Cat pee and Detention

Last Week
Last Tuesday would have to be the worst day of 2011 for me so far. As you see in the title, it involved cat pee and me serving detentions.
My day started out by waking up later then I wanted to. I had to hurry through my morning routine and almost ended up missing the bus. By the time I got to school I was semi-happy, but not for long. When I reached my locker and took off my coat, disaster happened. The pocket inside my winter coat was soaking wet, and had gotten on the left side of my uniform. At first I thought it was just water, but then I smelt a weird odor coming off it. Sure enough, as I lifted it up to smell, the distinct toxic smell of cat pee was recognizable. This lead to me being in the washroom for twenty minutes trying to wash off some of the horrible smell, as well as to dry my shirt. Eventually I put on some spray I had in my backpack, and the smell subsided....for a bit.

Math class went fairly smoothly, aside for the fact that my spray lasted for five minutes and now the scent of cat pee was wafting throughout the class. Thankfully, no one knew who or where it was coming from.
Second period is where I got my detention. When I showed up, I asked kindly to go to the washroom. Once I got there I went through yet another wash/dry routine, except this one had to be much shorter. On my way back I realized I had a chocolate bar in my locker, which was on the way, so I grabbed it. I was eating the last bit of it as I walked into class, and oh boy, my teacher was NOT happy. He told me to come up to the front and started to lecture me about god knows what. He ended it by saying I had a detention at lunch time. PROBLEM? YES. I have violin lessons every Tuesday at lunch, so it was just PERFECT that I got a detention that day. I eventually had to go to the office, where all the teachers were, and say infront of the principal, vice-principal, and my math teacher that I have a detention and have to move it. AWKWARD.

So once she moved my detention to Wednesday, I went and got ready to go to violin. Seeing as my coat was still covered in cat pee, I had to walk through the freezing cold down the road to my violin lesson. By the time I got there I was frozen and I was thinking to myself, "This day could not get any worse." But it did. On my way back to my highschool, it started to rain. I had to sprint back to the school, and let me tell you, that is NOT easy with a violin strapped to your back. I got back on time and ducked into science class just as the bell was ringing. Eventually the period ended, and I was free to go home. Raise the roof.

Present Day
Today is Saturday, and I found out I forgot my violin in my mothers car from last Tuesday. THANK YOU BABY JESUS for not cracking. It was ice cold and I was handling it very carefully, hoping it wasn't going to just crumble all of a sudden. Today was spent going over the packing list, making sure I have everything I need for ITALY. I am very excited, seeing as I am leaving tomorrow night. GUESS WHERE WE ARE GETTING A CONNECTING FLIGHT. IN LONDON ENGLAND. That made me ecstatic and I was hyperventilating with joy. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the horrible story of my cat pee filled day.

-E.D.

Social Networking

I now have a renewed interest for Facebook, after watching the movie "The Social Network". It really got me thinking about all the useless things I have signed up for in the past, and these are just a few.

Twitter is a useless thing I signed up for. I have nothing useful to tweet, and have nothing useful to say. (Same thing, who cares) I only follow a couple people who, surprise surprise, are famous people. That is what I think Twitter is for. It is for famous people. They are the only ones who can pass off a tweet, "Oh my god, my dog died" and it will end up getting 400 re-tweets. The only reason I got over 40 followers, was because I followed a whole bunch of people. I realized that the only reason I was on Twitter, was just to get followers. What the hell was the point of that? Also, I got sick of going on my I-Phone app store, and looking at the social network category. It's filled with things such as, Tweetdeck, Twitterific, TwitBird, etc.. How many things do you need? JUST PICK ONE PEOPLE. That's another thing that annoyed me.

MySpace. I signed up for it I think last year. Biggest mistake I ever did. Who the hell even goes on that anymore? Facebook is definitely king of the connecting with friends site. They should seriously delete it off the face of the earth, or internet for that matter, because no one really cares. It doesn't even have an app for Apple or BB, so that's just a gun to the head right there.

Flickr. I don't use it ever, and I probably never will. I don't really like the fact, that complete strangers could view and stalk all my photos. If I wanted that to happen, I would change my privacy settings on Facebook to open.

The best social networks I have ever signed up for, are definitely Facebook and Tumblr. Facebook because, duh, if you don't know why your obviously living under a rock, and Tumblr because it is full of Harry Potter people. I follow thousands of HP blogs, and they follow me. I ignore people who say it's like Twitter because it's not. Tumblr is full of moving pictures, which are actually gifs, FYI.

Anyways I was done homework and I wanted to rant so this is it.

-E.D.

