Goodbye!

We just decided to go to the beach for a week! We booked our cottage yesterday, and we're leaving this afternoon. We'll be back Saturday. I might do a post on my dad's laptop.... but probably not, because I tried typing comments on his laptop while we were in VA and his 'o' key keeps coming off, and the spacebar takes about 3 seconds to actually type a space.... Soyoue ndupwit hthis.

I'm so excited, I've always wanted to go to the beach for a week! *bounces off to finish getting ready*

~Lizzie

Oh dear....

Well, thank goodness Hillary wasn't nominated. Now let's just hope that Obama doesn't have an "accident" that magically places Hillary back in the running. And just so you know, the ONLY reason I'm hoping that is because I think Obama is stupider than Hillary, and thus is more likely to screw up his own campaign. Plus, as much as I hate to admit it, McCain made a pretty good choice of a running mate in Sarah Palin. I can't STAND to see women in leadership positions, but at least it's a woman with good morals.... and hey, she's not running for president. *despairing sigh* At least.. not yet.

But I can't forget the story of the prophetess Deborah. She said to Barak, ""The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: 'Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.' "

Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you don't go with me, I won't go." "Very well," Deborah said, "I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman." So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. (Judges 4:6-9)

So perhaps God is using Sarah Palin because the Godly men aren't "going about this" the right way. Who knows.

~Lizzie

AHHH!!!!!

*bounces around like an insane maniac screaming* MY WATER POLO BALL ARRIVED!!!!! I'm beyond excited! Now I just need to go to a pool! Now no matter what pool we go to, or when, I can always have my water polo ball! *sighs happily*

I was also hoping that Coach would let us use it for the game ball (cause the ball we used to use was a men's ball, and it was ginormous for my annoyingly small hands), but now we've been using some red, white and blue women's size balls that are at TAC, so I'll guess I'll just use mine for warming up and fun. And anyone who dribbles it on the pool deck better beware.... *shudder* I can't stand seeing people dribble water polo balls like they're basketballs. Don't they know that that ruins them??

Here's a picture of my ball! Just so you know, water polo balls are usually somewhat expensive, but I got mine for $25 on sale! All of my babysitting money from the past month. But it was worth it!

I'm sure you don't care.... unless you're Jessica or a reader that catches other's excitement well. But I just had to post about it. :D

~Lizzie

I found my watch!

Yeah. It's been missing for a while. I was so frustrated... you see, my old watch had a velcro wristband, and the velcro was so worn out that getting it wet (it was a water-proof watch, so I wore it while swimming) would make it prone to falling off. And every Wednesday after water polo, I'd dive down to the bottom of the 12 foot pool and retrieve my watch where it fell after the inevitable fight over the water polo ball. So I finally got a water proof watch with a buckle clasp, and promptly lost it. And I was just looking under my bed for my old computer keyboard (don't ask) and found it! Yay.

We watched the Count of Monte Cristo and Frequency this weekend. And my parents and sister watched Bobby Jones without me. I loved the Count of Monte Cristo. I wanted to watch Bobby Jones (I probably will before we return the movies to our friends who loaned them to us) and Frequency.... well, we just finished it, and I'm still stressed out. Firewall stressed me out too. They're both pretty good movies, but when I watch movies, I like to escape from reality. (If you know Frequency, you're probably laughing at me...) My ideal movie is Pride and Prejudice... the worst scare you get is that Darcy doesn't end up with Elizabeth. But in the end it's happily ever after.

I feel like I had something deep and thoughtful to say, but I guess it's a good thing that I forgot it.... whatever it was. I claim ADHD "Attention Deficit in High Definition"... and I would put who said that but Alex told me someone on her swim team said it. And I don't remember the person's name. Ah, well.

Oh, I need to mention that I'm so glad the Olympics are over! It's so nice to not feel like you have to watch all the time or you're missing something important. I actually missed the gold medal water polo matches and I don't really care.

