Ok, I know that I'm late for a post on this....

But it's summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy. This summer feels like it is going by sooooo fast. I kinda wish it would go a li-t-tle slower, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I just laze around all day, and then, before I know it, the day is gone, and I'll never get it back. Doesn't that make you want to do a bunch of awesome stuff that you've never done before? Like, see the Pacific Ocean, go skiing, travel to the other side of the world, and all that stuff. I wish I could, but I have to do school, take care of my dogs, and things like that.

Well, back to summer. I think that this is one of the best summers that I have had in a long time. I have achieved many things, like take short showers (that was really hard), do my school in half an hour instead of two, start liking the zoo again (I never liked the zoo because I thought it was boring. The animals never really did stuff, and we went to the same zoo over and over again. But now, I take pictures of the animals there, and I love it!), I found Arwen's tug-of-war rope, and I am now addicted to Chris Daughtry music. Talk about achievements!

I am not looking forward to the start of the school year, though. Although I have been doing school all summer, we are going to start hard core school again, not just the bare minimum. Ugh! Also, my friends are all starting a bunch of extra-curricular activities, so they are not going to be available after my half hour of school each day. Lacrosse, Band, and Soccer are included in these.

Well, even though summer is drawing to a close as I write, I can't be too unhappy about the next school year. Holidays and birthdays are coming, along with happiness and sadness, which I'll just have to meet sooner or later.

I love life!

Busch Wildlife!!!!!

I went to a wild animal rescue center called Busch Wildlife, yesterday (Wednesday). I brought the digital camera, expecting to get a couple fairly good shots. But I did not expect anything like this! The first exhibit we went to was the aviary. Inside was a couple songbirds and a blue jay. This jay used to be a pet, as we learned later. When I tried to take a picture of him, he reached through the fence, trying to eat the camera (just like somebody else I know...)!


The next exhibit that we went to, was the Florida Cougar exhibit. At first, the cougars were sleeping under a boardwalk thingy, but soon this one came right up to the fence and posed! So cute!

This fox picture was actually one of the last ones I took at Busch Wildlife, just before the camera died. :( It was hard to take, as the foxes were at the back of their little "house."

The Cockatoo's name is CeCe. All the parrots sit out front of the animal hospital, across from the box turtles. There was another parrot named Budweiser. I got pictures of him, but they were not as good as the ones that I took of CeCe.

The last picture on here is of a blue heron. He was with all the waterbirds. All the other birds were walking around pecking and chirping, while he just sat up in the tree surveying the land.

I thouroughly enjoyed my trip to Busch Wildlife, and hope to come back to take even more pictures!

Rick

Ok, this post, believe it or not, is about a tortoise. His name is Rick. You might ask, "Why is his name Rick?" And I would say,

"Because he is Rick."

Then you would ask, "Why in the world do you have a picture of an iPod on this post?" And I would say,


"Because it has a connection with it!"

You'll find out that connection once you know a little bit about Rick.

I found his burrow maybe a couple weeks ago. I am not sure if he was in it then, but I walk past his house almost every day, so I saw him once or twice before I started visiting.

The first time I came, I brought my camera. I had seen him a couple minutes before, so I knew he was there. When I got to his burrow, he was deep inside of it. I started singing "Feelin' So Fly" by tobyMac to him softly. Then, when he looked around to see who was bothering him with hip hop, I snapped a couple pictures. He saw the shiny-ness of the camera, then climbed out of his hole towards it.

He came so close that I shot pictures zoomed all the way out! He crawled up to the fence to try to eat the camera, and I touched his scaly feet.

I visit him a lot, so I take my iPod with me. For some reason, he likes my music. I turn it on full blast so he can hear it even through the headphones. When he is in his burrow, I just crank up the music, and he'll turn around and look at me. Look is in italics because he just looks around as if saying, "So! What do you want?"

I Was Not the One Who Traveled...

But my brother and dad were. They just got back from a trip to Thailand, quite an adventure if you ask me. I wish I could have gone, but I don't think I could have stood the 37 hour plane trip.

While they were there, my dad called in to the radio station that he works at, to try to get sponsors for these poverty- stricken kids at Compassion International's projects. All of the 300 kids got sponsors in one week! That means, now they can go to school, learn about Jesus, teach their families about Jesus, and have enough food to eat every day! All of this for the kids who had been raised to worship and pray to, their dead ancestors.

