Chapter 3's finished - on to chapter 4.
And I'm still having fun with it... : )

Sparkly!
The glitter lamp Soulsis and Niki gave me for my birthday is just gorgeous. When it's switched on the colour of the oil gradiates from a pink down the bottom, to purple at the top. The Silver sequins floating inside catch the light in a wonderfully pretty way and the whole thing throws lovely watery-ripple reflections on the wall. It's almost as soothing to watch as a fishtank. <g>

Food:

Day: Creamy organic porridge (nummy), couple of handfuls of raw brazil nuts, peppermint tea.
Evening: Individual 'minted-lamb' pie, and cucumber and black-olive salad. (While the idea of Joules' cucumber and blue cheese sandwich sounded yummy, in reality I couldn't face any dairy today) followed by a cup of tea and some lemon cake.

<smirk> A "prolific, little black-leather clad pixie..." That's how Joules' described herself to me after running through the (extensive) list of fandoms she'd written in. : )
It's the image of the ears, I think, that makes me giggle...

<g> Inspired by Onna's Gravitation Badfic flash animation (Thursday 17th March), the cubs have been storyboarding (at my suggestion) their own little animations. We don't have flash, alas, but XP's Powerpoint Presentation has the capacity for very simple animations. Okay, I can see how they'll be spending their afternoon...
I'd love to get them a video/digital camera to play with - they're intrigued with stop-motion - and there's some nice and basic editing software about now I understand.
The next Speilbergs? I doubt it, their imaginations are too off-the-wall for that. Tim Burton, perhaps... : )

Yesterday was another non-day as far as food went. Wasn't terribly inspired to do much, and the cubs' father took them out for fish'n'chips anyway so there was no reason for me to cook. However...

Grazing through the day: Finished the grapes, had a couple of small packets of chips, organic s'getti with parmesan cheese (thank you, Joules : ), fruit juice and peppermint tea, random sponge fingers.
Evening: organic boiled potatoes with butter, then more home-made trifle. Sort of - there was left-over custard, I hadn't eaten all the sponge fingers and we've always got jelly. No cream though, but that wasn't a problem.

I'm very pleased with how much of what the cubs and I eat is organically produced. Rice, pasta, potatoes, carrots, milk, flours, sugars, crackers, eggs, soy-milk, cereals, teas/coffee, meat when I can afford it, ditto other types of fruit and veg. Enlightened as our supermarket is they don't have an organic alternative for everything but being an aware consumer I know which brands at least have a 'GMO free' policy. I think we're doing all right... : )

I was very restrained yesterday. I didn't say 'Screw the budget, I want the next DVD's of all the series I'm collecting now!' I didn't even impulse buy any new material for my latest idea, but now, after watching volume 4 of Last Exile, I want the rest of it! <pout>
No, I'll stick to the budget - if any of the DVD's go off the shelves I'll be able to find them somewhere else if not order them in.

Right. Food.
Let's just ignore everything I ate yesterday (there was a reason I had to crash out for an extended nap yesterday afternoon) except for the big plate of roast veggies (organic potatoes, pumpkin and swede) served with home-made onion gravy I had for dinner, followed by some quite nice home-made trifle.
There's no guarantee I'll eat better today - just not in the right mood - but at least with all the sugary stuff gone if I want any I'll have to get off my arse and walk to the shops to get it.

Onna, how 'bout just a sample day of what you regularly eat? Nosy parkers (ie: me) want to know... : )

The cubs got home at 10.30 p.m. last night from the martial arts demonstration. They had a good time, though, loved the sumo wrestling.
My cubs were a big hit too, apparently. The visiting Japanese girls thought one little boy with longish red hair was cute enough but when they saw the pair of them together... kawaii!! <g> The cubs told me they had their photos taken a number of times. : )

It wasn't a late night for them tonight, though it was a busy one: the school held its annual Twilight Sports Night.
I've never wanted to go to any of these but so far I've not managed to miss one - perversely proud of that. Wasn't sure we'd be able to get there this year, it was being held in an oval that was awkward to get to via public transport, but Penny offered us a lift, so we went. It wasn't too bad (they never are) and my cubs came third and fourth in their race. Mind you there were only 4 people in their heat but it was a noble effort nonetheless. <g>
Anyway, it's not yet 10 and they're already asleep - puir tired wee things. : )

I pulled out some of my knitting last night, specifically the pink fluffy neko hat I started last Winter. Got a few more lines done. I might actually need a hat this year if we're still traveling to school by PT; gets a bit chilly standing there at the bus-stops.

