Blather, rinse, repeat

I skipped out of Kung Fu today because this is my holiday and I have to be around to answer the door and be spooky. I'm a tradition for some of the local children and I always feel really badly when I'm not home, and I find out the next day that people were wondering where I was. They call it "that Halloween house," and I have to say I really out-did myself this year. Actually it is mostly because my Dad bought me a fog machine which also plays spooky music and has sound effects. It's really neat and the kids love it. They use the low-hanging trees and shrubs to hide behind and they scare the hell out of each other, it's great. Just before I heard two little girls going, "This is really scary. I think it's haunted for real!" One of them told me, "Your house looks so haunted. I was scared!" She was about seven, it was so cute, and I don't even really like the little brats. But I kind of like them all on Halloween. (ETA: One of the kids just told her sister, "Are these trees real? These trees make this house look evil!" OMG I love it. The trees, obviously, are around all year.)

It's a big house and I'm on the bottom floor, and sometimes the kids get lost going around and end up coming around the wrong way. They pass by the sunroom and they all come out gabbing about "That huge black bird in there!" It made me just a little sad, or nostalgic, because when I had Pendragon in there they'd all come around all freaked out and wondering if "that huge blue lizard!" was real. I'd tell them he was, and then I'd take him out of his cage and sit him across my shoulders. I couldn't really let them pet his head because he might've taken one of their little fingers for himself. He was a vegetarian, but he, uhh, cheated sometimes. ^_^ once in a while I miss him so much.

Also, today I'm really just feeling the whole Halloween thing, err, I mean the real Halloween, Samhain.

Also, Havok is acting all crazy today. He started cawing at around 8 AM and I was like, "SHUT UP! CAN YOU PIERCE THE VEIL AFTER TEN PLEASE! THANK YOU!" Then I went and spent some time with him and he was all getting in my face and giving me looks that can only be described as "mysterious." He also kept grabbing my necklace and trying to shove it in my mouth, so maybe that's not so mystical after all.

( There he is trying to shove the necklace in my mouth. )

( And I just thought this was a neat picture, a Goth and her crow. )
(I bought that skirt today at Target and it's kind of momentous because it's a size one, which puts me in a high state of WTF. These sizes run really big though. I think a lot of companies sell clothing bigger and make the size number smaller so more women will buy them. I am not a size one and I never will be.

( Here is a beautiful closeup of Havok: )

( Havok eating my books. )
That's a lot funnier if you look at the titles of those books.

( The yard at night, only without the fog. )
Very hard to photograph the fog in the dark! My camera tries to focus on it and everything else goes blurry.

( Oh,and here is my little display on my kitchen table. )

Okay, now the kids are starting to show up in their day clothes, and some don't even say "trick or treat." Umm, put a little effort into it or you're getting nothng but Dots from me. ^_~ Nah, I could never actually do that.

Welp, I'm gonna set down to watch Addams Family movies and then try to chat with this really, really, really ridiculously good-looking guy. Sounds like a well-rounded Halloween, yes?

ETA: You know, I just have to add something about that skirt. It's adorable. It's by that new designer, Alice somebody, she does a line for Target (that's my main clothing store!) and I'm pretty sure she designed that Libertine stuff that I liked a few months ago; it's similar. (Affordable goth.) Anyway, it's cotton lined, velvet outside with pockets on either side and big black buttons around the rims of the pockets. And it's teeny-wee, which I certainly don't mind. That ZZ Top song, "Legs"? One of my favorites. ;D

S'up, ten and a half hour workday? Dude, I know that lots of people do like 12 or more, but I'm just not cut out for that crap, seriously. I'm the laziest cow to begin with, and when I end up covering for someone who randomly quit the sanctuary, doing the work of two people without stopping to eat or sit down, I'm just like, yo.

To top it off, my friend the cormorant bit the everloving christ out of my hand. Both hands, actually, but my left one he nailed so hard that it broke like three of the blood vessels on the back of my hand, and it hurts all the way up to my shoulder and down to my fingers. He hit a nerve; I have a spot on my knuckles that doesn't seem to feel anything. And it's the tiniest little hole, that's all you can see aside from the massive hematoma. Dirty little fish-beak.

On the upside, the premier of House is on tonight. That's really my only TV show, so I'm looking forward to it big time.