~Lizzie

Hyperactivity

Here ya go Jess. This is the song that I refused to sing in public. Guess why? *smirk* Anyway. A little weirder than I remembered. I used to love this song when my dance teacher played it in class. We liked doing our grande jete combination to this song. That's a REALLY disturbing video though. And the song's not as great as I remembered. And the sound is off. :P

~Lizzie

New computer....

Mostly. After hearing a homeopathic doctor speak about how the older computer monitors radiate 10 feet and the new flat screens only 3, my dad decided to get me a new monitor. And while we were at it, we figured we'd replace my old motherboard and CPU. And then my old power supply wasn't powerful enough for the new motherboard and CPU, and my old hard drive wasn't letting us reinstall windows. So I got a new drive as well. So I basically have a new computer, without losing all my stuff! It's really nice.

I had a whole bunch of opinions I was going to share about the Olympics.... but I'm just too tired of the whole shebang.

So, instead of the Olympics, you get to hear about the copperhead we found while walking around our neighborhood. (And yes, just in case anyone-who-remembers-all-my-previous-snake-issues was wondering, I have an unusually frequent encounter rate with snakes. Lucky. Me.) Anyway, as to my story.... we were just calmly walking... okay, calm really doesn't describe us.... never mind the adjectives. We were walking. And Sarah suddenly stopped with a surprised little squeak. I would have screamed. But Sarah merely squeaked. It was kinda dark, so we didn't really see it until Sarah almost stepped on it. And it was so dark that it was hard to tell that it had diamonds on it's back. But we did eventually determine that it had the pattern, and a diamond-shaped head. I immediately voted to kill it... not me personally, but one of the daring males in my family, of course. However, we didn't have any handy tools for such a task, and I guess the men were feeling not-so-daring, so there is most definitely a copperhead in our neighborhood. Thank goodness it's currently on an empty lot that's not really near our house. Otherwise I might be forced to freak out. Which you might think I've already done from this horribly long paragraph in which I only talked about this snake. You know, once I do so well just rambling on in one paragraph, I always wonder how long I could keep going. And then I completely run out of things to say.

Oh well. You'll thank me later. Actually, you're probably already thanking me.... never mind. Only a Monk fan would get that. Anyone? *ahem* Okay, I feel stupid. I should just go to bed... it IS 1 in the morning.

~Lizzie

My Mind Isn't Working

Note to all: Taping your eyelids open just to see the last part of the mens' gymnastics all-around final is a bad idea.

Which is why I didn't do it. Instead I fell asleep in a most uncomfortable position in my chair, with very good intentions of waking up for Jonathan Hornton's floor routine. Unfortunately, I didn't wake up until Mom kept saying something very confusing... I think it was, "Move it upstairs, Lizzie." I couldn't figure out what she meant, and seeing that the TV was off, I trudged upstairs and went to bed.

I'm already tired of the Olympics. It's just cramming our already somewhat hectic life even fuller. I wish I could come home from swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays and just eat supper and go to bed (we get home at 8pm). But no! The Olympics are on and the incredible draw of the TV drags me into the living room and again, I "stay up" til 1:30 or 2 and then try to sleep in to make up for it.

Have you ever noticed that it doesn't matter how long you sleep, if you stayed up late you're still going to feel tired?

Oh, well, I can't concentrate anymore, and for some reason, what I'm typing is taking a long time to appear, so I'm going to go have some more caffeine and try to pretend I'm functioning for another day.

~Lizzie

Uugh!!!

That was so annoying!! I'm going to go to bed in a second but I just have to rant about the men's team gymnastics.

The Americans were doing GREAT, the first real mistake was on the pommel horse and that was their last event! The Chinese were looking horribly sloppy. And yet the Chinese got 16's all over the place and we didn't get ONE SINGLE ONE. The announcers were making a big deal about China's unbelievable success. Yeah, unbelievable is right. It's so unbelievable, I don't believe it!! As a matter of fact, I'm guessing that China threatened the gymnastics judges with something beginning with Chinese water torture and ending in a horrible death just to get those ridiculous scores. BTW, did you hear that China made their gymnastics coaches sign some kind of contract to NOT LET their gymnasts get hurt?? How are you supposed to prevent injuries in that kind of sport? That's just INSANE. I'm so worked up I don't know how I'm going to get to sleep. URGH.

