Ladies And Gentlemen, I Have An Announcement!

After about a year of saving cans, we finally turned them in! We expected about five dollars to come out of the whole thing. Boy, were we wrong.

We made 10 dollars!

BUT...

My mom matched the money so we have 20 dollars!

We took pictures of all the ridiculously cool things. Here they are:

These are blocks of aluminum cans I think, quite like what I brought in.


This is me putting a bag of cans into a wheelbarrow thingy that they used to weigh the cans.

More me putting the cans in.

This is the machine that made the cans into giant blocks. It was a bit like WALL-E the movie.

More of the machine.

I hope this post has inspired you to recycle. I am going to save more cans
because it was so cool!

My Story: Harry Potter And The Son Of Poseidon

This is a story I had to write for summer homework. It was really fun to do. Let me warn you: if you have never read Harry Potter or the Percy Jackson books, do not read this. You will be going "What?" and "Huh?" every 2 seconds.

Harry Potter and the Son of Poseidon

The wand-- the wand Harry loved, the only wand he was comfortable with. Why was he letting this stranger try it out? He was definitely not a wizard.

Anaklusmos- Riptide-- Percy's beloved pen-sword. Why was he letting this stranger use it? This guy was NOT a demigod.

The sword felt strange in Harry's hands. He kept feeling the urge to yell "Expeliarmus!" or "Protego!" And what was "Celestial Bronze"? The only sword he knew was the sword of Godric Gryffindor and that was goblin made. And what was written on the sword Harry was holding? So many questions.

Why was Percy holding a wand? He didn't know any spells. He didn't have magic powers. He couldn't kill Medusa with a wand. He couldn't injure the god of war with a wand. It was pretty useless to him. And what was a muggle?

“Can I have my sword back?” said Percy.

“Okay, then can I have my wand?” asked Harry. They swapped.

“Thanks—wait. What’s your name?”

“Harry. What’s yours again?”

“I’m Percy.”

Suddenly, a girl no older than twelve ran by. She stopped to catch her breath and introduce herself. She was Dorothy Gale from Kansas. She was running from the Wicked Witch of the West, who was flying on a broomstick very close behind. Suddenly Harry said “I have a broomstick!” Dorothy looked at him in surprise. She called her little black dog (“Here Toto!”) and ran off to hide. As soon as she had hidden, they heard a cackle. They turned around and saw a green woman who was definitely the Wicked Witch of the West. And yes, she was on a broomstick. She jumped off to ask directions.

“Have you seen a little girl about yay tall (she indicated with her hands) and a little black dog?”

“No.” they replied together.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” they replied.

“Well okay then!” said the Witch. “Bye!” And she hopped on her broomstick and flew away. But don't say the end yet because the Witch was still suspicious. She was just circling them overhead. She was going to get that girl if it killed her!

Circling overhead made her dizzy. Suddenly, everything was white and wet. She was flying through a cloud. The birds were below her. They looked at her wondering what the heck was going on. This wasn’t a hawk—it was too big. But they still flew away in a hurry. They weren’t taking any chances.

Down below, Taylor Swift ran by being chased by screaming fans. The witch saw her and thinking the girl was Dorothy, swooped down to attack her. Before the ambulance arrived to carry her away on a stretcher, she got to see the girl’s face. This was definitely not Dorothy.

Oops.

Oh well.

The Witch walked away, defeated. Maybe the boys were telling the truth.

“Wanna play Quidditch?” asked Harry

“Umm—No thanks.”

“Okay! Suit yourself.” said Harry as he took out his wand. “Accio firebolt!” he yelled. Moments later he was flying through the air. “Woo-hoo!” he yelled.


The end.



This story symbolizes how much I love Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, and how much I hate Taylor Swift.

Update On The Update

This is my owl. I'm not sure what to name him. Something smart and creative. Do you have any ideas?

My grandma got him for me. The brand is Fuzz that Wuzz. He's made out of recycled plastic bottles.

Seriously! If you have any good names, please e-mail me or leave a comment. Thanks!

Halloween Update

Yesterday my helmet arrived in the mail. It looks great!

But It's Only August 19th!

Is what my mom keeps telling me. There's also "But Halloween is 2 months away! We'll get you an owl in time!"

Key words: Halloween. Owl.