Hee. Got this from Okapi's lj.


Sometimes your creative solutions land you in
sticky situations but you remain adventurous
and undaunted by failure. You posess an
infectious confidence and deep thinking comes
naturally to you.
Always on the go with many paws in many pies,
Rabbits can appear slightly manic to others.
But not to worry, you have everything under
control... most of the time.


Which Pooh character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Manic? Moi? <eg>

Yay! The cubs' father finally got round to giving me a birthday present - volume 4 of 'Last Exile'! I'll treat myself to that tomorrow afternoon while they're at the Golden Arches of Doom.

Food! (Forgot to mention yesterday the smooshed Easter egg I rescued from one of the cubs' school bags. He couldn't donate it to the school's Easter raffle in that state, so I nobly ate it... while the cubs were out so they wouldn't pester ask me for some...)

Early: Grapes, a couple of small, sticky 'treat' bars made from rice bubbles and marshmallow, glass of discounted apple/blueberry/banana juice, several slices of Danish salami.
Afternoon tea with Penny: fresh coffee, King Island 'double' brie with organic water crackers, 3 yummy fresh and soft donuts (chocolate, passionfruit and chocolate with custard) to share.
Evening during Sports Night: More grapes, chicken-flavoured chips, lemonade, 'crunchy' M&Ms.

I'm a little peckish now, but not hungry. Certainly not hungry enough to seriously consider cooking anything.
And there's some grapes left - I'll have them for breakfast, I think

It's quiet.
... too quiet.
The sort of quiet that makes me wonder what the cubs are doing...

<g> They're at a martial arts demonstration with their father. I was able to watch a whole DVD without interruption.

Joules and I had a serious and intelligent discussion about turnips and swedes (rutabagas) today. It's amazing what can come up in conversation, ne?

And on the subject of food...

Daytime: banana, water, 2 sandwiches made with fresh bakery bread and sun-dried tomatoes (yum), apple.
Nighttime: nibbles of the bacon I was cooking for the cubs, home-made tuna sushi (the cat was my best friend!), cup of tea, water.

Right, I think I'm almost half-way through chapter 3. I'm largely making it up as I go for this bit, filling in around the basic framework, but it's interesting what's surfacing as I write. This universe is growing right before my eyes. : )

It's not all fun sleeping on a mattress on the floor. You can feel the vibrations of various activities through the floorboards, like your housemate's full volume shoot-em-up computer games, or his snoring, or the using the farking washing machine at farking 2 in the morning! Grrr...

Moving right along...
Penny and I had a fun afternoon. We decided last week to treat ourselves to a combined birthday thing (her birthday was on Monday) and today was the day. First of all we popped in to one of our local op-shops where I picked up some half-price lovely pieces of clothing destined to be cut up into quilts, then we went to the Pancake Parlour for lunch.
Which brings me to...

Food.

Morning: Banana, another weird nectarine, the few birthday chocolates that survived this long, water.
Lunch: orange juice, water, 'beef-burger and fried egg on a buckwheat pancake, served with a side salad [one leaf of cos lettuce, 2 slices of tomato, 3 rings of spanish onion] plus mustard and tomato sauce'. Tasty but not exceptional.
Dinner: organic potatoes and carrots cooked in home-made chicken broth, iced coffee made with sweetened coffe/chicory essence.

I was contemplating having some pink-stuff after dinner, but honestly I was too full to really appreciate it.
See? I can so do restraint. <g>

Wee! Look! Up there in the addie field.
Is it a flower? Is it an icecream?
No! It's a puffer-fish icon!
That's so cute - thanks, Joules!
(I really should get on with making that puffer-fish shaped handbag, ne?)

