Possums

So, I was asked by a very special person to blog a little about possums. So I'm going to do just that. So first, for those of you just starting in your exploration of our beautiful, natural world, what is a possum? A possum is a furry little creature that is nocturnal and has the funniest defense weapon in all of the animal kingdom, in my opinion. For those of you that don't know what a possum looks like, here you go:

mad possum,

baby possums,

scared possum,

and of course, happy possum!!

So yeah, those are possums. I know, I know, not the cutest things on the planet, but each creature holds its own unique beauty. Well, I certainly hope so at least. So anyway, the funny defense weapon. All animals have something to protect themselves from predators. Rattlesnakes rattle their tales, cobras open their hoods, stinkbugs stink (duh?), and some insects just taste bad. Possums, on the other paw, have one of the most unusual talents in that degree. What does a possum do when it is threatened? It plays dead. Yes, like a dog, but much, much better. So all those cartoons about ladies fainting when they are scared by a mouse, actually depict possums. Ha ha. I know I am probably the only one laughing, but what else is new? Given their od' de natural, possums pull of the "I'm dead" trick pretty well. I mean, who wants to eat a stinky piece of dead possum?

Possums are not the most lovable of creatures, but they do appear in some of our movies. Take for instance the two possum brothers in the animated film Ice Age II: The Meltdown. They are two mischievous little brothers who hang out with a mammoth. Strange company, huh? Possums also make a rather overly-dramatic appearance in Over the Hedge, another animated film. A father possum and daughter possum help the Raccoon to steal food from the humans.

Oops

okay, so I just posted the update below this, but for some reason it just came up with the date of October 23. It would be December 4. Stupid computer calendar, doesn't even know what day it is, sheesh.

Updates

Wow, it's been a long time since I've last updated. And people have been bugging me to update it, Mayville particularly. So, uh, yeah, here goes.

Things have been really crazy for me lately. I'm talking like super-hectic crazy, man (Whoa!-man ;] ). First things first though. My classes this term are fun, but busy. I still have English first period and that class is pretty much the same. Second period is the best class ever though. I finally joined Mayville's Epistemology class. Oh my gosh, EPIC. This class has everything you need to get the brain working and pumping, churning out crazy thoughts and ideas. The conversations in this class are absolutely AMAZING. Next is my World Civilizations class. That class is way too easy and not really all that interesting, but I need my history/social studies credits, so blah. Fourth period is now my cooking class, however. That class is awesome. Today we made chicken tetrazzini. It was so delicious, which is ironic considering it had mushrooms, onions, and water chestnuts in it, none of which I am particularly fond of. My last two classes are the same and they are operating pretty much the same as they were last term.

Next comes my after-school activities. The climbing team is really suffering at the moment. It really kind of sucks. I have watched this team grow since my freshman year. This team was a family then. It's just a bunch of kids getting together after school now. We took a two-week hiatus period before the beginning of term two, but we haven't had a real team meeting since then. I sincererly hope the team can pull it together and be the team I know it can be. Seeing as I am now president of the book club, my Wednesdays are no longer free, every other week at least. But I'm not complaining. We just got fifty new books from Boulder Bookstore to read and review. FIFTY. And what's even better is that for every two reviews we do, we get a $10 gift certificate to the Boulder Bookstore. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! For a bookworm like me, that's like Christmas at...well, Christmas time. <.<>The Graveyard Book. A marvelous and fantastic read for anybody who likes Gaiman's work. We are all reading individual books at the moment, the ones we got from Boulder Bookstore. I picked up three books: Caught Between the Pages, and The Chronicles of Vladmir Todd (books one and two). I also have National Honors Society meetings every first Wednesday of the month. This Saturday, in fact, we are going to clean some folk's homes. It should be fun, lots of shoveling ahead though. I've also been wanting to help a friend with her Amnesty Club, but with so little time as it is to get all my stuff done, I haven't been able to yet. Oh well, I guess we can't do everything, now can we?

Next is my current stuff at the house. With Christmas coming up, the family and I spent Thanksgiving weekend putting up the inside decorations (complete with hanging bear lights and Christmas tree) and most of the outside lights. Some of them are not working again but this happens every year, so you'd figure we'd be use to it. Also with the winter months coming up, I see a bit of cutting and gathering large chunks of firewood in the near future. My only comfort in this is that I won't be cold when sitting directly in front of the fire and not in the igloo temperature of the rest of our house. Mom does not always understand that fifty degrees is only warm to her and penguins, NO ONE ELSE.

