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. : )

Nearly at the end of the 2-ep flashback of Norland's visit to Jaya. I like Norland and Calgara. Vids look a lot better now we have a new monitor. I got it, in company with an aged computer, at a garage sale on Saturday for five bucks. The computer (christened Amazon, for the old woman on Skypiea) is in my room, but it won't be running until I procure a working keyboard. There is no Internet, so Amazon will mainly use Microsoft Word and the calculator. My brothers keep lifting the monitor cable, since that's one of the connections Mom is in the habit of taking.

Been reading Heyer's Royal Escape, which I got at the library on my birthday. It's one of the historicals, not romance. I don't think I'll finish it today, leaving it in company of only My Lord John. Bonnie Prince Charlie is the main character. La Grand Georgette is very much a Royalist. Anti-Cromwell, and all that.

I wish Norland hadn't had to tell his King about the City of Gold. Bloody kangaroo court, it was. They hired a false witness, didn't even have him swear that he was telling the truth. Bastard wasn't even one of Norland's crew. And Norland never saw Calgara again, the Shandians were driven from their homeland, general misery. At least I get to watch Enel get beaten soon. I hope he gets beaten on the moon, too. So far he seems to be doing just fine. Grrrrr. (Been looking at manga chapters 435 through 459. Chapter beginnings show Enel on the moon, just like Buggy after the battle and Coby and Helmeppo with Garp.) Just in passing, you probably shouldn't read this blog if you don't like spoilers. Come to think of it, I doubt anyone does read this blog. It's more or less something to do while they're loading.....
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Such a pity that lighting is immortal....I can't imagine what it must be like to have to wait a weeek for each episode....
And in Chapter 159, looks like a skeleton named Brook is going to join the crew--the Thriller Bark arc is such fun. Cerberus is kinda cute. Oh, yeah, landmark--Robin called Usopp and Chopper by their real names. She only started doing that with Luffy on Enies Lobby. Zoro will come last.

Friday was one of my best birthdays ever. Mom took me and Owen (couldn't be helped, and she didn't trust him at home without her) to town and we went to a bunch of used-bookstores. A Novel Idea had Unfinished Tales I and the Book of Lost Tales (Tolkien), plus The Hero and the Crown, The Blue Sword, and Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley. Bluestem Books had Beric the Briton, cheap for an old Henty, but Mom didn't have enough. Yellowed Pages was the best. There was a hardbacked volume containing Mairelon the Magician and Magician's Ward by Patricia C. Wrede; I've read Magician's Ward but not Mairelon. They're Regencies. There was The Gray Horse by RA MacAvoy. If the library had it I wouldn't get it, but oh well. And there were the Heyers. I didn't have enough for all of them, but I got They Found Him Dead, The Convenient Marriage, The Toll-gate, The Unknown Ajax, Regency Buck, Lady of Quality. Out of all those, our library has only Toll-gate and Lady of Quality. Cool, huh?

Still on Skypiea. Nami is in difficulties, and Luffy is catching up to Enel. Wiper is incredible--nearly as durable as a Devil Fruit user.

Oh, man. The end of 182 is above price. Enel, learning that Luffy can't be hurt by lightning and that he can be hit--whooeeeeee. Too much.

YAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

We found out what a Skypiea Class-1 crime is! Evading the Punishment of a Priest! Anyway, yeah, we're on Sky Island. Cool possibility: Gold Roger may have been to Skypiea and been friends with Gan Fall.
I'm compiling a list of really good eps. 119, for Zoro cutting steel; 160, for Zoro receiving misdirected inspiration particles that should've hit Tarzan; 163, second half, for general hilarious ownage; 49, for meeting Tashigi and the phenomenon of Zoro taking out the trash (literally and figuratively) at Loguetown Marine headquarters. 53, also in the Loguetown arc, has some bits that are equally funny. 56 and 58 are really good, what else? 94 in Arabasta. Two names: Smoker and Tashigi. Oh, forget this. Go here for a guide to the episodes.

Extremely interesting fact: Gold Roger (Gol D. Roger, we're told), Monkey D. Luffy, Portgas D. Ace, and Blackbeard (Marshall D. Teach) share two things: black hair and the D. initial, which we are inclined to believe is a surname, since it's all that Luffy's and Ace's names have in common. Relations? Seems that way. C'mon, Oda-sensei! Tell us before volume 500!

