Stomach Bone Stew

or Pig Limb Stew
My mom told me to help make dinner. Ok. What do I need to do? Well, you chop up some of the usual stuff [carrots, celery, onions] and then put the ham bone in. I did a double take - wait what?  Ham bone. Seriously? She showed it to me.. yup.  A ham bone.  So later after the beans have soaked for two hours - yeah, this soup is weird - I chop up the stuff (well, The Muffin does as I got sharp pains in my wrist every time I tried to chop.. THAT'S from my rifle, but I Love Colorguard anyway.  Plus I'll have super strong wrists!) and take the ham bone out of the bag.  Yummy! :P I held it over the pot and told The Muffin to look over.. 'ew.'  So as I stirred the stew and ham bone, I commented
"This bone looks like a limb... because it is!"
That cracked The Muffin up a whole lot, as most of you can see by how she put it as her status.  Then, my mind already in rediculous mode or something, I said
"At first I thought it was like, a stomach bone, but no, it's a leg or something."
THAT really got to Muffin as well.  STOMACH bone?! BAHAHAHA!  Hey, I meant rib okay??  It's kinda close...

And thus the beginnings of the Stomach Bone Stew!  Doesn't it look so good?
Yeah, not really, I hope it'll taste differently than it looks... :)

Three Rings

[[I decided to find a couple of pictures to better illustrate. Sorry for the bad quality of figure 2:)]]

This is the tale of a cloud and three rings
These seem like they'd be three entwined things
You'd think they would all be connected, like so: [[see figure one]]
but the resistance from 1 to 3 may only grow

So when these rings seem stuck like this: [[see figure two]]- can you fiddle?
...Imagine the delicate balance for the one in the middle
Ring 2, linked with both, and 2 & 3 find
That maybe ring 1 is differently twined

Now ring 2 is forced to split it's design
A certain way for ring 3, for ring 1 another twine
Sometimes it seems 2's twine mirrors 1 - like one may expect
And when this happens, ring 3 can't connect

So down ring 3 drops, to a cloud who softens the fall
3 is only slightly damaged, and back up begins to call
Then a notion comes in a small, painful burst
"Maybe ring 1 will always come first"

But after the jolt, ring 2 is soon to follow
To reconnect with ring 3, who feels hollow
It now becomes clear: ring 1 liked the change
So up it pulls, keeping 3 out of range

At the sight of ring 2, 3 had started to jump
Only now, too far away, lands with a thump
But it's not too bad, as it soon figures out
The cloud is there to help stop the pout

Thankful for the comfort and lift, 3 then ascends
Now in sight of ring 2, and they make amends
Still, 1 wants to lead, and when 3 comes to click
1 pushes on with a defiant kick

Hoping this unit won't much longer estrange
Rings 2 and 3 work for a change
3 has a piece of the cloud, tied on for a constant reminder
That something's on her side, should doubt again find her

Atlanta!

