My Apologies

I have gone to a new blog. Basically, it's exactly the same, but new. To visit it: annalowery.blogspot.com. Thank you for putting up with this extreme inconvenience! From now on, you can pretty much ignore this blog... kind of...

The Art of Felting

Say you had something you'd knit out of 100% wool, and you had knit too loose or you just weren't happy with it. Or you had made it with original the original intention to felt it. And then, imagine you had no idea how to felt.

To put it simply, felting is shrinking your knitted or crocheted pieces of fabric. Don't confuse it with needle felting, which is a different thing entirely.

I made a bag a few months ago, out of some wool yarn I had spun. I must say, my knitting has improved since then. The bag was loose and the stitches uneven.

My mother had knit a headband out of purple and grey yarn she had spun and plied. It was too big.

We decided to give felting a go. We had no idea how to felt. So we looked it up in the most obvious of places: the Internet.

Having found a sufficient amount of information, we got ready what we needed.

A bucket. We used a smallish white plastic bucket, which easily fit our two things.

Hot water. Originally, we just filled it with warmish water from the sink, but we also boiled some and added it in.

A spoon. We used a nice, long handled wooden spoon.

We put in our two items of woolly consistence into the bucket of warmish water from the sink. We stirred with the wooden spoon. When the water was boiling, we dumped out the warm water and added the boiling water. We kept on stirring.

After a while of stirring, we found that the stitches were getting closer together and fuzzy.

My Mom's headband, instead of shrinking, became very very long. It was interesting. It hasn't yet shrunk back to a good size for headwear. I suspect a lack of balance in the Force.

However, my bag continued to shrink and get awesome. I can't help it, I guess I'm just good at this sort of thing.

Isn't it cute? I'm very pleased with it. I put it on a towel and shaped it to the shape I wanted, and stuck a couple of pins around the edges just for good measure.

Well, this fiber extravaganza went well! For me, anyway... Hopefully, Mom's headband will fix itself... If not, well, we'll think of something!

Felting is fun and easy. We stirred it for probably about 30-40 minutes. If you're not too worried about ruining your project, go for it! You might want to practice on a couple of swatches first, though.

I look forward to future felted projects! I'll post pictures of the bag when It's dry and I've added a couple of touches to it. Like a clasp.

Congrats, Nanowrimo Participant!

While I did finish Nanowrimo in the appointed month, November, I didn't finish the actual novel until a couple days ago. Hey, it's still quite an accomplishment: an 83,000 word book in three months?

One of the winner's goodies is a lovely certificate, and I didn't feel right printing it out before I finished my novel. But now I've finished it, I've got my beautiful, albeit black and white, winner's certificate pinned on my wall.

Congratulations me! And, with Two novels stored on my hard drive, and more coming, I depart to do my chores.

The Teenage Years

The age of thirteen is upon me, as of yesterday. Thirteen solid years of brilliance, plus one day. Two days.

After Christmas, Big Bend, and Izzy & Chris's engagement (to make a long story short, they got engaged a week or so ago. Very exciting), I was just like, I'm sick of celebrating.

Okay, not really sick of celebration. But I definitely didn't want a big party like last year. Okay, last year wasn't big by most people's standards. But this year, I wanted an even smaller celebratory event.

The answer? i Fratelli's. Eating out; an almost foreign activity in my family. But with two of our family in the restaurant business, and the wishes of a low-key birthday, it was an excellent answer. Rose and Joan Dougherty attended the outing, making us a party of twelve. We had good fun, showing off our bad manners. Thank heavens we had a more private part of the restaurant.

When we had eaten more than we should have, we departed the place of Italian cuisine and went home for cake and presents.

Ah, presents. The best way of acquiring more stuff. Don't we love 'em?

On the table, there sat my wonderful batch of gifts, from people all over the house, and two from people from the house next door.

A spectacular show of flying tissue paper, knotted ribbons, and most importantly, presents. So much stuff! Chocolate, Harry Potter books, jewelry, an external hard drive, baseball cards (for the secret fan hidden deep within me), and gel pens being among the stuff. Thank you again to all the wonderful, wealthy friends who contributed to my stash of treasures!

I said earlier that we went home for cake and presents. I lied. We didn't have cake. Instead, we had ice cream sundaes, equally good for all lovers of ice cream! And what better a way to have sundaes than with chocolate sauce, hardshell, mini m&ms, Reeces Pieces, chopped up Ghiridelli chocolate chips, gummy bears, caramel sauce, chocolate and caramel popcorn, and sprinkles?

Happy Birthday to me!

It's the Thought That Counts.

150? Was I serious? Scrambling to complete that unrealistic goal would have been boring to say the least for my few followers. But even if I haven't even gotten to 100 posts in the last two years, that's not to say I haven't been writing, as any of you will know from my, albeit infrequent, posts.

It's a total coincidence that I'm writing on the second anniversary of To Live A Life, by the way.

I started the first day of 2012 in the car. On the way home from Big Bend. I can't say I was sad to leave.

Two days after Christmas, that same car trip took place in reverse. At 6:00 in the morning (actually, it was 6:45 a.m.) nine of our family and Christopher Joseph piled into the rented 15 passenger van and set off to the wilderness. David and Nathan were the fortunate family members who got to stay home. Fortunate in my opinion.

Most people slept in the car. I tried. But I've never been able to sleep much in cars, so as soon it got light, I was writing and listening to Artemis Fowl on my magical orange iPod.

We spent the first freezing night in Big bend in the Cottonwood campgrounds, and it was beautiful. Even though we neglected to put up our tent and there was no protection from evil wild things, I managed to get a little bit of sleep.

I being an excessively indoors person, almost everything I say about Big Bend will come out negative. So I'll skip the next couple of days when everybody was hiking up in the mountains except for me, Mom, and Dad. We stayed in the Basin camp, going on day hikes and stuff.

The backpackers came back on the 30th, and on New Year's Eve, all ten of us went to Santa Elena Canyon.

Santa Elena was the all time best part of Big Bend. It was beautiful, cool, everybody was there, we had tons of fun, and the name is spectacular. Santa Elena. Pure brilliance.

Santa Elena ruled out all the bad stuff in Big Bend. It gave me loads of great ideas for writing. And again, the name just makes me happy.

On New Year's Day, we, as I mentioned before, drove home. But before that, we stopped at the Hot Springs. It was very nice, though I only stuck my feet in the naturally hot water.

Then we were home. And waiting for me on the table, all taped up in a cardboard box, were the two new series of Doctor Who I ordered the day before we left. I love them.

Happy New Year? I hope so.

Holiday Exhilaration

As the Lowery Christmas tradition instructs us, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve, though not before our annual bread and cheese dinner. It's amazing how gourmet a meal you can make from such simple food.

David, Augustine, Atheena, and Catherine arrived shortly before dinnertime, at about 5:30, bringing joy and good tidings and homemade vegan donuts.

After we ate, we had time to kill before Ben came home from Starbucks, so we played Left Right Center with $1 bills. In the first round of the excellent gambling game, Thomas won. Since Ben really likes Left Right Center, we waited until after we opened presents to play round 2. But Ben wasn't home yet, so we called him and sang "Moon River" very loudly and with the wrong words, and then some of us played Bananagrams.

PRESENTS!!!

