Brandon Notices

Mom's been digging through her purse, and she pulled out a letter that I wrote on a comments sheet at Wendy's some time ago:

THREE bad things happened tonight. My mom's burger had a bug in it. A live bug. A gnat. My sister's burger had a long, dark hair in it. My cousin ordered extra bacon with his burger, but he didn't get any! He complained, and his second burger STILL didn't have bacon!!!!

I don't know if I was planning to submit that or not, but was funny to read it.

I bought a few Nintendo games the other day. I like Mario & Luigi. It's a funny game. I already got two pieces of the Beanstar, but that's not important... I also got Kirby Air Ride. That's right! I finally bought it!

What is important is that Old Man 2003 is dying, and little Baby New Year 2004 is almost born! That's exciting! We plan to go to B'ham for New Years again this year. I hope Stephanie will use her camcorder—she could use some practice.

We're making a movie. I want to finish it tomorrow, but I don't think that's going to happen because Katrina probably won't play the part. If Katrina won't, we'll probably get Stephanie to wear her bright red wig (if she brought it down here) and play the part instead. Then I would have to play the waiter, I guess. Oh well. I hope it works because I wanted to debut the movie on New Year's Eve, but I don't know...

We celebrated Christmas yesterday because we are going to visit my relatives in Bellingham tomorrow. Guess what I got! I got a camcorder! So did my sister! Now we'll both have to record stuff. We started to make a movie yesterday. I also got cherry cordials and a board game called Loser. It's funny. I put it on my list, so don't feel sorry for me or anything. And shirts, I got two shirts.

Yesterday, I also bought a GameCube game called Pac-Man World 2, but I bought it because it came with Pac-Man Vs., which is just about the coolest game ever, and it was only $20. Three players are ghosts, and they can only see part of the game field around them while trying to gang up and kill Pac-Man. The player who is Pac-Man uses the Game Boy Advance, which is hooked up to the GameCube. He can see the whole board, must try to avoid the ghosts and score points. It's fun. For some reason, Mario narrates the game!

Yawn. I'm tired. I just woke up! When I don't have school, my schedule pushes itself 4 or 6 hours later. WINTER BREAK! YEAH!

Yesterday, I asked Mom to take me to get a haircut, and she wanted to get lunch, so it worked out well... for a while. We went to Cafe Neo, a Greek food restaurant, and it was good. I like their fries. Then we went to SuperCuts. I'm too good for regular cuts. From here, everything went downhill. Mom drove us across the street to THE MALL! I don't know why she insists on standing so long, looking at a product, without buying it. What a waste of time. While I was there, I bought silly string, and a Cinnabon. We were there for 4 long, lingering hours.

Tonight, we pick up my aunt Karen from the airport. Yay! She only comes for two months every year, but it still doesn't seem like enough. While I was asleep, my sister made a sign to bring to the airport, the kind of sign where she finds her name, looks down, and sees us holding her sign. But I wanted to help her make that sign! I slept for 12 hours—school must have really been dragging me down. The airport is fun. My favorite part used to be little tram/train that you rode from one side of the airport to the other, but we can't ride those now because of 9/11. Sheesh, airport guys, let me play on the fun ride!

I forgot to tell everybody at lunch that I heard that the school plans to stop airing Channel One News after break and have 20 minutes of silent reading time instead. This might sound like a good thing, but I also heard that students will not be allowed to work on anything except for reading. That means we can't take advantage of Channel One News to finish homework!

Game Show Network stinks! Never watch it again! They're changing their schedule line-up in March! They plan to stop airing game shows! Isn't that dumb? Oh, they're also going to change their name. That means no more Whammy... AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH.

Today, I went to lunch, as usual, and I brought my camera to take pictures for a collage I have to do in English, but nobody wanted their picture taken. So now, instead of one picture of all my friends, I have several individual pictures. Oh well. I'll just put each of those on my collage. I don't think my friends would like for me to post my pictures on here, so I won't.

They did like the Christmas presents I gave them. They were little Christmas tree-shaped boxes with candies and little tree ornaments attached. Emily, Katie U., Allison, and Bryan each got a Garfield ornament, and Katie K. and Cory, the sisters, each got connectable Peanuts ornaments. Everybody kept offering a candy to everybody else, despite the fact that they all had the same candy...

