Benjamin is Birthdayed

Benjamin is now 9! Sob sob. Born at 5:12 (that's a month before the day of his birthday!) on June 12th (see!). Yay!
For B's party he invited three friends (Quinn, Julia, and Jack) to this trampoline place, with HUGE trampoline courts where you can just jump, or bounce up walls, or play dodgeball (on a huge trampoline), or shoot at a basket, or bounce down a trampoline alley into a huge pit of soft foam.
Perfect for Benjamin. We only stayed an hour and a half, but that was plenty.
Then we came back to the house. Last year Mom and I had made this elaborate board game type thing in chalk on the driveway, with squares telling you to sing, or act something out, or pretend to be a gorilla, or move back or forward a certain amount of spaces, or imitate Benjamin, or go BACK to the gorilla square. This year Benjamin made one himself, and scrawled it on the driveway, but it rained! :(
Benjamin was crushed, but he and his friends kept themselves occupied back at the house.
The cats had a blast attacking party hats and flying around in wrapping paper.
That morning dad had made blueberry pancakes, which were had with blueberries, syrup, chocolate caramel hazelnut sauce, banana and whipped cream. Yuuuum. At least, yum until the cat knocks off the top of the container and starts EATING them.
Today we opened presents. Mom and Dad gave him a cool digital watch (and not one of those bulbous neon clunky ones) and a wallet. I gave him some cat sleepover tickets and a cool clear bubble umbrella. Benjamin also got some books, some gift cards, and then (dum dum duuuuuuuuum....)
A solar powered H2o remote controlled car.
It's like, this car, that's all cool with green and white and clear bubble windows, about the size of a small-ish book. You have to connect a bunch of wires and tubes and stuff to motors and things inside. And then (this totally geeks me out) it came with this whole gas station recharging thing! Like this cool elliptical cylinder thing with a clear curved plastic window with a little H2o logo on it and you can see the little chargy thingy inside it. And then (this is so totally awesome) it's attatched to this little green wire pump (kinda like you see at gas stations) that you PLUG INTO THE CAR in this little valve you attatch.
EPIC. Then you can hook a solar panel onto the recharger thing. Dad and Benjamin and I have been assembling that nearly all this evening (with breaks for cake and phone calls).
YAAAY BENJAMIN!!!
Finally, In honor of the birth of my brother, I compiled some pictures of my little Benjamin....

(Do you guys remember this from my Bat Mitzvah :) ?)

Okay, can't wait to post this tomorrow! Wish Benjamin a happy birthday! He says his plan for being nine is to be happy. Huzzah to that Benj!

~Julia

My Scheeeedule

I have a fairly busy schedule this summer.
Relative to a fairly un-busy summer.
It seems fair that I should have that up here so we can all work out plans and stuff. I'm actually planning to start a separate tab for my calendar year long - as things pop up I'll add them, in chronological order of course. So, I might as well start with the summer. Although I DO know events in the fall and school and stuff, I won't add those until August.
So here it is:

Benjamin's Birthday Party June 10 (Yesterday) Yay. Benj has three friends coming over Quinn, Jack (Lena's younger brother), and Julia. We are going to this TRAMPOLINE HOUSE. It's like, this HUGE building with this room built of trampolines, and some are all tilted and stuff. I'm writing this in advance, so that I can't give anything away (I actually started this post Sunday - oops!) and I'll have an official post on Benjamin's actual birthday.
Paideia camp June 11-June 22 (Starting today) :) This is a little summer thing at Paideia school that my brother and I have attended for... four years now? This is my second year at the Junior High center, which comes in two week sessions rather than three like B's.
Benjamin's Birthday June 12 (Tomorrow) I finally have a present! I do really creative cards, but it takes me forever to get a good present. Benjamin is turning 9. Go summery birthdays!Dahlonega June 15-17 (Next weekend) Dahlonega is this place in Northern Georgia. It was my grandparents' 50th anniversary yesterday, so we are meeting them there for the weekend. We might also be going to Costa Rica with them this winter as an anniversary thing, but so far that's just an idea.
Colorado June 30-July 5 Borthwick cousin reunion in Colorado! I've never been. Apparently you can ski there a lot. I don't think any of us are planning to sky. However, we're probably going to do this thing where you like slide down a mountain on some tube.
Carlos glass camp July 9-July 20 With Emma! Yay! Two weeks per a session. The first week is studying glass. The second week is making it! Benjamin is at Redwall for at least one of these two weeks.
Benjamin starts school August 6 Both Morningside and Inman start that monday. It IS a monday this year. I can't wait to get school supplies!I start school August 13 (A week after Inman) Still can't wait to get school supplies! I've been typing up my French notes and taking notes on 8th grade science brainPOPs.


