Spring Break: Day 2 (Or Jack the Plucker)

Okay, so I'm a tad late posting about the rest of spring break.  Oh well.  I will continue, undaunted.
The second day started off overcast and horrendous.  We slept in even later than the day before, then stayed inside and read for about an hour (going to the library payed off) :).

Once we felt the inclination to get up, we decided to have a wonderful French Breakfast, and pretend we were there on vacation.  It was glorious.

A buttered croissant, toasted in the oven. . . 

Wonderful, fresh, thick hot chocolate with lots of cream. . .

And Quaker Oats.  So it wasn't 100% French.  Who cares?

They all combined nicely into a beautiful breakfast.  We all felt like we were being served in  Paris :)

Simple pleasures, I guess.

After breakfast we settled down for a long bit of rest and relaxation with our library books as the wind and sleet howled outside.  Then, we decided to head off shopping, since Saturday is Corn Nut's 8th birthday.  Big day!  

We went to Walmart.  And ended up buying shirts and pants for Chestnut and I instead.  Then we went to DownEast, and from there to Toys R Us, where we got Corn Nut more well-beloved and obsessed over Star Wars Legos.  It was good.

Things weren't so good after that, when we got home.  You see, as we pulled into the driveway, we saw Jack in the front yard with a chicken in between his paws.  He was happily guarding it and chewing on it and we were shocked and horrified and sure it was dead.  It was horrible!  We got Jack away from the chicken and locked him up in the kennel, then came back through the sleet (now snow) for further inspection.  The chieken's entire back was bare of feather's and it's skin was open near it's neck.  It was a grim sight.  It sat there, huddled on the ground, twitching every so often, completely motionless and unresponsive.  We were then sure that it's back was broken.

We sent Chestnut to go get the gun,  but when he came back, the chicken was gone.  It had moved six or so feet across the yard.  Obviously, it wasn't paralyzed, but it continued to twitch.  Deciding to give it a chance, we moved it to one side of the chicken coop, shut it off from the other chickens, sprayed it with wound spray, and left it alone, sure it was going to die any minute.

Jack had become Public Enemy Number One for the day.  We just couldn't believe that he had actually attacked a chicken.  Things looked grim.  

Later that night, we found that the chicken wasn't twitching any more and that it was moving around, so we celebrated by getting a blizzard at Dairy Queen, then coming back to watch a "Foyle's War," a british police drama.  It was great!

A good, but dramatic day!

Spring Break: Day 1

Spring Break started this Friday, but things didn't really get going until Sunday when Dad, Cashew, Pistachio, and Corn Nut left for Nevada to visit the Fallon Boys.  

They were so excited!  This left my mom, Chestnut, and me home to relax.  We had a blast!  I don't know if it was exactly relaxing, but it was extremely fun.  So this is yesterday, from the beginning:

We started off the day by getting our work done, having a flop quiche turned into a delicious scramble for breakfast, and getting some independent study courses done which we were way behind on.  From there, we decided that Jack was bored and depressed, so we took him on a walk in the hills.  Unfortunately, I took no pictures.  It was really fun and we talked about politics the whole time.  

After the walk, we dropped Jack off at home and headed off to lunch at Dixie's Diner, a fun little 50's themed restaurant with delicious shakes.  Since I took no pictures here either, here's a family picture taken there a few years ago. 

See the shakes?  It was delicious.

We continued the adventure by heading off to the library and checking out about a gazillion books and movies.  Mom suddenly realized that I haven't read for fun in about a year, and soon she checked out four books for me to read.  I have my hands full :) .

After the library, we headed into grandma's house and made a gazillion tortillas to go with our gazillion books.  We flipped tortillas and talked about England, and grandma showed me the finished skirt that she's been making for me.  It was a blast! 

We got home late, but decided to watch Casablanca anyway.  Neither Chestnut or I had seen it, and Mom decided that wasn't acceptable.

It was delightful!  I think it's my new favorite movie.  

