PT Cruiser

The first night I stayed at the cousins, Tyber, their sweet yellow lab, slept on the bed with me all night long. What a good dog. :-)

The next morning I woke up at about eight thirty, had some juice, grabbed my MP3 player, and at nine thirty I jogged to G&G's house and back. It was hard on my lungs, and my gums hurt oddly by the time I got back. I showered, ate a real breakfast, and headed over to G&G's house to get schoolwork done. I'd only gotten about an hour of work in when Aunt Linda called up Grandma and invited the two of us out to lunch with her and Daina. Of course, we couldn't refuse. Aunt Linda let me drive her PT Cruiser and they directed me to The Trolley, where I've been with them once before a couple of years ago. Afterwards we went to an oldish drugstore with an ice cream bar. I've never tasted ice cream soda before I went there. Aunt Karen ordered some and let me have a taste. It was sensational. Grandma and I both had Rocky Road in a cone (mine was a scoop of Rocky Road and a scoop of strawberry), and Daina had a vanilla cone. It was good stuff.

Then we went to the library to pick up a book I need for my schoolwork: "A Night to Remember," by Walter Lord. It was written in 1955. It's a pretty intense story. I like it a lot. When we got to Aunt Linda's house after dropping Grandma off, I read the two assigned chapters while Daina practiced for her voice lessons and eventually went there and back. By the time she returned I was done with the lengthy chapters, and Uncle Jeff, Aunt Linda, Spencer, Daina and I went to see what Uncle Jeff calls "The Rat Movie." It was a really cute movie; I liked it a lot.

We got back home and had pasta, garlic bread and corn on the cob for supper. Following that, Aunt Karen taught me how to make big, chewy chocolate chip cookies. They were really good... I think I still prefer Mom's chocolate chip oatmeal, but it was a new kind of chocolate chip cookie to try. :-P

After this, I went upstairs and got suits, goggles, shampoo, crocks, and clean clothes ready to take with me to the pool the next morning (Aunt Linda renewed the family pool membership).

Then Daina and I washed Uncle Jeff's suburban with a very powerful pressure hose that hooked up to the regular hose. It looks like a vaccuum with a long, thin cord, and the water comes out so sharp and powerfully that it could cut you-- I have a bruise on my arm from it. We used dish soap (contributed by Aunt Linda) and an old scrub mop to scrub down the dirt all over the front and sides of the car, and took turns switching between the spray hose and the scrubber. After this, Aunt Linda asked us to try spraying off the huge burn marks on their front walk and steps from when some kids blew off fireworks in the middle of the night as a prank. It worked pretty well, but their are still several black specks that burned deep into the cement.

We went inside and I jokingly asked Daina is she was sure she didn't want to get up with me at five fifteen to go swimming. She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah! Yeah, I'll go!" I was stunned that she wanted to go with. "Cool! If you're too tired in the morning, I'll understand," I said, "But if you're planning on coming with, make sure you have your suit and clean clothes ready tonight." At that she nodded and ran upstairs to prepare. We sent an alarm and were in bed by ten thirty.

The next morning (well, this morning) she got right up with me and we got ready to go. The dogs barked at us as we went down the stairs and thought we were getting up to play with them, but we squeezed past them out the front door and started to walk.

The pool had several elderly people scattered throughout the lanes. We had to split up to swim, but she stayed the whole time while I did my sets. We were in the pool for almost an hour. Then we changed and went back home, grabbed a bowl of cereal and went back to bed for about another hour and a half. Uncle Jeff seemed really pleased that we'd both gotten up to go work out.

After I got up again I helped myself to some delicious California strawberries in half and half milk with Splenda. Then I got my stuff together, asked Aunt Linda if I could take her car to G&G's again (she said yes), and got another hour or so of work done before they called me and told me that they were going to SLC to help Shelley and Trevor move out of their duplex. Since G&G weren't even home, I didn't want to be in Springville all by myself so I said I'd go.

We helped them bring boxes and other stuff out of the little trailer Uncle Jeff has behind his suburban, and stopped by the Ikea store so Aunt Linda could get the entertainment center that she and Uncle Jeff wanted for their TV. She stayed at Ikea and waited for Shelley and Trevor to catch up so they could all shop. Daina and I went home with Uncle Jeff. On the way there I called home and said hello to Sally, Gracie, and Oliver (Laura was at YC, Mom and Dad were out). We got back home and I drove over here to check my email and do more school work.

I'll update again later.