And No One Has To Know If We Decide To Go

WOW! Okay. Let's get started.

Yesterday, I didn't do much; did my morning cleaning and all that. Later I made some bread from a semi-made up recipe; if it turns out okay, I'll post it, but I'm still letting it rise from yesterday. I also made sugar cookies from the best recipe in the world. Ours. Seriously: make these and you'll never want any other sugar cookies.

1 lb powdered sugar

2 cups butter, softened- NOT MELTED!! (If you need to soften it quickly, cut it up into tablespoons and then cut it in half lengthwise and then microwave it for 10-12 secs)

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. lemon extract (If you don't have lemon, replace with 1 tsp. vanilla. Yesterday I replaced this with 1 tsp. almond extract, and it was awesome. I've never tried it with the lemon)

5 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cream of tartar

Cream sugar and butter. Blend in eggs and flavourings. Blend in soda, then tartar, then flour. Refrigerate for 4 hours, or overnight. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough on a surface lightly dusted with flour. Cut into shapes and such, handling the dough as little as possible. (I don't cut it into shapes; too much work. I just grab a chunk of the dough and flatten it to 1/4 inch.) Bake 7-8 mins or until middle is solidified-ish. If they're starting to brown, then you've killed them and totally failed. Go cry in a corner and dash your brains out.

Top with this deliciousness:

http://www.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ricks-Special-Buttercream-Frosting/Detail.aspx

But I suggest halving or quartering it. It makes a LOT of frosting; like, a LOT.

To be awesomeness, I crushed up some leftover candy canes (because no one ever eats the candy canes, and they'd been sitting in the pantry forever...we've been over this before) and put them in the sifter, and sifted the smaller bits into the frosting, then put the bigger bits into the dough. They're awesome.

I had to run to the store to get powdered sugar, and did my whole "loud music sing-along" sweetness, and was stoked. 

Later, we had FHE, and it was a good FHE. 

After FHE, I still wanted to go for a walk in the woods, so I asked Da, and he said no, but Smells and Schink said they'd go, so Da said it'd be okay if we went if Mum came with us, but she didn't, so I cried from disappointment (I was REALLY looking forward to it), and went outside and sat in a chair and looked at the moon instead. Schink came out there, and sat on me, and we talked. It was nice. I've been told I shouldn't have a favourite sibling, but Schink is my favourite sibling. He's so interesting, even though he's 10.

Later, while I was baking cookies or something, I heard a noise outside. Could it be? I ran to the sliding door, and opened it, hardly daring to believe....it was!! IT WAS RAINING!!! Last night, it rained!!!! I was SO excited!!! I just turned around and smiled at Mum, all happy, and put my arm out and felt it. I was so happy. It's been warmer, so the snow's a lot melted, and it's awesome. 

After that, I watched "The Thing" with Mum (We recorded it on TV, so it was edited). Then I fell asleep while watching another thing that she put on, and she woke me up and I dragged myself to bed, where Aurora was still up, supposedly reading, although I think I saw a flash of cell phone that she hid. She was supposed to be doing homework. But she got out, and I went to bed, and had the weirdest "The Thing"-inspired dream, instead with werewolves, which made it 10,000 times cooler. At 7am, my alarm went off, and I kept pressing sleep, because I wanted to finish the dream, and I'd wake up, press sleep, then fall back into the dream, and it was so odd, because my dream was actually progressing like a movie, with a beginning, middle, and end, although I don't know if it actually ended. I know there was lots of chasing, and blood, and snow (even in my dreams...horrible) and at one part Mum went to an antique store or something, and I went with her, and there was a piano there, a really old one, and it sounded BEAUTIFUL. But it was, like, $599 or something like that. So apparently I don't even get what I want in my dreams. But it was still a wicked cool dream, so it's okay. I pressed sleep all the way through my second alarm, and my dream must have ended, or I woke up too much, and I got up at 9.

I did morning cleanup, then while I was eating breakfast Mum came downstairs and said stuff, which made me confused, because I didn't think that Aurora would be that much of an idiot. But apparently she is. And I honestly don't care whether she messes up her own life, but that she's making Mum and Da stressed makes me sad.

