The 12 Murders of Christmas

(On the first day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
(and) A recipe for plum pudding.

(On the second day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Two arsons

(On the third day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Three kooky cats

(On the forth day Christmas my authors gave to me)
Four pretzel cookies

(On the fifth day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Five doggy biscuits!

(On the sixth day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Six chunky monkeys

(On the seventh day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Seven apple fritters

(On the eighth day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Eight drowning victims

(On the ninth day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Nine kidnapped children

(On the tenth day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Ten homicides

(On the eleventh day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Eleven suspects fleeing

(On the twelfth day of Christmas my authors gave to me)
Twelve newspapers

For those who do not know me, this version of The Twelve Days Of Christmas may look rather strange, and this is because this is a tribute to my favorite authors Joanne Fluke, Leslie Meier and Laura Levine. Every verse in this song is based on events or things that occur in each of their series involving their awesome mystery solving characters by the names of Hannah  Swensen (my personal favorite), Lucy Stone and Jaine Austen.

In the Joanne Fluke mysteries, her main character, Hannah Swensen, is a baker in a small town in Minnesota called Lake Eden. Hannah occasionally finds murder victims and takes it upon herself to solve their murders while giving us fairly nice recipes for different kinds of food. Verses one,  four , seven and eight are inspired by Joanne Fluke stories.

In the Leslie Meier mysteries our protagonist is Lucy Stone. Lucy lives in Tinker's Cove, Maine and is a hardworking mother of four who has a job at the local newspaper, The Penny Saver. Tinker's Cove is nice small town but occasionally there are crimes that need solving. Lucy is just the right woman for the job, though, more often than not, she doesn't mean to solve anything. That doesn't stop her from doing good along the way. Verses two, five, nine and twelve are inspired by Leslie Meier.

And finally, in Laura Levine's mystery novels we follow a woman by the name of Jaine Austen who lives in Los Angeles, California with her troublesome cat, Prozac. Jaine writes ads for different companies (including a toilet bowl company) and sometimes comes across murder victims whose murders she seeks to solve. Jaine and Prozac are tremendously funny and overall well put-together characters, and I'd recommend their stories to anyone wanting a good laugh. Verses three, six,  ten and eleven are inspired by Laura Levine's mysteries.        

Gift of the Magi

"The Gift Of The Magi" by O'Henry is about Jim and Dell sacrificing their most valuable possessions in order to bring happiness to each other.

The story starts off with Dell who cuts off and sells her presumably beautiful hair in order to buy a Christmas gift for her husband Jim. Once Jim returns to their home however he stares at Dell with a bewildered expression, Dell thinking Jim doesn't like her now short hair, anxiously tries to get Jim to talk to her. Though once he does the results make Dell become self conscious and she is constantly telling Jim(who seems rather confused) that her hair grows fast and that she did it for him.

After Jim's short moment of confusion however he reassures Dell that he loves her just the same but wants her too unwrap and look inside a package that he has in order to see just why he was so flabbergasted, you see unbeknownst to Dell at the time Jim had sold his gold pocket watch in order to buy her an expensive set of  tortoise shell combs for her hair.(Hair that was earlier cut in order to buy him a gift. Is it not ironic?)

Dell crying tears of joy holds the package to her chest and starts to babble on to Jim about how her hair grows fast. After a short amount of time Dell calms down, turns to Jim and says that she would like too give him his gift, so she grabs her present to him and holds it out onto her palm.What was the present that Dell had bought for Jim you ask? Why, it was a gold chain for his pocket watch of course.(Oh, how the irony never cease to exist.)

Jim seeing his gift smiles and sits down on the couch,he then tells Dell that their presents are too nice to use right now and that they should put them away for the time being.Jim then goes on to tell Dell that he had sold his pocket watch in order to buy her the lovely set of  tortoise shell combs and then in a nonchalant manner says she should probably "put the chops on."(I'm going to assume that it means they'll have pork chops for dinner.)

Truly Jim and Dell care for each other dearly or else they would not have sacrificed their greatest treasures in order to give the other something they knew would make them happy.  

E-books

Some people believe that traditional print books should be replaced with E-books,their arguments are that E-books are easier to get and cheaper to buy.

Though this is true  I do not think print books should be replaced because the devices that E-books are on can be very expensive and not everyone can afford them.Another reason is that that the hardware or software on these electronic devices can sometimes malfunction and result in losing all the things saved on said device including the E-books. Replacing the devices alone could cost a hefty price but add in the lost E-books and you have a pretty big bill to pay if you want to read your books.

By now you are probably thinking that I am a big hater of E-books and you would be wrong, I actually love E-books and read them often while I'm at home.Why did I write this then you ask because even though I love E-books and think that they're pretty dandy they should not replace print books. (at least not fully )                

Shih-Tzu

I have a dog whose name is Rascal. He’s a little ornery, but can be sweet when he wants to be. I remember the first time I saw him. It was my thirteenth birthday and for months I had been strongly hinting to my mom that I wanted a kitten. After all the festivities, my little sister and mother came in with a medium sized box. I could hear faint sounds coming from the box. This made me anxious to see what was inside.

