Got home from Colorado Springs on Saturday night. Spent a little over a week there with Grandma Jane and Philip. Actually Philip spent most of the time in Golden, taking Peter with him. He goes to school at Mines there. He, unlike me, was blogging through the visit, at Plains of Hesitation. It is beyond me why he called it that.

Anyway, been home about five days. Dad was home when we got here--actually he was the one who had Phil bring us home before two weeks were up--so I haven't been able to watch much One Piece. On Monday, when Phil was still here, they all went somewhere, so I got to watch eps 229-234. I'm in the middle of 234 right now. We're in Water 7, and Robin has just gone somewhere with a member of CP9. I'm pretty sure it's Blueno. Also the Galley-La foremen have broken the news that Merry can't sail anymore, and Usopp is trying to get the money back from the Franky Family, which has stolen it. It's not going so well for him.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the basement filling five-gallon buckets with various non-perishables, filling in the gaps with carbon dioxide, and sealing them. It took a long time, and I have sore muscles from lifting bags of rice, but it's not a bad job. It's not difficult, at least.

In Colorado we went to the library a couple of times. Watched V for Vendetta a couple of times on DVD--liked it--got the latest Patricia C. Wrede Regency, which is Cecy and Kate again. The title is The Mislaid Magician, or Ten Years After. The two couples have children. And there was The Raven Ring, which is set in Wrede's own universe Lyra, which she visits only in fiction for adults. Which reminds me of a complaint about the Co Spngs libraries: they seem to have difficulty with the concept of putting the science fiction in the science fiction section. Drives me nuts whenever I think about it, which isn't often.

No chores assigned yet today. Mom and Owen went to town this morning. I didn't go, because getting up at eight isn't worth it when the libraries are all closed for the holiday. Bah. They did go to Barnes and Noble, since Dad wanted Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival (very good), but retail is too expensive. Tonight Grandma B and Darrel are coming over after dinner to see Owen's fireworks display. He's the only one who spends any money on them these days, and this time it was quite a lot. While Peter and I were gone he and Doug made a pile helping Darrel with hay. Peter is put out about the fireworks because he was hoping to get Owen to buy a computer game with the money.

The livestock is all doing well. The pigs don't seem to have gotten loose since I came home, and they're all big enough to slaughter. The only hitch is that we can't afford to pay the butcher right now, so they'll have to wait. Such a pain for Doug. My main complaint about it is that I can't sell my lambs until we have the truck and trailer for the hogs. That's another thing: I'm told Darrel has a new truck. Big, expensive, and Grandma can't even get into it for lack of thing to hold onto and step on. And as far as I remember, the old truck still even has air conditioning. Mystifying. B wants me to come over sometime soon and help get Bunny and Babe ready to sell. Babe is tall and brown, except I think she has some white on her face. I don't know her very well. Bunny I do know, because she shares a pen with Hoshi. She's not all that tall, but she's a lovely reddish brown with white patches. I think this is sorrel overo. Anyway, she's a beauty, and she's not too terrible about me petting Hoshi instead of her. Actually, most of the time I pet them both. A bit difficult, but manageable.

The boys have been monopolizing Battleaxe. Dad's home full-time, and all they want to do is play Tribes or Runescape, or watch Bleach. So I'm stuck on Della, praying that Dad stays on the couch. I also have Amazon up in my room: no Internet, the only word processor is Notepad, no speakers, ack. I have been using Notepad, but it's annoying. The font, the lack of margins, no bold or italics. The main plus is that I can do it in the middle of the night.

I'm gonna go read Philip's blog now. Gonna go through the archives. : )