To demote the need to get presents for 10 people every Christmas, we have picked names for Christmas for longer than I can remember. We picked names way back in August, and now the secrets are revealed: I had Ben. In the past week, I've been scrambling to finish up his presents, and I managed and I

Dan had me. I was given a pair of duck down slipper boot things, that are super comfortable and warm and will be very wonderful in Big Bend this coming week. Hidden inside the duck down slippers, I was presented with cinnamon gum, my favorite, V5 Pilot pens, pickles, chocolate, Amazon gift card, and an iTunes gift card.

Dad gave the family 2 things: a new massage chair (the one we got last Christmas wore out after a couple months cos we used it so much. This new one will hopefully last a little longer) and a MacBook Pro. It is so amazing and fast and gorgeous.

After presents, we still had another half hour before the Lowery kids had to depart to Midnight Mass, so we played round 2 of Left Right Center.

I won.

I'd never actually won Left Right Center, and now I have. 25 bucks easy. I love gambling. ;)

Elizabeth said the Midnight Mass was at 11, and we got there ten minutes before.

Midnight Mass is, wouldn't you guess it, at midnight, not 11, so we were sitting in Church for an hour before mass. It was a long hour, especially since we thought it was only ten minutes. But oh well. It was a very holy night.

When we got home, we fell into bed and sleep. At roughly 9:00, people began to file out of their bedrooms and examine the contents of their stockings, which were laid out on the table surrounded by presents.

Mom and Dad went to mass in the morning, so they didn't get home till about 10 or so, at which point we had all acknowledged the wonderful items in our felt stockings.

I received more V5 Pilot pens, Christmas lights for my lair, a book light, which will be much appreciated in Big Bend with duck down slippers from Dan, a niddy noddy, (a kind of yarn winding tool) candy and assorted other food things, hair clips, and more cinnamon gum.

Dan installed an indoor swing, which is awesome. Every house needs one. Seriously.

We just got home from seeing the new Tintin movie, which was fantastic. The screenplay was written partly by Steven Moffat, the head writer and executive producer for Doctor Who, which guarunteed that Tintin would be at least partly enjoyed. It was fully enjoyed.

Tonight, we will have our Christmas Feast of a Smoked Turkey, which we got from a very, very, very, very, very generous friend, and various sides made by people. Other people, not me.

And now, I publish this and log out with fantastical speed.

Merry Christmas.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

The reason for which I didn't write all of November is exceptional. I'm almost done with my second novel, and I started it on 11-1-11. Thanks to Nanowrimo, I have most of a first draft in my hands, and I am proud of it. Very, very, very proud.

The only problem with Nanowrimo being in November: Thanksgiving. It's such a wonderful holiday, you kind of can't write on it. Not very much, anyway. I only wrote about 800 words on that particular Thursday, 1000 words under par. When you only have 30 days to write 50,000 words, it's unwise to take breaks like that, even if it is a national holiday.

But just because I didn't write doesn't mean I didn't do tons of other stuff. I was busy on Thanksgiving.

My day started at 7:30, when I had a very tiny breakfast and left to walk three miles with my sisters and mom. The Turkey Trot is by all means a highly enjoyable and fun experience. Walking through Dallas, surrounded by thousands of other people walking through Dallas, some of them in turkey costumes.

Even though I am totally out of shape and would never in a million years have imagined I could walk three miles with ease, I did it, and I have nothing to prove it, but never mind. There are 40,000 eye witnesses.

From the time we got back from the Turkey Trot until dinner at four, everybody was busy cooking and having fun. It was then that I got my 800 words written, because I'm a terrible cook. Ask anybody.

Our early dinner was amazing. We had turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans and bacon, mashed potatoes, potato rolls, quick bread, holiday salad, and olives. Having dinner at 4 was convenient; after we were done eating, we went for a walk, then went to Ben's Starbucks. Ben had to work on Thanksgiving, unfortunately, so to cheer him up we brought him some Thanksgiving feast. Even though we were still stuffed to the gills, Ben, cunning as he is, managed to fill us up with extravagant concoctions, which were of course delicious.

On the way home from Starbucks, we stopped by a Redbox to try and get Super 8. Unfortunately, they were out of stock. So we tried the one across the street. They were out of stock as well. But the guy behind us in line was returning Super 8, saw that we wanted to get it, and returned it. We got Super 8.

Shortly after we came home, David, Augustine, and Atheena came over. We played games and had some dessert, then they went to see Hugo, and we set up Super 8 in the back on Thomas's flat screen TV.

An excellent Thanksgiving, one of the best.

Off topic, I recently read the Hunger Games. They are very good, and I guarantee that once you start them, you won't stop reading until you've finished.

And now I have to do school.

Spinner's Beginning

As some will know, I am well learned in the art of fiber, this being yarny stuff like knitting, crocheting, weaving, spinning, etcetera.

Recently, one of my favorite pass times is spinning. I haven't been able to much since I learned how to in July, but this past Tuesday me and my mother went to the Shabby Sheep yarn store in Dallas. We bought some roving and drop spindles. We got four different colors of roving: dark brown, light brown/grey, lavender, and a sort of reddish-orangish-brownish. After making out purchase, we sat on the front porch of the Shabby Sheep and practiced our spinning. We had lots of fun!

I've been making some 'art yarns' out of scrap wool I bought. I'm almost out of the scraps, but then I'll just keep spinning in solid colors.

Here are some pictures of what I've spun since July!

Here's all the yarn I've spun so far. Oldest to newest going from left to right. You can see how I'm improving...

This is my most recent. It's an art yarn, and at 58.3 yards it's the most I've ever spun.

This is the one I did on the porch of the Shabby Sheep.

Another skein of artistic randomosity. I did this almost two months ago, but I didn't take it off my old drop spindle until a few days ago.

Just a little scrap of yellow-orange yarn. I probably did this in all of ten minutes.

The first art yarn I did. Half it's already been used on a weaving.

This too is leftover from something. This was the second yarn I ever spun. I wasn't very good at it yet...

This was just a little sample of wool I had that I made when I was bored, and to keep my skills up to speed. I still wasn't very good, and I spun it really fast.

Ah, my very first. I know–– it looks horrible and all. I completely agree. But it is my very first yarn.

This is what I'm working on now. It's another art yarn, and I'm using up the last of my scraps on it.


There's all my yarn! I'm very proud of myself.

Dear Pen Pal

This is the third book in the Mother Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick. I read the first two a couple of years ago, and when my neighbors checked Dear Pen Pal out of the library, I started reading it when I went over there.

In this book the members of the Mother Daughter Book Club read Daddy Long Legs and Just Patty, both by Jean Webster. The five girls, Megan, Emma, Jess, Cassidy, and Becca, each have pen pals who are in another Mother Daughter Book Club and are reading the same books. Jess is at a boarding school for the first time and is stuck with a classically rich and mean roommate, Savannah, who naturally turns out to be all right after all. Each chapter is from the view of Megan, Emma, Jess, or Cassidy, and Heather Vogel Frederick depicts each character well.

The writing is not what I'd call fantastic, but I still enjoy reading them. You may be better off reading Daddy Long Legs instead, but this is okay.

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.

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. 

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. 

Let's Kill Hitler

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

Basically what I said as we (Rose, Joan, and I) were sitting down to watch the brand new Dr Who episode, Let's Kill Hitler. Oh my gosh. We had to watch it on a kind of annoying site that was a bit jolty and had lots of noisy ads every few minutes, but still. I mean, oh my gosh. It was so amazing. I watched it again last night on a much better site, and it was even better.

I mean, Hitler's not even that important. It's just great though. What an awesome episode title. Wow. I'm like speechless. It's so totally awesome. I love Doctor Who. I can't wait till next Sunday. Oh my GOSH.

