Tuesday

Today in class we drew blood from "alien arms". They are blocks of wood with a single "vein" underneath a latex "skin". Very hard to do. I did not enjoy it. I was partners with Ashley and I adore her. She is 17, olive skinned (her mother is Thai) so she has a gorgeous skin tone. On the first day of class I immediately knew she was a skater. She dressed just like the girls I grew up with in CA who were skater chicks. She is kind of tomboyish, but in a sporty way. She is an awesome snowboarder who is looking for a sponsor. She also has some kind of brain tumor. She is such a sweet girl, I hate to think that she won't get through it. She was saying that if she can wait until surgery this summer, her chances of survival are greater. She and I partner together a lot. She is a good student, cool under pressure and I know she likes to partner with me as well. We kind of laugh through the stupid things we do by accident.

Today, for Robby's work, we had to drive to North Salt Lake to pick up these signs that were mistakenly sent to the client instead of Robby. There is this pet store that we love to go to in Kaysville. Robby surprised me by taking me there. He always likes to do that. We'll be driving somewhere and I will ask him where we are going and he will say, "It's a surprise." and then he grins because he knows I will start trying to guess. They have this parrot habitat that is open so the parrots can just walk along the edge and "mingle" with the customers. They are completely hand trained and do not bite. I had two of them on my shoulders. They squawk really loudly just to get your attention. They will also wolf whistle and when I would whistle back to them, their eyes dilate and they bob their heads up and down. SO CUTE! There were these two little chihuahuas. They were play fighting the entire time. I put my finger in the cage and they transferred their aggression to me and started to play bite me and growl. It was hilarious. Then I asked them if they had a ferret. They had a baby ferret that was the brown sable coloring. It is only a few months old. Robby was in love. Now he is thinking that we need to get another ferret for Ollie to have as company. I can't imagine the mischief that TWO ferrets can get into. Holy cow!!

As we were driving home, I was playing my ipod. I played the German version of Major Tom. When I play that, Robby grins because he knows I am going to ask him to sing in German. He has this deep bass voice and it's so cute! When the chorus to the song came on, he broke out in German "4,3,2,1...Earth below us..." I always laugh because he pulls his chin down and sings so deeply and loudly in German. Because I'm laughing, he grins and sings even more. I love that!

So Emeli and I are painting rocks. As we walk outdoors, I look for rocks and collect them in a Walmart bag. By the time we get home, it's quite heavy. I usually ask Emeli to help carry it. We are painting rocks to put in my planter so that Ollie can't dig up my tree. I'm also going to sprinkle pepper in the dirt so that when he DOES dig, he will get a nose full of pepper. That should also discourage him...little beast. We are having a blast painting with the music cranked.

I just finished the best book called Water for Elephants. It is pretty graphic at times. Quite a bit of the F word, but it's the story of a young man who leaves college and joins the circus right after the Wall Street crash. It's fascinating to learn how the circus worked and the terrible treatment of the workers. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it. Now I am starting The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Brett made me promise I would read it when I was done with my last book. So I checked it out from the library and will start it tonight.