Strange creature!

The other day I found this insect while coming home from a family walk. I kept it in my hands and held on to it long enough for us to take a couple pics of it. I think it's a praying mantis, but it looks pretty strange for one, doesn't it?

Adorable Ducklings!

10 ducklings in all. Aren't they sooo cute?!

The post that goes with this is at this link.

Rick Riordan and Pendragon 10!!!

Man, what a day I had yesterday. So awesome! It turned out so much better than I had a right to think it would. (Check out my posts on my other blogs later.) I went to Borders bookstore and caught lots of pics and vids of the bestselling Rick Riordan.

 (These are actually pictures that I took. I practically stood the whole time next to his table as he signed all the kids books and answered their many questions. ^,^)

When he was finally all done with everyone, I was right there to say, "Mr. Riordan, will you please sign this?" And he did! Right then and there he grabbed my scrap of paper and autographed it for me!

Do you see it?! That's his loopy signature. ^_^ It's cool, because all he has to sign is an "Ri" and then a "Rio" and you can tell that it's Rick Riordan. I'm so glad I was able to catch him! It's too bad though... I'd also wanted to get a picture with Rick, but he said sorry, he was too busy and had to get to his next event right away. Oh well. I'm pretty content with having gotten his autograph.

So after leaving Borders, my sister and I walked all the way to Books-A-Million, where I spontaneously decided to buy Pendragon #10!!!

Cool, huh? I think it's uber-cool!!! That's my book on my table! And that's how thick the book is. I'm sooo going to enjoy it. ^,^ (Of course, I've got a load of other books to read first, so I can wait. At least I own it now and I don't have to wait until it comes out in the library! Hee hee.) Here's the link to my book blog, where I rave all about Pendragon.

And here are some beautiful pictures I took on the golf course we walked along on our way home. (Full story is on my blog.)

Pendragon

I hurt myself.

I was riding my waveboard today, at one of my favorite parks, Peacemound. It's a fun place with lots of hills and a couple bridges. Bunch of squirrels and ducks too. But the hills are the best part, so Annette and I were dropped off at Peacemound to "rip" for awhile, and then we'd ride home. However, the paths are a little bumpy. They're mostly made of asphalt, not cement like sidewalks.

I don't have much idea of what happened. We were going down a bit of a steep hill, I saw some other people ahead. I noticed that Annette had jumped off her Ripstick because it had been too bumpy for her, but the board was in the middle of the path. I planned on jumping off to safety, but I was going too fast.

One moment I was on my board, the next I had skidded to the ground, my left hand stinging. Annette was immediately at my side. I really hurt, but I didn't feel the need to cry, so it mustn't have been that bad. Still, I was all, "It burns! It burns!" Lifting my left hand to see the damage, (my right hand was unharmed) I saw it had been scratched. I instinctively went to the lake nearby to "put out the fire" in my palm. Later I also discovered a big boo-boo near my elbow. Not pretty.

After I felt like I'd recovered myself, we got back to boarding. Just like my last Ripstick accident, I wasn't too worse for the wear. But I was a lot more careful. Luckily, I didn't get traumatized by the hill I went down. Maybe because I know it better than that ramp I tripped off of before.

They might be ugly, but here is what my scrapes look like. I want to post them here so that when I heal, I'll remember what they looked like before.

Why do I have to be the one to fall off of my board?! I hate drawing blood even more than I hate getting sick. I don't remember the last time I had to give myself some bandages. Well, I'm sure I'll heal soon enough.

Vegetarian Wonders

I know Jacoby has already posted today, but I just felt like showing off some more cool food pics. I realized I hadn't downloaded from my camera in a while and I remembered wanting to post these. So here they are.

A mutant strawberry! It's like a kind of siamese twins thing, two or three of them melded together. Crazy! And in my hand it looks like a butterfly, right?

I love strawberries. They're one of my favorite fruits. This one was really tasty. Of course, I find that I often regret eating a funny food, like that HUGE zucchini, remember? I mean, if I've taken the time to take a picture of it and laugh and marvel at it, I feel a little guilty about... killing it? But it's still food, right?

Speaking of zucchini, these next pictures are really cool.

These might look like ordinary lasagna and spaghetti, right? Wrong! It's raw zucchini! The lasagna we had on Friday. Annette and I made it ourselves. All you do is peel strips of zucchini and make it part of your regular recipe instead of the pasta strips. Sauce, cheese, the works. It tastes just the same! It might be messy, because the zucchini strips would be thin, but it's still delicious. The best part about this dish? You don't have to bake it like normal lasagna! You put it in the fridge until you're ready to eat. No, not until you're ready to be eaten, silly! The zucchini! (Sorry, bad joke.)

Same with the spaghetti, which we had today. Again, Annette's and my recipe. After you peel the zucchini, you slice them as thin as you can. Voila! Throw on the sauce, sprinkle cheese, have garlic bread, add meatballs, whatever you like having with your pasta. Trust me, you've gotta try it! You won't taste the difference. Who needs packaged pasta from the shelf? One regular sized zucchini will equal one good serving of veggie spaghetti.

You know what I call this? Using your vegetarian noodle! Get it?

Meeting James again

So, this is James Dashner and Jacoby Nielsen! ^.^ it was much fun!