B's birthday present came last night! She asked me what I wanted months ago, the last time I came over before coming out, and I told her I'd like Emmylou Harris CD's. This, of course, sent her off into a tangent about country music and singers, but she didn't forget. Last night, when I checked the mail, there was a parcel in the mailbox. She sent me the Warner|Reprise Years Anthology. I promptly sat down and wrote a thank-you note, stifling the instinct to send it to Mom first for inspection, and am now wondering if maybe she wouldn't appreciate a phone call more. Being B, she probably would. Sigh. Anyway, it was something nice to listen to as I lay awake until three a.m., trying to fall asleep. 

Larked about nine-thirty this morning, after letting Lee in. It wasn't too hot when we started, and there were a lot of people out. Actually there were only two groups and no solitaries (or dogs), but the first was some sort of tour group of at least half a dozen people. I disengaged as soon as possible. This took some jogging, since I had to get far enough that Lark wouldn't be constantly running over to visit. The second group was much smaller, and consisted of a couple and their grandsons, having a small Cheerio-based picnic in the creek bed, between the crossing of the wide trail and the tributary where the smaller trail joins it. Lark was delighted to make their acquaintance. 

About one-forty-five Jackie from JJ Caulking came. She had an appointment, to discuss painting the house with Grandma, but I think she was a little early. Anyway, she brought her granddaughter along: Patricia, very stylish in a cute kind of way, and thirteen, which I would never have guessed. She looked about my age. They were both on the short side, very dark, but Patricia was pretty quiet. We were kinda....."What do I say? What do I say?" There wasn't a whole lot of conversation on the couch. Fortunately Lark always gives me a method of ignoring awkwardness, by petting her, but......it's not ideal. It's still awkward. She just lets me pretend I don't care. Not. Ideal. Sigh.

Phil came in.....actually, I don't know when. Couple hours before dinner, I guess. Which we prepared jointly. Larked about seven; met those boys and their grandpa, with the addition of their dad, launching a raft on the pond back there.  It was a pretty good raft, actually.

Called B to thank her for the CD's. Now to get the letter mailed...

Watched The Devil Wears Prada. It was a lot better than I expected, and then some. Meryl Streep was awesome. Seriously, working under her would be worth it just for the education in verbal style. The character has a fantastically devastating way with words. If the author had as much a part in creating that character as Meryl Streep did, I am reading all her books. I mean, Miranda's the female edition of Havelock Vetinari!

Twenty pushups on easy. Got up to write it down, and Lark promptly lay down in the position best calculated to block situps, which were next. Did twenty-five, after she was moved.

Medium brown dog, German Shepherd/Golden; short black poodly creature

B called. She was asking for my address again, which is pleasantly suspicious, but I think we ended up talking for half an hour, at least. Somehow it figures that if I'm going to get conflicting advice, some of it will be B's. I like Mr. Marble's advice better, anyway. So with that, it was almost ten when I got dressed to take the dog out. Trina says when there's no school, she sometimes stays in PJ's all day. Somehow, even with no livestock, I still can't do this. Interesting. Anyway, it was pretty hot by the time I gave up on finishing the first leg, and roasting when we got home to find Ralph gassing his mower at the end of the drive. Grandma asked him to mow all her long grass, because of the snakes. Sigh.

On a Cake kick.

Asked Ralph if he would give me some driving lessons. He said yes, if Grandma says yes. Grandma said yes. What did I just do?

Pat finally showed up to fix the swamp cooler. Yaaaaaay, cool air.....

Started Hellsing. I hope the art changes.*

Ten pushups in the middle of the afternoon....

*Whaddaya know, it does. That's better.

Walked the Lark after dinner, about seven-thirty or so. It was pretty nice out, but with an unhappy knee and stomachache, I didn't really enjoy it. Made the full circuit, though. We ran into a fair crowd in the willows along the road, though--four teenagers on bikes had stopped to ask directions of an early-middle-aged couple with two dogs. Fortunately the dogs were leashed, and Lark stayed out of range, because the brown one seemed a bit aggressive. I leashed her and dragged her off, but we didn't get enough of a head start, because once they started moving too the dogs could see each other again. Lark wanted to go back, and the brown dog barked. By the time we were on the road outside the gate I had had to carry her, because she sat down and I didn't want to drag her. Grrrrr. When we got to Eagle Rock they turned down the street, fortunately, and I could put the idiot dog down. Grr. I was beat when we got inside.