So after getting the go-ahead from my mom, I opened the box and looked inside. “Why is there a chubby gerbil in here?" I asked my mom, but before she could answer my sister interrupted. “It’s not a gerbil! It’s a puppy!" My little sister seemed so defensive that I could already tell who made the decision to buy it. Both my parents said it would take a lot of hard work to train my puppy and that I should get started right then and there.

Unfortunately for me, I had no idea how to train or even take care of a puppy. So I decided to do some research on it. I had few good tips from my neighbors who have had their dog for quite a long time. I wanted to know more about my new dog, so I went to the internet for help. After searching through Google images for different breeds, I found a picture of a dog that looked very similar to mine.

I had soon found out that my little dog was a shih-Tzu and that he needed certain things that other dogs might not. So, I went to the library to see if they had any books on Shih-Tzu and fortunately for me they did. This book had tons of information that helped me raise my little Rascal. I decided to note some things that I think would help others take care of their Shih-Tzu. Some of these tips can apply to other dogs too.

1. You should only bring home a Shih-Tzu who is eight weeks or older, because that's when they are old enough to leave their mother.

2. It's important to find the right type of dog food for your pet, Some canned brands are mostly water, while semi-moist food often contains lots of sugar. Dry foods are usually preferred among pet owners because they are usually more cost-effective.

3. Your puppy will need to be fed solely puppy food until it is eighteen months of age, then it’s time to switch it to adult food.

4. When your Shih-Tzu is around seven or eight years old it’s considered a senior. Seniors, though having no single best diet, often do well with light or senior diets. Others do better on puppy or special premium diets. All and all, it’s probably best to consult a veterinarian on what’s best for your dog.

5.  Water, like food, is essential for your dog’s health and keeps it properly hydrated. During housebreaking, it is important to keep an eye on how much your dog is drinking. After proper training you should let your dog have full access to water.

6. If you want your Shih-Tzu to have long hair then it is important to groom your dog daily or they might get mats. If you don't wish to groom your pet on a daily basis then it’s important to schedule regularly trips to the groomers.

Shih-tzu , if not trained properly, will act like tiny dog demons, and make your life miserable. A properly trained Shih-tzu will be sweet and caring to its owner, so remember to take the extra time and effort in training your dog.  

Cunliffe, Juliette. Shih Tzu. Allenhurst, NJ: Kennel Club, 2003. Print. 

Something New

My road to school always had a surprise, and one time I met a DJ. This day started as usual but quickly turned very different and I learned how a person can change your day.

When I was 17 years old, I rode the bus to go high school. It was a small bus. Manuel, The driver of the bus, was my neighbor and my friend I knew him since I was a child.  In Panama, people like loud music and big speakers. In the bus, Manuel had a custom radio. The problem is, this was a school bus. If the police had seen his big speakers they may have given him a ticket. We always listened to the radio station called La Mega.

Manuel was friends with the DJs of the most popular radio station. He spent a lot of time at the station and they gave him a lot of music. The DJ "Mosquito" had a dedication program in the morning where you could call and ask for songs or leave a message for your friends. Manuel wanted me to go to the radio station and meet Mosquito. When we met he asked me a lot of questions about my age, my school, and if I was single. He said I was beautiful but I told him I had a boyfriend. He was funny but I wasn't interested.

After we left the radio station Manuel drove me to school on the bus. We listened to Mosquito's program and he gave me a dedication and he said crazy things. It was a little embarrassing. This was a new experience for me. I have many friends of different ages and this day all of them were listening to the program. They all knew it was me because my name is uncommon. Mosquito did dedications every morning for a week and every day Manuel made fun of me. We went to the stations many times after this, but I stayed on the bus.

When you are a teenager you can be embarrased by a lot of things and as the time passes you realize that it is not important now. I think is great to receive a dedication from someone you love. but if you don't love this person it can be uncomfortable.

Hero

When I was a little kid I would pretend that I was a hero. I remember having an old navy blue sweater that I'd tie around my neck and pretend it was a cape. I can't remember where I got the worn and slightly smelly sweater, but I didn't mind. To me, it was the best darn cape any kid could ever have and that was good enough.

 Instead of having super powers like most heroes, I wanted to be more like Batman or the Green-hornet and have awesome gadgets and gizmos. So one day, I went to the dollar store to buy a toy squirt-gun. Despite it being fairly cheap, it lasted me for few good years. I still remember what it looked like. It had a pink trigger and yellow lines on the handle. It also had some hints of green on the stock. Overall, it looked ridiculous.

Villains, in my eyes, were those over the top guys who could have gotten the job done had they not tempted fate and explained what they were going to do right before they killed the hero. To me, that didn't seem like fun. So instead, I just pretended there was a bunch of robbers. To an onlooker, a majority of my time playing was just me squirting water at all the plants in the garden. My mother seemed pretty happy about this for some reason. But after thinking about it a little more, mom was probably just happy that she didn't have to water the plants.

It seems the closer I get to actually growing up and becoming an adult, the more I look back on my life and think. Could I actually do anything significant in my lifetime or am I doomed to walk the earth and never have any effect on the world? It's times like those that make me think of my old navy blue sweater and my oddly colored squirt gun and remember when I was a hero.

Barron's Painless Vocabulary

Here are the vocabulary words we have been studying this week:

extraordinary
ardent
scrutinize
regale
procure
devour
ponder
endure
elicit
cater
adorn
abate
former
enthrall

Check out this set of vocabulary cards to study on Quizlet!