"But We Already Ruled That Out"

My parents just got back from being in Memphis for a week, and while I'm going to miss sleeping without earplugs at night since I took over their bedroom, I'm glad they're back (I went almost a week without them for the first time in about five-ish years). Luckily this time I did not set off the alarm, thus freaking myself out. Haha, good times.

For a while now everything in our kitchen has been breaking. The oven does not know the difference between changing the time and setting the timer, our dishwasher runs at the strangest times for no reason and will run for hours on end, and our family forgot what it was like to have hard ice cream. The bottom half of our freezer acts like a fridge. So it's finally come time, and tomorrow we're getting new appliances! I'm so excited, because new stuff is fun and it'll be nice to have updated cooking stuff. Our stove is kinda old, and takes forever to heat up. I seriously can't wait!

Today I watched a bit of The Fellowship of the Ring. I started it a while back, and only just yesterday and today started again. I cleaned my room while doing so, and it's glorious. Just hearing the music and voices of the actors... arg, Aragon! He's amazing, I forgot how much I love that guy. He's so awesome. And Gandalf man, he's the best. Not to rule out everyone else. I love love the Hobbit's like nothing else, Gimli is the best, and don't even get me started on Legolas. Hehe.

While my parents were gone I cleaned out my room, got rid of a bag of stuff, and reorganized so there's more room to store things under my bed. I'm really glad about that. Plus I was able to sweep under the bed for the first time in a while. It was pretty dusty.

Okay so I got a haul of Romanov books from the library, and I'm on a rampage! I'm sorta freaking out, because according to one book Pierre Gilliard was vilified as a pathological liar! How did I not know this?! Now I really want to read his books, one of which titled The False Anastasia. Now that
will be an interesting read.

I've also been on a Homesteading craze after a friend recommended a homesteading book. I want to plan my Winter garden and plant it soon, so here's hoping I don't fail. I can't wait to get five new chicken in the Spring. It's been weird without the old hens. Every morning and evening I'm like, "gotta take care of the hennies... wait, they're not here."

On Thursday Rachelle put me through what I'd like to call a canter intensive. I was so sore when I got home, and the next day was worse. But it was great! I mean, I'm not exactly any better, but I have a few ideas as to why I'm so... unstable. First off, I know I lean forward (which is bad), but when I lean back I feel off balance and not comfortable letting go of the saddle. I think, while my eq is generally pretty okay, I sit every so slightly forward. I need to open up my hips I think, as well. Second I'm having a hard time getting in rhythm with the horse. I was starting to get a feel for Lacey, but she's gone (and for that my spine is forever grateful). My resolve is to exercise my leg muscles, and find balance exercises to try. I want to get an exercise ball to help simulate a similar position so I can practice balancing. And maybe sometime soon I'll ask for a bareback lesson (no cantering though, hehe). That seemed to help my balance in the beginning. Maybe if I can get Zoe again... she'd great bareback.

Also at the barn, the big arena has footing, wire fencing, and gates! It looks so beautiful! Rachelle has started driving too. Anna got to drive Comet on Thursday, and I ground drove him for practice. I think I may end up liking driving, but it's a little disconcerting. It is similar, but different. Plus in some senses it seems more dangerous. I mean, you can't do a one rein stop on a cart. I'm sure it's not that bad, but while Anna drove Rachelle had me stay down in the unlikely event that Comet tried to take off. Luckily nothing happened, and I doubt it ever will.

The other day I started notebooks for Russian and Norwegian, simply because I felt like it. While Scottish Gaelic is my priority language, I want to familiarize myself with French, Russian, and Norwegian. Plus, writing in Russian is very entertaining.

So you know how I'm saving up for a new keyboard and a camera? Well I just looked 'em up and now I'm furious. The keyboard I want went up $80 in price, and yes while I know it might go down before I have the money, it's still annoying. And the camera I want to buy is no longer being made. Sure, I can probably find basically the same thing but still it's like, driving me nuts. So yeah.

Tomorrow I can enter my NaNoWriMo novel onto the web site, and I'm so excited! Last night I consulted Daniel, the comic specialist, to help me. See, my novel is based on a character that I wish could become DC Canon. Unfortunately, she'll never be added to the family, least of all live in Gotham city as I envision her. So I decided to write her story as a trilogy since I already had a backstory formed through our Lego play (that's how her character emerged). We came up with an interesting way to introduce the endgame baddie whilst keeping them in a small role. Daniel also mentioned that any baddie in a superhero origin story plays a very small role, until the end, because the story is about how they come to be, not the battle. I rather like that.

All the fandoms are returning and it's glorious. Agents of Shield broke my heart in the first episode, and even though we're not caught up we watched the newest Once Upon a Time because a friend had a premiere party. It was amazing! The Flash and Arrow return soon, Supergirl should be starting soon (I think) Legends of Tomorrow should also be starting soon, and just, all the shows. So yeah, the fandoms are returning.

Earlier Daniel and I were playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes on Wii, and things got really crazy. Mystique and Magneto pretended to be new mutants in order to infiltrate Professor Xavier's. Once our characters arrived, I changed into Professor X and let me tell you, it was hilarious. Magneto's disguise was him wearing a simple purple shirt, and Professor X was like, "I see you like purple. Reminds me of my mortal enemy... MAGNETO. But you couldn't be him!" Then Professor X proceed to show him around, first showing him to the death cliff where they either had to polish his head or jump off. Magneto then commented about Wolverine, wondering how he reacted, and Professor X said, "He jumped. Thirty times." Magneto's had to cover up his abilities, and frying pans kept hitting him in the head. Professor X was like, "Just like MAGNETO! But we already ruled that out!" and it was just crazy and Daniel couldn't stop laughing. I wish we had it on tape. Professor X is my new favorite character to be. Part of Magneto's cover was saying his parents were Indian or something, and Professor X was like, "You're pale though. Oh no, son, I have some bad news. You're adopted." It was just... crazy.