This is all for now! Check for updates/edits in my new calendar tab!
~Julia


P.S. Okay, so I meant to post it yesterday and do a b-day post for Benjamin today, but I forgot to post this yesterday, and I ran out of time to write the b-day post today. Sorry!

Mugging Monkeys

Startling development on the Indian sub-continent:
People are being mugged.
By monkeys.

These monkeys are SO EVOLVED - or rather SO ADAPTED to human behavior and environment, that they have learned to rob innocent shoppers in roving gangs.
These aren't just random monkeys hanging out and begging for food. These monkeys are ORGANIZED. They can smell which bag has the freshest bread, which cart has the ripest fruit, which tub has the organic vegetables. If you give them the lesser loaf, apple, or radish, they will bite you (would a monkey want a radish? I honestly have no idea)

These monkeys rove in gangs, taking over huge proportions of cities. There are signs everywhere: DO NOT FEED THE MONKEYS!!! But people still voluntarily feed them. You see, it's a Hindu tradition, apparently, to feed monkeys on Tuesdays and Thursdays to honor a monkey god. It's cruel to force Hindus to stop their religious practices - but their religious practices are resulting in monkeys mugging people!

And the monkeys aren't just randomly ganging up on people either. If they know you buy a lot of food, they will camp out on your lawn. These monkeys mean business - and if pressing their faces against your windows 24/7 is what it takes, then they will do it.
It's very hard to go to work, or school, or even just the park if you are under siege by monkeys.

You have to rent a monkey to pee on your door so the smaller monkeys will go away.

I have no idea how much these Rental Monkeys cost. I tried looking it up and I got a bunch of commercial monkey BUYING sites. If you find a genuine price range for Rent-a-Monkey - specifically for peeing in your house and yard in India -  let me know and I'll update this. (Giving you credit, of course)

The next thing you know, they'll just sell bottled monkey fluids with little pumps that you apply yourself. Like a vaccuum or a washing machine. A chore. "Danny, go spray the monkey pee!" I mean, ew. What sort of a job is that? Or people come around in a garbage truck to do it on the curbs of sidewalks? As a public service? Oh, better go cover up the mailbox, wednesday is monkey pee day!

That is just bizarre.

Anyways, this is like a HUGE problem in India now.  Honestly, I didn't even know there WERE monkeys in India.

On one woman's blog, she said that when in India, a monkey flew out of no where, screamed, and nearly pushed her off a balcony.

If you don't believe me, watch this video!

~Julia

Take Nothing but Pictures

Impressive rock formations! This is the lake to where we hiked upon our arrival.

Granite. Lot's of Granite.

This is called El Capitan. (Ca-pee-TAN). Expert climbers rope their ways to the top. 

                                            This is the outside area of Fort Nobear. Pretty cool.

Us in my bunk.

Tree hugger! :) We are one with nature... somewhat.

Squirrel!

River/mini-fall! 

The surprising and yet convenient water fountain/sink thing.

PRETTY RAINBOW YAY.

Somewhere under the rainbow....

The dreaded Mist Trail. Dum dum DUUUUUM.

Behold the glory of Vernal Falls. It was rather scary, but less scary than clinging next to i

             Benjamin next to the waterfall. FINALLY a railing! Bottom of the falls shown to the right. 

Pretty view. That little lump on the granite is Half Dome.  

Triumph! Now it is time to head back doooooooown.

Winding down with marshmallows. Tasty.

All geared up for hiking the next day.

My agony in the pebbly gulch.  Notice the stepping stones that were like 5 inches underwater and thus COMPLETELY USELESS.

B's chariot.

Beautiful reflect-y lake. Photography by Dad.

Marmot

Mom on her perch.

At the top! *pant pant*

Benjamin sunbathes as he recharges.

The Amazing View. Yaaaaay.

Mom and B tromp valiantly through snow and ice on the way back down.

Benj and I are now tough, seasoned hikers. Huzzah!

Benj and I are actually completely exhausted.

 That's all for now!

I haven't downloaded B's pictures yet from his camera, so I might add one or two pictures this week. Hope you enjoyed the pictures! I have a lot of other pictures from california, but I will save that for another post.

See yooooooou.

~Julia

Leave Nothing but Footprints

This is my Yosemite summary. We left Friday.