At least the Americans got bronze. If we'd lost even the bronze to the Germans after they did EVEN WORSE on the pommel horse ..... well, then we'd know for sure that not only did the Chinese force the judges to make them win, but they also forced the judges to keep us out of the medals. *shakes index finger at the judges in China*

*sigh* The Olympics are just supposed to be entertainment for me..... I shouldn't be so frustrated. I just really really it when it's so obvious that the judges are being unfair.

~Lizzie

2008 Olympics

It's rolled around again...... probably the most costly and overrated sports event ever. That said, my family has always enjoyed the Olympics. We watch the swimming, diving, water polo, gymnastics and anything else except women's weight lifting and women's beach volleyball. *cough, choke*

We were going to update from our regular basic cable to standard just for the Olympics... but, amazingly enough, our cable provider canceled our order for us. (Apparently they canceled it because we ordered a faster internet connection at the same time and our modem won't support the faster internet, so they canceled the entire order.) I was all for ditching them all together and getting another company in time for the Olympics.... but the higher powers (my parents) were unenthusiastic.

So we've been watching what we get on NBC and USA. We really enjoyed watching both our men's and women's water polo teams beat China. That was cool. The diving was neat, but we were disappointed that both of the synchro teams that we've seen so far haven't medaled. Especially since Ariel Rittenhouse is our friends' cousin. The gymnastics has been fairly uninteresting so far. Probably because we've only seen the prelims. The swimming has been the most exciting.

Last night my whole family was gathered in our living room to watch the 4 x 100m Free relay. The last 50 we were all shouting, and when Lezak just out-touched the French guy, we were all screaming along with Michael Phelps. Winning is really exciting. Winning that close is extremely exciting. Beating a team that planned to "smash" you is crazy awesome exciting! And they didn't mess up our anthem for the medal ceremony. *pumps fist in air* *realizes that girls always look pathetic fist pumping* *claps enthusiastically and jumps up and down*

I think what I've personally enjoyed most so far though, (besides screaming like a maniac when Lezak nailed the gold medal) is watching Natalie Coughlin swim. I guess she's my favorite because her main stroke is my favorite: backstroke. She's kinda become my swimming "hero" and that's saying something since I usually don't make heros of celebrity types. Notice that I said 'kinda' and 'hero' is in quotes.... which denotes something closer to admiration than hero worship. Mostly my estimation will be displayed in my attempts to emulate her strokes.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this week, hopefully seeing Natalie Coughlin and the rest of the Americans taking some more medals... preferably gold. :D

~Lizzie

Sleep over!!

That's the great thing about sharing a room with your sister; you get sleepovers every night! Some are more amusing than others....... Tuesday night was one.

First, we were trying to figure out how many more 4-hour days of swimming are left, and how many I would have had left if I missed the practice Thursday. We bantered back and forth, "3 more Thursdays" "no, 2 more Thursdays... plus the Tuesdays which makes.... 5 days" "no, I think it'll be 3 Thursdays" "no, it'll only be 2!" and so forth. We finally decided to abandon mathematical equations of that difficulty at 12:30am.

So then we were discussing another topic (about my evil-ness in supposedly poisoning Sarah's mind against someone [I didn't!!]) and she said, "Ooh, that would make you Gollum! And that would make me Sam!!"
I humphed insultedly, and then she said, "Oh, wait... actually, that would make me Frodo...." *snicker* "and *so-and-so* Sam."
I said that I thought we were abandoning mathematics since it was so late (early) and we were obviously not functioning well, and she asked if that was math.
"Well, you have to decide if 'a' equals 'b' or 'c'. "
She thought for a moment and then asked, "Would that make me 'b' or 'c'?"
I stared at her dark shape on the other side of the room. "That would make you 'a'."
And we collapsed into giggles.

