Heavy Heaviness is Heavy

I should really just make "Things I Don't Like" a thing (is it already a thing? What constitutes something being a thing?) because the main reasons that I got on Blogger were because of TWO things I don't like:

1. School
2. Adults--specifically, adults who talk about you when YOU'RE RIGHT BLOODY THERE. Thank you, Mother, but I have a rudimentary enough understanding of Hindi to know that you're talking about me. Honestly. Exactly how stupid am I supposed to be?

I have heavy things on my mind, not in the literal sense (heh) but yesterday was weird and dense enough, and now that I seem to be out of my rut of bad blogging (although, depending on your opinion, I might have always been a bad blogger and my rut might just be permanent), let's talk about lighter things.

Like the future.

Because that's not heavy at all.

When you're me, that is pretty heavy (why have I used the word 'heavy' so many times? Am I from the eighties? What is going on?), especially when you've no blooming idea what you want to be. See, I have a vague idea, but the...practicality...is not entirely there. I don't much want to think about what I'm going to be, because I am trying to get through my life now, and that seems hard enough. Sometimes now is enough to deal with.

But things that are not so heavy (since I am going with that word now) or actually may be heavy but pique my interest:

• People who make drawings for me, especially when they surpass what little skill I possess
• People who defy my expectations
• The Dexter Morgan Series. I looked on Wikipedia, and the last book in the series (Dexter is Delicious) has influences of cannibalism. CANNIBALISM? Dear Jeff Lindsay, Dexter's ALREADY a supernatural crazy serial killer! HOW MUCH FURTHER DO YOU NEED TO GO? Even though I am now scared to proceed any further with this series, and I am myself a vegetarian, I am wondering how an author even begins to work something as tabooed and unconventional as cannibalism into a book. *shudders* Looks like I'll continue these. *gingerly picks up Darkly Dreaming Dexter*
• That 'How Stuff Works' has a page on sarcasm, and it's not sarcastic. It's genuine, and pretty interesting.
• All-American Rejects. It's funny how I can listen to 'Move Along' after four years of running to it and still like the song. Also, in the Performance Version of 'Gives You Hell' (I like it better than the Narrative Version), Tyson looks crazy and/or drunk, and either he can't dance/he is Jack Sparrow/he was drunk. Hmm?
• S'mores. I'm having some over AN ACTUAL FIREPIT later tonight, and that will be the first time I've ever done that!
• Charlie McDonnell. Still amazing. I've been watching his vlogs for almost a year!
• David Tennant, because he is still the best Doctor in the entire world, even though some people *coughs at someone who is not reading this* think Matt Smith is better.

Quote for Saturday, May 28, 2011:

"Good evening. Tonight on 'Is There' we examine the question, 'Is there a life after death?' And here to discuss it are three dead people."

-(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Flying_Circus#E._Henry_

Thripshaw.27s_Disease_.5B3.10.5D)

Muse for a Day:

"How about 'Hello, sweetie!'? You should put that as your quote."

"No, that's dumb. I hate River Song, and I hate everything she says, and I hate that quote. And not everyone will understand it, anyway."

"But it's good! Please!"

"Shut up. You get your own blog, and then you can have a Quote of the Day, and you can put that rubbish quote. And even then, you would have gotten the idea from me."

"I'll get a blog. But I won't have a Quote of the Day! I'll have a Quote of the Week! I might even have a Quote...of All Quotes!"

*long pause*

"What are you even saying? Idiot."

"Even then, Marshmallow People will still come first."

"Idiot."

A Trying Feat

Look! I am back!

(Although you probably had no idea that I was even gone, since my posting is infrequent at best.)

I really am back, though. I just came back from a trip to Arizona yesterday. But more on that later.

I am trying to orchestrate something marvelous. It has almost been one year since I started this blog, and this is my ninety-second post. I am trying to have my one-hundredth post on this blog's one-year anniversary. This, however, requires more posting than I am used to.

So. It is now June 10th. I have a month and eight days to post eight times.

GRRR. It's not like I ever have anything useful to say, anyway. I mean, just blather on and on all of the time. I'm sure I can make it. I hope.

So. Arizona.

