hey peoples,
I just wanted to let y'all know that my posting will be random for the next while, since our horrid computer isn't working.....again. I re-re-renamed him Fritz again. Until he's fixed. Then he shall be re-re-re-renamed Angus.
Anywho.
um.
I don't really have anything to say at the moment, because everything I could talk about would take too long to say. I'm on the library's computers, and Mom wants me to get off soon so we can go home. I'll try to get on again soon, or borrow KK's computer.
see y'all later!
~Kiwi~

I'm still alive!...............................barely

Hey, just wanted to let y'all know I'm still alive. Slightly bored, slightly grumpy, slightly unhappy, slightly melodramatic, but still alive.
the computer was locked up in my parents' room all weekend (poor Angus! I can't imagine what he did to deserve that!), and that's why I didn't post then. So.
I'll try to post a longer post tomorrow, but I can't make any promises. I was going to do a long post today, but I'm afraid it would start to sound grumpy, and grumpy posts are no fun to read unless you, too, are grumpy!
Anyways. I'll see y'all later!
~Kiwi~

Big, long, over-due post/I Think I'm Going to Turn Vegetarian

Hi, I'm back! The computer (formerly Angus, then Fritz, and now Angus again 'cause he's not "on the fritz" all the time) has returned to my clutches and is now mine-all-mine for the moment. Guess what I'm doing. I am listening to Jason Gray. On the computer! It's still weird hearing sound coming out of him. (Rapunzel says to specify 'the sound coming out of Angus, not Jason Gray. ;) But weird in a nice sort of way. :-)

I shall do a quickie over-view of the past few weeks. The Wednesday after Easter we went to Madison and the Tea Party.
What was the Tea Party? Well, Wednesday was April 15th. Tax day. People all over the country gathered at the state capitals, or other large towns to protest against raising/unfair taxes, big government, lying officials, stuff like that. What happened in Boston a few hundred years back, when King George raised the tea tax? (Hopefully you remember your Boston tea party hstory lessons) That's where the name came from. TEA also stands for Taxed Enough Already.

So we drove up to participate in that. We had to park 2 (?) miles away, then walk up to the capital. We could have ridden a shuttle bus, but the lines were so long!
When we finally arrived, the square was covered with people with signs, people with tea party tee shirts, people, people, people!! One news station predicted 100 people standing on the steps of the capital. They were right, there couldn't have been more than 100 people standing on the steps, but there were7,900 more on the lawn!

I don't remember the names of all the people who spoke, but y'all can look that up if you want. I do remember one, however. Melika Willoughby, 17 years old and homeschooled! (Don't you just love it when you see other homeschoolers doing really well at something? Despite the fact that we are 'undersocialized' and 'poorly taught', we can still do things! :)
Here's her speech.





So what do you think? I think she did pretty well.

After the 'party' was over, I got my first ride in a school bus (Drat! Broke my perfect unattendance record!) back to the lot our car was in.

On Sunday before the service started, Dad motioned me over and secretively pointed someone out to me.
"Isn't that the girl who spoke at the tea party Wednesday?"
I wasn't so sure, but he shooed me over anyway ("It can't hurt to find out!") and, waddayaknow, it was! We got to talk quite a bit before and after the service. She has two sisters, they are all in competative debate, they are all homeschooled, they know some people at our church and were visiting them.... Anyway. We exchanged emails, so hopefully we can stay in touch.
I just thought that was quite a coincident!


And now just a (very) quick telling of my past two weeks. Week before last we didn't do much. I got aquainted with my new bike. (which I love.) I found that padded handlebars are infinately better than unpadded ones, but they both work equally well.
Angus went in for a check up, and came back working well. We're having to re-install everything from pre-repairation (is that a word?), which is taking forever to do.
Um, this past week we watched a movie or two. Today we cooked freezer meals. Mom purposefully chose me to cut up the stew meat, e'en though she knows full well that I don't like handling raw meat. She says I should get used to it. I say I'm going to be a vegetarian cook.
I don't mind eating cooked meat, it's just when it's raw, bloody, etc. that I dislike it.

We also went to church to meet the Associate Pastoral Candidate. He's not a football-watching person (HOOrah!), he's a baseball-watching person (HaHa!!) who roots for the Cubs. :-) Good fer him. (We missed most of the Q&A part, so that's most of what I learned about him! I didn't just neglect the important parts)
So that is, in a nutshell, what my past two weeks have been like. What have y'all been doing?

~Kiwi~

P.S. A discussion question: Why is there a dollar sign ($) at the top of the keyboard, but no cent sign? Please explain it to me.

