Jake's Blog

Chickens

2010-12-06T10:02:00.007-05:00

I am now officially off from school so I can sleep in and catch up on my orders. I was behind because I don't have time during a school day. I now have a clean slate and am ready for more orders to come. It is nice because for the first time in three months I can actually sleep in every day and not worry about having to get up at 5am the next day. During these first few days off I have done a few things. My aunt who just bought a house had a house warming party. It was fun and lasted a lot longer than I thought. We went over at 6:00 and before I knew it I looked at the clock and it was 11:00. It was fun, and there were snacks then they ordered food for dinner. There was a deli down the street so they ordered chicken from there. That is not why the title is chickens, just to clear that up. I of course did not have that, I had a rice dish that was made by my neighbor across the street that came to the party.
I also started to decorate the outside of the house. I decorated my room and did probably about 20% of the decorating on the inside of the house. My mom finished the rest of the inside. I started to decorate the outside yesterday, but I only got about half way done before it got dark and I had to stop. I plan to finish the rest of it today.
The last pictures of my room that I put on are now out of date because I bought something new for my room. My mom hates them, but they were on sale and I thought they were just hilarious. I bought light up chickens. Not just one but three. There is an adult rooster and two baby chicks. I put a picture of them below. They match my room because they light up like the parrot in the corner by my bed, so They match pretty good. I like them a lot and am very happy with my purchase.

Summer and Fall of 2010

2010-12-01T20:58:00.013-05:00

I haven't done a blog post in a long time, so this one will cover basically all of summer. I have been very busy with all the things I was and am doing, then once school started it almost became impossible. When it comes down to it a blog is not top priority. Today was my last day of the trimester for school and I am off for the whole month of December. This will give me more time to do posts and I can update during the holiday season.
The first thing I am going to cover is the Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia that I went to. At first I didn't want to go to this one because it was the national one and I wanted to go to the international one, which I will get into later. They only hold this event every four or five years. In the end I am glad I went. It was a very good experience. The event is about 45,000 scouts from all over the country that come and do a whole bunch of things in one place. You can do things like scuba diving, helicopter rides, or a ton of other interesting things like that. They send you out at 7:00am and don't expect to see you again until 6:00pm. They let you do whatever you want to and you don't have a schedule. The only down side was that it was blazing hot. The only shelter was tents so there was no escaping it and when it rained it was extreme thunderstorms. An average day could go to 115 degrees by 3pm. It only rained twice, but when it did they had to get everyone under shelter because the only kind of rain they get are extreme thunderstorms. The entire ten day trip was fun and I am glad I went.
In August I did several things. I did a fundraiser for the Light the Night walk that benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The fundraiser donated several hundred dollars for the society and I had fun doing it. While people were selling for this I went to an arts festival and bought another vase to put in my room. I had just bought a couple new pieces of furniture for my room and I wanted something to put on the small table. It is a small red and orange glass vase that is made by folding a sheet of glass over itself. I looks really cool and I am very glad I bought it. Also during this month my family had an album party. I didn't even know that these existed, but people bring over old records and they play them as they eat snacks and talk. It wasn't that interesting to me so I just sort of went off and did my own thing.
On the last day of August I started school. It was my first day at City High because I had chosen to transfer. I had to ride the city bus down and back everyday to downtown. I liked it much better than my old school and am very glad I switched. The schedule and grading is a little different than a traditional school. Also the way it's run is different. Every student receives a free laptop because most assignments are done on the computer. The way they teach is also different. They done use traditional textbooks with notes. It is all interactive learning and there are no lectures or textbooks. In science you do an experiment almost every other day. Their grading system doesn't use points. You get a letter grade and then it all averages out at the end of the trimester. Doing this makes every assignment equally as important whether it was large or not. The school is located in an office building as well. This gets us used to working in a office environment so when we do start working we are used to the style. The last major thing that is different about this school is that we don't have the traditional three months in a row off. We go for three trimesters a year and at the end of each trimester, which is a grading period, you get about a month off. This month is the first month of of the ninth grade cycle so I get a nice break.
After school started my sister had her baby. Her new baby is a boy and they name him Aiden Larry Smith. He was born on 9-9-10. It was kind of a good date because they got married on 8-8-09 so the dates matched up. When he was born he was 20 inches long and weighed 7lbs 5ozs. He was born at 11:32 and I was in school so I only got an update on my phone. A picture of him is below.
My aunt who has been staying with us for a while bought a house. It is nice little house that is only about 10 or 15 minutes away so we still see her often. I really like it and it has a big yard so her dog can run around and she can garden. She is very happy with it, but I was kind of sad that she was leaving.
Since we are back into Steeler season my family started holding the weekly Steeler parties. Every Sunday we invite over people and have lunch and snacks while we watch the game. It is always a fun way to unwind at the end of the week.
My whole family including the new member (Aiden) went to the pumpkin patch at Shramm's like we always do each year. We always go to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins to carve and gourds and Indian corn to decorate with. Their farmers market always has fresh grapes and fruit that you can buy. This year we got a bag of jumbo world grapes and they were really good. I have never seen grapes that were that big before and they were so fresh. I will definitely buy that kind again next year.
After going to the pumpkin patch naturally the next big thing is Halloween. I went over to my friends house and we had some people over. We stayed the night and played poker and other random games. I had to leave early in the morning though because I had to get orders done. Whe you don't get home from school until 5:00 you don't really have time to make things on weekdays.
My cousin Leah came up from Florida for Thanksgiving to stay with my aunt for a while. She will be here until the 5th or 6th. I like having her around because she likes to do a lot of the things I like to do, that my mom doesn't. We might do something before she leaves because I am off now.
For Thanksgiving we had every one over and we had a nice meal. I had everything except for the turkey of course, but it was really good. We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, blueberry muffins, corn, and homemade apple sauce. It was nice because after dinner we got to sit and talk with everyone there. Thanksgiving is my second favorite meal of the year, after Christmas because we have twice baked potatoes.
As I mentioned in the beginning of the post I want to go to the World Jamboree. Each time they hold it, which is every four or five years, it is in a new country. Groups of kids and adults from all around the world and every country come to it and they do everything you can think of. Games and different things from every country. You can learn other people's cultures and even help each other learn some of the language you each speak. It is supposed to be very interesting. Going to the event is expensive though so I have signed up for many craft shows so I can make the money to pay for the trip. So far I have done three craft shows and covered about half of it. I am going to sign up for a few more in December so I can cover as much as I can before the Holiday rush ends. This one that I am saving for is in Sweden. It is next summer so I am excited. As new things come up I will update it on the blog.
Since it is getting to be holiday time I decorated my room. I always do a ridiculous amount of decorating in my room because the holidays are my favorite time of the year. I put before and after pictures of my room below. I am very happy with it. I put a new winter plate on my fountain and hooked up all my lights to a remote so I don't have to climb over to the outlet to plug them in. It is really cool because then even if I am going to be in my room for like 10 minutes I can still turn on the lights to enjoy them. It took me 13 hours straight of hard work to get it from where it was to where it is now.

Atlanta 2010

2010-07-25T19:18:00.005-04:00

When I returned from summer camp my aunt took me to a go cart track. We had gone there before so we new we would have fun and we did. The track is really twisty so its challenging especially when there are a lot of people on the track with you. It was a perfect day because it was cloudy but still warm and didn't rain until we were leaving. Even if it had rained they don't close the track and it is more interesting when the track is wet because then you slide around more.
My family had a cook out on the 4th of July for two reasons. The first was for the 4th of July and the second was for my birthday. We combined the two so that it would be easier. The cook out was very fun and I swam a lot. I got very good presents and I am very happy with them. The biggest present I was given was a Nook. It is the Barnes and Noble version of a digital book reader. It is a really nice device. I have been using it a lot since I got it. It is helpful when I travel because you can buy new books wherever you are and it isn't just books it has games like chess too. I also got things like a new pocket knife, a phone skin, some Japanese candy, and money that I am putting into my savings for a car.
If you have been following me for a while you would know that I go to cooking camp that my aunt runs down in Georgia every year. I didn't go last year because of my sisters wedding, but I think that was the only year I missed. This year was very good and I loved all the recipes except one which was extremely bitter. I don't think anyone in the class liked that recipe, but we did make something that was very good and I didn't know existed. It's called hummingbird cake. It is basically carrot cake but instead of carrots you use things like pineapple or orange. The cake is very sweet but very good. I am hoping to make it again soon. Also while I was there we all went to the aquarium in their town. Their aquarium is huge. They have two whale sharks and the only manta rays in captivity in the world. I put some pictures from the aquarium below. Then after the week of camp me and my mom went to two malls. One was normal, but the other was very upscale. There were Bentleys and Ferraris on showcase and the only stores in it were places like Armani, Valentino, and Cole Haan. I did do some clothes shopping though since I have to where Polo type shirts to school. I managed to get all the shirts I need and they were all on sale. It was a very fun trip overall.

