Pygmalion

Pygmalion. So awesome, yet so under appreciated by high schoolers. Honestly, it's a hilarious play, but no one seems to get it!

Yep, that's right. My drama club is doing Pygmalion. I really like Pygmalion a lot, and I think that I understand it probably better than any of the kids in the drama club, but I have to say. This is not a play you want to have to watch twenty times a week. It just starts to get really, really, really long.

I am playing the part of Mrs. Pearce. The housekeeper. I was thoroughly disappointed in this role when I first got it, but it turns out to be okay. She's kind of a fun character, I think. So I'll make due.

But. as luck has it, we've gotten ourselves an AWESOME Higgins! Which is great, and makes the whole show much more enjoyable than it might have been. So there's always that.

Keep you posted?

What Have I Done?!!

I just sold two of our goats to crazy people! Poor Marigold and Dill! This family came with three small children to buy two goats, and those children were chasing those poor little babies around, grabbing them, carrying them upside down, basically doing everything in their power to make the little dears freak out!!! Worst of all, you know what my dad told them? 'Nothing you do to those babies is going to hurt them'. What? That is insane! They could do many things to hurt them, like, say, light them on fire, drown them, throw rocks at them, strangle them, break their little goaty legs, or feed them to their two hairless cats which they kept talking about!!!

Let's just say I'm going to be calling to check on them in a little bit...

Why I Love Theatre

The theatre is awesome. Anyone who doubts me is uncultured and needs therapy. The Sound of Music is my current show, in which I play the part of Louisa, the second oldest Von Trapp daughter. First of all, Von Trapp? Super mega awesome name! Second, Louisa? Super mega awesome character! She's the trouble maker of the children and is always playing pranks on the governesses, her favorite being putting toads in their beds. Heh, heh...

Also, the children get to do all sorts of fun numbers in this show, such as Do-Re-Mi and So Long, Farewell. Would it have been nice to also get to do 16 Going on 17? Sure, that would have been nice, but I'm going to have to live with it. Yeah, I wanted Liesl, but I didn't get to try out for her, because I missed the initial audition being in Disney World, and so I just had to do a callback for any part they wanted, and they wanted Louisa. But I'm not complaining. I'm having a blast, and I have a great part still.

I am not looking forward to next week, though. The 4H fair cooincides with our last week of rehearsal. It will be insane. :( All that I know is that I'm sacrificing showing pigs, not rehearsal if the need arrises.

We get to climb a mountain at the end of the show, and end in super dramatic poses. I'm excited. I'll return with pictures or something later.

Goat Tales

Did you know that goats are the second most likely domesticated animal to revert back to their wild ways? Cats are first, of course, but I thought it was interesting that goats came after that. I would never have guessed. They're so cuddly! Who knew that they could turn on you in an instant! After reading Call of the Wild, I would have thought dogs would be second. And in case you are wondering, I hate Jack London. His writing drives me crazy. Although, I do have a funny Jack London story, which I will allow myself to write, no matter how irrelevant it is. We were getting ready to read one of his books in English once, and we were watching a documentary on him before we began reading. So out teacher asked us to guess what we thought his life was like, and who he was, or something like that. So I said that I thought that he was probably a hobo. And guess what? He was a hobo! Hilarious!

Anyways, back to the point of the post. That point is that Walnut is awesome. But, you may be saying, not only is that a very vague point, it is also the point of almost every post you write! And you would be correct. But I shall specify. Walnut is awesome because I think he's starting to get the hang of being walked on a leash, meaning that I will be able to do very well when I show him. Okay, 'getting the hang' may not be the right phrase...Maybe 'moving past the phase of just laying on the ground while I try to drag him along'.

In any case, I am so going to win the costume class. We're both dressing up as Newsies. You know, the street urchin children who sell newspapers on street corners? It'll be awesome. We both have newsie caps, and we'll wear big scarves, and vests, and I'll have boots and some of those gloves with the fingers cut off, and a big stack of newspaper tied together with twine. And I'll figure out a way to give him a little pack of newspapers on his back. Here, I'll photoshop a picture of him to include his costume, just to give you an idea:

Isn't it adorable?!!!! So, I'll post a picture of the actual costume when I finish it.

Creeped Out

Have you ever known one of those super creepy people before? You know, the ones who think they know you really well, and are in the loop on your life's goings-ons? I know someone like that. And I wish I didn't. She seems to have gone on facebook and friended all of the people I'm friends with, even though I'm sure she doesn't know any of them...And now she's talking about them like they're old friends, or something. Am I the only one who finds this creepy? Wish I'd never accepted her friend request...

Just to clarify, I do know her, though. She's not some random stranger who decided to friend me or anything...

Getting Paid for Basking in the Garden of Beauty!

This summer, I have a plethora of money. Well, not that much, maybe, but enough to be able to purchase all of the things that I've been wanting. How did I come across these funds, you ask? Well, since my sister left for college last year, I have been able to pick up all of her old neighborhood jobs. This means I got to pet sit last week for one neighbor, and I get to get the mail and tend to the garden of my other neighbor for all next month.

My pet sitting neighbor pays really well. She had initially said about $18 a day to watch the dogs. Then, when she was paying me, she kind of just rounded it up to $20 a day, and then gave me a five dollar tip in addition to that. I got nearly $170 for one week of letting two little dogs outside and dumping some food in their bowls!