After that, I showered, then finished baking the cookies, then frosted them, then cleaned up my "studio", then did I don't know what, then made myself lunch at 1pm, and took a blanket and a pillow outside and lay on the deck and had lunch and read, then read for a while longer. I fell asleep, I guess, and I woke up to Mum telling me from her bathroom window to get ready. I asked her for what, then she reminded me that Thaden was getting a cast today. Then I remembered, and it was 2:50pm, and I got ready, and frosted the rest of the cookies, and we went, and he got his cast. I took lots of photos, and a 10 min video. It wasn't that eventful. But we got there before 3:30pm, and didn't get back 'til after 5pm. It was so nice outside today. I loved it. And it's supposed to rain tomorrow night.

When I got back, I had cereal, then had another adventure with Mum: Thaden has a habit of throwing stuff down the upstairs floor vent. A long time ago (relatively) he threw Mum's stylus down there, and she was sad about that, because she liked that stylus, and this morning he threw down two of Schink's DS games. I would have been glad, except that was more than $60 right there. So tonight, Mum tried her idea of sticking the videocamera down there along with a flashlight, both on twine, to see if we could see where the stuff ended up. But the videocamera was too big, and she got disappointed. I hesitated, had a one-second mini-argument with myself, then suggested that she use my camera, because it was smaller. I was scared because it meant that my camera could also get stuck down there, but I hate seeing Mum not happy. So we let the flashlight down, and Mum estimated that the vent went down about 9 ft. Then she stuck my camera in there, on record, while it was on (which was the plan) and tried to pull up. It was stuck. She told me so, and I just froze for a second. Then my mind flashed through anger, sadness, disbelief, and finally settled on no emotion so I could think. I thought for a minute, then calmed down. "We'll have to wait for it to run out of battery, and then it'll shut off." When it shut off, the lens would go in, and so it would be flat. Then she thought for a minute, about the whole "9 ft" thing, because she thought that the vent went in between the walls, but I suggested that it went down to the vent that's between the family room and the kitchen. Then she said the basement. So she had me rattle around the flashlight as she went to the basement, and she found where it went. We moved around the pipe, and got out the 2 games, my camera, and her stylus. She was happy. I'm glad. She's had a really poo week. 

I took my bread out. It tastes really good, but it's really heavy. It is all rye though, so I kinda knew it would be. I think I'll make it again, but with more yeast. I'll post the recipe later.

The end. Enjoy the photos.

Giselle in the ER

My Sugar Cookies

Thaden, post-break, pre-cast

Leaving the hospital. Thaden's got his neon-green cast.

And now for the adventure:

See how happy she is?

Like a Fire is Burning

Let's see....after church, I stayed to play piano, and when one of the bishop's counsellors was going around and shutting off all the lights, he told me that one of the Elders was playing in the chapel, and that he sounded really good, so I went to listen, and one of the Elders was playing and the other was talking to a woman who must have been an investigator, and I just sat and drew and listened as piano-Elder played piano and elaborated on some hymns, and the other Elder talked to the lady. Well, actually, she talked, he listened. She seems like one of those ladies that just has to talk and talk and dump her whole life story on everyone she meets. But it was cool. After they were done, I went back to the primary room, played for not much longer, had a couple of sugar packets that I had in my backpack, then went home and had lunch.

Later, I made those chocolate-chip cookies again, minus chocolate chips, but I added in a handful of oats (we had a bit left, so I just added it) and made a batch, and I thought that some walnuts would be good, so I put in some walnuts, and made the rest. I made caramel corn, too, but it was a different recipe than the first time I had made it, and it wasn't as good.

I also explored the forest for a bit over an hour. The forest looked so beautiful today for some reason, but also quieter and colder, and a little less welcoming. I came to an area, then looked up and watched as the trees swayed in the wind. A couple of the trees looked like they had feathers instead of needles coming from their branches, and as they rippled, they looked so soft; I wanted so badly to climb up and touch them. I just looked at them instead, and realised for the first time that trees always move when they're blown, no matter how large, but I hadn't noticed this before for some reason. I sat down for a bit, and read my patriarchal blessing, and was going to read scriptures, but the sun had gone behind some clouds, and it got cold really quickly, and all of a sudden I wanted nothing more than to be back home. So I went back hurriedly.