STAR WARS!!!

I've grown up with a Star Wars loving family. And yet, I've never seen the movies.

Until this past Tuesday. I watched A New Hope with Rose. It was a pretty big step for me. From never having seen it to loving it... Wow. On Wednesday, I watched both the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. So I was introduced to the movies I'd been hearing about for the past twelve years of my life. Of course, I already knew a bunch of stuff, Darth Vader, Luke and Leia, etcetera. Rose was a bit upset. When I say a bit...

But now I'm obsessed and can't wait  to see Attack of the Clones. I watched the Phantom Menace this evening, by the way, so I'm not going to be skipping it, you know.

Anyway, Star Wars is awesome. I'm sorry to all the people who I said to that it wasn't. I was wrong. Yeah, it happens. Don't act so surprised. Seriously. You're making me feel really unhumble. Sheesh. Just cut it out. I'm serious. 

Detectives in Togas

I reread Detectives in Togas, by Henry Winterfeld, on the ride to Port Aransas. It was read to me a year or two ago, but I could barely remember the events taking place in the book nor many of the key pieces to the plot. And so it was therefore a great pleasure to read.

Starting out in Xantho's School, one of the seven students, Rufus, pins a wax tablet with the words 'Caius is a Dumbell' etched into it, Caius being one of his fellow classmates. But when the next morning the same words are written on the Temple of Minerva in Rufus's hand, his friends have to find the culprit before Rufus is sold into slavery.

Really a marvelous story, and brilliantly told. You cannot proclaim an excuse strong enough to not read it. 

The One and Only Port Aransas

The invitation to accompany Atheena and her Nana, Catherine, to Port Aransas, Texas came on this past Friday. I think. it might have been Thursday. Grey area. But anyway, the acceptance was almost immediate. I was dropped off at Atheena's new house on Sunday and we left for Port A the following morning around 7:50. We drove pretty solidly until we reached Austin, where we stopped at the Whole Foods there. We got some Vegan Donuts and some lunch stuff and then we continued on our way.

When we reached the RV park where we would be staying (in Catherine's RV) Atheena and I swam in the pool for a while and then showered. We were pretty tired seeing as we had gotten up at about 6 that morning, so we went to bed early.

On Tuesday, we went to the beach for a few hours. As much fun as the beach is, sunburn is nearly always a negative factor. My face and arms got it this time. But it wasn't too bad. We also went to some gift shops. We first stopped at a cool place called 'GRATITUDE.' It was neat, but we didn't buy anything there. The next place we went was a big yellow place, I'm not sure what it was called. I bought a stuffed dolphin there who I later named Olivander, or Oliver for short. There was another cool place that I also don't know the name of, but they had a cat. It was just walking around the shop and you could pet it and hold it and stuff. The candy store next door contained a less loved pet, a rattle snake. Atheena and Catherine being afraid of snakes, it took some convincing to get them into the shop, and even then they wouldn't go on the same side as the snake. We at last went to a restaurant called Moby Dick's. It was really cool, all piraty and... piraty. We got some french fries and drinks and then we departed. 

Yesterday we went to an amazing aquarium in Corpus Christi. We got there in time for the Turtle Show, which was pretty neat. There were about five sea turtles in all, swimming around in a big pool. Somebody came and told us all about them and all. We then went to the jelly fish, which were amazing. They are really cool. The dolphin show came to follow, which was my favorite part. The aquarium's three dolphins were adorable, and the three trainers played around with them and stuff. It was amazing. I love dolphins. After that, we were all really hungry so we went to a vegan/vegetarian place by the name of Tango's Tearoom. I got a Latin Lover burger containing a veggie burger, avacado, lettuce, and onion and I don't remember what Atheena and Catherine got. The RV park called us back after lunch, and we were glad to relax. Atheena and I played Harry Potter Scene It and then a while later we watched the Half Blood Prince. 

Today is a day of peace, relaxation, and Harry Potter. We've already watched the Order fo the Phoenix and we're watching the Goblet of Fire now. We need a break from doing things. 

I will possibly continue to write the days' events as they happen, but for now I am out of interesting stories.    

Amon Carter

I love that name for a museum. Sort of... yeah. Whatever.

So we went today to see the 'Allure of Paper' exhibit at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Well, naturally we didn't only see the watercolor and drawings featured, but also all the other lovely, or not so lovely, art. My favorite was a small statue of a woman spinning with a distaff and drop spindle, which I'm proud to say I could name what she was doing, thanks to the fiber class I took at the Shabby Sheep.

Me being me, I got bored very quickly and went to sit in a sort of place with couches and chairs to write. Which I did for quite a while before Rebecca showed me where the exhibit was so I could see all the amazingly detailed drawings and watercolors. Shortly after that, we went down to the gift shop. I purchased a card for my soldier Marsha Clark and a postcard for my 'friend' 'Geniuz Roz' (Rose).

Lunch was taken at an Italian restaurant I don't know the name of. Izzy and madre split an anchovy and spinach pizza, MM and Becca split a pepperoni/sausage/onion/green pepper pizza, and I had stromboli, which I could only eat half of.

Home was the next destination, and here we are, now awaiting a hopefully and probably delicious meal made by Rebecca, followed by a probably even better dessert.  

AAA! HARRY POTTER!

I am obsessed with Harry Potter again. I'm sorry Doctor Who, but right now HP rules all. And it's over. There will never ever be another Harry Potter movie or book. It's so depressing.

It was, stunningly, almost a week ago that we saw the Deathly Hallows part II at midnight. Well, sort of almost a week. Tomorrow at midnight. Anyway, back to the point.. It was so fantastic. By all means one of my favorite movies.

However, the few minutes before the movie started were spent on anxiousness, as the trailers were continually messing up. And so it had to be delayed while they fixed things, which was dreadfully nerve wracking. x-P

But the movie was so brilliant that it didn't matter. Hopefully that wonderful day when I get to see it again will be Friday. I watched part 1 on Friday night with my mom, even though I'd just seen it Wednesday night.

Part II was better than part I, but honestly, not by much. They are all such amazing movies. Such amazing books. I am if possible more obsessed than I was when I first started reading them. And that is saying quite a lot.

DD is pronounced 'th,' S is pronounced 'sh' before ie, ia, io, and iw, and LL is the most difficult sound in the world to make.

Wales! I love Wales! It is my life's goal to learn to speak Welsh. And I've already started!

Gardd means Garden. It is pronounced 'Garthe'.

Ci means Dog. It is pronounced 'Key'.

That is some of what I know. I am learning so much! I'm doing good, considering that I'm learning from little internet things. I'm also saving up to buy the Rosetta Stone for Welsh.

EGG!!!

AAA! One of the chickens FINALLY laid an egg! It's so adorable! It's tiny and brown and perfectly shaped. We can't wait to get more!

Apparently, the first couple of eggs are normally sort of rubbery shelled and sometimes deformed. But our chickens are so healthy and wonderful, they laid a perfect egg on the very first try. Well, we all know that Lowerys are superior to everybody else, and it turns out our chickens have followed in the Lowery way.

Silver on the Tree

Well, I decided to skip the rest of Harry Potter and go straight onto the Dark is Rising. Well, I'm glad I did, because Silver on the Tree is a really phenomenal book. Unfortunately, it is the last in the series, so I have no more to read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From Will Stanton, the last of the Old Ones, to Bran Davies, a totally cool Pendragon, to Simon, Jane, and Barney Drew, the story is fascinating in every aspect. I completely disagree with the ending, but I rearranged it, so it is a brilliant ending to a brilliant sequence of books. And, it takes place in Wales, which adds about five billion plusses. I love Wales.

