June 28
I woke up early, 'cause there were a couple of birds fighting outside the window—two cardinals were swooping at each other and finally one of them flew off and the winner landed on the birdfeeder and ate his fill before he left, and he was pretty quickly replaced by a bunch of little chirpy birds.
It was overcast and smelled like it might rain, so after I'd gotten on my flight gear I went up and gave the grumpy airplane director a weather report, which cheered him up a little bit.
I was at the top of my altitude and that wasn't enough to get at the bottoms of the clouds; in fact, they still looked almost as far away, and was pretty sure that it wouldn't be raining from them, but they might be coming in ahead of a front. Or else they were all clouds that airplanes had made, but those clouds usually didn't cover all that much of the sky. I think if the weather was just right they might spread out, though, but I hadn't seen it happen over Kalamazoo yet.
While I was flying around I remembered that I'd forgotten to invite Meghan to come to the tall ships festival with me, so when I got done and landed I sent her a telephone telegram right away, even before getting into the shower.
I wish that the shower was wide enough to really stretch out my wings. I turned sideways and that helped, but then I either had my muzzle against the wall or the shower curtain and that made it feel more confined. Plus it was against my instincts to have the water coming at me sideways.
I woke up my computer and Aric hadn't written me back but the weather lady had and she said that she would still like to show me around and she thought that everyone in the studio would like to meet me, and she asked if Thursday was okay. I wrote her back to tell her that it was, and then I went into the kitchen to make breakfast.
Today felt like a good day to make waffles, so I got out the bowl and it was kind of hard to break the egg into it and I had to fish out half of the shell 'cause I dropped that in by mistake. And I couldn't remember how much water Meghan had put in, either, so I kind of guessed at that and then kept adding more (because it would be really hard to get extra water out) until it was all mixed up like she'd showed me.
I made two waffles for me and then put the rest of the batter in the icebox because I thought that if the egg had to be kept cold while it was still in its shell it would probably have to be kept cold after it was out of it, too. A lot of food goes bad if it isn't kept properly.
When I was done eating, I saw that Meghan had replied, and she said that she wished she could come but she had a conference in Indianapolis that weekend and so she couldn't.
Well, that was disappointing, 'cause it would have been fun to have her there. I guess even though I had all summer free to do whatever I wanted to not all my friends did.
I needed to get a train ticket, and this time I was determined to do it myself without Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn's help, so I flew down to the train station and went to the ticket window and bought myself a Friday morning ticket to East Lansing and a Monday morning ticket back home. It would have been nice if there were trains more often, but it would be fun to just visit Aquamarine and Jenny at their apartment which I hadn't seen.
She hadn't seen mine, either. I think she'd like it, although maybe she wouldn't like how the backyard was mostly gravel.
I thought that maybe I'd like for the futon to be a little bit closer to the balcony, so I pushed it across the room until I was satisfied with where it sat—I could lie on it and look out the window, and I made sure to leave enough space that the back could fold down. But that made it kind of crowded with the papasan right near it, and I couldn't think of a good place to put it, so I tucked it right in the corner and maybe I'd think of something better later.
Then I sat down at my desk and got out my new notebook for my journal 'cause I'd completely filled the old one. And I was writing down what I'd done with my day when my doorbell rang and since it was quicker I went out the balcony and around rather than open the door and go down the stairs.
There was a grey-haired woman in a brown suit and she was holding a brown box and even before I got all the way to her I could smell the alfalfa and I remembered that I hadn't eaten lunch yet.
Well, she was surprised to see me come up the sidewalk and I had to tell her my name and put my mark on her little hand-computer before she would let me have my package, then she held it out for me and it was too big to carry in my mouth so I picked it up sideways with my forelegs and flew from my downstairs door up to the balcony.
They'd put too much tape on it—I guess they didn't want any alfalfa to fall out—and I had to really work at it to get it open, and then when I got inside the box it was all wrapped in plastic anyway. So I got that open and had to remind myself not to just gorge on it, but to eat like a proper pony, so I took the bag (which was a lot easier to carry) into the kitchen and put it on the counter and then scooped some out and put it on a plate and carried it back out to the balcony and ate it there.
It was a little bit dry, but still very good. I was going to have to order some more; maybe a box a week. And I think I could have it sent to college, too; the mail hut kept boxes that wouldn't fit into the pigeonholes and gave you a slip of paper to let you know that you had a package. It would be a nice treat to have. Plus not only did it taste good, but it made the apartment smell good, too.
