Appow Dumplings

  So... Mum saw this today.

   It's just a ground snake ("docile and not venomous") but she didn't know that. So. FUN MORNING. I can now write hyperventilation realistically.
    I wish I'd seen it, though. I haven't found it again, and - truly - don't you think it's a handsome thing? I indirectly named it Freddie.

    Anywho, I have been suffering through Geometry and there are exactly ten days till I leave for Tennessee (and then Kansas), thusly kicking off my crazy summer. I'm writing like a madwoman. Liz has her SAT tomorrow , but somehow she has found time to draw the beauties in the last post. Her medallion is fantastic. @_@ Lizzy, I have but one tip for the SAT. Go. See. Conquer.

    
   I drew this obscure family portrait the other day after seeing a man at the zoo with three kiddos who was the living clone of Tony Stark.

Starklets! I named the oldest boy Howard (Howie),
the baby is Jackson, and the little girl is Lydia.
I don't actually know why for any of them,
save Howie.

   :3 I've invented this whole life for them, and I don't even know why -- Because Tony is one of my least favorite superheroes. And I don't usually submit to feels involving the Starks in general. And it's gone now, the happy appreciation I had fleetingly for Iron Man, or at least it's buried somewhere else.

    I saw Les Miserables last night at the Albuquerque little theater - and it was very, very good. As a [rather avid] fan of the movie and book, it's hard when the play has moved around the songs (even if it was actually the film that switched them) and the casted other people as your beloved characters, but - disregarding all of my persnickety pickiness - it was wonderful. I loved their Javert equally, if not more, than Russell Crowe, and Jean Valjean had a fantastic voice. Eponine was excellent, Cosette was good, and Gavroche was perfect. And their set changes were marvelous. THEIR ENDING WAS GREAT. The more I recall it the more I realize how I loved it.

Notice anything? O_O My friend and I did and over-analyzed it.

         I made Watermelon shave ice a few days ago - it's been over 95 degrees for the past week. It's five o'clock now, and it's 97. @_@ So, I postponed my planned baking, and shredded frozen watermelon chunks in our snowcone thingamajig.

     I put lime juice in it too, and it was amazecheese. Very easy to make (a little mess) and cheaper than a Sonic slushie (I HAVE NO MONEY). 

     And, finally, at a bearable 89 degrees, I made "appow dumplings" (from the Pioneer Woman!) yesterday.

     They're all gone now, but just looking at them makes my mouth water. I want one now. I nearly chopped my pinky finger off as I was skinning the appows, but I SURVIVED. 8D

    Lastly, I went to the zoo with me mum on Tuesday (Matty's coming back tomorrow. Maybe I do sorta miss him ;). I didn't get a lot of pictures ('cuz I always forget), but they had so many baby animals. Ohhhh, the orangutan is so cute - we watched it for at least an hour. And the siamang baby was really scrawny and weirdishly adorable (his appendages were longer than his body). They also had a takin (like a wildebeest) baby. And an elephant.
   It was fun. I got a picture of a tiger and a peacock - and that is all - so I shall leave you with those.

RICHARD PARKER. 

I thought I was gonna die. He squawked
in my face.

   Okay, I lied. One more thing. I put glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceilings in a whim! There are exactly sixteen. Who says you can't count the stars?

- Elly