Oh, in even better news, I saw my wonderful and excellent friend today who had been so seriously ill in the last few years with an aggressive cancer. It's been so back and forth over the years and we only get to see each other every few months but today she looked amazing. All her hair grew back (curly!) and she's biking all over town, working at her new high-paying job where she is very happy, and she's cancer free. (*knock on wood!*) We talked for a long time and then I ended up telling her about my sprained ankle and she showed me this pressure point which fixed it in like a minute. Anyway we're trying to thik of plans for all of us to get together to practice some Tai Chi and stuff like that. I can't wait. Anyway, that was such a high point of my day I had to rave about it, and about her.

I might post again later with some stills from the movie thingie, ones that I will post specifically to send to one of my old actor pals to see if he's interested. That in mind, those of you who are sick of seeing stills and hearing me babble about the thing can just skip it. ^_^

I get to sleep late tomorrow, squee!

On, and I repeat: does anyone know which programs will remove Purityscan, Outerinfo, Downloader and Clickspring for good? And don't say to use Hijack This! and post a log somewhere, because I will punch you in the vagina. I want something that will remove it automatically. I'll pay, but I have to be sure it will work, and will work for good, and then block any re-infections. Also, I have tried the Outerinfo uninstall thing and it didn't work. Thanks!

Okay, ETA: I know this is schmoopy as all get-out but I need to say it once in a while. I have absolutely the loveliest and most awesome and beautiful friends ever. Where the hell were these people when I was in high school, college and beyond? Why did it take me so long to find these people? Not that I have any regrets, because they're with me now, so. ^_^

( Cute LJ quiz. )

Havok (known to some as Lohi'au) is posing on top of my fountain.

This is after he has repeatedly figured out how to work the latch on his door. And by the way, the latch is outside. He has figured out a way to let himself out, and I have yet to get exactly how he's doing it.

And this is a bat:

He, along with another teeny little bat, was stuck on fly paper. When this happens to bats (often,) the have to be bathed in mineral oil or other kinds of oil to get the glue off of them. Then they have to be washed in soap and water to get the oil off of them. Tricky, as these suckers bite! And are known rabies vectors. So you have to be careful. But my god, aren't they the most adorable little things you've ever clapped eyes on? How can anyone not like bats? They are beautiful.

So getting the stupid halter-moniter off was no big, and they didn't tell me anything. They have to send the readout to a specialist and the Dr. will call me back Monday or Tuesday. Leave it to me to get this done on a Friday.

Tomorrow I have to go in for blood work and then after that I'm going to swing back and pick up Mom and Gran. Gran wants to go out for shopping, the fun kind, stuff that she enjoys. When I asked her tonight if she wanted to go she was real excited about it and that made me happy.

Also Shane called tonight and he says he is free to do more filming on Sunday, and he might be able to round up some friends. That's great, but I had also planned on filming three other scenes that involve Casse and Jane. If all of a sudden EVERYONE decides they are free Sunday, well then I'm going to have a pretty full day, aren't I? And I've only got 9 hours of battery on my camera, so I'd better do it right the first time! Because everyone's schedule is so messed up, there will be no chance to shoot stuff twice, or to try again. The other thing is that I've got to totally make the decision on how I want the story to go, like, NOW, because I'd be recording key parts. I've been thinking of switching a few things up, things I was dead-set on from the beginning, and I can't tell what makes more sense. But now I absolutely have to effing decide, because I have to film it Sunday. So I guess I'll just sleep on it and then go with my gut feeling once I make sure I really have everyone on board for Sunday.

I perform better in chaos anyway. That's what I've been told, and I think it's true.

Long weekend ahead of me! ^_^ Long, but exciting, you know?

Okay, I admit it's weird that my previous post is one of two boys making out hardcore and this one is...decidedly not, but you know that's just how I roll. So I never got into the last night of the trip and the flight home etc.

( The last night, in which I say goodbye for now to my Hula friends. )

Anyway, then we had to leave, I hate saying goodby to JoNathan but it is always with the promise of seeing him again soon. And I left with Brian blowing kisses out the door of the lobby, it was too cute.

( In which Jo-chan is a fierce terrorist. )

I love flying, but I hate airports.

