Hee, 190 stars...

Today, for the first time in several days, I didn't need to have a nap, cough medicine, paracetamol or aspirin. A good day. : )

During daylight savings I don't so much become a creature of the night as a creature of the late afternoon. It was still light enough after the cubs had been fed to head outside and do some gardening, so that's what I did. Cleared a small patch in one of the front beds and transplanted some of the beautiful echevaria that was growing abundantly down the side of the rocks into the bare patches of earth. Really need to get some more mulch though, and repot the sage plant OkapiPrincess gave me years ago - and do some pruning. (<sigh> That's just the front garden, someone's coming round tomorrow to slash out a lawn from the waist-high jungle around the back!)
Thankfully it looks as though the tree-fern has recovered from my neglect of it last summer, it's shooting out new fronds all over the place, (I promise I'll pay more attention to it this summer) and the kangaroo paw Niki gave me when I moved in is currently a mass of gorgeous, hot deep-pink flowers. That's coming with me when I move again - I'm very fond of that plant.
Weeded a little bit of the path as well but I suspect that at least one of the plants I was pulling out from between the bricks is/was a native grass. How do I know this? It came out very easily and the exotic bastard imports don't come out without a fight (or lacerated fingers : ). The cubs were out there with me but no earthly help at all being too freaked out by the thought of bugs. They relaxed a bit when I explained that it was good having lots of insects because it meant our garden ecosystem was healthy - I don't use pesticides or herbicides. Heh, such nature boys my cubs. Not.

And speaking of the cubs...
Operation get-the-cubs-to-try-something-anything-new-on-a-regular-basis went into affect today - to whit, sweet potatoes mashed up with their regular plain potatoes. After some wrinkling of noses (and threats of no dessert if they didn't eat at least half of the pale orange mash) they ate it happily enough, so I'll spring it on them again in about a week. : )

Yesterday I bought a perfect avocado with the intention of having avocado nori for dinner tonight. Made up the vinegared rice, let it cool, then discovered I'd run out of seaweed sheets! Aaargh! Dammit, I was all geared up for rice and avocado wrapped up in green stuff, but being a resourceful creature I remembered I had a butter lettuce I could use instead. (Not hard to remember - the thing was sitting on top of the microwave looming at me like some, squat, round tryffd...) Anyway, my dinner was delicious and I'm now happily chock-full of healthyons...

The cubs got their books today that we ordered from the school's bookclub - the latest Captain Underpants and a Finding Nemo joke book. I've avoided the CU (cos this one is about snot monsters) but it was fun sitting down with the cubs and reading through the joke book. It's basically full of fishy-based puns and some reasonable limericks:

There once was a tang called Dory,
Who had a short-term mem-ory.
When asked why this was
She said, "Oh, because..."
And couldn't remember the story!

It was interesting trying to explain to the cubs the jokes they didn't get. Funnily enough, this one they got straight away:

Why is the sand wet?
Because the sea-weed.

<sigh> Gales of laughter at that one. Tch, boys... : )

Bad Lutra! The Saddle Club is not Dystopia!
<eg> Can't remember exactly how the scene went (only caught a few seconds) but...

first teenage horsey-girl: I've managed to get [someone] to agree to [something apparently unlikely]
second teenage horsey-girl: Gosh! How did you manage that!?

.... cue Lutra's sordid reasoning coming up with all sorts of unsavoury activities. I wonder about myself sometimes. : )