Blue Discus

Whale Shark

Beluga Whales playing with the seals

Beluga Whale

Orange Discus

Yawning penguin

Lionfish

Summer Camp 2010

2010-06-27T13:16:00.006-04:00

I just got back from summer camp yesterday. I left for camp on Sunday and got back on Saturday. Before I went I signed up for three merit badges. I designed my schedule so that I do all my badges in the morning, so that I had the entire afternoon to just relax and do what I wanted. The three badge classes I took were oceanography, bird study, and forestry. I ended up passing all three and that means that I only need two more badges for the award that I am working towards.
If you are not in a class then there is many options for what you can do. There is fishing and a lake where you can sail, boat, or wind surf. There was also a store that you can go to and get snacks and other stuff. After all the classes were finished the different areas allowed everyone to come in and do what they want with whatever was in the area. For example eco-con would let you hold the animals and field sports would have an open shoot. I normally went to the eco-con place because I liked the animals and the counselors were funny. My favorite animal was a turtle named Oink.
What I did most of the week was after my classes were finished and I ate lunch I would play cards with who ever was at camp. Most people had a class after lunch, so the camp was more quiet than it normally was. After we were finished or got bored of cards I would then go to open area somewhere or take small hikes on back trails that nobody ever uses.
The meals there were pretty terrible. Each group had to send waiters for every meal to set the tables. If you were a waiter for breakfast you had to be ready and leaving the camp site by 6:45. Of course I was a breakfast waiter three times. Being a vegetarian it was hard enough to get a full meal, but the food itself was still pretty gross. It was the equivalent if not worse than school food.

Worst Camping Trip Ever

2010-06-20T10:01:00.013-04:00

The toad that visited our pool last year has returned. It is the same species of toad and I think it might be the female from last year because it seems smaller than the male. It also could just be a whole new toad altogether. The species is an American toad. It does have poison on its skin so we had to be careful with the dogs. It wasn't all that difficult though because I can imitate its call good enough that it responds, so when it is time to take the dogs out back I just do the call and figure out where it is at.
I finished the pond for this year. I put in a whole bunch of flowering plants and they are taking very nicely. The water is becoming much clearer because we got a new filter for it. We also started putting in live bacteria that eats the algae growing in the water. There is one problem with the pond so far. A Blue Heron came along one day and ate three of my six fish. I had them for three years and they were getting big, but the bird just came right along and ate them up. I put a temporary net over the pond to protect the other ones. They are afraid to come to the surface now. They won't even come up to eat, they wait until the food falls to the bottom. I put a picture of the finished pond below.
Another new thing I got was a composter. It came from Sam's Club and it was only around $35. We put a small plastic container in the kitchen and I made a does and don't list. Everyone in the house listens and does it so I am glad about that. In about two months I will start having finished fertilizer that I can put on my gardens.
A whole bunch of new plants were put around the house recently. Most of them are fruits and vegetable plants. There are banana peppers, some kind of hot pepper, green beans, strawberries, pumpkins, lettuce, parsley, mint, chives, and broccoli. The strawberries, both peppers, green beans, chives, parsley, mint, pumpkins, and lettuce have either started making fruits or flowering.
I went on a weekend camping trip and it was the worst thing I have EVER done. I got there Friday afternoon and it was 80 degrees and sunny so we set everything up quickly and easily thinking it was going to be like that the entire weekend. I wake up at 2am with my tent flat on top of me and hurricane Katrina's child was upon us. There was 65 mph winds and it was pouring down rain. It was still warm though at this point. So I got out of my sleeping bag and put the tent back up. Then once I was done I ran to help the other people set up there tents and when I got back mine was down again. I repeated this process about three times, until I just decided to sleep under my flat tent. Then the next morning the wind hadn't died down at all and it went from about 80 degrees to about 40 degrees. It was terrible. So we cooked breakfast and set off on the meetings we had to go to. We came back and all the tents were down again. We set them back up and went out again. After the last meeting we returned and the dining flys that we cook/eat under were all tied together to help keep them from blowing down. All of a sudden they ripped out of the ground and flew into the air above the trees. The poles in them then started to fall out and everyone scattered so they didn't get hit (the cars couldn't move so they got banged up). Once the main canvas part hit the ground it started to roll and took out about two thirds of everyone else's tents. We then went into panic mode and guess what happens next. It snows. We went through four seasons in one weekend. It was the worst camping trip I have ever gone on. Also the gear we had (half of which was destroyed by the winds) was brand new because the building it was housed in collapsed over the winter because of the extreme snow. So we bought new stuff for the real trip, because this was the practice, then it was smashed over the winter. Then we replaced that and it was destroyed by the winds on this trip.

Dentist and Dime Hockey Board

2010-04-07T21:46:00.005-04:00

I started making the first set of Creek Connections fundraiser candles. I started with sage and citrus, because it was a good number for the amount of time I had. The color turned out really nice. I now have them finished. They only took me one night to do so they were not that hard. The color that I had to make them in is a pale hunter green.
Today I went to the dentist. It was a normal cleaning check up. Like usual I didn't have any cavities so that was good. I had to go directly there from when I got home. I basically walked in the door and turned around and walked right back out.
Also starting today I had PSSA testing. They are just the regular state tests that everyone has to take. It is really easy and really boring. They last all the way until Tuesday. I am not looking forward to taking them first thing on Monday.
The last day of the grading period has passed so I am now in a different class for my 7th period. I was in a class where you make a dime hockey board. I put a picture of it below. I got a 98% on it, but I didn't get to put a clear coat on it. I was able to put whatever laser engraving I anted to in the middle.

Happy Easter!!!

2010-04-04T21:39:00.003-04:00

Today is Easter! I had a nice day. My sister and her husband came over and ate dinner. Well it was more like lunch, but whatever. We had the usual ham, corn, potatoes, and other stuff. I of course didn't have any of the ham but all the side dishes are good. In the morning we all got our baskets and everyone was happy with their gifts. I got candy, a toppsy turving strawberry growing pot, and a solar powered light that changes color. It is going to go out by my pond when I have it up and running. The light is really nice the cover for it is a clear flower top. The entire flower turns the color of the light. I also got the final peice to my steeler train. It's a really nice set that I have been getting peices for over time. I got the final peice today. The whole train is really cool. It has a car for each of the superbowls and stuff like that. A day or two before Easter we dyed some eggs. I put a picture of a handful at the bottom. They looked and tasted really good.
On Friday I took a nice bike ride with one of my friends, their mom, my mom, and my aunt. We went on this trail that goes all the way to Washington D.C. if you fallow it all the way. It was a really nice sunny day and there were a lot of other people out also. We rode for twelve miles. We stopped at this pavillian and ate lunch we brought with us. It was a fun and I would like to do it again.
Saturday I volunteered at a car wash to raise money. I was part of the moring shift and we didn't get a ton of people, but I heard that there were a lot of people in the afternoon. I was one of the people who stood on the side of the highway with a sign and screamed at cars. If you saw a couple of kids on the side of the road yelling at people to come get their car washed that was me. It was fun and I would do it again even though I had the worst soar throat I have had in a long time.

