Chocolate Covered Pretzels and Root Beer

Ah, the good things in life. I decided I've not been blogging enough lately. So, I figured I'd write about my recent day trip up to Austin.

Kathryn is a huge fan of Michael Buble, as I believe was stated in a previous post about how bad he is. Anyway, he's on this new tour and was coming to Texas this year, but not sadly, not to Houston. He was going to Austin. This did not detour Kathryn. She asked Mom if they could go up to Austin for the concert. Mom agreed and the tickets were bought. This would have Mom and Kathryn leaving on Wed. (concert night), staying the night in Austin, and coming home on Thurs. Dad and I were to have the whole time to ourselves.
However, Dad was not going to be home. This will not do. Meaghan really shouldn't stay by hersellf the whole time. :( I was of a different mind. I did not much like the idea of being tracked over the state to sit in a hotel room by myself and watch TV that I could be watching in the comfort of my home. Plus, without the bother of packing and the long drive.
Howver, Dad was now coming back home. Yay, I'm saved. Now, I was going to stay home. Dad would be back very late, and then Mom and Kathryn would return the next day.
However, did I REALLY want to be by myself all the time? There's only so far TV and movies can get you, even I'll admit to that. But, I REALLY did't want to have to go with them. Granted, it might be fun. Kathryn pointed out that I'd never been in a hotel room by myself, but it just didn't seem like enough. Finally, after talking it over with Mom, I decided to go.
Arent' you happy this paragraph isn't starting with however? :D On Wed. we packed our stuff, packed the car, and headed off...to the post office and McDonald's for a Redbox. I was going to get two movies to pass the hours in the hotel. The films? Tron!!!!! and I am Number Four. I am #4 was a movie which I'd wanted to watch, since I found it was coming out. But, because of the type of movie it was, I knew I'd only enjoy it properly if I watched it alone. (A later post is coming about the movie so I won't say any more.)
We drove and drove while I read and read. A little past the half way point, we stopped at Buccee's for snacks and a bathroom break. We got drinks and a bag of chocolate covered pretzels, and we were ready for the last stage. When we got into Austin, we had to quickly find our hotel and get to the Cracker Barrel to eat and let them go to the concert. But, we got lost trying to find the hotel. Finally, Mom called and got us back on track, but we now didn't have time to go all the way down to the Cracker Barrel. We spotted a Chilie's, ate a yummy dinner, and then got to the hotel. After getting out everything from the car, including my precious can of Root Beer I had stashed for the night, they left and I walked upstairs.
As I was walking into the hotel for the second time (two trips were needed), I saw a man sitting outside the door smoking. Looking at myself holding a can of root beer and a bag of chocolate covered pretzels and a bag of chips, we'd brought them from home but they never got touched, I wanted to say to him: "Party in room 209!!!!!" However, I restrained myself. Mom had told me to double lock the door anyway. :)
Well, I kicked off my shoes, set up my laptop, brought over the movies, and plopped down on the bed. I wasn't sure if both movies would finish in the time they were gone, so I decided to start with I am Number Four. I'd rather they walk in on the end of Tron, then the other one. ;D I watched it, and it was really good. Now on to feature 2, but I've yet to eat any of my snacks. I broke out the pretzels, and the root beer from the refrigerator in the room and sat back on the bed to watch Tron. And there I was; in Austin, in a hotel room by myself, sitting on a bed, watching Tron, eating chocolate covered pretzels, and drinking root beer after 9 o'clock. This was how the summer was meant to be spent. :D
After awhile, they came back and told me about the concert. Kathryn had loved it, expectations met. But Mom had not had the best time because of her sitting partner. Lots of talking kept us up late, but eventually, we hit the sack.
The next morning I awoke to hear some sort of tapping going on. I distinctly heard it coming from over the vanity. I got up and stomped over. (I was in rather a grumpy mood, perhaps not fully awake.) I turned the light on, eliciting a moan from still sleeping Kathryn. Mom came out of the bathroom to find me peering up at the ceiling with a mad look on.
"Why did you turn the light on?" asked Mom.
"Because I did. Something's making noise, like tapping, over here," I answered.
"Okay, why don't you go back to bed. It's still early."
Still grumpy, I stomped back to bed. "It's 7. It's not THAT early."
Now, I find this story very funny. Don't ask me why I was in such a bad mood at 7 in the morning. It did not matter though, since I never woke Kathryn up and actually slept until 10 myself.
Mom and I were the first ready to leave, yet Kathryn wasn't packed up. So, I turned on the TV and scrolled through the channels. I happened upon a movie that was in some kind of Greek or Roman setting. Interested, I stayed, trying to discern what it was. My initial guess was Clash of the Titans, though I've not seen it. I asked Kathryn to come over and help me figure out what it was. Then, we saw Sam Worrington and a Pegusus-like-horse and we knew it was indeed Clash of the Titans. While waiting for her to finish, I watched till the end and I tell you, it was awful! The most anti-climatic ending for the previous few scenes. I was greatly disappointed. Imagine if I'd watched the whole thing! :D
The ride home was lots of fun, because I wrote a lot. I actually completed the story I'm submitting for the library writing thing. I'll post the story up here soon. And, we stopped at Buccee's on the way home for more snacks. :)
I look back, and see what fun I'd missed if I'd just stayed home. Little excursions like this are over quickly, but they make some extremely fun memories!

