Home again

Watched The Pelican Brief last night. It was really good--I'd like to watch it again. Oh, and another ep of Castle--jewel thefts/poker pride.

Spent the morning packing. I was mostly packed already, from last week's aborted departure, but there were still a number of things, plus the car to load. And I ended up forgetting my mudboots and bomber jacket. Gah.

It was a fairly short trip, subjectively speaking. We listened to The Forever War and various music off the iPhone, alternatively. Didn't finish the book. Owen called a number of times, interrupting whatever we were listening to. I was supposed to call him when we got into Nebraska, but I never got around to it. We'd been in-state for quite awhile, and were sitting waiting for direction at a construction zone, when I rolled down the window, inhaling the warm, humid air, and suddenly felt that I was home. It was a good feeling.

I think all the boys have grown. I know all the sheep have, even the previously underfed ewes; the lambs are enormous. The garden is a jungle and the melon patch overflowing.

*ded* Managed, amazingly, to get out at more or less the usual time--possibly because Cheerios don't require as much chewing as frosted shredded wheat. Stephanie, Carole's successor, arrived as Lark and I were heading out, and then Syd called to talk to me about Isaac. I'm afraid she was pretty unhappy about the way he was acting on our walk the other day. -_-; She wanted to tell me if I ever want her to intervene, I'm to tell her, but otherwise she'll let me deal with it. Which is a relief, because I can deal with him, but not her dealing with him. Anyway, after we finished talking I had to go be introduced to Stephanie, and then we larked. It wasn't too hot. I was sweating pretty profusely when we got home, though--I think it was just humid. Hm. Stephanie was still here but Philip hadn't come yet; I wandered off to computer-land.

Philip called to say he'd get here eventually, and tomorrow morning we're doing to do the Incline and then leaving for Nebraska. Sheesh. And then I started packing.

Father Paul came by this afternoon, and said goodbye to me before he left. I have to say, that was not someone I expected to get a hug from, but oh well. I let him get away with it, anyway.

Went over to the Seamans' before dinner to tell 'em I was leaving. Now those are people I like to get hugs from. Er. Ahem. Syd promptly went over to talk to Grandma (taking a glass of wine along to drink) and I followed her, after talking to Ralph for a bit. When I came back Syd said she'd been thinking about it, and she'd like to come along when we do the Incline and see how she felt doing that. So I'm to call her in the morning and see if she wants to come. Although unfortunately she doesn't want to do it with us. What's with all these people who don't stick together on a hike?

Larked after dinner. It was pretty nice out, albeit a bit buggy, and we only ran into one person. He was standing at the edge of the pond, and he told me he'd seen a turtle there earlier and was hoping to glimpse it again. Sounds like a good cause to me....

Larked late, but it was pretty cool out, so we survived. It was a quiet walk, much more peaceful than last night's dream, in which, besides various other hikers, we met several deer and some moose. Which Lark tried to chase--with what degree of success I have forgotten. I think my subconscious is having trouble remembering where it is, though-- CO home or NE home, as the numbers are labeled in my cell.

Spent most of the day reading, pretty much until dinner, although some laundry got done. I think. During dinner Isaac called to invite me over, and after dinner I did so. Played with him and Sydney for a bit, then sat through dinner with them. I had some grapes to occupy myself, or I probably would have had a second dinner. -_-; 

After dinner, and some discussion of who would go on Lark's walk, I came home to put my boots on and found a message from Liz Debenedittis to call her. So I did, and gave her directions (which sounded coherent to me--I hope so), and then Syd (senior), Isaac, and I went on a hike with Lark. Isaac was pretty obnoxious, I think because he was still mad about Sydney monopolizing me. I have yet to find a balance between them. Sigh. I need to learn how to do this. I think his other problem, somewhat, is that he wants to have fun with me the way he did the first time we played. Experiences, however, are impossible to replicate, and he's having a hard time trying. And since, as I think he sees it, that first time was me chasing him for being obnoxious, the best way to have it happen again is to be obnoxious. It's not working. Sigh. It is making his friend and his grandma mad at him, which makes him sulky and more obnoxious. Sigh. In the end it was very nearly full dark when we got home. We saw a doe and a buck when we were almost to the gate, and had a lovely view of the buck as he leapt the fence. Very nice.

I'm beginning to get into going-home mode. Sigh--I'll miss everyone here.

