NaNoWriMaeve, chapter two

MAEVE: Daddy, can you put on a cartoon?
DADDY: Don't you want to watch the Bills game with me?
M: I do not.  Can we finish my story?
D: I think the world is ready for that, yes.

[Daddy's note: the first part of Maeve's epic yarn is here.]

M: okay, here's what happens next...

TIME TRAVELING SISTER AND BROTHER (Concluded)

by Maeve Garvey

The bad guys were named Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi.  They all have different powers.  Boovi had the power to make it rain.  Noovi could pull your pants down without you seeing so you’d get embarrassed and run away.  Shoovi could make the Bills lose if you’re being really really really really mean to him.

And they stole all of the time machines and destroyed them.

And one day a grown up boy stepped up to the three bad guys.  But Magenta and Mike did not know who the grown up boy was.  So they almost went down to ask.  But they were too scared to go ask the grown up boy who he was.  They just didn’t want to get fighting too by those three big bullies.

This guy looked like a farmer.  And he had a horse.  And then they realized cowboys look like farmers kinda!  And since they realized that, they just started laughing and laughing with their eyes closed.

When they stopped laughing, nobody was there anymore.  Not the cowboy or the three bad guys, Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi.  And they didn’t even know what the cowboy’s name was!

M: Daddy, where do cowboys live?  Like what do they live in?
D: Um, usually they sleep outside.  With the cows.
M: If they go and stay somewhere, where is that?
D: A ranch, I guess?
M: Right.

So they went outside to see where the cowboy went.  But they still could not find him.  Then they remembered cowboys like to stay at ranches so they ran to one of the ranches nearby their house and there was the cowboy!

Mike and Magenta walked up to the cowboy and asked, “What’s your name?”

They did not know what his name was because they didn’t even ask before.  And the cowboy responded, “My name is Dino, y’all!”  And that was his name.

D: "Dino"?  Why Dino?
M: Because I like it, Daddy.

And then Mike and Magenta said “Did you win the fight against Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi?”, really excited.

The cowboy responded again.  “Yes, y’all.  But they’re not dead.  They just ran away.  I was going to chase them, but they scared my horse and my horse ran away and I need to find him.”

Now Dino didn’t know where Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi were.  But Zoonth can fly so she can fly over the land and find them.

And then Dino asked, “Are y’all a cowboy?”

Mike and Magenta responded, “No.”

And Dino said, “Well, ya’ll don’t look like one anyway.  What are you then?”

Magenta responded, “I’m a nurse and my brother, Mike, is a lawyer.”

Then Dino said, “What is a lawyer?  I know what is a nurse, but I don’t know about lawyers.”

“Well, lawyers are people who help people who need help,” said Mike.

And then Magenta said, “Well, bye, we have to go back to our home, I mean house.”

M: [Looking over my shoulder.]  No, dad, I said "back to our home, I mean house" but you just wrote "back to our house".  You need to fix it.
D: Oh, I thought you were just correcting yourself.
M: No, it was Magenta correcting herself.

While the sister was walking home with her brother, Mike, she said “When we get home, we’re going to that time machine and I’m going to help you right away.  Because I have patients to help.  I’ll help you get to the moon.”

“And I’ll give you a gem that I find on the moon.  Well, I’m not going to give you a gem right away because I have to show my boss, then I get to take it home and THEN I’ll give it to you.  My lawyer buddies are going to the moon with me.  They’re coming over to my house and they’ll go back in time and we’ll all go to the moon together.

M: Daddy, when is this going to be done?

D: Are you getting tired of it?

M: I want to do something else.  But I want to finish it.

D: I'm not an expert or anything, but I'm pretty sure every writer ever has said exactly that at least once.

And ten minutes later, they came over and then Magenta helped them get back in time and then to the moon.  They were dressed in all their suiting.

D: Lawyers love wearing suitings.

M: No, I mean like astronauts, not like lawyers.

