This morning, Mom and I were going to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  We got into the Sebring convertible to leave, but when Mom turned the key nothing happened.  As it turned out Stephen had accidentally left the lights on in the car the last time he had driven the car and had drained the battery.  So we had to use Dad’s convertible.  We had driven half way around the block when the car stalled and stay on.  So we called Dad and he drove out in the van with Jonathan.  Then Dad got in the front seat of the convertible to steer, Jonathan and I pushed, and Mom got in the van to drive behind us on the way home.  So we pushed the car home and found that the problem was a hose that wasn’t connected all the way.  Still at least I got leg day done today.

This is one of the stories I wrote.

How a Man Became King of Nothing

Once, long ago in a faraway kingdom there lived a lovely princess. She lived locked up in the topmost tower of the castle and was kept there by her evil stepmother who said the man who could complete the three tasks assigned him could marry her beautiful daughter and get the mother’s kingdom as well. Many a young had failed the tasks were never heard from again. One day a bright young man decided to try his luck at the tasks. When he arrived at the castle, he was greeted by the princess’s mother. “Aha, she said, you are young and strong and may try my tasks. The first task is…” The man cut her off, “So is she your real daughter, or did you kidnap her when she was a child?” The lady looked at him and said, “Buddy I’m a witch, generally that means I kidnaped my beautiful daughter. I mean, who would marry me, I have a wart on my nose the size of a small village. Now to continue, your first task is to bring me my ring that I lost in the Lake of Rings, before sunset tomorrow.” “Sounds easy enough, said the Man, but you will of course need to tell me what it looks like if you want me to find it amongst all the other rings in the lake.” The witch readily agreed and explained it to him in great detail while he wrote down everything she said in a little notebook. He then took the notebook to the blacksmith in the neighboring kingdom and had him forge the ring according to the instructions in the notebook. This being done, he took the ring to the witch. The Witch looked surprised and said to herself, “Strange, I made there were no injured fish and only alligators in that lake. Oh well, at least I got this great ring back. For your next task you must eat twelve thousand oxen down to their last hair on their hoof, you must eat twelve thousand baskets of cheese down to the last crumb, and you must drink twelve thousand barrels of wine down to the last drop before sunset tomorrow.” Can I bring a guest?” asked the Man. “Oh sure, that’s never backfired on anyone before,” said the witch. So the Man went off in search of a suitable dinner companion. While he was walking he saw a large man sleeping on the street. He looked at the big man for a moment and then addressed him, saying, “Say you’re a fat guy you look like you can eat a lot, you want to help me eat all of the witch’s food tonight?” “No, said the fat man, I’m on a diet, whenever I start eating, I can’t stop.” “That’s alright, said the Man, there will be plenty of food.” “Okay,” said the fat man. So that night the Man and the fat guy sat in the witch’s castle and the fat guy devoured all the oxen down to the last hair from its hoof. Then the cheese was brought in and set before them on the table. The fat man cried out, “I’ll find room for that too.” and devoured the cheese down to the last crumb. Finally the wine was brought in. As they brought in the wine the fat guy cried out again, “I’ll find room for that too.” and drank the wine down to the last drop. As he finished the witch came in and said, “Ah, I see you have complete my second task, for your third task…” As she came in the fat guy looked up from a goblet of wine he had just finished and said, “I’ll find room for that too.” and devoured the witch. At this Man, fearing for his life, grabbed the princess and jumped out the window. The fat guy then proceeded to eat the castle starting at the top and working his way down to the floor. When he had eaten the floor he started to eat the ground, which was of course disgusting. He looked around to try and find something to get rid of the awful taste in his mouth and catching sight of his big toe grabbed it, ate himself, and had just enough time to say, “My what a delicious appetizer.” before he disappeared into nothingness. The Man of course married the beautiful princess, but the fat guy had eaten the whole kingdom. And that is how a man became king of nothing.

The End

On Monday we cleaned up the garage so we could put the car in it because when it rained the car would get wet on the inside.  It took a while, but we cleaned the garage, and now the car fits and everything.We found the found the leaks and Jonathan was working on fixing them this afternoon.