Then she wailed, "Oh, I'm so blonde! Is my hair changing color?"

This brought to mind a quote from about a year ago. We were looking at pictures, and Sarah goes, "It looks like my head is connected to my neck! Oh... wait.. it is."

Then Wednesday night we had too much caffeinated tea with supper... we ended up staying up til 3 in the morning. We ate a bag of chips, and played this great game where we listened to our not-iPods and guessed what song the other person was listening to by the way they were bouncing/bobbing their head/pretending to sing. It was fun... but not something that I'd let just anybody see me do. I'm sure I looked dorky.

So Thursday (after going to bed at 3, mind you) Joel and I had a little swim competition. You see, we're pretty close to the same speed, and we have a tendency to pass one another. On Tuesday I was making a hard interval, and Joel had already missed, but he wouldn't let me pass him, so I missed the interval. And yes, I confess that I was pretty frustrated. So Daddy decided that we would swim 10 50's on the :45 (the interval that we did on Tuesday [and that basically means that you have to swim 2 laps in 45 seconds, 10 times]) and the one who makes the most gets the permanent right to go in front of the other person.

And I confess.... I was prideful about that. I mean, he missed an interval before I did, and that's why he messed me up. Surely I could beat him... right?? What I didn't count on was him making ALL 10. And thereby qualifying for the Platinum team. (We have 4 levels... Masters for parents, Blue [which is the easiest], Silver [harder] and Platinum. The top. He is officially a Platinum member. I'm still Silver. I only made 8. I'm so bummed. And the really sad part is that if I'd managed to get a good night's sleep, I probably could have done it. :(

Kara and I had a very interesting discussion about courting Thursday night. I might even do a whole post about it. Basically we were discussing why we might say 'no' and whether you should have feelings for the guy before you say 'yes' to courting. But it's really made me rethink a lot about what I believe about courtship. I'm kinda uncertain right now.. still mulling it over. Fortunately, it's not an issue right now, because I certainly don't have guys lining up at my door. :P And Daddy would likely say that I'm too young anyway. I tend to agree.

Faith for the Man He'll Become
This one was just an interesting point of view. Not really an article that I need at the moment.... but I realized that I was kinda expecting the spiritual qualities that I see in older men in younger men, and it's true, "The qualities you can see in a 50-year-old man's life were developed over 50 years. There are 25 more years of growth ahead for the 25-year-old man before it's fair to compare them."

You Made Me Sin
"In the same way, when we get squeezed by the circumstances of life (an inevitability), we ooze the overflow of our hearts. We usually don't like what we see, so we blame the squeeze. We blame the circumstances. "I wouldn't have reacted that way if I hadn't been tired." Or, "I only said that because I was hot, thirsty, and uncomfortable." That's our default setting: blame the circumstances."

What Girls Wish You Knew
Before you ask, yes, there is a "What Guys Wish You Knew." There's a link at the bottom of this article if you'd rather read that. I decided to share this one because it clarified some things that I only half understood about myself. And yes, guys, those are exactly what we wish you really knew. But girls, this is for you, so if you happened to be like me, you can finally understand those vague ideas.

You know, growing up is so depressing. There's so much of a burden that comes with the knowledge you gain. When I was a kid, I didn't worry about anything. Now I see so many things on a different level.... everything is so much deeper. It's richer, and possibly more enjoyable than the blissful obliviousness of childhood... but still, I see things now that hurt me.. that I never would have noticed as a kid. And I'm not sure that I ever felt emotional pain as physically as I do now. All I can hope is that I'll outgrow it. That just seems like such an unlikely possibility now though, especially since it's been years since I've outgrown clothes. Ah well.

I don't want to end on a depressing note, so I'm going to share my favorite Bible verse (as of today anyway): "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:30-31 (KJV)

~Lizzie

Vacuums, part 2

Yep, there's a part 2.