( In which dogs do not have a good day but I get to see SB for a while. )

SB got here around 2:30 and he stayed to talk for a while, for which I was so grateful because as I've mentioned before, I never get to see this kid anymore.

( In which I'm chosen by my crow. )

I guess I have to build another cage. O_o S'up, huge responsibility? Oh! And the good news is that my robin with the hugely broken leg, like I mean snapped in half, is up and perching and all of that stuff. I did my specialty, the One Handed Splint the day I got him. Seems to have worked, so like, go me and all of that.

So of course, I pretty much have to share some of my pics, no? Mais oui.

( A cute snail that was slithering around. )

( BAD TOUCH! ) Seriously, those mannequins were put there like that on purpose, they had to be.

( I kid you not, people )

( This was funnier to me than it should have been. )

( Switching up figurines in stores is an old tradition. Imagine my delight when I found a nativity. )

( My henna tattoo when I first got it. ) It's pretty much gone by now since I wash my hands so much.

( Oh, and the sun really burns my eyes now, as you can see. ) Seriously, since the surgery, a few hours in the sun is enough to make my eyes like the effing desert.

( A crow in a palm tree. )

( Jo-chan and I zooming around in tiny little boats. )

( Makaha Sons.  )

( Auntie's halau dancing for Kaleo. You can see Auntie in her purple dress, with Brian dancing next to her. ) Aren't they lovely?

Oh, I remember! One more thing. On the plane there, Jo-chan and I were watching Monty Python DVDs. I've been trying to get her into MP for a while, she's at the perfect age for it. This one episode seemed to totally seal the deal. Also, it was something that has been an inside joke between my Mom and I for ages, words that were tinny or woody, for at least 17 years, the duration of my obsession with Monty Python. But I'd forgotten how goddamn effing hilarious this sketch was.



This was one we watched on the plane, and when Michael Palin (I'd still mack this guy even to this day, I'd effing marry him, fo' realz yo,) starts to sing and Eric Idle dies, I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair and into the aisle. I had to watch it and rewatch it just like I used to do back in the day when I had all the episodes on tape. It's not even the "CARIBOUUU GOOOOOOONE!" and it's not even the, "Really dear? How about 'tit'?!" that slayed me, it was Michael Palin. I shrieked with laughter right there on the airplane and the guy next to me (who was cute) seemed to think that was pretty funny because he just watched me with this amused look on his face. Seriously, give it a looksee. If it doesn't kill you, you're likely already dead.

From that same episode, in transcript here: THE COURTMARTIAL/ANYTHING GOES IN SKETCH!

Okay so this entry is all over the place, I should STFU and go to bed now. What that Monty Python sketch, people. It's good for you.

When they do that ridiculously cruel "running of the bulls" thing in Pamplona each year... Am I the only one here who roots for the bull? Am I the only one here who watches a video of that and cringes when they are all tormenting the poor animal, but outright cheers when the stupid bastards get what they deserve and get gored? I'm sorry, but if you're stupid and cruel enough to partake in something like that, I really want the bull to win. The only downside to that is that animals almost always get killed for acting in the way that's only natural to them.

I hate people.

Anyway, today at work was mad, mad, mad, frustrating, rushed, booked solid, one of those "holy hell how did we make it through the day and walk out on two legs at 5?" kinds of things.

My car is back from the shop, to the tune of just under a thousand dollars this time. They said it was the distributor or something like that, how the hell am I supposed to know, I have a vagina and I don't get these car-ish things. /ironic stereotype (And it is ironic because I'm not typically your girly-girl. But the unfortunate truth is that I really don't know carlike stuff, and I should. I just can't fit the time to learn about it in my life.)

Lohi'au is developing pox all over, there was one on his wing the other day and now there's one on his ankle. The little dude is so compromised by this virus. (Little, ha, he's freaking HUGE now. If I could get the spit to actually upload my pics you could see, but alas that will have to wait another few days.) Bosslady at SITF told me about a few good herbal extracts to fight this virus, then my friend Laura--you know, Crowlady?-- clued me in to another. I will have to swing by my hippie-nature store tomorrow and pick those up during my EPIC shopping day.

