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It's a crab!

Why a crab emoticon, you ask? Well...
Earlier today Joules showed me this lovely pic of a nebula from the Astronomy Picture of the Day site. I remarked that I could see a crab in the image, while Joules said she saw an Anglerfish.
All very interesting. Anyway, 'Crab Nebula' was ringing dim bells so I googled it, as you do, and found this on Wiki. We both thought - Joules and I - that that looked less like a crab than mine!
So yes, a crab emoticon was forthcoming from me.
What? You want logic? Pffft... :)

(Completely unrelated: [snerk] Cubs are off to camp in a couple of weeks. They're planning on recreating "The Parrot Sketch" for the 'talent' night...)

My suitcase compliments my flamingo!

Pretty!



Sur ma vacance! The story so far...

Not a lot to tell, actually. Cubs and I have just come back from spending the Easter weekend with my Mum - hence the pic of the suitcase. Mum picked us up from the train station on Saturday then we trundled off for a ride on the Healesville Trolley. Always fun.
On Sunday, Soulsis and her chicks came 'round for the day. Much chocolate was exchanged and consumed, as well as some of S's excellent biscuits!
After packing our suitcases on Monday we nipped out to the Patchwork Teahouse in Warburton for morning tea, and a browse of the fabrics. I saw some beautiful green batik - decorated with ivy, dragonflies and butterflies - but even on special it was too expensive so with many a regretful sigh I put it back. Next thing I know Mum's marching off to the counter, bolt of material in hand, and buying us some! We now have a metre each! Squee! (She justified it as being part of my birthday present, even though we're closer to her birthday now than mine. :)
On the way back from that we stopped in at a mega garage sale where I spent $5 and came away with armfuls of stuff that had to be squeezed into my luggage somehow. Mwahahaha Despite the fabulous array of stuff at brilliant prices I was restrained. Just think how much stuff I would've been able to bring home if I had a car...!

Last day of term I had an excursion to the State Library. Extremely cool place - I was all tingly!
It's big, too. A couple of years ago it took over the space the Museum used to occupy, plus it has an enormous off-site storage facility a couple of hours out of Melbourne. Wow.
My favourite bit was the Images department where they're digitising the squillions of images to put online. Photos and cataloguing? That's my idea of heaven! Where do I sign?

(Speaking of photos, and blatant self-promotion, here's my Flickr account...)

And finally...

Little did they realise that conventional weapons would be useless against the giant chocolate bilby...

There was a music DVD playing while the cubs, their father and I were dining at the Hog's Breath Cafe this evening. The not particularly interesting selection (Toni Basil, Cyndi Lauper, Culture Club, Bananarama, Rick Astley, for god's sake...!) prompted me to snark mildly about it being a collection of 'the least threatening songs of the 80's', with the companion volume of 'slightly edgy songs of the 80's'. :) However, I did almost snigger my coffee up through my nose when 'Angel in the Centrefold' came on...

Last night's episode of Life on Mars (which I've really taken a shine to this second season) had a Camberwick Greenesque beginning that made me giggle.
And lo and behold, the clip's up on YouTube.

Study results!
I got 100% for the other test I had last week, but only 94% for the Cataloguing assignment. Admittedly, I lost 1 point cos I didn't fully understand the question - the rest were lost to silly, careless mistakes. Still, not a bad result. :) (What would Little Miss Overconfident look like, I wonder?)

Egad, it's almost the end of first term!

I haz a flamingo!




Hee, this is Raoul, and yep, as I suspected, Mum is physically incapable of keeping a secret. I hedged a bit though, when she asked if I had any idea about what she was getting me. :)



I've just spent the long weekend at Mum's, without the cubs. Was verra niace. I napped a lot.

LOLOL I recently logged in to flickr and got this:
"OH HAI Lutra! Now you know how to greet people in Lolcat!"

And I got 40/40 for one of the tests last week. Yay!