And my other neighbor gives high wages, as well, if I remember correctly from when my sister did work for him. Last night, I went over to water his garden, and at first, I was thinking, 'Gee, I need to get over there before it's dark out!', because there are coyotes in our area, not that I've heard them more than once in the eight years we've lived here, and I've never heard of them even attempting to attack anyone or anything, but still. So, I went over there, and it started to get really dark really quickly. That's when I remembered that it doesn't matter if I'm over there in the dark because my neighbor lives in the midst of a nighttime light show extravaganza!!! Seriously, his garden is all lit up at night, it's gorgeous! His garden and yard are already beautiful, because tending to them seems to be his favorite hobby, but at night, it's spectacular! Plus, my neighbor and my family both have ponds in our backyards (who knows why...), so there's the added benefit of the waterworks in his yard! He has a giant fountain made of sparkling beauty in his pond that turns on at night! It's kind of worth the mosquito bites I get from going there at night. It is incredible.

Nougat: Everyone Knows It's the Best Part of the Candy Bar

I love me some nougat. Do you see? I love nougat so much that I just used improper grammar for it. Intentionally! Do you want to know what I don't understand? Why don't they sell just nougat? The only way to really get nougat is in a Snickers bar, or a Milky Way! And then you have all of the other candy bar components fighting for room on your tastebuds, when you really just want the nougat! That's why I tend to eat my candy bars with a knife. I can then cut off all of the chocolate and other stuff, and eat them first, and finally enjoy that luscious nougat, all on its own.

I'm going to have to try to make nougat. Every sit tight for a minute, I'll find a recipe and post it here. I'll be right back - hold on.

Okay, I'm back. Go here to make nougat. I shall try this recipe, as well. However, I am going to leave out the nuts, because I'm just not much of a nut person. I mean, they're all right, but not something I actively want to eat. Plus, that would just put me back in the same place I started - having to rip my poor nougat to pieces to get everything else out of the way, so I can just eat the darn nougat.

Well, I'll be off to make some nougat now. Bye!

Hats of Awesome

Some time periods are awesome. The Victorian Era, the Roaring 20's, the 1940's. One of the main reasons I think these eras are so awesome are their clothing. And, even more, their totally incredible hats.

I really love historical hats. I just like to look at them. I think it would be so amazing to be able to wear one of those hats. So, I have taken up the occassional hobby of taking old hats that my family no longer wears, and turning them into old fashioned Hats of Awesome. Hats like these:

These hats are cool. Are you drinking them all in? Good. My hat making is still a work in progress, so I won't post any pictures of my work just yet. Until then, my ultimate goal is something like this:

My Crazy Pig Adventures

Let me make one thing very clear. Pigs suck. There is just no other possible conclusion. Do you want to know why? I'll tell you why. Remember a couple of posts back, when I weighed the pros and cons of showing pigs? Well, yesterday I was a millimeter away from nulling all of the pros on my list, except getting money. That one still held true.

You may be asking yourself, 'What could possibly have happened to make her so mad at pigs?'. And I will answer, 'You probably don't even want to know, but I shall tell you in great detail anyways.' In this way, my story shall begin.

My dad told me yesterday before leaving for work that before he got back, he expected me to have gone outside and worked on training my pigs. So I inwardly groaned, but trudged out to the barn, intending on moving the pigs into a different stall so that I could clean their pen, then work with them a little. This did not happen. You see, for some unknown reason, one of the three pigs was already in the other stall, so I had to get the other two in with her. Easier said than done, for when I got the others out of the pen to come to the stall, they refused to go into it, and then the other pig also escaped through the open stall door. The other two finally went inside, but the third was still running amok.

I closed the stall door, but did not latch it. You will soon know why this was a fatal mistake. I chased after the other pig, and then it found a way outside, and was running around outside the barn. It then ran right into the area where we have all of the outside pig pens. I thought, 'Oh, perfect! I shall simply put this pig in one of these pens!'. That did not happen. It refused to go into a pen, and then ran out of the opening in the fencing that allows all of the pig muck to drain out of the pens. Right into a four foot deep sludge puddle of pig crap and who knows what else, though pig crap alone is plenty.

Let me tell you something. Pig crap is quite possibly the most disgusting substance on earth. I am in no way joking. And that sludge is like quick sand. Do you want to know how I know? When we went on vacation, we had people who ride horses at our barn taking care of our animals for us. One day, one of them decided to take a 'shortcut' around the pig pens to make feeding faster. She fell into the sludge puddle. Up to her knees. She couldn't get out by herself. She had to call her husband to come pull her out. Then she had to be hosed off, and I don't even want to know what her car smelled like by the time she got home. Her expensive running shoes had to be thrown out. I am telling you, that stuff is like toxic waste.

So, when the pig fell into the sludge, I chose to simply block off the entrance to the pens and leave. By that point, I was so mad that I was secretly hoping she would drown in the sludge. But she climbed out while I was closing off the pens.

I then returned to the barn to find the other two had cleverly opened up their stall door, and were also running amok through the barn. I stuffed them into the nearest stall and then went and cried in the goat pen. It took twenty minutes of baby goat cuddling to make me feel up to walking around again.

I was in a terrible mood for the rest of the day, and it didn't help that I was also suffering from exhaustion, having not been on a normal sleep schedule for nearly a month, and I had a terrible pounding headache, and got dizzy every time I moved too quickly.