Hopefully I'll take more pictures to document Spring break day two.

Look Who's Well-Behaved

I am proud to announce that about a week and a half ago (time flies) our puppy, Jack, graduated from "Puppy Training School."  We did this on the suggestion of Lilly, whose example we were wise to follow.  Jack has changed so much since he started!  I don't know how we would have got along with him without the class.

Also. . . 

One week during the class, we were having problems with Jack chasing the chickens.  So- we brought a chicken into Petsmart.  Our teacher, Emerson, LOVED IT.  He thought it was absolutely hilarious, and when he was handing out the graduation certificates, there were two for us.

- - -

One that said Jack had graduated; the other? . . . . . . Recognized that "Chicken" had passed the puppy class.
Funny!  But we're proud of Jack.

Adios,

St. Patrick's Day

Isn't it wonderful to actually be able to see GREEN on St. Patrick's Day?  I LOVE IT.  Let me tell you- just because Idaho gets into spring just about now, St. Patrick's day has to be one of my favorite holidays.  More on Green later. . . . lot's more on green.  But I have to say, being able to wear crocs and sit on the ground is amazing.

Oh- and don't you love the big picture?  Cocoa helped me with that.

Adios,

The Secret Garden- Hair and Other Things

Well- as you've noticed, I've kind-of disappeared for the past two weeks. This is the reason why.

Well. . . It's sort-of the reason why. I happened to be involved in the play "The Secret Garden" in my high school musical theater class and that just happened to take up my entire life until recently. Does that make sense?

Let me clarify:

I was a wall.

Who had to sit still.

Absolutely still.

During a two-hour play.

But anyway- not focusing on the bad of things. This (picture above) was what we did to prepare for that two-hour play on the day it was performed (or the three days it was performed- many people lost a lot of hair).

And since I didn't happen to get any pictures of the actual performance, I will mainly focus on the hairdressing segment of the whole affair. Here is the cast of Characters:

Lovely bunch, aren't they?

Well actually, they are. The pictures above are the result of a lot of this:

Ratting the heck out of their hair to create an "authentic" hairstyle for the period. I feel bad for the women back then. Of course- they didn't wash their hair very often. . . . but I won't get into that.

Moving on. Step one- the hair is ratted. Check.

Step two: It is pulled onto the top of the head with about one billion, two million, four thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three bobby pins. Check.

Step three- the remaining hair is arranged into about nine miniature buns on the top of the head and the hair that has escaped is curled with a curling iron. Check.

Pretty isn't it?

Yeah- but perilous. . . and painful. Especially afterward when you have to remove all the rats and about a half-gallon of hairspray.

Bon apetite!

Put a Name on That Picture

The expression on Topaz's face is cracking me up. What would you call this picture?

The Chicken Conspiracy

This is our rooster.

His name is {something} (suggestions anyone?)

For now I will call him Percy. I've been watching the Scarlet Pimpernel. :)

Our little friend here is in the garage. He shouldn't be here.

He should be here.

More precisely, here. See the mud? That means "chickens belong here."

Instead, he is here.

And here.

And here.

About now is where a time lapse happens. I pick up the above rake and chase the rooster with it, knowing the situation to be hopeless. He will never on his life cross the long snowy yard to the chicken coop. I half-heartedly shoo him along.

Then. . .

He takes a running start and flies.

FLIES.

Across the entire yard in one try.

I gape.

I follow him.

At this point I am wondering if the whole thing of chickens acting dumb is just a conspiracy. A conspiracy to make me work harder.

*End of time lapse*

I walk into the chicken coop and this is the first thing I see.

Ha!

But here he is, innocently eating the food I recently placed on peril of death.

Who knew anything happened? He was here the whole time.

Oh and by the way. . .

Don't leave eggs in freezing temperatures overnight.

They burst out of the shell and freeze there.

It's not a pretty picture.

Just trying to add inspirational advice to your life,