history is also very juicy gossip, yes? None of the goats were very interested in talking to me except for one kid, who was pretty certainly a bottle baby and only interested in fingers. Certainly not in petting. Talking to other people's goats makes me miss having my own animals much, much more.
Today was patheitc as far as school goes, though. It was after noon when I got back from Mrs. Schlake's, and then there was manga! to read. I still got the important stuff done, though, like history and science. The stuff that has to get done or it affects the next day's schoolwork because you can't ignore it. The stuff that's specifically assiged by lesson, as opposed to "1 L." or "yes".

Oh, and the boys tell me you got that magazine for me, Phil. Thanks! "("

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-Ha!

I've gotten two replies to my advertisements for lambs! A lady in Crete has Katahdins for sale, and a guy in Lincoln has Corsicans and Corsican/Jacob crosses. Mom sounds disapproving about 'em both, because they're all hair breeds, but I'd love some Jacobs! Not a whole herd, but one or two. That's a particularly spectacular example over there, but maybe you can see why Mom objects. I told the guy I'd like to come take a look. Finally, Mom wants me to go talk to the Schlakes, who always do sheep in 4-H at the fair. I'm not very optimistic, because club lambs tend to be Suffolks, which I'm not enthusiastic about. If I want meat breeds I can get Katahdins or something, thanks, and if I'm looking for wool I'll get something else. Like Icelandics or Finns. Or Cheviots....*sigh* Cheviots have the most adorable faces. But not Suffolks. Anyway, they'd probably be docked so far they don't have tails. Which is a health risk but common or mandatory in show sheep. Which is what the Schlakes are into.

Oh, yeah. And as of yesterday, I'm a megane-chan. How strange.

B dropped by today. She has a new dog, again. This time it's this absolutely adorable beagle puppy. She's planning to use him as a stud, start breeding puggles with Penny. He's really beautiful, though. Just watching a puppy run around is so enjoyable. All those little mannerisms common to puppies. So sweet. His name's Bugsy.

Kyaaaaah! I have money! How weird is this? I still have to put four hundred into whatever Dad comes up with (the isn't any silver available) but meanwhile that's four hundred bucks! For sheep and books and music and computer stuff and books!
Oh, and Win-chan finally returned from her Net-deprived desert! Well, probably not a desert....she went home to her village for Easter holidays, and they don't have any Net there. Although she says she had her laptop, so she had, like, downloads, but she couldn't talk to me. And now she's back! So nice....First off, she likes manga. So do my brothers, Zak, and Kerirae. Secondly, she's female. So's Kerirae. Thirdly, she likes the same stuff I do, writes coherently about it, and isn't constantly putting herself down. Okay, I'm being unjust to Kerirae. But Win-chan is still more fun. Less awkward, somehow. And we share more tastes, which with Kerirae.....she likes shounen ai. And yaoi. And catboys....okay, so do I, in moderation. But. Win-chan's easier. I can even worship her, what with her being an editor and older than me. Which Kerirae also is, older, but not more mature, as far as I can tell. I think Kerirae's more tech-savvy than me, though. Although that Myspace background hasn't materialized yet. Ah, well. I'll wait. Nothing wrong with the horses.

We're working on finding sheep and goats again. No luck so far, but we've found some people to call, and we're running craigslist and Thrifty Nickel ads. This time we're trying to build a herd of purebred Saanens. The sheep'll probably be motley again. Yesterday I did some work on getting fences back up, so that when we do get stock again we'll have somewhere to put them. The basic setup will be the same as last time, but it'll be in somewhat better shape than last time since I'm using different fencing.

Owen's sitting here nagging me to get off. I'm not sure what he thinks he'll be doing, since I don't think he's done with school...

Robin has a new book coming out in September again! Yay! The title's Chalice, and so useful is the whole blog thing that she's already got us looking forward excitedly to September. And I'll actually have money! Mom and Dad are paying me back soon. I'll only get four hundred, since the other four hundred is going into silver ("For Anna's dowry," Dad says) without much choice on my part. I'm not going to argue, though, because for one thing silver's a safer investment than sheep. I mean, it won't up and die on me.

Levi came over yesterday and talked for awhile. We haven't seen him since late last year, and we've been feeling a bit guilty for not at least telling them that we didn't move after all. Anyway, he and his little brothers have gotten newspaper delivery time almost down to Doug's best, and they seem to be doing well. We were kind of annoyed with them this winter because their parents were driving them when the weather was bad. Doug always biked, even if it was snowing, unless he was really sick. *subsides into peeved muttering* But it was nice seeing Levi again.

Hey, Pete's actually been reading Beat online! I'd say this is something to gloat about! He's reading shooojooo.....when he is oooonliiine......I am so haaappyyyyyyy....'cuz he's so meeeeeeeeeeeaann.* Heh. I don't think Owen is, though. Hm.

*He has a habit of making such generalizations as "Shojo's junk." MeruPuri alone wasn't enough for a conviction. Thank you, Nakamura-sensei! You've beaten Hino-sensei! Now I just have to get Skip Beat back above Vampire Knight in the MangaFox rankings....UPDATE, FRANKY HOUSE!