Joy!! Happy Day!!/New Poems

Rejoice and be merry, me fellow bloggers! Yours Truly is going to see Downhere. Live. In concert. In 26 days. Wooooohoooooo! I can't wait!! *does a little happy dance* After I get this posted, I'm going to try to find a countdown thingymajig that will actually work on here (for some weird reason, unknown to mankind, animalkind, and most likely alienkind also), set it for December 14th, and host a party every time it counts down one week. Big party on the 13th. Y'all'll have to party without me on the 14th. Why? Because I'll be at The Concert, of course!!
=^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D =^D
And Daniel Kirkley will be there, and he's got an amazing voice, too, and Jason Gray, and Jaime Jamgochian, and Lanae' Hale.

Like I said. Happy Day.

Now, here is a brand-new poem, written just this afternoon, never before seen by anyone outside of this family. I hope you enjoy the privilege. ;) Please ignore the dots. Those aren't supposed to be there, but it was the only way I could get the words to align correctly.

..........................I wish I could be
.............................................as happy
.........................................................as
...........................................................a
...........................................................CLAM
...................................For then,
..............................................when
.................................................people say
...................................................“you look
.......................................................as happy
...................................................................as
.....................................................................a
.....................................................................CLAM,”
...................................................I can say
...................................................................“I
.........................................................................AM!”

There is my masterpiece. D'you like it? I've always wanted to write a 'stair-step' poem--one where the lines sort of end up looking like stair-steps. And now I have. But now that I have fulfilled my "life's dream", what else is there to live for? I am no longer as happy as a clam. There's no reason to be. ;-(
Anywho; this was the third day in a row that I wrote a poem in. I think this is the best poem out of the three. Here's my second favorite. It was written on an envelope to some friends back in Iowa. (Catfreak and Avalon: if you have not yet received my letter, wait to read this.)

I say 'How're you?'

To my friends back in Iowa

And wonder what they do

Without me there.

I talk and talk

'Bout random things

Like how I want to walk

O'er to their house like I used to.

Sadly, then, I write 'Goodbye'

And wonder how long

Till I can say 'Hi'

And stand there right beside them.

And then here's my least favorite. It needs more work on it, like on the last line of the first stanza, but I can't find anything that'll work better.

Angus

Although you came into my life

Just a few short months ago,

I feel that I know you well,

As if you were my beau!

The reason for our meeting

Was not a happy one*

But we got past that quickly

And went on to weeks of fun.

Me, clicking happily away,

And you just sitting there

following my every whim

With complementary flair.

My every wish

Ends up as your command,

To get what I want from you,

I barely need raise my hand!

Occasionally, however,

for reasons unknown on earth

You provoke me nearly to tears

Making me wonder about your worth.

Is what I'm doing

Worth begging your co-operation?

Or would I be better off

Sending you on extended vacation?

Yet when all is said and done,

Instead of making a fuss,

I will love you (almost) forever,

My dear computer, Angus!

See what I mean about that last line of the first stanza? But there are no other words that rhyme with 'ago' and still make sense in the poem! Doe, foe, low, mow, moe, snow, bow, beau, go, hoe, joe, no, oh, poe, row, stow, sow, sew, toe, tow, woe, yo. None work! A large virtual high-five to someone who can give me a better line.
*The story behind this poem goes like this: I wrote a eulogy for Bob and Larry, and I fear that Angus has gotten a bit jealous of them. He won't work consistently for me because of this jealousy, so I wrote him this, hoping to appease him.

Oh, before I leave, I was tagged by Soul Skittles to tell 7 random things about meself. So here goes.

1: I hate being trapped inside by cold winter weather.
2: I discovered that chap stick works well to keep your nose from becoming raw when you have a stupid cold and have to blow your nose fifty times per hour. But it's best to use clear stuff, not blue or purple. :-)
3: I'm waiting (rather impatiently) for the day that LOST comes back on tv, 'cause I'm addicted to it.
4: For some reason, I keep waking up at some time in the middle of the night, but I don't know when because I don't have a clock in my room. (hey, you wanted random...)
5: I LOVE listening to Christian music. To name just a few: Newsboys, Downhere, Kutless, Stellar Kart, Paul Colman, Paul Colman Trio. I could continue my list for a few days, but I didn't think y'all'd appreciate that
6: I run out of random things very quickly, and dread finding more.
7: I'd like to visit Australia and New Zealand someday.

So, I tag:
Judi
Catfreak
Avalon
Zoe

So ends this insanely long post. Will this keep you all happy for a while longer?
~Kiwifruit

P.S. It snowed yesterday, but didn't accumulate. I don't like snow right now.