Got up without too much trouble at seven-thirty. Fed Maddie after breakfast, then got dressed for church. I ended up wearing my green English teacher dress, remembering much too late that the fabric is too heavy for midsummer. Sigh. It cooled down before we came home, though, so it wasn't a morning of misery.

The sermon was on sanctification. Pastor Reese took it through the meaning of sanctification, the duties toward God and man, and sanctification as a way to salvation--the analogy he used was a road, with transportation still needed. It was a pretty good sermon, anyway--Dave's usually are.

We stayed to lunch afterwards, which is to say I ate and Philip sat. We sat with the Boonzaijers and Ben; Jenna's always fun, and there were two toddlers as well. Annica's slightly easier to deal with than Silas, but Silas has the advantage of not trying to speak. Oh, well, sometimes she's intelligible. Ben calls her Anakin. Uh-oh. I talked to Sarah DeBenedittis for a good while before lunch, too--yay Bennet girls. Phil's idea, not mine. Pray for my sake I never get them all associated with the characters Philip says they correspond to, because then I am in trouble. I think he said Abby is Lydia and Liz is Lizzie....help me..... After lunch I talked to Mr. Marble, which is a change because when Mrs. Marble is there he doesn't talk much. She's in Alaska getting the house ready to sell, so she'll be gone for six weeks. Sigh. Mr. Marble is really nice too, though, and we had a nice talk. He gave me some good advice on the whole "what am I going to do with myself" question. He says whatever I end up doing, studying a language now is bound to be useful someday. Okay, I'll keep that in mind. He also said I should ask Dad what he thinks I should do. Philip agreed. I set them both straight.

I think it rained here while we were gone. Hm. It didn't rain while we were in church, but there was a puddle on the corner all the same that sent water spraying in my window. -_-; Fortunately it mostly went on the dashboard.

It rained again after we got home, and then after it stopped Lark and I went out. The grass and all was pretty wet. We met a young couple, probably bf/gf, out a little past the pond. We turned back when Lark finished talking to them, delayed again when she decided to wade in the pond. That's rare. O.o Anyway, we stayed on the wide path for awhile, but the call of the water grew to strong to resist and we ended up walking along and in the creek bed the rest of the way to the road. The last of the water went in the grass some time before the crossing, though.

Walked again after dinner, at seven. This time we followed the creek all the way up to the culvert, then came back by the path. It was really fun. Some idiot had scratched an obscene drawing in the trail, though, close to the creek crossing. I scuffed it out and was mad most of the way to the gate, but by the time I got to the gate I was just wishing I'd written "akumetsu" or something under the scuffed spot. That would have been cool. *sigh* Oh well. We got home in time to help Phil, just back from church elections, haul those branches jichan lopped up to Grandma's branch pile.

Fifteen pushups, without breaking stance, and fifteen situps without stopping. That was because I got distracted and forgot to stop at five, though.

Men in Black, with some spoilers

It's a very fun movie, with Will Smith in the starring role again. It's lighter than I, Robot, without the hints of philosophical contemplations. Basically it's action--comedy--sci-fi--Will Smith, as opposed to action--sci-fi--mystery--psychological--Will Smith. I do have to say, whoever was in charge of the aliens did a very good job. The designs were great. The ending was pretty good too, if somewhat regrettable. But hey, at least nobody died. There are worse things than knowing you'll never see him again because he quit his job and went and married the girl he was in love with thirty-five years ago.

I wonder what Philip thinks of the sequel(s?).

Black lab

Ran over to Sid's to look after Maddie as soon as I was dressed, then came back to walk the Lark. It was pretty hot, but nothing really interesting happened. We met a middle-aged man with a grizzled beard when we were almost to the gate, but otherwise there was nobody out. I wonder if it was the same man who was watching a deer that time? 

Phil and I got out to the grocery store about eleven-thirty. Did the shopping, came home for lunch, and then went out again. We went to REI to try on shoes; I found some hiking boots I liked (Philip paid--mostly) and Phil tried some sandals. I think he decided on that model, but to see if the flagship store in Golden has a better selection. They looked good, anyway.

