The 99th Post Of Animal Lover

Click on this song: Leaving 99

  

99...

...A good number...
...actually happens to be my favorite...


-Animal Lover

Recuperation And Fireworks

Last night was pretty interesting. In fact, so was last week.

I've been busy, and trying to avoid the screen that I'm looking at in order not to fall into it's tempting grip of googly-eye stareing.

Computer screens are not at all helpful to my eyes.
But I need to post. And I should tell you about yesterday. Which of course, was the fourth of July!

Poor Arlo, he hates 'The Fourth.' Fireworks creep him out, while strange people start to invade his territory.

...SCARY...

So this year, we put him in the laundry room. He did okay, although, a small portion of his water dish ended up on the floor (luckily water is not harmful to tile). And I think that through that situation, he has come to feel secure with his new blanket that we got him. His old pillow we absolutely disgusting, so we through it away. Thus, making him feel vulnerable without his 'Security Pillow.' He had that pillow since we got him, so I don't think he was very pleased when we got rid of it.

...He was very emotionally attached...

But now, he has a nice little gray fleece blanket. Which most likely smells funny to him on account that it is from Savers. Although now, it smells funny because it's his blanket.

Anyhow, Arlo was okay (considering), but he was only a part of the 4th that I was concerned about.
First of all was sleep.

SLEEP

Wondrous SLEEP!

I like to sleep. It is pleasant. It is nice. It is vital to your activity status. It is good.
Today was the first day I have slept in since the Monday before yesterday.
That doesn't sound like much, but I sleep in almost every day of the week. And now I think I am adapting to life before 10:00 AM.
...I guess that's a good thing...
You see, for three days last week, I helped at a Backyard Bible Club at an apartment by church. It was great! ...especially on the day when we actually had kids that came.
And then on Friday I had riding lessons in the morning: No sleeping in that day.
And then Saturday was a day of doing yard work in the morning, and being lazy in the afternoon.
And then Sunday was spent at church in the morning, and a 50th birthday party for a family friend in the evening.

And last of all... The Fourth of July.
Now that was started with walking/jogging 4 miles at the Rio Vista Recreation Center.
And then ended when we left home at 11:59 PM to go to church, so as to drop of my brother so he could go to Youth Camp.

The Youth Camp this year is at Rock-n-Water. It sounded really fun.
...And the campers should almost be there... ...if they aren't already...

But anyway, they left inside a big HUGE bus, equiped with their pillows, and with their excited looks shadowed by looks of falling asleep with their eyes open (that last part goes for me too).
The bus had TV screens hooked up to a DVD player, so I'm pretty sure that they must have watched some movies on the 16 hour trip (and if they watched The Lord of The Rings, I will be overcome with envy).
While there, they will rock-climb, go rafting, and do a lot more fun, challenging things. And they will also get scoops of great bible studys and quiet-times to go along with that.

...I can't wait for when I get to go!

But back to last night.

What did you do for the 4th?
We had our annual Fourth of July party: complet with snacks, and walking to the wash to watch firworks.

The fireworks!
The sports complex by our house has AMAZING fireworks every year! I am always impressed. And I hope it stays like that!
I love it when we invite lots of friends over, and our house is filled with talking, laughter, and watermelon...

I guess that's all I have for now.
Don't forget to check out Dragons Fly to read a slightly more detailed story of my week.





 -AL

Brushing Teeth With The Stars

My title box is still floating around somewhere where I can't find it.
...pout, pout, pout pout, pout,...

And now to tell you yesterday night's story, and this morning's story (they kinda go together).

Oh, but first I must say: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!

I have never before brushed my teeth in our backyard, using the spicket as a faucet.

...But I did today!

A great accomplishment.

I was just multitasking: brushing my teeth, while working on a Father's Day card on the computer. When, unfortunately, someone stole the bathroom. This would normally be okay, but both the bathrooms were occupied. And people were taking a shower in both.
AGGHHH!
I'm brushing my teeth!

Of course, I could have used the kitchen sink, but it was full of dishes ...And that would just be disgusting.

So I simply went outside, and finished up with the spicket on the side of the house.

What an exciting Saturday morning.

...I'm really stretching it on what my posts are about, aren't I?

Well, that was this morning, but yesterday night, I found that brushing your teeth outside under the stars, with no porch lights, is really neat.
...Well, maybe that great, but I always like to look up a the sky, and nighttime is a great time to do it, since there are stars out. It gives me a sense of peace I guess. And even if your neighbor's lights are on, and you live in a big city, if you look hard, I'll bet you can see at least one little sparkle in the sky.
It might remind you of all the beauty in the universe, the God made, and man has never seen up close.