Creek Connections Fundraiser

2010-03-31T06:42:00.007-04:00

The fundraiser I am doing for Creek Connections at my school is going on right now. I got the order forms on Friday. I went through them all and it raised more money than last year's did. Around 50 candles were sold with Coconut Lime Verbena being the best seller. Peaches was the second best. The supplies are supposed to arrive on Thursday. I am planning on starting them over the Easter break, which isn't very much of a break. All of the snow days I mentioned in the last post turned my break into a three day weekend, but still I'll take it.
For a camping trip I am going on in the summer I had to take a swim test. It isn't very hard so I passed it. I also had to take some tests yesterday. I got a 60/60 on a science test and a 29/28 (extra credit question) on a math test. The grading period ends on Wednesday so I am happy I did so well.
I recently went to orientation for my new high school. I learned a few things about it. I would get a laptop free because we do all of our work on the computer. I would have windows 7 and the office 2010 programs. It is not a cyber school though. I will have to ride the bus downtown each day. I think the school is really cool. You do have to follow a dress code, but it's not that bad. You have to dress in business casual. I will have to buy some new clothes but other than that I like it a lot. It is better in my opinion compared to the regular high school that I would be going to.
The other day I got another guitar. I got my first which is an electric bass for Christmas, but a friend of the family asked if I wanted this one. It is an acoustic so now I can choose between the two. It is a really nice guitar. I put pictures of it and my bass guitar below.

Spring is Here!!!

2010-03-28T18:03:00.009-04:00

Finally freedom from the snow. It's getting warmer and the snow is melted. I am so excited. There was over two feet of snow on the ground for a while. I went two weeks without having a full day of school. The first week school was canceled for the whole week and the next week every day had a two hour delay. Once the snow became bearable, I went to a couple of cool little stores and got some unique foods to try. Some of the foods I got were fresh honey comb and pink rock salt from the Himalaya Mountains. The honey comb tasted really good in tea and the rock salt was outrageously expensive, but it didn't taste all that different. It was interesting though. On my web site I added a comments page if anyone is interested in placing feedback. I have got a lot of good comments so far.
During the period that I had two feet of snow on the ground the back of my house was covered in huge icicles. These are not the foot tall things that people talk about these are 8 to 9 feet tall. They covered the entire back of the house. One of them started at the top of two stories and ended at the ground. When they started to melt they started to slide off. If one fell you would hear a huge crash and shatter. We didn't want to let my dogs outside because you don't know when they are going to fall. When they were completely frozen they were cool to look at. I put a few pictures of their early stages below.
For school I had to do a large science experiment. You were able to choose anything that you want, but you had to conduct the entire experiment on your own. I chose to do if a fish brain can process music and if so how do they react to different types. Th first round I did failed because I got feeder goldfish from Petco which didn't survive through the full experiment. Their feeder goldfish are not meant to live that long since they are just food. I then went to another local pet store called Elmer's. I got a new set of fish which survived through the experiment and are actually still alive. I have two and my sister has the other two. The experiment turned out that yes fish can process different music and they do react differently. What I did to test it is I put each fish in a different bowl, then I got waterproof earphones and played ten minutes of music to each fish. Each fish had a different type of music. I did this once a day for seven days and recorded the results. I got a 97% on my project so it turned out good.
I heard about this old electric vehicle that interested me when I looked into it. It is called the Ev1. It was made by General Motors during the 90s. They only made it because a new law forced them to. The ones that were leased out were selling good and generating profits, but they convinced the California Air Resources Bureau that they were not so they would lift the law. They did lift the law and so General Motors took them back and crushed them. The Ev1 was the only car to ever wear just the GM name plate.
I am doing the Creek Connections fundraiser to send the group to Erie again. I got the orders on Friday of last week. I am going to go through them and place an order. When I have the final count I will post it. This year we are using all environmentally friendly supplies. I am going to use recycled jars, soy wax, and the metal wick tabs are made from recycled pop cans. I am excited to get started.

New Years 2009/2010

2010-01-11T21:41:00.003-05:00

I had a great New Year's. My family had a few people over and we just played Wii and board games. It was a nice quiet fun evening. Everyone went to bed shortly after midnight but me. I stayed up for a while after and just did some fun things to occupy myself for a while until I eventually got bored with nothing else to do and went to bed. A few days after New Year's it was my mom's birthday so a group of us went to a nice restaurant. The food there is very good and is cooked hibachi style. There is a huge flame when they cook the food and it is really cool. In school my midterms for the year are coming up and I am starting to study because I hate these tests. They are always long and boring and extremely difficult but I guess there is nothing you can do.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-10T12:23:00.005-05:00

The third post in my chain of catch up posts is about Christmas. A little before Christmas this year on the weekend of the 20th some of my family came up from Virginia and we exchanged gifts and had a good time. Then the following Wednesday was my last day of school and I was off until January 4th so my Christmas was stretched out which I enjoyed because I got to have a lot of fun. For Christmas I really only asked for a couple off things and I got all of them which I was very happy about. I wanted a case for the gems I have, the Blue Planet tv series, a board game called Risk, an electric bass guitar, and a phone. Mostly though I just asked for money that I could deposit in my savings because I am saving for something pretty big. I was very lucky to get all of the presents I asked for along with a few other things too. The big goal I am saving for is an old car. Not a restored one just one that preferably runs, but can have other issues like body work or interior problems. I have been reading a ton of articles and books on how to fix different parts of the car so that I can work on the car if I get it. I have liked old cars all my life and I have always wanted one just never though of actually working towards it. Once I reach my savings goal I will start looking in the classified ads for something that fits the requirements that I have set. I am very excited about the idea of having an old car to work on.

Thanksgiving 2009

2010-01-09T19:27:00.002-05:00

I am moving on to my second "catch-up" post. This one is about my Thanksgiving. I had a very nice quiet dinner with just my mom, sister, and her husband. I had it early in the day like we normally do, and after, we all just relaxed and digested the food we just ate. I had twice baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, blueberry muffins, stuffing, and green beans which were exceptionally good. The rest of my family had turkey but I didn't because I am a vegetarian so I just made a meal of the sides which was more than enough to fill me up. Around this time I had moved on to a new part of my language learning adventure. I am not moving fast by any means, but the language I chose is extremely complicated. If you take a word there are anywhere from 2 to 37 different rules that can act on it when it is written or said. Nevertheless though I am still working diligently to get through it so I can know the language.

Halloween 2009

2010-01-08T16:25:00.002-05:00

I am a little behind on my posts, well a lot behind so I am going to play catch up. For the next few days I am going to put a post for a few things. I will do one each day until I am caught up. This one is about Halloween which I know was a long time ago but who cares. This Halloween was probably my last year of trick or treating. I got a huge amount of Reese's cups but almost no snickers which I though was extremely weird. Especially because every one is freaking out about peanut allergies. I went as a, well I don't really know what I was but I had a blue wig, blue shirt, and blue Elton John glasses. I wanted something that was comfortable and light. I went with some friends on their street and it was fun. On October 13 I had my first surgery on my right eye. It went very well and I can see tremendously better. I was seeing better with one eye without glasses than I was with both eyes and glasses. It took me about a week to recover from it to the point where I could return to school. My work was modified to accommodate for the fact I only had one very irritated and itchy eye to work with, but it recovered much faster than I ever expected.