Smear just left. She came over for a couple of hours with the makings of chocolate chip cookies and a recipe. We made two batches, and I get one of 'em. These cookies are pretty good....The original recipe calls for M&M's, but Smear'd used 'em up already so we used milk chocolate/caramel swirls instead. Yummy....

Yesterday Mom stopped at the library whe she was in town for a subbing job, and she got the last three volumes of Skip Beat! published in English so far. Peter's already finished them all. Owen's working on it.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh! I don't believe this! Harlequin has a manga branch. Harlequin as in "the publishing house devoted entirely to romance." And they do manga. Unbelievable.

Ehehehe. Don't tick Kyoko off. In here she's dressed (and made) up as Hongo Mio, a character in the drama Dark Moon.

Drat. Can't see it that well, can ya?

Just finished school! And it's nearly three o'clock....Hmmm.....Maybe I shouldn't have taken that nap after devotions; it appears to have put me behind. Oh, well.

Strange. MangaFox seems to be down.

Skip Beat!

Skip Beat currently dominates my fantasy world. Ren and Sho's competition is pretty close, but I think Ren is ahead--with Kyoko, I mean. Of course he's still ahead as an idol.

Sho--been with her until she was fifteen.
Ren--with her for awhile when she was six, and she still doesn't know that was him.
Sho--knows everything about her.
Ren--knows her very well, and knows stuff Sho doesn't. Also he cares.
Sho--considers her his exclusisve property.
Ren--is working on it, and is progressively evicting Sho from her mind.

She knows Sho much better than she knows Ren, but she's also on the way to knowing Ren better than anyone in Japan, as far as we know. She and Yashiro should pool their notes.

Kyoko: Beware the gentlemanly smile.
Yashiro: Yes. Don't make him mad.
Kyoko: Have you ever seen him mad? It's terrifying.
Yashiro: No, I don't think so.
Kyoko: And then there are the alternate personalities.
Yashiro: Eh?
K: Emperor of the Night and Demon King.
Y: Emperor of the Night? When was this?
K: You know when he asked me to help him figure Katsuki out?
Y: *instantly goes into suspicious matchmaker mode, complete with squeals* Congratulations!!!
K: About what? -.-
Y: Never mind. I'd only figured out that he was a really wild kid. He used to smoke, and he was really familiar with guns.
K: Real guns? Not just models?
Y: I don't know.
K: Cuz for them to be real, he'd really have to have begun in the States or somewhere like that, and I don't think he did.
Y: Why not?
K: If I'd been right, he would have Smiled and said something like, "Are you stupid?" Instead he shrugged like an American and pretended I was right--really sarcastically.
Y: Maybe he knew you'd think that.
K: That guy gives me headaches.
Y: Me too.

The last couple of days have been really warm. Much of the snow has melted, and there's mud everywhere. On a day like today last year, we would have taken the lambs and kids on a trip around the property. We'd have gotten muddy hoofprints on our clothes, and the babies probably would have been tired out, depending on how old they were.

Steve Wenz told Dad that he went to the sale barn, and bred ewes are going for fifty bucks a head. Dad would have sent me with B and Darrel to buy a ewe, except Mom nixed it on the grounds of having no hay money. *cries*

Peter and Owen are both reading Skip Beat. Peter is a huge victory, possibly assisted by Owen trying to dissuade him. I always kinda thought he might like it, but if I tried to feed it to him he'd have spat it out. So I refrained from shoving it in his face, and he picked it up. *is victorious* This would never have worked if I hadn't gotten the volumes from the library, and Peter weren't desperate for something to do between turns.

If I don't go upstairs now I won't wake up tomorrow. Eh.

Right now I'm reading Appare Jipangu! by Yuu Watase. It's pretty good, possibly because she's going for comedy. I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen: we're going to bounce around helping people, looking for her parents, and getting into amusing situations; he is already in love with her and knows it, while she likes him but has no clue and is going to exhibit astounding density up until at least chapter five. Yes, I know what'll happen, but I like the characters, Watase, whatever her faults, can be funny, and I want to watch. And Yuu Watase does have faults. Her heroines are frequently unpopular, and this is harped upon so much that I can't even think of anything else she gets wrong. Yusuru, however, has characteristics beyond being nice, willing to help people at her own risk, and able to get into scary and embarrassing situations for the hero to rescue her from. Yusuru, in fact, is loud, often mistaken for a boy*, and much better at getting out of trouble than her samurai boyfriend, who keeps losing his glasses. She can fight, too. Well, Samon can too, but not without his glasses. She isn't even very pitiable. I mean, yeah, she was abandoned as a child, but she loves her foster family** and is searching for her parents merely to ask why. She's not mad,*** she's not sad, she has no self-esteem problems. Okay, I want to read some more before bedtime. And Robin's right: footnotes can be addictive. Very.


*Her foster brother was shocked when the ninja^ got it right first time.

^From the Koka village and Kola clan. Yuu really was goofing around here. It's supposed to be set in the Edo period, which I think is the 1600's or so.

**Her father is a mad inventor and her brother tends to play with two ventriloquist's dummies with skull faces. This is a comedy. Not subtle.

***A possible reaction, with this girl.