Started watching the first volume of Twelve Kingdoms again. Glad I did cos as usual there were lots of little plot things I picked up the second time round. Plus, the DVD sleeve has a mini-glossary, which is t'riffic cos now I've got some idea of who's what and how they work around each other. <g>
Definitely wouldn't mind having the tech to do screencaps - there's some very pretty images in this series...

Woohoo! Three and a bit pages into chapter 3. I have definite 'scenes' in my head as I write - the fun bit is linking them together, and giving enough information about the worldframe without waffling. I think I'm mostly getting the balance right.

Food food food:

Morning: Banana, the weirdest nectarine I've ever eaten (sweet and juicy but fibrous like the inner bit of a mango) water, cups of tea, and lollies.
Afternoon: Bacon, anchovies, olives, dried tomatoes and chocolate.
Evening: Fresh coffee, noodles and chicken, more olives but no more lollies - all gone...

Ah, yes, before I forget. Links and things!

Okapi posted this in the comments box. Cacked myself laughing! The rest of the site's worth a look, too.
And this link came from Joules' blog. Again, I cacked myself laughing. This also comes from the same (quite interesting) site... Given my love of tat, I giggled a lot. : )

Oh dear, sugar's wearing off, looks like I'll be off to bed soon...
Thanks Onna, Carol and Sue for the e-cards!

[points upwards] There you go - a little pink pufferfish icon for your blog...

Soulsis (bless her) drove the cubs and I to Niki's this morning for a birthday thing. Was a loverly relaxed sort of day. The brats all played more-or-less nicely together which helped. And I was showered with gifts! <g> A purple 'glitter' lamp, beautiful scarves, chocolates and lollies! Hee.
It was hot again today but the temperature came down late in the afternoon so we sat outside and played with Gemma (the dog). I had a nap in the shade on Niki's lawn. Can't remember the dream but it was odd, and permeated with the scent of the rose geranium that had been pruned while I slept.
It was quite late when we got home (Soulsis drove us again : ) and the cubs crawled off to bed without a murmur.
Thanks for a great day, guys. <hugs>

Food:

Grazing throughout the day: Banana, delicious cold roast pork and vegetables with a superb gravy (thanks, Niki!), and the best crackling I've had in ages. Glass of fermented grape juice, and cordial and water and cups of tea, and a slice of chocolate ripple cake. Also yum. : )
Dinner: Noodles with left-over roast pork simmered in left-over gravy, and steamed fresh green beans.

Happy Birthday to me...
Well I've had worse days. <g>
Got a lovely hand-made card from my cubs, and Joules wrote some fabulous smut for me, based on two of my favourite bishies! <happy squeak> Alas, I can't share it with anyone - not until Haadri is released at least so for the time being it's mine, all mine! Mwahahahahahahahahahah!
Right, where was I?
Ah yes...
Both Soulsis and GoodTwin sent me very funny e-cards, and Okapi wrote me a haiku! It's in the comments for the previous post. : )

It's amazing what you can find following links.
This first cartoon, Nice Hair, is very odd but I like it a lot. It's got a gay pirate called Jack, how can I not like it? <smirk>
And this one, Marilith, is looking quite interesting. The (completed) prequel is here by the way.
Adult warnings for violence for the last two comics, incidentally.

Okay, food for today:

Early: Banana, cups of tea and hot chocolate, cold left-over lasagne, and a lump of very ordinary cheddar cheese.
Later: Home-made pizza with olives, anchovies, bocconcini, dried tomatoes, mushrooms and mozarella. Couple of slices of chocolate swiss-roll, and far too much Sara Lee lemon cheesecake. More tea, and cos it's been hot, water as well.

Tired now. Going to bed. Tomorrow should be fun... : )

Tried drafting an update a little while ago and it was nothing short of uninspired.
So, I'm starting from scratch.