While they were there, Justice and Dad went to this elephant camp thing. All of the elephants there were specially trained to do something weird. Some even painted better than I can! To see a video of this, go to my dad's blog at http://www.branthansen.typepad.com/. It's crazy! At the elephant camp, my dad says the employees were geniuses for making money.

Along the trail for the elephants and their riders, were little food stands to buy treats for the elephants. If you didn't want to buy the food along the trail, the elephant was trained to reach up, over his head with his trunk looking for food, to make you feel bad and buy food at the next stand.

The pictures the elephants painted were money makers too. So was the elephants' poo even! They use it to make picture frames for the picture of you on your elephant. Those people are geniuses, I tell ya, geniuses.

Awesomeness!!!!!

I was saying in my last post, that I was typing in Hindi, and it is awesome. I was also saying that I bet nobody could understand that, so I would post again with the translation.

Thank you.

Teapot Sue

अवेसोमेनेस!

ही एवेर्य्बोद्य! इ ऍम टाइपिंग इन हिन्दी और सोमेथिंग। प्रेत्टी कूल, हूह?

थिस इस रेअल्ली फुन्न्य। इ विल पोस्ट सून विथ वहत इ ऍम सयिंग हियर।

ठनक यू।

तेअपोत सुए।

Bald Penguins in Wetsuits!!!!

This, obviously is a bald penguin in a wetsuit.

So cute!!!!!!

SimCity and FRUSTRATION!!!!!

My dad recently installed a computer game called SimCity 4. It is really fun, but he said before he installed it, that when he installs it, we won't be able to use any cheats. Darn!

Now that I play the game, I really wish he hadn't said that. It is so hard to keep one's budget balanced, while trying to expand a city, and make money at the same time!

I have made a city that I call Superawesomecoolville, just to spend a bunch of money on. It is really fun to do that, because one can take out a bunch of loans, and just keep taking them out. Unfortunately, though, the game won't let me take out more than 10 active loans. But, when I am done, or have lost all my money splurging, I destroy my city with a bunch of disasters, then obliterate it. So much fun!

A couple days ago, my dad asked me if I had messed with the settings. On the game, I had only made a new region, so I had no idea what he was talking about. He said that when he made a city on my new region, his citizens, for some reason, didn't need water, or police stations! Hmmmmm.....

My Amazing Fort Country

I've always wanted to make something really big and complex with friends. I have FINALLY got that chance!!!!

My friends and I have made a sort of "country" thing in my neighborhood. We have so many different forts, that we decided to organize them together, and trade between them. It is so fun!

I think I am in four of the forts. The only tough thing about that is that sometimes I trade something from one of my forts to another fort I have. And if I find something when I am alone, I don't know which fort to give it to.

When I get together with friends, we collect stuff to trade, work on our forts, make flags, and hide from innocent bystanders. For some reason we don't want ANYBODY to see us in our forts. I guess that's because nobody wants to be thought of as weird.

We haven't totally finished with the organization yet, but I think it's going to work out great! Unless I move to a different neighborhood.

Violin Lessons!

My mom has an old violin so she volunteered to get it fixed and teach me violin!!!!! Eeeeeeee!!!!! I am happy about this arrangement.

So, I have now had my second violin lesson from my mom. I can already play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in a fancy way! Wahoo. I can also play, very badly, excerpts from Be Thou My Vision, which I like a lot.

I guess all that I can say is that I am really excited about playing a violin, and am a fast learner.

My Most Recent Vacation

I am on vacation right now in Tennesse. It is really cool. I am on my dad's laptop in our hotel. Our hotel is really nice with a exersize room, free ice, and things like that. Oh! And they serve breakfast here! Hey hey hey!

My family has a really nice suite paid for by my dad's company. I have my own little bedroom-thingy! I sleep on a couch, though. Whatever.

The reason why we are on vacation, is that Dad's company wants us to check out Tennesee. So we came, and are having a good time.

My cousins are coming down to meet us here, at our hotel. I am a-thinkin' that they should be here by now. They live in Illinois so my dad decided to invite them to come and check into this hotel. I think they are going to have a room accross from ours which should be really fun.