Before we left Ohio and went to Florida we used to have book club meetings with some of our friends, but when we left the book club kinda broke up.  Some of our friends wanted to see us while we were in Ohio so they offered to host another meeting of book club and we got to choose which book we would read.  For the book club we always read G. K. Chesterton and since we didn’t have time to read a long story so Mom and Dad decided that we would read the Club of Queer Trades. The Club of Queer Trades is a collection of six short stories about strange mishaps which occur because of entirely new businesses which in the end become part of the club.  I really like Chesterton and I really liked the story.  It was funny, it was like a detective story, and wasn’t very long either.

Not too long ago we went on a vacation to Ohio.  Before any of us (the children) were born Mom and Dad had gone to the Biltmore Estate and had always spoken of it with extreme pleasure and had wanted to take us to see it as well.  So the first stop we made on the way up to Ohio was of course the Biltmore.  I of course  knew the Estate would be big, but it exceeded even my wildest expectations.  We drove through along for at least five minutes on the Estate just to make it to the house. The house may not look like much there, but believe me I was surprised the people who lived in the Biltmore could find anything without a map.  Sadly, I have no pictures of the interior because you are not allowed to take pictures of the inside (for… some, reason).  I will try, however, to talk about all the high points of the trip.  Inside the house they had a garden a bowling alley, and a swimming pool.  All of the rooms were huge, the house was at least three stories  tall, and there were 42 bathrooms in the house.  One of the funny things we noticed was that the beds were all really short made for a person no bigger than 4 feet.  We looked at all the house we could (the floors after the second floor and select other rooms were off limits), and all in all had a great time.

This is a short story that Stephen wrote for one of his English Classes.

He’s Often Flying

Mitch Weldon floored the gas pedal and the formula 1 car ripped forward with a lurch, as if it were spurning the asphalt under the wheels. The car seemed to be trying to fly off the track and it would have to if the air flow over the wings on the side didn’t create downforce, forcing the car down on the pavement. He stared intently at the track in front of him constantly guessing and second guessing the distance of the track before him. His car came up on the tail of #58. The spoiler grew larger and larger until Mitch thought the nose of his #46 almost had to be tucked snuggly under the rear axle of #58. At the last moment he jerked his dial and button covered wheel right taking the outside curve. Mitch knew that the outside curve meant he would have to drive longer, but he also knew that his #46 was eating the track far quicker than #58 whose driver was having trouble seeing under the parabolic reflectors used during the nighttime portion of the Coca-Cola 600 to reduce the glare.
“See you later Dan,” Weldon muttered to himself through his helmet as he whizzed past the bright blue car.
As Mitch saw the track open into the straight stretch ahead of him he opened the throttle as far as he could and listen to the engine behind him roar like an angry lion. #46 lurched forward once again. #46 flew by a group of spectators to them it sounded like an enormous mosquito buzzing louder than any rock band.
At 176mph Mitch buzzed past #36.
“Fourth,” Mitch muttered. His heart started pounding; his day had begun that morning at 11 o’clock at the Indianapolis 500. He had won the Indy 500 and if he could only pull off another win this evening he would not only receive the honor of being the only driver to win both, but he would also win the $20,000,000 prize Bruton Smith, owner of Speedway Motorsports, Inc, was offering to the first person who could pull off such a feat.
He past #12.
“Third”
His wheels burned on the asphalt. The smell of petrol fuel and burning rubber filling the air around him. He zoomed past #98.
“Second”
He rounded the final turn drawing up next to car 7. The cars came out onto the straight stretch neck and neck, but car seven was fighting. Suddenly the unthinkable happened. The cars wheels brushed together and #46 sailed off the track.
As his shiny green, fiberglass car literally flew over the finish line. Mitch shouted in ecstasy, “I win! If I live long enough.”

A little morbid perhaps, but funny all the same.

As I have mentioned I have previously grown a few things and I am pretty much the family gardener.  So a couple weeks ago Mom bought a fresh basil plant and when they had pulled the leaves off it I planted it.  Look at it now!  We will never have to buy fresh basil again.