To add to all of that, when my dad got home, he started freaking out that I left a pig outside, not in a pen. So we had to go out there and find it. The pig was so stupid that she had walked into a pen and hadn't been able to figure out how to get the unlatched gate open again, so she was just sitting in a pen when we got out there. Whoever made up the ridiculous rumor that pigs are actually very intelligent was probably stupider than pigs are, which puts them at about the same level of intelligence as a rock.

Oh, and you know what? When we later went out to do barn chores, guess what? I still had to clean the pig pen.

Walnut

Okay, I know I've been talking a lot about Walnut lately, but he is just so darn cute that I can hardly help it!

Do you want to know what he did today? Well, I'll give you some pre-story knowledge that you can later apply it to the Walnut story first. So, we have all of the mother and baby goats in a pen together, and during the day, they go outside into a big outdoor pen where they can run and play and eat grass, and then at night, they come in and sleep in a stall.

Today, we were moving the herd from the outdoor pen to their stall, and that's always chaotic, because you have nearly twenty goats all climbing over each other trying to get to the food. So we fed them, and moved on to the rest of our chores. Well, about ten minutes later, do you want to know who blearily wandered into the barn from the outdoor pen? Walnut.

He must have been so fast asleep, that he didn't even notice all of the other goats coming inside. And then, when he woke up finally, he was all by himself. And came wandering in, looking for an explanation. He got about twenty minutes of hugs and kisses for that. And then he got some goat-show training, which was also cute, because he had a little harness on to walk him around with, and he's always adorable, no matter what.

I'll post some pictures of him later. Until then, please immerse yourself in the image of him in the bottom right hand corner of my blog's banner.

Pig Showing: The Pros and Cons

I show pigs in 4H. It sounds really unpleasant, and it sort of is, but it is also kind of fun. Sometimes. I do like showing pigs more than I like showing goats, because pigs are easier, and I just love my goats too much to properly train them, because I feel so bad when they get all upset when you first start. They're too cute for their own good. It's true.

So, moving along, pigs: the pros and cons. I'll add a rating of between 1 and 5 for each one, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest, so that at the end, I can add up the points and see which one outweighs the other.

Pros:

1. Pigs are super easy to show. (3)

2. You get money for pigs. (5)

3. I do well with showing pigs. I got first place for both of my pigs one year. (4)

4. My dad obsessively breeds pigs, so I always have really nice pigs, and I'm able to enter the homegrown classes and such. (4)

5. Pigs don't require very much loving attention. They just want food, so it's not as if I have to cuddle them, or anything. (2.5)

6. You have to bathe them the night before the show, which is sometimes fun, especially when you spray random people with the hose. (2)


Cons:

1. You have to clean their pen, and they like to spill water a lot, so it is messy and the wheelbarrow is heavy. (3)

2. You have to wake up early for the show. (4)

3. Before you go in for your class, they have all of the kids and their pigs jammed into a tiny little space called a 'holding pen'. Holding pens suck. Your pig runs all over the place, and you have to climb over all of the other pigs to keep up with them. Often times, the pigs get into fights. The pigs are all pooping and peeing, adding an extra obstacle to dodge. (5)

4. In the show ring, all pigs seem to have a fetish with running to the corner and standing there, digging in the dirt, and they refuse to move from there. (3)

5. Pigs also like to run all over the place when they finally get into the open after being stuck in the holding pen, so you have to try and keep up with them while maintaining an aloof showing presence to show that you don't panic when your pig goes insane. (2)

6. You have to wash your pig the night before the show. While this has some fun aspects to it, it mostly sucks. You have to get your pig into the wash pen, and then scrub them through the metal bars of the pen they're in, and sometimes the pigs dislike getting sprayed with water, and then they try to bite your face off. And you get really wet. (3)

So, how did the scores add up? Let's see...the Pros scored 20.5 points, and the Cons scored...20 points! It looks like the Pros got it! And now you know: Showing pigs sucks, but 0.5 points less than it is awesome.

Walnut's Day

This is what I imagine today was like through the eyes of my goat Walnut (see bottom right corner of banner):

7:30am: Oh my goodness, I am waking up to the sounds of people bringing us food! I am so happy to be so fluffy today!

7:35am: Thish food ish sho nummy!

7:45am: Oh dear, there is no more food. How shall I occupy my time now? I know, I will climb on this platform and stand there! Yay!

8:30am: The sun feels so warm on my fuzzy-ness!

10:00am: Oh, look, my friends are prancing! Maybe I will prance with them! Yay, this is fun! Look at me, I will jump off of this tall platform and look adorable!

10:10am: Now I am very tired from prancing. I will sleep right here on this wooden thing.

11:00am: Hmmm...now that I am not a sleepy goat, I will nibble grass and then stand on this wood thing again and be fluffy.

12:30pm: Oh, look, another person. Maybe they have more tasty food for me! I will stand by the fence and look cute.

12:35pm: Oh no, she is just putting those other goats away. I guess I don't get food yet. Aww. But I am okay because I am still fluffy.

2:00pm: Maybe I will nibble more grass, and then try to headbutt Marigold, but I will not do it hard, because I don't really have the heart to do that, so she will end up headbutting me, and I will eat more grass because I am so cute.

4:15pm: Oh, the person is back. Maybe she has food now. Oh, wait, she is coming in here. Here she comes. Oh, she is picking me up. I'm slightly disoriented now. Where are we going?