Back to School

Ah, the school year has begun. New classes, new teachers, and old friends. Anyways, school has started back up and it's already clear it's going to be a crazy year. I only have one teacher from my previous year(s): my science teacher, Mr. Abshire. My schedule isn't too bad, especially for first term. I have 1) English, 2) World Civ 1, 3) AVID, 4) Film Studies, 5) AP Calculus, and 6) AP/IB Biology. I enjoy having english first hour because it is always nice to start the day with a class you like. I of course love english, so this is a good setup for me. The teacher, Mr. Will, is a pretty dorky guy, but seems like he'll be a good teacher. World Civilization, however, does not look so interesting. History being as boring to me as it is, I was hoping for a teacher that would at least try to make it more interesting. Unfortunately, no dice. I have two teachers, Mr. Grandt and his student-teacher Mr. White, both of whom are relatively interesting people and teachers. I am not seeing a very interesting future for the class. Oh well, can't have it all I guess.
AVID is a class I don't really like all that well to begin with, but I always end up getting stuck with it. My teacher this year, Mrs. Davenport, is a teacher I think I will grow to really like. She is bright and cheery and ends most of her sentences with an upward inflection. Film Studies is an iffy class though. It is one of those kinds of classes that can be really dull or cool, depending on the movies and work. So far, it's been so-so. AP Calc is a class I have been dreading. I am reasonably adept at math, but I'm not a math person. I don't really like math. And this class is tough, so we'll see how I do. Keep your fingers crossed.
And last, but certainly not least, AP Biology. I have always been interested in science, so this class was not a problem attention wise. The work load, however, as more the quadrupled from my previous science classes. I spent almost 4 hours doing homework last night. :\ I am sincerely hoping that the work will become easier, if not less. At least the work is interesting.
You know what bugs me the most about all the work? I don't have much time to read. Mr. Abshire just gave me a book called Quirkology. Sounds interesting, sounds fun. Had it for several days now. Still haven't gotten to start it. :[ On another note, the lawn mower was having issues, so I had to take it over to my Grandaddy's. We fiddled and messed with it some and today I brought it home. Not in the best condition ever, but a lot better than it was.
OOOH! Climbing starts next week. The Veteran's Meeting is on Monday and the actual first Interest Meeting is on Wednesday. I am so excited. I have been waiting for climbing since the end of last year. I hope we get a good turn out this year too. I have a couple of friends joining, so we'll see how they do. Can't wait! :D

Back and bustlin

Ah, I'm finally home. My dad worked until 1:30 on Friday, July 4th and so my mom picked him up from work and they came up and got me. They are busy around the house, so we didn't stay longer than 15 minutes once they got there. We drove back into town and stopped at Applebee's in Longmont for dinner.We got to the house somewhere between 9 and 10. I unpacked my stuff and went to bed. Saturday was full of errands. We had to go to the store and get groceries. After that, we had to go to my grandparents to 1) return some of their stuff that we borrowed and 2) to give them more stuff for the June's new room. Once we got home, we had to do some yard work. There was wood to cut and stack, weeds to pull, and stuff to rake/sweep. We finished and headed over to King Soopers to pick up a few things we didn't get earlier.
After dinner, Mom pulled out our new Wii Fit and did her daily body test and training. After she was done showing me and doing her activities, she had me create a Mii and start my own profile. I did some activities Saturday night and tonight. Some of those training exercises are really funny, especially considering my weight. I don't weigh enough for the Wii Fit Board to register some of my movements, which as you can imagine leads to quite a few hilarious "complications".
While I was away, Dad swapped my computer again. Today we realized that life wasn't going to let us shortcut by just having me uninstall what I didn't want and going from there. No, we had to wipe out the system and reformat EVERYTHING. I just got my computer up and running a couple of hours ago. I now have to reinstall all of the programs I want back on my computer and replenish things like my picture and music files.
This morning Dylan and I played a couple of games on the Wii, specifically Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. That was pretty fun. I also finished up various other games I had left hanging. I had been planning on going to this picnic and water sports thing at my church, but I was too tired this morning and Mom had plans I knew she would like to go to instead. So, I sat the event out. Or so I thought. I received a call around noon. It was my cousin asking if we wanted her to come get us. I said sure, if she wanted to. So we went. We came. We played. We got soaked to the bone. It was a blast.
After we had dried some-what, my cousins and I headed over to my house. We grabbed some of those Fruitista Freezes from Taco Hell on the way. We played Wii games at my house for a couple of hours. They are actually going to spend the night tomorrow night because my cousin Dani doesn't have to work on Tuesday. They just left and so I'm now getting to my computer errands/tasks.
Well, it's great to be home and I'm enjoying my free time at the moment.

