Epic times in St Louis!

INSTA-POST! Just add water! It will be short..

In the last few months I have:

-received a full scholarship from LeTourneau University, which pretty much sealed my decision to go there. I've since gotten a few more scholarships to help with room and board. I'm shipping out at the end of August. 

-been to FIRST International Championships, with Team 1510 from Portland area, where I had a FABULOUS time chatting up VIPs, attending Dean's List events, going to team-social shindigs, cheering myself hoarse even though I didn't have a team there, collecting a cadre of male teenage hangers-on, staying up all night talking aided by 5-Hour Energy, getting my picture taken with Woodie Flowers [FIRST fans, please squeal], and generally raising the roof in St. Looey, as I stubbornly keep mispronouncing it. 

-been on the verge of A Serious Relationship/ Courtship / Intentional Dating / SOMETHING. Okay, I actually still am on the verge, it's just being postponed slightly...by like three years....whatever. I'm babbling now, but it's been quite the epic few weeks. Okay, no, make that 'quite the epic YEAR'. Ladies, you may now squeal, the lad is really rather awesome. And I'm not saying more because I object to emoting about relationships on my blog ;) 

-in lighter news, I've been asked to prom [by one of the more favored hangers-on collected in St. Looey] and am in a delirious girly frenzy of DRESS and TRESS and STRESS, aided and abetted by the occasional call to stalwart buddy Eva ['Squee! Hair! Robots! I hate shopping! Purty dress! Eee!' ad nauseum]

-Roboshock, the big off-season event, approaches swiftly. Now, only two of our team members have committed to coming...alas....it will be a busy day. May 21st is going to be QUITE the EVENT, let me tell you. On that day, we have ROBOSHOCK, ROBOTS ALL DAY LOOONG, and then in the evening it's up to Portland for prom. 

I think I have hit on all the high points...believe me, there have been low points, but the highs are really more entertaining, aren't they now? 

We Are the Champions is my team's soundtrack

I am back from the most epic regional competition in the history of our team. The Autodesk Oregon Regional ran Thursday through Saturday of this week. Team 956, with 9 students and 4 mentors [in a world of 30+ student teams] and a working budget of $600 [when many teams work on budgets of several $k] was one of the semi-finalists at competition, with our alliance ranking 4th out of of the 58 teams in attendance. One of our students was one of the two Dean's List finalists at our competition [the highest award given to an individual student in FIRST].  Our 8th-ranked alliance in the final rounds upset the 1st-ranked alliance, in two out of three intense matches.

In short, it has been an epic week all round and recapping it is a challenge. Things started off on Monday evening when I dyed my hair its competition-standard flaming red-orange [leading to nickname of Flaming Comet of Doom]. Tuesday evening myself, my dad, and two of our mentors rendezvoused at school to pack our three cars with the robot and all its accoutrements, for subsequent delivery to Portland. We had previously piled every single item in the hall outside of our shop: batteries, battery chargers, half a dozen large totes full of tools and spare parts, whiteboards, a sizable workbench, the robot, etc etc etc.
Wednesday we left for Portland amid a flurry of activity: in the morning my family went to Powell's Books [largest bookstore in the country, or something like that] and Ikea [Swedish house-goods warehouse]. At 5 that afternoon we rendezvoused with our mentor and loaded the carloads of stuff into the Autodesk pits [huge conference room in the bottom of Memorial Coliseum] in a swift targeted operation executed with military precision and FIRST-like enthusiasm.

From there we drove the 1.5 hours home, and picked up a team member who was going to spend the night at my house so we could give her a ride up to Portland on the morrow.

We were up bright and early [4:45 AM] on Thursday, and rendezvoused for carpooling [are you catching the trend here?] at 6. We arrived with time to spare in Portland, and distributed t-shirts and safty glasses with abandon.

Our robot was in three pieces, plus some odd aluminum that had to be machined, and we missed our first practice match because the robot was not finished yet. We passed inspection with flying colors. We had a tough time on the first day, with our untested autonomous mode giving me and our programming mentor a large amount of grief.

Nevertheless, by the end of Thursday we were pretty happy. We had Subways packed into the pits for us for dinner, and got back to the hotel where I rendezvoused with the rookie team we'd been mentoring all season.

The girls' room [hilarious and sleep-deprived] got to sleep around 1 that night. I for one did not sleep well. The light-rail car [or Max, or Metro] ran right by our hotel room about every 10 minutes. I was up bright and early Friday morning.

I and my beloved scout/Chairman's teammate ran across the street to grab a coffee, and thence we proceeded to the Coliseum.

Friday went AMAZINGLY. We won most of our matches, despite some very tough opponents, and got autonomous working. Lisa and I were over the MOON about that: we kept high-fiving each other at about ten-minute intervals all day, each time declaring 'High five! And another! And once more!'
By the end we had one of the best autonomous modes at the event, in the top 6 or 8 I would say. Autonomous is well-known for being difficult to program and I am still in awe that we got it working.

We were ranked 13 out of 58 by the end of the day. Our scouts came back to the hotel after dinner and started entering the data into the laptop, and making our pick list for Saturday morning. We had most of the team in my room talking strategy, and then the scouts [Charlene, Sarah and myself] holed up with the data. We let our driver, Michelle, get to sleep early [c. 1 AM] but we scouts hit it hard until 3:30 AM. I got about two hours of sleep that night. Fun times.

It is a well-known fact that Bethany never eats at robotics. To be fair, I did eat, just not in the daytime. I ate dinner, and then Friday night I ate yogurt and energy bars over the scouting sheets. Saturday I just powered through on adrenaline, it was amazing.

Saturday things went with a swing. We did pretty well in our last qualifying matches, and then it was on to alliance picks before lunch. My scouts and I had made a pretty comprehensive pick list, but while I was down on the floor waiting for selection to start I was told no electronics were allowed on the field: ie, no laptop which had all of our crucial data in it. I frantically scribbled down the key data.

A note here: despite all my years of dedicated scouting, we have never used scouting data for its original purpose of choosing the best alliance partner in the finals.

We were chosen by the 8th-ranked team [which meant we'd compete first against the top-ranked alliance]. I [after enthusedly accepting] immediately started comparing data with their team captain, and advised that we select one of my top-ranked teams to be our third alliance partner. They eagerly took the suggestion and there we were, a beautifully solid and definitely imposing alliance. This is the first year in my memory that we have been completely happy with our alliance partners. Individually we all had really strong records: together we caused a member of another top-ranked team to declare, 'I'm very afraid of you guys!' which absolutely thrilled the heck out of me ;)

During lunch we strategized intensively with our alliance partners. We then went up against the top-ranked alliance for best two out of three matches.