"Blue" came up on Pandora--for the first time, evidently; nobody'd thumbed it. This is no longer the case. :D

Ten more pushups, twenty situps.

Two Goldendoodles and a retriever; birthday stuff

Mom got me up about half an hour early. =_=;;; She was rather tsking to find I hadn't trained Lark to get the paper yet--I'd completely forgotten about that plan. Lee came about nine to work with Grandma, and I read No Bad Dogs a bit after getting dressed to go. I was printing out a B&N coupon when B called to say happy birthday! It was nice to hear from her.

Once Phil got back with the car, Mom and I went shopping. We started at the Book Rack, where I got a nice horse photo book, Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem, a Peter Dickinson, a Caroline Stevermer, and Berserk vol. 1. Next on the list was Heroes and Dragons, which seems to have shut down. So from there we went to Hooked on Books, which was great. There I found four Heyers, including the mystery I'd never read; two Bujolds, Shards of Honor and Barrayar; and a nice copy of Simon & Schuster's Guide to Dogs. Philip was nagging us to come home by then, so we went back, picked him up, and went out to lunch.

Lunch was Mobo Sushi. It was absolutely wonderful. The decor was all Japanese in tone, with screens between tables and china geishas dancing on the ledge behind the tables. The staff, from the waitresses to the two chefs behind the counter, all wore red and black tunics, like very short yukata in general design. The food was delicious. Mom had the spicy chicken bento, with tempura veggies and California rolls. Philip had the Sushi Deluxe, which was much like mine but bigger. I had the Nigiri set, which was various fish on rice balls with California rolls. It was really good, with the best pieces being the crab, the eel, and the California rolls. On the side they gave us wasabi and ginger to taste--the colors puzzled Mom, because the ginger was red.  Philip and I both had leftovers, which went home to Grandma.

After we got home, afraid to move in case we overflowed, Philip and I watched Mission: Impossible. It was pretty good--especially nice, again, to see the original of all the parodies. I did somewhat object to the way they went for drama--if there was the least possibility for suspense, for danger, for drama, they used it. 

We finished the movie about four, and once Philip headed out for Golden Lark and I took our walk. Not before time; she was bringing me balls all through the movie, poor thing. We met a few people: a woman with a Golden named Tiber, both rather uninterested; a young man on a bike, who hmph'ed as he passed us; and a man with two Goldendoodles, all rather familiar. I don't think he recognized us, though--if he had, he'd have known that I was aware his dog jumps. Remember the nose to the stomach at high velocity? Yeah. This time I got his collar before he got me, though.

I got home to hear that Sid had called. I called her back, and she said she had something for me, and did I want to come over or should she come here? I would be happy to go over. She was making dinner, but on the bar lay an envelope and a box. I opened the envelope first. Sid had made for me, out of pictures she'd taken of me and Isaac, a birthday card. It was great. On the cover she'd put various pictures of me, looking like a wild woman, wrestling Isaac on the couch the other night. Various fighting sound effects accompanied these. On the inside, opposite the birthday message, was a picture of me, standing very firm, looking after Isaac, whose posture was rather less.....sturdy. Written underneath was the caption, "And next time, don't send a boy to do a man's job!" Uuuuuh.....thanks. It cracked everybody up, though--me, then Grandma and Mom. I'm not sure Philip's going to see it, though.

Dinner was an omelet with fruit salad. Rather a perfunctory affair, but just as well, I suppose. I ready for bed now--tired, sore throat, etc. It's not even eight, though. Pity I don't have any activities I can do with my eyes closed. No comp, no book, no read. Dear me.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. : )

Just back from Grandma's

Spent the day at Grandma B's. She and Darrel (step-grandda, more or less) got here to pick us up around one, we got there a bit before two, I think. I spent the day moving between the barn and the basement, which is where the big TV and the computer are. There weren't any good shows on, and the Internet was slow, so I only got to watch about one point three episodes. I had to refresh and start over twice during ep 46. Peter is campaigning to limit turns according to time instead of single episodes, which Doug and I say isn't fair, and so would he if he were watching something. Anyway, I got two turns on the computer and spent a couple of hours outside. It rained last night, so all the horses were muddy. I only worked on my two favorites, Snip and Hoshi. Hoshi's name is actually Chessie, but she exactly fits the description of the mare Sir Raoul gave Kel in Squire, so Hoshi it is.
Mom came at almost six: B and Darrel were giving her dinner and cake for her birthday, so she got two birthday dinners. Mom didn't cook this one, though.