4:45pm: She wanted to take pictures with me. I don't know why. She wouldn't let me go. She kept walking around trying to figure out how to take a picture of us together while holding me. I wanted to get down because it was very hot and she was hugging me a lot. That's what I get for being so cute and fluffy.

5:30pm: She is back again. This time she is trying to put different hats on me. I don't want to wear a hat. But I love her so much that I am not even mad.

8:15pm: She is finally bringing more food. It is yummy. I am so very happy to see her that I am going to jump all over her and attack her with fluffy goat kisses of joy.

9:00pm: It is sleepy time again. I had a good day. I can't wait for the people to bring me more food again tomorrow and cuddle with them. Being Walnut is very fun because I am cute and fluffy.

And that is how I imagine Walnut's day went. Yes, I did put hats on him, but it was only because I'm entered in an animal costume contest in the 4H fair. It's not as cruel as it sounds, okay?!

Why I Can't Finish Things Sometimes

You know what my problem is? I have indecisive-itis. I like to write a lot, but I'll get an idea for a short story, and be so excited about its awesomeness, but then a day or two later, I'll say to myself, 'Gee, that was a stupid idea and would be hard to write. I'll use this awesome idea instead!' And then the whole process would repeat itself.

You know whose fault this is?

Disney.

I'll have this great idea, and then Wham! I'll watch Tarzan and realize how much more awesome the movie Tarzan is than my story idea. Then I shall be all enthralled with Tarzan for a week, and then move on to my next idea, which will quickly be destroyed by Pocahontas.

It's because I'm obsessive by nature. I'll see something and be entranced by it, and walk around in a stupor for a long time, feeding off its awesome. That is what happened with the Haunted Mansion.

And other cool things, which I won't get into now.

So now, I am really into Tarzan. It is my favorite Disney movie. I love the story, and the music, and the way it looks, all jungle-y, and Jane is quite possibly the coolest person ever, and I love how she is totally not suited for jumping around in the jungle at the beginning, but she still tries. Also, Terk and Tantor are incredible characters. I love them. And I love the baby monkey who steals Jane's drawings. The only things I dislike about Tarzan are: 1. That was right when Disney started getting into using computer animation to simplify their lives, and so it isn't very realistic and polished where they used that technique, and 2. Most of the music isn't sung by the characters, so it would be difficult to adapt into a stage musical for Broadway.

And neither of those things actually prevent you from enjoying the movie immensely, and they aren't crucial issues. It just saddens me that I will never play Jane in a stage musical of Disney's Tarzan on Broadway, because that would quite possibly be the greatest thing ever.

Jane and Meg, from Hercules, both get the short end of the stick. They both totally qualify as Disney princesses, but they aren't recognized as them because they're female characters from Hero-oriented movies. All of the Disney princesses are from Heroine-oriented movies. So, Jane and Meg don't get to be princesses, just like the Beast doesn't get to be a Hero, because he's from a princess movie. Such a shame.

So, in conclusion, I can't finish things, and it's all Tarzan's fault.He gets blamed for not sharing the limelight with his significant other, who is awesome.

*Update: Haha, turns out there is a Broadway adaption of Tarzan....It's not running anymore, though, so my chances of playing Jane are still slim to none.

Grrrr....

Remember how I don't like thunderstorms? Well, it is getting dark and cloudy and windy and thunderstorm-threateny. This is upsetting, especially if we lose power. I like electricity, so long as it is controlled and not in lighting and not striking me. I'll have to close the windows soon, because of rain, so I also might die of heat stroke. My poor goaties are all by themselves, too. Aww.

Update: I am now eating cupcakes. Gosh darn it, if I have to die because of stupid, over-emotional rain, I may as well have cupcakes in my belly. I don't even care about getting diabetes in old age or tooth decay at the moment. Cupcakes make me temporarily invincible. Until they give me tooth diseases.

Some Bloggy Tidbits

Okay, I am now going to explain some things thatI probably should have right when I started this blog. This blog actually originated a while ago, using a different blog host than Blogger. However, one day I was sitting there, happily typing away when an idea struck me: I should personalize my blog layout!

So, I went poking around, looking for the html code of the template I was using so that I could tweak it a bit, and guess what?

The blog host I was using apparently doesn't allow html code-tweaking. I was devastated. My dreams of a personalized blog were shattered. Then, one day, I was reading on the internet that, gasp! Blogger allows you to customize your blog! So I packed up and moved camp on over to Blogger, where I then spent the next week of my life customizing and tweaking and photoshopping, until I was satisfied with my blog.

And here I am today, happy with my blogger-blog. That is my explanation for why you might find a blog floating around out there that has remarkably similar content and titles to some of the early posts on this blog. That is my previous blog. However, if we all ignore it, maybe it will just go away...

The Many Important Lessons from the Wizard of Oz

When you think about the story of the Wizard of Oz, book or movie, you may notice that there are some highly important lessons tucked in there that are important for everyone to know. For the sake of including most of the population, I shall focus on the movie today, but only because most people don't even realize that there was a book before the movie!!!! Ahem. So here are the lessons, offered to you in a friendly guide book style, so that you can print this post out and carry it with you always.

Important Lesson #1: When stealing your neighbor's plucky animal sidekick, be sure to securely fasten the lid of the basket/carrying vessel that you are taking them in. Trust me, plucky animals will not stay in the basket.

