Oh, Sweet Irony!

Harris has four older sisters. To say he lives in a high-estrogen household is an understatement. The backlash against all that feminine energy can be fierce.

I rescued this notice from the trash:


It had been written on the back of one of the many homeschool papers floating around the house.
I got a chuckle when I saw what was on the flip side:

Penguins, Polar Bears and One Man From China

A quick doodle I rescued off the kitchen floor.
Let's see... Harrison understands that penguins and polar bears are on opposite poles.
As the animals use the tunnel, they become mortal enemies.
He also understands one would have to make an alternate route to dig to China (panel 10).



I suppose the moral of this story is if you journey through the center of the earth, whatever you find on the other side will try to kill you.

Alpacas, Seven Per Acre, Right?

The Learning Out Loud group visited an Alpaca Farm yesterday, and since then, I've been trying to talk myself out of buying baby alpacas, while at the same time reading everything on the internet about owning them.
The recommended herd size is seven per acre, which means I would fence off two separate acres, and then move my (up to seven) alpacas to the other field every three weeks.
I need a barn. And a reliable watering system. And a place to store hay for the winter.
And to be smacked upside the head with a clue-by-four!

They are so damn cute-




but surely there's a downside to owning a couple alpacas?


Well, that's just fertilizer for the garden! Because with all that fertilizer, I'd want to start one!





And if I get a few alpacas, I'll need a great pyrenees to go with them...


Once Paige met this dog, Molly, she did not leave Paige's side the rest of the time we were there.

Goats World

While Harrison's stories are gruesome and violent and often disturbing, there is a recurring theme in each- the wronged party stands up for itself in a creative way, and evil is always punished in the end (though admittedly with lots more evil, haha!). For more detail, see individual panels at the bottom.

May I Have the Envelope, Please?

I recently attended the Underclassmen Award Ceremony where Sadie was recognized for achieving high marks in Spanish.
Joey was given an award for, as he so eloquently put it, "Not Being a Douche Bag"*.


Sadie receiving the award



Sadie... and on the left, some girl who is freakishly tall.


Dale, getting an award for being wicked smart in everything... or maybe just German.


Please note he was the only recipient wearing a t-shirt featuring a bleeding head.









* I recently cleaned this blog up a little bit so Ron would be able to view it at work, but I am sure I just blew it with the words "douche bag"... twice.

Sunsets So Beautiful You'd Swear They Were Fake

Sarasota, FL-
After raining all day, the clouds and sun granted us this wonderful consolation prize.
These pics are straight out of the camera.





The below photos of the kids look like cheap studio pictures taken in front of a fakey backdrop!

Life's A Beach

Just say no to torture! I'm pretty sure this is against the Geneva convention.




Storm Clouds and Seashells.





These guys... the 80's called- they want their boom box back.

They were playing "Photograph" by Def Leppard, dressed in short shorts, and kept refilling their big gulp cups with other liquids.

They also had that Night at the Roxbury head-jab going on.
All their songs on the boom box were from the 80's.
They were the most interesting thing on the beach that day.

Sa-rainy-sota

We got to the pool for a little while before the Death Clouds showed up.

It finally stopped storming and there was a mad dash for the beach. The teens were vegging on the sofa and I stayed behind to get dinner ready for everyone.
Since it was Buffy Night at the Staublys, we had 'stake' for dinner, salad, baked potatoes, and 'cookie dough' for dessert.
We used multiple microwaves to make all the potatoes, which meant running plates of potatoes between houses.
The teens got to eat first because they were starving. Then the crowd came back from the beach and inhaled the rest. After everyone had eaten, we started Once More, With Feeling. The kids sang along to every song, and most of the script.
After Once More, With Feeling we watched Tabula Rasa for good measure, all the kids singing "Goodbye to You", at the end.
While watching Buffy, I was torn between putting on my pj's, and putting on my running shoes.
I went into the bedroom and put on my pj's, and as I watched the second episode of Buffy, I knew I would be changing into my exercise clothes.
Ron went to bed, and I headed out into the night.
Many of the roads are well-lit. Some of the roads had a string of several lights that were out. In between, it was very dark, and the tropical plants looked threatening. Hey, it was 2am, and I've watched a lot of movies!
As I walked a lap around Woodland Hall, I saw a security car parked by the building. It was running, but no one was in it. Strange.
I made another lap, and the car really started creeping me out. Where was the driver?
On the next lap, Erica, Steve and Tegan had arrived, and I helped bring their luggage in. When we entered the house, Dane Cook was on the tv, screaming about ejaculation. Joey, Sadie, and Aaron were crashed on Erica's sofa. Pip was asleep in the bed. I looked frantically for the remote to turn off the tv, but couldn't find it. I started feeling on the tv for an off button, but it didn't have one. I tried feeling around the sleeping teens for the dropped remote, but didn't come up with it. Tegan eventually unplugged the tv from the wall.
Ahhhh!
Back to my walk... As I came around Woodland again, the car was still sitting there, empty, but now the headlights were on. That was disturbing. I walked far away from it and kept going around. The next lap, the car was gone. I had enough adrenaline by that point to run, and I did.
Of course, if you run, something will chase you.
As I passed in front of Woodland Hall, I distinctly heard the sound of footsteps behind me. I stopped and turned, to face whomever was chasing me. There was nothing there.
As I started running again, I realized I was hearing my footsteps echoing off the side of the building.
Sheesh! I was really creeping myself out!
I made another lap, and as I came around, and I heard my footsteps echo again. I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if I only thought I was hearing my own footsteps, and I was really being chased?"
Enough.
I knew I was just being paranoid, but I couldn't shake the feeling and so I went back to the house, and sat in the rocking chair. Maggie came up on the porch and we talked for a while. We heard the "thwack! thwack! thwack!" of someone running by the house.
"What the hell was that?!" I said.
"It wasn't Elizabeth. She can't run that fast."
Turns out, when she's really scared, she can.
It was almost 5am, so we decided to go to bed.
Right after I closed my eyes, I got a text from Maggie, "Go out on your porch."
What? Why? I closed my eyes.
The phone rang. It was Maggie.
"There are people out here, with spotlights, looking for something. They are looking in between the houses, and everything.... right where you were running."

Today, it has rained all day. It hasn't stopped the kids from going to the pool, and people are content to hang out and listen to music and graze on the food. They like to pick up the overstuffed Would You Rather book that's always on the table.
I hope to get a good game of 'Imagine If' going later on.

I made a huge pot of soup, but Maggie and I have both decided to want to have liquor for dinner.