F.R.A.S'S Rules for Visiting Arizona:

1. Bring a water bottle. Honestly. We went in June, and that's not even the hottest month of the year. And it was really, really hot.
2. Bring chapstick. Arizona is one dry state.
3. Go there for kind of a long time. DO NOT try to squeeze all of the sights into one or two days. You will be half-dead by lunchtime. Spend all day at the Hoover Dam, all day at the Grand Canyon, all day at Montezuma Castle, all day at wherever-else-you-are-going.
4. Jeans are a bad idea. Especially if you're hiking all day- they start sticking to you. I saw this fate in most of the hikers we saw at the Grand Canyon. Yuck.
5. Make sure your camera has a wrist strap. Actually, make sure that you have a camera before you buy a wrist strap. There are lots of things to take pictures of, and lots of places where you can lose your camera.
6. Do your research first. There was this great place called Oak Creek Canyon. It's called the 'cousin to the Grand Canyon.' (Why?) Well, my parents read about it in an outdated guidebook that didn't mention how you can swim in the creek. There's this bit that is all slippery, and people sit on the current and just slide. K and I didn't bring swimsuits. So we just went down in our clothes. It was really, really fun, but I do not recommend it because it took all day for my clothes to dry off. So plan ahead! Make sure you know what you're doing, and bring everything you might possibly need.
7. Bring lots of books and notebooks. This is only if you drive around a lot and like reading and writing. My family and I had a lot of time in the car, so I read and wrote. Just bring something to do, like a music player, for the driving.
8. Bring a camera charger. Actually, bring a charger for everything. Battery runs out fast.
9. Don't go on a plane. Where did the peanuts go? No snacks? Only drinks? They charge you for blankets and pillows ($8). It costs twenty-five dollars to check in one piece of luggage. Flying on planes in America used to be fun. Now it's just vaguely annoying.
10. Bring lotion! My mother and I snuck into a Bath and Body Works at an Arizonian mall so that we could use the testers of lotion and perfume there on our hands and dusty feet. Planes don't allow the full tubes of lotion, and hotel lotion stinks. So bring the sample sizes. You'll need it.
11. Don't go with your brother. He will drag you into stadiums and cry when they aren't open. LEAVE HIM AT HOME.

I hope those rules helped.

Quote for Thursday, June 10, 2010:

Richard: His head is shaped like a football.

Emily: It is not.

Richard: If he fell asleep in the park, someone would try to punt him.

-Gilmore Girls: Season 2 (Sadie, Sadie)

(

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gilmore_Girls/Season_2

)

Muse for Today:

Twitter. How can such idiots be on Twitter?

As you may be able to see,

I am alive. I actually did not dance because fate was kind to me (for once)! I hurt my knee tripping in the hallway right before the skit and the skit had to go on without my mad dancing skills. Oh, wait, sorry. Skillz.
It is really really hot outside. Well, it's hot for where I live, anyway (I'm sure my cousins would have something to say to me if I complained about how hot it was), especially considering it's May. Last May we were wearing coats and full-sleeves until the end. Now we are melting and unwilling to move.
Thankfully, my room is in the basement, which is the coldest place in the house in the summer. Unthankfully, everyone wants to move there now.
School is ending in four days, and I have a list of things that I would like to do over the summer. Most of them are watching certain movies and reading certain books. There are also a few things that I would like to bake this summer, like Blondies (a vanilla brownie). I've had them once, and they were delicious!
There is a thing that I was discussing on the phone today with my cousin Questa, who, if you have not guessed by now, is the same person as J. I will give up J and just say Questa.
So I was talking to Questa about Twitter. Ah, Twitter. You suck.
Nobody cares what you are eating right now, unless you happen to be Taylor Swift, in which case K is very interested. Anyway, I am assuming most of us are not Taylor Swift. Or K. So we don't really care about when you go to the bathroom! Do not share it with us!
So we were thinking about a guy who tweeted the stupidest stuff, like:
I am not going to tweet anymore. *post*
I am going outside, and I'm not tweeting while I'm there. *post*
I'm outside, and guess who's not TWEETING! *post*
I'm deleting my Twitter account, yo. *post*
I'm so sick and tired of Twitter! I don't even tweet that often! *post*
Here I am, about to delete my Twitter account! *post*
You won't hear from me anymore! Not like you heard me a lot anyway! Good-bye! *post*
Hovering over the delete button... *post*
There. I deleted it. SUCKS TO YOU. *post*
I can't tweet anymore. I hated Twitter anyway. *post*
And etc.
We went on like this for a half-hour. What if someone made a Twitter account like that? Would anyone actually read it?