It was raining when we got out of REI, and continued to rain as we drove down to the surplus store, where I got a boonie hat. It'll do. Next was Safeway, because Grandma said they have the best watermelons. Met a black lab on the sidewalk outside.

Philip's pretty well decided we're not going to the Mann's picnic, which, he says, has probably moved to the church with the rain. Phooey.  We had pork ribs for dinner, with watermelon salad and baked potatoes. It was really good. 

Maddie Madeline was ready to go out when I went over after dinner, but it was sopping outside and I've no confidence in my ability to get her in again. Besides that Lark was waiting for her walk, so I apologized and left. Lark and I went the usual way, by the signs the first people to do so since the rain. The creek was running fast, with an interesting detour into the path at the crossing. I think the detour sort of leaked off the main streambed in bits, and then merged in the scrub there to flow into the path a little above the crossing. It was fun to watch, at any rate. The weather was nice, we met no one but heard their firecrackers, and my new boots were satisfactory. It may be a while before I'm used to the weight of 'em, though.

Philip's planning on Men in Black tonight (it was going to be Independence Day, but I've seen it before) so I'd better save this now. I'll report on the movie in the morning, probably while Philip showers.

Fifteen of each after the movie. Getting easier, not that the bloody cheering section helped.

German Shepherd

Hm. Familiar setting, not sure about events. I just wish the people who graze the sheep would either not use electric fence, or develop a flippin' gate. My poor character has had a long not-just-a-day, and he just wants to lie down somewhere he can watch the sheep, and first he has to negotiate this death trap involving electric wires and panels. Did you know my body remembers those fences well enough to give me an identifiable shock in a dream? It was almost a relief when we went back to yetis in the shed and Gollum skittering away across the barn roof. Gollum was a lot more identifiable as such than the yeti, was, though--someone had to tell me what it was.

Lot to do this morning, so I'll get off now. Lee is here for Grandma; she told us that she can't discuss Grandma's medical care without Grandma's presence. Hippocratic Oath and Federal law. Feh. Have fun, Mom. We called while she was here, to, so Grandma could sit in, but Mom had gone to town. I think it was Peter who picked up; he sounded remarkably dead.

Went over to Sid's for directions on cat-sitting. She sent the milk-jug home with me, to be returned after we go shopping. Nice.

We larked a little before ten. It was over half-way through the walk when I realized it was humid. Hm. We didn't meet anyone, anyway. There were rabbit bits scattered around  under a pine: I looked up, and there were a few more bits of fur on the branch. Good hunting, Owl? 

Karen was here when we got back, doing the INR. I asked what microcoagulation was. Just what it says, apparently: tiny clotting. Oh well. Karen knows enough to explain terms, but not enough to explain how it works.

Discussed with Grandma the possibility of extending my stay through August. She says she likes the company but can do without me. Well, yes, but should she? And can I handle the extension? ......Probably.

Father Paul brought his wife; she's nice. I sat in on the chat (Nancy says I might try vet tech--interesting thought) until Father Paul asked if I wanted to take Communion with them. I explained that I wasn't communicant and retreated. Scary man..... well, sort of. At this rate, though, I predict at least one awkward moment per visit. Drat him.

Finished rereading Beauvallet. Note: ask Phil about Public Enemies, Moon, Walking with Dinosaurs (theatrical show--Denver) and a Colorado sightseeing roadtrip, recommended by the Rector and his wife.

Phil came in about four-thirty, while I was virtuously occupied with Mistress to an Age. I promptly abandoned it.

After dinner I ran across to Sid's, through a brightly dripping world, to give Maddie her teaspoon of cat food. She didn't show much interest in it, but concentrated on me. I didn't give her enough time to get actually friendly, though: I had a date with Phil.