Important Lesson #2: Don't walk precariously on the fencing of your pig pen. They will eat your face if they are hungry, and then you will not have a face.

Important Lesson #3: In case of a tornado, be sure to know your safety procedures, especially if you live in Kansas during 190-something. Just sayin'.

Important Lesson #4: If your house gets sucked into a cyclone, dial 911 immediately.

Important Lesson #5: When your house lands in the Munchkin country, yes, you are probably hallucinating. Don't join them in song, whatever you do.

Important Lesson #6: When directed by a Good Witch to go on a long, extensive journey to the capitol of the Hallucination-country you are in in order to get home, be sure to ask if there isn't a much easier way that would save you a lot of trouble to just do, even if you won't learn a lesson and have a plucky adventure with your plucky animal sidekick and your plucky new friends you meet along the way. There usually is.

Important Lesson #7: It is not normal for scarecrows to talk. Don't just accept it and move on. It's not okay.

Important Lesson #8: Ditto for tin woodsmen. They shouldn't even exist in the first place, even as inanimate objects. They are probably the result of some grotesque wood chopping accident that you don't want to hear about.

Important Lesson #9: Lions also shouldn't talk, and it probably isn't a good idea to let them adventure with you, no matter how cowardly they claim to be. They will also eat your face. Even if they are extremely likable and cute and fluffy, and played by Bert Lahr, who is awesome. They are just distracting you from the fact that they are eating your face.

Important Lesson #10: Giant poppy fields? Creeeepy...

Important Lesson #11: The Guardian of the Gates? Always cool. Ally yourself with him. His moustache will make your dreams come true. Also, he may change costumes a lot, but it is still him. You will be glad he is your friend when he wears his giant green mittens of joy and happiness.

Important Lesson #12: Wizards are jerks.

Important Lesson #13: Going to the witch's palace to get her broomstick is stupid. Don't do it. You don't owe that jerk-face anything.

Important Lesson #14: If you are a Winky guard of the Wicked Witch of the West's palace, don't let someone steal your clothes. It makes you look like a jerk to your coworkers, and you will probably die now.

Important Lesson #15: Don't get trapped in a stupid tower and start crying. Be awesome, and go bust down the door!

Important Lesson #16: Throw stuff at the witch until she dies. That is fun.

Important Lesson #17: Definitely persuade the director to leave in the deleted scene in which you all get stung by a giant bug that turns out to be a Jitter-bug, and then start dancing the Jitterbug and sing about it. I'm not even joking. Look it up.

Important Lesson #18: Wizards are jerks. Make sure you beat him up when he turns out to be a humbug wizard, and then steal all of his candy and his city.

Important Lesson #19: Tell Glinda she is a jerk when she shows up revealing that the shoes would have taken her home all along (something you would have known had you followed Lesson #6), and then steal all of her candy, too.

Important Lesson #20: If it turns out it was all a dream, quit pretending that it really happened. I told you that it was a hallucination. Just move on. Carry on with your life like nothing happened until you get swept away in a hurricane while on a ship to Australia with your Uncle and end up in Oz again. Then you can maybe say that Oz is real. By the time you fall into a crater during an earthquake and fall to the center of the earth and eventually end up in Oz again, you can definitely stop pretending. But until then, hallucination.

Important Lesson #21: Remember way back, before you went to Oz, and you ran away and set up camp with a gypsy? Yeah, that was stupid of you.

I hope you found this little guide handy for your future endeavors. Please cherish every word, as they could be the key to not getting your face eaten someday.

My Kitties: A Narrative

I have had seven kitties over the course of my life. I will now describe in great detail all of their stories.

The first two cats that we had we got when I was three. One was mine and one was my sister's. I named my kitty Mousey, despite my mom's great efforts to sway me to a more dignified name. My sister names her cat Danger, because she happened to be learning about the Iditarod in school then, and Danger was the name of a cat who ran the Iditarod and was able to get help when his team was in danger, or something like that. Mousey was an excellent cat, but Danger peed everywhere. My mom finally gave him away. My poor sissy was devastated. For the longest time, she forbid me from saying his name in her presence. It was kind of dramatic. I was in awe of her drama, though, so it worked.

Then, when I was in kindergarten, my school bought a cat named Millie, who wandered the halls of the school and came in classrooms and stuff. It was weird. Then my teacher asked my mom if we wanted to take her home over summer break. I was delighted, so we took her home for a week to see how she did with Mousey. Mousey despised her. Apparently, after Danger left, Mousey developed a deep hatred of her own kind. Unfortunately, Millie loved to spend all of her time in our basement, where the litter box was. So Mousey took to peeing on the carpeting upstairs. Millie did not get to stay with us for the summer. Mousey never stopped peeing on carpet.

When I was seven, we moved to a farm, and so we got two little black kittens to be barn cats outside. Again, one was mine and one was my sister's. I named mine Cutie-Patootie. My sister named hers Friskey, because he was Friskey. I don't remember those cats very much, but I know that I loved them, and they were very playful. When I was eight or nine, Cutie-Patootie ran away. In my devastation, I got a new kitty from some friends of ours, who I named Snickle-Fritz. Snickle-Fritz was an insane kitten. He plotted against you and would jump out from random places and attack your legs. He also seemed to be quite deaf, because he would never move out of the way, even if you were in a giant truck that he was lounging under. One day, it was storming out, and a girl was at our barn riding her horse. There was some thunder, and her horse freaked out, and stompled Snickle-Fritz's leg. He had to have a little kitty-cast on for a while. After that incident, he became very fluffy and lovable, leaving behind his days as the demon cat.