And they finally found Zoonth.

And when they got back to Earth (still back in time) Zoonth looked all over and found Shoovi, Boovi and Noovi AND THEY WERE KIDS because they were back in time!  So Zoonth brought them to their home and told their mother “Mike and Magenta came back in time and to the moon and they told me I should fly over your land and find these boys.  Because they came back in time, Boovi, Shoovi and Noovi are grown-ups where they came from and THEY’RE BAD GUYS APPARENTLY.”

So their mother said to her children “Never be bad guys because if you’re bad guys you can be killed or put in jail.”

And the kids said, “Yes, mom.”

And then Zoonth said, “I have to go back to the moon now.  Bye and thank you for cooperating.”

Then Zoonth went back to the moon.  But before Zoonth went to the moon, she told Mike and Magenta that Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi would never be bad guys again.

Mike and Magenta and the lawyer buddies went back to the time machine.  Mike had the gem he got from the moon.  When they got back to their time, Mike ran to his office and showed his lawyer boss and his lawyer buddies.  They needed the gem for a case they were working on.

When he was running back home from work, he saw Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi and said “Are you guys bad guys now?”

Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi said, “No!  Our mother told us not to when we were just kids!  So we’re good guys not bad guys!  Anyway, we have a job like you.  Now we make books!”

When Mike got home, he gave the gem to his sister and everyone was happy again.  Everyone had time machines again because Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi never stoled them.

And Dino had his horse.  And Dino was very happy.

And everyone lived happily ever after.

The end.

D: Maeve, I absolutely love this.
M: I love you.
D: I love you too.

NaNoWriMaeve

MAEVE: What are you doing?  

DADDY: I’m writing a story.  It’s for something called nanowrimo.

M: What’s your story about?

D:  Two brothers.  One needs the other’s help with something.  I’m just starting out.  Want to help?  

M: Okay.  How about one brother needs the other’s help to go back to when people went to the moon.  Like time travel.  

D: That’s...  That’s actually better than what I was thinking.  How about I help you write your own story?

M: Okay.  One brother and one sister.  The brother needs help from his sister to use the time machine to go back into the time when people went to the moon.  Because astronauts don’t go to the moon anymore today.  When did people go, I mean when was the last time people went to the moon?

D: I’m not sure.  Before I was born, anyway.  Want me to look it up?

M: Yes.

D: Looks like it was 1972.

M: Okay, they had to go back to then.  To one nine seven two.

D: What should we name the brother?

M: I’m thinking Mike.  Like you.  I like it.

D: Okay I like that too.  How about the sister?

M: I think we should name the sister… what do you think?

D: Monkeyface.

M: No, not Monkeyface.  I think we should name her Magenta.

D: So why are they going to the moon?

M: To discover Commander Zoom.  You know, the guy from the song.  From the birthday song.  I think that’s a good idea.

D: I love it.  You should come up with your own hero though.  Someone already wrote Commander Zoom.  What’s your story?  Who is Mike and Magenta’s Commander Zoom?

M: Okay, how about Zoonth?  She’s a good guy and she lives on the moon.  It’s a girl.  She’s Commander Zoom’s wife!  They need Zoonth to go to Mars and fix Curiosity because Mike and Magenta can’t go on Mars, but Zoonth can.  

D: How do they know about Zoonth?

M: They looked her up on the computer.  People can’t go to Mars and they need to help Curiosity on Mars, so they looked on the computer for ideas and they found out about Zoonth.

D: Okay, are you ready to write the story?

M: Yes, here it is:

TIME TRAVELING SISTER AND BROTHER 

by Maeve Garvey

Once upon a time, there were two grown-ups that were sister and brother.  One was a lawyer and had to travel back in time.  And the sister was a nurse.  The lawyer never ever needed help in his entire life.  But THIS time he needed help to travel back when people were on the moon in 1972.  He did not know how to go back that far.  In fact, he never went farther than that.  But the sister did because sometimes she had to travel back with the sick people so some people in the olden days can help.  And she went back farther than her brother so she knew how to work the time machine.