Thor

Thor! The God of Thunder and Lightening! The God who has mastered the art of the hammer!!!!! The God who has an amazingly cool cape! The God that's played by Chris Hemsworth! Yeah, that's all I need to say.
This movie has gotten so much hype and such good reviews that I wanted to see it. The previews looked good too! So, with Kathryn and three other friends, we set out to the movie theatre for the first showing yesterday. Movie threatres are not very crowded at 12:15 on a Tuesday when most schools are still in session. :)
I enjoyed the movie. I thought the special effects were cool! I thought the acting was well done. Oh, and almost forgot that I jumped about 2 feet in the air both times she hit him with the car! I didn't find it the best movie of the year by a long shot, but I did enjoy myself. And, that's what I look for in a movie. It doesn't matter how amazingly the movie was done, if I didn't have an enjoyable time watching it, it was muy MAL! That's 'very bad' for you non-Spanish majors out there. ;)
After the movie, Kathryn and two of the friends, came back to our house to get "sustenance" as Thor put it in the movie. For some odd reason, I was starving! So, I polished off 2 sandwhiches, a helping of chips, 2 and a half cookies (big ones), and 2 glasses of water. I guess the M&Ms I had during the movie didn't sate my hunger. :)

"We drank. We fought. He made his ancestors proud!" --Thor

Summer Writing Competition

Hello buddies!!! I have some news for all of you! There's a summer writing competition coming up soon. It's hosted by the Barbara Bush and Tomball Library. It's pretty much for kids of all ages up to 18 or 12th grade. You submit a short story or poem or both and then judges read them. Then, prizes (Barnes and Noble giftcards) are given out for the top 3 placements. I'm entering in both categories and would REALLY like others to do the same. I love to compete against people I know. :) So, if you're interested, and want more info, go ahead and give me an email. Write hard! :D

10 days!

It's 10 days till we'll be in Disney World. Actually, about now, we'd be watching IllumiNations. That's the fireworks display in Epcot, if you don't know. Yes, I'm excited about going!!!

I Stink at Chess

I am not being modest here. I mean, I'm just awful at the game. I'm often open to playing it, but I know I'll lose. It's kind of like my bane in the game world. I go back often to see if I can beat my arch nemisis, but he most often knocks over my poor king with a nasty cackle. I call my king poor because he got stuck with me as his defender. "All the other warriors are busy fighting in distant lands."--The Hobbit (tapes). This is the reason he was unable to get anyone better. :)

Well, I recently discovered a chess program on my computer. Usually, if I'm playing a game in the game section, it's Mahjong. You say you don't know what that is? Well, go look it up. That's what Google's for. Kathryn had never heard of it either, but when I taught it to her, she became a wee bit obsessed. So, anyway, that's my game of choice. However, I've been getting a little bored with it. So, I went through "games" and saw chess. "Hmm," I thought, "this might be fun for a little while. Well, what happened? I lost, really BADLY lost. I played again. I lost. Play-lose. Play-lose. Play-lose. My eyebrows knitted together, and I set my teeth. I was GOING to beat my computer! The little man, hiding in the keyboard or perhaps the dust guy hanging out at the "space bar" (anyone seen that commercial?), was not going vanquish me again.