Eventually, Friskey also ran away. The friends who gave us Snickle-Fritz dropped off another cat, who my sister named Charlie. Charlie and Snickle-Fritz loved each other. She was the sweetest little kitty, and quite the little acrobat. I don't know how she did it, but she somehow would climb up into the rafters and leap about up there. It was kind of incredible. But one day, she got stuck in a groundhog trap, and then got a terrible infection, and we had to put her down. It was terrible. She was just a kitten still.

After a few years of cleaning up Mousey's pee off the carpet, my mom finally banished her to live outside. She is still trying to wrap her head around this fact, five years later. The other cats have a ball chasing her around because she hates them all so much. It's hilarious.

Several years ago, a girl who rode at our barn found a little abandoned kitten around her house, so she took him to our barn to stay so he wouldn't die. He was the cutest little black kitten. I named him Stuart (you see, I left behind my days of ridiculous names!). He has now grown to be bigger than even Snickle-Fritz, who is, admittedly, very plump, because he's figured out a schedule, and he makes his rounds around our neighborhood and all of our neighbors feed him treats. I have to hand it to him, he's quite clever.

So, that brings us to the close of this kitty narrative. We still have Mousey, Snickle-Fritz, and Stuart, and they are three very fluffy, adorable kitties.

The End

Why I Love My Goats

Has anyone ever heard of Nigerian Dwarf goats? I have, but I'm asking the question, so that's a given. I'm just going to go ahead and assume you answered no...



So, as an explanation to you all about what Nigerian Dwarf goats are, they are this:



If you are still very confused, there are more pictorial examples in the banner of this blog (See lower right corner) and at the very bottom of the page (Hint: This one is encouraging you to comment on my blog...).

Basically, all you need to know to get the gist of Nigerian Dwarf goats is cute + fluffy + adorable-ness + tiny = Nigerian Dwarf.


These pictures are all of babies, but they only grow to be about knee-high. And yes, they are cute.


These goats you see are, in fact, all mine. Well, I lied. We sold two of them yesterday (*sigh*), one of which was the black and white one in the picture on this post. Her name is Elphie. I miss her already.


I am showing one or two of my goats in 4H, but I haven't decided which one. I'm thinking Walnut (the one in the banner), even though I would be sad to have to shave him, because he is the fluffiest little goat on the face of the earth. Everyone who sees him instantly falls in love with him, which is too bad, because he is the one that I want to show, so we can't sell him.


And in case you were curious about the strange goat names, we name all of our goats after things you can find in a garden, because our herd name is H.H. Garden Goats. So this year, our babies were called Huckleberry, Clementine, Ginger, Kinnikinnik (yes, that is a plant. It's another name for a bearberry bush), Marigold, Dill, Delphinium (Elphie), Tweedia, Walnut, Basil, Oliver (Olive), Woody, and Fern. We also had Hazel, but she, sadly, died (the poor little dear).


And, speaking of goats, I am now expected to go and put Heidi and her babies outside to frolic now. Until we meet again.

Thunderstorms, Why Are You So Angry?

It's not that I have a true fear of thunderstorms. I just don't like them very much. And when I wake up in the middle of the night to a resounding BA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, then I really don't like them. Of course, in the middle of the night, when I'm sitting there on my bed, half asleep, with a ridiculously close thunderstorm raging right outside my window, then I kind of start to think about how much I don't want to be struck by lighting, and begin obsessively counting the seconds between the thunder and the lighting.

I just don't get what's up with them. I mean, can you say attitude? Why can't thunderstorms just be like all of the other rain? Why do they have to get all flashy and loud? What makes them so special? I bet that thunderstorms have a lot of self-confidence issues, and are so loud because they want to make up for all of their shortcomings. But that is no excuse to wake someone up at 3am to bang outside their window.

Apparently, thunderstorms think it sounds fun to exist lately. I do not. Just the other day, when I was saying most of our town lost power? It was because of a stupid storm. We were over at our friend's house, and I was swimming with some other kids, and we got out of the pool and went inside, and, within about 20 seconds, right before my mom and I were about to walk out to our car, these ferocious winds started up that kind of made it look like those videos of hurricanes that you see on the news, but we most definitely were not in a hurricane zone. So we all ran to the basement, and the other girls were all sobbing, and that made me kind of panic, even though our parents said that the winds were already dying down. But then there was rain and thunder and lighting, and we had to drive home in that, and there were all sorts of trees down in the way.

I am telling you, we almost couldn't get home. First, there was a tree down blocking the road that our friend lived in, but there just so happened to be a person who lived right in front of the tree with a circular driveway that allowed us to drive around the tree. So then we got to our road, and there was a tree blocking us from getting down the road to our house. So we turned around and drove the back way to the other end of our road. There was another tree there. So my dad had to come with a chainsaw and cut the tree up so that we could get through. All in the midst of a thunderstorm.

I am telling you, thunderstorms need to go to anger management, and learn how to behave like normal rain. That's all I'm saying.

Fanfiction.net

Fanfiction.net is a fantastic site. I discovered it three summers ago, in the midst of an epic obsession with the musical Cats. I was on a fansite, and it had a link to the author's favorite Cats fanfictions, which happened to be posted on fanfiction.net. After I initially found the site, I proceeded to spend my entire summer on it almost constantly. It probably wasn't the healthiest thing I'd ever done, but I was home by myself during the day, and it gave me something to do.