But sometimes they had a fight because they had to use the same time machine.  Some bad guys broke all the time machines and there was only one left in the whole world because the brother and sister hid it.  They had the last ever time machine.

Before all of that, everyone had time machines.  Some families had two time machines.  One day bad guys came and took them all except Mike and Magenta hid one of their time machines and the bad guys didn’t know they had two time machines.

The bad guys were named Boovi, Noovi and Shoovi.  They all have different powers.  Boovi had the power to make it rain.  Noovi could

M: Daddy, mom is calling me.  Stop now and we can finish it tomorrow, okay?

D: To be continued…

Ride for Roswell's Team GarveyFish

ADDIE: Hi.  My name is Addie.  And we are, we are doing the Rise for Roswell.  And I made a picture for a tee shirt so when we put the picture on our tee shirt, it’s three fishes riding on the bicycle because we… ARE… TEAM GARVEYFISH!

I’m doing the Rise for Roswell and we’re getting money for people who have cancer and they’re sick and we want to help them, that’s why we’re doing this.  So we need your help.

MAEVE: Hi. My name is Maeve and we’re doing the Ride for Roswell and we need your help.  If you give us money, we’ll do thirty miles of riding.

DADDY: Um, three.

M: Right, three miles I mean.  It’ll be me and mommy and daddy and Addie and Clark and we’re all going bike riding but we can’t do it and we can’t help people with cancer without you giving us money and donations.  Daddy, can you put my letter on the blog?

D: Sure, I’ll put it right here. [The girls sent this letter, composed and illustrated by Maeve, to a few family members.]

A: And if you help us, you can be part of TEEEEEAAM GAAAAARVEYFISH!  We’re Team GarveyFish because we’re Garveys and we have a fish.  Get it?  It makes sense.  And if you help us we’ll love you.

M: Anyone who helps us is on Team GarveyFish too!  What else should we give people?

A: How about we send them a video if they give us money.  I will send them a video that says “HOW DOOOO YOU DOOOOO?”

M: A Harlem Shake video!  A Harlem Shake video!

A: We could give them a hat.  Or Clark.  Or a hat with Clark on it.

M: I want to make a Harlem Shake video.

D: How about if we raise a thousand dollars, you can make a special video to thank everyone.

M: I have a question.  Will we be Harlem Shaking in the video?

D: Up to you, pipsqueak.  Anything else we should tell people?

A: The place.  You have to say the place where people can send the money.  Say this: if you can help us and send us money and we can use the money for people with cancer all you have to do is go to here.  And then put the website.  http://rideforroswell2013.kintera.org/garveyfish Now, daddy, can I tell you about riding a bike?

In case you're curious...

About what I look like, Maeve asked that I share this portrait she made of her daddy.

I do sing, but my kilt leaves more to the imagination.

Founding Father, Swim Fanatic

[Today we are baking bread. It’s a recipe from Mrs. Hoffman's cook book. While on a break, Addie and Maeve are eating lunch and talking about why we have a day off tomorrow. Professor Addie wishes to share this history lesson with all the blog readers.]

ADDIE: Hey, guys, do you want to hear something? There was a president in the olden days who invented books, fire and flippers. Well, guys, I don’t remember his name though. They were first, I mean the flippers, they were made of wood. And then they were made of rubber because he didn't like how they were once. 

MAEVE: Did he invent remotes too?

A: No. [Shakes head incredulously at such a ridiculous notion.] That’s all that he invented. He was cool. 

M: Is it the guy on daddy’s shirt?

A: No.

D: Who is the guy on my shirt? Does anyone know?

M: Michael Jackson?

D: Ooh, so close. It’s William Shakespeare.

A: [Unimpressed, back to the matter that hand.] And what’s really cool is that once my teacher went to see a statue of that boy. Of the president. He was sitting down and he had hair things on the sides of his head like here and here.