Reading Skills (of Which I Seem to Have None)

So, I said back in January, way way back at the beginning of 2011, that I was going to reread the Susan Cooper books. And, surprise surprise, I never did. I am such a terrible ready person. I can't believe that I never even finished that series! They are such awesome books.

So, as soon as I am done with the the Harry Potter series (which I really shouldn't be reading, seeing as I have already read them 20 some odd times) I am determined to read The Dark Is Rising! I will at least read Silver on the Tree, which I have been working on for over a year. The problem is that the print is too small... A huge disturbance to the mind...

Maybe I should get it on the Kindle. That could help with the font size... 

Love of My Own Room

As most of my readers probably know, I have shared a room with my sister Mary Margaret for as long as I can remember. I have also wanted my own room for as long as I can remember.

Unfortunately, I will most likely not have my own room until Mary Margaret goes to college in a couple of years. I can't wait, no offense to MM. However, in this past week that Rebecca has been away in Connecticut, I have been in her room. A lovely place to be by all means, with its paint splattered cement floor and the bed arranged so that every night my dogs fall off.

I have been enjoying myself so much in there. :) I have been reading SO much Harry Potter, it is unbelievable! I really think I'm going to finish all of them before the last movie comes out...

I love having my own room! I can't wait until I get a permanent room... 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This amazing book by J. K. Rowling is my favorite of the series, mainly for Doctor Who related reasons. But it really is a fantastic book. My favorite for more reasons than Dr Who...

I won't tell you to read this book, because chances are, you've already read it at least once. But I will tell you to read it again. 

Night of the Humans

Another Dr Who novel I've read, not the best books of course. Terribly written, the lot of them. Of course, I could write one and it would be fantastic...

This book by David Llewellyn is a pretty interesting read, but definitely not as interesting as Peacemaker. Only for true Dr Who fans is this book. It's good if you're looking for something to read at night, and have nothing better to read. 

Toe Injuries

So, last night, as I was writing my book, the toenail on my big toe tore. As I lifted it onto the chair to examine the blood, the computer chair rolled back onto my other big toe. Massive pain all around... It took a couple seconds to get my toe untangled from the wheel.

My poor feet. The endure so much... If I had photographs, I would post them. It doesn't look that bad, just very very sore. Thought I'd tell the world this latest story of grossness on Grosse Pt. 

Half Moon Investigations

Ah, another great work of Eoin Colfer! This is a fabulous book, perhaps not as good as the Artemis Fowl series and The Wish List, but still a hilarious piece of literature.

Fletcher "Half Moon" Moon is a character well worth reading about, with his underage detective skills. Eoin Colfer has done an another amazing job telling the story in painstakingly great perfection, from the girl's club, les Jeunes Etudiantes, to the mystery giant. An excellent and well told tale.

The Wish List

Another amazing book by Eoin Colfer, eh? Well, I have to say that it's one of the best. Possibly even better than one or two of the Artemis Fowl series. Now you know you have to read it. Well, you should actually listen to the audio book, because the reader is amazing.

This book is hilarious, exciting, and very well written. It's so good, I pretty much can't describe it. But it is pretty darn awesome. So read it, or, if you can, listen to it. It will affect your mood in a good way. 

Long time, no public writing

Ah, it has been so long since I've written my blog. I'll have to work hard these next few days, I have so much to write about!

Well, not really. Because I have been writing. I've been writing at least 750 words a day for the last month. I write a lot. I am so busy pursuing my career that I haven't spared a thought about blogging. But at least I have been exercising my talents, and not wasting my time,w ell, not all my time, anyway, on computer games and rereading page turners.

I've been writing my book a lot in the past week. Roughly three pages a day is my goal, which, of course, I do on 750words.com. And that is coming along brilliantly.

The topic of the hour. Doctor Who. Yes, yes, I know you're all dreading this. But I can't help it. I don't understand how anybody could not sit down for an episode and not love it within the first two minutes. But alas, the first seven episodes of series six are over. And they are all amazing! Oh, I am so excited... I cannot wait to watch the last six come autumn!

All the important news has been shared. And so I am finished. 

A Series Of Unfortunate Events- The Bad Beginning

This is really a fabulous book, despite Lemony Snicket's almost constant advice to shut the book and read something happier. It is exciting and interesting and creatively new in dozens of ways.

This book is a must. If you haven't read it already, anyway. Something nice and sadly funny, a fantastic read for a rainy day. Or a road trip. 

A Pocket Full Of Rye

I have finally finished this brilliant book of Agatha Christie's. It is an insanely captivating book, and it is almost impossible to figure out who the murderer is, unless you're me. Which you obviously aren't, no luck towards you.

I will warn you–– when you get this book, it will be hard to stop reading. I stayed up till one o'clock last night because I just had to finish it. I would advise drinking a lot of water while you read. 

Trolls

On Ebay a couple of weeks back I ordered a little troll doll. You know, the little things with tufty colored hair. And she (she because of the dress) came today.

I can't decide what to name her, but it has to start with a T because there is a T on her dress. So please email or comment if you have any suggestions! 

Skyclan's Destiny

I was once into the Warrior books, I sure many of you remember. I recently checked out a Warrior's book, called Skyclan's Destiny. In the case of Warriors, Judge a book by its cover. Let's start with that. Skyclan's Destiny is not the best name, it sounds sort of fateful and idiotic.

It is a page-turner, and it is exciting. But it is terribly written. All there is to keep you going is the flashbacks of cats, and reading the last page of the book first, therefor wanting to know about the history behind those last few lines.

I would not encourage the reading of this book unless you are a very lowly person, or have bad bookstore and there isn't anything better. 

Mud Pies

Yesterday? No, Sunday. On Sunday, my friend Rose and I were talking about how great it was when we were nine and we made all those fantastic foods out of poisonous berries and chocolate cake and brownies and whatnot.

So we decided to do that again. Just for fun, you know, old time's sake. So we started out my making up the batter for chocolate cake, and making stew. We chipped bark off a tree for stew meat, and we added dirt, grass, flowers, onions, ant piles, and other things. It was a lovely stew.

Then Rose began to shape our chocolate cake. A small, round, beautiful chocolaty brown cake. I made the glaze, a shade lighter, and runnier, than the cake itself. We poured my wonderful glaze on the wonderful cake, and it looked FANTASTIC. But it needed some unchocolaty goodness. So we added a ring of white, flowery sprigs. Then it needed something in the center. So I had the brilliant idea of a star made from the leftover batter. We placed it in the middle, and in the middle of the star we stuck a single, tiny white flower.


Our cake was by far the best and most beautiful thing ever made from dirt, water, and flowers. 

The Greatness of Doing Great Things

I've been doing a terrible job with my 10 a month for 10 months. I only wrote a few times in March, and I haven't written at all in April so far. But I am determined to do better. 

This past Saturday, my sister Rebecca and I made some cookies for the wounded soldiers. I made zucchini bars, which turned out amazing, and Charlie (Rebecca) made these butterscotch bars I think they were, which were, in my taste, even better. :) We mailed the package, and then went to Payless, where I bought some silver flats for church and a black wallet. Then we went to Office Depot, where I bought a pack of colored pens that weren't sharpies, but are pretty close, and two totally awesome mechanical pencils. 