10 days

Okay, I've been getting some gripes and complaints to update my blog, so here I am, updating. Nothing really significant has happened since my last post. I'm going to be coming home sooner than originally planned, but I decided I wanted to be there when Damian and June come in and to help out with that. I'm coming home late on Saturday, July 5th. I plan on doing things to increase the level of excitement of my summer, but not sure what those will be yet. I have opted to take Dylan to his swimming lessons from July 7th to July 18th, from 10:35 - 11:30. So, if you want to do something this summer, I am only available after noon on the weekdays until the 19th. I don't really have too much planned, so hit me up and we'll figure something cool to do. I already know of one activity involving Mayville's new unicycle.....XD. I'll try to update more regularly once I get home, but don't expect to see anything until then.

Books

Today I'm stranded at home. Mother Nature proudly delivered five inches of snow last night, much to my dismay. So we're not working today. I have been reading a lot lately, so that's one good thing I've gotten out of this experience. I have already read three, about to be four of the books I brought up here with me. That just leaves me six left. I am coming home sooner than I had originally planned, but now I'm just counting down the days. Only three weeks left.

Weekly Wrap-up

So another week has come to an end. It's hard to believe I've been up here for, what, three weeks now? At times everything passes me by so quickly it's a blur; others, it lazes its way along and time can't move fast enough. Those days are mainly my days off, sadly enough.
Well, the weather up here this week has been really bad. We were hit by a storm Wednesday afternoon, effectively shutting down that day, Thursday was so rainy, wet, and cold that we were inoperable that day too. And to top it all off it's been extremely windy all week long. Today was still windy, but at least the sun peaked through late into the evening.
I'm actually going to be working tomorrow, which means my first Saturday of not sitting at home lolligagging about. It works in two ways: it makes up for the hours of pay we lost this week to weather (Sandy's main concern) and it gets me out of the house and doing something which I enjoy more than just sitting around doing nothing. I have just recently beaten my Mario game on my Gameboy Advance, so that's one less thing to keep me busy. My Grandmother seems to find more than enough things to advise me not to do, how to do it, or how much she wants it done. It certainly has seemed that way as of late. I just nod and smile usually because they're not super serious things most of the time and only a couple of them have I really thought about saying something to her. This week, due to the raise in prices of pretty much everything in part because of raising oil prices (it's going to $150/barrel again), she just asked me to "try to wear your pants for at least a day or two more than usual". Okay, I'm a guy like any other, so OCCASIONALLY, usually in rushed circumstances, do I have to re-use a pair or pants. And even then I try to find the least used, least worn, best condition pants I can find to wear. I am a pretty clean person. And I'm sorry, but I can't wear the same filthy pants that have been mud splattered, weed grated, and dirt washed from working outside all day for any longer than I absolutely have to. So I'm exploring my options as to how I'm going to fix that little dilemma.
Well, I'm supposed to be making dinner tonight and I should really get to that before it gets too late or she gets to annoyed. So I'll update real soon.

Pay Day and Updates

Well, I went back to work today and we're still working at the clinic. I picked up my check today because I was so sick yesterday and I couldn't go and get it. This summer cold is totally kicking my butt. The coughing is really killing my chest. But anyways, I picked up my check today from Sandy and I was totally amazed at the amount. $196, for 3 days work! I am totally psyched. If I can continue to make almost $200 bucks a week, that would be totally awesome.
So it was my turn to cook dinner last night. I decided I was going to cook something not too complicated and something that didn't take long because Grandma Helen had a meeting she had to go to later that night. I made this beef and broccoli stir-fry with ramen noodles. I know it doesn't sound that great, but man was it good. I'm actually eating some more right now as lunch. :D Helen said she wanted to just eat left overs tonight, so I'm off the hook for cooking tonight. Haven't quite figured out what I'm going to eat, but I will eventually.