I have never been on the field during an event: I am usually rushing with scouting data from stands to pit.  However, for the finals I and Lisa our programming mentor were part of pit crew, because drive teams and robots just stay on the field, no rushing back to the pit for repairs. We were changing batteries, fixing slipped cables, and generally getting the most intense experience that FIRST has to offer.

Our alliance lost our first match against the top-ranked alliance by two points. OH THE SUSPENSE. Then we had a not-long-enough break while other elimination rounds took place, during which we fixed things and ran batteries the quarter-mile from the pits.
We won our next two matches against the top-ranked alliance [I will keep repeating that until everyone chants after me 'We beat the top-ranked alliance!']. I have never been so excited in my life, I think. We were jumping up and down and screaming and hugging and high-fiving and hand-shaking and yelling.
We upset the top-ranked team in 2006: this is the best year we've had since then. Wild enthusiasm.

We lost our next two matches, against the alliance which went on to win the event, but I was beyond thrilled. I went up in the stands and then down to the standing-room-only mosh pit [have you ever seen a few hundred teens in brightly-colored team t-shirts, with a sizable selection of mascots, dancing to the Chicken Dance? it is an inspiring sight]. The winning alliance included a rookie team, which I was rather  excited about.

There are so many hundreds of stories at an FRC competition, it would take all day to tell. I hear it's about to happen though: the new book about FIRST, The New Cool, came out this spring and apparently the makers of the documentary film Social Network bought the rights to it and were at some regionals this spring with notebooks, video cameras and enthusiasm for FIRST.

Here are some teams whose stories really made me happy this weekend:

Team 1432: this was the team who I think I wrote about in the fall, whose school kicked them out and took most of their funding. They rallied and participated in the regional, overcoming a tough start and being able to score several times. I was so excited to see them there [I remember being down front standing with a couple of their team members, and being so excited when their robot scored].

Team 753: they had a great showing at the Seattle regional, but were plagued with communication problems all day Thursday and Friday. There is nothing more heartbreaking than a robot which can score beautifully but which won't even move because of comm errors. I talked to their team captain on Saturday morning, who I've known all four years I've been in FIRST, and commiserated. They swapped their router for a new one, and did very well in their matches on Saturday. Cue enthused congratulations on my part :)  Despite their poor performance on Thursday and Friday [which made their ranking go down and could have prevented them from being selected] they were selected to play in the elimination rounds, which I was thrilled about.

Team 3472: a rookie team, the first Mexican team we've had at our regional. Their pit was right across from ours. They had a tough competition and didn't make it to the finals, but what enthusiasm! What excitement to be there! During the awards ceremony on Saturday they received the Rookie All-Star award, the highest award given to a rookie team as well as a free pass to Championships. The crowd cheered louder and longer for that award than for any other, I think. We were nowhere near as happy as the team was though, hehehe.

Team 3712: another rookie team who had a tough event, I mentored them by email during build season and popped into their pit throughout the event to help them out and encourage them. A great group of kids. They finally got their robot to drive, always a hurdle for first-year teams, and were so excited about that :)  Good times rendezvousing with their team in our hotel lobby. I adore swapping stories with other teams. Today their programmer sent me an email to say thanks and congrats, and said that they are excited and inspired for next year. That makes me so happy: another team has been started on the road to success in FIRST.

On Saturday, I received one of the two Dean's List Finalist awards presented at our regional. The Dean's List award is the only award for individual students in FIRST, for people who, like the Chairman's team, best create respect for science and technology and demonstrate technical excellence as well. While I don't know about the technical expertise bit, I certainly have the enthusiasm bit down pat :)   Even better than getting the award was seeing the teams cheering for me as I went down on the field: people I have known for four years, most of them, who I've emailed and worked with and commiserated with and high-fived. And not just the people I know, but every team there, who in some way I've supported whenever I talk about FIRST. This was the highest honor I could possibly have received, but honestly I was rather more excited about how well our team did, because it means our school will hear about how well we did, and the new students who were on the team will be excited to continue next year.

This started out as a year when we might not have been able to afford to do anything more than tinker with a robot and go to the local scrimmage, and ended as our best year ever. So much thanks is due to our mentors, who worked for us and with us all season; our sponsors, without whom we would not have just gotten back from Portland; and our students, who built a robot. Thank you: you've changed my world.

classic epic times

The past week, but especially yesterday, was a classic example of Bethie's-family-craziness. 

Several awesome rehearsals of R + J.  Various situations at school (math class is doing a chapter on probability, which I have always failed at.)  Culinary class.....biology....one day I stayed at school about 9 hours, never came home after class because I had rehearsal after. 

Yesterday was even more frenzied than usual. Robotics 9--5, as usual on Saturdays. Grueling. We had to scoot out directly at 5 instead of lingering, owing to the fact that me dad had to get to a jam session at 6. He and some friends have had a couple of practice sessions and are doing some really fun stuff, rock, a little bluegrass, etc.   They've been recording, and are considering performing somewhere, maybe at parties or that sort. Fun times. So anyway we had to pack up dad's keyboard, into the van. 

Here we pick up a thread of another story:  I was still trying to decide whether or not I could get to Dallan's birthday festivities that evening.  There had been various problems with the schedule colliding with my dad's, and other things, and as of Saturday afternoon I wasn't going. However I started feeling worse and worse about it, and we worked out the situation. 

Promptly upon coming home from robotics I had to deal with the mother-hen situation: We still have only one chick; I think the other eggs are being laggardly.  The hen led the 

peep down out of the nestbox while I was gone, and I had to put them both into a separate cage, warm straw etc.   From thence we ran back inside. 

5:45 pm, carting the keyboard out to the car. We got into the front hall just as the doorbell rang.   We were positive it would be our talkative neighbor, who always pops by to discuss things with my dad JUST as we are either trying to rush out the door, or when he's chopping wood, or you name it. My dad, at the other end of the keyboard, said 'Keep going!' as I backed down the hall towards the door: as in, 'we're coming at our own swift pace'. Meanwhile I laughed hilariously and silently: such a typical scene, trying to send people off in different directions at the same time, pack the car, deal with the critters, and now there's somebody at the door.  :P   Well we got to the door, opened it, and got a happy surprise: it was a different neighbor from down the street (used to be a student of my dad's) and his girlfriend (who I know from dance and so forth)--great people both-- who'd taken us up on our offer to come say hi to the goats whenever they were in the area, and also to contribute to the local theatre :)  ...evidently there had been a battleaxe (unsharpened) from a metel-working place around here, and they thought it might be helpful to my theatrical endeavors. Needless to say, I was very happy with this!  Our house seems to accumulate props.... 