[head->desk] When engaged in cataloguing tasks it is very important to a: know what you're doing, and b: know what you're doing.
I've just spent 5 minutes trying to find the authorised subject heading for 'man-eating animals' on the Library of Congress' site. Couldn't find a thing, no matter which angle I came at it from. ('man eating animals'? 'killer animals'? 'dangerous animals'? etc.) Not a sausage. [oo! I wonder what the authorised heading for 'sausage' is? Tch, later, you mental butterfly...] Anyway, so yes, couldn't puzzle it out. Then, giving up in disgust and moving on to the next word on the list to search, I o'erglanced 'man-eating' and discovered it was in fact 'meat-eating animals'. [rolls eyes] Oy bloody vey... (The subject heading for 'meat-eating animals', by the way, is carnivora.)

[grump] One of the cubs has had a hair cut and now I'm getting them confused.
Not that they're identical, or anything.

Cool! Harper Collins has got Neil Gaiman's American Gods up to read online! Only for the next couple of weeks, though. Even so... Flipping through the first few pages reminded me how good it is and that I must read it again.

[And the LOC authorised subject heading for 'sausage' is 'sausages', with a 'see also' note to look under 'animal products'. Well, there you go...]

Ooh!
I've just had a thought!
Computer projectors = slide shows!
I can subject an entire room of people to my photos without having to muck about with slide film!
Mwahahahaha!

... mind you, slide film does give beautiful results. Rich and deep...
... but then I'd need another SLR...
... but then again I've seen some lovely stuff done with digital SLRs.

Hm...
Need a digital SLR, obviously. I wonder if there's any place that will let me put one on layby for about a year? :)

So yes, the major assessment assignment for one of my subjects was to investigate my local library and then give a verbal report to the class. I put in a lot of work for the assignment, trawling the website for information and prowling around the place taking photos. I was organised, I really was, in my head and on paper but I was disappointed with the result.

Part of the problem was that I wasn't organised enough, or perhaps more correctly, I wasn't organised in the right way. Yes, I'd taken the time to get the photos ready, and collate the info and set it out logically but I hadn't actually given much thought to the talking. I'm not an effective public speaker - I know this, I get tangled, and I talk too fast, I don't breathe between sentences - and yet being aware of this I still more or less decided to wing it. [rolls eyes] My own fault, entirely.
On the very plus side, however, I worked out how to use a computer projector! I mean, they're dead simple, really - you just plug it in to the monitor slot - but having never touched one before I was justifiably pleased with myself. (The trick was you had to press the power button twice. Once to switch it on, and then again to activate the lamp.) Hee.
My tutor said I did very well, though, so the presentation can't have been too bad, and I've probably passed. :)

Heh, four weeks in to the 2 years (possibly 2.5 for an Advanced Diploma) and I'm already pretty sure where I'd like to go with this. I don't have much enthusiasm for customer service, no, what I like is searching, cataloguing, archiving. Thinking of this Course purely in library terms is limiting - what we're learning is information management. The principles can be applied all over the place! How cool would it be to work in a photo/film archive? Or somewhere like our State Library that has a huge collection of ephemera? I could (read: am already thinking about) branching out, later, into conservation and preservation - which could lead in to allll sorts of cool things! Weeee!
This would be in conjunction with the writing and publishing of my novels. Naturally. ^_^ ([grinning] I was bored in my 20's, I'm enthusiastic now - I'm going to be unstoppable in my 90's!)

Time for a couple of book reviews, methinks.

I'd like to say I'm making an effort to expand my literary horizons by actively seeking out and reading the sort of classic stuff that keeps appearing on 'My favourite/Most influential etc' booklists, but no, the 'right' books falling in to my hands is more serendipity than anything else. For example, I spotted Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray in an op shop, and as it was one of those things I've been meaning to read like, forever [valley girl head toss] I picked it up.