It wasn't long before I started writing my own fanfiction, under the penname Rubidia (I'm still on the site, go check it out!). After a while, I morphed over from the Cats section to the Haunted Mansion section (under Disney). That's right: I'm a Haunted Mansion groupy. I wrote several fanfictions for HM, including one called Ghost Sheep, in which the unofficial mascots of the Mansion, the Hitchhiking Ghosts, find a sheep, which they soon lose, and spend the rest of the fanfiction trying to find him. I turned it into a trilogy, and the second is completed. The third is still unfinished, but there are ideas floating about.

Another fanfiction I have is a joint fic that I'm writing with a friend of mine called Somewhere Over the Graveyard, a crossover fanfiction of the Haunted Mansion and the Wizard of Oz. This is also still in the works.

I will tell you, though, the best fanfiction I've ever read is Destiny at the Haunted Mansion by Aquarian Wolf. It is incredible. It is romantic, and funny, and sad, and just utterly awesome. I'm telling you. I will end this post right now, and you all copy and paste this url into your address bar, and read it right now:


http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2709130/1/

Trust me, it is amazing.

Electric Company, You Confuse Me So!

My power went out today at about 12pm. I have absolutely no idea why such a thing would occur, because it wasn't stormy, rainy, or even gray. It was sunny, blue skies. This is why I dislike the electic company. They complicate everyone's lives so very much. Including their own, it would seem. If they randomly shut off someone's power, doesn't this mean more work for them? Then they have to turn it back on!

There was a big storm where I live on Friday, but it is now Monday. That is 2 whole days after half of my town lost power, so why would we lose power now? I was forced to find non-electricity things to do for two and a half hours! My life is so difficult. It wouldn't have been as bad, but I was home by myself, so I couldn't even play a boardgame, or do something fun like that. I was devastated.

But, this did give me an excellent opportunity to begin the short story that I need to have finished by July 9th for 4H. That leaves me 18 days to write it. I can do this. I have a plot, and a general plan, so I am further along now than I generally am at this point, so that is a good sign, I think. I just have to sit down an write it. Maybe I will post it after fair.

Those of you familiar with 4H may be wondering about the rather early date in the summer my 4H project is due by. Our fair is not actually until the last week in July, but they cleverly decided that they would have stories over 2 pages turned in early, so that the judge actually reads the piece in its entirety. This is a smart idea. However, this means that I also have to be careful about typos, since they will be carefully perusing the entire story.

I would not normally worry about this, but I have gotten trophies in years past for stories in which I changed the name of an elf from Al Gore to Fungal during the writing process, but accidentally left one instance of Al Gore in there, and they didn't seem to notice, and still gave me a trophy. This is what happens when you don't actually read what you are judging. This will not happen again, I assure you. I also assure you that I was ten when I wrote that story. Now, I would never name an elf Al Gore or Fungal.

So that is that.

Gothic Victorian...In A Library!

Possibly one of my favorite books ever: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It is gothic, and eerie, and slightly Victorian (which I love), and sweet, and sad…best ghost story in the world. I shall show you a picture of its gorgeous cover:




















And its other cover (also gorgeous):




















And its UK cover (again, gorgeous):




















You may have noticed a theme here. If not, I’ll point it out to you. It is books. Two out of the three covers feature books. Old books. And the other one features creepy, Victorian-looking twins in a creepy, Victorian-looking house. Books and twins are both very important themes in this novel.

The novel is centered around Ms. Margaret Lea, an amateur biographer who grew up working in her father’s antique bookshop. So, here we have the old books. Books are her life. If she had to choose between paper and people, guess what she would choose. She’s not really a people-person.

When she receives a mysterious letter from the acclaimed author, Vida Winter, infamous for telling a different story of her life to every reporter who interviewed her (each time swearing her tale is truth), Margaret finds herself journeying to the house of the old woman, whose life is rapidly approaching its close. Ms. Winter tells the young biographer that she is ready to tell the true story of her life, and she wants Margaret to document it.

Her tale is a stunning ghost story of twins, a mysterious old house, insanity, and a terrible fire. Margaret finds her own life strangely intertwining with that of the dying woman, and finds herself remarkably changed from the things that she has learned.

The covers do not lie with their gorgeousness. The text itself is just as beautiful as the covers that bind it. Anyone read The Westing Game? Read this. Anyone read Jane Eyre? Read this. Anyone read nothing in their entire life? You read this, too. Seriously.

The Importance of Titles

I’ve been observing the importance of titles lately. I think this applies for any sort of writing, not just books. For instance, blogs. For a new blog, without a faithful following, post titles are everything. I’ve noticed some interesting trends in the hits on my blog. There have been five or six hits on most of my posts, with the exception of my review of Rampant by Diana Peterfreund, which was titled Killer Unicorns and Awesome Girls. This post got thirty-three hits. Now, either people often do internet searches of things involving killer unicorns, or people often do internet searches of Rampant. Or perhaps they do searches of both. But, in any case, I personally believe that the majority of the post’s popularity came from its title.
And I can speak for myself when I say that the title of a book is a large factor of whether or not I choose to read it. I think that there is a fine line between a vague, iconic sort of title being enticing and mysterious and being something very gimmicky. It’s a difficult thing to describe, but it’s just the way that I percieve things. I also think the other type, the literal or more lengthy titles should be used sparingly and carefully. So, let us call the first type iconic and the second literal, for the sake of clarity.
Shall we examine some examples? Oh, yes, we shall, indeed.
Let’s begin with some literal titles:
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