Happy reunion and they helped get the keyboard out to the car, then we went back to the goat cage as I figured out the transportation situation with daddy. Had a good time swapping country stories: tales of poultry-transportation, feral emus, and alpaca-snobbery ;P

They left shortly to continue their walk, as I hustled back inside to continue getting ready. I had decided that I had to go a bit late. But lo, we swiftly get a phone call from Eva.....the whole plan for the evening had been vague in the extreme, and whilst I knew we were meeting at the Chinese buffet in town, she thought it was at Dallan's place. Of course it was dark and silent when she got there, hence the call to me. Well she was about five minutes away from my house so we arranged a ride-share :)  

Rendezvoused at the restaurant. Lotsa fun. Half-dozen of us awesome people :)  After eating we progressed to the bowling alley. It was just down the street so we walked, lovely clear night. Definitely epic times, all of us either skipping, running, or playing follow-the-leader most of the way :D  Provided a nice spectacle for the passers-by.

 

Bowling was lotsa fun, I did really badly (had beginner's luck the first time I guess :P  ) but I still had a fabulous time  as I am not really competitive, hehe.   

I had not planned to go to the movie afterwards with the others as it would be very late and I wasn't too interested in what they were planning to see. However as the evening progressed I had such a good time that I did not want it to end ^^  and then they decided on Sherlock Holmes which 

I'd heard was very good.   Called dad and negotiated. Cell phone issues to the max.   

Jubilation on my part when I at last convinced him that it would be okay if I got home after midnight, etc.   In happy mood we set off (by car, this time) to the movie theatre.  I haven't been to a movie for months....happy times....I don't think I've ever gone with friends, come to that. 

Raced in there just after 10 PM for the showing of Sherlock Holmes. 

Here we are outside the cinema:  sadly our group had pared down by that time. Back to the four peeps that did crazy stuff last fall  :D

And now to the movie review, which will be brief.   I've only read one Sherlock Holmes book, and if you're keen on movies being true to books you may not like this film. I however enjoyed it no end. Definitely PG-13, heh. Some violence but I 

dunno, that never bothers me ^_^ 

Really visually enjoyable film: 1800s London....some stunning scenes at the docks, etc.   The pace was, I thought, perfectly judg

ed. Classic thrilling climax and really good ending.   AND the score was fabulous.   Go look it up right now please. Actually I should put it on my playlist.... I think it's my theme song at this point.....perfectly sums up the brilliant insanity which characterizes me  :D   >:)  You notice Sherlock Holmes wasn't very modest either.....And there was some great Irish music for parts.....The Dubliners I think.....woohoo...

In short, look into this movie, use judgement; if you're going to see it, it deserves to be seen in the theatre. 

Got home around 12:30, then it was off to early church service around 7 AM .....so fun, hehe  

Improvisational theatre class/meeting thingee this afternoon, lots of fun theatre games :D

I have had a splendid weekend.....NOW it's on to conquer the next week....

end-of-year Tag

Here's an original tag by the author of "Oh crud!", "The Whoops Factor revisited", "One, Two, Go!...and there's just one thing", " 'Hysterical Laughter' is my favorite quote", "CRUNCH is the new normal", "For the Win!", "Nom-nom", and other sundry works of genius: in short, none other than Bethie.

Please feel creepily compelled to steal this tag.
Remember: Bethany knows where you live and she may hunt you down, and POUNCE....and then ship you off on a freight train to Detroit.....

So!

Funniest moment: good grief, one can't really choose, can one? Likely something to do with the movie:

- "Ahem! Audience, quiet please, we are about to make a major mistake!" (Joseph)

-"Dallan, stop talking on two! That's Bethany's job!" (Sophie)

-Adriel's enthused gestures in the background: "Sorry! I was explaining something!"

-Phillip trying to whip around in the climbing-out-the-window scene, when Eva enters, and catching his pistol on the table while his vest pops up in the back :D

-The Key Episode (hehe Eva! :P )

-of course, the oar snapping off when Eva tries to push off from shore, while the crew struggles helplessly in the blackberry vines

-"You're trying to make it look like I actually LIKE her or something!" (Joseph)


then there were other priceless moments at rehearsals for Top Hats:

-Eva's impersonation of the 'dozen bored dancers', combined with my mention of "we'll cut out the 'charming little pieces' line"

-Dallan's infatuated grin, chin on hands, whilst gazing at me across the table on stage


Other funnies:
"Zesty mint flavored fake blood! And Tic-Tacs..."
"Here's an opportunity to sound lame, let's not take it"
"OH CRUD"
"There is rain puddled right under my sleeping bag." "Well you'll have a water-bed!"
"Oh right, I'm supposed to act shot now!"

classic Epic Times: surreptitiously handing off stage weapons before Top Hats, the Hazelnut Incident, 46 hours without sleep during NaNo whilst blasting music successively louder, swimming in a mountain lake, filming a scene after midnight, seeing a bison walk down the road towards us, trying to prop up the tent for the movie with a twig, white-balancing with the back side of a sheet of music for the score for the film using the light from a candle!


FIRST: program successfully written and compiled, mp3 player, Macintosh (LOVELOVELOVE), film shown at film fest, feature-film accepted to film fest, time to read Hitchhiker's, play directed, all-nighter, theatre audition, time at public school, time liking math, BIG birthday party, physical manifestation of anger on unrelated inanimate object, novel almost completed, friend's novel published, song to mean something personally, standing ovation, tip for a waiter out of own pocket, really nice pocket knife, time in semi-finals at robotics regionals

Most nostalgic songs: the entire soundtrack for Road to Freedom!

Best group hug: at the end of my birthday party, or maybe after filming the ball scene.

Favorite memory: TOO MANY!! birthday party, premiere of Road to Freedom, cast interviews day, RenFaire, Halloween weekend.....

Major Hits: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Eddie (laptop), raw tofu, trenchcoat, Gaelic Storm, folk dance, Montana, C++, goats, robotics, t-shirts, ivy, blogging.

all hallows' Eva [lol...couldn't resist]

November 1
Happy All Saints' Day, everyone!
I'm covered in alpaca spit, my calf muscles hurt, I was away from home for 24 hours, I wore high heels for way too long, it was an awesome-awesome weekend!!!