Oh, I have to thank everybody for the Christmas presents they gave me. And I'll thank Bryan in advance for his present, which he promised us he'd bring on Friday.

It's so rainy right now. Actually, it's calming down, but it was raining hard a half-hour ago. I was walking down the hill to my cul-de-sac, and five or six cars were in my way, so I couldn't cross the street. It was odd because there's usually little traffic in the area at all. What was annoying was the cars that were turning into my cul-de-sac, only to turn back around. So I had to stand in the rain and wait for the cars to pass.

I'm eating a lot of chocolate right now, but it's okay because I am drinking low-fat milk with it. If I'm going to eat something fattening and sugary, I might as well even it out by drinking something healthy.

There was a concert last night at my school that I really wanted to go to, but I had a major precalculus assignment that I had to work on instead, so I told Katie U. that I wouldn't be able to go when she called me. I worked on the problem all day. It wasn't easy—I still got it wrong.

Today, during class, Mr. Youngren told us what formulas to use to get the correct answers. I got the first three parts right, but I used the wrong formulas for the last two parts. Many people missed. Then he told us that he would move the due date to Tuesday! He was planning to move it the whole time; he just wanted to make sure that we could ask questions on the assignment before the test on Tuesday. I was up all night working on that stupid problem instead of going to the concert! It sounded like fun, too.

Channel One News was a rerun again today. Ms. Carey turned it off and everybody was all like, "Hey, it's not over yet" and "We're playing cards, don't turn it off!" But Ms. Carey pointed out that it was a rerun. Then everybody else said, "No it isn't!" but it's the same episode that they aired three times last week. They just weren't paying attention. Ever. I wonder why they're showing us the same episode over and over.

Dad got a new stereo system. Now our ears will always be ringing and we won't be able to tell if the phone's ringing, or if it's just our ears. We also rearranged all the furniture downstairs. Dad doesn't like it, but I think it's fine. He just doesn't like that we didn't ask him, I guess.

Stephanie's school had another one of its little concert things (and once again, I was uninformed) except this one was at the fire station. It seems like nobody prepared this very well. Half the people had to stand. Luckily, we found chairs. Beverly Elementary School's choir was first to perform, and you couldn't hear them. There was a lot of noise behind us (kids were lined up to take pictures with Santa), but the kids just weren't singing very loudly at all. I'd bet several of them were whispering. Stephanie's middle school's orchestra was next, and they were much louder. Because of the terrible layout, we couldn't see Stephanie, but it still sounded good. We left after that, despite the fact that more schools were performing afterwards.

In pre-calculus class today, class was kinda boring. Mr. Youngren was yabbering about hyperbolas. He talked about some kind of ellipse on the graph, and he said that you have to circumscribe the ellipse. A girl in class giggled and said, "circumcise." Everybody laughed. Mr. Youngren turned toward her and said, "Careful, Jenny. It's 'circumscribe.' " He then turned back to the board, lifted his marker to the ellipse, and continued, "so you circumcise the circle—" and sputtered, and everybody laughed. Even Mr. Youngren. Which just goes to show you that everybody can laugh at his or her own mistake. After that, it was just boring again.

In drafting class today, Mr. Huddleson was talking to two other students at his desk. Somebody was going somewhere or something, and they mentioned White Castle Burgers. Then, Mr. Huddleson said that they're disgusting! He said that the onions are slimy, the cheese is hard, and the patty is nothing more than a square sheet of meat. Of course, I disagree with him, but I didn't tell him that. Teachers are much more inclined to give you a better grade if they think you're on their side. Trust me—I know this from experience.

Channel One News today was a rerun from yesterday, but nobody noticed because they were playing cards or talking. I started reading my book right away, but I would have rather watched Family Feud with Richard Karn, the guy who played Al on Home Improvement, but I'm sure that Ms. Carey wouldn't have changed the channel. She was eager to teach!

Dad had to return Kirby Air Ride today. I think it's on my Christmas list. Yesterday, my neighbors came over and we played it multiplayer, and they liked it. So now that I know that people will play that game with me, I think I want it.

Dad rubbed catnip into the carpet in the hallway. The cats loved it. They both lay in the hallway, sniffing and eating it, then they started rolling in it, like how rich people roll in their money. It was cute because they would each seem to take turns rolling, then they would both roll at the same time. It's fun watching a fat cat roll over.