So Daddy got the new belt in place, and I put the roller back in, and put the cover back on, turned it on to vacuum and........ it made this insanely loud noise, started trying to propel itself very fast, and WOULDN'T TURN OFF. I frantically flicked the on/off switch up and down and just when the lightbulb in my head suggested that I just unplug it, it finally turned off. "The Vacuum of Sauron" indeed. Sarah named it very well. Too well. It's probably all her fault anyway. I mean, we could have named it something like... what am I saying. It doesn't need a name! *bangs head on desk*

So anyway. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is THE Vacuum of Sauron! Recovered from Mordor just before the Frodo accidentally dropped the One Ring into Mount Doom. And it can be yours for the price it takes to catch it as I hurl it out my bedroom window! Warning: Unsuitable for vacuuming, but a very... interesting collection piece.

I'm looking into the costs of wood floors.

~Lizzie

Vacuums

I loathe vacuums. Some of you may remember my previous issues with this vacuum (since my sanity is already on the edge of a very steep cliff, I'm not going to link to that old post. If you're really that bored, you can find it yourself).

All manuals are meant to be lost or discarded immediately after any necessary instructions have been absorbed. Most instruction manuals contain only the most useless information anyway. "Warning: Toaster may become hot after use." "Warning: Keep fingers and toes away from the cutting blade of the lawnmower." The instruction manual to our vacuum cleaner was no exception.

So considering that the typical maintenance like changing the bag and pulling out all the hair (did you know that the average person loses 100 hairs a day? Yep. I gather that that makes about 300 hairs that are over 1 and a half feet long that wrap around the roller brush of the vacuum) are rather simple tasks, I determined that I probably wouldn't need the manual, and promptly lost it somewhere in the piles of manuals that Mom insists we keep.

Even when one of the belts came off, I didn't need the manual. Or at least, I figured I didn't. I mean, sure, I broke out in a sweat, worked myself into a headache, snapped a couple pencils and needed a very long screwdriver, but I did manage to replace the belt. It fell off again recently and today I finally got around to trying to fix it. Only this time, I figured that maybe it fell off because I did something wrong. So I looked up the manual on the internet. (Yeah, I know, I'm a genius.) And, no, I definitely replaced it right. As a matter of fact, I think I've figured out a better position for all the right leverage and everything than the one they suggested. Hopefully that doesn't affect the application. *groan*

So, anyway. I determined that the reason the belt came off must have been because it's stretched out. It's a good inch bigger than the replacement belt that the manufacturers helpfully included. Therefore, I decided to put in the replacement belt instead of the original belt. And this has been an even worse experience than replacing the original belt. (duh... it's an inch smaller!) The manual isn't very helpful either. It only says, "Extra effort may be required to stretch belt onto pulley." No kidding!

I'm pretty sure that the manufacturers didn't test replacing the belt. Either that or they had a robot test it. *pouts* I'm going to get rid of my carpet. Then I can just sweep. And I think I totally said the same thing last time.

~Lizzie

Edit: Daddy got it on! Yay!! Thank you, Daddy. :)

40 secrets about me.

I am bored nearly out of my mind, so I took this quizzy-thing from Jessica's blog. She calls it lazy blogging; I call it boredom blogging. :D
Here we go...

One. Have you ever been asked out? Nope

Two. Where was your default picture taken? My back yard

Three. What is your middle name? Kristen

Four. Your current relationship status? Single

Five. Does your crush like you back? I really have no idea...

Six. What is your current mood? bored....?

Seven. What color pants are you wearing? Olive green

Eight. What color shirt are you wearing? white. It's my Greater Raleigh Championship T-shirt.

Nine. What is your favorite thing to do? That's a very long list. Off the top of my head... take pics at swim meets, swim, paint, play my flute, listen to music, watch movies, watch Hawks games(baseball and basketball), go shopping...etc.

Ten. If you could go back in time and change something, would you? I don't think so, it would be temping though. :)

Eleven. If you must be an animal for one day, what would you be? A cat.

Twelve. Ever had a near death experience? nope...