Biggest Post Ever

2009-10-11T12:05:00.005-04:00

Sorry I haven't done a post in a long time but my mind has just been somewhere else. I will start at the end of August. I went to a place called the Caddy Shack. It was amazing it had three go cart tracks, a paintball range, a driving range, an arcade, and a mini golf course that was incredible. It was a really big course with all kind of things in the golf holes. I had waterfalls and hills and dips and swerves and all kinds of things. After that though I went to the eye doctors and they told me I had to take it easy and not do cross country because my lenses were unstable right now. So when I told the coach she offered to let me be the manager for the team. So now I go to them to the meets and keep track of times and places and stuff like that. At the beginning of the next month I went to a Pirate game which they lost of course. I didn't go for the game though I went for fireworks night at the end of the game. The fireworks were great. Then my family had a Labor Day cookout which was fun. We just invited people over and grilled and swam. It was our last cookout of the season kind of thing. Then I started school which I hated to go back to but it's not that bad once I started it. All my teachers are nice and will help me if I need it. I also started Latin. I didn't want to learn any of the other normal languages that they offered. So I chose Latin. Also my history teacher is a big Irish fan so he is teaching me how to speak Gaelic because I have always wanted to learn it I just didn't know any one who spoke it. After school started I used some Kennywood tickets over one of the weekends. It probably would have been more fun if I would have been allowed to go on some of the rides. The doctor told me that I couldn't because it would shake my head around to much and it could mess up my lenses and make them detach and roll to the back of my eye. So other than that it was fun. Also the Steelers started playing. So far my family has had a party for every game except for one because it was a 8:00 game so it would have gone to late. They have all had themes so far and they have all been really fun. In boy scouts I earned three more badges and I am working towards an award the no one in my group has gotten yet. There are eight certain badges you have to have. You also have to have First class rank and you have to do four major service projects. To give you an Idea of how big I will give you an example of one I am trying to get approved by the council. It would involve me handing out two thousand bag to the neighborhoods and collects school supplies then I would have to write letters to 50 schools and ask them for their old out of date textbooks that they don't use any more. I would have to go around and collect the bags and collects the hundreds of textbooks then send them over to Burkina Faso which is in Africa. Once they were over there I would have to get people to distribute them to the schools across the country. Burkina Faso has a literacy rate of 12.8% which is the lowest in the world that is why I would choose them but that is an example of the magnitude that these projects have to be. I have to do four of them. So I am working really hard right now to get all the badges done and all these projects going. It is very difficult. I also got to be an eighth grade helper to the creek connections thing I did last year so that will be starting soon. Then on top of that the eye doctors told us that the only way to correct the lenses was to preform surgery and not laser eye surgery. This surgery will involve them cutting open my eye and sucking out the old lens then putting in a fake one through sewing it in. The procedure will take three hours and they have to wait six to eight weeks before doing the next eye because they only do one at a time. The first eye will be done on Tuesday the 13th which is in one day. As soon as I can see good enough I will write a post about it. I also got my room done. It is exactly like I wanted it and I love it. Now the three adult dogs sleep with my mom the two puppies sleep with me and my aunt's dog sleeps with her. I ahve a water bed in it and a tv a computer and a giant bean bag. The pictures are below.

Weekend Camping Trip

2009-08-17T22:00:00.002-04:00

I went on a camping trip over the weekend. It was very fun because they had off road jeep rides and a giant flame thrower. It was awesome. The flame on the fire that was lit was 50 feet high. They also put four gallons of gasoline on the pile of logs. It burned for 12 hours straight. I also started to trade patches with people. Like each council has a patch so I started trading the different councils.

Wedding

2009-08-14T10:21:00.002-04:00

My sister's wedding was on the 8th and it was beautiful. They had the ceremony at Heinz Chapel and the reception at the Priory. They are both really old a beautiful buildings. Then they had the guest stay at the Rennaissance Hotel which also very nice. Plus they had old fashioned trolleys as shuttles from the reception to the hotel. Everything went very good. The food was great too. Also the reception was five hours long and by the end people still didn't leave. Also a lot of people stayed at our house before the wedding. At one point we had 15 people and 8 dogs running around until 3 in the morning. It was fun though because my family is kind of wild. I got to do all kinds of crazy things.

Summer Camp and More

2009-08-02T15:23:00.003-04:00

I went to summer camp during the end of July. I took four merit badge classes and and finished four of them. I got a partial on the fourth one. Summer camp was fun for the most part other than the fact that it thunder stormed every day and some of the people I had class with weren't the best. It was still fun. After that I started working on the merit badges that I needed for an award. I have to do six and I have three done. Also I went to the movies and saw the newest Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good. Then yesterday me and my aunt went to a huge fifty house yard sale. It was fun and I only spent $15. We saw so many things. I bought a black light bulb, a really nice pen, a basil plant, and I spent $12 on beanie babies that I thought were worth some money and it turns out that they were. Then I had to go out and buy three pairs of shoes because I needed rehearsal dinner, school, and cross country shoes. I also had to get a rehearsal dinner outfit plus regular clothes. I am also going to start redoing my room and bathroom. I already picked everything out and put the money aside. I am going to start after the wedding. Also the wedding is getting closer and and the final touches are making everyone crazier. My sister is getting really stressed out about it. I have been starting herbs and vegetables because I am going to do an indoor garden for winter so I can still have fresh vegetables and herbs all through the winter. Also I have been getting really interested in electric cars. I have been reading all about different ones and checking out new ones and been getting packets of information on them and reading them like a book.

Birthday and More

2009-07-17T15:16:00.003-04:00

My Aunt came up and is now living with us. We have been doing all kinds of things like taking hikes on the railroad tracks and stuff like that. My birthday was July 9th. I had a small pool party. Well it was supposed to be but it rained so we moved inside. It was still fun though. Me and my aunt have also been going berry picking because there is a really big patch of blackberry and black raspberry bushes by my house in a park. I have also been getting into growing and taking care of tropical and wild flowers. I have tons right now. The area over the side of our deck is a big open area so we are going to try and make it into a place to plant and take care of them.

Bettas

2009-06-23T09:08:00.003-04:00

I went to a demolition derby a while ago. It was really fun. Also I got an ETrade account so now I can invest in stocks. I invested in this one company and they are doing super good. They sometimes go up 15 cents a share a day. I am excited a bout that and I am going to keep them for a while. I have been really interested in bettas lately I don't really know why but I found this really cool betta site and I found out I have a veiltail betta and a grizzle betta. I am interested in getting a double tail betta. There is a picture of it below. Also I have one of those make your own opoly kits. It is monopoly but you get to make the theme whatever you want. I made it coin opoly. I tried it out and it works and it is really fun. My aunt from Florida is moving in with us. She is supposed to come tomorrow. I am excited because she likes to go out to the creek and places like that. My mom hates to so it is nice to have some one that will take me.

Little Bit of Everything

2009-06-03T20:28:00.004-04:00

I have been really busy lately so this post is like a combination of two or three posts. The first thing is that my family had a memorial day cook out. It did rain for a while but it stopped and then it stopped and we went swimming. The next thing is that me and my aunt went on a hike along some old rail road tracks by my house. We thought they were abandoned because they are in such bad shape but a train came while we were hiking along them. The picture is of a map of the tracks. It was also fun because there was a creek that fallowed it.

The third thing is the frogs that lived in my back yard laid eggs and had tadpoles. I have some inside and I am raising them. The next thing I did was I went on a trip to Lake Erie with my school's Creek Connections group. This was the trip that I did the fundraiser for. It was really fun. First we went to a conservation place and looked at all the displays. Then we went to the beach and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted for a few hours. After we went on a hike and we went fishing for a little while. Last we ate dinner a went home. It was a really fun day. Also I got in the honors roll this year and the ceremony was on June 2nd. I had got all As and one B for the first two nine weeks then straight As the third nine weeks. Also I have been staying after every Wednesday to help in the outdoor garden in my school. We are doing good and we are almost done. The pictures below are of my Erie trip.

Pie

2009-05-14T20:00:00.004-04:00

My aunt came up from Florida and brought her dog. It is a miniature Pomeranian. Her name is Prissy. Tomorrow my other aunt is coming up from Georgia. They have some foods you can only get here and some of them they really like so that is a highlight of their trips. For my aunt from Florida it is Boston Creme Pie from a specific diner that makes it really good. I started selling my summer scents. I have got a lot of orders so far.

The Pie

Lizards

2009-05-12T06:44:00.002-04:00

Today I have family coming up from Florida. I am very excited, but I have to get everything ready. Also I found a really cool video. It is lizards called Flat Lizards. They leap into the air to catch black flies. Black flies are their main food. Here is the link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDC69_hg7Xk

Toads and Cooking

2009-05-09T08:16:00.022-04:00

The top two pictures are from me at the cooking demonstration I did on the 5th. I thought it was fun and I would do it again. The third one down is of two toads that decided to live in our back yard. They are most active at night but they are still there during the day. We think it is a mother and a baby because the one came on the other one's back. Also because one is smaller.At the very bottom of the post there is a video of the toads. I had to take it at night because they are most active then.

Cooking

2009-05-07T06:48:00.002-04:00

On the 4th I delivered the candles to school and got a lot of compliments. With the new supplies I am using everything is much nicer and smells much stronger. I had all of them done a week early actually. Also on the 5th I helped a restaurant called the Esta Esta with a cooking demonstration. I was the second hand person. In return they promoted my candles. I made some money and handed out a lot of business cards.

