On a different note, Walmart's doing a gimmick where you get a free One Ring with the purchase of LotR:TT, if you get it tonight anytime from 12:01am to 6:00am. So guess where the Dina will be going? *grins* Besides, I DO need to get my school supplies, might as well kill four birds with one stone...

On a slightly different note, my geology class rocks! ...that hurt. Note to self: watch the puns.

what flavor pocky are you?

What on earth was this thing smoking? Me, sweet? I think there are people who would disagree with them on that statement... I think the term used most often is "evil," though "sadistic" is often mixed in there somewhere...

Everything I Need To Know I Learned From Harry Potter Fanfic!

First off, before I start into documenting my weekend, I suppose I'll share the fact that I have two versions of a pic uploaded, a quasi-finished version and a finished version. You can click here to sign up so you can actually see the pics. It's a very quiet group, so no worries about being bombarded with spam or junk email.

Now, onto my exciting weekend I just know y'all are waiting for! I had my Saturday all planned out, I was going to get to play with sharp objects as I built my make-shift desk shelves to hold me over while dad and I waited for cooler weather to build the REAL things. I get up, I get dressed, I go outside and... I find that dad's unloaded the garage as he cleans and clears the junk from the previous owner out. Seeing as how I couldn't even find, much less get to, all the circular and jigg saws, I quietly put aside my plans and went and started helping daddy. We got a good bit done that day, filling up both of our garbage cans with junk and yet we still had to put stuff on the ground next to them because it wouldn't fit. I swear, by the time we were finished, we got rid of more broken tools and falling-apart construction items than I thought possible, and yet we STILL have just about every major (and not-so-major) hand-tool in duplicate and triplicate. I won't even get into how many broken weed-eaters and lawn mowers we got rid of. But. By the end of Saturday afternoon, we had the garage in passable shape, all except for the wall where mother is going to have to go down and decide what she does and doesn't want to keep. Needless to say, I doubt we'll be able to do much considering how obessive she is about keeping things "Just in case we want it later on." *shifty-eyed* That doesn't sound familiar, honest! All this was done during the heat of the day, when temps were in the 90's and the humidity was suffocating.

Sunday. Sunday should have been the best day. Dad and I had plans to go fishing and just spend the day having fun. Since my sister had gone and said not that long ago that she wanted to go fishing with us next time, we obligingly waited for her to get up. And kept waiting. And kept waiting. By the time she got up, it was past 11. When we asked her if she wanted to go, what did we hear? "No, I don't feel like it today." *eye twitches* That peeved me, especially since we had waited a good three hours on her to get her fat ass up and then she told us it was all for nothing. I just took a nice, deep breath... and went and played on my computer while I waited for the heat to go down a bit so I could finally build my shelves. While I was inside still, dad came and asked me if I was going to have Monday off. Since I did, I told him yes. It appears he decided he was going to take that day off and we could go fishing then. Have I said how very much I love my dad? Well, I do. A whole lot. After a while, I went out and started working. It took me from 2-2:30ish to around 6 to finish it, but I did it! I had the thing built and the top painted since it was only made of plywood. I went inside to get a shower and settle down to watch "Nefertiri" on the Discovery Channel. Yes, I also watch TLC, get over it. I've long ago come to terms with my geek-ness, you can't make me be ashamed of it.

Monday. Monday was the best. There was no comparing. *grins* I actually got up around 7-7:30, ate breakfast with my sister and dad and watched a little bit of the morning news. I went down and got ready to get hot, sweaty and sunburnt. We leave, heading down to Dauphin Island so we can launch the boat, with dad being kind enough to make a stop at Amsouth so I could deposit my paycheck. We make a brief stop to get some snacks and bait shrimp, then head across the bridge. Dear god, the Fort-end of the Island is all but dead during the week. I think we saw a total of six trucks and boat trailers out there (and one group was leaving as we pulled up, so they didn't count), as compared to the normal 20-30 during the weekend. It was great. We get the boat in the water and I stay to take care of it while dad goes and parks the truck/trailer. As we leave I wave cheerfully to the Coast Guard, you know, just in case. No need to have them all peeved because of something I did. Moving on, we went ahead and put some spoon-hooks on our poles and started trailing them behind the boat as we got closer to our fishing spot. Not a full minute after I put mine in the water, I get a nice hit that almost bends my pole in half. After a good fight, I pull him up and see a nice-sized Spanish mackerel, one about the size of my forearm. This happens twice more, and dad has yet to get so much as a nibble. Since he's starting to feel a bit left out, I decide to let him catch the next couple keepers while I have some fun catching some Ladyfish. Even with his catching the next two Mack's, I still managed to catch more Ladyfish. *smirks* After the last feeding frenzy died down, Dad and I moved back over to the rocks on the other side of the Fort at Dauphin Island. After a brief quiet spell, when dad and I eventually gave in and ate lunch instead of trying to fish, we started catching some ground mullet. I have to admit dad beat me out on sheer numbers on those, but if you went by how many we kept, we were even. I think he was attempting to break a record for smallest fish he could catch, because each time he would bring his fish up it would get smaller and smaller until he caught one that was barely the length of the pad of his hand or so. It was very amusing. By the end of the day, my arm was killing me and my fingers had blisters forming on them from where I had to reel in all the fish, I was sunburnt and my butt was thoroughly bruised by the wooden seat on the rough-riding boat. But by golly I had fun! *blissfun smile*

We also got to see around five groups of bottle-nosed dolphins, though I won't say that it was five different groups. I just know we saw them five different times, occasionally one right after the other going in the same direction, so I'm sure there were more than one group at the very least. But never the less, they put on quite a show for dad and me.

On a sadder note, while putting the boat on the trailer my sunglasses were lost to the surprisingly clean (considering the storms) but still murky hip-deep Dauphin Island Gulf waters. Those sunglasses had been with me through thick and thin, practice and driving, fishing and yard work. They shall be sorely missed. I did, however, go and buy a replacement pair at walmart. They are most satisfactory thus far.

Fics worth Reading:

Mirror of Maybe by Midnight Blue (HP)