When I got back, Thaden was out on the porch, being cute. I kind of wondered about this, but was just like, "whatever". He pointed at a ball that he had thrown down the steps, and I got it for him, then he pointed at some paper that appeared when the snow melted, and grabbed that too. We chilled on the porch for a while, then Mum came out and gave Thaden a blanket and some turkey, but it was cold, so I took him inside. Aurora was asleep on the couch with the TV on, and she was the only one in the family room, so that's why Thaden was outside by himself. I took Thaden to the living room where Mum and Da were, and Mum told me that Thaden had been looking for me. Cuteness. Da was listening to scriptures on his computer; Mum was reading "Our Heritage". I played piano. Then Mum told Da to sing us something, and he sang a hymn in spanish (he went on his mission to Argentina). It was cool. 

I made oatmeal for dinner, then went down to my room and read scriptures, then got tired and fell asleep and had an odd dream in which I went back to Rexburg with that girl who I've done a couple things with here (who shall henceforth be known as "Art Girl"). I remember most of the dream took place in these airplane terminals that looked like cafeterias, and were poorly-lit, and were a bit creepy. It was always dark outside, and it was sometimes wet and rainy, and sometimes cold. When we were getting ready to fly back from Rexburg, I remember thinking to myself, "Why didn't I just leave some of the clothes and things that I brought this time at the storage place? I'm going to need to take them back anyways, and that way I would have had more room. Oh, wait, we haven't left yet. But I don't have my key. But we can swing by Emily's place before we go and leave them with her. I think I'll ask them if we can do that." But before I could ask them, I was woken up by Da waking Aurora up, who turned on the light, because she's an unprepared jerk like that, who then left without shutting the door and without shutting off the hall light, and I had to do that, and then I tried to fall back asleep, but my stomach felt funny (probably because I needed to use the bathroom), so I got up around 6:20am (by my clock, but it was earlier than that, because my clock is ahead), and used the bathroom, washed my face, chilled with Da, who hadn't left yet, then he left and I chilled with Smells and Schink, then I had breakfast and read scriptures, then did dishes and emptied the dishwasher as I watched the sun awaken, then cleaned up my stuff from upstairs. And now I'm on here, and I still have things to clean, and I want to upload photos to deviantart.com, and see what comments I get, and whether I'm good enough to sell a few photos as prints (which is a dream of mine).

So there.

I love getting up before the sun, and watching it rise; I also love seeing the sun die. It's so cool. Tonight's a full moon, and I want to take a walk in the forest with someone, but I asked Mum last night and she said it was too cold. I want to go with either Mum or Da or Aurora, but I don't think any of them will go. I don't feel safe going by myself at night.

Place Your Hand In Mine I'll Leave When I Wanna

On Thursday Smells almost got a concussion from ski club and we had to drive to Grand Rapids to the hospital where they took her, except this time it took less than the 45 mins it usually takes because mum was going 85 mph. We were in the car at 6:40 pm, then we were at the hospital from 7:00ish to 9:40ish, and got home at 10. Giselle didn't have a concussion, and on the way home we got Burger King, but I didn't, 'cuz it's fat, and I don't remember the last time I had fast food, or a hamburger. Hmm. It smelled so good, but no.

Yesterday I washed a fasciaload of dishes, and vacuumed, and swept, and cleaned the counters, and it took 2 or 3 hours. Since I started washing dishes, people have gotten more and more lazy, and now I wash everyone's dishes all the time, which doesn't bother me; it gives me something to do; but when I leave, they're gonna wonder why the kitchen is so dirty all of a sudden and why the sink is always filled with dishes.

On Thursday I baked meringues, and cake from homemade. The cake was awesomeness.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Dark-Chocolate-CakeII/Detail.aspx

We had leftover frosting from Smell's B-Day party, so I frosted it with that. Hydrogenated nasty oil.  

Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies, and I found the recipe that I'm going to use forever and ever.

 http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Award-Winning-Soft-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/Detail.aspx

With these changes:

Add 2 tsp baking powder along with the soda in the recipe, 1 tsp salt (this makes the cookies salty, and I LOVE salty cookies), 2 TBSP of vanilla, not 2 tsps, and I don't like nasty walnuts in my cookies. These changes were suggested by one of the reviewers, and I did them and they made these cookies awesome. But the 1 tsp salt was from me; the reviewer said to use 1/2 tsp salt, but like I said, I like salty cookies.

Then I got a call from that girl who invited me to that talent show, and we watched Down With Love (a good movie), then talked. It was coolness, but we didn't have much to talk about, because we only had one class together for 4-ish months, and we never did anything outside of school, and I'm in college, and she's still in HS. But she's way cool: she has a record player!! She's definitely art. 