Backpacking Trip

2009-04-27T21:08:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend I went on a backpacking trip. It was really hot but it was still fun. The way we had to get our water was to purify it from creeks that we come across on our hike. Although we did take a wrong turn and did two extra miles, it was fun. It was a twelve mile hike in all. We camped by a really deep creek that you could hop from rock to rock to catch stuff in it. It had trout and we brought one rod so you could take turns fishing if you wanted to. We ate dehydrated food as our main meals. It looked gross but it didn't taste that bad.

Creeks and Rivers

2009-04-25T06:47:00.002-04:00

On Thursday I went to River Quest which is a program that takes kids out on a boat and they go and test the water they are on. You do chemical tests, take mud and look for living things in it, and take some of the water and look for plankton under the microscope. I liked that a lot. Then on Friday I am in Creek Connections so we went down to the creek and you would normally do chemical tests first and then go and play in the creek, but it was like 80 degrees or something so they decided to just let us play in the creek and look for stuff. Only if we could identify it after we were done. Everyone got soaked and we all came back to school and had to go to 9th period. So everyone who was in Creek Connections went to 9th period wet I think some one was even dripping still. It was fun. This weekend I am going on a ten mile backpacking trip. I leave in about half and hour so I will write about it when I get back.

Happy Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T21:17:00.005-04:00

Plant a tree, hug a squirrel, or kiss a duck! It's Earth Day and this year I am planting two trees and gave one away. In school I joined the tree committee which helps pass out two year old trees to students and teachers to take home and plant. Two of them are White Spruces and one is a Silky Dogwood. Earth Day is one of my favorite holidays. I think the environment and all the animals that live in it are very cool.

Science Symposium

2009-04-17T17:58:00.003-04:00

Today I went to the Creek Connections Science Symposium. Creek Connections is a program that takes kids to different creeks to do water testing like pH. You also go to lakes and my group is going up Lake Erie. Today I went to the symposium. I made a tri-fold board with a group about the eight chemical tests that we do at the creeks and ponds. It was pretty fun and I got to miss school for it. Also yesterday I got to miss school because I was chosen with about 30 other kids to go to a baseball game. The game part was boring but we all could go around the park and buy food and play games. My Easter was really good too. I got a new scale to weigh wax for candles with. I also got a lot of candy. Also i got straight As on my third nine weeks report card.

Buddy

2009-04-06T06:37:00.002-04:00

My neighbor had a really nice dog that lived for 11 years but yesterday they had to put him down. They thought he had cancer and he was really weak. He was one of the nicest dogs that I had ever met and everyone was very sad when he left. This in memory of Buddy the black lab.

It's Spring!!!

2009-03-22T20:01:00.003-04:00

On Friday I went to the court house to be in a U.S. Naturalization Ceremony. I wasn't a big part of it but I got to miss school for it. Then after my group went out for ice cream and I looked at the time and figured out what I would have been doing in school. I figured out that while I was eating ice cream I would have been taking a math test in school. It is Spring now so I am very happy it is starting to get warmer and the first flowers of Spring came up in my front garden.

Track 2008

2009-03-10T20:11:00.003-04:00

I started track and I think I am going to like it. I am not sure what event I am doing yet but I should know soon. The team was going to try and do pole vaulting as an event and they might still I am not sure. They thought that I would be good at it because I am small and light but my eye docter said I am not allowed to because of my eye condition. I was disappointed, but i think I will still like it. I also went up to New York for the weekend. There was supposed to be snow but there was only patches. The lake was still frozen enough to walk on though.

Candles

2009-03-03T06:49:00.004-05:00

For the fundraiser I am doing I am going to have to make a lot of candles depending on how many everyone sells. I am getting all the scents, colors, and wax in now so that I have it to get started right away. I am very excited about doing the fundraiser. I think it will be fun and I bought a new program that will keep track of all of it and pretty much tell me what I need to do and when. It is one of those small business software things. I really like it. It helps me a lot with the web site and all the other orders. I had to make a candle that was ridiculously strong scented. It smelled like Pina Coladas and I think it sank into my clothes because it made the entire house smell like it. So I am going to school smelling like Pina Coladas.

(#_#)

2009-02-16T11:13:00.003-05:00

I got my new iPod and it is really cool. Since my house has wireless internet there are so many apps that you can get for it. I think I have forty something. I have some favorites but I play them all. I also got one that is an Irish learning one so I can take my lessons with me where ever I go. Today I have to make candles because I got some orders and I have to make samples for the school to look at to help them decide about the fundraiser. Also Today I get to go to the coin store because I got a gift card for it for Valentine's Day. I am working on my Liberty Head Nickle collection. They are more expensive and I can only get one or two at a time but I am going to just keep working on it.

iPod

2009-02-08T08:15:00.002-05:00

Sorry I haven't been writing a lot lately things have just been really busy. I am getting a new iPod Touch on Tuesday. I ordered it and I got my name and web site inscribed into the back. I already started buying apps with the gift cards I have leftover from Christmas. They have so many cool ones and a lot of them are free. Since I am learning the new language and the program is only on my computer at home I got an app that is a learning program for that language. I got a really good report card. I got all As and one B in math. Also at school I am in this science enrichment program. It is called Creek Connections. We go down to a creek and test for chemical levels and stuff like that. Throughout the rest of the year we are going to go to a creek again and test again to see if anything has changed. Then later when it gets warmer here we will go to a pond to go catch and release fishing. Then most likely we will get a charter bus and go to Lake Erie. We will be allowed to bring anything we want for the bus trip. Then when we get there we will do boat tours and all kinds of stuff. Since that is going to be expensive because there are about 30 kids in the program, they have to do a fundraiser. Since the school doesn't have to pay for anything they will most likely say yes to the trip. The really cool thing is what they want to fundraise. They want to fundraise my candles. I am really excited.

Steelers Won!!!

2009-02-03T06:36:00.003-05:00

STEELERS WON THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!!

GO STEELERS!!!

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!

:)

2009-01-21T20:23:00.002-05:00

Steelers Won! Ha Baltimore! Pittsburgh's Goin' to the Super Bowl!

In the Negatives

2009-01-16T08:47:00.004-05:00

Where I live it has been really cold compared to what we normally are here. Usually it is in the 20s and 30s but now it is going into the negatives and staying there. My school had a two hour delay yesterday and my school was closed today. The air temperature is -2 and with the wind chill it goes down to -21. The weird thing is though about the winter for me is that in the summer I always like being outside because it is hot out and I never got to hot, but in the winter I want to go outside because I am always to hot. I actually think it feels good outside. Everyone thinks I am crazy but I like being outside. When I could find a pair of shoes because we had to put them away for the carpet I just went barefoot outside to take out the recycling. I was only out for like 20 second but I liked it.

New Carpet

2009-01-14T06:27:00.007-05:00

My family got new carpet for the house. From how my mom described it I was imagining it to be like a vanilla cupcake with rainbow sprinkles. It has the flex in it so I though tit was going to look like that from the way she described it. It actually looks nice it is kind of shaggy and really soft on your feet.Also I cleaned out all my toys to donate. I donated four cabinets, a toy wagon full of toys, and six bins full. I figured that I have collected them over the years and some other kid is going to have more fun with them than I will because I grew out of them. Below are some pictures

Donated Toys

Before Carpet

After Carpet

Half & Half Carpet

:D

2009-01-12T18:09:00.002-05:00

Steelers Won!!! Ha San Diego

Just Every Day

2009-01-08T06:40:00.003-05:00

For school I had a PowerPoint that I had to do on a country. I was assigned Kuwait. While I was giving my PowerPoint presentation my cross country coach came in with a bright red microphone singing jingle bells and then everyone started laughing at her. I was in the front of the class and started laughing then looked over and then she saw that I was giving a presentation and yelled sorry then ran out the door. I was still laughing. I still got a good grade though. I think I have to do my track physical soon. In sewing class I started to sew my chair back. Then I am going to make a neck warmer. I am using Steeler fabric of course. The first day back from break was really easy. This was how my day was.

P. 1 - watch PowerPoints

P. 2 - do the climbing wall in gym

P. 3 - color by letter (not kidding)

P. 4 - sit there and listen to a book while we did popcorn reading

P. 5 - lunch

P. 6 - study hall

P. 7 - complete a study guide

P. 8 - iron my fabric

P. 9 - watch a movie

Happy New Year's 2009!!!