Started out on Saturday morning with market. Then to the Mac store where I posted the jubilatory post below this :) Yes, I am the owner of a MacBook Pro...getting used to the new keyboard o_O

Off to swing dance rehearsal which went well. We are getting pretty good :) Lisa and Felicity managed to nail the epic flip-over-the-back step, yayz! After that it was home for a few hours, packing, chores, before heading off to Eva's.
A side note here: the home-town team [the Beavers] won their game against UCLA!!!! It was evidently a close shave but still woot-worthy. U of O [rival team] won their game too: Oregon was well represented all round :)
Eva's family has 8 kids; it was a LOT more exciting than being at home :D When I arrived [in a rather pretty dress] they were in the midst of pumpkin-carving and the excitement [and pumpkin seeds] was thick in the air. I decided t ditch the pretty [and uncomfortable] dress in favor of jeans and t-shirt, and I actually never put it back on, lol

Dinner was frantic, in the tradition of Halloweens everywhere. We were going to make grilled cheese sandwiches, but there wasn't any bread. Settled on vegetable soup and canned chili and cheese and salad and potatoes. I had a potato...another potato....several potatoes...this wouldn't happen to be an abandoned potato, would it?
Then the younger element headed off for the nocturnal escapades, and Eva and her grandmother and I settled in with cups of tea and one ear fixed on the doorbell. Eva popped off to get a movie at one point. Then [near the end of the evening] I happened to look out and see people on the back lawn o_O It was about half of the family coming back :)
After seeing a batch of trick-or-treaters in mafia attire, I decided I wanted to be sketchy. Sketchy I certainly was. Borrowed a black trench-coat and baseball cap from Eva's folks. The rhinestone necklace added a quiet touch of insanity. My high-heeled black pumps added to the image. They also added to my trials going up the front stairs. Eva and I made one foray out up the hill, to be introduced to the new neighbors.

Later we watched the movie...."Imagine That". Very lame, please don't waste your time with it :D It was a bit funny in parts. Still had a good time :) Around 10:30 the family headed to bed. Eva and I talked for a bit and then decided we needed a midnight snack. Downstairs, very hush-hush, to have a bowl of cereal. Two bowls of cereal, in my case...I luv raisin-bran...
Back upstairs where we chatted about our various writing endeavors, and I mentioned NaNoWriMo in the most enthusiastic terms :)
Got to sleep around midnight, pretty good all things considered. We were sleeping on the floor and somewhere in the wee hours of the night I adopted the ancient family tradition if sleeping with one's neck on a rolled-up t-shirt.
I was up a bit before Eva [as is usual for me at sleep-overs] and meandered downstairs around 8 new time. Had a cup of tea on the porch. Eva's house has the most lovely view out over the valley. Beautiful clear morning. I poured more water on the tea-bag and did some yoga. Breakfast was a casual affair but tasty :) I only had the one tea-bag but I believe I had about 4 cups of tea all total. Hmm....is that an abandoned potato from last night??  

Off to church where I realized that Communion wine on an empty stomach [I'd eaten early and church was late :P] was possibly not the most brilliant idea ever.  (It was Eva's church, not the one I usually attend. Lutheran, hence the wine)
Potluck afterwards and some of the family, myself included, walked home in the sunshine which made me happy.
We had not been home more than about 15 minutes [enough time for me to scrounge another cup of tea] when it developed that there was an expedition to a local organic farm in the offing. I called home and got permission to go. Eva, her mom and grandma and another lady and myself all headed off [still in Sunday best]. The farm-store was closed but we went to the alpaca-farm and shop which was in the same area. 

Very cute alpacas....nice wool-goods in the store...darling alpacas....oh dear. Eva and I both got spat at by the darling alpaca. We were falling about with laughter and trying to wipe bits of partly-digested grass off each other, meanwhile resolving not to ever raise alpacas. We related the happy incident to her dad later. He observed that the grass had probably been around for a while since alpacas are [I think] ruminants. Eva mentioned that that was disgusting. Her dad said she was the one who'd brought it up in the first place. I, ever eager to display my wit, joked that the alpaca was the one who'd 'brought it up' first. Teehee.
Anyways, after the alpacas we decided to head off to the hazlenut farm. Samples. Yum. Hazlenut ice cream, an Oregon specialty. Even more yummy. It was 4 in the afternoon by this time and I'd intended to be home around 1. Oh well. My dad and I stopped at the Co-op on our way home. He'd brought the Mac [to show my grandma] and I was tapping away in the Co-op parking lot, and logged into the Co-op's free wifi. Happy day. I didn't get home til 5. I didn't go to folk dance alas.....it was just too much and I wanted to stay home with my Mac. 

Speaking of which....there seems to be a consensus that I need to name it. I was thinking maybe Eddie [Guide stuff :) ] but do you have any thoughts? Something short and perhaps a bit cute. 

In short, my weekend was beyond awesome!

Hello, my name is EPIC

So it's been a busy [but epic] few days around here.

On Friday we had a cheese-tasting in culinary. Nothing terribly interestin. The Brie was passable but bland.

Saturday morning we were up early and off to the farmers' market. We were in a great hurry owing to need to get to Fall Festival early for parking purposes. Left me mum in the car, Daddy and I hurried off in search of carrots. All went well until.....at one of the booths [the community stand] the owner who knows dad asked him as a special favor [nay, asked is too tame a word.] to man the booth for a minute. It was a plea for help. Before Daddy could open his mouth to say that no, we were in a terrible hurry, she had done an about-face and was halfway across the street. He, confounded, was left to man the booth accordingly while I headed out to do the rest of the shopping. I had time to ask if flax-seeds were available [no], wait for a LONG time at the mushroom stand, select a bouquet for Eva and he was just able to leave when I got back. He also got roped into making a sign, and weighing some grapes which weighed .66 lbs. and came to $76 [emended to 76c].

Anyway, we got to festival and walked around for a bit. I bought a Celtic-design t-shirt. I got a similar one from the same vendor last year.....we'll begin a tradition.

I was busy at home until 1:30, when I headed off to the combined dance rehearsal and surprise birthday party for Eva at the Grange. 'Twas epic. Listened to Flogging Molly and Gaelic Storm. Sang Happy Birthday and listened to the Beatles' rendition thereof....which we had last heard two weeks ago, at my party. :)

After that the four of us [Eva, Phillip, Dallan and myself] must have spent half an hour at the least trying to decide what to do next. We were all going to Eva's bowling party that evening but transportation was an issue as always. With much plying of the thumbs on our cell-phones, we finally got everything arranged. Went into town.....rendezvoused at the library where we collected Sophie....to Eva's house for dinner.....off to bowling. Did that all evening.

Here's where it gets really epic. I've only been bowling once in my life before. We played two games and for the first one [about 13 people] I was the overall winner.

