Maid Marion

I know many others have already posted about this, but I thought it was way too awesome to leave alone.

http://amandabethonline.blogspot.com/2009/08/maid-marians-wardrobe-medieval-fashion.html

War wounds

I love airsoft.

I love airsoft machine guns.

I love 400+ fps airsoft machine guns.

I love 400+fps airsoft machine guns at point blank (5ft) range.

I love airsoft.

I am actually not being sarcastic. Or facetious. I really do love airsoft. It is completely worth it. =D

Happy 16th Audrey!

Battle

Quick question: Does anyone know how The Reluctant Dragon button started???
The other day, I was thinking about making one, and Bracie asked, "I thought you already did!"

And I saw that there was one.

I am very flattered. =D

Anyhow, I am going off to battle! Well, that is, an Airsoft battle.

You gotta love it.

The Highlands, Sylwyness, and Photos Galore

How do you really spell Sylwyness? Is it really a word? In the (2) lessons of latin I studied, we had to repeat, "Sylwa, Sylwae, Forest, Forest" over and over and over again.

Anyway, here are Bracie and I holding our new, insanely awesome, Scottish DIRKS!!!
Bracie is looking very lovely and Elvish.

And what could be more awesome than running with your cloak flying in the wind? By the way, green cloaks are excellent for camouflage, but it makes them difficult to photograph. =D

Dewey leaves seem to occur frequently in photography, and I felt the need to try my hand at it. Sargeant, my dog, nearly destroyed the leaf by licking it, stepping on it or eating it, about seventeen times.

This one is Bracie's:

Mine:

Aren't they awesome! I am spilling over with delight! They were gifts from my grandmother, who went to Scotland recently. They came unsharpened, but took them to a professional sharpener. We get them back next Thursday.

As you can see from the vast amounts of pictures I am posting, I am quite obsessed with my dirk.

I need some knee socks to slip it into for Easy Transportation. =D (That's one of the traditional ways of wearing them)

Grandma also gave Bracie and I each a beret. I really, really wish I had Scottish heritage.

Once, when I was talking to Bracie and my little brother Giles was listening, I said,

"Oh, I really want a Scottish Dirk!"

Giles piped up, "Why not have a nice Scotsman? I think you'd have a happier life."

"What???" I was confused.

"You said you wanted a Scottish Jerk!!!" he cried.

"No, Giles, a Scottish Dirk!" We had a good laugh over that one.

Again:

I know, I know this is an old post. But I though I'd re-post it in honor of Bracie's new blog.

You, gentle readers, probably already know that my sister and I possess the lowly and slightly unfortunate vocation of Alpaca Pasture Maintenance. If you didn't know, now you know. So, since as of now, you all know and now I know that you know, I will proceed to describe an incident that happened a couple of weeks ago. I call it, "Death by Alpaca Poop." Keep in mind that this really happened and I only just barely embellished it.

It happens that my dear sister is a bit of a klutz. Don't look at me like that! She would be the one to tell you. And now, explorers of the world wide web, I will now venture to reveal to you a deep dark secret. You may have suspected this; Bracie is not her real name! Her real name is Grace. (Get it? Gracie, and Bracie? IT RHYMES! Bwahahaha! I think I'll kill myself laughing!) She has always deemed the name "Grace" an unfortunate choice for her on the part of her parents because she thinks it is so unsuited to her nature.

Anyway, it all began one rainy afternoon when Bracie and I were raking away at the seeming mountains of Alpaca poop. Every time we filled the big yellow wheelbarrow we would cart it back to the dump pile, taking turns rolling the unwieldy barrow along. At the particular moment in which this story took place, Bracie grasped the handlebars, and began to push the wheelbarrow up the wet, muddy slope. She shoved, but it was stuck! Then, she gave one great, mighty heave,

and slipped in the mud.

Bracie's feet wildly flailed and thrashed. You those cartoons, where a character runs off a cliff without knowing it, looks at the screen while his feet pound away at thin air, says, "Uh oh," and then falls? This was something like that. Anyway, she knelt in the mud, certain that the giant load of alpaca poop which now loomed over her head would fall and smother her at any second. The wheelbarrow slowly tipped back, creaking, groaning, about to crash 100 pounds of Alpaca poop on top of her! Bracie looked up helplessly at the wheelbarrow, towards her imminent death. I could see her eyes growing rounder, and rounder, wider and wider.