Reminds me of the part in the movie, The Return of The King:

Sam:
"Look Mr. Frodo! There is light, and beauty up there, that no evil can touch..."

It's nice... even if you share it with a toothbrush.

That's all I got for today,
See ya!
-Animal Lover

Nooooooooooooo!
My title box has been dissolved!

It's GONE!

Literally.

...there seems to be no box above the posty-thingy that says "Title:"
...in fact, there's nothing at all.
Here, I will show you what it looks like:

See?? there is no box for a title.
It makes me sad. I love to think up funny titles for my posts!
And now I don't think I can.

You'll probably notice that right now I'm using the old editor in this picture (but I just switched to the html one). There are three types: One is the 'old' one, another is the html one, and the newest is an upgraded version of the old one. I've tried all of them to see if my title box will be resurrected again, but it doesn't seem to be working.

What a sad day.

(if you'll notice, I am having fun with being dramatic)

This isn't actually the first time this has happened. I've never been able to find a title box on Dragon's Fly either, so I just use the Label box as a title box.
...I guess I'll do that now...

Oh well.

I have a lot to tell you about what's happening, so that's why I'm calling this post:

"My Little Piece Of The World"

(If I can get that title box to pop up some other time, I'll put that in the box and label it something else)

Summer is getting off to a start. I've got rock-climbing memberships, riding lessons (of course!), swimming, VBS (first year I get to work in it, and not just attend it), church block party (tomorrow!), duct tape, and doing nothing at all.

But let's start out with the rock-climbing.

I'm talking of indoor RCing here, so it's the belaying-the-other-person-with-harness-and-hooks-and-stuff-like-that kind of RC. It's tons of fun, but defiantly a challenge for someone like me who can't pull themselves up two inches of the ground with only using their arms.
It's amazing to watch the old-time members and people who work there do some of those routes! They swing and grab, and launch, and just seem to be perfectly comfortable getting themselves around like that.
You just gotta see it for yourself. It's pretty amazing.

I do have a couple pet-peeves about some of the walls though. I thought I'd write them down for you.

My Rock-Climbing Pet-Peeves:

When the hand-holds are so small that you have to use no more than your finger and thumb to grab onto them.

When the hand-holds are so rough that you feel like you're pulling yourself up with sandpaper.

When the hand-holds are so ginormous and round that they offer you no help.

When you are belaying someone with a stiff, rough rope.

When you are being belayed with a stiff rope, and as they let you down, you go slowly and jerkily (is that even a word??).

When you just begin to realize that the route you picked has hand-holds and foot-holds that are just about a bit too far apart.

When you discover that all of the above are creating blisters on your hands

...I know, I'm a whiner.

But anyhow, I do like indoor rock-climbing, and I think I'm improving too. I can actually do some that go upside down.

That's really a seedy thing to say when everyone else in the complex can do all the ones that go upside down...

Lets see, what's next on the discussion list?? Ah, yes!
My duct tape shoes.

Not too bad, right?

Oh, and here is Arlo ...I hope he isn't thinking about how tasty duct tape is...

They have cardboard & card stock as the soles, and I robbed a pair of my other shoes for their laces. But other than that, these guys are 100% duct tape.

I think I was successful!

It was much harder & time consuming than just buying a new pair of shoes, but it worked! They were dubbed my 'hobo shoes' by my brother, who commanded me not to wear them in public (too late), and though they are a bit tight for my feet (not really wanting to hike the Grand Canyon in them or anything), they did only use up only a roll of averaged-sized 'mud puddle' colored duct tape that costs $5.00 -- but with my coupons we got the roll for about $3.00.
Not bad.
A pair of shoes for $3.00.
And whats more:
A pair of shoes that I like and don't mind wearing for $3.00.

And now what?

Hmmm...
Oh yeah!
Movie reviews!

There have been a lot of neat movies coming out lately. The one's that I'm thinking of, and the one's that I've seen are Thor and Pirates of The Caribbean - On Stranger Tides.

First of all, Thor was a awesome movie! I loved it! It was funny, creative, good acting, nice plot, good graphics, and it had some neat shots of sword fighting/hammer smashing. All of this usually makes a cool movie in my opinion.
The only negative things I could say about this movie are that firstly, some of the costumes and some of the sets look too Star Trekish for a Norse Mythology movie. And secondly, I guess this movie was made after a comic book, but the comic book took names and people from Norse Mythology. This is fine by me, but it is confusing if you know anything about Norse Mythology because the people are not really the same people as in the myths. They are more the same people as in the comic books (did those sentences make any sense at all?).

Anyway, that was really a neat movie. And I'm pretty sure I will be getting it on DVD when it comes out.