I slept on the couch last night 'cuz Aurora's friend slept over, and I stayed up past 2, mostly just playing the piano. At one point, I was so tired, that I just slouched on the couch and plunked stuff out with my right hand; I wanted to keep playing, but I was so tired, and I still had to brush my teeth. Eventually I did go brush my teeth, then I drew a picture because there was paper and crayons lying around, then set up my bed and went to sleep.

Woke up at 7am from my first alarm, shut it off and went back to sleep. Then woke up at 8am from my second alarm, and pressed sleep until 8:30am. Then I just got up. 

I looked out the window, and what did I see? Beautiful clouds, melting snow, and the sky smiling at me. It's a lot warmer outside, and it's supposed to rain. I'm happy.

Today I washed the inevitable sinkful of dishes while watching the sun rise. I paused to take a couple pictures, then unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it, and had breakfast, then made pamcakes. 

I overheard Aurora's friend say "It must be nice to have a sister that cooks. My sister doesn't do anything." That made me happy. Like, really happy.

I'm being noticed on Facebook. And it makes me happy.

My friends are awesome. That makes me happy.

I deleted all my stolen music. Be proud.

I see a ladybug crawling up the window.

I love my hair.

People compliment me. That makes me happy.

But I'm finally being noticed. That makes me happier than anything. I'm not invisible. My friends are awesome. I have friends. I seriously can't believe that. I can't believe that everything is so good. I complain sometimes, and have those stupid moods, but overall, I really do have an awesome life, and I can't understand why. But I am so glad, glad beyond description.

I get to make turkey. :D :D :D

Honestly, I cannot believe how good everything is right now, and how blessed I am. I really don't know why, I don't understand. But I am so glad. Ooh, here's another one of those times when I could keep writing and writing and writing. But I need to make the turkey; it's been the fridge for three days. 

Hugs to all!!!

Let the rain fall, I don't care

Thaden broke his arm yesterday. Small greenstick fracture. Giselle went to be with Thaden, I went to see medstuffs. And I know for sure that if I'm supposed to, I want to do something in medicine.

I got up, swept, cleaned the counters, washed dishes, made breakfast for Mum, like I do every morning. Then I made homemade salsa (BEST I have ever tasted: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fresh-Tomato-Salsa/Detail.aspx Added a clove of garlic, didn't use the peppers, added corn, would have added beans if we had 'em, added a tsp or so of vinegar)

Then I made corn tortillas. Triple the recipe (which means 16 times 3). Water, salt, masa harina. Awesomeness. My Da wanted to buy chips at the store yesterday, but Mum charged me with making sure he didn't buy things that we didn't absolutely need, and I told him I'd make salsa and chips. We already had the masa, and the salsa ingredients are cheap, and it gave me something to do. In fact, it gave me 3-ish hours of something to do. 

Oh, also, yesterday, I made fudgies, and mashed potatoes, but in the mashed potatoes, I used a packet of Rice-A-Roni flavouring (Parmesan) because we didn't like the way it tasted with the Rice-A-Roni so we saved it and it had been sitting in the cabinet forever.

So after all that, I showered then took Schink to Cub Scouts at 5:20, and I stayed and played piano, then Mum called and I picked Aurora up from B-Ball at 7-ish and we got fro-yo then went back to the church, and I stayed until 9:40. After I decided that I should leave, I drove around backwards in the church parking lot for a song, then my iPod died, and I had to listen to the radio. Ick. But the songs weren't horrible; "Womanizer", then that new Pink song, then something else that I didn't really like, then a couple of older musics. I don't know what it is, but I seriously LOVE listening to music in the car. Or listening to music at all. Or music in general. College: Where you learn things. But seriously. Like, I can't even describe it. I don't even know what to say. Can I plug my head in and let you feel?

Oh, I also finished reading Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. It is an amazing book, and Spinelli's an amazing author. I LOVE his style; it's vague and poetic. I love it. Go read that book. And I still need to watch Life Is Beautiful.

But none of 'em were home

Inside their catacombs

A million ancient bees

Began to sting our knees

While we were on our knees

Prayin' this disease

Would leave the ones we love

And never come again

And on the radio

We heard November rain

On The Radio by Regina Spektor. I love her songs.