2009-01-02T07:29:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year's to everyone even though it was yesterday but who cares. My new year's was great! I went out to Sho Gun. It is a Japanese hibachi restaurant. It is really good and my family likes it a lot. Then after that I went to the movies with one of my friends and his parents. My mom didn't want to go so she went home after dinner. The three movies I want to see are Yes Man which is about a guy that can't say no and has to say yes to everything so he gets into crazy things. The second is Seven Pounds which is about a guy that made a lot of money and then he vanishes. Later he comes back but nobody can find him and he chooses seven people to change their lives by giving them money and telling them to do certain things. The last is Valkyrie it is about the Hitler assignation. It is the people that do it and it is about the trouble that they went through and then they act out the actual thing. At the movies I saw Bedtime Stories with my friend and his family because none of them wanted to see any of the ones that I did. Then I came home and I played monopoly with my mom and just relaxed until the ball dropped then we went to bed. The was one weird thing though because I didn't actually see the ball drop and everyone I talked to didn't either so I don't think that they actually dropped it. Also they said that they were not putting it back in the vault. Isn't that a bad idea since I is a $5 million GLASS ball. I think it will get damaged, but whatever it is not my place to say. My New Year's was great! and I am going to the movies again today and I think I am going to see Seven Pounds.

Christmas 2008!

2008-12-28T20:16:00.004-05:00

My Christmas was great. I got up and I had a lot of presents to open. My sister came over and I stayed up late the night before so she had to wake me up. I got some coin cases and tubes. I also got an I-Fish which is a robot fish that you plug into your mp3 and it will play the music while it dances and spins and make lights shows from the lights on its head and tail. I like all the stuff I got but there is one thing that stands out it is the Palm Pilot I got. I installed all the stuff in it and now everything is up and running. It is awesome. It can do so much. There is a picture of me when I got it. The other pictures are of my tree and outside because I though it looked pretty. That was a couple of days before Christmas though. On Christmas it was really weird because the temperature went way up to 68 degrees. When I went outside on Christmas it just didn't seem right. I got all kinds of cool stuff for Christmas. I also got $135 in coin store gift cards so tomorrow I am going to get a whole bunch of new coins. I had to move my collection downstairs into two cabinets because the chest that I had it in got to small. I will put what I get at the coin store in my next post.

Family

2008-12-23T06:45:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend my brother and sister from Virginia came up and spent the weekend with us. It was really fun. We went to see a light show. That was really cool. There were so many lights and I can't even imagine the amount of electricity that it took to power it. Then we went to the mall and there was a stand for the original Nintendo. It was cool. It cost $80 and that includes 111 games. Plus if you want a new game then all you do is take it back to the stand and they will put whatever game on it that you want for 87 cents a game. Also I got some presents already. I like all of them but there is one that stands out. I got a Palm Pilot. It does everything that a computer does and it has satellite GPS. It even has Microsoft word and excel and everything. Also I can access the Internet anywhere I want. I love it I think it is so cool. I have been busy so I will get pictures up on the next post.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-16T06:35:00.002-05:00

It's the holiday season and I am getting excited. My house and tree are decorated and I am working on my room right now then I will put lights outside. I celebrate Christmas. I don't have the pictures yet but I will put them in my next post. Over this weekend my sister and brother are coming up from Virginia. I am excited because I don't get to see them very often.

Family Tree

2008-12-11T19:39:00.003-05:00

I have been doing a lot with my family tree over the past few days. I have gotten a lot of new people added to it and I have made a binder full of marriage certificates and different things. So far I have gotten to my great great grandparents. I am still working on getting them done because some of them never came to the US so it is hard to find records of them. All the info that I have on them is from the different things that I collected and put in the binder. On Saturday I am going to my friends B-Day party so I will tell you about that in my next post.

Coke Monster

2008-12-07T19:10:00.004-05:00

Coca Cola is cool so me and my buddy made a video. On Friday I went to Fun Fest. They have bowling, laser tag, and an arcade. I went from 11pm to 3am. Then I went to breakfast and got home at 5am. I started to look at my family tree and traced it back to the 1500s. I also found my family crest. Here is a picture of it below.

Learning a New Language

2008-12-05T17:31:00.003-05:00

I started to take an online lesson for learning anew language. In school next year you can take a language as one of your classes and I think I want to take Latin. The language that I really want to learn is Irish though. School does not offer it though so I am taking an online class. I am in my first lesson and so far it has not been that hard although I have only gotten through half a lesson of the first chapter. There are a lot of chapters and in each chapter there are three lessons. Each chapter is like a category. One is animals one is food and so on. I am in my first lesson of my first chapter which is meeting and greeting. So far I have learned how to say hello, goodbye, how are you, and good evening. The nice thing is there is no specific time that you have to do classes but you do have to take notes. They help you so much. I told my English teacher that I was starting and she told me to let her know where I am at and how good I am doing. I think it is fun and cool to talk in a different language. Also if you want to confuse people you can start talking to them in a different language. I am not done with my whole first lesson yet but I got through about a third of it.

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-11-28T20:45:00.004-05:00

My Thanksgiving was great. It was relaxing and nice. I got to see some friends and family. Dinner was great. I had stuffing and muffins and all kinds of things, except turkey.The best part about dinner is when you get to dessert. My family had pumpkin pie and dutch apple pie with home made vanilla whip cream. Today I went Black Friday shopping. My mom hates it but I love it so she took me with my sister. I thought it was fun. I went for 7 hours. We went to a mall. I got a lot of nice things. I also saved a lot of money.

Winter Camping

2008-11-24T06:41:00.003-05:00

Over the weekend I went on a winter camping trip. I had to sleep in tents but I did get to go to the Gateway game. I got a ride there and then back. It was really cold. It never stopped snowing. When I would wake up it would be 12 degrees. One of the good things was that we were able to build a fire. We cooked all of our food in dutch ovens. I had to eat the side dishes most of the time because the entrees were meat, but there was a lot of side dishes. When everyone got all the food then I was allowed to get more side dishes. I got to shoot guns at targets on an indoor shooting range. We shot 22s. Usually I am against guns but it was ok because they were only paper targets. Also it was inside so there was no way you could hurt an animal by accident. There was a hill that at the bottom there were thorn bushes, trees, wooden poles, giant rocks, and a ditch that would make you flip. So me and three of my friends went sledding on it. We had so much fun. We were having so much fun that when we hit a tree or went into thorn bush then we just laughed at each other and kept going. We enjoyed watching each crash and sometimes we enjoyed crashing ourselves. That was probably the most fun out of the whole weekend.

Report Cards

2008-11-13T21:14:00.002-05:00

Today I got my first nine weeks report card. I got As in all my classes except for english. I got a B in it though. I was very happy with my grades. In school for english right now we are doing another big project. We have to make a persuasive travel brochure. We have to choose a place we want to go to and then research it. Once we have a good bit of information then we start to write the paragraphs. We do that tomorrow. I chose to do Luxembourg. I always wanted to go to four places. They are Luxembourg, Latvia, Fiji, and New Zealand.At the top of my list is Luxembourg so I chose to do that one. The book I am reading has one of my vocab words in it so if I show my english teacher then I get a few bonus points. I plan on doing that tomorrow morning. I have been helping my teachers a lot lately, but I don't mind sometimes I ask if I can help.

Big Orders

2008-11-10T20:06:00.003-05:00

Not a lot of exciting things happened over the weekend. On Saturday I went out to a few stores. It was kind of long. Then on Sunday my family had a football party. I got a order that was big and I have to finish it tonight so that I can have it for tomorrow. Today in school nothing really happened. It was just a normal day with the usual boring school work. Tomorrow in music class we get to start playing the key boards for our next lesson. I started to read a new series. The Golden Compass series. Most people I have talked to say it is good. Also that the movie is very different. I am on page 54 and it is already very different from the movie.

At the Zoo

2008-11-06T17:13:00.008-05:00

Today I didn't have school and yesterday I had a half day. My neighbor up the street works at the zoo so she was able to take my family behind the scenes at one of the buildings at the zoo. It wasn't like one of the big enclosures. It was really cool. After we were done we walked around the zoo and saw all the animals. I was surprised how good some of my pictures were. Especially the ones in the aquarium. It was towards the end of the day so we got to see some of the animals eat. I took a video of the Sea Otters. Below are some of the best pictures I took. These are just with a regular camera. The only thing done to them were the lines were sharpened. Everything else is natural. At the zoo they had baby elephants. One of them was born on my birthday.There are pictures of them below.