If I was an earth pony, I'd plant some alfalfa and clover in the backyard. I wonder if Aquamarine has a little yard where she can plant things?
I went out and refilled my bird feeder, then I flew over to Aric's house to check on his, and it was low, too, so I filled it and then I flew over to Tiffany's to get some beer that I could share with Meghan tonight if she wanted me to come over,
The handles on the beer carriers aren't really made for ponies, and I should have worn my saddlebags. Next time I would—I got it home safely, but one bottle was jammed against my throat the whole way home and that didn't feel very good.
When I got back home I noticed that my telephone was blinking at me, and I remembered how I was supposed to have it with me but it was so easy to forget plus I didn't really have anywhere to carry it.
It was from Meghan and she said that she was home and if I wanted to I could come over for dinner and she'd show me how to make rice.
I was smart, and I put on my saddlebags and filled one side with all my flight gear and the other side with the beer and also my pocket telephone and I thought about bringing some alfalfa but I was pretty sure that she wouldn't eat it if I did, and it would be rude to be eating my own food instead of hers.
Since I remembered which door was hers, I waited on the porch and rang the doorbell.
When we were up in her room, we both had one beer and then we went into the kitchen and she showed me how to cook rice which was pretty easy—you put the right amount in a pan and added some water and then let it cook on low heat for a long time. She said that there was even a thing called a rice cooker that cooked rice for you, and that if I really liked rice it would be a good thing to have because it was cheap but since I didn't have one she was showing me how to do it on the stove.
Rice by itself was kind of boring, and she thought so, too, so she got out two other pans and the bigger pan was for vegetables and the little one was for some strips of meat for her rice.
She made a spot on the counter where I could stand and let me help cut up the vegetables but I wasn’t very good at it. It was hard to see what I was doing with a knife in my mouth, so I cut them into big pieces and she then cut them into smaller pieces and that worked out pretty well.
And when it was cooking, she let me stir it and I felt kind of dumb for not thinking about standing on the counter in my kitchen. It was slippery but I wasn't going to be galloping on it, and if I just flew up and stood there I would be fine.
I could maybe even light the stove without burning myself that way.
We had to wait a little bit for the rice to be done, 'cause it took longer to cook than anything else. Then she said that she was going shopping with her friend on Wednesday after work and if I came over Thursday night she'd show me how to make cookies.
After the dishes were done we went to her room and she changed into her lounging clothes and we sat in her bed and watched the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and things just kept getting worse and worse for Harry and I was pretty sure that Voldemort was going to win after all, especially when right at the very end he stole Dumbledore's wand.
I wanted to watch the last one too, but Meghan said that it was late and she had to get up for work tomorrow and that was true and I guess it would be pretty selfish of me to keep her up late, and she promised me that things would turn out all right in the end.
Prepare for disappointment, Silver Glow. Things do not get better. They just end. By the time Voldemort finally gets killed, he and his regime has done so much damage to magical Britain that it's pretty much a phyrric victory. Most of the characters you care about have been slaughtered, and there is no real change in the leadership or state of magical Britain. The Wizengamot is still an unelected House of Lords without a House of Commons, dominated by purebloods, society is just as backwards, inequitable and biased towards muggleborn as ever. All the sacrifices the good guys made make zero difference.
7524131 You forgot about the shipping of the main characters.
If a group of cardinals fight and one of them wins, does he become the pope?
It must be one of those days with a Y in their name.
Hah!
7524184
No, the Cardinals' friends fight. :)
Mister Salvatore won't be happy, she is doing two travel by herself and is not telling him!
Pro tip to open box with too much tape, or just some tape: pierce the tape with something flat and somewhat sharp, like a key or a butter knife and follow the box's opening. You can open your box in a matter of seconds.
7524131 About the wizengamot, of course they aren't elected! It's the judiciary system. Most countries, those following the British system in particular, have their judges named by elected official. Rarely does the people have a direct saying in the judiciary system.
7524131
Did you read the books or just watch the movies? My money is you only saw the movies. In the books there are a lot of changes that happened that are briefly covered plus J.K. also has been revealing more information over the years, like Dumbledore being gay. You should see the stuff that surrounds the American magical community that has been revealed.
As to extra pancake batter. You can store it for a few days before it goes sour but the pancakes don't rise, they are flat. You do better to use all the batter & reheat the extras (but Silver doesn't get on well with the microwave)
She needs a crock pot and maybe a blender or a juicer. Summer is yard sale season. She has probably flown over many, she just didn't know what she was seeing.