First of all, Yosemite Valley is really BIG. Not only big, but tall. There are these mammoth walls of granite towering in sharp curtains that ripple throughout the valley. The trees are mostly evergreens, and there are a bunch of amazing Sequoias (sequoias are the really big thick trees. Generally not as tall as redwoods). There are rivers and bridges and waterfalls.
We were staying in this place called Housekeeping Camp. Housekeeping camp has these tent-cabin barrack like things. Like, picture a small cabin, typically house shaped, made of some sort of plaster stuff - except the roof is a canvas sheet, and the front wall is cloth with an opening. The cabin is divided by a thick wall - some other random person is on the other side. Inside the half-cabin (which is about as wide from door to wall as a small bed is long) is one small twin bed and a bunk against each wall. There is also a shelf. Then ABOVE this tent-cabin is a sort of canopy thing - also house shaped, but bigger - fastened to a high wooden fence enclosing  an area with a table like you see in restaurant patios. The fences have three gaps. There is a fence on each side.
Housekeeping Camp was very Housekeepingly. There was a laundromat and a shower house and a convenience store. It was actually pretty cool, although I wasn't looking forward to the shower. (Also, prices were amazingly reasonable at the store)
Yosemite had this huge bear thing going. I never actually got to SEE a bear :(, but you had to keep really high security. The trash cans were these huge metal things with heavy doors and safety clips. We had to store all of our food - and "food" included toiletries, tooth brushes, and basically anything that might smell the least bit scented - AT ALL. There was this complex lever system we had to operate to open our metal box things. On the last night I was about to close it and the metal hook SLAMMED down on my fingers and pinned them into the box. I couldn't get them out and I started screaming and Benjamin freaked out. I finally removed them and they got all purple and swollen.
Anyways, our first night we didn't do much. We rented bedding and set up stuff. We put things in the bear box.  We unpacked. Then we walked across a bridge and along this beach of a pretty river and looked at Half Dome - this famous half of a big granite lump on a mountain ridge. It was cool. Then we came back and Dad started boiling water to expand our Lasagna dust into a food-like substance. The lasagna was actually pretty good, but it wasn't really lasagna. It was sort of curly noodles in sauce with some sort of meat. Afterwards I helped Mom wash the dishes with shampoo (we had forgotten soap. Oops!) Then we got ready for bed in the bathrooms and piled on layers of fleece and things for warmth. I had claimed the top bunk, but Benj and I shared the bottom one together that night. It made it warmer, plus we had our combined blankets.
B had named our tent cabin Fort Nobear.
The next day we had some rather sticky cereal in condensed milk. The condensed milk wasn't all that bad. It was very sweet and rather thin. After getting dressed and sunscreened and all that, it was time for our first hike. We took this Yosemite Shuttle thing to "happy isles" where lots of hikes are found. The Happy Isles are actually these two islands that you could see if you walked far enough down a road to a bridge or something. We were hiking to two waterfalls. Vernal and Nevada. The journey to Nevada falls was about 7 miles round trip, and we weren't exactly sure how far we'd get. We wanted to at least SEE Nevada. At first the trail was a rather pleasent sloped road with trees and large boulders on the sides and huge peaks of granite circling everything. We crossed a bridge over a river, which was very exciting. On the other side of the bridge was a water fountain and a restroom. After that the path wasn't a road, but a more typical hiking path. This was more fun to me. So it was steeper for a bit and then we passed another bridge. The river was prettier here. Still not that exciting.
 Then we got to Vernal. Vernal was HUGE. It was really wide and very, very, tall. So that was cool. Except then we had to go past Vernal. And the way to get past Vernal was to grapple up this narrow, steep set of stares carved of stone pressed right against this huge cliff. And these weren't just steep narrow terrifying steps - they were wet and slimy and slippery. And long. With no railing or anything. And I was freaking out about having to come back down these steps and Benjamin was bouncing all over the place which was terrifying, and it was just very bad. There was a rainbow though. Bonus points for rainbow. When we finally got to the top I was feeling rather faint and so luckily there was a large flat rocky area to rest up.
We sat on a log in the shade and ate our ClifBars. Then I used the bathroom. It was a small wooden shed with a toilet designed kind of like a porta-potty and no sink or anything. The toilet didn't have a messy swamp bottom like a porta-potty, though. In fact, it didn't have a bottom that I could see. It was just this long, dark empty tube. Dun dun DUUUUUN.
(The toilet paper situation was really irritating, because although there was plenty of toilet paper, the rolls were padlocked onto this slab of wood, making the process of unwinding a strip of toilet paper painfully hard to endure.)