Fun Weekend

2008-11-03T19:47:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend I went with my sister to do her wedding registry. It took three hours. I was so bored. It was at Macy's. It wasn't a normal Macy's though. It was downtown and it was huge. It had 11 floors. Actually it had 12 but the top one was offices so I didn't really count it. I got a giant hedgehog. It is so soft. I named it Fred. While we were downtown I saw a smart car which is what I want as my first car. I took pictures because I thought it was cool. After we were done with the registry we went out to eat at a place called the Cheesecake Factory. It is a really nice restaurant. It is famous for its cheesecakes. It has so many different kinds plus a giant menu for dinner, lunch, and even breakfast. I got carrot cake cheesecake. It sounds like it would be bad but it was really good. For Halloween I got a giant gummy. It was shaped like a foot. Below is a picture of me eating part of it. I got some new things on my web site so check it out. To go to it click the return to my web site link at the top right hand corner or the web URL under the title Jake's Blog at the top of the page.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-01T12:31:00.007-04:00

This year I went trick or treating. I got a lot of candy and I was Bob Marley. The pictures below are me in my costume. The next one is the pumpkin I carved. I used parts that I bought but I still carved some of it. Then there is me after I sorted my candy. After that one it is me sitting next to my reeses cups. They are my favorite. I got 56 of them! Then there are pictures of other things I have done. The plant is the one that was supposed to live in the pool but I am allowed to save it so I am trying. After that there is a random truck that I saw in the parking lot that I thought was cool. Then the final picture is of my family's Chinese Maple. It looked very pretty in that light so I took a picture.

Winter is Coming

2008-10-29T21:25:00.002-04:00

Today was my town's first snow. I was excited. In math class everyone was distracted by the snow so the teacher closed the blinds. I managed to save the big plant in a small fish tank with a light so it should be safe for winter. The end of this week is the end of my first nine weeks of school. I am not happy. I want to get straight As but I have two Bs and I wanted to bring them up. It seems the subjects I don't like I don't do as well in.

Closing the Pond

2008-10-26T17:58:00.008-04:00

I found out that I didn't get a time at WAADA. I got two new programs for my web site. One is called AdSense. It puts adds on my web site and then I get money for it. The second one is to track how many people visit my web site. I can tell of they used a search engine or what to get to my web site. I can also tell where they came from in the world. Today I had to close my pond. It takes a long time and is wet and dirty. One of the vines I had to pull up had these little potato things on it.

Also when I was pulling up the flowers I noticed that my dusty millers were really big. They are three times the normal size. I think that they just really like the soil. They are one of my two favorite plants.

My water plants were all normal. One was larger than all the other ones though so I wanted to save it for the winter but I couldn't. So instead of having to throw it away. I was allowed to let it live in the water on the pool cover until it dies from the winter cold.

Pumpkins

2008-10-20T19:37:00.003-04:00

I didn't get the times yet from WAADA, but I should get them soon. I went to the pumpkin patch and bought three pumpkins. I got gourds too but those are not that exciting. I bought two small one and a big one. I chose the one I did because it is a really bright orange and in some parts yellow. In school I have been doing really well. I have good grades and a lot of friends. We finished Stanford testing just a week ago and now we are taking MAP tests. These one are weird because they are on the computer. After you are done testing you can go and search the Internet for whatever though. Also I have a big reading assignment coming up that is worth a lot of points. I have a B in English and I am really trying to get straight As. There is a big 100 point assignment coming up for English so I want to get a 100% on it so I can get an A. I started to take this really hard merit badge. It is Nuclear Science merit badge. It is hard. There are all these things with atoms and molecular structures and it gets confusing.I think the most confusing part is isotopes.

WAADA

2008-10-15T21:05:00.003-04:00

Today I went to my WAADA championship for cross country. The course was the hardest course I have ever run. It was 1.8 miles long and the entire thing was just a giant circuit of hills. I don't have my time right now but I have my place it was 60 out of 82. Tomorrow I will try and put my total results on my blog.

My 2008 Cross Country Results

2008-10-11T18:10:00.004-04:00

My Results

Date Time Place

8/29/08 18:49 65/68

9/2/08 ------- 85/90

9/11/08 12:24 37/37

9/18/08 ------- 65/68

9/26/08 ------- 173/219

9/25/08 12:45 58/79

10/2/08 12:09 31/35

10/9/08 13:29 46/60

10/7/08 14:53 118/143

This is all the meets and invites that I have raced in so far. They are from the first to the most recent meet. There is only one more. It is the biggist race of the season and it is called *WAADA*. When I race in it I will put up those results too.

Camping But Not Really

2008-10-07T06:37:00.003-04:00

I went on a weekend camping trip but it didn't feel like camping because it was at a public park and it was 10 minutes away from home. Also our camp was in a baseball field that kept the big lights on til 11:00pm. I got to go see a big fireworks display though. My last cross country race was on Thursday and I did pretty good I stayed in the same rank but was going back and forth with the next person up. I am going to an invite today. I get out of school at the end of 7th period. I have testing in the morning so I go to period 4 which is reading, period 5 is lunch, period 6 is study hall, and then the last period I go to is a math class.

Terrarium Becomes a Reality

2008-09-30T21:44:00.003-04:00

Today was my last cross country work out day. We still have practice but the difference is that a workout is much harder and is supposed to train you so you get better. With a practice it is typically an easy 45 minute distance run. We still have a good bit of meets left before the season is over though. I am thinking about getting a sundew terrarium. They are plants that eats flies and bugs. They are sort of tropical but not expensive or hard to take care of. They are similar to venus fly traps. I have been wanting them and I think that I can finally get them. I used to have pitcher plants but they were hard and they were one of those things that everything that could go wrong did. These sundew are very pretty smell like honey are inexpensive and are easy to take care of. This is a picture of a sundew. Also if you want to see a video of a sundew catching a fly click HERE.

Cross Country Meet Gone Bad

2008-09-28T21:10:00.006-04:00

Friday I had a cross country meet. It was a big invitational and there were 35 teams that is 200 plus kids a race. I thought it would be a regular race and that it would be the usual 50 to 70 kids. First two kids passed out so they had to bring ambulances to help. Then a helicopter landed to help a person because they broke their neck. They tried to do a back flip. I did do well in the race though I beet 43 people and moved up a whole rank on my team. I was very happy with what I did. I have had many other meets I just don't put them on but I will start to put on my weekly meets. Also today I joined the my coke rewards thing to get prizes and stuff. I already have 32 points so I submitted into a contest for a cruise. It only cost 3 points.

Reports

2008-09-25T06:43:00.003-04:00

In school I have been getting a lot of reports or big assignments. In one day I got a 80 point English assignment and a 90 point cooking assignment. It was insane I was up until 11:45pm. Just to do half of the cooking assignment. Today and tomorrow I get out early because I have a cross country meet in a place an hour and forty five minutes away. I get out at half way through seventh period. I got new glasses. I like them a lot better than the old ones because they are multicolored but with natural colored blues and grays. In my reading class we always get a warm up. You know like a simple question, two or three sentences and then you share. I guess this one made my brain go nuts and I just kept writing. I wrote two and pages in a big notebook. I just kept writing through the entire class.

Sailing

2008-09-21T21:26:00.004-04:00

I just got back from a weekend sailing trip. I did a merit badge for small boat sailing and I think I got it. It was a lot of fun we got to sail sunfish. By the end I was flying through the water with my friend. They are two person boats that are 14 feet long. They are a lot of fun. Then I camped out and at our site there was an apple tree. So I picked some they were really sweet and juicy. I thought the trip was a lot of fun and I would do it again. Below is a picture of a Sunfish sailboat. This is not a picture of me on the boat it is just an example picture.

New Music

2008-09-14T09:24:00.002-04:00

I finally got iTunes so I can get songs for my mp3. I know that iTunes is for iPods only but I found a way to convert it and make as many copies as you want so I got all new music for my mp3. I figure that an mp3 can hold just as many songs and it is about $130 cheaper than an iPod so I have one of them. One of my older sister's friend's friend has a web site and blog that is really cool. She raises worms and then gets their poo as fertlizer. To check out her site click here.