I will have an EPIC shopping day tomorrow for the party on Sunday, so it's not going to be the fun kind of retail therapy, but rather all stuff I need to buy while I'm stressing about getting the house clean enough to be presentable.

And then of course it's supposed to rain Sunday. Wouldn't you know? Can I please just make a deal with the weather gods? >_> GAH!

Mom and I drove out to pick up hyenarave yesterday; that's always a fun ride but already the citiots are out en masse. (Which is nothing compared to how it will be next week. I swear we need a person standing at the end of Long Island with a clicker. "Nope, Long Island is full, go the hell home please!") On the way there, I showed my Mom some songs by Takign Back Sunday. (Not as good as MCR in her opinion ... and MCR is not as good as 30STM. I concur on both counts.)

Anyway, we pick up Jo-chan and she shows us her adorable baby chickens, I mean, too cute. Also, SB was there and I see him so rarely that it's like a gift everytime I get to. He got accepted into a good college and he'll be going away in August. Uhh, let's not think about this right now. It's too soon.

I figured on the drive home I would see if Jo-chan wanted to go to Projekt Rev with me in August. (This just in: Jess from Kung Fu is going, too, I'll probably pick her up. Raq is probably going, and hopefully we can meet up this time. Raq and I are often at the same concerts and we never see each other there.)

We stopped at the store for ice cream and cookie dough. At home, we had dinner with Ma and Da, then Jo-chan and I went out to see Shrek the Third. Parts of it were pretty funny (the Snow White part where the birds attack was hilarious to me, for reasons you can imagine,) but I didn't like it as much as I liked the first two. We drove home at 65 MPH with the windows down and music blasting from the speakers. Superfun. We went back to my folks' where they were watching Casablanca. Jo-chan and I ate most of the cookie dough, though I baked some of it, and we watched youtube clips (The Balls Are Inert, Stuart bloopers [from Mad TV], Family Guy clips, that one scene from the Carol Burnett show that I love where she slaps the guy up the steps.

Then today Mom, Jo and I went out shopping last minute for gifts for my cousin's kid Zack as today is his birthday. We spent some time in Target (that's pronounced tar-jay,) and I also picked up a DVD for SB (The Life of Brian) and The Black Parade CD for Jo-chan. Then we stopped off at STIF so I could show Jo-chan all the lovelies there, like Bruce the rooster, Chet the squirrel, Tucker, Pam, and 50 Cent. And of course all the bunnies and pidges and doves and etc on and on forever.

Back home, we wrapped the gifts and headed over to Chrissie's (across the street) for Zack's 3rd birthday party. It was a gorgeous day and a really nice and mellow party. I cracked Zack up by singing The Beatle's birthday song, and Jo and I both cracked Branden up with the whole "power level's over nine-thousaaaaand!" nonsense. Lots of food, cake, pics and stuff like that. Then it was time for Jo to go home (blah!)

I fed the dogs, had a sammich, wrote a bit, then decided to take the dogs out. I'd just been wondering where all the freaking baby birds are that I'm supposed to have when I hear one peeping like mad. There is Haku, chasing down a fledgling robin. Haku is thinking "PLAY!" and he chases it right into Trisky's waiting jaws. Trisky doesn't think PLAY, she thinks KILL, and that's exactly what she did. I tackled her, I mean fully tackled her and pried her mouth open so she would drop the baby. I startled her and I hurt her feelings too, and she yiped to let me know, and she eventually dropped the baby robin. It lived for about twenty seconds, gasping in my hand and then it just gave up.

MY DOGS ARE BAD. I told Trisky I wasn't talking to her tonight, and not to even look at me I was so mad at her. Trisky looked at me like, "Hey, that's what I do. Cope." I yelled at her, "BIRDKILLER!" and she was like, "Hey, thanks." I buried the baby bird by the fence in the back, under the mural I painted last month (that Trisky ripped to shreds trying to fight with the dog on the other side of the fence, a pit bull named Buddy.) As I was digging the grave, Buddy was digging his way under the fence, sticking his black nose and pink paws through the hole.

*Sigh* It was sad and I'm in need of cuteness. Mind you, I was going to make this post anyway, for Jo-chan because she'd wanted pics of some of those animals, and because we are going to see a concert in a few months, but now it's because I need some cuteness.