Just milliseconds before the load came tumbling down on her in all it's glory, Bracie displayed a superhuman feat of strength. With all that was within her, she whipped her head and torso up above the dastardly doodoo, narrowly missing being smothered by alpaca poop. If you can believe it, the monstrous load barely brushed her chin, neck and nose. She survived! You should of been there. That amazingly executed escape would have had you gazing in admiration at my dirty sister. She was so close to death. I could just see myself having to explain to friends and family, "Yes, poor Bracie came to a horrible end in the form of drowning... ina pile of poop."

You should have seen Bracie wipe the muck off her face with a soiled glove and exclaim, slightly hysterically, "Haha! Near death by alpaca poop! Typical me!"

Looking back on this incident makes me realize just how important family really is. Seeing Bracie dance with death puts life into perspective, and makes me realize that all the business and commotion that we put value on just doesn't matter. In that terrible moment when I saw Bracie kneeling helplessly under the wheelbarrow, I found out how much I love her.

Yeah right. Actually, I was dying laughing while it happened. I just thought that maybe I could squeeze a nice, cheesy inspirational paragraph in here somewhere to make up for the fact that I actually typed the words, "Alpaca Poop."

Note: About the photo: the wheelbarrow in the picture is only half as big as the one in real life.

Construction:

To lighten my ANNOYANCE at blogger, here is a joke, courtesy of Giles, my little brother:

First Person: "Hey, wanna hear a construction joke?"

Second Person: "Sure!"

First Person: "Sorry, I'm still working on it."

Hysterical laughter erupts from the crowd. Of course.

But seriously, folks.
The layout of this blog is kind of weird at the moment because I am trying to turn it into a three column layout. However, it does the irritating thing where it puts a sidebar thingamajig under the header instead of in the SIDEbar. Hmph.

Anyone know how to fix this?

A couple nights ago, Bracie was studying a book, How to Win Scholarships for College.

It was fascinating, I assure you.

Anyway, I was writing a quirky story, which completely absorbed my attention. Words tumbled out of my inspired mind like, uh, ink from a pen. I wrote so fast that I kept tearing the paper of my composition notebook with my pen's nib. Etc. Etc.

Bracie, who wanted to take notes but who had forgotten paper, said,

"Hey Oph, will you write something down for me?"

Me: "Mmmm-Hmmm." Still planning the next sentence of my story in my mind, I turned to another page.

Bracie: "Put down S.A.T.-"

Me: "Mmmmm-Hmmm"

Bracie: testing.org"

Me: "Mmmm-Hmmm."

Then, I looked down at my paper. I had absentmindedly written:

EssayTeaTesting.org

Yeah. Smart, huh?

A True Cowboy:

Which picture should I enter for Equus Delirus' A True Cowboy/Cowgirl contest? Click HERE to enter.

Serious Randomness.

On a whim, I asked Mom today, what was a Very Random Incident in her life.

After thinking several seconds, she responded,

"Once, at a chocolate festival in Yakima, I won a prize: a purple and green inflatable kayak."

For real. Isn't that random??? Since when did chocolate festivals hand out kayaks? Why purple and green?

I challenge YOU! Gentle readers, if you can come up with a real life incident more random than that, I shall actually try my hand at making an award for you.

TTFN! I think I am going to go look for some chocolate.

The Reluctant Dragon:

Has anyone who reads this blog actually seen the cartoon?


As of late, we have been attempting to clean out our disastrously messy attic. Only instead of cleaning the attic, it seems like we are simply making the rest of the house cluttered. Our furnace room, the small closet-ish room in which the ladder to the attic stands, is shoulder high with garbage bags filled with JUNK! So, to get up, we swing from a lip on the inside of the door way. It is quite a feat of athleticism. I am very proud of myself. =D
These past few days, I have been making crucial decisions, like "Do we really need to keep the stuffed animal Pooh Bear I played with when I was six?" and "Must we keep three different copies of The Secret Garden?"
The worst part about cleaning up there is that I cannot stand up straight. My back hurts and I feel like I am 80 instead of 14. And there's always the chance that I could fall through the ceiling. Ah Well. I suppose I might survive. Maybe.

Slide:

I found this on another blog, and I think it is awesome. I have doubts (strong ones) about the truth of the trick. =D

Now for the real question: Would you do it? I would in a heartbeat.

Do me a favor:

Glance at my side bar and vote on my latest poll. I thought it would be interesting to see how many aspiring authors/authoresses we have out there.

Ouch.

Saturday, my family went to a contra dance. We danced for something like eight hours, and as you can see, made a hole through three layers of leather.

And yesterday my feet still hurt. I felt like such a wimp! Now, however, I am refreshed and ready to bounce off walls.

