It's Saturday!

I like Saturdays. They're so nice and lazy and cozy, at least when I'm at home. Even though I still might have a bit of work to do. I've done piano, not violin yet. Everyone's gone today except me. Mom and the girls at gymnastics, Josh at work, and Dad's in the city. Business. I think. He probably has to visit people, pick stuff up for the church, all that stuff.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention- we're going to Vancouver in two weeks for a convention that Dad needs to be at. Five days. We're going in on Sunday or Monday and leaving on Friday. Staying in a hotel, but I'm not sure where. The convention is in Richmond, I think. We can go and do fun touristy stuff while Dad has meetings and speakers to listen to, then the evening sessions, which should be interesting. I have a class on that Tuesday, but if Mom brings her computer or we install GatherPlace on Dad's it should be fine. And Nana and Papa will be at the convention, which is awesome.

So my poem is finished, after lots of work this morning. It's actually 13 lines instead of 10, because I couldn't possibly summarize the Lord of the Rings in that space, and I could only barely fit the Fellowship of the Ring into it. I might post it later. It doesn't actually sound much like a poem, but neither does the Odyssey. So there.

There's youth tonight, and it's supposed to be a surprise, but my best friend's brother is organising it and she leaked the secret. *cough* It's a scavenger hunt. Much better than floor hockey, although that's supposed to be once or twice a month this year on the schedule. Mom made caramel popcorn for her ladies' thing tonight, youth, and Dad and the little girls tonight, since they have nothing to do.
And I need to wrap my friend's birthday present, which has been due since Monday but I couldn't come to the party last week with the quiz meet on and I haven't seen her since, but that shouldn't take too long; I already made the card, which usually takes up the majority of preparation time.
Oh, and one of Mom's friends sent her the soundtrack to A Walk to Remember, which I haven't seen, and a lot of the music isn't any good (mostly Mandy Moore) but there's four songs by Switchfoot and I really like them.

Today was a good day. Good enough. I got caught up on math, which is a major accomplishment for me, did corrections (I think all of them...) did piano, violin, history (but I still have to finish the questions I meant to do but got the wrong ones), and writing, which is pretty interesting thisweek. For the last two weeks it's been basically pick an issue, write down affirmative, negative, and interesting using study questions, make an outline (choose side, introduction, proofs, main part, repeat proofs, conclusion, repeat proofs, but it's supposed to help for essay writing) and write a rudimentary essay. But now it's a bit different. And since we're studying the Odyssey, and it's written in a different poetry form (rhythm- repeat strawberry 5x, jam-pot per line, it doesn't have to rhyme), we have to write a 10-line poem about a heroic act in that format by Friday. Mine is Frodo destroying the Ring; I've gotten two and a half lines done, but I'm getting stuck by the format; I'm too used to rhyming poems, so at the beginning all I could think of was some lame thing along the lines of Frodo was a little hobbit who destroyed the Ring of Power; he did it right along with Sam at a dour hour. But I managed to get that out of my head. Phewf.
I was going to post more, but nasty Blogger was down tonight and I have to go to bed. Maybe tomorrow.

Carmen Possum
This is a poem that my mom found online after we noticed two lines of it in a writing book as an example. The author is unknown, and it's a mix of Latin and English. See if you can figure out the meanings of the Latin words.