And while we're on songs I love, check out the song Emily by Johanna Newsom. It's 12-ish mins long, and it's a beautiful song. Mum says it's annoying, but I love it, and the lyrics are just beautiful. It's about her sister, who's an astrophysicist. I love that song, even though I don't understand all of it.

I love science. I am a nerd. But I'm a cool nerd, not a nerdy nerd. Heck yeah. Malleability!!!

Oh, and I miss having a math class, and I want to take a physics class. 

Art + Science. I really am a mash-up of opposites. I'm sweetness, if I do say so myself, and I do say so myself.

"So myself."

I haven't a care in the world, because I store all my cares on Mars.

Pretty Dress by Rosie Thomas

Put your pretty dress on 
It's time for you to go to the dance
Tie your hair in ribbons and lace 
And wear pearls 'round your neck

And all the pretty princes will see you
All the pretty princes will see you
Some day, some day

Put your red boots on
It's time for you to walk home from school
Everyone will laugh, they'll point fingers at you
They'll be cruel

But cover up your ears and don't listen
Because you'll know much better than them
Some day, some day

And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you

Put your red coat on
And walk with a light in the woods
If it gets dark don't get scared
There's so much waiting for you

Cover up your tears and don't show them
'Cause you'll know much better than them 
Some day, some day

And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you

'Cause they don't see you like I see you
If they did, they'd see
The nice little girl who's grown up
To become homecoming queen

Put your pretty dress on
Put your red boots on

And they'll wave to you
And they'll wave to you
And we'll wave to you
And we'll wave to you

Put your pretty dress on
Put your red boots on
Put your red coat on
Put your pretty dress on

Put your pretty dress on
Put your red coat on
Put your red boots on
Put your pretty dress on

When you're strange faces come out of the rain/When you're strange no one remembers your name

I had another sweetness adventure today. Mi dia was like zis:

Aurora left the door open, so Bailey was on my pillow, and me being uncomfortable from him plus Smells and Schink making lots of noise upstairs made it so I couldn't fall back asleep, so I just got up at kill-me-dead 6:45am and went upstairs and played piano. Smells and Schink were still home, and Mum did Smell's hair last night, so I took a couple pics of it. She looked cute. Her hair's really long, and she wants to cut it. I fear she may be turn out to be like me in that respect. But they left, and I did piano for a bit more, then sorted through some recipes online in my online recipe box. Then I made some bread in the bread machine at 8:45-ish, and then sorted summore. Da came home from being on call around 9:30-10:00-ish, and he had breakfast, then I had breakfast (I mixed together plain cheerios, honey-nut, and banana-nut cheerios. I like mixing cereals; one time, I mixed together oatmeal, wheat chex, plain cheerios, and caramel fiber-one). Then at 11-ish Mum got up, and I put on some music and made her some cream of wheat, then baked some awesome cookies and some not-so-good lemon bars. They weren't lemon-y enough. But the cookies were these:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Raspberry-and-Almond-Shortbread-Thumbprints/Detail.aspx

They're so good. And I now know that I love almond extract, and that it smells like delicious. But it doesn't taste delicious when licked from the teaspoon. Neither does vanilla taste delicious. But straight vanilla tastes better than straight almond.

After that, I got dressed, and explored the forest.

And THAT was a sweetness adventure.

The past couple of times that I've explored the forest, I've not gone that far out; maybe walked for 10 mins at the most. I'm always alone, so I'm afraid of getting lost (and one time I did, but not horribly). But this time I followed the footprints that I made about a week ago, and went further, and made handprints in the snow, so I knew where I'd been and which way to go. I discovered houses, "Keep Out" signs, various animal tracks, and deer poo. The forest goes on for a LOT longer than I thought. I also found the highway. It was just so awesome; you had to be there to understand. 

Now let's step back a minute. Can you picture me in K-Ville, fresh from Cali, complaining that there was nothing to do; that everything was all hickish; that I missed the suburban area with all its shopping and hollowness and shallowness?

And now here I am, and I don't want to go back to that. I like this wilderness. That doesn't mean I like MI, because there really is NOTHING to do here unless you have money, but I like being near nature, being out in nature, exploring it, listening to it, observing it. I think if the me then knew the me now, I'd hate myself. But I hate who I was, so it's okay.