Curriculum day - cubs and I went to the Aquarium.
Had lots of fun, saw lots of fishies including wee, baby Leafy Sea Dragons.
Cubs got new plushy (tiger) sharks each, and I got a biiiiig (40cm long) plushy clownfish. : )

Today's food:

Pre-dinner: Banana, 2 fresh bread rolls with wasabi/soy flavoured tuna (not as exciting as it sounds), iced apple pie thing, small can of iced coffee, 2 dried fruit 'roll-ups', small piece of the meat lasagne I made for the cubs' dinner, glass of home-made iced coffee.
Dinner: Piece of basa (freshwater fish) steamed with carrots and brussel sprouts, topped with garlic sauteed in butter and lemon juice. Verra nice.

This is an idea nicked from Erestor's lj.

10 Things I've done that you might not have.

1 - Emigrated to another country. (Yes, ok, Sammi did that.)

2 - Gave birth to naturally conceived twins. (And, yes, Soulsis did that, too. :)

3 - Got my nose pierced.

4 - Almost touched Adam Ant. (So close... so close...)

5 - Sniffed hydrochloric acid. (Why? Cos I wanted to know what it smelt like. Which, by the way, is vinegar, though I couldn't smell anything else for 3 weeks.)

6 - Sang 'Always look on the bright side of life' at someone's funeral.

7 - Lived in a haunted house. (And made friends with the ghost!)

8 - Went to a garage sale at a Convent. (Hee, glow-in-the-dark Virgin Mary!)

9 - Hung around Gatwick airport for almost 24 hours cos we'd missed the 'plane.

10 - Was saved from a life of crime by a shopkeeper catching me shoplifting.

Golly, what an interesting life I've lead, ne?
Of course I haven't included anything that I thought might make me look like a pervy hentai. <smirk>

Now they're just teasing...
<poutgrumble> The creators of the yaoi webcomic Sublunary have stated that they've got enough updates for the comic ready that'll take them through to the beginning of May.
May!? I want it all now!

And now my food list for today:

Earlyish: Banana, apple, and a sliver of a really nice cheesecake. A proper baked one, not one of those creamcheese and gelatin things.
Afternoon tea: (a weekly event with Penny) Camembert cheese and organic water crackers (yum!), good brewed coffee, Penny's home-made banana cake and a shop-bought chocolate/mint cake (which was very rich and nowhere near as nice as the banana cake.)
Dinner: The cubs' father treated me to Chinese tonight - beef and cashews, beef and black bean sauce, and special fried rice. Mmmm...
What else was there? A small handful of hulled sunflower seeds and a couple of glasses of fizzy orange drink.

Hm, thirsty now - haven't had much to drink today...

Joules thought it could be interesting to see how/what other people eat. So, daily for the next week or so we'll be listing on our blogs things wot we've eaten that day. (<blink> Did that sentence make any sense at all? Eh. It's late, I don't really care... Anyway, back to the fun...)
Today was a good day to start - I had fruit!

Breakfast/Lunch (no clear meal as such): apple, 2 pieces of flat bread, iced coffee (with home-made sweet, brewed coffee. Yum!), couple of bites of an unripe, tasteless pear.
Dinner: Roast (organic) potatoes and pumpkin, with garlic, sea salt and sour cream. More iced coffee and 2 glasses of ginger cordial and soda water.

That's not too bad actually, is it? Good job I didn't start yesterday cos then I'd have to list the 3 mini-packets of chips I raided from the cubs' lunchtime stash. <g> Sue me, I was hungry.


Yay! First draft of chapter 2 is done! Think I'll finish up something else (next Elga, or Haadri-fic, perhaps) before beginning chapter 3.

Hah! Years of observation has proved me right. It's going to be hot on my birthday weekend - it has always been hot on my birthday weekend. : ) But on the up side this hot spell is usually the last before the long slow slide into Winter.

Oookaaay... Soulsis sent me this.
I think that's sposed to be an otter.
Good sentiments, though.

<hand to forehead> Only 8 days into the month and I've already used 50% of my broadband allowance. Curse those mp3's... <smirk>
Fortunately I don't get charged extra if I go over the limit, I just have the cable speed reduced to 28kps until the next month clocks over. And unlike the dial-up connection it'll be a true 28k rather than the 4-5k the 56k modem generally managed.