D: Was it George Washington?

A: YES IT WAS!

D: Anything else you want to say?

M: HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY!
A: HAPPY PRESIDENTS' DAY!

XOXOXO.

MAEVE: Hi.  Yesterday was Valentine’s Day!  Yesterday I also got a lot a lot of valentines.  I got a little of candy.  And I kept saying to my teacher “Happy Valentine’s Day!  I’m your valentine!”  I can’t believe my teacher got a big apple.  Well not really big, probably like medium sized.  It’s a chocolate apple.  I think my friend gave it to her and I’m in first grade so my friend is in first grade. 

And I keep telling my teacher that Addie is going to drive her nuts next year and I don’t know why.  And next year I’m going to be seven.  

Here is a joke.  [Reading.]  Knock knock.  Whos there?  Stopwatch.  Stopwatch who?  Stopwatch you’re doing and have a Happy Valentine’s Day!  XOXOXO! 

Now I’m going to tell you the same joke but mixed up.  Stopwatch you’re doing and have a Happy Valentine’s Day.  Stopwatch.  Who’s there?  Knock knock.  XOXOXO.  Love Papa and Gramma. 

Happy Valentine’s everyone!  Or yesterday.  And that’s it.  Bye bye!

I left my heart in Presefitso.

MAEVE: Hi, Everyone.  I'm eating apples while we're getting ready for the game.  And daddy is cutting the cheese!

DADDY: Heh.  Um, do you know what that means?

M: Yes.  That means nothing.  Also, my mom is walking past me.  And Addie is right there.  Clarkie is I don't know.  Oh wait, Clarkie is in the kitchen.  My daddy is wearing a weird tee shirt.

ADDIE: it’s a Buffalo Bills tee shirt. [Sabres, actually.  But so long as they're eating their apples, I won't nitpick.]

M: And mama is wearing one too.  Mama is making chili and I'm not going to eat any of it.  I'm going to eat chicken nuggets.  WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!  [Maeve told me exactly how to spell her evil laugh.]

A: Tonight, we're going to watch the Super Bowl. Because it’s the Super Bowl day!  And I love the Super Bowl because people get to come over and we also get to watch the Super Bowl.  There's the Baltimore Raisins and the... Daddy, who is it?

D: The San Francisco 49ers.

A: And the Presefitso Forty Ninels.  Happy Super Bowl!

M: Daddy, can I put my picture on the blog?  The one on the iPad?  It's colorful and blue and gray and black with spots on it.  I'll put it right at the end of the blog.

And that's it for today, folks!  Bye bye!

Space Blog Post, Jr.

DADDY: What were your favorite things that happened at school today? 

ADDIE: My favorite thing that happened today at school was doing Just Dance. It’s a game. And two other things is I learned in school today how to go bowling. And I knocked all of the pins down except one. And the last thing is I had lunch.

D: Wait, you played a video game?

MAEVE: Yes it was a special day for both of us for our whole school. So our classes had a party with a Wii U or whatever it is. A Wii something. We don’t nooooormally play video games.

And my favorite thing was playing on the Wii thing too. And another thing that we did was making a string of paper, like a big line of paper and we put the planets on it. Like, aaaaaaall the planets. Like the Sun and Jupiter. And here’s something about Jupiter. It is an outer planet and there's a big telescope down here on the ground and it found a red dot called “The Big Red Dot” or “The Big Red Spot”. And it spotted two dots and one is called “Red Spot, Jr.”, I think. Or maybe I think the other one’s called “And The Other One”. 

And those spots are storms! And bye folks, because I'm done. I'm done!

The right stuff. And waffles.

[Over waffles this morning, the girls decided to tell us what they know about space.  The conversation eventually got around to NASA, woman astronauts, and Curiosity.  I know this is a weird request to all the girls' readers, but if anyone knows anyone who works for NASA, there are two syrup-soaked kids here who would really get a kick to know this post was read by the Curiosity team.]