Quote for Sunday, May 23, 2010:

A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat.

-P.J. O'Rourke

and

A man is nothing without his hat.

-Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story 2 (1999)

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hat)

Muse for Today:

How much cake can I eat in one sitting without exploding?

Will I ever find out?

Why do I care?

Elevator Music

My first post for November- happy November, everyone!

(A bit late, but that can't be helped anymore...)

Right into our main topic-

If you read Blue Roses, you probably have read Questa's post about Olympic elevator music.

Four words: Olympic. Elevator. Music. STINKS.

Not, sadly, that I would know firsthand, but when (Spoiler Alert!) Percy wonders whether he should have given up immortality to change the awful elevator music, it gives you the idea that it is not the best.

(Who chooses the elevator music? Apollo? Zeus? Random Maintenance Guy?)

The only reason I bring this up is that K, my wacky brother, is playing one of his favorite Wii games ever, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, and he is going "Staying alive! Just barely!" and Stayin' Alive is one of the perfectly horrible songs on the Olympic Elevator-ing System.

Here is the video for the song. Enjoy. Or not.

[Warning: If you have an aversion to tight pants (like me) you might want to skip this video. Think: All the Jonas Brothers. Put together. *shudder*]

Even if I think Stayin' Alive is a horrible song, my ABBA and Green Day and Led Zeppelin and Simon and Garfunkel and etcetera punky music is probably not music to someone else's ears, so ignore me.

(K likes this song.)

One cool things about this song is you can sing Stayin' Alive while doing CPR. Why? Because (a friend told me this) the song has 100 beats per minute, the recommended number of compressions per minute for CPR.

So sing Stayin' Alive to yourself the next time you perform CPR.

But if you're singing that, they may pretend to not be breathing just so you'll leave.

Quote for Tuesday, November 10, 2009:

In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them.

-John Von Neumann

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mathematics)

(You just get used to the varying feelings of confusion.)

Muse(ic) for Today:

The Bee Gees!

I'm Baaaaack! *cricket chirp*

Hello, readers! (If I have any left, that is.) I've decided to do an actual post, not the EPIC FAIL of yesterday.
I am casting around for inspiration, and I see a cookbook. It's lying open, to the Breads section, and some of these breads sound yuck, some sound delish. (Delish is one step up from delicious.)
Farmhouse White Bread doesn't look very interesting. It looks like a normal round of bread! The comfort is I bet it tastes like normal bread too. Who doesn't like normal bread?
It's not like the kind from a store, either. It looks very tasty, with flour sprinkled over the top.
Olive-Rosemary Bread Loaves? The description is very nice:
Kalamata olives- deep purple, brine-cured Greek olives- and woodsy fresh rosemary flavor these robust peasant loaves (Good Housekeeping: Great Baking, page 121).
But how would it really taste? What if you put, say, parsley in? Parsley is cool. Thyme is used more often, but why? I'd bet there's plenty of parsley available.
It's a pretty cool book, with all kind of recipes. Actually, I've got a lot of really cool cookbooks, mostly from Christmas- Indian ones, that are full to the brimming of recipes galore and a hot chocolate one (who knew- hot chocolate is like an art! It's really kind of amazing how underestimated hot chocolate is).
The recipes that are sent to me- like one B sent me for pancakes. (They were very good.) One for GINGERBREAD! In Honor Of Churchie! (That was the time I found out that I need to make friends with a family that has an abnormal love of gingerbread but has no idea how to make it, because K and my parents have no love for it.) (I thought it was brilliant.)
I think I've run out of topics on baking. Maybe I'll revisit it. Wrap-Up time.

Quote for Sunday, October 18, 2009:

If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.

-Alice Roosevelt Longworth

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice_Roosevelt_Longworth)

Muse for Today:

Yes, I know Hestia isn't a Muse, she's an Olympian, but she's the Greek goddess for the hearth and home, which has a relation to cooking. Hestia (or Vesta, the Roman name) is today's Muse.

This is Halloween!

...well, no it's not.

But 'tis October! And Halloween, one of my favorite holidays (alongside Christmas and any holiday that causes a day off from school), is in October!

Stop the music! I have a problem- I don't know what to be.

I do know that despite what various people (otherwise known as thickheads) would say about my age, I am going trick or treating this year. Maybe someday I'll go to a haunted house or stay at home to hand out candy to those who come, but for now I like the idea of the one day of the entire year when you can walk up to random strangers and demand candy.