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[spoiler warnings, perhaps?]
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What an interesting little story. It was terribly coy about Dorian's 'evil' indulgences - except for the mentions of opium - and as for how he ruined all those women, and men...? Hmmm. My slash-heavy imagination was happy to fill in the blanks. I felt like smacking Henry, though. Self-indulgent git.
The abrupt ending threw me, I have to admit. Having vague memories of a couple of dodgy film versions I knew how it was going to end but still, I was expecting more of a debriefing. Though the abruptness did - and is still - keeping me happily occupied contemplating what might have happened next so perhaps that's not such a bad thing.

Next: Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls. (This one I spotted on a library shelf...)
It's trash, but it's historical trash. Not a favourite read - it bounced me between boredom and frustration. Boredom cos the 'plot' was very predictable and, omigod, het is sooo dull. As a seasoned purveyor of smut it really was quite tame though I could see why it was controversial in the '60's.
And frustration because narcissism and the consequent blaming of everybody else for your problems but yourself gets right up my nose. All right, yes, it was made abundantly clear in the text why this was happening (stress + drugs + being forced by the 'industry' to maintain an impossible ideal of youth and beauty ÷ fragile personalities) but even so... [grumble]
It was disappointing, too, cos the story started out with a promising feminist slant, but alas, all too soon it degenerated into, well, just another trash novel. I can see where Jackie Collins got her inspiration... :)

Coming up soon: My Class Presentation and How it Could've Been Better...

[grizzle] Three days in a row of above 30c temperatures and I'm in a bit of a mood. I know perfectly well that Summer won't be done with us 'til end of March at least but I allowed myself to be lulled by the several days of quite reasonable weather. [grump] Eh well, cool change tonight, apparently...

Eheheheheh. I think my mum's bought me a life-size plastic flamingo for my birthday! It seems the stroke she had a couple of years ago has left her physically incapable of keeping a secret. :)

I was at the Salvos the other day, just browsing, as you do, when something on a distant shelf caught my eye. It was green - a good start - and appeared to be an acrylic paperweight, one of the things I tend to collect. I almost dismissed it, however, cos it just contained a weird looking dog...




But then...
"I know that shape!" quoth I to myself. "Isn't that Jeff Koons' 'Puppy'?"

I scampered over and was delighted to find it was indeed representative of that piece of seminal... art, but even better - the paperweight was a souvenir from the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain!
So exciting! I so rarely see tatt of that quality!





I'm easily pleased. :)
Just wait 'til I work out if I can post somewhere a video of the glorious plastic chicken Soulsis gave me!

So, I've managed two whole weeks as a student. Still fun though I can already feel the slide in to 'routine'. :)

I'm enjoying myself and cos I have a little bit of background knowledge/previous study I'm feeling really smart. [smirk] My 'Literacy Skills' tutor complimented me on my searching skills. Dead chuffed, but I didn't want to tell how just how long I spend online chasing stuff up for fun, let alone what I do in the name of research or idle curiosity.
But, even though what I'm studying right now is familiar territory I'm still learning new things, which stops it getting boring, and stops me getting cocky. Little Miss Overconfident? Ooh, yes...

OhOhOh! Speaking of which found out some jolly useful things about the college's Library website! Alongside the catalogue record of an item is a 'Keep' tab. Click that and the computer stores the record for you (you have to be logged in for it to work). In the menu bar above the record is a 'Kept' tab. Click that and the record is emailed to you! Why is this a nifty thing? For building a bibliography! I won't have to keep written notes and I can c/p neatly from the screen - eee!

Had another early class on Wednesday (8am, gah) and the time until the break and my first cup of tea for the day was kind of weird. I'm easily distracted by shiny at the best of times but when I'm tired... The tutor's jacket was made of a subtly spangly gold-threaded pink/mauve check (actually much nicer than it sounds) and I repeatedly caught myself staring, entranced. [sheepish]

There hasn't been much homework so far but I've got [counting on fingers] 3 assignments to be getting on with. Not difficult tasks, just time intensive.
And there's an excursion next week! Down in to the city to have a look at a special sort of library! Cool!
Gods, I love this course... :)



Happy Chinese New Year, by the way. It's the year of the Rat, but for some inexplicable reason pineapples seemed to be part of the theme as well...