( Chet the squirrel: )

( Bruce the rooster: )

( Handsome Tucker: )

( Some adorable baby bunnies. BUNNIES!! )

( Me and Haku, self portrait: )

( Me and Jo-chan and Trisky and Sano: )


I feel better.

First though, getting back to SITF today was mostly pretty good. The only things that really sucked were finding one of the quails dead, and Frank smoking a cigar in the building. (Smoke in general bugs me out, but it's so bad since the surgery, my eyes dry right out.) I tried to hint it nicely to him but he didn't get it, and I don't have the heart to tattle. He's very rarely there, so maybe I won't have to deal with it too often. He's this typical, big older avuncular Italian guy, and even though he knows my name, to him I'm just "the Angel" who helps him move heavy objects around when they need to be moved. Seriously, how could I call trouble on a guy like that? Yeah, and one of the quails died, I felt so badly when I found him in his cage. Hilda told me he hadn't been eating in the last three days. It was fantastic to be back among the birds that I love. Tucker was all about me today, he jumped onto my arm and ate food out of my hand, played with my bracelet and made funny "coo" noises when I went by. Pam the peahen, on the other hand, attacked my ass. For real, I turned around and bent down to remove the sheet on th ebottom of her cage and she jumped up and pecked my butt really hard. Better my butt than my eyes, though, which is what she usually goes for. The only other thing that happened was, I think some bird parasite or other bit me, or maybe a lot of them did (one of the roosters has mites really badly--mites don't usually get to me, but SOMEthing did today,) and by the time I got to Kung Fu, I was red and itchy all over, huge pink welts all over my neck and shoulders. It itched like mad and I wanted to throw myself into the duck pond.

Speaking of ducks. During the first class, we were all doing some drills (a really cool one that I liked a lot,) when two ducks crossed into the middle of the road below and started doing it. Two more ducks followed them, another male and another female. Meanwhile, traffic started to back up on both sides of the road, because the road is really narrow and none of the cars could get around. To make matters better worse, the second male duck gets on the back of the other male, who is already doign it with the first female duck, and starts doing it with him! It was a duck threesome, and the other female just stood there watching. Dude, you have never seen a group of adults turn into twelve year olds so quickly as did our class. Everybody Wasn't Kung Fu Fighting. We all just stood there pointing and laughing, especially when the drivers of the backed-up cars started blowing their horns to get the ducks to quit it and move out of the road. And then the class just disintegrated from there, I mean how can you go back to doing what you were doing after seeing a partly-homosexual duck threesome? THe jokes and puns just kept coming. Then in blackbelt club we did our hardcore warmup, and Sifu drove us into zen-oblivion with a really awesome drill that we repeated for about twenty minutes, this was seriously one of my favorite drills ever.

On the way home--and indeed on the way there--there was a power line down on the North Road so I had to detour. On the way back, my eyes were already going blurry (I'm sure the earlier smoke didn't help,) and though I could see (I always tell people who ask me how I can drive yet, "I like to think I can see headlights bearing down on me,") I couldn't read the road signs. Funny thing: when I went out with Chrissie before the operation, we got lost and ended up on thi sone road. Last week when Dad drove me to the library, he got lost (which is a rare thing so close to home, believe me,) and ended up on the exact same road. Don't you know that tonight, I got lost again on this detour, and ended up on the exact same befrigged road? But at least this time I knew where the beef I was!

It was around this time that I thought I blew my speakers. It was right in the middle of MCR's "THis Is How I Disappear", and I naturally had it cranked, but not so terribly cranked that my speakers should have been blowing out. And it was rhythmic, the way they would go on and off, almost like a bassline tha thad nothing to do with the music. So I turned the entire stereo off. That's when I heard my brakes squealing everytime I touched them. Dude, now I only just had my brakes done, my Da paid for it, because there was simply no way in hell, not with all the work I have missed recently. So I was all WTF, and started talking ot my car. For those of you who don't know me, I love my car unnaturally. My car's name is Shinigami, (go on, ask me what it means and what it's from if you don't know,) and I totally make out with it. I have actual feelings for my car. I think that when you name something and take care of it, you give it mana, chi if you want to get Chinese about it. Shinigami has its own mana, anyone who's been in the car can tell you. So I begin to worry about Shinigami, because he is an old car who has been with me for about seven and a half years now. Now I get nearly home, and all of a sudden the anti-lock brake light comes on. Another mile, and the "check engine" light comes on. The dash monitor starts telling me, "SERVICE CAR SOON" then in the next mile it starts telling me, "TRACTION INACTIVE". And I'm going, "Two more miles, Shinigami, two more miles." I get to the left turn before my avenue and all of a sudden, the dash goes completely dark. I try to make the left turn and Shinigami chugs, almost stalling. Halfway to my avenue, the headlights flicker off, on, off, on. I get to my block and make the right turn, and we chug to a halt to the house. Now I'm near tears, not (only) because I'm thinking what this is going to cost me, but because my faithful Shinigami actually got me home, waiting till the very last possible second to quit.