What does this mean to you? And don't say Harry Potter, because I was Hermione last year. And there's this too about that.

Seriously? Oh my god. Is that a hint?

I'm going to be Athena! If you don't know who Athena is, she's the Greek goddess of wisdom, and one of my fictional idols. Here are some pictures.



Here is her story:

Athena, otherwise known as Minerva is a daughter of the god Zeus and the Titan's daughter Metis, who was Titaness of prudence. Zeus swallowed her in the form of a fly so that if she had a boy, he would not overthrow Zeus.
She had a girl.
My theory is that Athena grew up inside her father's head.
One day Zeus had a really really bad headache. So Hephaestus, the god of fire, took a hammer and split Zeus's head open. Out came Athena fully grown dressed in full battle armor with gray eyes. For more of her story check out this book I like. Here's a picture link. And here's an Amazon link.

A Special Thanks To...

Update 8/18/09: Congratulations to Harley for winning the Cutest Cat contest on Facebook. We donated $5! 52%! $130!
Update 4/7/09: Thank you to... ME! I gave 9$ to get halfway there! 125$, 50%.

Update 4/1/09: Thank you to my mom who donated 36$ in memory of a friend's father. 116$, and 46%. 9 more $ and we're halfway there.

Update 3/7/09: Thanks to Daisy who donated $1! Yay! You rule! $80, 30%.

Update 3/6/09: Happy birthday to Harley, Daisy's brother who will be a mancat tomorrow! Ms. Witty donated $10 in honor of Harley. Yay! $79, 31%.

Update 3/2/09: I earned $5, so I had Ms. Witty put it into my fundraiser. Thanks! $69, 27%.

Update 2/21/09: Thanks to... me? Oh yeah! I donated $10! Thanks me! 25%!

Update 2/11/09: Happy birthday Daisy the Curly Cat and thanks to Ms. Witty for donating $10 in honor of Daisy! 21%!

Update again 12/29/08: A thanks to my mom's massage person for $5! Now 17%!

Update 12/29/08: Luxor has donated $2. That's 15%!

Thanks! So far, my fundraiser has made $37! That's 14%! Here are the people who donated, with how much they gave:

Thanks again and keep it up!

PS: When I find a place, I'll be recycling a lot of cans.

Thanks!

Welcome Home Me!

I am back from Camp Thunderbird where I did Riflery, Blacksmithing, a bit of Farm, and I tried waterskiing, which didn't go very well.

I made candles and batik and tie-dye and pottery. I ate chickpeas and tomatoes and grasshopper pie. Yum!

Guess what. I made FRIENDS! Isn't that great?

And PS: My 3rd annual swim party is TOMORROW! Read about last year's party here. Actually, it's more about the soda than the party. But who cares!

Counting Down To Cupcake's Return

It's Saturday. Cupcake and her brother come home Wednesday afternoon. Yay!

Cupcake Update

Cupcake and her brother come home a week from today. The month has gone by very quickly for me. I'm looking forward to hugs and cuddles. Cupcake writes that the camp had a sibling dinner but she couldn't sit with her brother because he was away on a three day canoe trip. Sigh. I wonder if she chose someone else's brother to sit with instead. What's your guess?

I'm going to make a special dinner for them the night they come home. Any suggestions?

Welcome Cupcake Bakery Customers

Welcome to my readers and Cupcake's readers. Cupcake's gone for another week and a half so you're stuck with me. I'm still getting up to three letters a day from her, which makes up for the fact that I get only two letters a week from her brother. All of her letters have a continuing theme: she misses me.

Yay! She misses me. I miss her too.

But... Sob! She's sad.

I do what I can to bring her a smile. I sent her a card game, a roll of duct tape, and a couple of enormous water guns. The card game came back because the camp has a no package policy (except for books and magazines), which I had forgotten; the boys' camp is much less strict about enforcement, so I've always gotten away with sending her brother goofy stuff without even realizing I was breaking the rules.

So I bought an armload of books, which I'll send tomorrow. Take that, camp regulations!

I also sent her and her friend each a letter. Cupcake's letter contained 25 riddles, while friend's letter contained 25 answers. Clever, huh?

Check out my blog for the true Hollywood story of how Cupcake learned to ride a bicycle.