Well, I wasn't as sore this morning as I had expected. I did not, for one thing, want to scream until I actually stood up. And it was only really bad when I took stairs. Yeowch. Nonetheless, I bestirred myself, since Philip gave me fifteen minutes (from the middle of breakfast) to use the bathroom before he needed it. I was finished in plenty of time and heading over to the Seamans' before he was out of bed. Maddie was extremely glad to see me, the door to the master bedroom having blown shut again, this time with her outside. Her food, water, and litterbox are all in the master bathroom. You see the problem. She wolfed her gooshyfood, then galloped 'round to check if I'd opened the door yet. I had, and she ran for the litterbox.

That taken care of, I came home to find Philip getting into the shower. We got out the door at nine-thirty precisely, and made it to church with a couple of minutes to spare. The preacher was a guest, an enthusiastic man with a neat white beard, with "Christ is the King" as his topic. The text was from I Corinthians, with points from throughout the Scriptures. The sermon didn't really have much in the way of a planned outline that I could hear, and there certainly wasn't one on the back of the bulletin, but it wasn't a bad sermon. And one of the psalms was to a tune I knew, which happens about once every two weeks if I'm very lucky.

Afterwards Mrs. Kleinbeart had some questions about homeschooling, having done some with her children, and then I went and talked to Jenna while Philip chatted with a girl I don't know. They were plotting a fourteener once I leave. Sigh. Oh, and the camping trip is cancelled. Logistical difficulties, apparently. And Philip is planning to take me home the first week in August. Sigh. Well, I suppose I have a lot to catch up on.....including Lark's relationship with the stock. Will her increased obedience level go straight down the tubes with the first glimpse she catches of an airbrained ewe lamb? We'll see.

I decided it was time to go for a walk around two, precisely timed for the rain to start once we were fairly out. I decided to keep going, as it wasn't very heavy; it wasn't until the rain began more heavily, and Lark began giving me looks expressive of the opinion that this was stupid, why didn't I do something about this stuff hitting her on the head, that we turned back. In good time; for the thunder became serious as we headed for home, and once there was a crack of lightning directly above me that seriously scared me. We went for home at a smart pace, with a pause at the gate as I waited for some thunder to subside before I touched the metal. I have no idea if this precaution was actually worth anything or not; I was, however, quite certain that I did not wish to touch a tall metal gate, at all. It was a compromise. We reached the house with no mishaps, at least, and Lark submitted to toweling with slightly more docility than usual, which is to say she didn't gnaw on me very much. I hung my clothes up to dry and sat down with Maurois' Disraeli. It's extremely absorbing, and leads me to wonder if any of Maurois' other biographies are available in English.

Philip left for Golden while Grandma and I were having dessert, after suggesting some rather convoluted plans for the schedule next week. I think he said something about coming down Wednesday for both mental and physical torments, namely, the Incline and some SAT math. He would then go back to Golden on Friday, coming back....I'm not sure when. Before Wednesday again, I imagine.

Finished Disraeli before bed.

15 pushups, about 16 situps. Decided there was no point continuing after my abs quit--I'm not doing this just to bust my back and (somehow) shoulders.....

Some sort of big mix

Got up more promptly than otherwise, but lost any time gained thus by following the dog over to Sid's and falling into conversation with her. She says we should be able to figure something out for this weekend, which is when I'm supposed to be house-sitting, and also when the church camping trip is. Actually I'm house-sitting Wednesday through Tuesday, but I'm asking for Saturday and Sunday off. Which, Sid says, can be arranged. Probably.

FOUR HOURS A DAY?!?! LIUGF;OIHDG[ODIFS VKJNS'E! 

Kill.

Went to the doctor's office with Grandma and Syd for Grandma's INR test. Six milligrams, come back Friday. Stopped at King Soopers; Lark was low on dog food.

Had a nice long talk on the phone with home after dinner. Lots of stock news, heard everyone's voices. Doug cracked up completely at Syd's remark about reincarnating as my dog. Had to lark as soon as I got off the phone, though; it was nice and cool after the evening's rain, but there were a lots of bugs chewing on me. There was a magnificent red buck watching us from the other side of the valley, once. We only met one person, and jogger and his dog. He grabbed the dog immediately he saw us, and held his collar until he figured he was out of range. I had to leash Lark, though, or his calculation would've been way off.

Started reading Legacy about as soon as I learned my comp time was limited. Grrrrr.

Oog.....I am so hung over....Finished Horizon at about two a.m. last night. I think the series is over now, but that doesn't do me a lot of good when my female relations are firmly pulling me out of bed. Got out with Lark about nine. We went most of the way along the first leg and still got home an hour later. Urgh..... And I didn't think to get the other books in the series even though I know I always want to read the earlier books afterwards.....