Please send good vibes to Shinigami. I don't know what I'd do without him.

Anyway, so tomorrow I do my split-shift, the hospital then the clinic, this is my suuuuperlong work day, when I have to eat on the fly. (Which always makes me picture me sitting on a giant fly while eating my lunch.) Afterwards though, Kelly and I are going to the spa. How fantastic is that? I've never been to a spa, but we decided that we were just going to up and go. I so totally cannot wait, you don't even realize. Friday is another long day, though shorter than tomorrow by an hour and I get an actual, sit-down, clocked out lunch Friday. Saturday is Tai Chi and then Hula (I think?) and then Sunday is Duck Pond Day. I had a fantastic time last year at Duck Pond Day with Tristan. He's going to be there again, but this time it's going to be a handful of us, not just the two of us. We might all get together and do a demo, maybe sword form. Which is really quite a shame, because I don't remember the blasted thing about the sword form. Oh well, we'll see. I wonder if there will be anymore duck orgies?

Oh, one last thing: Frank Iero is my new hero, he speaks out for vegetarianism and against animal testing. Hurray for bands I love supporting causes, 30STM with their EnvironmenTour, forward-thinking politics, vegetarianism and Earth Awareness, and now MCR with their anti-lookism, anti-homophobia and now animal rights. I hope there are bands like this still around when I have kids someday.

So the new job? Oh my god, you have to SEE this place, it's huge, and the land is beautiful. It smells clean, with air purifiers in the walls; the floors are heated; the windows are big and look out over gorgeous trees, fields and ponds (I need to be surrounded by beauty in order to work, stupid, I know); and check this out: everything she uses is ORGANIC and not tested on animals. Bosslady and I are similar in a lot of ways, both vegetarians, organic, health-freaks, that kinda thing. She even uses safe bleach. As for the work itself, well, it's what I do, you know? Aside from the obvious beauty and cleanliness of the place, no surprises here. It's wildlife husbandry and I've been doing it for like eight years. ^_^ So it's comfortable. A long day, with both jobs stuck together, but still, it's what I know.

So, Idol tonight, top twelve. I missed the women because I was at Kung Fu, but as far as the men go, please let Sanjaya leave tonight. Why the eff is he still here? Ooooh, Ryan is torturing Chris Sligh. Chris is my favorite. And I admit to having a totally lame crush on teeny little metro Ryan Seacrest, wtf.

What else? Oh, writing! I wrote a huge MONSTER of a chapter last night. In fact I can barely wait to get back to it tonight, I'm charged. W00t.

Anything else? Oh yeah! For godsakes, GET WELL, LE JARED! Jaysus.

Speaking of American Idol and another Jared, WAHHHH! I didn't want Jared to leave! He's cute and has a great voice. Meh. If Sanjaya is still in I will vunch a beeotch, I mean it.

Before you say, "OMG, how can you even put a video game in the same entry with the departure of a living thing that you loved!" well, try to keep in mind that A) Ariel, for as much as I always called her "my dolphin", was never actually mine and I didn't actually get to interact with her too much, and B) seriously, I've been playing Legend of Zelda sine the first game came out. Dude, that's a LONG time. Twenty years or so. And that this is the game I've been waiting for since they started teasing us with trailers for it back in '01 or maybe even '00, before cheating us with WindWaker and then making us wait all this time. So Twilight Princess has a special place in my blog, and the ending of it is significant for me.