I'm into a Dr Who spin-off show, called the Sarah Jane Adventures. Rose and I have started watching those every weekend, and we will continue to do so until the... new series... of Doctor Who... comes out. I will post a countdown in a bit. 

That's all for now, folks!

All Those Unfinished Books

A few years ago, four I believe, I decided to be a writer. It was most likely inspired by my brother Thomas writing a book.

My first book was three chapters long, thirteen pages. It was the dumbest book in the universe, and I spent absolutely no time on it. But I was only eight.

I probably started about twenty books, got a page or two into them, and deleted them. A couple of years ago, I got extremely far in a fantasy, 125 pages. And then I accidentally deleted it. I moped for a few days, vowing to myself to not write for months, and then went back on my starting a new book every other day pattern.

Summer before last, I read all of the Narnia books. And, as it was with so many of the others, I started a new book, where two kids find a secret passage and a secret world and all that jazz. A few pages into it, Thomas asked me what the genre was. I asked him, as I always did, what a genre was. (Come on, I was only like 10.) And he said it was what kind of book, mystery, fantasy, the lot. And in my mind, and idea triggered. 'Mystery,' I said. 'What kind of mystery?' he asked. I didn't know what he meant. He said, 'You know, abduction, murder, thievery...?' Another idea. 'Abduction,' I said.

I got about 115 pages in. Then I decided to start over, on my 750 words. Two, three pages a day, it'd be great. And that's where I am now. Except I haven't written in a week because of my hand. I can still type obviously, but it's a pain.

Just thought I'd write about it so that all my millions of readers would be encouraged to write more. Not really. 

Burnt Ash Wednesday

2011's Ash Wednesday started out as any normal Ash Wednesday. I went to mass at noon, fasted the whole day, it was great. Very basic, very hungry Ash Wednesday.

Until about 6:45 pm. We always have hard boiled eggs for dinner on Ash Wednesday. So I was making the eggs, and I was straining them at the sink, running cold water over them and all. And the pan they were boiling in was still full of boiling water. That particular pan has a very wobbly handle. So as my mom was turning to dump the water out in the sink, the pan tipped and spilled super hot water all over the kitchen. And a whole bunch landed in my hand.

I was wearing my fingerless gloves, and they trapped the heat in. So I was burned terribly. The back of my hand is covered in a massive disgusting burn, and two of my fingers as well. I will not post a picture of what it looked like this morning because you would probably be sick.

I don't remember many Ash Wednesdays. I'm sure that this one will be the most fantastic thing that will happen to me on an Ash Wednesday, unless I break a leg next year. 

Chickens That Are Very Small And Only 3 Weeks Old

last Monday, me and my mom went to Denton to buy... dum dum dum dum... wait for it... CHICKS! We got twelve, four breeds three of each. Six are yellow, and six are black and white. They are all super cute, and it is hilarious how they walk like chickens, with their head held high. Since they are too young to be outside + the Chicken Coop isn't finished, they are currently back by the guinea pigs. In their own cage, but in the same room.

They are bigger than you would imagine and they are becoming very good fliers. They are extremely soft, and I have chosen one I can tell apart from all the others. She is a black chick with lots of white on her wings, and I named her Pepper.

That is all the chicken news. I will post more on Pepper later. Maybe. 

Behind the Times of Arkansas

Last Thursday, around 11:45, Rose, Mrs. Dougherty, and I set off to visit Rose's grandma in Arkansas. Six hour drive one way. It was so much fun.... Anybody who knows Rose and I will know how I mean.

We read a lot of Agatha Christie. I was reading POCKET FULL OF RYE, she was reading TOWARDS ZERO. I haven't yet finished Pocket Full of Rye. We also played out own version of Clue, Five Crowns, and we ate a lot. Well, not too much. A whole lot of mint oreos.

When we got to Rose's grandma's house, Rose and I were showed to out room, which was on the first floor. And almost the only thing on the first floor. Outside the window, was a sort of room, it was under the porch, and as our room was slightly underground, the floor of the room was almost level with the window. It was a brilliantly amazing place. We explored it Friday.

We had pizza for dinner, and cake for dessert. After dinner, we watched, I believe it was on Thursday, Doctor Who, Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel. Then Rose and I went to bed, and stayed up very very very very very very very very late reading Agatha Christie.

The next morning, we woke up around 9:15-9:30. For breakfast we had cereal, and then we went outside to explore the neighborhood, just Rose and me. We found a little creek we'd passed on the way, from all the rain. We crossed a fallen log to get to the other side of the two foot wide river. Super fun, eh?

We explored the little room outside our window, and it is super duper cool. We took some pictures and videos, unfortunately i can't get them onto the computer.

Then, Rose, Mrs. Dougherty and I went to a park. There was a tennis court, a small playground, and an interesting sport quite like tennis called 'pickle ball.' In the playground is one of those cool spiderweb things that you climb on, you know. Exactly like the one in the picture above.

There was also a wicked cool hang glide thing there, and Rose and I spent quite a lot of time getting blisters on that.

Back at Rose's Grandma's house, we watched an episode of Dr Who, The Unicorn and the Wasp. We also played some Clue, our own Dr Who version, and then we went out to dinner at a place called DEBRA'S with the four of us and Rose's Grandma's friend Stan. Rose and I got catfish, Stan and Rose's Grandma got shrimp, and I don't know what Mrs. Dougherty got.

Back at Rose's Grandma's house, we watched another episode of Dr Who, a Christmas Special, The Runaway Bride. Then we played 5 Crowns and Black Jack. Rose and I went to bed shortly after, and I read Series of Unfortunate Events, The Bad Beginning, and Rose read Agatha Christie, Partners in Crime.

The next morning, we got up around 8:30, and had fried eggs for breakfast.

"Is your yolk cooked?" asked Rose.
"Is everything okay?" asked Rose's Grandma.
"Kind of, not really," I said.

Isn't it funny? Yes? Oh come on, I just know you're laughing like crazy. No way to hide from me.

We set off around 10:00, and got home around 4:00. It was a pretty basic drive. And that is my Arkansas Tale.  

The Guest

Elizabeth's friend from college, Katherine, came on Saturday around, maybe, four. We had for supper a bread and cheese meal made up mostly of the stuff she had brought down, cheeses and fruit and stuff.

On Sunday, we all went to Mass, and then came home for breakfast. Nothing much happened, other than that. Quite boring. Not something to read about.

Then today, Monday, I got up at 8:30. Katherine and Izzy went to UD, and I did my school. Rebecca, MM, and I went to the library recentlyish, and I got five Agatha Christies, some Percy Jackson stuff, and three tapes. 

2011 Valentine's

As yesterday was a celebrated day, i decided I would write about what I did to 'celebrate' it. Nothing. Basically, nothing. Rose and I played tons, and we made an awesome scrapbook page that needs something right in the middle. We had a big bowl of little candy hearts, and the Dougherty's brought over some cookies and cupcakes. We also had a big thing of those chocolates with stuff inside and you never know what you're gonna get and everybody but me hates the fruit ones.

We watched RETURN TO ME after a spectacular dinner of shrimp pasta, and then we went to bed. Very basic day, with a couple little exciting tweaks like candy. :) 

The BFG

This charming book by Roald Dahl is one of my favorites. The Big Friendly Giant is a fantastic character, I have read it several times and will probably read it more. 