With a snicker at my foolishness, he beat me. After many more of these, I gave up, very frustrated. However, the next days after, I've been obsessed with trying to win a game. This will be proven by my gasp during lunch today. Mom asked me what was wrong. (I mean, it sounded like I'd watched someone die.) I said, "They took my queen."

I was playing just a few minutes ago and losing every game. Then, then, I took the opposing queen!!! I got a second pawn down to the end and got a second queen. After some chasing, I cornered the King and made him jump out of his castle window. Hahahaha, not really, but I was extremely happy. In fact, I think the word jubilant could come into use right here. Isn't jubilant a good word?

Now, one would think, that after this Herculaic feat (I just used a literary allusion!), I would be content with not playing the online game again........One would think. ;)

Tron

When I heard that Tron: Legacy was coming out, I got online and checked Netflix to have the original Tron come. However, it was listed as "long wait." "This is not gonna work." (Star Wars: A New Hope) So, I checked the library for it. It was there, so I requested it. I was place 26. Whew! We wanted to watch the movie in theatres, and we did. And our minds were blown...or at least mine was.
Just the other day, I discovered that Tron was in at the library. Hurray! So, I got it and it's been in the house waiting for the perfect night to watch it. Tonight was the night, (since it was due tomorrow).
My opinion? It was great! For some reason, I just really, really enjoyed it. I thought the special effects were cool, yes, really. And I thought it was just, I don't know, I really couldn't put my finger on it. I guess, I just really loved seeing all the old conncections from the Legacy to the old one. Yep, it was good, and, my family liked it too, even Dad, who didn't want to watch it to begin with. Definitely worth the 26 spaces. :D

Excerpt From Newest Book

This is an excerpt from one of my current books. Read, enjoy, and be sure to comment with any kind of criticism

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The doors slowly slid open with an unbearable grating sound. They were stone doors, gray, perhaps some type of granite. Stretching from the ground to the top of the ceiling, they were nearly twelve feet. Each door was unadorned, without knob or handle or glass pane. The two were solid pieces of rock and as they slid outward, each was a foot thick.
Standing before the doors were five figures, dressed in gray. The simple jump suits went to their ankles, writs, and covered all of their neck. Black boots shod their feet. Black gloves covered their hands. A sort of helmet, black and with an opaque visor hid their faces. A belt of twisted black design wrapped around the waist of each, and from these belts hung oblong weapons of some unique style. A thin rod extended from the end that hung nearest the floor. It looked weak enough to be snapped by a child, yet in actuality it was strong enough to withhold the strike of a strong sword. From the rod, a thicker oval came next and then ended with a complete circle adjoined to the body of the weapon.
These five figures, waiting for the massive doors to finish opening, grasped a large, bulky object behind them. These objects held no distinct form and lay half on the floor, suspended only by the arms that clung to them. The doors paralleled with the hallway, finally silencing the harsh sound. With one movement, the five figures strode forward into the room. A cold, stale air wisped around their legs. A sickly light, coming from four odd lamps, illuminated their black helmets and the surroundings.
The room was made of solid stone panels, the same gray as the doors and the outer walls of the hallway. In one wall, the one directly opposite from the doors, there was an enormous window that was practically the entire wall. But there was nothing to see out of this window: it was completely black, as though a curtain hung behind it.
On the floor and against the walls, lay or sat many people. All were humans, and all seemed to have been just roused from sleep. They looked confusedly at the opening doors, and many eyes were squinted in the bright light streaming in. This was not simply a room, it was a cell.