Saturday, September 24, 2011

I feel half-dead, anyway...

For the past three days (counting today) I've been caught in a cold. It sort of started Wednesday, cos I was feeling awful and I knew I had a cold coming on, so I could say past four days counting today. Or past three days not counting today. Or past three and a half days, counting what's happened of today. Except more like three and three quarters, cos it's almost seven. Well, it'd be a bit more than that, but being sick traps the mathematical mind into a use of only simple fractionyness.

Although it'll be later than that when I post this, cos it's now almost ten o'clock. I had to take a long break for dinner (Garbanzo bean raisin broccoli couscous carrot = not a kids meal, all adults admit it, even the cook) and dessert (cookies 'n cream ice cream).

I've been spending my sickly days basically playing on the iPad and on our Tetris (I'm getting steadily better at Tetris. I used to be horrible, now I'm semi-good), reading Harry Potter (I was in need of a good, exciting book, and Harry Potter was pretty much the only option available), and nothing. Lots of fun, except that I feel terrible.

I finally got my Dad to watch a Dr Who with me. He's tried it twice and hasn't liked it, but this one, School Reunion, was a winner. It was the metal dog that did it, I suppose. It's impossible to deny the wondrousness of K9. Hopefully we'll have another go sort of sooner rather than really later.

Thursday was a very very big night. My Mom's birthday was officially on Wednesday, but on Thursday everybody was here, so a very big dinner was created by my sisters Becca and Izzy. There was steak, potatoes, bread, salad, red bell peppers with blue cheese, and probably more. I very sadly could barely enjoy it, me being in the state I was in. Izzy accidentally used super spicy ingredients on the steak, and some of us spent more than a minute in a fit of agony, but that didn't stop us from enjoying it. It was one of the two dishes I had, and the only one I had seconds of, and ate for lunch two days after.

This Pearls comic appeared on Wednesday the 21st. I loved it! I didn't get a chance to cut it out before it was recycled, so I'll have to post it on my blog. Hopefully the rest of the world finds it equally hilarious!

It's main attraction is the Welsh... if it was Swahili, it would be funny, but not hilarious.

And on that delightful note, I'm going to bed cos I'm sick and I need lots of sleep.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Mr Monk Goes to Hawaii

For Monk lovers and mild fans of the show, this novel could be gold. I would probably fall under the category mild fan, but I didn't find this book to be nearly as good as the actual thing. Lee Goldberg, who has written episodes of Monk, wrote twelve or so Monk novels, some of which were turned into episodes. The other Monk fan in the house is my Dad, and we bought Mr Monk Goes to Hawaii on our Kindle. I can't say it's my favorite book, but neither is it bad.

Goldberg is a good writer, and displayed Hawaii's beauty with talent. I naturally have never been to Hawaii, but I got what was hopefully a realistic picture of Hawaii. Monk's obsessive compulsive actions didn't stray far from his character on the show, keeping his need of cleanliness and order in line. The certain things distracting him were quite Monkish and worthy of praise.

The story is told in first person by Monk's assistant, Natalie Teeger. Her feelings and annoyances at Monk's actions are written out by the page, and it does well to describe the difficulties of her job.

Overall it is a good story and it pulls together neatly. It is not a book I would likely reread, but if you are in need of a new Monk mystery, it would be a good choice. 

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

6 Years of Education and Counting

Even though my high level of brilliance will not be improved by school, I unfortunately still have about ten years worth of education to go through. I know I'm too smart to learn anything else, but apparently, nobody else does.

I naturally wouldn't have school on Labor Day (which was on Monday for anybody who isn't caught up in current events), so I started the day after, which was yesterday. Fortunately my schoolbooks had not yet arrived from Seton, so I only had to do algebra (see, I'm already like two years ahead in math. I started algebra when I was eleven, for heaven's sake. I'm twelve now. I started it last year. You know.) and history. However, today was a full school day. Lots of reading and math. Not too bad, but already the stress of the school year is creeping upon me.

To end my first week of school, I will be consoled with a Dr Who sleepover with my idiot of a friend, Rose Dougherty. It'll be to celebrate our being obsessed with Dr Who for a year. It's going to be so awesome! Well, only the Dr Who part, having to spend a longer period of time than the average three hours with Rose is going to be like committing suicide.