And speaking of mp3's. Joules (not obsessive, just thorough) found this brill site. It's chockas full of downloadable anime music, lots of full versions and very good quality. Fun fun fun!

Two days to go then it's the long weekend. Woohoo!

One of my cubs came up to me the other day with one of his Transformers.

"Megatron's unhappy, mum." (The horns on his helmet were turned down.) "How can I cheer him up?"
"Do a little dance for him." I said. "Works for me."
"Mum." My cub gave me a look. "This is the supreme ruler of the Decepticons we're talking about..."

<g> Well, it does cheer me up immeasurably when my cubs do little dances for me. Can't see why it wouldn't work for an evil robot...

Gah. Well that was a weekend.
The cubs had school projects that had to be handed in today. As usual we left it to the last minute and spent a good 10 hours working on them but by golly we got it done. Of course, when I say 'we' I mean 'them' with me applying the cattle-prod. Aside from the mobiles (one is of Saturn and Titan, the other of Mars and Phobos/Deimos) the work is all the cubs' own. Yes, it could be neater, and there could be more details, but they did it on their own. :)

Heh, it's been a year since the school burnt down. The Education Dept. has just started accepting 'applications of interest' from builders. Apparently we're still on schedule for moving into the new building beginning of next year. Blimey, we're almost at the end of first term as it is. After Easter - which is what? 3 weeks away? - there's only another week then holidays. Can't say I'm not looking forward to it, though, first term always seems rushed.

Isn't she pretty! Toys'r'us are having a sale - I got her for $5. <g>

Watched volume 3 of Last Exile. <happy sigh> I love this series. And because sometimes it's fun to take a chance I also picked up volume 1 of Twelve Kingdoms. Knew nothing about this series but it was one I kept going back to when browsing the store shelves. Cover art was attractive and on one of the volumes there was a giant mouse! How could I pass it up? Well anyway, I watched one ep and wasn't all that impressed. Very ordinary story, I thought, and stilted, recognisable character types. But I didn't have anything better to do so I kept watching.
It built slowly and by the end of the fifth ep I wanted to see more, not just because of the bishies (... oh gods, no, I've just had a [ping]... Need to get a better idea of the charas though...) but because I want to know what happens to these people. And I want to know if my wild hypotheses re: the various plots are correct.
Oh yes, and I haven't seen the mouse yet, that comes in episode 6. :)

Feeling a vague sense of determination - the second chapter of my next novel is half-done and I want to get it finished before the weekend. I'm toying with the idea of completing a chapter a week but we'll see how we go.

I'm now undecided as to whether to post the merboiz fic - SirenSong - in an open page. Although it fits very neatly into the Flight and Fancy continuum (remember that?) it's a little on the graphic side, and while according to my research there are a number of animals that do commonly engage in same-sex intimacy - including dolphins - I don't really know how visitors would react. Lutra's suggested I post the full version in The Zone and the CCO Lj, and a censored version in The Vault. That would work, though it's extra work for me...

I'll think about it while I'm coding.

As my birthday treat to myself I picked up volume 2 of Wolf's Rain, and volume 3 of Last Exile. Managed to sit down and watch the wolfy one this afternoon while the cubs were out with their father.
Not that I didn't enjoy these eps but I don't think I liked them much as the first lot, (though we got to see more of Darcia and he's an absolute honey...). The animation is still t'riffic but the little niggling things that bugged me at the beginning are still there. One thing in particular I noticed this time 'round was the 'freezing' of characters onscreen. Ye-e-e-s, it could be a way of representing the stillness of the wolves but I can't help thinking it's just another method of filling in screen time cheaply. Maybe I'm too cynical.
And the story seemed to waffle on a bit, I felt like I was waiting for something to happen a lot of the time.
Still, the worldframe is interesting, the characterisations are believable and the closing credits theme is lovely. (... and I still think Toboe is the cutest little uke I've ever seen. : ) I'll get the next volume when it's released.

My cub's sore toe is healing up nicely - he doesn't yelp quite so loudly when you poke it. <smirk> Mean mummy...