MAEVE: Pluto is not a planet it is a darf planet.  A dorf planet.  A dooooorf planet.

ADDIE: Mars is very hot.

MAEVE: Mars has a red spot on it.

DADDY: I think that’s Jupiter.  But Mars is a red planet.

A: How do you know that, Daddy?  Have you been there?

D: Nope, but I've seen lots of pictures of it.  Astronauts built a robot named Curiosity and sent it to Mars.  Curiosity takes pictures with a really fancy camera and he sends them back for everyone to look at on the internet. 

[Utter.  Stunned.  Silence.  Waffle pieces drop from forks.]

A: There’s… a robot on Mars?

D: Yup, named Curiosity.

M: How did it get there?

D: It was built by NASA.  By a bunch of really smart scientists.  It flew to Mars on a rocket and now it looks around Mars and it writes back to the scientists, talking about what it finds.

A: How many aliens does it know?

D: Well, none, yet, but it’s still looking.  Do you think it’ll find any?

M: I have an idea.  Aliens are there, but they’re really small so you can’t see them.  They’re so small you can’t see them.

D: Actually, a lot of scientists agree with you.  They asked Curiosity to look for places where there might have been water because they think microscopic aliens might have lived in the water on Mars.  "Microscopic" means you have to use a microscope to see them.

A: Can we write to Curiosity and say hi?

D: I happen to know Curiosity is pretty active on the internet.  I bet if we write a blog post, he’ll read it.

A: OKAY!  Hi Curiosity!  Daddy, who built curiosity?  What is his name? 

D: I don’t know their names, but one guy who helps Curiosity is named Bobak Ferdowsi.

A: Are there any girls who work with Curiosity?

D: Oh, honey, I’m absolutely certain there are, but I don’t know their names.  Maybe we can look that up on the internet?

A: No, that’s okay, I’ll ask Curiosity.  Daddy, can we build a robot?

M: And send it to Pluto?

D: What would we call it?

A: PLUTO!

M: METAL!

A: BUTTERCUP!

M: MARSHMALLOW!

A: GINGER!

[Here, I swear I’m not making this up, the girls’ mother did a spit take.]

A: So how do we make a robot?

D: Well, first, you study super hard, do really well in school, and become a scientist.  Then you can be an Astronaut and work for NASA.

A: Okay!

M: I don’t want to be an astronaut.  I’m scared of space.

D: Well, not all NASA scientists go into space.  Some work in Ground Control and wear vests.

M: THAT’S for me!

D: Okay, girls, what do you want to say to Curiosity?

A: Curiosity!  I think that you’re cool.  So what are you doing on space?  Do you see any aliens, Curiosity?  Did you find any holes yet?  That you can go down in?  Can you roll on the bottom of your planet because I don’t know if you would fall off.  Goodbye Curiosity!  Write to us soon!

M: Hi Curiosity!  Why are you living in space?  What did you discover already?  What are you going to discover next?  Will you write back to me once you know?  Goodbye Curiosity!  And have a good weekend!  And make sure you have waffles!  Hee hee hee.

Paternity Test: Positive

[Overheard at breakfast.  Home by Philip Philips was on the morning radio.  I swear I am not making this up.]

ADDIE: Why do they always play the same song all the time?  Don't they have any other songs to play?

Maeve Minute

MAEVE: I want to write about school!  Well at school, math is very boring.  And here is something that gets my brain moving and that is Mad Minute.

DADDY: What is that?

M: It’s like a half sheet of paper and it’s math problems and you have to finish it in a minute because well I don’t really know.  It’s like a whole sheet cut in half and I don’t know how many math problems are there because I did not count it.  I like Mad Minute, kind of.

And other things that’s fun? Once I got to draw something on the Magic Picture Machine.  And it was really fun.

D: Is that like the chalk board?