My journeying took about an hour, then I came back, had lunch, played piano a bit more, then went with Mum and Da on errands. We came back, I DDR'd, then worked on the FHE lesson that Schink was doing, then heated up dinner, and we had dinner. 

I don't remember what I did after that, but then I tried to paint, and wasn't in the mood, so I opted to photo instead, and did that, then paused for FHE, then did it some more. I had taken some pictures already, and was setting up in a different area, and got everything all perfect, and then my camera decided that it was time to die, and it did. So I plugged it in, DDR'd some more, then went back and took some more photos. After 45-ish minutes, may have been an hour; I dunno, I don't keep time when I'm in there; my camera died again. I was disappointed, but also glad: I was getting some REALLY REALLY awesome photos, but I was tired, and it's a hassle having to set the timer, and wait, and all that. I only had 100-something photos left, but that was 100-something photos that could have been awesome...eh.

And now I'm listening to music and typing this and editing photos, because I'm just dumb like that. There's this artist named Allison Harvard whose artwork and photos are AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING, and I LOVE her style, and she is so beautiful. There's this photo of hers that I got inspiration from, and tonight's set was done with that inspiration in my head. There's also this song that I'm trying to get a photo to match, and if I get the right photo, I'll post the song and the photo.

I'm really wishing now that I had a photography class, and a real studio, and a nice camera. But I'm glad for what I have.

Back to photo editing. I need to use the loo. Pardon.

O Babylon, O Babylon, we bid thee farewell

Let's just get this out of the way first: I don't care about the Super Bowl. I don't care who wins; I don't have "a team"; I don't care about any sports event, not my school's, not my family's, nothing. I refuse to watch it, even more so because it's on Sunday. It's a waste of time.

After dinner, me 'n Schink had a water war, and it was so fun. Usually, I'd be scared to do that, because it makes a mess, but I got over it and I sponged him and he water-bottled me. It was so much fun. Then Jothan and I cleaned up the mess, and we fuzzed a bit, then Giselle joined us, then I photo'd/video'd Schink and Smells fuzzing around, and it was just awesome. Life is so much better when you get along with your family, and laugh at life. 

Da is on call today, but he showed up at church a little bit into Sacrament Meeting, which was a good surprise and made everyone happy. We showed up at church late, because Da wasn't there to help us get ready, so we missed singing #7, and I like that one. 

I took Giselle to pick up some stuff from her friend's house that she left there, and I took Thaden so Mum could have a break and Jothan came with us, and we listened to hymns from my iPod and I sang, and it was fun. 

A couple weeks ago, I was bored, so I modeled for myself, and took a bazillion photos, using a timer on the camera, and then a few days after that I did it again, and then a couple days ago, I set up a "studio" of sorts, and modeled for myself again, and then yesterday Aurora and I played DDR and then she modeled for me, and today I modeled again. It's way awesome, and I've decided to take a photography class during some winter semester, if I stay in R-Town for the winters (if I can, I want to just stay there. Plane tickets cost too much; I'll go to my family in Utah for holidays. I'm just dead bored here). I also downloaded Picasa (free application from Google or something like that), and have been using that (it's way awesome). Da has Corel, but I have absolutely NO idea how to use that, although I suppose I could read a manual....but who reads the manual? ......I might......Actually, I will. I definitely have time.

So I've decided that I'm using this time until April to develop my talents. And it's going smashingly so far. Or at least I hope it is. Photography, painting, drawing (which I do all the time anyways, but I have plans to actually set something up and do a real drawing instead of just doodling), cooking, piano, reading, etc., plus developing inward talents, like patience and all that.

And with cooking: 

Mum wanted me to make dinner. I asked her what she wanted me to make. She said I dunno, we still have some pasta. Make pasta. So I made pasta. And we have had a couple of cans of creamed corn and a couple of cans of cream of chicken sitting in the pantry for a bazillion years, and I hate it when that happens, so I mixed those together, and then cooked some peas, and put the cooked pasta in a casserole dish with the creamed corn/cream of chicken mixture, mixed in the peas, then ground some pepper over it all, and mixed that in, then crushed up some Ritz and put that on top, then put on some italian bread crumbs that I had left over, then some cheese, and baked it for about 15 mins at 375. It was awesome; in fact, it IS awesome, since we have leftovers. 

So I have purpose in life once again. And we had a heat wave: 45 degrees outside!!!!! It made me happy.

I like life right now.