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.

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

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

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

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

Mom and Doug are leaving tomorrow at three am.

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

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

Incredible. It was.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NICO ROBIN'S HANDCUFFS ARE OFF!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*sighs* Peter and Owen are back on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DAD, GET A JOB!!!

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

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

Gonna go watch 259.

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

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

Gonna go watch 250.

Waiting for B to come pick us up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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