THE NOX was lit by lux of Luna,
And 'twas a nox most opportuna
To catch a possum or a coona;
For nix was scattered o'er this mundus,
A shallow nix, et non profundus.
On sic a nox with canis unus,
Two boys went out to hunt for coonus.
The corpus of this bonus canis
Was full as long as octo span is,
But brevior legs had canis never
Quam had hic dog; et bonus clever.
Some used to say, in stultum jocum
Quod a field was too small locum
For sic a dog to make a turnus
Circum self from stem to sternus.
Unis canis, duo puer,
Nunquam braver, nunquam truer,
Quam hoc trio nunquam fuit,
If there was I never knew it.
This bonus dog had one bad habit,
Amabat much to tree a rabbit,
Amabat plus to chase a rattus,
Amabat bene tree a cattus.
But on this nixy moonlight night
This old canis did just right.
Nunquam treed a starving rattus,
Nunquam chased a starving cattus,
But sucurrit on, intentus
On the track and on the scentus,
Till he trees a possum strongum,
In a hollow trunkum longum.
Loud he barked in horrid bellum,
Seemed on terra vehit pellum.
Quickly ran the duo puer
Mors of possum to secure.
Quam venerit, one began
To chop away like quisque man.
Soon the axe went through the truncum
Soon he hit it all kerchunkum;
Combat deepens, on ye braves!
Canis, pueri et staves
As his powers non longius carry,
Possum potest non pugnare.
On the nix his corpus lieth.
Down to Hades spirit flieth,
Joyful pueri, canis bonus,
Think him dead as any stonus.
Now they seek their pater's domo,
Feeling proud as any homo,
Knowing, certe, they will blossom
Into heroes, when with possum
They arrive, narrabunt story,
Plenus blood et plenior glory.
Pompey, David, Samson, Caesar,
Cyrus, Black Hawk, Shalmanezer!
Tell me where est now the gloria,
Where the honors of victoria?
Nunc a domum narrent story,
Plenus sanguine, tragic, gory.
Pater praiseth, likewise mater,
Wonders greatly younger frater.
Possum leave they on the mundus,
Go themselves to sleep profundus,
Somniunt possums slain in battle,
Strong as ursae, large as cattle.
When nox gives way to lux of morning,
Albam terram much adorning,
Up they jump to see the varmin,
Of the which this is the carmen.
Lo! possum est resurrectum!
Ecce pueri dejectum,
Ne relinquit back behind him,
Et the pueri never find him.
Cruel possum! bestia vilest,
How the pueros thou beguilest!
Pueri think non plus of Caesar,
Go ad Orcum, Shalmanezer,
Take your laurels, cum the honor,
Since ista possum is a goner!

Quiz meet!

The quiz meet was totally awesome! My mom, my brother, and I went in at about noon on Friday and had Mom's cello lesson, my violin, and some shopping before we went to the church- fun. I got another shirt from Reitmans. :) We ate and were at the church by 6:00, and the quiz meet didn't actually start until 7:30 so there was lots of time to practice and explore; the rest of the team was there the same time as us. There were draws and an introduction to start, then team 1 (my brother and another girl) had a quiz on pads, which went well for their first, especially since they were against Sil's team- who are quite good- and another team who were decent; one guy was a very good jumper. After that we wandered and watched other people until the worship session, then found Sil's family-who we were staying with- and went. They had friends from another church there too, who were really nice. We stayed up late and talked and ate Sil's mom's wonderful ice cream stuff. :D
The next morning we got to the church and my team had a quiz right after the chapel session, which went well; I quizzed out at the third-last question. I love quizzing out; you always feel like your job is done. Except when it's early and you still know all the answers to the questions but can't communicate them. But quizzing out at the end of the quiz is nice.
The rest of the quizzes were good; my first one with benches didn't go so well, though, I just couldn't think or jump straight. Bleh. But we didn't lose too badly. Sarah jumped and answered a question right, which was really good.
For lunch we hung out by the canteen and couches and played Dutch Blitz on one of the tiny round tables, which was squashed but doable. We got an hour in the afternoon free to go to the mall and get Dairy Queen blizzards and wander. I love mall-wandering, it's actually quite relaxing.
Then we had quizzes... and switched between watching finals quizzes, because both Sil's team and her brother's were in them, Southgate did awesome. And for awards I sat with them because I had thought my team had left early. But they didn't, they were just at the back and I didn't notice them come in. They finished up the draws, announced the finals team winners, and then started team awards- we didn't go up- and the individuals. I was the fourth top rookie, and my brother was second, and our friend was first! It was so great. :D And Sil got top quizzer overall, she had an absolutely perfect day with no errors.
Oh, and my brother bought the Lost Colony and the last Series of Unfortunate Events book, the End, which was really good. I was so happy that they didn't get killed off. Yay.
The subscription drive for the Leader, the local paper that I deliver, started on Friday, and it goes until November 20th, and I got a renewal today, which means I get more money. :)