We ate lunch inside on the bench in the stairs again today, even though we aren't supposed to. After lunch, everyone left, except for Paul, Emily, Katie K., and me. As we were leaving, I noticed that Paul left his tray on a stair. I said, "Paul, you shouldn't leave that there. Somebody could step on it and fall down the stairs!" He didn't care. He just said, "Fine, I'll put it where somebody won't step on it." So he put it on the bench. I said, "Somebody might sit on it and get food on their butt!" So he stuck it in the crack between the bench and the wall. Katie, Emily, and I were about to go downstairs just then. I was tired of this silly charade. Just then, Principal Hoffman was walking up the stairs. He pointed at Paul and asked, "Why did you do that?" He started talking to Paul about littering in the school, and that he shouldn't be eating in that building, and other stuff. I'm glad we were already walking away.

We got back from the Seahawks game. The seats were terrible. We couldn't have gone any higher in the stadium. Our seats were in the last row! Not only did the players look like tiny specks, but we had to walk up a hundred stairs to get to our seats. There was also a breeze blowing through the stadium. It was cold.

We couldn't find any nachos. We looked halfway around the stadium, but we couldn't find a stand with nachos, so I ate popcorn instead. Afterwards, Dad told me that the places with the nachos are on the bottom concourse, and to get there, we'd have to walk down a long system of ramps.

We're having steak for dinner!

I won! We put up the big tree! Mom didn't really want it up, but I said she wouldn't have to do any of the work. So I had to put it together and string the lights on by myself, but it was worth it. We also ended up rearranging the whole living room. Luckily for me, Clean Sweep was on TLC, so I could pick what ornaments would go on the tree, and Mom was too distracted watching TV to tell me what ornaments she didn't want on the tree. However, I couldn't find the angel or the tree skirt in the boxes. It's really pretty. I took plenty of pictures. If you're a member of KPA, you can see them here. If you're not a member, it's because you aren't a relative of mine. Oh well. Nothing you can do about that. Except marry one of my relatives...

Tomorrow, we're going to a Seahawks game. Mom always buys me tickets to events I know I won't like. It's the same with the Aerosmith concert last year. I didn't want to go. Overall, I didn't enjoy the concert very much. We parked a long way from the stadium. It was loud, too. Even though I had earplugs, I still had a headache. The worst thing that Kid Rock was opening for Aerosmith. No, I didn't enjoy that very much.

I hope I'll have fun at the Seahawks game. Mom promised me nachos. I really don't care to go. Dad said that it would be faster to get to our seats by helicopter than by escalator, so I'm assuming we have bad seats.

Recently, Stephanie's been bugging me. She's been contradicting herself all the time. She'll say something like, "I want to play the game with you, but I don't really want to," or something like, "I'm really energetic, but tired." It's really disturbing me. It seems like she can't make up her mind.

I'm starting to get tired. Decorating a tree and rearranging the furniture in one night can be exhausting. Phew. Dad promised me that he would find the angel and the tree skirt tomorrow morning before the game. I think we are leaving at 10:00. I'd better get to bed soon, then.

When Mom and Stephanie get back from shopping, we're going to discuss the Christmas decorations. I want a big, festive tree like we always do, with big ornaments, lights, an angel on top, and maybe some tinsel this time, but Mom wants to get rid of our traditional decorations and use only a stupid little tree. We wouldn't be able to put big ornaments on it, just those pathetic tiny ones. A string of lights would be too big, and the beautiful angel she bought last year at JCPenney (I think) would not fit on the small tree.

Of course, the reason she wants to use a little tree is because the big one would block the view of the television from the treadmill. With a big tree, Mom wouldn't be able to watch TV. My suggestion is that she move the treadmill so the big tree can go where it's supposed to. Besides, the treadmill only makes other people in the room upset. It's loud and annoying. There's the sound of the motor, the belt rubbing against the thing below it, and the loud thumps of feet banging against it. And for some reason, the treadmill smells funny.

I just finished eating my leftover McDonald's. I didn't finish it yesterday, so I saved it for later, and now I'm done eating it. I'm still quite not full yet. I wonder if I should eat something else. There's a cookie commercial on the TV right now. Mmmm... I like Chips Ahoy, but we don't have any. And there's a saying that goes, "You cannot eat what you do not have." Therefore, I cannot eat them. I can, however, drink a lot of Sprite. We have a lot of Sprite.