I've just been to see Sweeney Todd.
In a word: blood-soaked - and all right Mr Depp can only do one accent - but I certainly appreciated the movie. Enjoyed? Mm, no, but Mr Burton's awfully good at creating believable fantasy worlds, and the cast was fabulous! And I like musicals [shrug]. Someone mentioned somewhere Judge Turpin's trousers and now I quite understand the unholy fascination. Yerrss, indeed...
(The cubs' father has just asked me how closely it followed the original story. I had to say I didn't know. I first heard about Sweeney Todd when I was, oh, twelve, or something and like most horror stories it squicked me completely and I've mostly avoided it since then, but honestly, Mr Depp and Mr Rickman in one movie? Couldn't resist. Besides, in the journey from original to musical, things do tend to get buggered about. Even more so if The Holy Rodent Empire has a hand in it somehow. [glower] )

I seem to have survived my first week as a full-time student, though my brain's a little porridgey. (I was sposed to go and see ST last night but as I was falling asleep on the bus coming home I thought I probly needed the sleep more.) Friday was difficult - 5 hours of 'Use Cataloguing Tools' - but Wednesday was particularly tiresome. Classes started at 8am! Erk! I got there in time, and managed to stay awake but... Fortunately early start days also finish early. Just as well or I'd be useless.

And my weekend away was lovely - I even drank alcohol.
A leisurely seven hour road-trip with good long breaks in Camperdown (great op shop there!) and Port Fairy (soooo pretty! And another op shop, and a sweet shop. Mmm...)
True, the accommodation at Cape Bridgewater isn't the best but it is cheap and having the hall/kitchen for our use is wonderful for the social aspect. We cooked all our own lovely food, or rather, Pete cooked all the lovely food and everyone else helped with preparation and clean up.
On Saturday morning 4 of us went on an expedition into Portland to acquire the supplies we'd forgot to pick up the previous day (garlic and napkins, basically) and we found two more op shops! In the afternoon there was another expedition, in the opposite direction, to the petrified forest on the cliffs. Very cool. I'll get off my arse and get some pics up soonish. Probably. Homework, you know...
Niki and I came home on Sunday, very tired, to the sauna that is Melbourne in the Summer. It'd been lovely and fresh down on the coast. Eh well, that small inconvenience certainly didn't ruin the rest of a great weekend. :) Very glad I went. Thanks, Alarice for organising it!

... I really should take the xmas tree down. Leaving it up 'til the Australia Day weekend is just slack. :) Trouble is, this year it's tucked away in an inconspicuous corner, not out where everyone can trip over the damn thing. :)
Tch, and I'm fed up with my domestic arrangements, as is usual after the cubs and I have house-sat for Niki. Was even better this time cos Mum had lent me her car for the week, so I had the illusion of having my own house and my own car. [grits teeth] Eh well, not a lot I can do about it at the moment, my finances and the outrageously expensive rental market being what they are.

Cubs are back at school next week. Once again the holidays have zipped past. Of the suggested list of 'fun things' we've done about a third, not bad going. As for the 'holiday jobs'? Heh, that one thing I did right at the beginning remains the only thing ticked. Oops. Really should make myself some new trews though...

And now, a meme. Forget who I nicked it from. Oh yes, undunoops

1. You have 10 dollars and need to buy snacks at a gas petrol station:

Coffee flavoured milk. I'd probly have to use the rest for petrol.

2. If you were reincarnated as a sea creature, what would you want to be?

Mermaid!

3. Last book you read?

'Hornet's Nest' - Patricia Cornell (Cornwell?). Currently reading 'Two for the Lions' - Lindsey Davis, a Marcus Didius Falco thriller.

4. Describe the last time you were injured?

... can't remember. Um, slicing my thumb open 2 decades ago while preparing dinner? No, there must be something more recent. Ah, pulling a muscle in bed - I was just stretching, honest. Oh, I know, doing my ankle at the snow. My own fault, wearing the wrong shoes...

5. Of all your LJ friends, who would you want to be stuck in a well with?

[blink] I wouldn't want to be stuck in a well.