!!!!

With a score of 116. To be sure, that was with bumpers, against the boys who were playing without bumpers. On the second game I still did pretty well. Woot.

There was one epic moment when I was sure I had missed a pin, and was turning away after the second play, only to find that it had gone down too.....lots of high-5s all around.

I've never seen so many people high-tenning each other. Awesome.

Saw a lot of peopleses that I hadn't seen in WAY too long. Lots of hugs.

Me dad drove Phillip and Dallan home and we were all squeezed in the back seat and here's some more epicness. They were writing random things on each others' hands with a pen they'd picked up off the floor [this was after a long episode of us three handing the pen back and forth "sketchily", with much averted eyes and mafia-technique. "Oh what a sketchy pen. Looks kind of shifty-eyed, don't you think?" "Oh definitely. Sketchball."] So anyway we were using an iPod screen and my cell-phone screen for light. Weird beyond belief.

Today [after early church service] we pretty much worked all day, what with painting window-trim, and chores around home and all. Went into town to catch a performance at Fall Fest by the celtic punk group erhh...whatever it was called. Andana or something like that. It was more rock than celtic and the bass too loud.

And then this evening I finally convinced my parents to let me have Facebook!!!!!!!! Woot!!!!! I just signed up and have been hunting up all my friends :) including some who I haven't seen in years, and a few I never would have guessed would have fb.

But meh: fb entries have to be short! :( So I'll keep posting on here. But my computer time is only one hour so don't be hurt if I don't comment as often :)

Sorry I haven't posted! :(

I'm sorry, stuff has been going on but I've just not had the inclination to write..... :(

Two new followers have joined: Camellia Dayla [I'd link, but her blogs are private] and smorgan!!!! Thank you!!!!

So Friday at school we had an assembly. I was all unknowing until I got into the office before class with a form to deposit, and there's suddenly this ruckus at the bottom of the stairs--drums, a couple of band players. [Those of you who go to school are terribly familiar with this, but I thought you homeschoolers might get a kick out of it.] Worrying about whether my class was rescheduled [and the TEST!], I floated along on the press of people into the gym. Half-hour pep rally, CHS-ers certainly have a lot of school spirit.

The test [actually it was two tests] went well. Woot!

Good day at school, in other words. I saw a whole bunch of people that I know, which is fun. Happy reunions.

On Friday night our first swing dance rehearsal went very well.

[Here's me, on the far left, in the middle of an apparently violent "pretzel" or equivalent bit of awesomeness]

Saturday I worked most of the day, doing chores around the house [ugh] and yardwork [UGH!] and cutting up Italian prunes for drying.

Sunday was the epicness that is RenFaire. We went to early church service [very early!] and then picked up Eva and Dallan. Twas a perfect day for faire-going: actually a little too perfect, I got a nasty sunburn.

We got out to the faire site a bit before noon. Lovely area, a valley in the foothills, on a grass-field.

Here's Eva Dallan and myself

L.-R.: Eva [note the necklace she just bought], Sophie [she's the only one whose face is not in shadow, hehe], Dallan [WHY is he wearing a tophat?! and talking on the phone?!], Phillip [in epic red shirt] and behind the camera is Bethany in Scottish attire. We were standing on this really steep slope, trying to get cell-phone reception to arrange rides home and such.

Here's some more of the people we hung out with--I think we're examining a knife right there.

I'm afraid I was very remiss about taking photos :(

We didn't actually do much of anything the entire 6 hours we were there but we were never bored. Did a bit of shopping--I got a fabulous ring and chain-mail-ish necklace. Tug-of-war. Did not watch the joust. Got sunburned, in my case. And really dusty. My clothes smelled like renfaire when I came home: a mixture of wood-smoke and sun.

We had a fabulous time.

Went to folk dance afterwards which was also great, although I did not have time to go home and consequently was extremely hot in my layers of wool!

Yesterday I sort of crashed, was pretty exhausted since I hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. Rehearsal today, among other stuff.

My posts seem to be getting less interesting and humorous.....sorry! :( But I've been having a good time, it just doesn't show in my writing.

epic epic epic

Well thanks for all your birthday good wishes!!! :)

We had an interesting couple of days. Friday night around 9 I was in the middle of cake-baking when it turned up that I might not be allowed to take the theatre class after all. Can you spell "disappointed"? I had been so looking forward to a really fun class.
But the workload was worrying my parents, as it might shuffle out other things.

Anyway grr grr grr. End of long day. I take the cake out of the oven. It breaks as I flip it out of the pan. I decide to taste-test it, it already looks erm...disappointing.
I forgot to add any sugar.
Yep, just clean forgot the sugar. The recipe was one of those annoying ones where the ingredients are listed at the beginning and then it says "mix first seven ingredients".

We shall draw the curtain of compassion over the rest of the scene [to quote Mark Twain]. Actually I just went to bed.

This picture was not taken last night. I wish it weren't so fuzzy, it perfectly captures my expression [purposely for the camera] of craziness. teehee

Saturday I was up early. I can't seem to sleep in, and I've been not getting enough sleep recently.

But there was a nice sunrise, very pink. Off to the farmers' market under a blue sky and warm air, just perfect party weather. We spent a long time at the market, getting various bits of produce for the party. Fixings for tortillas, grapes, a melon, flowers.

Here's me bouquet being specially made:

Then off to the Co-op for more cheese. Home, where I began the day-long operation of washing and preparing produce. A few phone calls to Dallan and Eva, my confederates in party-planning.

I frosted the doomed carrot-cake [what remained of it. It made a surprisingly good breakfast, and I have it on good authority that it was a rather tasty midnight snack as well] which improved it.

Around 5: 30 we took the first load of stuff out to the field. Dallan arrived to hep set up. Here we are struggling with the tent-poles whilst my dad takes photos [lol. He was working harder than anybody.]

By 6 or thereabouts [party scheduled for 6:30] I was in my usual pre-party state of happy frantic hospitality, struggling with a table, carting tubs of food hither and yon, greeting guests, directing traffic.

We started off with frisbee. That's me, grey shirt, far right [I didn't know my hair was that red! Henna, lols]

A large contingent of less athletically-minded gals [including myself] were the pioneers in a new sport, contact Frisbee. Your hands should never leave contact with the frisbee. It's great fun, you stand in a little circle and serve up the disk with great ceremony or perhaps a twist ["Under the leg! Ooh, a mean trick!" "Backwards! The plot thickens!"]

There was a lot of music, live and iPod

Around 7 we felt a few drops of rain. An hour before there had not been a cloud in the sky. We hustled the stuff under the tent and it cleared up.