Ben was hosting College Night for church. There weren't too many people there, but it was pretty lively. There was Ben, of course, and Tom, Keith, Sarah and Rachel DeBenedittis, Marcy, Josh and Elise Mann, and the Matt who's dating a DeBenedittis. I'm not sure which; there are two more, Abby and Liz. I checked my last bulletin for their spelling, but some lazy person abbreviated it to D. and I threw out my old bulletins a week ago. They help out a lot, with the nursery and stuff. I think he's dating Abby. Anyway, they're all pretty fun. I'm not too sure I want to spend much time with Josh, though: he is dangerous. The man is an expert at instant recognition and effective utilization of an opening. I don't know why Keith lives with the guy, because he, of course, is the main victim--although I have to admit, he doesn't make it very hard. Josh isn't the only person who can spot openings, either. Oh, well. Anyway, those two are going to Geneva College in Pennsylvania, and I think Rachel is too. Elise will be going to college, and Tom may have been there a decade or two ago. I think Ben's in college, I know Sarah isn't, and Marcy's a nurse. A Gainfully Employed Adult, in fact. They're pretty fun all together, anyway. Although any DeBenedittis is fun. They're nice. So, yeah. Period of general conversation accompanied by pop while Ben tries to order pizza on his laptop, period of everybody else eating while I wish I hadn't had dinner (not that it stopped Philip, of course), period of conversation while the eating slows down, period of prayer around the table (give the person on one side of you a prayer request and pray for the person on your other side--I had to ask Rachel for her name when it was my turn), then they got a game out. Apples to Apples is this game where everybody gets seven red cards with nouns and definitions on them. There's a deck of red cards and a deck of green cards, which have adjectives and synonyms on them. Someone draws a green card from that deck, reads it aloud, and everyone chooses a card from their hand that they think is best described by that adjective. The person who drew the green card picks the best card, and the person it belonged to gets the green card. Everybody draws a new red card from the deck to keep their numbers up, and the next person draws a green card. The first person to have, in this case, four cards (it's determined by the number of players) wins. It got pretty silly by the time Elise won. I had two greens, "graceful" and "funky", both won off Philip. Everybody made remarks about siblings--although, in my defense, he didn't know the cards were mine and I didn't lobby for them. I guess we just think alike. Incidentally, I got "graceful" with "violins" and "funky" with "John Philip Sousa." The game ended pretty late, and it was eleven when we got home. Philip, mind you, had said we'd probably be home by nine. No, really. He said that.

Fifteen pushups, fifteen situps, in sets of five, before showering.

The title is from the dog in the house we parked in front of. Good, deep voice--German Shepherd, on the other side of the screen door.

Mistress of an Age

The first four chapters of Mistress of an Age describe the history and characters of Germaine de Stael's parents and her relations with them. Her father, Jacques Necker, was a Genevan banker and millionaire, widely considered a genius, thanks to her mother's devoted promotion of him through her exclusive intellectual salons. He was not a genius, but good with money and kind. She was........ She was intellectual, but very emotional; chaste, but coquettish; loving, but stern to her daughter. Suzanne decided to educate her daughter herself, and did so rigorously, under the delusion that she was doing so after the pattern set forth by Rousseau's Emile. Germaine's education was opposed to this pattern in every particular. She ended by hating her mother, and turning to her father for the affection and indulgence her mother refused, having been terrified by the desperation of her daughter's advances into utterly spurning them. Germaine and Suzanne were extremely similar in temperament, and mortally opposed to one another, competing for the affections of both Monsieur Necker and society. In the end, Germaine won society through effort, assisted by her marriage. Her father, however, became extremely devoted to his wife after her death, when it was perhaps somewhat easier to endure her society, embalmed as she was in a basin of alcohol, to be joined at his death by her husband, obeying her, through habit, even in death.

Fetch paper, Lark outing X 

1 Algebra lesson X  

Read  Mistress to an Age X

Summarize reading X     

Brush dog   

Cleaning task X  

Husky/Sheltie

Bleh. Zombie blobs. I spent most of the dream waiting for everybody to be dead at the end. I think most of us were still alive when I woke up, though. It was all kinda weird, anyway....

We went for a walk about nine this morning. It was much too hot. We met one person, a man, with a familiar husky-sheltie in tow. Oh, and a man on a bicycle. Otherwise all sightings were at a distance. I think I should've gotten a boonie hat while I was at the army surplus. The hat I'm borrowing from the Seamans is nice, a good, natural color that doesn't jump out, but I'm gonna have to give it back eventually. Also boonie hats are crushable, so when I'm not wearing it it can just go in my pocket like everything else. I'll just carry a red scarf or something in my pocket in case I need to be visible for, say, a medical helicopter. Spellcheck, by the way, acknowledges "boonies" but not "boonie." Pft.