6. What is the wallpaper on your cell phone? If you don't have a phone what would it be if you did have one?

Varies, but it's always a pic taken with my camera phone. Currently it's this:


Previously, it was this:



7. If you could only use one form of transportation what would it be?

Magic carpet!

8. Most recent movie you have watched in the theatre?

'The Waterhorse'. Wasn't bad, but David Morrissey as an upper-class Brit threw me for a moment.

9. Name an actor/actress/singer you have the hots for:

Jared Leto. Oh, Hephaistion... Boys in eyeliner. Mmm...

10. What's your favorite kind of cake?

Proper, heavy fruitcake. With marzipan and icing!

11. Look to your left, what do you see?

Are we talking the 90 degree arc between head-on and over-the-shoulder? Purple sparkly lamp; red flocked Buddha money box; 'puter stack, stacked with books; cat tree; cat igloo; window.

12. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?

Laces?

13. Favorite toy as a child?

My plastic horses. I made them stables out of cardboard, and tack out of brown vinyl. I drew plans for landscaped dioramas they could roam.

14. Do you think people talk about you behind your back?

Yes. But only when I'm paranoid. The rest of the time I don't give a shit.

15. Do you like running long distances?

What is this 'running' of which you speak?

15. Have you ever eaten snow?

Probably, when I were a wee lass in England. Heck, I remember eating dirt so snow wouldn't have been a stretch.

16. What color are the sheets on your bed?

Blue. But only cos I can't find violent pink, purple or orange in 100% cotton.

17. What is the first television theme song that pops in your head?

Dr Who.

18. Do people consider you smart?

Only if they know me.

19. How many piercings do you have?

One.

20. What is your favorite salad dressing?

Either good quality olive oil and/or vinegar, or something indulgent like a blue-cheese dressing.

Golly. Wasn't that interesting? :)

I really should listen to my intuition. The other day I found myself thinking that perhaps I should make sure there's candles and matches handy. Two days later there was a blackout - while I was online - that killed my modem. [grump] ...Not that having the candles accessible would've stopped my modem from frying, however.
(I'm online and posting due to Niki's good graces. The cubs and I are house-sitting for a few days, and yay, she's got internet!)




... but in a nice way... :)

[giggling] Skittycat has done a Mills&Boon style illustration for one of my Snupins. Should I warn for cross-dressing...?

I was busy in one room when my phone rang in another.
I found myself saying, out loud - 'accio phone'. [rolls eyes] The thing was, when it didn't fling itself in to my hand I wondered why...

Some shameless self-promotion. (I think I can do this now that All's Been Revealed...)
My SnuSa gift was for Rudika who requested 'Snupin as Mafia Bosses'.
'Like Minds' (link goes to the 'age consent' page rather than straight to the story, just in case...)
Be warned, it's male/male; Harry Potter Alternate Universe; Adult rated and contains torture. One of my nice, light pieces. [smirk]

*****

Scab Red
Bad Moon Yellow
Graveyard Earth
Tentacle Pink
Rotting Flesh
Chaos Black
Vermin Brown
Snot Green

Natural Moss
Marron Glace
Tangerine
Love Bird
Silverfox
Moorland
Stained Glass Black
Aurora

One of these is a list of wools, the other, WarHammer 40K model paints. Can you tell which is which? :)

... I have no idea what day it is.
Saturday? [checks] Yes, Saturday. The lack of daily structure during holidays is nice, very relaxing, but it does tend me make forget where in the week I am. :) Not helped when my regularly watched TV programs are missing or moved from their usual time slot. I don't like to think of myself as a creature of habit, but there's the evidence to the contrary.