Oh goodness there is a lot to write.  I apologize for this post being SO long!  Just think of it as six posts shoved in to one, because that's just what it is.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and today.  Here we go!
I just gotta say - I Love my cousins! Quentin, Ciena and Guenith are SO cute!  Quentin is quite the performer, and almost always has something funny to say.  What makes it even better is that sometimes he puts on that he's not trying to be funny - which, in reality, he is.  Once, after
I laughed at something he said, he demanded:
"You think I'm bein' FUNNY?"
"Yep."
"WELL I AM!" It was hillarous.  I think Quentin is um... six or seven now..? Maybe. I could ask but I'm too lazy.
Georgia has been super duper awesome!  An adventure every day.  No such thing as bored while I've been here :)
Monday - Renaissance Festival!  They had a whole big wood village and everything!  It was so cool!  People dressed up, too.  Some of that was.. scarey.  Some people were wearing way too many layers and corsets and such for this hot, humid, southern weather.. and some.. well, weren't wearing enough.  Yuck :P  My aunt observed that going to these things makes her feel better about her shape, because some people really shouldn't wear midriff (I know I spelled that wrong..) showing clothing. -shudder- One thing that I'll never forget about going to the Renaissance Festival is meeting the queen.  A few minutes after we walked in, this member of the royal guard or something came up to Ciena and gave her a coin.  He asked her to give it to the queen when she saw her, and tell her it was for shopping.  Well, a little while into our travels of the town, we found the royal pavillion.  (Of course it was the most shaded area of the whole establishment.  It was *Almost* cool [temperature wise]. Almost.)  After the queen wqas done talking to some other royal subjects, Ciena went up to her, all shy like she does, held out the coin and very quietly said "This is for shopping." The queen got a huge smile on her face and yelled "Shopping! Shopping!"  If I didn't know she was acting I'd be a little concerned.. all of the queen's ladies in waiting came around, very excited.  Ciena was startled by the flurry of bright colored skirts and turned around to hide in mommy's arms.  The queen said she must give this beautiful little girl a gift for giving her shopping money.  (Bronwen and I were confused, shouldn't the queen get enough shopping money already?  I guess not in this town. But it was still pretty cool :))  The queen gave Ciena a little plastic pink ring.  Ciena was overjoyed.  She wore it the rest of the day. And the next, and the next.   And who can blame her?  Wouldn't you be excited if you got jewelery from the Queen herself? :)  There was also a joust, acrobats, flexible daredevils, fire jugglers, glass blowing, and much much  more.  Also, as you can expect in the south, there was tons of fried food.  Fried pickles, fried chicken, even fried mac and cheese on a stick!  Ew. (Most of the stuff at the festival was 'on a stick'... as if that made it any more awesome...? Haha I guess it does. Go sticks! :P) Later, Ciena and Quentin both got wooden swords.  They would later decorate them with jewels and gold ribbon.  It was a fun experience :)
Tuesday: Six flags!  Roller coasters, roller coasters, and more roller coasters!  It was so much fun!  I'll tell you about the most exciting ones.  My favorite was: Superman, Ultimate Flight.  This wasn't just any old fast roller coaster with large hills and loops. No no, it was a fast roller coaster that you rode HORIZONTAL with high hills and loops and stuff.  And even my favorite aspect of new roller coasters, which I call the "DNA twist" because it looks like a piece of DNA.  At the start of the ride, you're vertical.  Then they lower the little platform under you and switch the seats so you're in a position to fly like Superman!  It's really awesome :)
Another strange but thrilling experience was that Scorcher.  A standing up roller coaster.  That's right, you stand up.  You're still perfectly locked in, but the weight shifting is quite different, especially on loops.  My legs were all tingly afterwords.  We also went on there tallest ride, Goliath.  Fairly named, I think.  No loops or quick turns, just a lot of really really REALLY tall hills.  It was awesome :) And guess what?! After that we got pictures with Bugs and Daffy! :D Daffy is my favorite Loony Tunes character!  We almost missed them, but then I saw Bugs' long ears over the fence they just went through behind the picture taking area.  I yelled, there they are!  Daffy then opened the gate, saw us, hid behind the gate, popped back out and came over to greet us.  It was pretty great :) I got a squished penny of the Superman coaster. :)
Wednesday: World of Coke!  Old commercials about coke, info about the making of coke, a little reading about the guy who came up with coke, learning that most of the soda's and fruit drinks I know about are owned by coke, and a tasting room, full of unlimited coke products.  In other words, a lot of coke.  And sugar :)  The best part is, we all got to take a little bottle of coke home with us :) I like coke, but it always reminds me of being sick because my mom and dad would always get it for me when I was little when my tummy was upset.  The syrup helps it or something.  We later learned it's just the sugar that helps.  All in all, too much soda for me that day, after being used to not drinking any maybe more than once a month.  Woof.  I hope Tiave isn't reading this.. haha.. but he'd probably understand.  I mean, WORLD of Coke?! Seriously, how can you not drink soda on World of Coke day? :)
Thursday: The famous and fabulous Georgia Aquarium!  It's the largest in the world!  More than like 8 million gallons of water or something.  Das a lot a aqua. :P  It was majorly awesome!! Tank tunnels, otters, whale sharks, scary fish, cute fish... etc.  There were SO many different kinds of sea creatures!  My favorite there was the Balooga.  Yes, Balooga.  It's a real animal.  It's a mammal, too!  It's a kind of whale.  It's white, big, and simply beautiful.  I have a little plush toy of one :) I think this is also the day we went to Ariel's soccer game.  And her team won, of course :) Go Atlanta! haha :)  And Ariel really does look very young and beautiful.  You wouldn't think she had three little ones and had been married for ten years :)  That night I got online and chatted with some friends.  I miss you all so much!  I can't wait to be home! 
Friday: Was a pretty relaxed day.  We went to this barbeque place where I discovered, again, that I like pork better than stake.. BUT they had these really really good cheese roll things.  Yum yum yum!  We also went swimming, in the rain!  Ok so it only rained for a little bit but it was still cool!  The water was all spotty and awesome :) Later that day we watched Gone With The Wind.  Good, but LONG.  And I will never be like Scarlet Oherra. :P  The only characters I actually liked in that film were Melony, Mammy, and sometimes Rhett. Sometimes.
Today: Also a pretty relaxed day.  We went to the pool, but I didn't feel like swimming. I was the target thrower and ref for the game TheMuffin and FunagendaE were playing.  And.... I got a sunburn.  On my legs!  That never happens! My legs never burn!  But I was sitting on the edge of the pool, exsposing them to the hot georgia sun... They hurt a bit, but it's still kinda awesome.  Haha first sunburn of the season! :D
COMING  HOME TODAY! Late, but I'm coming!  Being away made me realize even more how much I Love home!  I miss everyone! I miss guard, my friends, and good ol' dry Utah.  I'm excited to be back!
Thanks for reading through this SixDaySmashedTogetherPost.  See you soon :)
--Kiki