Thirteen. Something you do a lot? swim. I swim a lot. I also sleep a lot though, probably more than I swim...

Fourteen. What do you want to be when you get older? A professional photographer/artist/musician, a movie director, and of course, a mother/wife. :D

Fifteen. Who did you copy and paste this from? Jessica

Sixteen. Name someone with the same birthday as you? Rupert Everett. :)

Seventeen. When was the last time you cried? I don't remember...

Eighteen: What do you consider your theme song? I guess there's a few... I haven't really thought about that before... Maybe "I'm Not Alright"-- Sanctus Real, "Lose My Soul" -- tobyMac, or "Never Alone" -- BarlowGirl.

Nineteen. If you could have one super power what would it be? Mind-reading.

Twenty. What's the first thing you notice about the opposite/same sex? Eyes, smile, and hair.

Twenty-one. What do you usually order from Starbucks? Some kind of mint thing... I don't usually get Starbucks... :(

Twenty-two. What's your biggest secret? That would be a SECRET.

Twenty-three. Favorite color? Pretty much any dark, muted or grey-ish color.

Twenty-five. Do you still watch kiddy movies or tv shows? Yeah, when I can :)

Twenty-six. What are you eating or drinking at the moment? I'm drinking water, and I had a cookie, but.... I finished it...

What's your favorite smell? My shampoo

Twenty-nine. Describe your life in one word, what would it be? Unique.

What is your secret obsession: Thinking of ideas for fantasy books, and never writing them....

Thirty-one. Have you ever kissed in the rain? No... *sigh*

Thirty-two. What are you thinking about right now? being kissed in the rain...

Thirty-three. What should you be doing right now? School would probably be a good idea....

Thirty-four. Who was the last person that made you upset/angry? Ah, that would be me.

Thirty-five. Why are you doing this? I was bored. :)

Thirty-six. Do you like working in the yard? Nope, not really... unless maybe if it's hard (gives you a workout)

Thirty-seven. If you could have any last name in the world, what would it be? I like the one I have just fine. :)

Thirty-eight. Do you act differently around the person you like? I act like I like him (because I do) which is different from the way I act around people I don't like, but otherwise, no.

Thirty-nine. What is your natural hair color? Dark brown-with-red-highlights :)

Forty. What did you think about this survey? Fun. :) I wasn't bored while doing it.

--Sarah

Move the Picture

You've probably heard of the horrible scandal involving Abercrombie & Fitch at Triangle Town Center mall. (link) A group of people are spending this weekend outside the mall, handing out flyers and asking mall-goers to consider signing a "Move the Picture" petition, contacting mall representative and A&F to register complaints, and to not shop at the mall until this picture is removed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting the picture removed. I'm just wondering, "why now, and why A&F?" I mean, has anyone walked by Victoria's Secret recently? This is from their site: "As a side note, many people have said, "Why not target Victoria's Secret?" "Is it because this is a man?" No... we want all sexually explicit pictures in the windows of mall stores to be moved so that CHILDREN don't have to see them."
So why haven't they objected to Victoria's Secret already? Victoria's Secret has been displaying inappropriate ads ever since the mall was built (which, if I remember correctly, was in 2003, 5 years ago).

Better late than never I guess. But it certainly makes the job harder. For example, they're now citing the mall's own policy, "In order to help ensure a pleasant shopping environment, we ask all visitors to refrain from the following: ... 12. .......wearing clothing or lack of clothing.......that offends community standards of decency or that impinges on the sensitivities of others in the mall." This has been in place ever since 2003, and Victoria's Secret has been "impinging" on my sensitivities the whole time. No one complained. At least, not on this scale. And now, all of a sudden, they're jumping all over A&F. No wonder the mall is reluctant to comply.

I'm not sure what to do. I have yet to sign my name to this petition. By my previous silence about my opinion of Victoria's Secret, I think I've lost my right to complain. I'll only seem like another of the masses picking on A&F. And I'm still not convinced that there isn't more to this than just another bad picture.

~Lizzie