And they give it to you.

(I am wondering what Ms. Pickle plans to do on Halloween. Many murders lined up? Not me?)

K doesn't know, either, but in his typical K fashion, he wants to be- wait for it- a whoopee cushion!

I was considering being a gypsy. Or a goth. Anything where I get to wear lots of eyeliner.

The problem is my glasses. Large sunglasses would help, maybe? No. Those would look stupid.

Then I considered maybe the hated MINERVA PARADIZO! *dies*

But that, my comrades, would be hypocritical.

And I, the great F.R.A.S., am not a hypocrite.

Only in special cases.

Well. What are you being for Halloween?

Muse for Today:

Melpomene.

Quote for Sunday, October 4, 2009:

Qui plume a, guerre a.

To hold a pen is to be at war.

-Voltaire

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire)

Nostalgia

If you type 'nostalgia' into Google (or Blackle or Givoogle or whatever it is you use) you get songs and definitions of nostalgias, but 'nostalgia' is really when people gaze off wistfully into the distance and remember the times passed.

A few days ago, my mother found her old school, and Facebook communities formed by people who'd graduated from there. It was a Kindergarten through Grade 12 school, so she knew it all her life. She said she feels so nostalgic right then.

This means something, I'm sure, but I'd like to consider nostalgia at some other time.

[K just got home from soccer. They lost again. Let's hope they weren't playing first graders. (We can only hope.)]

Mr Bean is a lovely TV series and I think group of movies too, but I wonder about him. He's funny and confused and nice and oblivious, but does he ever get lonely? In The Return of Mr Bean, he is forced to buy himself a birthday card and be surprised when he gives it to himself. I don't remember exactly, but I saw the episode Merry Christmas, Mr Bean, when his girlfriend broke up with him, and it was very sad.

Does he have any family? Is he ever scared?

I have to remind myself that Mr Bean is actually Rowan Atkinson who has two brothers and a mother and father and a wife and two children and does have a family, thankyouverymuch, but Mr Bean seems a person to me. Thinking of Mr Bean as a person and not a character is so sad.

I'm going to Gives Me Hope now.

Quotes for Saturday, October (yikes! October?) 3, 2009:

They're sharing a drink they call loneliness

But it's better than drinking alone.

-Billy Joel, "Piano Man"

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?

-The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby"

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Loneliness)

Muse for Today:

Mr Bean.

Colorful Sound

I am slightly sick-ish today. But worry not! My blogging fingers (attached to my hand-arm-shoulders, of course) will not let you down!

I have been thinking about voices, especially in the absence of my own. I once read a book where the main character thought about what her friends' and family's voices sounded like. Her best friend was 'crackling autumn leaves', her other friend was 'cool water pouring into a tall glass.'

This and colors. I've heard of a book, A Mango-Shaped Space, where a girl has synesthesia. I don't know all the specifics, and I've never read the book (why haven't I ever read the book?), but she hears in color. Like, her cat's name is Mango, because his purrs sound like a mango-yellow-orange color.

That had me wondering, too. She might be badgered quite a lot. I know I'd like to know what color I sound like. And let's say there are two people named Mr. Louis James Thomas. One is awful, the puppy drowning type, and one is very good, the helps orphans out type. Would both of their names be the same color? Would their personality bleed into the name?

Back to voices, I've been thinking-what color do the people I've heard sound like?

A fire engine. An alarm clock. Brownies baking (yes, THAT HAS A SOUND). Taffeta crinkling. Rain on a tin roof. Candy being opened. Chocolate being snapped into pieces. A bass guitar. Steel bending. Spring grass with a breeze blowing through it. Silk. A down comforter.

Some of those I just made up, but they look nice, don't they?

Quote for Saturday, September 12, 2009:

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

-William Faulkner

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Life)

Muse for Today:

Clio, Muse for History. I have a cool history project due next week-on Nellie Bly.

It's Gonna Be a Good Day

Have you ever had a day when you wake up and you just know it's going to end up beautifully? First of all, I had a brilliant idea right before I went to sleep. It was about Quinn and his brother and sisters, the Curtains story. So of course I had to write it down. I just need names for his siblings. I was thinking of naming them James, Dreia, and Gail. I'm not quite sure. I woke up and read the bit, and it was nice, in my opinion.