School Is Crazy!

2008-09-10T20:38:00.004-04:00

It is now the second week of school for me. I am starting to get the normal amount of homework. I have been having to stay up later to get it done. I have had no problems so far though. Tomorrow is the seventh anniversary of 9/11. I am going to where special charms tomorrow. They are supposed to protect me and others.

The Cross above is supposed to protect from disease and bad fortune.

The Mayan symbol below is supposed to give me strength and help me through tough times. I have it as a pendent.

Starting School

2008-09-05T19:41:00.003-04:00

I started school and it is very different switching from class to class 9 times a day. I do like this school better than my last one though. In my new school there are new lockers that are really nice and there are old lockers that are not that nice. I got a new locker I was so happy. I also got really nice teachers. The school has a salad bar and it is so good. I love it. That is what I get for lunch every day. Also a lot of my friends are in my classes. The only bad thing is that my classes are all over the school so it sometimes hard to get there.

Betas Don't Work Out

2008-08-30T23:10:00.003-04:00

The female beta did not seem to like the nest from the beginning so she did not mate with him. I think they know that they are not going to mate and they are not killing each other, so I am not going to try and breed them I am just going to leave them together. I am also not going to get the new beta. I'm going back to school on Tuesday. I am not sure if I want to but I have no choice. I bought a new back pack. I have been thinking about and looking into getting a tank of Honey Suckle. They are plants that eat flies like Venus Fly Traps. I already have a lot of the stuff from when I had tree frogs. I put some new Steeler stuff on my web site so check it out. To go to my web site click here.

Betas Come Together

2008-08-27T19:02:00.006-04:00

I released my female beta into the Male's side. They are not fighting they are doing what the video shows. I am not sure if the female will lay her eggs because the nest that he built is not that impressive to her. If this pair does not work then I will try again with these two betas and if they still don't then I will get a third beta and try to breed the new one with one of the old ones.

Betas

2008-08-24T19:15:00.003-04:00

I noticed that my betas were looking strange so I looked up there behaviors and colors that they now had. I found out that they want to mate with each other. The female has vertical bars on her side and the male is going crazy, darkened his color, and built a nest. I am hoping to successfully breed them. Throughout the posts I do I will give updates. Over the weekend my family went to a wine festival. They left me behind because they said I wouldn't have fun. I stayed at my friends house. I did get a new pool liner and have been using the pool a lot lately. The only thing is that the water is very cold because it was just filled.

School

2008-08-21T16:56:00.004-04:00

Today I finished my web site so it is up and running. I also went to my new school's orientation. I thought the hallways were confusing but everything else was much nicer than my last school. The teachers that I got my friends said were nice so I am glad. I go back to school soon. The day after labor day I go back. I am not sure if I want to or not because there are good and bad things about going back. Tonight I have to go help clean up a road. I hope it goes fast.

Mexico

2008-08-17T11:26:00.009-04:00

These pictures below are from my trip to Mexico. My family always takes a vacation in August. This year we stayed at a resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. The resort was called the Grand Sunset Princess. We were reading some of the things that people had to say about it and they were bad but we got there and it was wonderful. There were fountains everywhere and it was very pretty at night. All the floors were made of marble no matter where you were unless you were on the paths to the beach and pool. It was five star and it had many things to do. It also had many restaurants. It was all inclusive so you didn't have to pay for some of the restaurants because it was included in your other price. The pictures you see that are of green grass and palm trees was inside the resort. The pictures of little buildings were some of the small Mexican towns that you sometimes drive through to get where you were going. The statues are the ones that lined the paths in the resort. There were also lizards everywhere. They were wild and also they had trained ones that you can hold. The trained one is the one I am holding in my picture that is on my profile. The old Volkswagons are like a modern cars down there. There are so many of them. The resort was right on a beach so you could just walk along the paths and be there in about ten minutes. We also went to the Mayan Ruins called Chichen Itza. It was amazing. The carvings and everything were fantastic. I always was interested in that kind of stuff and so I wanted to go for a long time and when I heard we could then I was very excited. I think I took about 50 pictures there alone. I also learned an interesting fact. The gum called Chicklets was actually invented by the Mayans thousands of years ago as a sacred food. The pool of water you see is a sink hole that was found and it started to fill. The water is 165 feet deep. You can jump from a platform into the water if you want. It was very cool.

Cross Country

2008-08-06T15:04:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got new shoes for Cross Country. I got new clothes and socks too. I am very excited because I leave for vacation to Mexico tomorrow morning. Really early, at 3:45AM I leave for the airport. I am not sure if I will be able to do my blog in Mexico. I am staying at a really nice place and my family is going to an open market. I also found out that for every one US dollar you get ten Mexican Pesos. If I don't do my blog for a week or so it is because I can't in Mexico.

Getting Ready

2008-08-03T18:58:00.003-04:00

I am leaving for Mexico in four days! I am very excited. We are staying at an all inclusive resort. It has five stars and it have seven pools plus hot tubs and all kinds of things. I am starting to pack but it is hard because you don't know what you are going to have there and also the airlines are very strict now. They wont let you have anything any more. Another thing that I don't understand is that you are allowed to have a pack of matches but not a lighter. Yesterday I went to Marshalls with some of my family and I got a glass turtle. It was just what I needed for a spot in my room. This is a picture of it.

Also my sister did get a spot in Heinz Chapel for her wedding. My dog is doing better too. He looks a little bit better and it doesn't seem like his eye it hurts him as much.

Doodles

2008-07-31T17:05:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I had to take my dog to the vet because he was having trouble with his eye. So we took him and it turned out that he has an ulcer that covers 2/3 of his eye. What was weird was that he had the same problem a few years ago in the other eye. We tried what worked last time but this time it was bigger so the medicine didn't work. Now he is on three different medicines and so far he doesn't seem to be as annoyed with it as before. Also yesterday I went and got my physical so I can play a sport in school. I did pass for cross country so I will be doing that once it starts. Tomorrow I have to call to try and get my sister Heinz Chapel because that is where she wants to get married. She is getting married next year.

Home Again

2008-07-29T09:11:00.007-04:00

These are the lilies in my front yard that bloomed while I was away in Georgia. They were a nice welcome home. These ones only bloom once a year so I made sure that I got a great picture of them because they are my favorite flower in my yard.

This is a video of my pet gecko Pepper because of her black spots. I got a short video of her feeding on her food which is live crickets. We buy a dozen each week and she eats most of them but some do die and geckos will not eat dead crickets.

Exotic Foods

2008-07-26T18:35:00.010-04:00

I decided to try some new and exotic foods while I had the chance. I tried Golden Kiwi from New Zealand, Plantains from Guatemala, Australian Yogurt, Jackfruit from Thailand, Bubble Tea, and Durian from Thailand. The Golden Kiwi was good it just tasted like kiwi but it was yellow instead of green and the Plantains were pretty good they were like bananas only tougher and not as sweet. The Australian Yogurt was really good my favorite was the mango lime flavor and the Jackfruit was great it didn't taste like anything else I have had before it was just like a whole new flavor. Then the Bubble tea was like the best drink I have ever had it was a sweet tea flavor with little tapioca gummy balls at the bottom and the straw was huge. The Durian is know as the smelliest food in the world and I would agree. It is grown with a hard spiky shell around it which you cut open with a huge ax or knife, then it is the smelliest food in the world because it is supposed to smell like rotting flesh and it does. Also it is very expensive it's like $20 a fruit but they are big but still. I did not get a fresh one that I had to cut and clean I got one that was already cut cleaned and frozen in coconut milk to make the smell weaker. The smell that it did give off was horrible and it tasted like the worst thing I could even imagine. I could not understand why anyone would want to even think about cutting one of these things let alone eating it. It was completely disgusting. I also tried Korean Pineapple soda it was very good but strange to open.

My First Post

2008-07-24T20:23:00.007-04:00

Today I won the Iron Chef competition at my cooking camp. I am also staying at my Aunt and Uncle's in Georgia. They have many humming birds that come to their back yard to feed for their 500 mile journey across the Gulf of Mexico.