Routine

Ah, the weekend. It'll be nice to rest up. I've been working at this landscaping job and will continue to do so all summer. The worst part about it so far is the sunburns. I am baking like bread up here, especially round the ears and neck. I get the weekend off and don't have to start back to work until Tuesday, so that's nice. Grandma Helen works on Mondays and Tuesdays, so I'll have the house to myself on Monday. I also found out that Monday is pay-day. That's good to know because now I know how to space my spending during the week and when to expect to get my hard-earned money. This money really is hard earned too. We've been breaking our backs trying to haul in rocks, dig through literally rock-hard ground (if you only knew how bad of a pun that is) to plant these flowers, and it's definitely paid off. We only have about five more spots to get all fixed up and ready and then the Medical Clinic is done. It really looks great now.
Grandma Helen and I have established our cooking routine now and we'll put it into full effect this upcoming week. I'll be cooking Mondays and Tuesdays since she works. She'll cook Wednesdays and Thursdays, and Friday will be our night to eat out. Saturdays and Sundays haven't been talked about yet, but they'll probably just be whatever we feel like. I am currently making a list to buy food to fill her pantries because wow, they're dry. I don't think she's very creative when it comes to cooking. Which is something she seems to want to test while I'm up here. Good for her, not so sure for me. Sometimes it reallys sucks to be the guinea pig. :/
I've had a lot of time to think while I'm up here, so I should be pretty well collected by the time I get back (wouldn't hold my breath on that though). I am missing everyone back home, some more than others. I hope everyone is doing well and that you're all having a great summer.

The First Week

Okay, so I'm like a day off. But still. I am having a pretty great time up here. The first few days were slow and Tuesday was really bad for me mentally/emotionally, but I'm all good. I just recently got a landscaping job up here with some really nice folks, Sandy Fliniau and her husband Charlie. Oh, and you can't forget the dog Chelsea. lol.
I started work just the other day and it's been going GREAT. I jumped into the middle of their project on the new North Park Medical Clinic. They had just started...um, decorating I guess you'd call it, the front entrance (which come to find out, wasn't the front entrance. It was the south entrance). They had only layed down the weed barrier (God I hate weed barrier) and had hauled in a nicely sized rock. They had also planted two rosebushes. So I started helping near the beginning of the project. We hauled in about five or six more rocks. And I do mean hauled. I kid you not about the size of these things. These rocks are probably the size of a small dishwasher. But anyways, we also planted around a dozen roses and some cotoneaster (pronounced Cah-tone-ee-aster), that's like a small tree-bush. We layed down some mulch and watered the plants and boom! we were done.
I kinda miss home, but not really. I have plenty of stuff to keep me busy so far. I should be getting paid at the end of this week. $8 bucks an hour. So I should be getting...let's see...five on Wednesday....I got home 5:30-5:45 today, so...about 8 hours today.....so that's 8*5=40 and 8*8=64....so 64+40=104 dollars so far this week. So I expect another 5 or 6 hours tomorrow so that's another 40-48 dollars. So I'll probably make about $150 this week. Not bad, I'd say. Not bad at all. :D
Well, Grandma Helen wants to make pizza and Lost is about to come on T.V. (which is something I don't watch much of up here), so I'm gonna hop off for the night. I'll update tomorrow or the day after, whichever.

First Days in Walden

My first few days in Walden have been officially boring. The first official day I was here was Sunday. So I got up and went through my daily routine as always. I then decided to join my grandmother in going to her Methodist Church to see what that was like. It was okay. Personally, I think it was practically the same as any other church I've been too, but with small tweaks to the layout and the names of certain things. So, all in all, it was same old same old.
After church, I accompanied my grandma to the North Park High School graduation for the class of '08. She insisted I go so she could introduce me to some of the kids she knows through various connections so I would not just be sitting at home all the time. Yeah, that's working well...:/. After the graduation ceremony, she wanted to swing by this party for these two girls she knows, just for a little while. SO, I ended up standing around for like 30-45 minutes, doing absolutely nothing in particular and looking like a complete fool. Always great for starting a new reputation. But anyways, I think over the course of the day I met like 20 people. The only person I really remember was this girl, who I think was named Carly (I'm REALLY bad with names, so I don't really know) and that was only because she was like one of the last people I was introduced to.
In other news, I have applied for 3 different jobs, but no news yet. I am hoping I will be able to get a job at this place called the Moose Creek Cafe. I love that place and it would really be a joy to work there this summer. During my times alone here, during both night and day, I have done quite a bit of reading. I have finished State of Fear by Michael Crichton and have just started Five Patients, also by M.C. In case you are wondering, I started reading State of Fear from page 213 (that was where I left it at the end of the school year) and finished it last night. That is I think 851 pages in 2 days. Tells you how much time I've had to read. Not that that's a bad thing. I certainly enjoy reading. But I would also like to do other things. That's why I can't wait for the weather to warm up (we've had 3 storms already) so that I can do things like go swimming, and hiking, and bike riding.
Well. I don't know when I'll be updating this one, but I will try to do it as much as I can as long as there is some significance to the day. More for later.