After I got home and recharged, Grandma had me do the kitchen floor. That was okay. Then I had to do the greenhouse. Geh. It is impossible to get the dog hair out of there enough to even half ignore it while scrubbing. I want my vacuum! 

Sid came just as I was starting in the greenhouse to discuss me looking after Maddy while they're gone. I have to go give her a little canned catfood and make sure she's alive Friday night, Saturday morning and evening, and Sunday morning. Well, sure, I can do that. For ten bucks. Seems reasonable. A day.  .........!!!!  Sid said if I felt like it was too much, I could go over there and read or something to keep her company a little. ............I'm getting my revenge by sending her pictures of adorable Craigslist dogs. Or expressing my gratitude, I don't know. I'm sending her ads, anyway.

Incidentally, I have got to remember that the clothing biases are completely different here. B would wince at the brown army t-shirt with the hemmed BDU shorts. Sid and Grandma say I look cute. -_-; Well, thanks, but.....it's very disconcerting. Not least because that's definitely not how it's designed to look. Not that I expect to look intimidating, but.....how about utilitarian?

Started Mistress to an Age before lunch. Finished the first chapter, plus all the prefaces, by the time Grandma said it was lunchtime.

There are six ads for Rottweiler puppies in the newspaper, plus one for a brindle male Rottweiler/mastiff puppy (tail docked) for....wait for it....$500. Plus various puppies and mixes (there were rottie/bloodhounds posted today) on Craigslist. Dad should come out here for a month or so. I'm sure Rick knows somebody he could stay with.

Jinn came by with some shopping commissions from the Sunshine Market and a negative review of the place. "It's overrated," she said, giving us a bag of cherries, cartons of blueberries and blackberries, and some lobster tails. Lark was delighted to see her. On a related note, I need to start letting her out more during the day. Actually, she's tied out right now, but that's due to trouble on the other end: some kibble got caught in her throat, and by the time she coughed it up, her gag reflex was thoroughly engaged an she couldn't stop throwing up. It improved somewhat after I put her out, but she's still retching a little, occasionally. It's raining now, though, so I'd better go let her in.

Grandma's wandering around without her cane. I think I'm going to have a heart attack.

It's four-thirty and raining buckets. With wind. And big fat drops. The windows are all shut and I can still smell the rain.

Dinner was the lobster tails. They were delicious. Grandma boiled them and served them with melted butter, and they were great. Note to self: when interested in a guy, try the Lobster Test: does he mind paying an arm and a leg? (You can skip this one. Split the cost or buy them yourself for dinner at home.) Do either of you mind watching the sort of messy eating lobster entails? How resourceful is he in figuring out how to eat the stupid things? I look forward to such an excuse. Lobster has a purpose! Yay! (Besides the physical and intellectual workout, of course.)

We larked a little after seven. The rain had mostly stopped, confining itself to a sporadic misting drizzle. It was cool out, and I wore a hoodie and my boots--which, naturally, turned out to be useless against tall wet grass. What astonished me was that the creek was running. Not all the way to the crossing, but there were signs--dried foam--and runnels, from earlier. Higher up it was going strong. It was noisy up at the culvert, where crossing the rocks was like walking over a symphony of water, possibly by Stravinsky. It began to rain as we came back up the Heller road, leaving me unsurprised that we met no one until Eagle Rock. A woman from the big house on the Circle was coming down from getting the mail. Lark was suspicious, but she wriggled up once we got closer. We cleared off when she almost pawed the woman's skirt. I went over later, after putting out the trash, to ask her if she wanted her trash hauled out; she was weeding the marigolds, and explained, through a thick accent, that her husband took it out every day--I'm not sure where: the noun was too accented. The people living there are widely said to be the parents of the Pole on the hill; nobody talks to them much, but Maria is thought to do for them. Possibly. It feels like a victory, though: contact made! I've been eyeing her for a while, you see.....