Friendship: Definition Paragraph

"Friendship is one of the most satisfying things in the world," says Wilbur, a pig from the book Charlotte's Web. But just what is friendship? Some synonyms are love, affinity, or unity. Friendship is the opposite of hatred or enmity. A similar term is loyalty. When combined, friendship and loyalty can do amazing things. In Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship was chosen more for loyalty and friendship than power or strength. The reason for this was that good was fighting against evil, love against hate, and unity against enmity. Friendship is not only one of the most satisfying things in the world, but also one of the most amazing.

"Ours is Not to Reason Why - Just Invert and Multiply!"

Today's math lesson, courtesy of the VideoText program, cleared up what has always been one of math's mysterious mysteries - that mystifying "invert-and-multiply" rule.

If you want to divide 4/5 by 7/8, then you would think that "all you do is multipy 4/5 by 8/7". But how in the world did we get 8/7 out of 7/8?

4/5 divided by 7/8 means 4/5 / 7/8. We have to get a one at the bottom, to simplify this strange and complex fraction. So we multiply 7/8 by its reciprocal - 8/7 - to get a one.

Does anyone understand why
We must invert and multiply?

It's a simplification of a simple process. Anyone who's worked with fractions knows that when you multiply the bottom of a fraction by any number, you have to do the top, too! So we multiply 4/5 by 8/7 too - tada! The answer is 32/35.

This was such an exciting discovery I just had to share it with someone. So if you're out there in the cyberworld and you've always wondered why we "never reason why - just invert and multiply"...

are you excited too?

Ha ha ha

Mariel and I were enjoying Mother Auma's funny posts when I noticed that Mariel was toying with her expanders (which she is not supposed to do, as it inhibits her dental progress). I pushed her over, and she fell on the floor. I grabbed her leg in a vain attempt to steady her.

"Are you dead?" I queried, rather unsurely.

She looked up at me from her fit of giggles, and quoted L.M. Montgomery. "No, Diana, but I think I am rendered unconscious."

I played along. "Where, Anne, WHERE?!"

Ah, the joys of reading.

Higher Powers

Imagine if there were no authority higher than the government. Governments are, after all, nothing more than collections of exceedingly human politicians and bureaucrats. What if these people who are mere flesh and blood like you and me were the top, the be all and end all, the final answer? How depressing. And frightening.

--Whatever Happened to Justice, by Richard Maybury

The Die-Hard Naturalists

A beautiful field of sunflowers... a dismal grey sky... a Starbucks... and three girls sitting on a red-and-white "Caution" fence with nature notebooks.

Today, as the sky was horribly colorless, we went out for a little color and found a field of sunflowers. We sketched them in the rain, Mariel, Cornflower and I having quite a time. (I am not so sure about Mother Auma. She patiently sat on a rock and sketched, not without enthusiasm.)

Then we had to go, as drizzles turned to drops and drops turned to large disfiguring splatters on our notebook pages. We couldn't leave without taking a little beauty with us, and Mother Auma lent her car keys to cut the tough stems of the flowers. We rushed for the car and finished the coloring inside.

And, with it so wet and the Starbucks so near, we went and got some hot chocolate.

Flowers sure are beautiful, especially with all this rain. By Sunday, Hurricane Ike will have worked his way far enough inland to where we are. That will make the flowers even bigger and more lovely, like this one from our yard.

Copperhead!

A few weeks ago, school was just not going well. Mother Auma spontaneously decided it was time for a very quiet nature walk. We wandered about the subdivision, not saying a word. Mother Auma was walking hand in hand with Cornflower just ahead of Mariel and I. As we walked past an overgrown yard with a drooping tree and a culvert leading to the creek, something stuck out.

It was not a stick.

Mariel and I froze. I wanted to scream but all I could get out was "mom". Mariel screamed - a short, gasping, awful sort of yelp. Mother Auma and Cornflower turned and saw a slender, menacing, triangular-headed brown snake.

It stared at us in defiance. We stared in horrified fascination at it. After several minutes of this standoff, it turned and slithered back into the yard. Nothing was there to show what had just taken place.

We continued our walk, shaken by the snake's sudden appearance. We discovered a picnic area and brought our schoolwork there. But that has really nothing to do with the snake.

Later Mother Auma and I looked up the snake. Goggy had told us it was some sort of poisonous pit viper - and we had seen a baby stroller on the front porch. We found out it was a Southern Copperhead.

Animal Control couldn't help - they didn't have a division for our area.

The Homeowners' Association was even less help. "We'll send a letter telling him to mow his lawn."

Mother Auma was furious. "Don't you think they should tell him there's a poisonous snake in his yard?!?!?" she demanded when telling us.

She took Cornflower for moral support and went to the house in her big tall hiking boots, intending to leave a printout of the info we found on the snake. The neighbor man was just coming to get something out of his car. Mother Auma brightened. These are the neighbors; they can give the people this information! She walked up to him. "Do you know these people next door to you?"

"Kind of."

"Well, could you tell them we saw a copperhead in their yard?"

"Are you sure it was a copperhead? I'm a herpetologist."

(For those of us who don't know what that is, a herpetologist is a snake specialist. Just think, right next door!)

He said to leave the papers in their mailbox, as the people were at work.

Thus ended our part in the "Epic of the Copperhead". We were all very happy it was over, too, although I had nightmares about it for a few days afterwards.