Thoughts: Well, it was a terrific game. For this moment, it doesn't feel as all-encompasing as Ocarina of Time did, but it did fill a void and I guess technically was a superior game. It was really frustrating in some parts, and there are definitely parts I am so NOT looking forward to repeating, like for instance the city in the sky or whatever the hell it was. I loathed that temple-like thing. The runaway cart through Hyrule field early in the game. Ugh. And Dark Horseman Ganon, oh man, that was the hardest boss in the whole thing, harder than the Water Temple boss. The easiest boss battle was actually the last Ganon one. He played just like a Darknut and I took the slightest bit of damage while cheesing him to death with a backslash. Ganon's death always has an odd sort of beauty in all of the games. It's always creepy, subtle and significant. This time was no different.

The ending was decent for a Zelda game, and I specify "for a Zelda game" because they don't go as all-out with their wrap-ups as, like Final Fantasy for instance. It was a 15 or so minute ending, but that was mostly just scenes of fields I spent the last month riding around in, with credits over it. The kids went home and that was nice but totally expected. They didn't wrap up at all about Renado or Telma (an unrealistic part of me wanted her to thwack him in the head or something. He started out as one of my favorites, then became one of my least favorites.) They didn't wrap up about the little detail of Link being a werewolf for godsakes.

Zelda was beautiful, but OMG Link / Midna! :P I loved Link's :-O look when he saw her at the end.

I wonder if I could download all the cut-scenes and do a music video. For that matter, I wonder what people would think if I poked my head back into the fandom for a second to whip out one more LOZ fanfic. I'm not sure I have it in me, (though it looks like Link went back to work, is my guess, and also can no longer change into a werewolf but now knows that animals talk and does he still sort of understand them? Does he want to? Or can he totally not at all? Does he miss Midna, what's Zelda doing at the Castle, are her parents alive? How does she explain this to the Hylians? Does she remember ( cut for spoilers ), does that still keep her awake at night? Does Link visit the group at Telma's bar? Did Zelda thank them? Are they like knights or something now? What's Ashei up to these days? What's Midna up to? This is the first game where it seems everyone pretty much knows that Link saved the world, what must that be like?) but I guess that a handful of people would smile about it if I did it. Ahh, fandom. Ahh, LOZ, how you leave so much open to the players' interpretation. Ahhh, how I do not need distractions from the book I'm supposed to be working on. >_>

Anyway, no less significant today was my last day with Ariel. It was cold, not as cold as last week but oddly it felt colder. It only started to drop below 30 after 5 or so, and then the snow started to come down like mad. Still, I was wearing long-johns under my jeans, two pairs of socks under my boots--with hand-warmers in them--two thermal shirts, two fleece sweaters and a coat, and I was still freezing. Ariel was in a fine mood today, she sped around, breached, leapt, twirled, did head-stands and everything. She spent a lot of time biting her toys, bumping them into each other, diving with them, and generally being a character. I might have mentioned that last week she looked right at me for the first time, and that was weird, because she's never really looked at people around the outside of the tank before. (The girl who was in the tank with her was surprised by it when she saw her do it.) Today she looked at me quite a bit. Then I did two things I wasn't supposed to do, because we were never to interact with her from outside of the tank. (But dude, they were also supposed to let me swim with her--it's why most of us signed on in the first place, not to stand outside in the cold writing everytime she took a crap.) She was hanging around really close to me and just staring, rolling onto her side and really eyeballing me. Then she'd nudge her yellow skip disk a little and still look at me. The first naughty thing I did was to reach in and take the disk to see if she'd take it from me. She didn't seem to be interested in that. Finally, I took off my glove and just reached down and pet her, which is actually the first time I've touched her. (I've touched dolphins before, but never her.) She wiggled like it tickled, then she just went back to playing with her toy. I watched her for a few more minutes, thanked her for teaching me so much about dolphins, then said goodbye and took my leave of her.

I did get a video of her with her eyes open, watching me, and I got some caps from that video. They're small. And although I did take some pictures of her after this, they all came out dark, so for my purposes, these are my last pictures of Ariel:







Now she's off to the Gulfarium, where she will be a show dolphin. It's that or death; people are the only thing she knows, she thrives on the attention, and she'd never survive in the wild. She's going to be a great show-girl. Good luck, Ariel!