Roald Dahl has written a great deal of children's books, and the ones that I have read are all amazing. This particular one is very funny and overall quite delightful. If you're looking for something to read that's simple and easy, you've found it.  

And Then There Were None (also published Ten Little Indians)

This is the first Agatha Christie I have read, and it is by all means one of my favourite books. It is thrilling and terrifying, I would not recommend reading it before you go to sleep, because you won't go to sleep. It is so good!

I intend to read more of Agatha Christie's mysteries, so look out for more reviews! I love the writing style, and the suspense. If you like mysteries, I'm sure you'll like this one best. 

White World, the Sequel

Today, I woke up bright and early, at 10:30. Ouch. Oh well. So anyway, it was all icy outside, but now it's all melted. :(. So annoying. Elizabeth made a yummy breakfast, eggs and something green and bacon in little pie crusts. They were WONDERFUL! I also had a piece of Starbucks Gingerbread Biscotti.

I have finished all of my, school, yay! I registered with this sight called 750 Words, and you just type up a bunch of stuff. You try to get up to 750 words a day. I got 1505 today. And it shows you your stats, words you use most, how many words a minute, how long you've been writing, stuff like that. It's really fun! Just go to www.750words.com and log in!

Other than that, my day has been pretty boring! I might write up some more if anything exciting happens, but otherwise, this is what you're getting! 

10 a Month for 10 Months

I am very eager to post lots this year, and I think i may have said that my goal is to have 150 by next January. Still my goal. I can't wait! If I do 10 post a month, then in 10 months I'll have reached my goal. So check my blog an extra lot!

Today, math went by sooooooo sloooowww. It was dreadful! But now I'm done! Yay!

For lunch, i had a fantastic Pickle Sandwich using the Spiral Diner recipe with a few twists as I didn't have the right ingredients. I will not give you the recipe as it is property from the Spiral, but next time youg ot here, you will know what to order. I'm so helpful! 

the Trumpet of the Swan

This book about a mute swan is quite enjoyable for a quick read right before you go to bed. I've read it a few times now, each time I always forget the order of events, and I also like the writing style.

It's definitely a quick read. You could probably read it in a couple of hours. You should try it if you're ever having trouble sleeping, it's very calm and relaxing, to me anyway. 

Super Bowl Sunday, No way.

I'm not really into football. At all. I didn't even know the Super Bowl was taking place yesterday on Saturday. I just don't care about it.

So yesterday, instead of watching the Super Bowl, I crocheted. I crocheted a lot. I'm making a blanket-shawl thing, out of this gorgeous yarn I got a Jo-Ann's. I have four skeins of it, I'm on my second. It is 98 stitches across, and I'm super happy with it!

Also yesterday, i dug up my book from my email, the book I still haven't finished but wrote the ending to the other day. I started to go through it, just reading it and editing up mistakes. I'm so excited to finish it!

And now I must go and attend to my schoolwork, which I have been avoiding. Except for the fact that it is almost time for lunch, so now it's time to start digging through the fridge for something. Maybe I'll do some form of school while I eat. Just to get it done.

White World

I woke this morning to she sound of Elizabeth screaming "MARY MARGARET! MARY MARGARET! MARY MARGARET!" from her bed right above me. Finally (I'm sorry about the underlining, our computer has problems) Mary Margaret came in, and then they talked about U.D. being closed for a couple seconds. Because of snow, of course. That was probably around 7:30 or something. I slept for another hour and a half, and then shuffled out to make some toast. After breakfast, I went outside in the snow a bit. Homer came too. The snow kind of gets tangled up in his fur, literally, and so MM held him in a towel for ages upon ages.

Eventually, my sisters and one of my brothers (Thomas) came outside with me. We decided to go to Bravo Ranch, a very close store (like, down the street and take a left, you're there) for marshmallows and graham crackers so we could make s'mores, but they didn't have any! So we went to the donut place next to Bravo Ranch and got 4 dozen donut holes.

Rose and i watched Sky High while I grated soap, and then she went home for lunch and didn't want to come back. Buggy of her.

Thomas an I tried to make a snowman, but the snow is rubbish and it didn't work. So we made snow cones instead. Lemon snow cones.

Izzy and I played SKip-bo. I won. It was very fun. Shortly afterwards we ate dinner, soup with bacon, sausage, lentils, carrots, zucchini, and probably some other stuff.

After dinner, my mom, dad and I watched an episode of MONK.

Twirly Whirly Carrots and Ice

Well this morning my guinea pigs were fed carrots, and they ate them in spirals. They are like spiral staircases! It is amazing, I own two little sculptors. I wish i had pictures, but sadly i don't. 

So we have had two days of solid ice on the roads. We've all been sitting around enjoying our selves, the first day, we watched the full five hours of Pride and Prejudice. It was good fun, very good. 

Then yesterday, we were mostly just sitting around being lazy, at least, i was. After dinner, we ate cookies and watched an episode of MONK, which we quite enjoyed. I suppose. 

And now, I am being lazy and writing and what not and everybody else is being busy. 

Peacemaker

This Dr Who book is brilliant. It is written by James Swallow, and it is one of my favorite books. I received from Atheena as a birthday present, and I had to force myself to drag it out. If you are a fan of Dr Who, you should definitely try it.

It is a brilliant western/alien mixture, and it almost takes place in texas. Kind of almost. A couple of states up, Colorado. I think that it everybody should read it, but I don't know if anybody who doesn't love Dr Who would love it. 

Shortest Saddest Short Story

Hemingway wrote the shortest short story, in six words:

For Sale, Baby shoes, never used.

Can you figure out what it means? Here is a hint: It Is Extremely Sad. 

Deep Blue Something

As I write this I am as well watching a documentary on the ocean. my mother and father are watching it too. It is gorgeous, everything is so amazing. It amazes me, every single defense mechanism and warning device, every bit of God's work perfect and beautiful.

Soon, I am going to watch an episode or two of Doctor Who, and then I'm going to read some, I'm thinking of restarting THE DARK IS RISING books by Susan Cooper, I am currently reading the last one, but I have not read it in so long I am going to start the entire series over.

Mulchy was just drinking some water, and now he has gone into his igloo. He is looking for something to eat, as always. He looks kind of sleepy. Julius is probably asleep, I'm not sure.

And on that note, Anna Lowery, signing off.

Young Joan

THis book about St Joan of Arc's childhood is quite the page-turner. Written by Barbara Dana, this book is amazing. You should try it! I wasn't eager to for a while, but once I got into it, I loved it.

Joan starts out as a twelve-year-old, and in the end is nineteen. I especially like the bits with animals and such. It is a splendid story, one of the best Saint stories I have read.

Happy New Year!

So it's 2011, 2010 is gone. Too bad, I liked that number. But 2011 is good enough.

I've just realized, I have had my blog for almost exactly a year. My goal is to write a lot more. and finish my book. Excited about that one. Hopefully, I'll get to 150 entries by 2012.

My birthday is in 15 days, YAY! I'm going to have a Dr Who birthday party, and I need to start planning big time!

Last night when we got home from Ruidoso at about 11:00 pm, I found a pleasant surprise, my Dr Who had come in the mail! I now own series 2 and 4! Yay!

On Friday, everybody went skiing except for Sara and I. We took the long walk to Farley's, to find that it was closed. We went to Pizza Hut instead, and luckily it was just right across the street.

Happy new year!