There aren't many more good photos, alas. It got dark pretty quick.

But oh the epicness! I think there were about 15 people there. Fairly early on we made a foray out to the clump of trees in the middle of the field. The trees are clearly not visible in the left-hand side of the picture. That involved one person running alongside, holding the wireless iPod player to spur us on, and most everybody else joining arms and skipping. Do I not have awesome friends?

Did a little more dancing. Came back and had more food. My dad made tortillas over a propane grill/burner/whatever it is and that was fun. Who would have thought that 15 teenagers would scarcely touch the four bags of chips?

The grapes, on the other hand, proved extremely alluring. People wound up with grapes in their pockets ["I have a grape in my pocket! What is it doing there, I did not put a grape in my pocket!"]

Speaking of pockets, Bethany once again proved her reputation as carry-all. "Need a band-aid? A signal-splitter? A converter, AA batteries? How 'bout some triple-A's? Do you know, I've got needle-nosed tweezers in here, and two lighters. What's this? I did not know this was in here! What's that, do you need an audio cable, or a USB?" I had specially stocked my pockets for the day's events.

As the night wore on we got increasingly hilarious. The rain had not returned but there was a sizeable quantity of lightning to all compass-points of us but thankfully not above.

There was more dancing, in a circle this time. My playlist includes the perennial favorite Siamsa which had us all up and dancing. The plastic cups did not survive. "Oops, we're dancing on the cups!" CRUNCH!

Another epic memory had to be doing the folk-dance Dermish under the stars. It's a very epic dance, everybody's in a circle holding the hands of the person two down from them, spinning round.

Sword-fighting too. And adventures with glow-sticks. A bit of singing. Around 9:30 I decided we needed to open the bottle of expensive French imported sparkling apple cider, and did so with much ceremony. The cups were mostly gone by that time but we made do. A very nice vintage.

Cut the cake that Eva had made, toothsome. Stood round in a huddle, trying to keep warm, as the breeze had picked up.

Oodles of fun. We had all cleared out by 10:45, just as the rain began again. Got the tent down, but we need to head out there today to pick up bits of cups no doubt, and collect any sundry items left behind. We'll have to start a "Lost and Found from Bethany's Epic Party".

Next weekend is RenFaire!!!!! I'm excited, Eva and I have been commanded [tehee] to go, and rendezvous with the other peeps that are going.

And regarding the theatre class, prayers that I can convince my parents would be appreciated!! :)

In short, I had an awesome birthday!

Internet Exploder, walnut-chucking, and other fun stuff

Yesterday was busy, to put it mildly. Started off in the morning with Co-op Sale Day, and a few other bits of business. Then back home, over to my grandmother's where I taught her how to leave a comment on my blog, and back here bearing fruit to take to rehearsal.


Rehearsal was at 4. Rehearsal went well. Rehearsal disintegrated into mass sword practice around 5. [We had our Guest Instructor, Phillip, present specifically for Instructing us in sword-play, requisite for one scene of the play.]


Us four [Dallan, Phillip, Eva and myself] stayed late--very late--doing various fun stuff. A frisbee was involved for a lot of the time. And we chucked walnuts at tree-trunks, endeavoring to crack them [actually I watched that part--I am very unskilled at any sport involving a ball, disk or anything of that sort. Although I just yesterday learned how to throw a frisbee and was told I didn't do badly. Woot!]

There was a flurry of telephoning. My cell-phone [actually it's more "the family phone"] was with my dad at work, so all four of us were forced to rely upon Phillip's phone.

Dallan: I need to call my parents. Eva: I'd better call my mom. Bethany: And I'll need it too!

At one point the last cookie was in debate. Dallan and Eva dashed inside: question marks from the others: Bethie, who heard it all: "They converged upon the last snicker-doodle."


Back into the Grange where we listened to music for the swing-dancing scene, and did some card tricks. Eva regaled us with a story of how she got lost, ran out of gasoline, and was broke with no cell-phone. Dallan served lemonade, marketed as "strong" but dismissed by me as "wussy" [I am infamous in my tolerance of sour stuff]. We discussed Converse as a shoe, coolness factor, and good idea [subsequent on seeing Phillip's new pair], and ran around barefoot on the grass outside.

I, of course, told of my little jaunt to the Grange last Saturday, on foot, and how when I got there I heard a pounding coming from inside and wondered what it was coming from: this was enlarged upon by the others: "Are you sure it wasn't a pounding coming from inside your head?" "Bethany, what were you doing the night before? Was there any sort of a party?"

The Hazlenut Incident was mentioned and related to Phillip by we three who had of course been present.
There was some arm-wrestling: epic fail, on my part. But I'm getting better.


About 6:45 Eva, being a dutiful young woman, felt it incumbent on her to depart, to help with the peach-canning at home. There was more sword-fighting [we use non-lethal weapons, by the way. Solid chunks of aluminum]. There was a foray across the road to look at the sheep. There was one pleasing little incident involving the electric sheep-fence.


More discussion of fake blood for the stage ["Zesty mint flavor!"]. A good way to simulate a knock to the jaw: take a mouthful of Tic-Tacs and a little fake blood [must be Zesty Mint flavor] and presto, there you have a nice mouthful of broken teeth.


The remaining half-gallon or so of lemonade was polished off by the two lads, who declared themselves "Blub!" This reminded me of a Pogo Possum cartoon and I promptly mentioned the name. They started backing away from me uneasily. Pogo Possum is known only to the few, the weird, the awesome.


Plans were made for the epic party coming this Saturday.


Pretty soon Dallan opined that we had best begin heading our separate ways. This proved less easy that it sounded, and involved a lot of use of the cell-phone. It turned up that Phillip did not have a ride home, and Dallan's parents were less than eager to head all the way into town again. I broached the matter to my parents and they pounced happily upon it, since we are moving various lead-like bits of furniture preparatory for a new floor, and a strong-arm was in demand. Finally got everyone home around 8:30, and stopped in at the Co-op again, as I had neglected to buy a nice goat-milk Brie earlier in the day.
Fun stuff!

Oh yeah, Internet Exploder [I did not make that awesome name up :)]! IE is....how do I say this nicely?.....yeah. You know what I mean. It sometimes treats webpages like pop-ups---opens about 2 million copies of a page and freezes up....nasty...I'm trying to switch to Firefox but that's having issues too....ugh.

Take 2

Yes, allow me to present....um, whatever it was that I was going to present. I hit Publish instead of Save, whoopsies.
Thank you to my 3 new followers!!!!!!! Liberty, Cassie, and Kevin Atteridg!!!

