That’s right. I’m on vacation! A whole week of bliss. To start things off, we went to a first annual lavender festival on Saturday. It wasn’t huge since it was a small lavender farm that was hosting it (and when I mean small, it was tiny), but the atmosphere was absolutely relaxing!

They had a few things that you could buy, like lavender soaps and hand-crafted jewelry. The neat thing about the festival was that all the vendors were local. The food, which was amazing, was organic. I had this awesome organic chicken burger and ice cream that was from organically fed cows. Everything had a lavender theme to it, so on my ice cream, I had lavender syrup poured over it. It was surprisingly good, and once the lavender got into my system, I felt so relaxed. Like I could feel the tension just melt away from my shoulders.

On Monday my family took a trip to the Columbus Zoo! I literally saw lions, and tigers, and bears — oh my! I think we saw most of the zoo, at least I hope we did. We spent a good four or so hours there. It’s been a good nine years since the last time I went to the Columbus Zoo, and I was surprised at how much had changed! There’s now a water park next door and a small amusement park in the zoo. Now, I don’t know how to swim and I hate wearing a swimsuit in public, but looking at the water park made me want to swim and have fun.

When we went to the zoo, I wanted to definitely see the turtles. I’m proud to say that we did accomplish that. The aquarium wasn’t much (if you’re looking to see an awesome aquarium, I suggest the Newport Aquarium) but they had manatees and seahorses. Aside from the aquatic, there was a baby elephant there that we weren’t even aware of until we got there! Since we arrived really early, we were one of the first people to see it that day and happily bypassed the ridiculous line that appeared around 11:30.

To conclude, here’s a funny story that happened at the zoo: Shortly after arriving, I notice that my camera batteries are low. I had bought another SD card and packed it because I knew that my memory was low on the one I was currently using. I had charged a pair of batteries for my camera but guess what? I forgot to pack them with me! So I spent a good hour or so, preserving my batteries, which meant I could only take a picture when I saw the perfect photo opp. We finally found a souvenir shop and thankfully there were batteries! I bought two packs because I knew that rechargeable batteries lasted like 50 times longer than regular batteries, and since I like to take a lot of pictures, I didn’t want to be in that situation again. Thankfully they didn’t run low, so I didn’t have to be so overcautious, but it’s better to be safe, just in case.

I think everyone is trying to be a little bit greener with the paranoia that if we don’t, the Earth will cease to exist and it’ll be our fault and nobody really wants that on their conscience, even though they’ll be dead when this happens. Sooner or later, the Earth actually will cease to exist, and I highly doubt the human species will blame themselves whatever may befall the planet (unless, of course, we were taken over by robots, in which case, yes, that was our fault).

My family has taken steps into becoming greener and helping the Earth out in little ways (remember, baby steps). We use florescent light bulbs, try to eat as organically and naturally as possible, and try not to waste unnecessary gas. Not only are our lives much healthier now, but we feel better. I’m so proud of what my parents have accomplished since they ditched the nasty habit of smoking just back in ‘06. With all this healthy living going around, what better way than to grow your garden? That’s right, after about a week of whining, Dad convinced Mom to let him have his very own garden. It’s looking really nice, too.

If I remember right, we have 3 tomato plants, zucchini, honeydew, 4 different kinds of lettuce, 4 corn stalks (yes, corn), tons of green onions, and a pepper plant. I might be missing something, but that’s the majority of it. It’s looking pretty leafy, but nothing is really ripe yet. My mom cut some of the lettuce, but that turned out to be still a bit bitter and tasted a lot like grass. So, I don’t think that’s ready yet… The funny thing is Mom was against the garden from the beginning, but now she’s telling Dad to plant some strawberries and other things.

Speaking of eating greener, I was watching The Doctors and Rachel Ray was suggesting some healthy food choices. She did a quick demonstration of these sandwiches that you roll up like a seaweed wrap. I’m not sure what they’re called exactly, but I’ve dubbed them the sushi sandwich. They’re simple to make, and quite tasty.

I also added a couple of pictures in the Miscellaneous album, so check them out if you’re bored!

I saw Up the weekend it premiered, and wow. I loved WALL-E to death because he was cute and the movie had an interesting message on top of the amount of emotion you felt between EVE and WALL-E. But there’s something about Up that’s just a notch better than WALL-E. It’s been awhile since I went to a movie and felt like crying numerous times throughout the movie (especially in the animation department). It’ll pull at your heartstrings when you least expect it, and make you laugh when you need it most. Wonderfully directed, and Michael Giacchino provides the music, bringing that extra oomph to make you want to cry in those heart-wrenching scenes. There was one tiny thing that I noticed regarding the villain, but it was just something you had to overlook. In short: go see it if you haven’t already.

In other news: Beautiful Addiction, my anime fansite, is back up and running. There are still a number of things that I need to do to it, but I wanted to get a chunk of it back up.

It seemed like there was more that I wanted to say, but I can’t quite remember what it was…

Oh yeah. My dad made a garden like…about a month ago? Nothing is edible yet, but the green onions are growing and the lettuce is looking greener with each day that passes. One of the tomato plants he planted doesn’t look like a tomato plant, so we’re kind of curious to know what it is exactly. He even planted four corn stalks for the fun of it. Those seem to be okay, but I don’t think we’ll be able to eat the corn until around fall. Or I could be wrong…

I also uploaded some pictures of my recent hiking trip (yes, trip number two!) into an album. This time we went to Clifton Gorge, which runs right into John Bryan State Park. However, Clifton Gorge is prettier, but maybe it also has something to do with the fact that the trees have leaves now…

Check out the album!