And I'm BACK from a three-day trip to Bear Valley, CA, a Sierra village where we own a vacation home. It looks so very different in the summer - surprisingly, our house is a good five feet taller than it was half a year ago, because all the snow's melted, revealing an extra staircase to our front door that is covered in the winter. It's much hotter in the summer also. Whew.

So, on our vacation, we celebrated my grandma Claire's birthday, and her 20th anniversary of marriage to her husband Alvin (Jeffrey's Deep Dark Past: I've never met my grandpa on my mom's side. My grandparents have been divorced for much longer than I've been alive). It wasn't an ideal vacation - I mean, we went to all the right places, but having 3 generations of Fadens in one household, peacefully, is a big feat. Fortunately, my sister Lily and I stopped all impending arguments by hitting everyone with big sticks. So to speak.

Let's see, here's some other absurdity that went on during the trip -

  • I slept for 13 hours straight, a record. The high altitude probably got to me.
  • My step-grandpa is a Wall Street trader, so whenever anyone mentions anything having to do with numbers, he goes off on a seminar about the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
  • We stopped off at many a lake and creek. Each time we went to one, my sister, hesitant at first to jump into the melted snow, scrounged around the water looking for what she calls "gold." My god, she's a millionaire!
  • I saw Billy Elliot and Gladiator on the trip. Billy Elliot ended way too suddenly for my taste, and Gladiator KICCXXXXXXEDDDD AAARRSSSEEEEEEE (even though I'd seen it before).
  • We ate at a Mexican restaurant for my grandparents' anniversary (ooh, high class!), and it took the guys there a few tries before they got my simple order right. Well, at least I got two free enchiladas.
  • The comic strip "Wee Pals" sucks.

8/16/2001 06:28:27 PM

You won't hear from me until Friday, because it's vacation time to our summer home in Bear Valley with my grandparents. I'd rather not go, of course, but I've got nothing better to do. And on Friday it's a mad rush to finish that frequently-mentioned computer animation project, "Rupert." Such is life.

But here's the kicker: I'm going on a trip AGAIN next week to Yosemite with my uncle and twin cousins. I think that'll be a bit more fun, though.

AND AFTER THAT, IT'S SCHOOL.
8/13/2001 11:21:51 PM

WHEE!!!

Well, I was visiting the spectacular "clothing-optional" Muir Beach the other day, when I decided to get Caesar-ambitious on its ass and scale some giant rocks that were off-shore. So, after some fearless, careful rock-hopping in waist-deep water (low tide, off course), I arrived at my destination, scaled the damn thing, and reached the top. Waiting for me at the peak of this Pacific monster was this!


So I traveled back to shore with one hand gripping the bottle. Unfortunately, it was empty when I found it. ...I swear.
8/13/2001 06:00:51 PM

I went to the Gravenstein Apple Fair in Sebastopol today. It was much fun, but even more so, it was very strange... lots of deja vu and past experiences. It's like I'm going to die soon or something.

Signs I'm Going To Die:

6. I almost won a hermit crab today, and in the past I won two of them.
5. There was a girl at the fair who was the SPLITTING IMAGE of a friend I've known my whole life. I mean, EXACT. She had the same hat, same sweatshirt, same pants, same hair, and from the side the same face... it was only until I stared at her for a while that I noticed it wasn't her. ...She didn't recognize me either.
4. This kid I've known since I moved to Marin was at the fair... but he was also at an antique car show I was at yesterday, and the day before I was talking to him before at my camp. He'll probably be where I'm going tomorrow, also.
3. I was walking around with my sister, Lily, and only I noticed that this girl in front of us had IDENTICAL hair to Lily's.
2. We saw these photos of this fat Bengal cat, and it told us of the future: if we keep feeding our new cat the way we do now, he'll look exactly like that.
And the number one reason I'm going to die... I entered in an apple pie-eating contest today, and got second place (the winner, however, was a seasoned "pro"), and I'm going to burst. I'm never eating apple pie again.

All these strange occurences happened on this 12th day of August... I may die soon, but just you wait... I'm going to be RESURRECTED, BABY!!!


In other news, this page is actually getting visitors, which strikes me as odd. I mean, hell, this is a personal site! I've done no advertising, and there barely is any content up yet! My guess is that almost all the visitors to this page are looking for a site that lists all the reasons Mario is stoned or something. Perhaps I should add a list or something to the Misc. section for fun just so people looking for something like that will also enjoy my quality webpage. Hmph. Well how's this... with my new comments feature on my blogs, why doesn't anyone reading this reply and say hello. I just want to see what the hell's going on here.
8/12/2001 07:20:10 PM

Comments are now enabled. You can reply to my blogs by clicking the link, "# comments," at the bottom of each one.
8/12/2001 11:13:53 AM