Was about up to where I would normally be at eight-thirty, consciousness-wise, by about ten-thirty when Lee left. I haven't decided whether to go back to sleep, reread Horizon, start Memory, or just stay on the computer. Mom shoved me onto the comp in the interests of keeping me awake until she and Grandma left for an appointment. I ended up reading Horizon most of the time they were gone.

Peter called after they got home. It was kinda fun talking to him. He wants me to tell Philip they got Crysis, and complained a little bit about Philip buying a Macbook. "Do you know how much he could get with that, in desktop stuff?" First he relayed the news, though, and I didn't even have to understand Doug's indistinct comment to reply: he says he can't get rid of the other laptop because then he'd only have one computer, an intolerable state. Yeah, sure. Oh, and he offered several trades for Lark: I could have Owen, I could have Baron, but send them Lark. Right. Oh, and Doug's apprenticeship to Hank seems a little unlikely at the moment, thanks to more legal troubles about Josh. There's no way I would be able to understand it from talking to Peter about it, but sufficeth it that Josh was arrested, CPS got involved, and now CPS is threatening Josh's family with prison, on undisclosed charges. O-kay.

Isaac called at five-fifteen to ask if I wanted to come watch a movie tonight? No, sorry, I was going somewhere with Mom on her last evening--but would he like me to come over and play for awhile? He would. So we ran around and stuff until six. 

After dinner Mom and I went to Goodwill. I got books, she got clothes. I don't think I got any clothes, in the end....=_= But I got lots of books! Dorothy Gilman, and a random volume of Fruits Basket, the last in Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy that I have the middle volume of but haven't read the first and am terrified of the last, a random book that looked interesting, and--wait for it--Dave Barry Does Japan. I am positive it's a bad idea, but I couldn't resist.

I'm not sure what just happened, but the result is Mom telling me that I'm coming home August 10. Uh.....okay?

Dalmatian-Dachshund, coyote, and three deer

Well, I did get my own adventure in this morning's dream....and it was depressing. Very depressing. Reminds me of the beginning of Mission: Impossible. Feh.

We larked at ten to nine. It was pleasantly cool, but heated up fast. Ther was a lovely red doe on the road, in the bend shaded by willows and cottonwoods. Lark saw her before I managed to get close enough to see around the tree in the way. Sigh. We met the funniest dog, though, out walking with a couple of women at the first bend in the trail after the creek bed. He was white, all over black spots, and had a Dalmatian head, but he also had the shortest little bow-legs. "Dalmatian-beagle?" I hazarded. "Ah--Dalmatian-dachshund," one of the women said. Oh. Of course. I should have guessed. It was exactly that sort of body. Maybe the Dalmatian head distracted me, or maybe I just didn't want to think about such a crossing. I still don't, but that dog was hilariously cute. They almost caught up with us while we were at the watering hole, but we dodged up to the other trail and I don't think they saw us.

Decided to finish Beauty Pop, now that it's been completed for yonks. I hadn't remembered quite how much fun some of the characters are.....

Was thinking at lunch that the Dalmadoxy could be a legitimate hybrid. I'm sure it could be popular.

Buckets of rain after we got the mail. Was that at four? Hm. It was lightening up when I finished BP, anyway. Well, it'll probably be muddy on tonight's walk, though. 

Mom called during dinner. I talked to her while Grandma finished eating--so nice. She says they've put the paddock back together, and are separating the lambs from the ewes. Glad to hear it.

We went for our last run about seven-thirty. It was reasonably cool, with clouds advancing to regain the ground lost in a retreat after this afternoon's rain. There was a very handsome buck standing near the road, screened from Lark by a stand of trees. I didn't see him at all until I was nearly past, then the flick of an ear, perhaps, caught my eye, and I twitched. He calmly observed as I went a few more steps, at a normal gait, then carefully backtracked to greet him. He watched and listened, undisturbed, at I chatted him up and looked him over. He was the red type, very handsome, with what I understand to be four-point antlers, still velvety. I stayed for a few moments, until Lark began to get suspicious, and then I went on, feeling that it would be fearfully impolite to let her chase him. Makes me wonder if hunting is allowed, down there--although he may have felt safe simply because of the season.