I finally got 'round to watching the movie version of Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I didn't hate it, though I'd expected to, but then I remember the moaning about the TV series not being as good as the book, and - going back even further - the moaning that the book was a pale imitation of the radio play.
Yeah, it was irritating that so much of the original dialogue and plot had been excised or fiddled with in this version, but I thought the casting was true to the characters. Sam Rockwell made a particularly obnoxious Zaphod, but then Zaphod's a particularly obnoxious character. Mos Def was a convincing Ford and Martin Freeman was as good as any other Arthur I've encountered. The least convincing character for me was Marvin. I really don't know why. Maybe because Mr Rickman's voice is so distinctive? I just couldn't make the voice and the robot suit match up.
As for the new bits...? Hm. Not sure why the decision was made to change the plot so substantially but it hung together well enough. I admit I wasn't impressed with the resolution of the Arthur/Trillian thing - it felt a little too much like pandering to an LCD audience that expects Romance between the leads. [sigh]
I did however like the dolphins, and the little references back towards the TV series, and Stephen Fry as The Book. And the Vogons. The realisation of that 'callous and beaurocratic' species was superbly done. (Yay for Jim Henson's Creature Workshop!)
So, all in all the movie was - dare I say? - mostly harmless. (Yes, yes, no one's ever heard that before. Sorry :) The cubs loved it, but I want them to read the book so they can fully appreciate Douglas Adam's peculiar comic genius.

A noble sentiment for the new year. I heartily concur. We shud lissens to kittehs - dey iz wize.





(Strangely, Badger and Rocket's father can't cope with lolcatz speek. [smirk] )

Right, so, here we are almost at the end of the first day of 2008. It was quiet, too quiet. The sort of quiet that bespeaks a day of staying as still as possible cos of the stupid hot temperature, again. Gah. Eh well, no matter, cool change's come through early enough that I should be able to sleep tonight. I can cope with hot hot days as long as the nights are cool enough to kip properly. If they're not...? Well, cranky just about covers it.

Twas a very quiet NYE, as well. Essentially just me and the cubs at home, catching sight of the occasional - probly illegal - firework being let off nearby. I really didn't mind, it's been years since I thought it was tragic to not have something to do on NYE.
Resolutions? No, don't bother much with them anymore, either. Other than sensible ones like 'bloody look after yerself, idjit, you're not getting any younger and half your family's dead of strokes and heart disease!' Yes, helpfully motivational things like that. :)
2007. Hm, not the best year I've had - not the worst, either - but there's definitely room for improvement. But let's get through the holidays first, eh? I've got a list of things I'd like to have achieved by the time the cubs go back to school. I've even managed one of them so far. That's better than this time last year!

After a 40 degree day, a 30 degree day feels almost pleasant in comparison...
(That's in celsius, by the way, and zipping over to a temperature conversion page I see that 40C is 104F. Well, there you go. Hot, damn hot.)


Xmas was good, a relatively quiet and relatively stress-free bbq at Mum's with Soulsis and her chicks. I think everyone liked their gifts. I know I liked mine. My niece, Miss Raven, painted me a gorgeous picture of an otter! It's going to be framed. :) The cubs gave me the OotP dvd, and from their dad I received a pair of lovely blue/white fish-themed Japanese bowls. Mum gave me a gift voucher (cos that's what I said I wanted) plus a pair of bendy flamingo plant-ties. [grin] They might even be inspiration enough to plant some tomatoes or something. Eventually.

Not sure if it's the same in other countries, but here in Aus the tending of the bbq - the last of fire rituals - is generally a man thing. Well, for various reasons there were no men as such at our family xmas so Soulsis drafted one of her boys in to service. He did an excellent job, no charred meat and only 2 sausages lost to the ground! He was justifiably pleased with himself but I'm not sure if he realises that now he's going to be the man-elect for future bbqs.

After the bbq the cubs and I stayed overnight at Mum's, but only overnight as they were most anxious to get home and play with the new xbox their dad had given them. [rolls eyes] I've given them fair warning that they have to brace themselves for separation from the machine cos we'll be going up to visit Mum for a few days later in the holidays...