Well the weather outside was frightening

So last night while I was writing the post before this one, it was snowing, and I didn't know because the blinds were shut. So while everbody was going to go skiing, I guess they've changed their plans, I'm not really sure, but anyway, we have snow!!! Not much, maybe an inch or something. But still, the whole driveway is covered, and it is gorgeous. I think it is, anyway.

And other than that, there's no news for the folks back home! Except that I eventually fell asleep and didn't have any bad dreams. That I can remember.

Continuation

Aaaaaaand so it is 2:30 in the morning here in Ruidoso. I can't sleep, and I'm also watching Dr Who, and I'm not sure it's a brilliant mixture. I am writing bits and pieces, big bits and pieces as it happens, because it has to buffer. I'm watching one that I don't own, I got a series for Christmas, because this is the one I want to watch because I haven't seen it.

Earlier today, around 3:30-:3:45, in the afternoon, we all set off to go tubing. We were all dressed up in weird clothes, snow pants and rain pants and jackets and stuff, it was fun. When we got there, we went up the mountain a bunch to see the skiing place, where everybody is going tomorrow except for me, and Sara Hevron. I didn't have much fun tubing, sorry to say. :( I enjoyed the first ride but then I went on one with these two big bumps and I didn't like it. Shortly after that, we had dinner at the tubing place kind of close to a fire, but still half frozen. My hands, at least, were half frozen. We had bagels with cream cheese cucumbers and salmon, I didn't have cucumbers, they were yummy. While we were eating, there was a power shortage so all the lights went out, and it was about 7:30 or something, so it was very very dark, except for the kids place, which was somehow powered up and running with all it's happy glowy lights. It was still very dark. We waited around a bit finishing dinner, and then we left and people will go back sometime in the next couple of days, if we can.

When we got home I put on a Dr Who Christmas Special, and Dan, me, and Ben watched the whole thing. other people watched bits of it. Then everybody played Taboo, but not me because I don't like those kinds of games because I am under too much pressure and don't have fun. Then, we pretty much all went to bed. I watched a bit of Dr Who, and tried and failed to go to sleep and then I finished the book YOUNG JOAN, about St. Joan of Arc, and that was really good. And now I'm doing this. Still waiting for Dr Who to work.

I believe that whoever reads my blog knows what happened Christmas Eve, and if you don't know email me at atlowery@gmail.com and I will tell you about it. Christmas Morning, however, I will talk about.

So I got up at 7:30, and found in and around my stocking: 5 packs of colored sculpey clay, decorative soap with a penguin stuck in it, Briiiiight silver duck tape, chocolate, Saltwater taffy, DR WHO series two, iTunes gift card, and possibly something else that I don't remember. We headed to mass at 8:40, and then we had a biggish breakfast that we usually have on Sunday but you can understand why we had it Christmas day. Elizabeth and I went to visit my Dad in the hospital, and brought him our presents. Later on we all went, and that was fun. i watched an episode of Dr WHo with Dan and Nate. For dinner we had our traditional Lasagna that we've been having for the past few years.

And that just about rounds it up. Happy 12th birthday to Atheena Frizzell.

Knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit knit

Oh ouch. Have you every done that and realized how dumb the word is? KNIT. k-n-i-t. No sense whatsoever.

To the point! I've been knitting TONS lately... I've been knitting... A BLANKET! I big blanket, too, with about a zillion billion different colours. My friend Rose is helping me knit it. Yesterday, I knit, well, we knit, about nine squares. Ohyes!

I'm going to get it DONE BY CHRISTMAS! It is so awesome!

I'm really excited about it. Yesterday, ALL Rose and I did was knit! Nothing else! It was brilliant!

Also yesterday I wrote a letter to my soldier, Ashley Dawson.

AND yesterday was St. Nick's Day! So in the morning we get a bit of stuff in our St Nick's Stockings, and then, at night, we watch ELF! It's one of our favourite Christmas movies, and we always watch it on St Nick's day. :)

That's about it, so.... Ummmm........ bye!

Editing The Past Post

So, in my post SO SCHOOL STARTS AND EVERYTHING GOES WRONG, I wrote : "google dr who season five episode one eleventh hour". This was wrong, because that isn't the best episode! Now, I am telling you to google: dr who blinkx, and then click on the first thing there. It should say: Watch Doctor Who Online-Full Episodes of Doctor Who & More TV... Then you go down a bit and there'll be Season Five Season Four Season Three Season Two Season One. You should watch the first one from season three or season four. They are called SMITH&JONES and PARTNERS IN CRIME. It's bad quality, but at least you will be able to see it.

Just thought I'd say, and be a bit more precise. Also, if this doesn't work, you can google Doctor Who Episodes Watch, and go down to Series, SERIES, notice, three or four, and go own to "Alternate Source" on SMITH&JONES or PARTNERS IN CRIME. It's horrible quality, but it works.

Bye Bye Fish

My fish died, and I threw their tank away. I may get some new ones someday, but right now they don't fit in. At All.

Thanks Giving on Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanksgiiiiiiiiiiiiivning. Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving.... Okay. In the morning, everybody except for me and MM went to the Turkey Trot. I Think. So we were left to make breakfast for everybody. which we did. I didn't enjoy myself.

So everybody came home and we were all having a good time and everything, and then we went and visited my Dad at the hospital, which was fun...

Then, at about fooooooouuuuurrrrrrrr o'clock we all came home, because my Dad was tired. So then everybody,w as like, cooking and I was just sitting on the computer.

Right now, my guinea pig Julius is chewing on newspaper and it sounds really funny. Just had to say that.

So at about six-thirty we had dinner. Here's a picture of the table! We did it so fancy and nice this year! It was awesome! *

Augustine and David brought over TONS of yummy desserts: Lemon Pie, (Which Augustine made very sweetly because it was my favourite) Turtle Something, Bread Pudding I Think, Pumpkin Pie, and Possibly Something Else That I don't Remember. Back on that, if I do. We all played Bananagrams except for some of us, like me. Augustine and I played a couple of round of Boggle, and I actually beat her, which is totally and completely unheardof, even though I am really good at it.

After that, we went to see the new disney movie Tangled, which was FANTASTIC!

So we were done with that near midnight, and we were all pretty tired, so we headed to bed! 

And there's my Thanksgiving! 

*That picture of the Thanksgiving table was not real, I just found it on the internet. Our table looked MUCH better. 

Tuesday-Wednesday

So Monday night me and my friend Atheena set up a sleepover for Tuesday, and yesterday, I was picked up at about 1:30. We then went to Spiral Diner, and we all shared a plate of yummy vegan nachos with olives and guacamole and stuff that was delicious, and then David and Augustine went to a Memorial service and Atheena and I stayed at the Spiral. We each got a milkshake. I got cookies and cream, she got chocolate.

When we got to Atheena's apartment, we painted. I painted a picture of the TARDIS (The Doctor's (dr who) Time Machine) traveling, and I drew a picture of a turtle race for my dad.

Augustine, david, and Augustine's mom went to Whole Foods, and ATheena and I stayed home. Still painting. Augustine and David came home about three hours later, then left again to take Augustine's Mom home. Atheena and I made ourselves dinner.

Here is what we made: It started out as just a pickle sandwich, then we added some cheese, then a vegan hamburger. We called it Double A Burger, and when David and Augustine got home we ummmmm made them some too, and pretended to have a restaurant. We called it Double A Deli. The price was cleaning the kitchen, which David did.

This was pretty late, and we ended up not getting to bed till nearly one o'clock. We were oing to go to bed at 11 or so, but things didn't work out that way.

