h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I like your very phonetic spelling of 'ursäkta mig' Ben!

I wish you hadn't said that out loud, Ben. My heap of paperwork has now started to mutter malevolently.

- er - Tak såmika? No! That isn't right either!

*looks around* Aquaria are supposed to be kept out of the sun, aren't they? The best candidate would be the west wall of the salon, I think. Opposite side of the room from the Professor's megaphoton fountain.

I hope you put a whole bunch of neon tetras in it. I love to see them flash as they turn. Um, you ~will~ be in charge of stocking, feeding and maintenance, won't you?

I've managed to cobble together a UPS for the box, with everything else taking its chances with surge protectors, so I don't have to go back to Roswell till next week. The drive is either 100 miles the long quiet way or 65 miles through horrid road construction the short way.

We think Limbo has asthma or possibly some kind of allergy with respiratory consequences. She still gets that cough intermittently but is otherwise the picture of health and perkiness. Or, possibly, she just has some kind of congenital problem. Out here in ranch country, people only spend their vet money on livestock, so the vets have tended to simply dismiss my stories, because she just looks so healthy.

d'E: I checked up on HugoFish and find a certain a'fin'ity with this Researcher. I think if we ever meet, we'll get along swimmingly. One thing I'll probably campaign for (having seen the extent of HugoFish's love for the subject) is to correct the spelling of a smiley specifically geared to express affection between fish fanciers. We got the <"hug"> smiley for humans correct, but an error in translation seems to have crept into the smiley!


B4ipunagain

Okay, Lil, I'll take the reigns on the project! YES! Neon tetras are a favorite with me, too. My youngest, Yvonne, used to call all of 'em in the tank "my neons", and still loves their coloration to this day. I'll set it up in the next few posts, stocking with favorites. I'd be happy to take requests, as well, so long as the types don't wind up squabbling or eating each other. If that happens, I may have to ask for a separate Aquarium Atrium, so we have a place we can stock Cichlids, freshwater cold, and marine varieties.

Thanks.
B4

Ooh! Fish! I like fish. i've certainly drawn enough of them . I have Views about feeding them ant eggs though .

I don't think any of us Americans were offended by your description, Ti. We live here and those of us who work with the public at large know that its oh-so-true! Remember Hypatia's experience with someone who wanted to check out a shaped cake pan from the public library?

Speaking of gardening mishaps, a married couple that are close friends of mine just bought their first house. I gave them 10 raspberry canes (black and Boyne) as a housewarming gift. They've just stared landscaping the property and planted them. A week went by and the husband complained to me that the canes were not budding yet. I, having not seen them since the night I handed over the canes, went out in the backyard to see what was going on. They had stuck all ten, still bound together in the nursery wrapping, in the same large hole in the ground! I nearly collapsed on the ground . When I explained that each cane needs its own little hole about 12 inches from its neighbors, they went pale.

"You mean I have to dig 9 more holes!?!" shrieked the husband.

Like he can't? Please.

Bagheera is NOT happy with me. I'd planted some seeds in a window box, and he has decided to make it his outdoor sunning bed. I put chicken wire over the dirt yesterday...he hasn't stopped yowling at me yet.

Courtesy, try for Thursday or Friday. Tomorrow is Greek Night. Yikes! They want me to work just in case banned idiot boy comes in. Like I can remember!

Hypatia, My sister did indeed go to Cottey. Two years there, she came back and now waits tables .

Ben, I have seen a soda straw that was shot through a telephone pole. It was in the Denver Museum in the natural disaters section. It was facinating!

No plants for me. I can't stand flowering plants at all and don't like to have any greenery near me in general.

[BB]

I have a feeling we might have difficulty prising our new salonista gussie away from the fish tank

[spk, a sucker for bromeliads and succulents]

B4, when stocking the tank, consider a single beta and a mirror. I love betas. Also I like cychlids, but they are sometimes agressive and tend to eat the other fish. I am in agreeance with Lil about having a large school of tetras. I love to see the schooling fish swim in unison.

We have a local group of library directors that meet for moral support. We only have 8 members. Two lost libraries in the storm. At one of them they were able to recover a hand puppet and 1 (one) book. The rest of the library was apparently sucked up into the funnel because there is no sign of books or furnishings. They are recovering a few items at the other one. One director also lost her home and her husband ran an antique shop which is standing but so badly damaged that it will have to be demolished. A supervisor at another branch lost her home as well. It's going to take a long time for the area to recover from this one.

I have the weather channel on. We were just put under a tornado watch until 7pm. As the queen would say, "We are not amused."

Sheesh! We have window-rattling eave-sucking winds, but they all blow in pretty much a straight line, out of the west.

B4, take one of the workshops in the studio area and convert it for fish-tending, as you see fit. We might consider of line of tanks along the wall, actually, so that we can harbor diverse types, like tropical and salt-water species. I adore the colors of parrot and clown fish!

Garius, can we borrow some CLI workbots, please? We'll need to have some heavy lifting done. I am of course in no doubt that the floors will bear the weight, because I know that you and Affy build for paranoia conditions.

I've got my replacement Museo paper and it's perfect. But I really need to go over to the shed and clean it, then get re-accustomed to setting up my studio lights.

This is where Project Guttenburg is a godsend. It is an electronic archive of so many works. If all the evil corporations in the world would let copyrights expire, more work could go into the PG sites.

Hi

My tennant is a trainee manager in our National Health Service and they have a scheme whereby the NHS sponsors a three month placement/internship in other healthcare organisations around the world.

The placement she was hoping to organise has fallen through, and because I like her and she is an impressive young lady (27 years old) I am working my networks to see whether I can find her some Health Care Administrators to contact, preferably in the US or Canada. The US and Canada specifically because the language issues would be simpler, and because our healthcare system is moving more towards the US model.

So - does anyone have any contacts in Health Care Administration that I can put her in touch with?

I do not intend to get any more involved than giving them each others' email addresses and letting them get on with it. It is a bona fide scheme, and has a lot of supporting documentation to explain it.

If any of you do, then please mail me at [email protected].



B

Just back from my trip up the A3 and back to accompany Dad on his outpatients appointment. The good news is that the biopsies were negative, the bad news is that he has to have his gallbladder removed and it will be around 8 weeks time when his name comes up for admission.

I hope the animals don't get in Matina's way

When we lived in Singapore, I was fascinated by the fish in the monsoon ditches (I was about 7) and we knew them as guppies. Years later I was surprised to find that people paid money for them and that their proper name was neon tetras. I agree that they are very pretty fish and No2 son has them in his aquarium. He has a light that really brings their colours out. Cassie thinks they are rather nice too.

I hope this round of tornados are not as severe, Hypatia

[{Courtesy}]

The thing with bluebells is that the UK has about 1/3 of the worldwide population of the plants. The native bluebell is a rather delicate little thing that doesn't like being trampled on, pulled up (it's illegal now to collect them from the wild) or having it's habitat (woodland) lost. The spanish variety is a much more vigarous plant that is on sale for gardens here. It will escape and the plants hybridise with the british bluebell.
http://www.merseyforest.org.uk/campaigns-bluebell.shtml
has more information on the two varieties and something about what they're doing to try and reverse species decline.