The bird is dead, but I am still alive

No, I didn't die of missing him, thank goodness. That would not be good. Just a busy week and my own laziness.
Our friends came to visit on Wednesday night. Sil brought the Lost Colony, which I finished on Thursday morning, even though I had to stay up until 12. We did a lot... played Settlers of Catan (and I almost won! Arggh!) and Dutch Blitz, which I didn't even get close to winning... listened to Sil's awesome piano playing... and did lots of quizzing practice. We got our other team members over on Thursday night to practice with the quiz pads, since Mom and Dad hadn't been able to get them working- they didn't realize that you couldn't have more than one light on at a time. They're not hard to get used to, but it's a bit strange sitting on a lumpy thing for a while.
On Friday there was a piano master class thingy, which was fun, although half the people who were planning to come didn't show up. Oh well, it was still interesting with three people.
Saturday Mom, Dad, my brother and I went into the city to pick up my grandma and go to a pre-first-quiz-meet practice at Sil's church, which was nice because we got to try the quiz benches, which are little metal benches with four seats connected to the quizmaster's thing so that they know who jumps first; like pads but built in. They're nice. I actually figured out last night during our practice that if I sit in a certain position and just move my foot, the light will go on a lot faster. But it's hard to find the position.
And yesterday we didn't do much.. church, I was helping in junior church so I didn't hear the sermon, but the music was good... and my friend came over.. and that's pretty much it. Quizzing practice too.

He's dead.

I'm alive.
But I'm also horrible at posting.
Friday's trip went really well. I had a violin lesson, got some Latin done, new clothes (two shirts and a long skirt), and we stopped at a used bookstore and I found the Tolkien Encyclopedia for $15! It's a really good deal, almost brand-new and normally it's about forty.

Yesterday I cleaned. My room mostly, thankfully it didn't take too long.
And it's a long weekend, plus this week will only have Tuesday and Wednesday for schoolwork! I love this time of year. Except it's really cold, for me at least. My thermometer is still on summer temperatures.

The bird is sick. Yesterday afternoon he was all puffed up and not moving much, and since about 8 last night he's been sitting in his little housy nest and barely moving. We've had him for two years, but finches usually live a lot longer than that.

Hi. Sorry, I haven't posted. There really hasn't been much to post on... we're going to the city tomorrow for violin, cello, and a lot of shopping... my dad is sick, so pray for him. For Thanksgiving (this weekend, ha, all you Americans have to wait another month and a half!) my aunt and uncle and my other aunt are coming. My aunt has promised lots of times to visit since my grandma moved here in February, and so far she hasn't, so hopefully she won't cancel this time.
And yet again I have nothing to read. Except the Silmarillion, which I'm still working my way through. Too much of it gives me a headache though.

Corn Maze

Yes, we did get to go to the corn maze yesterday. It was fun. Our group got back third- the first ones were there for less than thirty minutes, but they somehow skipped posts 5-7. We were third- it was quite funny, we kept getting lost and having to come back to checkpoint 7 and retrace our steps, then we continued to run into another group and ended up just following them until my friend slipped in the mud and they left us behind. I bought popcorn and put too much salt on it, so the petting-zoo goats got plenty- it's not bad for them, and they love it, those were adorable goats- and I gave the rest to my mom. We had a hot dog roast and marshmallows too. The trip there and back was fun- three other girls, me, two boys in the back talking to no one but themselves, my brother and my mom went in our suburban, and it was quite fun. Loud. Giggly.

My Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl piano book came today! I have He's a Pirate almost hands-together already, though not well. I've been cheating a bit on some of the chords; I leave the bottom note out for the four- or five-note chords that are more spread out. If my right hand (I'm left-handed, so it makes it even harder) is going from a high F to an E an octave below that, I can't exactly get my middle fingers to go to the important in-between ones. So I cut the bottom; with the left-hand accompaniment it'll sound fine anyways. I wonder if there's ever been a pianist that hasn't wished their hands were bigger.