I have started practicing my rubber-band-shooting. The hallway is a really nice place to do this in. I've never really tried to focus on shooting a rubber band. It is pretty fun, believe it or not!

We are going to stay in Tennesee until sometime Wednesday. Boo. I wish we could stay longer, but our days aren't very full already. Also, my family has two dogs who are back at home. They get lonely easily.

I hope I can post updates on my vacation by posting on this blog. C U L8R! Heeheeheeheehee! :)

My IMAX Experience

Today, I went to an IMAX show called U2 3D, and it was pretty cool. Actually, what I mean by that is it was AWESOME!!!!

U2 3D is an IMAX, as I have already said, and it is in 3D, as you might have guessed. The film is of a couple performances by U2, with them all edited together. So one song you might be watching them in Argentina, the other in Peru.

I think it was really cool because my dad said afterwards that most of the people at the concerts in South America didn't even speak English, but they knew the lyrics by heart! That really impresses me.

The movie is something definentely worth checking out, if you haven't seen it yet. If you aren't a big U2 fan yet, you will be, at least, in love with their music after you watch it.

My brother said that Adam Clayton, (with the 3D affects) the bassist hit him with his guitar several times!!!

Baby Wombat Pictures

These pictures are, obviously, pictures of baby wombats. Aren't they so cute?

I was studying Marsupials in science today and saw the cutest picture of a wombat in my book. That inspired my dad and I to look for "baby wombats" in Google Images, and we found these too-cute-for-words pictures.

One of my new favorite animals?

The wombat. :)

A Dog With A Cute Coat Pattern!

My heart goes out to this Chihuahua! When my dad showed it to me for the first time... I cannot describe how I felt.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the cutest dog with the most amazing 'do that I have ever seen. I am positive. Don't try to tell me that your dog is cuter, my dog is definitely less cute than this, although she is most adorable.

I forgot this dog's name so I'll try to post it in the comments soon. You can probably tell that I don't even know if it's a male or a female. All I know about it is that it's cute and a Chihuahua with a hard name to remember. And an awesome coat pattern.

P.S. This "three dog series" is going to be called the "Three Cool Dog Series." Whoopee!

You Won't Believe This

Did you know that a Whippet is supposed to be small and thin? Supposed to be.This Whippet was born with a "defect" called "Double Muscles."

I hope he doesn't get out of control. Tell his owner to keep him spoiled so he doesn't kill everyone in America. Ouch.

He's cool to look at and stuff, but I hope that I never see him in person. I don't usually like big dogs that jump on me-who does?-and whippets are hyper... mmhmm. I'd rather just look at the picture and marvel. At how glad I am that this dog does not live in my house.

This Stuff is Actually Pretty Gross But Some People Want You To Think The Opposite

Have you ever heard about food artists? They literally put make-up on the food for a picture for an ad.


Here you can compare the "Famous KFC Bowl" in the ad with the "Famous KFC Bowl" in real life stuff. I just like to call it the "KFC Bowl of Vomit and Sludge." It is made of like, mashed potatoes on the bottom, chicken or turkey, I think and then three kinds of cheeses on the top. Oh, there is gravy somewhere in there, too!

I have read in a magazine that some people stuff a chicken with paper towels to make it look full of stuffing. Then, they make it look like it is roasted perfectly by adding on detailed lines made by eyeliner. And to make bubbles in milk stay put, they stir up some sort of glue concoction then place it in choice spots all around the glass. What really makes me wonder is that it takes about 1 or 2 hours to take a picture of food for an ad. Weird.

I Have Another Question But This Time It Is Different

I need your opinion. Why is the Hamburger Helper logo a gloved hand with a face? That has to be odd for the poor guy. Imagine you were a gloved hand with a face. AND a big huge nose that is embarrassingly red.

That would be weird. And in the commercial for Hamburger Helper is he in there? Or is he just posted on the boxes? That is what I want to know.

(Fanfare) I Have A Question!

I have a question. I know I have already posted about American Idol, but this time... it's different.

I want to know who YOU are rooting for. I think that would be fun. And 2 more things. I want (1) to put this awsome robot up on my blog, and (2) to actually ask a question.

I have already told you in a post who I was rooting for, but I will tell you again in case you missed it: Blake and Melinda.