So anyway,  my polls are indicating that the general populace (my beloved Readers) would like More Humor, More Photos, and More Writing. 
There is a two-way split between More Posts and Less Posts.  I assume that some want to see more of my briliance, and some think I am overloading their dashboards.
 I am glad to see that no-one requests that my posts be marred by any more seriousness; that would be a gloomy day for all of us, me not least.
Also there is demand for Bethie Getting Nostalgic, and More Mentions of Other Bloggers.
It is with that last request that I comply with now.

Some may have noticed that my last post [scroll down!!!] elicited an interesting string of comments [read them!!!]. It even inspired a post by the splendid Danzibar, on a topic which my readers [specially the older element] will find interesting. Also my good friend Scotland has been posting recently on the same subject. I invite you to check out the well-thought-out and somewhat philosophical musings in their latest posts.

I will endeavor to mention a few blogs each post! The more comments you've left, the more likely it is that your blog will be mentioned! :)

Lessee. Yesterday was not even typical of the random excitment associated with Bethany-the-amazing. Friday night I had resolved to walk to the Grange in the morning, to help out with the work/paint/etc day which began at 8 AM.
The Grange is about a mile from my house, if you take the picturesque shortcut over the fields.
At around 3 in the morning I was awakened by excessive rainfall outside my window and decided to be wimpy and not walk. [remember that I have never bicycled in my life]  But when I arose at 6:45, I was as determined as ever to cover myself with glory [and rainwater] by walking.

I did.
The rain had thankfully slacked off a little. I encountered a coyote at one point, but nothing else untoward occured. The folks at the Grange were, as predicted, awed [heh] by my fortitude. I wielded a paintbrush there for a few hours, and then my dad picked me up and we headed to farmers' market, in the rain which had picked up a bit. Got another flat of tomatoes, which occupied me all evening. Stopped in at the natural foods co-op and got some chocolate, then over to Dairy Mart for cheap cream.

I came home for a quick lunch and then it was off to the Grange again, for play rehearsal. That went well and swiftly.
After that we did a few more miscalaneous things and I came home to deal with the tomato-sauce making. I also had to deal with roosters in the plural. Catching them, in fact. Not fun.

Went to Home Depot and the co-op [again] in the evening. Bought some cheese-curds yum yum!
Then I stayed in the blog world way too long, checking peeps' blogs, and replying to comments on my own. I switched to the New post editor-----does it have spell-check?? I can't find it!! Gah!

The weather is being nasty. It's pouring rain and chilly today. My dear friend Eva is, alas, camping. She is being rained upon. I do not envy her the joys of pitching a sodden tent, attempting to dry things out after being rained on all night, huddling in the van trying to stay dry. I speak from the pinnacle of painful experience.
It's windy, too. This reminds me of one happy incident that I was thankfully not a witness of. 'Twas during the last week of school, when I was taking a few classes at a private school. We had just got done with Mini Sessions and one group had gone camping.   At the final assembly the teachers were regaling the appreciative crowd with anecdotes.
The boys' camping group: "We remembered the tents. The tent-poles, on the other hand, were left behind." [Hilarity from the audience] "We were trying to rig things up with duct-tape"

I do so hope that it is dry next weekend, for my birthday festivities. There is to be a Party of Special Magnificence, on Saturday night. I wish you all were here!!!!!
I am not a flower-buyer, but I intend to pick out a nice boquet for myself at the market on Saturday, one of the lovely brilliant orange-and-pink-and-yellow concoctions sold by the little Peace Seeds stand that I emoted about in my last post.

Well! Wasn't that last post epic!! I worked on it for several hours, I believe.



So I told Kendra that I had a story about speaking Elvish, and here 'tis.

It was when I was fourteen. I had just started taking a few classes at the private school where my dad teaches [I've always been homeschooled]. My math class; I was terribly obsessed with Lord of the Rings that year.

Well by the end of the first week both my French [high-school] and my math [8th grade, I know, I'm always the oldest in my class] classes knew that Bethany was Elvish. Or at least my French teacher did ["There's always one student that insists on writing in Elvish. But this is the first year it's been a girl."] And in my math class I believe it started when the guy in front of me noticed that I was doodling Elvish all over my homework, and the cover of my notebook was in Elvish. ["What is that?"] Then after that general announcement from Matt, the whole class became aware of me. Matt insisted that I speak some Elvish, a request in which I was glad to oblige him. [Just the traditional "Elen Sila " etc greeting.

This other guy [Ian---humorous fellow----at junior high graduation that year he was described as "the Will Ferrel of the 8th grade". Nickname of Nacho.] was the next catalyst. At the next football game I was sitting quietly in the bleachers with my dad, minding my own business, when up trots Nacho with a couple of friends in tow. I imagine that he and his friends must have had a conversation something like this: "Yeah there's this girl in my class, she can speak Elvish." "No way! You're kidding." "Well if we see her, I'll show you!"
Anyway, up he comes and asks me to speak Elvish. I let rip with Elen sila again. He thanked me politely and my dad says [I didn't notice] that he "sort of made a little bow". Oh how funny.

Yesterday was another fun day with my pals. Eva and Dallan [the same ones I went to town with last week] came over to work on the script for the play we're putting on. There was some major hilarity. Also some funny quotes for my ever-growing collection. Both from Eva: at one point we were trying to decide what to say in a difficult scene and she said, "This is an opportunity to sound really lame". The next one was when we were being somewhat annoyed at Dallan for goofing off a wee bit, and we were joking about, and she said "Well shame on you for being so amusing".
There was a pleasing interlude that involved chucking CDs at each other, too. Okay they were not CDs, but the little useless clear plastic things that come in a pack of blank disks. Tiny frisbees. We got the scene done, though. Then we were going to go into town for dinner, but Eva wasn't sure if she could go because she might have to trot people about [she's got a large family, and she just got her license]. She was on the phone with her mom and Dallan and I were so hoping she could go, we both had our fingers crossed and our eyes screwed shut. We picked up info from Eva's words [darkly inscrutable] and expressions [varying between jubilant and chastened]. She said thanks, hung up and we practically burst into song [okay, that is an exaggeration. But still.]. High-fives all round. Dallan mentioned how we were "groveling on the floor" and that struck me as hilarious.
We went off to town. Had a hard time deciding where to eat. I convinced them of the benefits of Big River, the best [and probably most expensive] restaurant in town.

The food takes a long time in coming at Big River, but we passed the time very pleasantly indeed. For one thing there is a dish of olive oil and plate of Big River's awesome house bread on the table.
We ordered two different pizzas. [I had previously been there and declared them to make the best pizza in town.] Oh how tasty. They were very glad I convinced them :) Very high-class pizzas--artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, goat cheese, the works.