She needs to learn about Minute Rice and Raman. You get one of those 1 serving soup cans, heat it up then use that instead of water to make the instant stuff. A bachelor's version of pilaf (often called perloo. God knows why -I don't)
7524137
No doubt they hoped you'd buy another policy for double coverage.
her
i wonder how happy Aric would be with the smell ...
thanks god my mom got me one from tupperware! these things are amazing (because they work in a microwave)! even good to make pudding in them!
strange, after so much bible reading Silver Glow has a hard time thinking of a happy end ? i wonder why
I bet its a great feeling for Silver to have a food that is similar to something from home. I'm sure the grass she ate in Michigan from time to time wasn't the greatest and she had to be mindful of the chemically treated areas...
¡Miss Silver Glow did not celebrate the day devoted to the 1 True CircleConstant TauDay!
τ = c / r ≈ 6.28318530717959
I wonder where she's going to stay when she gets there? Has she thought of that? Hopefully she'll be able to get a hotel or hostel to stay at, it doesn't feel right for her to have to sleep on a cloud or even in the streets if the sky's clear.
I wonder what her friends would think of that, I know some people really don't like the smell of alfalfa.
7524715
All a pegasus really needs is a pillow and a tree branch.
7524715 Aquamarine and her will share a bed of course!
Earth ponies and pegasuses are made to live together afterall!
Psst. Hey, Silver. Humans plant gardens all the time- and if we can do it, you can do!
7524788 I actually love the smell. Then again, I worked in a pet-supply chain for ten years- maybe I just got inured to it.
yep rice is just plan and boring you have to put something in it.
7524324 I read the books. Though I admit, it was rough going through Half-blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. So many reasons to rage quit.
7524265 It's a legislature as well or rather primarily. Harry Potter's trial (read railroaded kangaroo court that makes places like Iran seem very models of enlightened jurisprudence) was in front of the Wizengamot, but they were not the judge.
Mr Salvatore.
Operation Two Flower is go.
I repeat Two Flower is a go.
Bring The Luggage.
7525194
I don't mind it either, but i know some people that are less than fond of it.
7525379
I don't know why you think they're the legislature, they're the high court and that's it. The minister might have some sort of influence over it, but they don't appear to have any role in crafting laws.
7523626 Whatever you need to tell yourself!
7525379 They were the jury, they voted the trial's result.
Silver should really ask Aquamarine how Earth ponies do all that cooking stuff that gets annoying without fingers. I'm sure they have ways of chopping veggies and breaking eggs that doesn't get eggshells in their cupcakes! At least Pinkie and Applejack's friends never complained about that sort of thing.
7526569 How the Poni get anything done without hands requires willing suspension of disbelief. In fact the unicorns should have a glove filled with cornstarch that they can manipulate magically to grip things when levitating the item directly is insufficient. If I wanted to turn their society on its ear I would introduce prosthetic hands like the 3D printed one Morton Downey Jr. gave some kid.
7524131 There is the main thing, though. The lord of evil himself is dead and gone. So that's something. I mean, that's like saying, "At the end of The Lord of the Rings, the Shire is burned, a lot of people are dead, a lot of lands are ruined, and Frodo is missing a finger and mentally scarred. And the only thing that went right was just Sauron being dead." It's the main point, is what I'm saying.
7524184
Pope of the birdfeeder. Hopefully all the other chickadees will recognize his/her authority else the starlings will strive for a breakaway faction based on feeder reformation with the support of downtrodden sparrows.
7524131
A phyrric victory is still a victory, though. Right?
I mean, in the one sense, the world is now a safer place since Voldemort is gone. And I think in some ways that would speak to a pony's world view.
7524134
All good stories have shipping in them, right?
7524184
Yes, I think so.
Those are the best days to make waffles.
Silver Glow makes a successful Wisdom check.
7524257
Well, she hasn't told him yet.
That's hard to do with hooves.
It's a trick I use all the time at work, though. Usually with a pocket screwdriver, 'cause I almost always have one in my pocket.
7524265
We get to elect some of our judges. Others of them just appear on the bench or something . . . I'm not sure how it works, to be honest.
7524348
She could re-heat them in the oven. It'd take a little bit longer, but it's doable, and she probably wouldn't burn herself turning on the oven. (Getting the plate out of the oven, though, that might end in disaster.)
Silver Glow vs. the juicer. There's no way that could end badly. . . .