So on we went, towards Nevada. The path was not to bad here, mostly flat, if bumpy, and slightly woodsy. There were a TON of squirrels everywhere. They weren't shy or anything. We would be eating and they came basically right up to us and just hung out. The squirrels had slightly different heads and a remarkable un-floofy tail.
We got to a place were we viewed Nevada for the first time.
It was pretty cool. A lot thinner than Vernal. It got all misty at the bottom, but no visible rainbow. Sigh. Anyways, the rest of the path was this see-saw back and forth up these steep pebble steps against the cliff by the waterfall. We passed a ton of people wiping out on the trail. We took lots of rests, until finally I sort of broke down and refused to go further. B and Dad went on up, and after a long rest and an apple each, Mom and I headed back down to the foresty place to wait. It took forever for them to get back down. Benjamin was very proud.
So we headed back. Don't you think it's IRRITATING when the trails don't loop? So you know you're only going to have to come back. No real sense of progress. Loopy trails are better.
Anyways, we walked, and I was worried about going DOWN the slippery stairs - called the 'Mist Trail' - especially if we would have to go around other people. Luckily, Dad found an alternative. There was another winding path that would lead uuuuuup and then back dooooown. It added an extra mile or so to our journey, but to me it was worth it. So we went up. The path here was see-saw, but it was more gradual, less rocky, and less precarious. We stopped to rest and snack in occasional patches of shade.
Finally, after like half an hour we were up.
Then it was time to go dooooown. The down trail was irritating, for two reasons. One, the now asphalt path was coated in a slippery dust, and it was easy to skid. Two, the path was covered in horse dung. But it wasn't too bad and I certainly preferred it to the Mist Trail, although Benjamin did not. There were lots of sequoias on the path. There were lots of road workers stopping sequoias from collapsing segments of the path.
Finally the dooooown trail met up with the first bridge and we headed back to the bus stop.
It just seemed so much longer going back. Miles and miles of sloping concrete that should have stopped ages ago. Uuuuugh. When we got to the bus stop, we were not alone. A crowd of other hikers were there too. We piled on and I snagged a seat. It was unbelievebly crowded.
I was behind some EXTREMELY aggravating old ladies.
We missed a shortcut stop and endured nearly the entire bus route on the bus. Like, 30 stops or something.
When we got home FORTY FIVE MINUTS LATER we basically wiped out and read until dinner.
The next day (after a very cold night) it was time for another hike. This one - if we walked the whole trail - would be 14 miles round trip, rather than the 8 we did yesterday. Luckily, we did not intend to walk the whole trail. We probably ended up walking... 7, maybe? Anyways, I was expecting to enjoy this one a lot more than the one yesterday, because it was flatter and more remote. Like, we passed 10 groups on the trail (or rather they passed us). So we get out of the car, and the mosquitos promptly eat us alive as we put on sunscreen
Then we walked down the trail to the lake (which was our starting point) and discovered that we had to cross a shallow pass of the lake - right through the water. It was maybe 15 feet? More? And like, 60 degree water (which btw is a whole lot colder than 60 degree air). We took off our shoes and muddled across. It was SO COLD. I thought my feet would explode, plus pebbled were digging into them. 
Then I spent like 5 minutes rubbing mud off my toes.
Benjamin got a piggy back ride.
After that the trail was great. It was nice and cool, with a breeze. The path was gentle. We were planning to hike until we got to the top of this ridge, where there would be a great view of Half Dome and other stuff, but there were really nice mountain views the entire way up, different from yesterday. We stopped to have elevensies. Meaning a Cliff Bar each. I proudly saved half of mine for half an hour later.
Pretty much right after that we started heading up into rocky territory. Steps and ramps of stone carved in swirls were easy to confuse with snow melts that also came drooling down the mountain. The path was often flooded with large puddles. Trees were less frequent here. Luckily, so were the mosquitos. I loved finding alternative routes around wet spots.
About 40 minutes later or something we came across our first patch of snow. We were like, aw, that's cool. We had been stopping every other minute basically, at this time (mainly because of Benjamin). The oxygen was so thin that it was hard to breath and we tired easily. Benjamin wanted to stop, but he didn't want more of us to go on without him. So we rested again, and we each had an apple. We saw a lizard and a large fluffy marmot.
Many minutes after that, we came across a large snow blob encroaching on the path. Then another. Then a bloated slab smothering a large chunk of the trail. This persisted. It was my job to find alternative routes (I was starting to get really tired too), but once or twice taking steps across the snow was unavoidable. 