In this fantastic example of our camera's capabilities, perhaps you may be able to see Giles, my brother, and Audrey:

They are the blue blob close to the front and the tallish blob right next to that. I really do not like our camera. For a while, it would only take pictures in shades of blue. Then orange. Now blurry.

Found:

One Ophelia. Yup, I am back. Well, back online. I wasn't really gone, but Audrey was here and we were busy. In honor of her:

And I was suddenly, tragically struck with the thought that it is August, and I have less than a month before school starts. Maybe it was the rain that reminded me. Or perhaps it was starting my Writing about Books course I took this morning. Anyway, here's how I feel about the subject: Sick, by Shel Silverstein

'I cannot go to school today,

'Said little Peggy Ann McKay.'

I have the measles and the mumps,

A gash, a rash and purple bumps.

My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,

I'm going blind in my right eye.

My tonsils are as big as rocks,

I've counted sixteen chicken pox

And there's one more-that's seventeen,

And don't you think my face looks green?

My leg is cut-my eyes are blue-

It might be instamatic flu.

I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,

I'm sure that my left leg is broke-

My hip hurts when I move my chin,

My belly button's caving in,

My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,

My 'pendix pains each time it rains.

My nose is cold, my toes are numb.

I have a sliver in my thumb.

My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,

I hardly whisper when I speak.

My tongue is filling up my mouth,

I think my hair is falling out

My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,

My temperature is one-o-eight.

My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,

There is a hole inside my ear.

I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what?

What's that? What's that you say?

You say today is...Saturday?

G'bye, I'm going out to play! '

Entry:

Here is Bridget's entry for the contest:

This is a highly intelligent, instructional video. If you watch it, it is imperative that you teach the thingamabob to someone else. Aubrey taught it to moi. Perhaps the trick isn't the most useful skill in the world. However, I maintain that it is an art! No body ever accused Picasso of creating useful things.

Sorry!

As you may have noticed, I forgot to tag anyone for that last tag.

This is difficult, for I have no idea who has already completed it! It seems to be going around with alarming rapidity!
I shall tag:
Gabrielle

Bekah

Lizzy


I am on a Veggie Tales craze, and I thought I might as well drag you all along with me. That's one of the great things about having younger siblings: you get to go back and watch all the videos you saw as a Little. Or maybe I'm just weird.
If you can believe it, I am working hard to commit this one to memory.

August Tags:

I believe this is called the Hopeless Romantic tag. I was tagged by Libby, of all people. Please excuse me while I murder her.

What two qualities do you want most in your future husband?

Loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. After that, TALL.

Is there a fictional character you see as a model for your future husband?

I really, really like Libby's answer on this one. Shall I quote it?

"Yeah, but that’s because they are fictional-not real =P" Peter Pan. Yeah, I am going to marry Peter Pan. I don't know!!! Okay, an earnest response would be Malcolm from George MacDonald's Malcolm. But Curdie is awesome. And so is Alec Forbes of Howglen.

Where do you want your wedding?Somewhere---------over the rainbow!

What are your views on courtship?

Well, what is your definition of courtship? If it means doing things in groups, fine.

What are your views on your first kiss?

Let's just say it will be really easy for me to wait for it.

Do you have or want a purity ring/locket?

Nope. I don't feel as though a medal band increases the strength of my convictions.

Do you have or want a hope chest? I hope to get one, but not necessarily because of the connection with marriage. I do have a box of special memories.

Will you wear a veil at your wedding?

If I get married, I will, and I shall actually wear the veil over my face, like you are supposed to. That's where the tradition lies.

What kind of wedding dress do you want?

A white one.

What flowers do you want in your bouquet?

Calla Lilies.

What do you want to name one of your daughters?

I don't know.

What do you want to name one of your sons?

Ransom.

Do you believe in the 'knight-in-shining-armor' view of courtship?

That's a little vague.

What music do you want to play at your wedding?

Solveig's Song.

Are you a hopeless romantic?

Yes, but at fourteen, I want romance to stay comfortably between the pages of a book.

Here is a video for you, if you didn't want to have to read that tag.


I regret to inform you that I cannot do the Favorite Historical Figure tag, because I cannot pick just one figure to do it with.

Revelation Song

Face Painting:

Today, I let a hoard of happy little children paint my face and arms. It was a merry time. From experience, I know that it is much more fun to paint someone's face than it is to be painted. Seriously, for a very short time period in my life, I wanted to be a face painter.

But...

Now, getting home and washing the paint off my face, I realize that the red color does not wash. It is still faintly blotchy red. So, since I had a lovely red smiley face on one cheek, I now look as though I am very bad at applying blush.

However, I am consoled with the fact that they had a jolly good time. What's your good deed of the day?