I finished Book One of Little Women. Sadly, I've read Book Two already, and what depresses me is that Laurie and Jo don't marry each other! That is what I hate about Jo! Otherwise she and Laurie are my favorites, but she doesn't marry him! She marries some old Professor, and Laurie marries Amy, the worst of the lot!

I'm calm now. But Louisa May Alcott made a mistake there.

And it was bright and sunny, with dew on the grass when I woke up. MuggleNet.com was updated. Wikipedia's main article was about Down With Optimism! (Well. Not really. But that's how I took it.) K woke up and behaved like a mop (that is the word 'moron' but I accidentally pressed the 'p' and spacebar. Again.) but I didn't lose my temper once!

Of course I've got a large amount of math to do, but nothing can spoil this day!

(NO! I'm not being optimistic! I know it's going to be fine! Not hoping! Knowing!)

It's a Rosalind Penderwick kind of feeling. I know that today's going to be great.

Quote for Sunday, August 23, 2009:

"More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."

-Woody Allen

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pessimism)

Nerve-Wracking Wednesday and Terrifying Thursday

I hope everyone appreciates the title. You have no idea how long it took me to type that. Sad, isn't it? My mad typing skills? (I have decided from this sentence on I will not backspace anything, just so you can see how bad I am at typing.)
Well, yesterday was, of course, Wednesady (#1) I mean, Wednesday, and I had a recital. Yes, that means I sing solo for the vert (#2) I meam (#3) I MEAN the very first time in front of people. Alone. By myself. In front of people. Yipes.
And, of course, K insisted upon tapig (#4) taping it on the new video camera I won! Yes, I actually won something in a raffle!!! For the first time in my life! YES!
Other people liked how I sang, but I listebed (35 (#5 and #6)) listened to myself on the recording and I sounded awful. I sang the ABBA song "The Winner Takes It All" and it is a lovely song. Just not with my voice. (I don't speak in front of people, I don't talk (#77 (#7 and #8)) sing in front of people voluntarily.) I was shaking. But it's over.
Today was day one of math classes at the high school, and I ws (#9) was scared again, my stomach was in knots, but it was fine. As I have learned from The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, eigthm (#10) eigh (#11) eighth graders are ignored by high schoolers. So that was fine as well. No homework.
I am doon (#12) done with my experimenr (#13) experiment. Thirteen mistakes, for me, is not bad.

Quote for Thursday, August 20, 2009:

Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions than ruined by too confident a security.
-Edmund Burke

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anxiety)

Where in the World is Freedom R.A.S.?

Guess where I am? If you're smart, you should know, seeing as you are, you know, smart.
I am going to New York with my family! YAHOO! *dances merrily*
Right now I am in a hotel lobby in Pittsburgh, right after breakfast. Nothing much has happened so far, but I will try to do my Tom Levin picture gallery. Have I explained this? If not, when I get the pictures on here, I will explain. New York promises to be fantastic!
I've got to go- K is being crabby and saying my blog posts are way too long, just because he wants to use the computer- so I will tell you more once I get to a computer next and K is not around.

Old Friends

I've moved a couple of times in my life. And the first thing I hated about moving was leaving the house. I grow extremely attached to the house. And then comes leaving the people. When we lived close to my cousins, I hated leaving the people more than the house, though I did love the house dearly. (All the trouble I take to make friends, and then we move!)
Of all the times we moved, that is the one time I remember and it was hard. I had about fifty million friends and three or four best friends, because I was just about the most popular person in the grade. You would think that with all these friends, and the amount of tears there were when we left, we would keep in touch. Nope. Never. Not once. Not to say that I tried.
After we moved to where we are now, one of my best friends in second grade, Elizabeth, moved. She wrote me a letter, but I never wrote back. I move on from friend to friend pretty fast. If someone doesn't bother to be there, I start again, making new friends until they move away.
A while ago, my mother told me that one of my very best friends from before we moved had moved away from her house. Now I can't even picture her any more. Because we don't keep in touch, I can imagine what they're doing, based on what I remember, which, sadly, is not much. Even with the power of imagination vested in me, I cannot see them any way besides the way they were when we left. Obviously, it's been six years, they'd have grown up, and if they were such brilliant friends of mine, I should know they're like. Even considering this, I think I prefer them as they were six years ago. I don't think that's a bad thing.

Quote for Some Day I Missed:

A friendship that can be ended didn't ever start.

-Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Oeuvres poétiques

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friends#Old_friends)

Feeling blue, Indigo?