Then, this morning, Jonah, Augustine's friend's seven-year-old son, came, and we all painted. I painted another picture of the TARDIS, this time jut sitting in the night sky. I really like it.

Atheena and I made pasta salad, with bow-tie pasta, tomatoes, rosemary, lemons, and a bunch of spices. It was delicious! We were about to start The Shakespeare Code ( a Dr Who), when Augustine and David decided to go get the Christmas tree, so they left, with Atheena, and Jonah and I watched a different Dr WHo called BLINK. When Atheena got back, we watched the Shakespeare Code while decorating the tree.

Not long after that, Jonah's mom came, and not long after THAT, we all left to pick up Augustine's car and take me home.

So that was my super-duper sleepover!

As I write this, I am watching my Dr Who screensaver, with about 65 photos of three different Doctors. And on that note, I am off!

Writers Block

I really need to work on my book. I don't know why i don't, but i don't. I haven't in ages. And I need to.

I've got no idea what to write at all. Ever. It's awful, and i need to get started again. i'm thinking of starting a short story blog or something, connected to this, and I'd have to write a short story every week or something.

So i think I'll do that, just thought I'd let any readers know, if I've got any.

Feed my fish!

So I got the app for fish, and I have five multi-colored goldfish who are nocturnal and really stupid so think that as long as I dye the water black, it's nighttime.

They all have names, too:

Red: Paul

Orange:Puddles

Yellow: Mr. Grumpy-face

White: Mrs. Grumpy-face

Blue:Harry

They are always hungry, so please feed them! Just click all over the place, and they will be happy :)

:( Halloween

Ah, Halloween, wasn't a perfect day. In the morning, I felt really bad with a cold and everything. Later on, I DID get to watch Dr Who, and that was good, but then, my Grandpa on my dad's side died. We're all heading out to Wisconsin tomorrow for the funeral.

However, we did have a fun party that night, and I got almost sick on marshmallows and monster cupcakes. So that was fun. I guess it was okay.

Munchy munchy munchy

Well, on Monday, My mum fired up her wood-burning clay oven. A month or two ago when she did this, Rebecca made chocolate chip cookies, and they were all good and melty and yummy, and she's made them every time my mum fires up her oven since.

So she made them on monday. And they were soooooooo good! better than usual. They were big and thin, and all chocolatey. They were reallllllllllly good. :). just thought i'd write a bit about them to make y'all jealous. Sweet me. Oh, i'm being rude again, aren't I?

Half-Magic

Half-Magic, by Edward Eager, is about four kids who find a magic coin, and it's all about figuring out how to use it and their adventures and misadventures and all that. It is really a fantastic book, and those who haven't read it are missing out.

The writing style is, in my opinion, fabulous, and I think that it is a page-turner. You should definitely try it.

And so, school starts, and everything goes wrong.

I'm super lucky. In a way. I didn't have to start school until September 7th.

But still, it's started now, and it's bad. Awful. :P. No, not really. Just math, and... grammar isn't that great. Kind of boring, yes.

However, my days have been being awesome because of... DUM DUM DUM DUM... DR WHO! It's the BEST TV show in the UNIVERSE. It's hilarious and scary and funny and awesome. Man, it's good. You should totally watch it. Just google "dr who season five episode one the eleventh hour" and try and find some way to watch it, believe me, you'll love it. If you don't already. :)

I'm totally into it. Really addicted. REALLY addicted. I love it.

Ok, and then, yeah, so last night was Constitution Day at UD... yummy supper. Good food. Cake. (NO LONGER HAS APPLE PIE!!!! RED ALERT!) Annnnnnnny way. As I was saying. My family didn't go. just me. I went with the Dougherty's. It rocked. me and Rose spent a lot of the time in the bathroom because there's a comfy couch there. We discussed DR WHO! Yay!

Now then. Let's see... Oo ooo ooo. Book Reviews. I'll squeeze one in.

ARTEMIS FOWL, THE ATLANTIS COMPLEX

This newest book by Eoin Colfer, fantastic author of Artemis Fowl, (duh) is grand. Simply fantastic. So good that words can't describe it. Mmmmm. So good. A delightful book, simply hilarious, and by all means amazing. So I guess a good word would be delaring... if you catch my drift. Delaring. Lovely word.

So if you haven't read it, check it out of your library or buy it.

I guess that rounds us all up, so, till my next post!

Percy Jackson The Sea Of Monsters

I read the second Percy Jackson book, and found that it was no better than the first. I am continuing to read them, as they are exciting, but I will doubtfully read them twice.

I encourage the reading of them still, though I don't think that they are nearly as good as I have heard from people.

Percy Jackson The Lightning Theif.

Upon reading the first Percy Jackson book, my feelings that they were badly written were confirmed, no offence to Rick Rioridan. I think that they are fantastic stories, but they could have been done better.

However, they are page turners, and are very addicting. I think that they should be read, and I think that they are good books, but they are very badly written.

Good grief, it's been a long while!

Eh, I haven't written in a long time. Gheeeee. Yeah, well anyway, to the point....

I went to FLORIDA! Actually, that was on the fourth, but not tooooooooooo long ago! Heck, most of you probably already know all about it! But who cares, I'll write about it anyway!

We (my cousin Molly and my cousin Lucy and Me) flew to Florida on the fourth, and that night, we set of fire works and did about a million sparklers. We all slept in my Aunt Amy's room, two on the bed, two on the floor. Cathy and I had the bed :).

On Monday, the when to an Oceanographic Center. I saw a starfish for the first time in my life, as well as a clown fish, sea cucumber, and sea horse. I got to pet a stingray, which I now know are very squishy and gross. At the gift shop, I bought a stuffed owl for ten dollars. I named him Merval.

On Tuesday, we went to an Energy place. There was this one awesome room where there were all the fantastic puzzles. Boy, were they hard! Hehe. I didn't do all of them, though. Just a few.

On Wednesday, we went to..... dum da dum dum.... HARRY POTTER WORLD! It was AWESOME! I had butterbeer, and it is sooooooo sweet, and sooooo yummy! It's like drinking sugar, cream soda, root beer, and syrup all in one. Mmmmmmmm.... I bought a rat for ten dollars, a jar of pepper imps for five dollars, and a key chain for ten dollars. Yay! :).

On Thursday, we went on a boat ride, and it was really cool. I saw some really cool birds, ten jillion turtles, and an aligator head. (it was attached to the body, we could just not see that part)

On Friday, we went to Target, which was awesome. I bought two stuffed animals and three LPS.

On Saturday, we went to the beach for the fourth time, we... hmm.... I don't think we did all that much... I don't remember.

Then, on Sunday, we... sniff sniff.... had to leave. :(!

Well, I hope I've intertained you! If you want to know more, call me! Please! Please!

The Dark Is Rising

The Dark Is Rising, the second book in the Dark Is Rising sequence, written by Susan Cooper, I just finished last night. It is a great book, and if you haven't read it, you deffinately should. When I started it, my mom said that even if I didn't understand what was happening, I should just keep reading, because Susan Cooper explains it all in the end.

It is about an eleven year-old named Will Stanton, who finds that he is the last of the Old Ones, immortal people deticated to saving the world from the source of evil known as the Dark. Over the Twelve Days Of Christmas, Will has to find the Six Signs, iron, stone, wood, water, fire, and bronze. It is a fantastic book, and you really should read it.

MY PIGGIES!!

I got guinea pigs yesterday! Here are photos! The black one is Abbot Julius, and the brown and white one is Mulch!!!