Now for a small socio-political rant. Feel free to skip.
At the cubs' school graduation thingy the chairperson of the Parents' Association got up to say a few words. Those words however, got right up my little proletarian nose. In effect he was congratulating us - the parents, students and teachers - because some of the kids were going on to private secondary schools.
Grrrr...
It was an implication that first, it was somehow an unusual effort for a government-funded school to produce such quality and second, that it was some sort of achievement on the part of the students.
Bollocks!
Those kids are going to private schools because their parents can afford it. There were no scholarships won: believe me, we would've heard about it if there was! True, the private schools have 'standards', whereas State schools can't refuse anyone, regardless of their academic results, but bloody hell, just cos a child's been accepted to one of these elite institutions does not automatically speak of an innate superiority! [ruffles feathers] Hmph.
Is it just sour grapes? If I had the means would I send the cubs to a private school? I don't know. Their dad would, but then he's a grammar school boy himself and the effects of the differences in our socio-economic backgrounds has been a subject we've mutually skirted-around for years. :) If anyone tells you Australia is a classless society they're talking out of their arse.


Okay, </rant>, now that I've revealed my leftist pinko tendencies.

HappyLucky New Year's Eve!

Xmas. Yes. More amusing details later, I suppose, when I could be arsed but right now here's a photo of the knee rug I knitted for my Mum. I started it while she was in hospital over a year ago and she finally received it this xmas. :) It's about 1 metre square.



([blink] Is that a really big image? Might have to go and dabble with Photobucket and see if I can resize it. Tch, Flickr's much easier to use but Photobucket doesn't have the same sorts of limits.)

So, xmas eve, eh? You know, I think I've just about had enough of chocolate...

Awww... My little geek cubs' fingers are streaked with paint from where they've been preparing their new Warhammer 40k figures for play. They've got one of the starter set kits, that they paid for themselves. Sort of - a combination of a small amount of accumulated pocket money and trading their big plastic D&D Blue and Black dragon figures to their dad.
Their dad meanwhile - who's been assiduously avoiding the WH40K money trap for years - has thrown himself in with equal enthusiasm. The three of them have been happily researching and planning their armies. :) I can see I won't be getting much table space for the time being.

Couple of interesting dreams recently. In the first I was helping someone dismantle the top storey (or just their bedroom?) of their house. This was interesting because the person was the teacher I liked who has just retired.
In the second dream I was revisiting houses/places that I know from previous dreams. There were 3 this particular time, two of which were the most fascinating, but impractical dwellings...
Though thinking about it now, the 3 places are linked, not logically, but in that way only in dreams things can be related.
Heh, and in another part of that dream I was following a pilgrimage of sorts, performing almost-forgotten fannish rituals, the details of which came back to me as I worked my way along the route. (Rolling in a mud puddle? Ookay...) Though there's nothing particularly deep about that section, I know exactly what triggered it. I'd just finished reading Dianne Wynne Jones' Deep Secret. A good chunk of the story happened at a Sci-fi and Fantasy Convention and though it's been years since I went to one the book jogged my memory about the sorts of ritual peculiarities one can encounter. [grin]

... why did Firefox start up in Spanish today?

The cubs' father spotted this on a t-shirt:

Dear Santa,
I can explain...

And so Badger and Rocket's primary school days come to an end. I did get a little emotional at the final assembly but not in connection with the Grade 6s. One of my nephews, Tinny [snerk], is a sympathetic vomiter - seeing someone vomit sets him off. I, on the other hand, am a sympathetic cryer. Two of the teachers leaving got emotional, and well... yes. It didn't help that one of them I really liked and had worked closely with this year.
I was very glad when the assembly finished. I hung around long enough to exchange very brief goodbyes then I fled. Yep, I'm such a wuss. Besides, it's not like I'm going away forever - I'll be there helping out in the library at least one afternoon a week next year.

I picked up our 'xmas lay-by' the other day, the one that's been lurking since June. It came in a huge box which, naturally, the cubs couldn't fail to spot on the front passenger seat of the car. Perhaps I should've prevaricated when they asked what it was, but they were enthusiastic when I asked if they wanted to open it now as an early xmas present. Which was all to the good cos it meant I didn't have to a: remember who had what, and b: try and find somewhere to hide it all. :)