We were SO CLOSE and none of us wanted to turn back now. (Dad generally didn't want to turn back - he had no problem continuing on further) There was just this final lump on the mountain that just never got any further. 
We started getting a little desperate. The snow scared me because it was frozen all slippery. We could barely discern the path (although Dad got very good at tracking footprints) so I would just scrabble up the mountainside, regardless of rocks and shrubs, until I could spot the best way to meet up with the path again without crossing as much snow as possible.
Several times we disagreed about where to go, so we just basically headed up. The path was not very helpful. I climbed this stretch of avalanche which was basically a ton of large rocks and small boulders poured together off a slope, but eventually I had to admit that going around would probably be wiser. 
We had entered the timeless lump now, which was full of trees and pine needles and snow. By now the others had resigned to trekking across the snow, but I still resisted. After many false paths and frustrations, I started freaking out. 
I looked up at the top of the Lump - so close! - and decided just to claw my way up. So I did, and I was  low on oxygen, and physically exhausted, and I just snagged through all the pine cones and logs (this part was very steep) and I went higher and higher and I could just barely see the view, but I refused to stop, until I saw that there was ANOTHER lump and I would half to walk past all this stuff. Then I slipped and slashed my leg on a rock.
I sort of curled up into a ball and started hyperventilating with this really loud scary machine sound, and thus did not hear my family yelling for me for a very long time. When I finally heard and responded they were like "THE PATH IS OVER HERE" and I had been going up the WRONG SIDE OF THE FREAKING LUMP.
I was like AAAGH and so I struggled sideways down the slope (I hate walking sideways on a slope) And I kept slipping on snow and crashing into logs and stuff. I was sort of breaking down. Finally I met up with my family and I was not happy. Then Dad showed the way through ALL THIS SNOW and we finally made it to the top of the lump.
At first we couldn't even see the view because trees were in the way, but we found some boulders with a nice view. We ate our Cliff Bars. Then my parents noticed the blood dripping down my leg and freaked out. I was sort of resentful about this entire thing.
But there was a view, and there was food, and after a while I calmed down. I did NOT want to slosh and slip and crash my way back down this mountain. I just pushed that thought to the back of my mind.  Instead, I watched mom grind dirt into her new hiking sun hat to make it look more experienced (while the rest of us scoffed and mocked her). I watched Benjamin take pictures (I had forgotten my camera). 
And you know what? The other side of the mountain was just a whole lot ... greener. I'm serious. It was this gentle foresty incline into the valley. There wasn't a trail there, though, so we assumed there was a rift or something we couldn't see.
We acclimated for a while, and lowered our pulse.
Then we had to accept the way back.
It was a lot easier. A lot a lot easier. I know it's straining on the knees and all that, but this was a LOT BETTER. For one, the path was making a lot more sense to me. For another, I had become more comfortable with the snow. Thirdly, Benjamin had found both of us hiking poles (which I had been desiring).
My stick was named Bernard Cactavius Bumberspoot. He preferred to be addressed by his middle name. So down we went. I had to pee, but that was okay. I held it in. Finally we were in the forest. It felt SO CLOSE, but it was like the Lump all over again. I guess that happens once you get back to the easy part of a long hike. You just want it to END already, but it just DOESN'T. You don't remember it being that long. At least I didn't.
Then, finally finally FINALLY, we were back at the lake, which of course we had to cross. Benjamin did it on his own this time. I was even more traumatized, because I had accidentally walked on the pebbly side of the passage (WTH, why is there a pebbly side to a lake ?!?). Oops.
Then, as we tried to clean our feet in the water, the mosquitos ate us alive (again) and all this moisture from the moss I was sitting on soaked into my pants and made my butt soggy. 
But I was happy now. It was over,  and the way down was fun. 
Deep breath.
We went back to camp and ate some turkey soup (which was way too thick and goopy) and chicken with rice (which had like, a gram of chicken in the entire bag. I certainly couldn't find any chicken in my scoops) and Beef Pasta (which was a bit to cheesy for my taste).
Good, but not great. I preferred the "lasagna" from the previous night. 
But then we had Raspberry Crumble, and it was warm and very good.
The next day we packed up and left for Santa Cruz.
I never got to see a bear.


PICTURES TO FOLLOW

(Okay, I need to put away this lap top cuz we need to move now. Another long drive. Sigh. We don't actually have a lap top with us, so I will try to complete this post with the iPad once we get to the hotel. I WILL tell you guys everything.
It's been really hard to concentrate with this Elvis Impersonator driving around our hotel - long story.)


For now,
~Julia
P.S. Missing kittens like CRAZY!!! URGH!