Yay! Joules has written the merboiz ficlet! It's gorgeous, and once again she's managed to conjure an entire world in 3 paragraphs. <envyenvy>
Look for it soonish in The Vault, the non-passworded area of the Wavewrights site. Details on the Updates Blog when the author has a moment...

My poor cub's had an infection in his toenail for ages now. Finally got him to the doctors today, a feat in itself seeing as the surgery isn't on our main bus route. (Mind you, it was only 15 minutes walk from the nearest connecting stop so it's not impossible.)
So now he's got a prescription for something to clear up the infection, and in a weeks time we'll go back to the doc and see about getting rid of the excess skin that's grown over the nail. Poor mite, I don't think he's going to enjoy the application of dry ice - I never do. Very proud of him, though, this was the first time he's had to take medicine in capsule form and got it down without too much trouble. : )

There's an automated toilet in the park near the cubs' school. Very strange contraption. It plays muzak and will only let you have the equivalent of 5 sheets of paper at a time. It carries a warning that if you're in there for more than 10 minutes an alarm will sound and the door will open. Not somewhere a loo-lingerer would feel comfortable, I'm guessing.

Yay! I've got a blender!
And it wasn't hot today!
See? Lot's of reasons to be happy...

You know it's time to defrost the freezer when the door isn't shutting properly and there's ostensibly nothing in the way.

I found the mouse KK was torturing last night.
<blinks> No, not in the freezer! In my bedroom. On the carpet. It wasn't there when I woke up this morning. Puir wee thing, it had such pretty soft-grey fur.

I'm rather annoyed with the blathering on in some quarters of the media about the '30 year romance' of Chuck and Cammy.
It bloody was not! It was 30 years of adultery and deceit! Not that I've ever had any sympathy for the other leg of that particular triangle either - honestly, they all deserved each other - but it irks me that something good and noble is trying to be made out of what was ultimately a betrayal of vows. Not just Chuck and Di's, either...

This is such a stupid time of the year to have Easter in Australia. Gods above, aside from it not being Spring, you buy the chocolate eggs for your loved ones, bring them home to hide them then fret about them melting in the sodding heat. Unless of course you've got an air-conditioned house, which I don't. But anyway, where was I? Ah yes, whinging. <g>
(Eh, sue me, it's been hot for a couple of days - makes for an automatically cranky Lutra. I'll be happier tomorrow.)

........
Nope. Brain's gone. Can't remember if there was something I was going to rant about mention. :)

Forgot to mention that Soulsis also gave me some lovely roses from her garden (which she rescued from a horse) and a book on Elizabethan poetry. Very interesting style of writing, very rich and descriptive. Can see where the Victorians got at least some of their inspiration for their 'prose'...

I've trained the cubs to use Mozilla Firefox instead of IE as their internet browser - only they quite unintentionally call it mozarella. <giggling>
Tonight they sat down with me and we looked through some of my old family photos. They picked up the family resemblances between their cousins, my brother, myself and our parents. And they were astonished at how blonde I was when I was little. <g>

Woohoo! Finally worked up enough reward points through AC Nielsen's online surveys to get something useful - a blender! It's taken ages, but then I haven't particpated in every survey they tossed at me. Heh. Might aim for a digital camera next time. Or donate my points to a charity.

Well, looky here. The Van Von Hunter comic site is back, with several updates, too. Well spotted, Joules. : )

And news just in:
... Bloody cat!
I heard her yowling but wasn't quick enough to relieve her of her catch before she darted into my room.
Now I have a live - possibly half-dead - mouse (or young rat, oh joy) hiding under my wardrobe.
Fine, whatever, as long as it doesn't a: die there, or b: crawl over me while trying to find its way out of the room. Tch...

Finally finished the LotR trilogy. I left off reading the last chapter until I was at home cos I knew I'd cry. <g> And I did.
Debated ploughing through the appendixes in the back. Almost decided not to but I started reading one and despite the dryness of the writing got sucked in to the story.
Lots of potential there in the history of Middle Earth...