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

* into one of the guest rooms to get changed*

*follows T out of the Salon and goes into one of the other guest rooms in order to do her camera trick so that she go on the tree hunt as well as remain by the warm fire*

*comes running out again, warmly dressed in a hand-knitted Icelandic sweater in pure new wool, a calf-length skirt of softest light brown suede, with matching knee-high boots wound with thin straps of leather to keep them up*

(picture of sweater: http://www.northerner.com/p_images/floss1052-29.jpg )

*rushes into the kitchen to get carrots and knäckebröd for the Clydesdales*

Ripley? Are you coming?

[Ripley]: *shakes head, shudders at the thought of all the snow that they're likely to come across sooner or later*

Oh come on sweetie - look, I got you a hand-knitted Icelandic set too!

*starts dressing the still slightly recultant unau*

Oh cheer up - you know you'll love it! *scoops up the unau and drifts off*

My little feet are frozen. I went to the Uni in high heeled slingbacks, which isn't a problem in itself but on the way out a friend decided to pour out his heart in the carpark and now I have frostbite in my toes .

*tries to decide what to wear on the tree hunt*

Last year's white outfit wasn't a great success. I need something that stands out from the snow.

Being that I still dislike winter *and* christmas, I will keep the fires buring here in the salon.

*re-enters the Salon whilst her CG double nips down the stairs*

*or was it the other way round?*

*Affy hastily constructs a crude marionette-ish puppet of himself and leaves it where he was sitting*

This is my puppet. He'll take my part in the conversation while I'm gone. He's generally a good kid.


Don't let him near any butchers knives or power tools, and for heaven's sake keep the lights on!


Now then, should I change out of standard adventurer's gear? I handle the ice-capped mountains past the jungles of Miznia in this stuff, I've handled the desolation of the upcoming ice age in it, and I went out wearing it the last time I left for a tree. Guess no changes are needed.

*Hops down the stairs, pulling out his sword and laughing insanely*

Marv, I'll keep you company, so's I can get my grading done.

Eddings has a new one out, eh?

Eric von Lustbader has a new series...the second just came out in paperback. It's not bad, but I think I'm going to have to wait a bit to get into the third, and that sucks. George RR Martin takes *forever* to write...I should have remembered that when I went looking for the what? 4th book in his latest series.

Should I stay or should I go?

If you go there will be trouble, if you stay it could be double.

The kittens are finally warming up. I have a lapful of Oxie at the moment. She keeps batting at the cursor.

*Zomnker may or may not notice that Affy's Puppet was thrown into the chair so that his painted eyes are looking in Zomnker's direction. It's almost as if that creepy leer on its face is implying vague threats, but in a really cheerful, Christmassy way*

*Witty fiddles with the dials on the wristwatch-like device on her wrist. Moments later, her twin walks out of one of the guest rooms dressed in an outdoor ensemble from Land's End and walks outside to the crowd gathering around the haywain. The Wittys wave to each other.*

*Zomnker seems to have left to go for the Goo Spruce. However, Affy's puppet still looks pretty darn creepy. It just keeps smiling and staring, smiling and staring....*

*comes in dripping and grumbling about children and b*****ds, sitting himself down by the fireplace*

Harrumph!

*The Puppet seems to be staring at Sporky in a very, very creepy fashion. Is it wise to stay with the creepy puppet??? Who can tell....as far as you know, it just sits, smiles, and stares, sits, smiles, and stares,....*

I just found out last night there will be four diabetics, three persons with high cholesterol and two with hypertension at our family Christmas dinner (yes, I know, its a diseased version of the Twelve Days of Christmas), so my mom and I had to come up with an almost entirely low-carb, -fat and -sodium dinner. It will a healthy, albeit bland Christmas in Montana.

And a partridge in a pear treeee...

You'll get away with the partirdge but you'll have to serve the pear tree without the pears .

Today I treated myself to a lamp ring and christmas-flavoured oil from Crabtree and Evelyn which is a bit extravagant but still. Someone gave one to me as a present a couple of years back and I liked it so much that I bought my own. So now The Nest smells of essence of goo spruce .

Which reminds me. *changes into a long red skirt and a goo blue cape with a hood (something like this: http://www.cloaksofireland.com/West%20Cork.htm)* adds blue woolly socks and goo blue DMs to the ensemble* grabs the DFB and heads downstairs*

Oops. It parsed the ) and the *. Try http://www.cloaksofireland.com/West%20Cork.htm

*Lil's quest doppelgänger emerges from studio dressed in assorted colorful layers of polartec*

*stops and stares a moment at the affi-puppet* Affipuppet! Let me make you more comfortable! *moves the puppet to a wingback chair where the intensity of its expression is not quite so noticeable*

OK, those of you staying home be sure to welcome new guests and make a space near Professor Tonks' light sculpture for the new tree!

*turns her wing back chair out of the line of vision of the newly postioned Affipuppet*

It would be lovely if Styx and Styx junior drop by for Crimble.

Time to look out some mulled wine recipes.

I'm in need of some new candles and scents, Amy, so shall take a look in C&E, also Culpeppers. We have a fake as I have learnt over the years that real ones and a tend not to mix very well. I miss the Crimbly smell of the real thing.