Great Great Uncle Ernie Lives On

He was famous around Huron County for his good humor, his amazing harmonica playing, and his memorable laugh. Ernie Durnin, that was his name. He lived right up the road from me in a big white house. He loved animals, he loved farming, and he loved making maple syrup.

Ernie had a golden retriever dog, that he named Sam. Sam would go with him everywhere, even up to the diner for lunch. Whenever Ernie ordered a meal, he made sure to get a cheeseburger for Sam, who was always waiting in the truck. Sam was an extremely friendly dog, who never bit, and never jumped up on you. Ernie loved Sam with all his heart, and would always bring him to the jam sessions that the neighbors would put on. Whenever Ernie started playing his harmonica, Sam would stop yelping and just listen. I was very young when Sam was alive so I don't remember him that well.

The big white house was situated on a farm, where Ernie lived and worked for years. There are old photos of him back in the day, working out on the fields in an old tractor and an old plow. The most famous thing on his farm was his raspberry patch. People from all over the township would come to pick them, and Ernie would let them with no charge. It was actually a fun social gathering for all our neighbors. In the end, the raspberries always returned to Ernie, but in a different form. People who picked them baked pies, tarts, cookies, and squares. They were the best around because you knew they were from Ernie's farm.

There was an old shed way back in the bush behind the farm, which Ernie was in almost everyday. That shed was what he called his, "Maple Syrup Shack". He had the whole operation back there to make excellent quality maple syrup. I remember when I was a young kid, it would be a treat to go back there, and Ernie would take a great big spoon, dip it in the pot, and let us sip the syrup. It was so amazing, and sweet, and I always wanted more. But of course, Ernie being responsible, said to wait till it was finished. I never minded, because I knew within a week, that same syrup would be on my pancakes.

In October of 2005, Ernie passed away at an old age. He lived an amazing and fulfilling life and no one will ever forget him. Just recently however, we ran out of his maple syrup that we all loved so dearly. It was a grave reminder that he isn't with us anymore, and never will be. On a happier note, his old tractor went to my brother Marshall who adores it, and his old car went to me, which I drive around in our fields.

We ended up buying Ernie's farm, as we live right down the road and we rented it out a very kind lady who is an artist. She makes amazing paintings and gives us a few. The other day, me and mother went to visit her, and just as we were about to leave she said she has a painting for us. She went into the back room, grabbed a box and pulled out a canvas. She tore off the cover and there staring at us, was a picture of Uncle Ernie. It was so realistic that my mother started crying and couldn't look away. The detail was spectacular, and his face looks just like him. His smile depicts his laughing perfectly, and she drew his nice wavy hair perfectly.

We will definitely cherish that photo forever, and to do so we hung it up in our living room, right above our violins, which he loved so much. Now every time we go to watch TV, or play the violins, Ernie will always be there with us. He will now live on, as that painting immortalized him for us, and for everyone else that sees him. 

I-Pads, and why I love them!

This 2010 Christmas, I awoke in the morning to find a medium sized gift under the tree. I picked it up and my mother was extremely excited for me to open it. I ripped off the wrapping paper, and I saw a card that had a little apple symbol on it. My heart skipped a beat and I ripped open the card. It read, " Merry Christmas Gibby, you will absolutely love this! Love Mom and Dad". I put down the card and looked at the box. It was square and it had two red ribbons on it. I took off the red ribbons and opened the box. There staring up at me, was a picture of an I-Pad. Mother took a picture of my face and she loved it. I was speechless and shocked.

After I charged it up on my computer, I was feeling up every corner and discovered that my name was engraved on the back. As I was playing with it, my mother came downstairs and said to go to a blog, which stated the top ten I-Pad apps for starters. I downloaded every app and some were really interesting and helpful. My favorite app by far is flip-board. Flip-board is very similar to the new Google phone, all your social networks, magazines, and friends are in square boxes on a screen, which updates instantly. You flip threw the pages just as you would in a book. 

Another upside to my new I-Pad, was that my grandmother and grandfather liked it very much too. I downloaded the app Google Earth and looked up where they lived. They were looking at there house, and then my Grandpa came up with the idea to see his childhood home in Toronto. He is 82 years old, but he got a hang of the keyboard pretty fast. He typed in the address and zoomed into his home he lived in over 70 years ago. My grandmother than took her turn, and got my mom to type in the address of HER grandmothers home. It took us awhile to find it but finally we saw the farm and the home that she remembered so well. I think that was one of the best things the I-Pad ever did for my family. 

My brother also got an engraved I-Pad for his gift, but he wasn't as excited as me. Apple is so simple to operate, and I love it. I-Pads are extremely useful, as I will be travelling to Italy shortly and I can bring that, instead of a laptop. I'm looking forward to discovering new apps and new ways to use my gadget, and I'm sure I will use it to it's full potential.