I think this title works. Having read the book, I think it very much represents what the story is, and it makes me want to read the book. You read it, and you say to yourself, “What did she see, and how did she lie?”. And then you pick up the book and read it to find out.
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Again, a good title. It hints to the content without giving anything away. You can look at the cover and say, “Who is the great and terrible beauty? What makes her great and terrible?” And once more, you find yourself leaving the bookstore with pockets much lighter than they were when you went in. So, you can recognize a theme: A good title makes you ask questions. It makes you curious to see what the book is about.
The same should happen with an iconic title.
The Luxe by Anna Godberson

In this case, the title vouches for what you see on the cover. The titles tells you that there will be a luxurious factor in the book, and the cover shows a girl in a very luxurious-looking dress. So you already trust the book. You can see that the title does not lie. And your interest is sparked. And you want to know what is so luxurious. Thus, again, you read.
Wings by Aprilynne Pike

We must also trust this book. The title says that there will be wings, and on the cover, we see wings. And you wonder, “who has wings? Why are wings important in this book?”. If the title is good, you will be curious about it. And by the end of the book, you should be able to see how the title is connected to the actual book.
Let us test this out. Take the title of this post: The Importance of Titles. It is a literal title. When you read it, you will probably wonder, “What is so important about titles?”. And then (hopefully), you will read the article to find out. And by this point, you will have realized that the title is relevant to the text. I shall watch and see how many hits this post gets, to see how effective the title was, and let you know.

My Magical Disney Vacation!

We got to go to Disney World for my birthday this year. It was my third year in a row, so I'm going to push to make it an annual tradition. Anywho, it was very fun. Do you want to know why it was fun, aside from the fact that IT'S DISNEY WORLD?!! Well, I shall tell you. My loverly sister, Sis, is working at Disney in their college program this year! Yeah, I know it's cool. Even cooler, she has an awesome job! Guess where she works! Go on, guess!

Did you guess?

Good. If you guessed Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood Studios, congratulations! You are correct! To be more specific, she works the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Fantasmic lights show, and the High School Musical parade. Now, I'll let you all in on a little secret: I love the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling is a super fantastic guy, I'm just sayin'. So, I got the super-duper-mega-awesome birthday treat of a lifetime when we rode Tower of Terror.

It started out with us heading over to the ride. We were planning on getting the incredibly handy Fast Passes, which would enable us to go through a shorter line for the ride. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, there were sadly no more Tower Fast Passes left. This did not dampen our spirits, however, because we had a family member working the ride, which would certainly give us the power to cut through the line without a pass. We were right! It just so happened that one of Sis's friends were working the entrance, and he gave us Fast Passes! Convenient! Plus, he was from Brazil, I think, and so he had a really cool accent!

So, we got to trot our way right to the front of the line, where we were seated in the front of the ride vehicle. Only being my third time on the ride ever, I was a little nervous, and my dad's paranoia did not help (he hates thrill rides, and we only got him on Tower because Sis works there). But, it was super fun, as I knew it would be, deep down, and when it was done, the elevator doors opened, and there was Sis, in her super-cool bellhop costume (Did you know the Tower castmember costumes in the most expensive complete costume in Disney World? It's over $1,000!!!! It includes pants, two short sleeve tops, two long sleeve tops, a trenchcoat, a hat, a shoulder-whistle-chord-thing, and shoes! Just a little tidbit! The hat alone costs $50!!!). We got off the ride, and she told us to stay there until she was done inspecting the vehicle, and she had a surprise for me. Oh, what a surprise it was! I got to put on her hat and greet the next batch of guests when the doors opened. They thought it was hilarious. I kind of did, too. Here's how it went:

Me: Welcome back, ladies gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed your stay! Check out is right this way!
Guests: *hysterical laughter*
Me: *bashfully pulling off the hat and shoving it back on Sis's head to offer explanation for what was going on*

They probably thought that I was a terminally ill child, or something.

Then, we got to go into Tower Control. This is where they watch everything happening on the ride, to make sure that nobody is dying, or something awful like that. They can stop the ride at any time, which they demonstrated to us! (Those poor guests...) Watching the moniters of people riding was fun. You could see their hair fly up above their heads when they dropped! Another tidbit: The Tower of Terror is safer than a regular elevator. It is inspected daily, and very thoroughly, at that. Not many regular elevators can boast that, now, can they? Another cool fact: There may or may not be a cardboard cutout of Rod Serling wearing a lei in Tower Control. I can't prove it, because they don't allow photographs in there, but I know in my heart that it was real! And it was beautiful. *wipes eyes*

Moving beyond Tower, I also love the Haunted Mansion. Alas, no backstage tour there, but it was still incredible. I've decided that someday, when I'm rich and famous, I'm building my own replica of the Haunted Mansion, and living in it. Until then, I have Ray Keim to tide me over. I've already completed my Liberty Square paper model, and created my very own paper model of the Stretching Room. I will send in some pictures for his gallery soon, so watch for them!

Until then, remember: At the signpost up ahead, you've entered...The Twilight Zone. Baaaa-da-da-da-da-dum!!!!