Thursday, March 26, 2009

Recent Fantastic Gifts!!

The book my brother Phillip bought for me has arrived! A complete collection of the Original Winnie-the-Pooh, as pictured here:

Quotations:

So Owl wrote…and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY
Pooh looked on admiringly. “I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday,’” said Owl carelessly.
“It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed by it.
***
[Eeyore has just finished reading a poem he wrote himself]
“If anybody wants to clap,” said Eeyore when he had read this, “now is the time to do it.”
They all clapped.
“Thank you,” said Eeyore. “Unexpected and gratifying, if a little lacking in Smack.”
“It’s much better than mine,” said Pooh admiringly, and he really thought it was.
“Well,” explained Eeyore modestly, “it was meant to be.”
***
“Well,” said Owl, “the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.”
“What does Crustimony Proseedcake mean?” said Pooh.
“For I am a bear of very little brain, and long words bother me.” “It means the Thing to Do.”
“As long as it means that, I don’t mind,” said Pooh humbly.
***


Secondly, my super awesome pen pal Ashley sent me a super awesome gift: a Chinese scarf in lovely shades of yellow and blue. Not an amazing picture, but here I am wearing it:


Thursday, March 19, 2009

Birthday-ness!!



My birthday was the 17th (St. Patrick’s Day – yes, I wore green). To commemorate this happy event, we invited a boatload of friends over, including:

Jeremy: Married to our friend Katie. He’s relatively awesome, always has an absolutely pathetic joke or pun ready, and amuses everyone present. I guess you could call him somewhat mature, but he still appreciates the “kid things” of life. He really likes Dilbert comics.

Katie: Married to Jeremy. She’s fun, and laughs at the fact that we laugh at Jeremy’s stupid jokes. :)

Matt: Married to Wendy. He’s hilarious, and always wears “artsy” things like argyle sweaters, Converse All Stars, etc. His favorite store is Express (men’s), and he is always talking about some musician named Derek Webb.

Wendy: Married to Matt. She is hilarious and fun, and tries to make Matt act sensibly. Sometimes she succeeds at that, but at other times he’s fairly hopeless. :)

Aleah: She is awesome and entertaining and completely herself. We had met her only once before, but I don’t think she’s ever met a stranger.

Denise: She’s in Heidelberg’s orchestra with us. She is quiet, but also outgoing, and a fun conversationalist.

Emily: She is a Heidelberg student. She’s very outgoing, nice to everyone, and a lot of fun. She sings and plays the flute.

Elizabeth: Emily’s sister – also a Heidelberg student. She’s really awesome and fun to hang out with. She sings and plays marimba (and other awesome percussion instruments).

Jon: Another Heidelberg student. He’s in piano studio class and orchestra with us. He is absolutely hilarious. He’s good at piano, although violin is his main instrument. He crochets his own colorful scarves, and he always makes me laugh.

Sarah: Yes, another Heidelberg student. She is totally hilarious and fun. We are kind of in her (music) theory/composition class, and she gets to practice teaching on us. :)

Emily, Elizabeth, Jon, and Sarah gave me this really sweet lookin’ card that plays a fascinating piano arrangement of “happy birthday” when opened. (pictured at top) Needless to say, it has been a source of vast entertainment for me. =)

They also gave me some candy, which I am enjoying:

Instead of my birthday cake, I actually had birthday pie (apple). It is very delicious. I don’t usually get birthday presents; in fact, nobody in our family has usually exchanged birthday gifts. My brother Phillip spontaneously bought an ipod for me last year, and sometimes friends give me something. Phillip told me (on my birthday) that a package from Amazon was on the way. He told me only that it is a book, and I will like it. I asked him about a million questions, but met with only the answer, “Maybe, and maybe not.” Grrr. I doubt it’s fiction unless it’s a satire, or of philosophical nature. It’s probably not a classic unless it’s an exceptional one, because he knows my distaste for pointless reading material. My guess is that it’s a non-fiction, somewhat obscure work of literature, possibly of economic, philosophical, or political content, and perhaps of an entertaining, satirical, or amusing nature. I am eagerly awaiting its arrival. I’m not a good suspense person.

My awesome pen pal Emma sent an awesome card, stationery, post-its, and tea, which arrived the day before.


Coming Soon: My latest culinary experiment, with pictures.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Original Winnie-the-Pooh

Most of us have been exposed, in some small way, to Winnie-the-Pooh. You may not, however, be familiar with A. A. Milne’s original Winnie-the-Pooh, who is incredible. I was completely indifferent toward all things Winnie the Pooh until I rediscovered the original A. A. Milne books, complete with the adorable pencil drawings of Ernest Shepard.

Sadly, I own only one of these delightful stories, although our local library has the whole collection in one massive volume.

The following is an excerpt from Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees:

He put his head between his paws and thought very carefully.

“It’s like this,” he said. “When you go after honey with a balloon, the great thing is not to let the bees know you’re coming. Now, if you have a green balloon, they might think you were only part of the tree, and not notice you, and if you have a blue balloon, they might think you were only part of the sky, and not notice you, and the question is: Which is most likely?”

“Wouldn’t they notice
you underneath the balloon?” you asked.

“They might, or they might not,” said Winnie-the-Pooh. “You never can tell with bees.”

He thought for a moment and said: “I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them.”

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Awesome Contest!!

So my awesome sis Bonnie is having a silly contest on her blog. The selected winner also gets a lame prize! So everyone go vote to win!!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Family Relationships

Lately, I've been considering family relationships. Admittedly, I do not always get along with everyone in my immediate family, let alone the rest of them. (And there are a lot.) I've decided that I have a nice balance of immediate family, including:

-A sibling who confuses me
-A sibling I disagree with on almost everything
-A sibling I like
-A sibling who has a completely opposite temperament (from me), but I get along with nonetheless
-A sibling who is my best friend
-Two parents that I sometimes like and sometimes don't (as is the case with most, especially during the teenage years)

If you happen to be in my immediate family, please do not try to make out who is who in that list.

In a way, each one balances my personality and stability. Some people are confused by my varying relationship levels with my immediate family. Most of them can relate to my relationship with the one I disagree with on almost everything, but few of them can relate to the fact that one of them (a brother, no less) is my best friend. I just have to say, "Yay for siblings!" If I had only parents, I do not know how long my sanity would last.