I moved the candy machine right next to the computer desk. It was too hard to reach the candy machine in the corner where it used to be, so I decided to move it to an area with more traffic. Besides, now I can eat M&M's while I type on this stupid blog.

I'm renting Kirby Air Ride again. I'm still not sure if I want to buy it or receive it as a Christmas present. If Kevin wasn't in Bellingham, I would invite him over to play it. The thing I like about renting a game on a disc format is that it saves the data to your own memory card, so when you return the game, you still have the saved data. When you return a game on a cartridge, you return the saved data with it, and that's no fun.

Ugh, I'm so upset! I haven't seen The Simpsons since Monday!!! FOX keeps showing stupid baseball games, and CBC keeps showing baseball or something. I don't know how much longer I can take this. I don't know what I'll do if I never see The Simpsons again...

Today was the first day of school. I got my first schedule about a week or two before school actually started. There was no class assigned to first period, so I had to get that fixed. I mean, the space was blank. Funny.

Disappointing news... Homer the mouse died today. He had problems with spinning and stuff... he couldn't stop running in circles. I don't know how this happened...

Today, I went to Creatively Yours (stupid name, isn't it) to paint ceramics with my mom, sister, aunt, and one of my cousins. I painted an alligator. I named him Earl, after Earl Sinclair, the dad on Dinosaurs. You don't remember? Disney's show with the animatronic dinosaurs? Anyway, Earl on TV was a dinosaur, but my ceramic is an alligator. He's not done yet. He won't be done for a few days.

The phone rang while we were there, and the woman answered it. Although I only heard her half of the conversation, it went a little like this:

Woman: "Hello, this is Creatively Yours. ... No. She got fired."

This is part of a conversation that I had yesterday.

Me: "I saw a fat cat at Petco the other day."
Jesse: "Was it huge?"
Me: "Huge."
Jesse: "Did it blow up?"
Me: "Cats don't blow up."
Alyssa: "Yeah, our hamsters blew up."

We had a happy 4th of July yesterday at my cousin's house. We usually never get to go to my cousin's house (2-hour drive) for Independence Day because Mom and Dad always have work on July 5th, but they decided that if we leave really late, after the fireworks, we could get home with enough time for them to sleep and be ready to go to work in the morning. Many friends and relatives of mine were at the party: The Red, White, and Hullabaloo Blast.

One firework fell over in the middle of firing. It pointed to the larger audience (the larger group was seated around the bonfire; I was in the smaller one where it was easier to see the fireworks even though it was colder) and shot a firework in their direction. It didn't hit anybody, but it did hit a car. It was a good thing that the car didn't burn up and explode. The overturned firework then continued to shoot fireworks in different directions. Nobody got hurt.

I think I got most of the accident on my cousin's camcorder, but I was pointing the camera up, expecting to see the fireworks up there. That was when it was light enough for the camera to focus. After it got too dark, the camera wouldn't focus, and the fireworks were only blurry circles. People didn't like the bright light, so I soon stopped recording. If you haven't guessed, I really like working with cameras and camcorders.

It's a heat wave! It's about 90 degrees!! I know that many people are used to such temperature, but here in Washington, it usually never gets any hotter than 60 degrees. At least I have a big supply of water balloons. It's not very fun to play badminton with water balloons, but it's very fun to play baseball with water balloons. All you have to do is hit the water balloon with a bat, then run around the bases. The outfielders have to get the popped balloon shards and tag the runner with the bits of balloon.

We had a mock trial in history today. There were some funny things said during the trial:

Tiffany (lawyer): "Objection!"
Mr. Wallace (judge): "On what grounds?"
Someone else (I'm not sure who): "It hurts my case."

Mr. Wallace, after a large argument about whether things on the Internet are true or not: "Well, we learned one thing today: If it came from the Internet, it's gotta be true."

I was outside with the little kids, and Alyssa was asking Jesse and me a question. Remember that they're little kids. The conversation went like this:

Alyssa: "What can you make for God?"
We quickly gave up.
Alyssa: "Love."
Jesse: "You can't make love."
Alyssa: "Yes you can!"
Jesse: "How?"
Then Alyssa began making kissy faces to Jesse.

Happy Easter. Mom and Stephanie emptied the insides of eggs through small holes in the shells. After we colored the eggs, they filled them with confetti. We smashed one on my grandma's head and it got in her hair. Oh, what a day.