Library visit Friday, fruits of: the two latter volumes of His Dark Materials, consumed; The Tin Princess, also Pullman; Lyra's Oxford, which is kinda bonus material to the series; volumes 2, 4, and 5 of the One Piece manga series by Eichiiro Oda, consumed; A School for Sorcery, E. Rose Sabine, consumed.

Mom is demanding the possession of Battleaxe and telling me to go do the kitchen.

Wheeeee! Robin's joined the crew! Vivi is in Arabasta now, for good. Episode 128 has a really good ending, which doesn't occur anywhere else: Family, sung by the Straw Hats--the voice actors for the pirates. Very cool! Radioblog does not, alas, have it. Anyway, we've reached Ruruka Island, and Luffy, Zoro, Robin, and Usopp are in Ape Concert. What's interesting is that we seem to have seen the Pumpkin Pirate kids before--as Marines pursuing the Straw Hats. Marines as old as Henzo is, and they ought to be.

Tomorrow we go to town. We'll have to go to B's first, for two reasons. The first is that Peter and Owen are spending the night there, and we have to pick them up. The second is that the water heater is shot, and since Dad's gone to Montana to work we'll have to pay someone to install a new one as well as buy the heater in the first place. This means that we're heating water on the stove for dishes and baths, and showers are impossible. Thus we have to go to B's to shower. Good thing tonight is Mom's last class before summer vacation. Then no more teaching until July.

Ah. Miss Doublefinger's power is the Doru Doru Fruit, which permits her to sprout thorns from any part of her body. This is occasionally extremely weird.
Sanji has kicked Bon Clay in the head, and Zoro is now facing Mr. 1. To quote "When I beat you, I'll have become a man who can cut steel." Zoro is very good at saying exactly the thing that will rile his opponent most, on purpose. Luffy often does this, it just isn't always on purpose. Smoker said, "He's an idiot." Zoro answered, "Sure, he's an idiot. But that's why he's our captain."
I'm gonna go see whether 119 (Essence of a Mighty Sword! The Power to Cut Steel and the Breath of All Things!) is loading.Man, when does Luffy get here??

ARABASTA!!

Right now Zoro is battling the blade guy, Mr. 1, and Sanji is fighting Mr. 2. Usopp and Chopper have defeated Mr. 4 and Miss Merrychristmas. Miss Doublefinger is going after Nami. The way that woman walks is kinda annoying. It probably affects all females that way, kinda like a nonexistent bra annoys all respectable females. What's really annoying it that there are two sides to the annoyance. The other side is that men are supposed to like it, and do. Bah.
Let's see:
Mr. 1: Cutting Fruit. Miss Doublefinger: I forget, but it turns her into something resembling a human sewing machine.
Mr. 2, Bon Clay: Mane Mane Fruit, or Imitations.
Mr. 3: Doru Doru Fruit, wax. Miss Goldenweek: Painting stuff. If you touch her paint it evokes in you the emotion that it symbolizes, like blue for sadness and yellow for laughter.
Mr. 4: the Number 4 Batter. Miss Merrychristmas: transforms into a Molewoman.
Mr. 5: he can make any part of his body explode. Miss Valentine: Kilo Kilo Fruit, changes her body density.
Mr. 6: never met him.
Mr. 7: this guy got killed when he tried to recruit Zoro. Zoro's conditions were that, if he join the organization, they make him the boss. Mr. 7 tried to kill him, and Zoro "did what he had to do", as he put it. We are unacquainted with Mr. 7's partner. ETA: Looks like someone else got promoted to the position. His partner is Miss Fathersday. They are snipers.
Mr. 8: Igaram. No fruit. Miss Wednesday: Vivi. Ditto.
Mr. 9: No fruit, fights with metal baseball bats. Miss Monday: superhuman strength. Zoro beat her.
Mr. 10: Don't know him.
Mr. 11: captured by Smoker, killed by the Billions. Partner unknown.
Mr. 12: Don't know him or his partner.
Mr. 13 and Miss Friday: The Unluckies. A vulture and an otter. Sanji killed them both on Little Garden.