M: No.  It’s like a magic machine you can write on it but only with a special kind of marker pen that’s really cool.  There’s a light that shines, like, up and then the light goes into a mirror and then onto a screen and you can see what I write.  We don’t have a chalk board anyway, daddy.

Can I say a joke daddy?  Then let’s do it.  How did the fish laugh?  It laughs out bubbles!  From its mouth.  You probably know that.

By the way, on Saturday, we went ice skating!  And daddy went with us.  And my cousins and aunts and uncle went with us too.  And for one fact?  I looooo-OOOO-ooooove skating!  And then when we were ice skating?  I was skating really good, but I fell over. I fell on my knee a lot of times.  And... um…

D: How about you say you'll be a skater in the Olympics?

M: No...

D: How about you say you’re a better skater than the Sabres?

M: No...

D: How about you can’t wait to go see a Sabres game with your daddy?

M: Okay!  Here’s what it is.  I can’t wait to go with my daddy to see... a... game... of... BASKETBALL!  Hahaha!  Gotcha daddy!

Addie's dream

ADDIE: Daddy, I had a dream last night and you can tell everyone on the blog. There was a huge robot that was also a teddy bear and it was scary but I made it nice at school. And then I needed to go to the bathroom and we saw a biiiig grown up bathroom. We saw so many grown up bathrooms, but only for girls because it was the girl bathroom. So I wanted to go in there but it was only for the grownups so we just went to the potty for the little kids. And then I came back and I saw [my cousin’s] class in our school and she ran up to me and that’s the part where Maeve laughed. And then I came running to bed and Maeve came running to me and I said “Maeve, Maeve!” Actually, I only said “Maeve” once, not two times. I said, “Maeve! I saw [our cousin’s] classroom in our school!” and I took them with us and we took them to school and there were more scary toys but then we all fixed them to nice ones and that’s the end.

Pac-Man Beware.

ADDIE: guys, do you wanna hear something? At school when I was in art, I drew some ghosts. There was a baby who was a boy and a sister and a brother and a mom and dad.  But they were scary!  And there's a pet eagle that's mean too I think.  

I think it's mean.  

I just think it's mean.  

I'll look for it and show you later.

The Girls' Holiday Favorites

ADDIE: Hey guys, I need to tell you something. How was everybody's Christmas? How was your New Year's too? And guys, I need to tell you something. Make this a secret. I always tried to see the sleigh with the reindeers, but I really wanted to see Rudolph.  I did not see the raindeers, but Santa came to our house!

And this is what I got for Christmas: a remote control car, Dora Gymnastics doll, walkie-talkies and a shovel! And there's a block thing that I put snow in and I put it on the ground and it makes snow blocks. I got a green one and Maeve got a red one. There are snowflakes on them. I built a snowman at gramma's house. His name is Flash. We also did it at Nana's and we made a snowman there but we didn't finish the eyes or the nose or the arms and we didn't even name it yet.

My favorite food that I ate was spaghetti. At Gramma and Papa's for Christmas. Or, wait, the pancakes were. Maybe all of it? I think? All of it was my favorite food?

MAEVE: When we were at the party, my favorite thing at Nana's? It was like a brown cake with things all around it.

DADDY: Was it chocolaty?

M: Yeah, and it had a lot of things around it.  Like on the sides.

D: You know who made that? My cousin Anna. That cake was really yummy.

A: I know her. Does she have curly hair?

D: Um, not really. She babysat you once.

A: Oh! I saw her at the Roycroft.

D: No, I don't think we saw her there. But her daddy is my uncle Dan.

A: The monkey guy? Yeah I know him. [Quietly, to herself.] That was yummy cake.

M: I got play-doh for Christmas! Here's one thing that I made out of play-doh! This is Maeve's bird.

And this is the bird that Addie made.

Daddy, take a picture with your phone and put them on the blog so everyone and Katie can see them.  And say this: Do you like them, everyone?