A few days ago, I posted a post about the fact that I am an Anglophile. Obviously, most of my favorite characters are British as well. Like Indigo Casson, from the books by Hilary McKay, about the Casson family. He has a friend, Tom Levin, who says, Feeling blue, Indigo? In my head, he says this in a British accent even though he is not British. He is from New York.
Our current family vacation is not quite decided yet. We could go to Mt. Rushmore, Smoky Mountains, or New York. My brother wants to go to New York, because of many reasons. One is to go to the 600th floor of the Empire State Building. Although my mother tried explaining to him that there is no 600th floor, he replied that mere mortals cannot see it. (For all non-Percy Jackson readers, the 600th floor is the location of Mt. Olympus.)
I want to go anywhere, really, but New York would be really cool. Especially because of Tom Levin! Whenever Rose, a certain character, imagines Tom in New York, she imagines him in front of a large sign that says NEW YORK. I would do the same thing, and hold up a stupid picture of Hello Kitty as Tom that happened to be drawn a while ago, despite several protests that that was insulting. Yeah. Sure.

Quote for July 26, 2009:

The family is always the family but during vacations it is an extended family and that is exhausting.

-Gertrude Stein

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vacation)

My iPod

You may not know this about me, but I am addicted to my iPod. Mostly to podcasts. In The Titan's Curse, by Rick Riordan, Apollo is obsessed with haikus. He says this one on page 155:

Dreams like a podcast

downloading truth in my ears.

They tell me cool stuff.

(I never said it was good.) But I love that haiku. I quote it all the time. My brother, on the other hand, likes the music on my iPod. Harry and The Potters, Billy Joel, Survivor and Elvis are just a few of his requests (except for Harry and the Potters, which was mine).

For a few harrowing days, it was lost! I was traumatized, you better believe it. But now that I have it back, I am going podcast crazy.

I doubt you care. Neither do I! I just wanted to do a quote of the day.

Quote for July 21, 2009:

One may live as a conqueror, a king, or a magistrate; but he must die as a man.

-Daniel Webster, from Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, page 173

(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Death)

Rosalind Penderwick

There is a lovely series of books by a perfectly fantasic author named Jeanne Birdsall! They feature a family with the last name of Penderwick. (Isn't that a great name?) It's going to be a series of five, I believe, according to her website, which is http://www.jeannebirdsall.com/ if you want to check it out for more information, and I can't wait! Those are some of my favorite books.
My cousins and my brother and I all relate to one of the characters. My brother (we'll call him K) is Batty, my cousin J is Jane, my cousin B is Skye, and I am Rosalind! I envy Rosy her life sometimes, plus she's such a responsible, kind, just almost perfect person that she's just plain cool. (AND, AND, AND......she can bake! What could be better than to be compared to an almost perfect person who can bake on top of everything?)
Although I only have one brother, not three sisters, and Rosalind doesn't have two cousins who live sort of far away, I have Rosalind moments. Like today, it was almost twilight outside, and I was sitting with my book (a biography of Mark Twain, for anyone who cares) and I was looking around at the very summer-y world. A Rosalind moment! Hurrah!
Note: I've decided to do a 'Quote of the Day' thing. This will not be every day, just days when I find an appropriate quote and/or remember to.

Quote for July 20, 2009:

"There's nothing to tell, Daddy, really. I needed some air, so I took a walk, fell into the lily pond, and hit my head on a rock."

-Rosalind Penderwick from The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall, page 204

Chocolate Muffin Tales (Note: Not About Food)

My brother is standing here, eating a chocolate muffin, and asking me why I don't write about him. So I will. Go away, brother!
My brother is a few years younger than I, and he is a really typical brother. He's messy, and scruffy, and annoying. He has been known to not have stains all down his shirt, but I think that was a rumor. He really, really loves animals, especially baby animals, fish, puppies, horses, and my goodness he loves birds and ants. If you step on an ant he will hardly talk to you, which is hard for him, because he is an epic chatterbox. People tell me I don't talk enough/loud enough, and then they tell him to be quiet for a minute. He adores playing video games, sports, and even writes stories of baseball players that are rather good. He laughs really easily, and is currently wending his way through Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and The Olympians. He enjoys grabbing my precious iPod whenever he can, which is not often.
I hope that's enough about him, he should be happily honored by this post. If he can read it with those chocolate-y crumbs all down his face.