Our walk continued uneventfully for the full loop until we were almost out into the creek bed, still in the little scrubby area where the little crick probably flows once a year into the wide wash. I was watching Lark run into the brush around the creek bed, where she would probably meet me when I came out, when a movement caught my eye through the scrub. A deer? The movement was pretty low, though, and of a different type--I waited for the animal to come clear: it was a coyote. Heading for Lark. I yelled for her to come, and she did, promptly, possibly having developed an ear for hysterical summonses by now. So she came, and looked back, and--oh, cool, what's that? Hey, (running over) what are you? LARK! Come! Huh? Oh, Sorry, gotta go, Mom's calling. And she came. Thank you. She even stayed close all the way out of the long grass ("Don't go in the long grass! Velociraptors!") and into the Heller road. I kept a frantic eye on her, having no hope of tracking the coyote in the scrub, brush, and tall grass, and by the time she was tired of surveillance I was beginning to tell myself things like, "Well, he looked like he was going somewhere. He won't take the trouble to follow us, will he? Probably not." She did disappear, though, in the scrub oaks a fair way up the road, and I had calmed down sufficiently that I hadn't freaked out by the time I saw another buck, of the gray variety this time, bounding along the fence line that runs down to the gate. There seemed to be a small black streak on the grass some distance behind him, and I focused on the next clear view. Yes, Lark was after him. I continued, no longer worried except in the automatic, almost casual way of any mother while their child is doing something stimulating. Do deer kick? Elk and moose kick. Nah, she's always too far behind. I doubt a deer would fight, anyway. Well, probably a mother would, if she had fawns nearby. Not a buck, though. Deer are supposed to be defenseless--but defencelessness doesn't mean you can't be an aggressor, with the right attitude.--She came when I whistled from out past the gate, coming down the slope and under the rail fence up there. When I called her for the leash, she said, Are you kidding? Give me a break. Oh, fine. Whatever.--And she lay down to pant until I'd clipped the leash on. I've been making her sit for the leash, past few days, and she apparently felt drop was less demanding. We made it home, anyway.

New manga, Teppen!. Showbiz, which is okay. Girl trying to find unknown family member, with a comedy tag. Hm, potential. Dorm-room gender-bender--well why didn't you say so?! Wheeeee! Good, strong heroine, too--personality-wise, I mean, and being a boy was more of a misunderstanding than anything else. Did I say whee? Wheeee! Only three chapters so far, though. I hope they don't make it twenty volumes--five should be about right, I'd say. Anyway, bai now! :D

Three sets of five each situps and pushups, just before showering. Lark administered first aid after the pushups, until I was ready for situps. Oog......

Well, I did end up watching Batman Begins last night. I think my favorite supporting characters would be Alfred, Lucius Fox, and Jim Gordon. Hm. Anyway, Yay main char getting to train with ninjas! :haha:

Mum emailed this morning to say she'll come out tomorrow. It was nice to hear her voice again, even in writing--I'd been thinking about calling her, over the last few days. PM's from Doug were becoming inadequate. It does sound like a mess back home, though. I wonder if Dad'll end up replacing the pump? Oh, and they're having to get water out to the hogs, too....dear me.

Philip hasn't appeared yet. I've still got two math lessons to do, and I've run out of anything but word problems. Oops. I think I'll save these for when I've got help.....

Lark and I got out about ten-thirty. It was pretty bright out, but as it's supposed to rain this afternoon I figured I might as well get it over with. If it's nice light ran and I feel like it we might go out again later. We took the Heller trail loop, ending up at the dig site, which had sprouted some diggers while we were on the trail. Michaela wasn't there, but I did talk to the young man who she was with the first time I stopped by. This time he petted Beautiful. :D

Most of the afternoon was spent online, in Tolkien, and watching (I confess) for Philip. Drat the man.

At five to four I called Sid to ask if I could bring back the tupperware from last night's cole slaw. She said sure, but wait ten minutes for us to get our guests gone. In the intervening time Philip materialized, so that it was four fifteen when I got myself hence. I then proceeded to spend half an hour chatting with the Seamans. It's always fun talking to them--subjects discussed include Philip, birthdays, robots, Mom coming, expectations, and psalms. When I came home, it was with the tupperware again, this time containing a different salad. Good thing, too, because when Philip isn't playing Iron Chef with expensive fish he just thaws out a pizza.

I'm reading Jodi Meadow's livejournal. I see her around a lot, as she's one of Robin's core from her blog, but I didn't know about much beyond the yarn and the ferrets. Well, it turns out she's a lit agent's assistant, and is meanwhile trying to sell several books of her own. Nor does she have Robin's qualms about making cryptic comments about how the writing's going and what she's doing with the plot. Cryptic--no spoilers--but it's something Robin doesn't feel she can do. Add this to the ferrets, the cat, the husband, and the yarn, and I'm enjoying myself. Maybe I should read Southdowner's lj--she's the one with seven dogs, after all.

We're going to watch The Matrix tonight, but PC is going to cut in before we finish, so I'm going to have to write about that tomorrow.