Chatted at length. Discussed just about everything. We three do get on so very well despite the difference in ages [Dallan is almost 15, I'm almost 17, and Eva's almost 18].

Then for about 10 or 15 minutes the conversation turned to how to pay. We were trying to figure in three equal shares of the two pizzas, two drinks only, and then the tip. My steel-trap mind [hehe] made short work of most of that, including the 15% tip, but we stuck a bog, as our shares turned out to be around $12 and we just had twenties with us. There was discussion of elaborate schemes for change, two twenties and pay-back later. We finally worked it out.

Then at about 7:45 Eva had to leave, and Dallan and I mosied on over to the video rental store, as he had been specially charged by his dad with bringing home a movie. That took a while. Oh yes, we were carrying little take-out boxes this whole time, with the delicious left-over food [which was promptly pounced on by my parents when I got home, haha].

Then we walked to Safeway [as Dallan wanted something], commenting on how the skate park is the number one creepy spot in town after dark. As we got to the store I said, "But you know, the Safeway parking-lot has to take second prize". We got in and out without incident. After all, we live in a very safe and small town. Still, on the way out, I was like, "Let's power-walk" to which Dallan replied "Let's run!". Off to The Book Bin used-book store. My dad finally came to pick us up, after much plying of the cell-phone. Gotta exercise those thumbs.

Great fun! More good times here.
Oh dear. The audition is tomorrow. I've got to get that dratted script typed. It is in a very rough form at this point, spread out all over me desk. At least I don't have to worry about a real audition, it's more of a first rehearsal/meeting.
must run....

too much stuff going on!!!

Argh! Too busy! But it's been fun.

Where to start!! Yesterday was absolutely the most fun I've had all summer. Period.
Spent the morning pottering about the house. I was going to do lunch in town with my friend E, but the night before D had called to ask if he could come too, since there was no meeting at the park as usual on Fridays. E enthusiastically agreed.

Anyway, my parents were supposed to be home early enough to get me there, but they wound up not getting back from errands til a few moments to spare. I for some reason decided to dress up a bit, in my"Brit punk" outfit, haha. A fabulous red plaid wool skirt, black tights, brown "Montana" t-shirt, aspen-leaf necklace, and red tam o'shanter. EPIC!!! I'd been really chilly all morning but I got a wee bit hot walking about town in wool!

So we stopped by D's house to pick him up and met E in town, by the river-front fountain. She'd just come from work. Wavered as to where to have lunch, decided to walk to American Dream pizza. Yum. We were able to get a spot on the rooftop which is sweet, the only other time I've been there it was dinner-time and packed. We got up the stairs balancing our pizzas and salads and drinks, sent D back down for straws and napkins. Then we settled down to our food and talked talked talked. Hair colour changes, D's anecdotes about how much food [$25 worth] he and a friend once sneaked into a movie theatre, stuff for our play, casting for the play, etc.
There was one interesting interlude when a large jet of water sprouted up and doused us slightly. Evidently a sprinkler for the plants had become disconnected.

Lunch took about an hour. We then went to get gelato, and I got my usual two: Lemon and passionfruit. Sat at the sidewalk tables for another while, talking about self-defense stories, intra-personal relationships, and who we should call to join us in town. We really didn't have to be home at any set time. Oh yes, I related the incident in Bozeman Montana, when this old guy came up to me in the bookstore, and I said "I managed to fob him off after a bit" [you know, the classic British expression meaning "to distract, or decoy away"],and E said, "I love the way you say things Bethany! 'A portly white-haired gentleman.' 'I fobbed him off'." And D said, "I'd have punched him long before you 'fobbed him off"" and we all hooted.

Then meandered about town for the next few hours, candy store, bowling [25 blocks and two incidents away], library for water, back into downtown, along the riverfront, to the skate-park, and finally E's dad picked us up to take us to her house after renting a movie.
At one point we were walking down the street three abreast and doing some fairly epic percussion. Here we go: Thump chest with fist, snap fingers, clap hands, two thumps, snap, clap, snap, thump and back to the beginning.

The two incidents ocurred in between E and myself doubting whether or not D actually knew where he was taking us.
Once we nearly got run down whilst innocently and legally crossing an empty street, at the corner, some absolute JERK just zipped in front of us [with a few feet between him and a long explanation to the police], honked, and flipped us off. Man were we upset!

Then came the Hazelnut Incident. We pass a fairly public hazelnut tree, with nuts. D picks two, hands one to me. I put it between my molars and "CRUNCH". Yum yum. He does a SWEET and EPIC and AWESOME move that we talked about for the rest of the day: threw the nut to the pavement, the shell broke, and a perfect nut-meat bounced up, he caught it. Oh my goodness what fabulosity!!! He hands the nut to E, she tastes it and spits it out, we all collapse into laughter.

We walked a few miles all total, probably. So many jokes and stories and "I hope you know where you're going"s . Immense fun. We three get along so well, even though there's a lot of age difference.
At E's house we ate pizza and played badminton outside in the long summer evening. More awesomeness. D and I swapped Monty Python stories [Albatross! It's albatross flavored albatross!] and managed to confuse everyone else present. Teenaged boys LOVE Monty Python. Tee-hee.
Then we arm-wrestled. I managed to win exactly half of my contests, which made me happy. Never did manage to win against D, but got close, and oh well, he's a boy. ;-)

One of the phrases of the day was "Ooh. That's not awesome" from me, say when E dropped her phone, or when any other unpleasantries happened. I like that phrase, and EPIC of course. The Hazelnut was the most epic thing.

Today I got together with them for some script-writing. They are going to [hopefully] get the script for our play done whilst I'm at the coast. Which reminds me, I will not be writing for a few days. :(

Yes, I was moving the hen-cage for about 2 hours this morning, with my dad. Very much work. That was after getting up way too early to go to Staples, and farmers' market which was as brilliant as usual. Mmm. Sweet corn for lunch, and I've a pot of tomato sauce simmering on the hob, as it were.

More stuff:
-Welcome back Lenore!!
-Yay for Stella's new computer :)
-Role-play here: I will try to post!! I promise!!
-A Dance of Sisters is a really good book!

Oh my goodness, Mum just said we have to go to the Co-op!!!! [natural foods grocery, so epic, I like that word :)] SO HAPPY!!!! Gotta stock up on food for the trip! The above-mentioned D [who lives 2 minutes away] will be taking care of the house and yard and critters.

mmmwoooot!ahhhhehehe! I'm happy, did you tell? ;)