As for Pirates of The Caribbean '4'... well, let me think on that...

We all know that the 'Pirates' movies were created off of the Disneyland ride. Now this is pretty cool, because I don't think I could think of any other highly successful movie that was made off of a amusement park ride.

The first movie was the best... I think.
The second movie was my favorite... because I didn't watch it too many times (whoops on the 1st & 3rd ones...).
And the third one had the most action and plot-twistyness... whoa! I love that word!
But the fourth one was just... out of place.
It had some funny lines and great acting and all that, but Pirates of the Caribbean is just not Pirates of the Caribbean without Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly.
...It just doesn't work like that!
And there are some creepy bits that are just plain weird (...never would have thought that mermaids had fangs...)
But it wasn't a total flop. I really enjoyed the ending when the cabin-boy pirate-kid (he has got to be the awesomest character - I mean, he survives the entire movie! there are only like 6 people who survive the entire movie!) brings out Hector Barbossa's hat. It made me all happy. Barbossa is my favorite pirate, and because of that I was kinda lost when he shows up all decked out in British noble men's clothes. So the end when he gets back into his pirate attire and has his cool little black feather hat made me pretty glad (although he doesn't have Jack the Monkey back ...yet).
Oh, and by the way, wait until the very very end of the credits (it will seem like a long time, but don't get up). They show a little clip at the end which is a neat touch.
And I think that some people are thinking of possibly creating a Pirates 5 & 6 I can see how that would actually work out.

So make sure you go and see these movies!

The next part of my little chunk of the world is on the shelf of the future (it's a really big shelf).
Our church is holding a water block party tomorrow! I am excited, and I think I will be helping out with the dunk tank

...uh, should I be excited??

Other things at church for the summer include VBS.
I love VBS!
But this year will be different. This year I'm getting to be a VBS worker. That should be different and fun.

And that's the tour of my nice little piece of the pie.

Tell me about your summer plans!
-Animal Lover

Knit-Pick Thoughts

HELLOo...
Can't you see that I'm having fun with my new way of font-sizeing?

...But don't worry...
It's too much trouble to do it for very long.

Sooo, how are ya anyway?
I'm great -- thanks for asking.

And now I feel slightly sarcastic.
(Heh heh...)

Hmmm, nothing much goin' on at the moment. So of course, this is the time to post.

I went to a wedding yesterday. It was very nice: the people looked so happy, and I think everyone had an awesome time. One of the neatest things that they did there was make a "photo booth." It was a curtained-off section of our church where, once you enter in, there is a computer and camera set up on top of a dresser filled with funny 'props' (i.e. feather boas, straw hats, giant sunglasses, bumble-bee masks etc.). So then you go in there, and sit on the bench-thingy, and it takes four pictures of you.
It was hilarious!
After you got your pictures taken, the computer would print them out on the printer that was stationed outside the photo booth. The thing also said that you could get digital copies off of a website by June 18. So I shall be counting down the days until then (and hopefully I can show you some of the really good ones that my friends & I got).

It seems like lately my posts are shorter, or I often can't finish them in one day.
I hope this isn't writers block or something.
But today I'm just talking my thoughts.
And, in that case, I don't think I will ever get a 'Thinker's Block.'
I don't think that would be possible, but I'll have to tell you if it happens.
And because I think out my thoughts in little sentence bursts, that will explain my 'paragraph sentances' for you.

I am planning on creating duct-tape shoes. Any tips or ideas on how to do this?

...It should be an interesting result...

Humm dee dumm...

I think I'm gonna go mess with my other blog now.

See  ya,

-AL

Hurry It Up

I gotta hurry with this quick post.
My re-decorating of Dragons Fly has been pushing my posting frequency back a bit.
And I really ought to encourage Arlo to post more often on his blog. He needs more to do, because right now he is barking underneath me window...

So check out the new look at Dragons Fly, and vote on the poll that asks you to define if you like the background picture better!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a barking dog to attend to...
-Animal Lover

To The Person In Russia...

My blog stats keep telling me that someone from Russia reads my blog from time to time.
...Wha?
Russia?
For the record, I know no one in Russia.
Actually, the stat thingy says that people from all over the place have viewed my blog page, but I think that was only by some sort of accident occurring because THC's blog was open to the links and web stuff (but that's all fixed now). So since the people from all these country's quiet when THC cleared everything up on her blog, I figured that that would be the end of the 'accidental viewings of blogs' from other country's. Not that I have anything against all that, but... well... I admit it's kinda strange. I mean, who, except someone that knew me in person, would want to read my blog?
So anyway, if you are reading this, person who lives in Russia, know that I welcome you to read my blog.
And... well... I hope you like to read random things like this.

-Animal Lover