Lots of Snow!!

The gasoline smell was in the air from people clearing their driveways from a fresh dump of snow today on my walk with Kingsley. It snow all day today, adding to the substantial accumulation we've already received from the past several weeks. During school, you could see the wind and snow blowing hard and coming down quickly. Unfortunately, though, today is Friday so it doesn't matter if it snows hard, since there's the whole weekend to clear out. And thus there's no snow day. At least we have Wednesday off next week. I don't know why, but I'm glad we do. I just wish it wasn't in the middle of the week. Anyway, tomorrow is my sister's 16th birthday! She hasn't drove enough hours yet, so she can't take section 2 of drivers ed, let alone get her licence, but I'm sure it'll be a monumental day, anyway. Since she is taking a friend or two up to Mackinac Island in the summer, she isn't going to have a party. Instead our family is going to Ann Arbor to walk around and shop in the stores downtown. For lunch, we're going to eat at Zingerman's. Yum. We also are probably going to see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, which look good, even if it's totally different from the book in several ways. Tomorrow should be a fun day!

No Snow Day

It's been snowing continuously since sometime last night. There's got to be at least a foot out there. Unfortunately, we already had school off, so there's no extra day off. Why couldn't the snow storm come tonight? Anyway, this morning, I had to shovel out pathways down the driveway and the pathway around the house and clear off my mom's car. It wasn't that bad, I put some boots, a hat, and gloves on, so it wasn't like I got all wet and cold. I also had some homework for English that I didn't finish at Science Olympiad. It was this thing called a "hero proposal". We are going to be writing compare and contrast essay on the hero of our choice and Odysseus from the Odyssey, and this is our proposal of the hero we want to research to our teacher. It didn't take that long, so for the rest of the day I've been doing pretty much nothing. While ironing clothing, I watched Dirty Dancing, and I did start a new book: Captain Wentworth's Diary, which is Persuasion (by Jane Austen) from Captain Wentworth's POV, instead of Anne Elliot. So far, it's good. I'll probably also watch some of the Olympics later, also. Go Team USA!

"Practice Day"

Yesterday was our "practice day" for the high school Science Olympiad. We didn't have an award ceremony, so we got to get up/leave home later. Since we weren't going to be gone as long, we left Kingsley at home and had my friend who lives nearby come and check up and take him outside in the middle of the day. The day was nice; less stressful than usual, due to the fact that we weren't getting placements, just raw scores. The events I was in are: Environmental Chemistry, Ecology, Anatomy, and Picture This (pictionary with science words). From the raw scores, we figured out that I got 2nd in EC, 1st in Ecology, 4th in Anatomy, and 7th in Picture This. Considering that there were a lot of teams, 20 plus, I'd say that that's pretty good. In fact, The Environmental Chem test was easier than I expected; everything that I needed to know was on my cheat sheet, and none of the stuff I didn't understand was on it, either! All and all, it was a good day. I got some of my homework done and had a fun time. The pizza that we ordered from a parent running the event was delicious, large, and only $6.50. Today, my dad made a excel file to figure out the team placing, and we placed 2nd. But, since he wasn't totally sure which team did what (some schools brought multiple teams), it wasn't completely accurate; we think we actually placed around 4th or so. And now since this weekend is our midwinter break, we also have Monday off to relax.

Friday?

Today doesn't really feel like a Friday, it's more like a Wednesday. It was the snow day that threw it off. For some reason, it's like all my teachers conspired against me and so, I have a lot of homework this weekend, more than usual. In English, I have to work on interviewing our "hero", read 2 chapters in the Odyssey, and revise an essay for Thursday; Geometry, I have to fill out a note card and study for a chapter test on Monday, and I just finished my US History worksheet. Plus, we have a Science Olympiad pizza night tonight (we're watching Bourne Supremacy!!), practices this weekend, and I have piano on Sunday, as usual. Hopefully I still have time to do nothing... but, I think I'll find time. Maybe I'll even go sledding. Whatever I do, I know I'm going to sleep a lot. The snow day on Wednesday helped, but I'm still quite tired. I think better go and help my parents vacuum or something before everyone comes.

Snow Day!!!!

Today's a snow day!!! Just looking outside, I can see that there's about a foot or so accumulated. I really wanted a snow day, but wasn't sure that we would have one. In the past, the superintendent has been notoriously narrow minded on what constitutes a day off. But luckily, the snow plows didn't have enough time to get the streets clean before school started. I'm planning on going out sometime today, maybe even build a snowman! Now, a recap of what's happened since my last post. Well, to begin with, the Winterfest dance was cancel; only 70 people bought tickets, and they needed at least 700. Unfortunately, one of my friends was actually going to go with a friend from another school, but I guess no one wanted to go since "inappropriate dancing" was prohibited and more strictly regulated. My Saturday didn't change, though; it was the day of another middle school Science Olympiad invitational. My mom, the head coach, was sick, and didn't go. So, my dad had to fill in for her, which he found to be harder than he thought. The day was okay, I finished some of my homework for school, and there were only a few mishaps. The one event our team proctored was Ornithology, and some of the answers on the test were hilarious! Some teams put fish for a country, and couldn't figure out what an oyster catcher bird ate. Even with a few disappointing finishes, we still finished 4th, 9 points away from the first place score. Except for today's snow day, the beginning of this week has been pretty boring.

Spirit Week

Ugly Sweater (not the one I wore)
Happy February! Yesterday, Groundhog Day (of course), we watched the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. It's sort of a tradition, and I love it! I used to not get the humor, but now I think that it's hilarious. Unfortunately though, we have 6 more weeks of winter, as always. It's never a good sign when it's snowing on Groundhog Day. It was also some holiday in France where they eat crepes, so in French class he had a party where we ate crepes that some of the students in my class made. I only had one, but it was good. This Saturday is the Winterfest Dance, which I'm not going to (not only do I not particularly want to go, but we also have a Science Olympiad Invitational that day), so this whole week has been spirit week. Monday was "Ugly Sweater Day", yesterday was "Fake an Injury Day", today was "Neon Day", tomorrow is "Occupation Day", and Friday is "White Out Day". I've participated for the last 3 days (for Monday, I wore one of my Dad's sweaters that he never wears), and it's been pretty crazy. People carry boom boxes with their Ipods in them down the hallway, and I even saw a boy in a neon green skin-tight body suit today. Today was a also a delayed start, so we got up and started school 2 hours later than usual, which was nice. Interestingly enough, we also have an assembly on Friday, so 2 days in this week are messed up. It's been a very productive week, if you can't tell.