Those things terrify me. I don't know why. Plus they've got to be ridiculously unhealthy.
I was looking at some microwavable meals recently, and I found one that had 120% of your RDA of sodium in one serving. Might as well just snack on a spoonful of salt. . . .
7524368
I wonder if that means that you get twice the payout in an accident? Because if that's the case, I'm gonna buy a brand-new Mercedes, and get a dozen insurance policies on it, and then drive it right into a tree before the next payment's due.
7524483
Correction made; thank you!
7524576
He's a country boy; he wouldn't mind at all.
Actually, fun story: I live out in the country, and just this week we were working on a Ford Fusion Hybrid. We opened the trunk and there was a haybale in there.
I have one but I somehow managed to not use it right, and either wound up with crunchy rice or rice-soup. I'm such a bad cook.
7524634
She has no idea about how we chemically treat our lawns, she's just gotten lucky so far (mostly because she knows she's not supposed to graze in random people's lawns).
That's one thing that really ought to be in the guidebook. "People spray plants with poison, so don't eat them without washing them first."
7524678
All of her math-friends are out of town, so she wouldn't realize it's a math holiday.
7524715
She's going to share a bed with Aquamarine, of course.
7524788
They're all heathens. Alfalfa smells great.
Or a pony-friend to sleep with.
7524992
Exactly so. As long as there's one pony with a bed present, then everypony has a place to sleep.
7525194
Some humans are really bad at planting gardens. Pretty much everything I plant dies.
I like it, too, but that might be because I've lived in the country most of my life.
7525276
Agreed. Rice is one of those things that's a good medium to add things to, but not so good on its own.
7525464
If the humans were smart, tracking collars would be mandatory wear for all pegasi.
7526569
Lots of practice. Silver Glow's got none--prior to her apartment, everything she's eaten has either been raw, or someone else cooked it for her.
7526875
Or thinking outside the box. Obviously, in Equestria most things would be designed to be manipulated without hands. Here on Earth, though, not so much, which is giving her some problems.
All the same, there are people who succeed in a world that wasn't designed for them without hands; here are just two examples:
7529092
One of the things that I think matters to herd animals--one of the things that's burned deep into their psyche--is that the herd must survive, but individual members of it might not matter as much. So it's sad that a bunch of people died, but at the very end Voldemort is gone, which makes it safer for everyone who's left and everyone who comes after them, and that's what matters the most.
7529768
7537281 I wonder if her hoof could be used to open the box...
Anyway, It's one of these time where using her mouth is the solution. Migth not be perfect, but struggle for struggle...
7537326 I once managed to kill my cactus from dehydratation. I'm not sure If it's an acheivement or not...
7537290
It does not work at all:
Unless one has been in the court, ¿how can one judge the Judge? This is an example of democracy going too far. A better system works like this:
Have the legislature choose the judges. The politicians are too busy to research the Judges themselves, but they have assistants:
Politician:
"Oh Mary, you assignment this week is to research Judge Jones. You are to put in a full 40 hours on this task. At the end of the week, I want a confirm or reject. Given how important Judges are, I want you to error on the side of reject."
Assistant:
"¡Yes Madame!"
John Oliver has a piece about the problems with elected justices:
7537664 Ah! If our politician could have the best interest of the state in their mind....
Problem is, most politics don't choose judge on how good they will perform, but on how they perform, period. Remember that controversy about the 9 judge for the States' supreme court? On of the republican outrigth said that he wanted the nomination to be done after the election 'cause whoever will win will choose a judge that agree with him/her...
Yep, rice is kind of boring. But it taking a long time to cook? It takes about 15 minutes...
That's it. Silver needs to learn the art of the Pilaf. With anchovies!
7538787
As a bachelor I think that if it wasn't for Minute Rice, & microwaves I'd starve. 15 MINUTES! Who the Hell wastes that much time cooking?
8769350
I sometimes cook frozen pizzas, and those take up to 25 minutes. The only reason it's tolerable is because I don't have to do anything to it for those 25 minutes.
8775122
I mean, you don’t have to do anything for rice either. Bring it to a boil, lower the heat, cover, let it simmer for 20 minutes.
9560452
That’s quite true. I really ought to eat more rice; it’s cheap and filling and easy to prepare.
8769350
As someone who lives below the poverty line, you underestimate what you'd be willing to do if the alternative was dying.
11033805
I’m not there (thank heavens), but have had to deal with things like ‘I can’t afford heat this spring, good thing I’ve got lots of warm clothes.’