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

Thanks, you two. I'm just really at a point of frustration.

I think part of the problem is that although we don't fight in front of her, she can feel the tension between the STBX and myself, and perhaps that's part of it. I also think part of it is boredom. We live awfully close to the freeway, and there are just too many kid snatching around here for me to just let her outside to play, but there's a limit to how much I can play Hamtaro (or Rugrats). For some reason, there are few kids on this side of the complex, and so she's really gotten the short end of the stick that way. I think tomorrow I am going to have to make a few phone calls and make a play date or two.

I also know that part of my response is overcompensating for the fact that her father pays no attention to her whatsoever. I've got a ton of work to do, and so I spend most of my time trying to do it, and he's physically here, but mentally not. I feel guilty about that.

>>I'm just really at a point of frustration.
Of course you are, but you don't have the luxury of being allowed to damage stuff. Don't feel guilty. You're handling it well. What would be unhealthy would be to lock all those feelings away.

When the STBX is the X then the tension around her will be relieved. It's the inbetween stage that is hard. Not one thing or the other. I asked for help from my own mother when I was at this desparation point and returned from a morning away from it all to find both of my small children and her in tears. She told me they were "pure evil" which of course they weren't. (One of the reasons she's seen very little of them since although we talk on the phone from time to time.)

Sorting out a play date will help. You need to get out too.

MR, you have already had excellent advice and the only thing I would add is that my sons both went through stages of destruction, scribbling on walls, furniture and snipping at things with scissors. (Some of it didn't come to light until a few years later when we moved.) They either had to clean it off or go with out.

Your plan sounds good, more company of her own age whenever possible. The destructiveness is mostly likely born out of a desire to try and control her enivronment or boredom. Either way occupying her is good, just keep half an eye on her when friends are around, No2 son discovered that filling the bath up and going paddling was 'fun' from a friend of his. It took days for the carpets to dry out

However, he popped in to see Dad when he was down on Saturday and as No2 son didn't have a bedroom to escape to any more, he had to sit and chat. His Grandpa told H later that 'he has grown up into a very, very nice young man......no, very very nice man'. High praise indeed from Dad, so there is still plenty of hope, MR and I'm sure your girl will be fine once her life is moe settled.

I am seriously tempted to join Moonlight in a pyjama day, so comfy, but I have already dressed!

See MR. There are people here who understand.

I think I may get the chance to see something other than pyjamas today! I pulled the duvet off Moonlight before noon and have told her that the car needs a run before the battery goes flat (big fib! It's fine.) I've said I need her to map read for me as I feel like exploring a bit. (Well, I know exactly where I plan to end up, but she doesn't). With much harumphing and general curmudgeonliness we might make it out before dark.

Sunshine has gone to Hampshire, but you're OK Caer. She hasn't much money so I think the shops in Guildford will be safe. You'll still be able to find things in the sales.

I've nothing more to add to the advice that has already been given, MR. One thing I do is try to control the way I react to situations like that. Instead of letting them see only how angry I am, I also try to convey how disappointed and embarrassed I am by their behavior. For some reason, that seems to make an impression.

Coely, my girls would wear pajamas to school if I let them.

Z, houseleeks are good things to grow on roofs, either in pots or sometimes they'll take root by themselves. They're not edible though.

Here are sme pictures. http://www.firgroveplants.demon.co.uk/html/photographs_of_houseleeks.html

The best way to acquire houseleeks is to be given them by other people. Never pay for houseleeks .

MR: my son has wrecked almost everything, he's 13 now and just about through that phase. For the most part I let him get on. He used to mess with electricity so I had to stop that.

Time to worry is when they self harm or do not heed safety advice.
It's expensive mind and I always ask:
"Can you fix that?" which sometimes works.

Anyone noticed anything of mine that's been moderated. Please let me know 'cause I'm a bit perplexed at how/when/where etc. Nothing personal just curious.

I have a couple of pots of various varieties of houseleeks. They are reputed to ward off , bad and spells and should be tucked into the tiles over the doors.

I always remember house leeks growing in the drystone wall outside my grans.


While I remember
I phoned my sister earlier and found out that I'm now a great-uncle, thanks to my eldest neice which is OK by me however my sister tells me she can't handle the idea of being a granny

I guess I'm fortunate because I've always had good luck starting plants from seeds. I enjoy it tremendously. And the selection of varieties is so much greater when you start your own plants. Watching a tiny speck turn into a beautiful plant is just awesome.

MR, I wasn't kidding. I always have extra seed.

Z, do you like Swiss Chard? It's a snap to grow, is beautiful, and you can eat it.

The problem I have with starting from seed is having the room for all the seed trays and somewhere in the dry and warm to potter about and leave the seeds to germinate.

I don't like gardening enough to invest in a greenhouse, but with our quixotic weather seeds can be a bit hit and miss. Largely miss with a scrabbling about in the borders, several in fact and not mentioning the squrrels who spend an inordinate amount of time ferckling in the pots and tubs as well as borders!

roof garden ,natural looking rock faces can easily be obtained by, deception. not so heavy as it looks
most builder merchents/diy stores sell jabdeck or something simuler insulation material ,made out of polystrene foam stuff this can be cut with a butter knife so can easly be sculpted formed to whatever space you want once you got your shape you can then push roofing slate any other rock material you want you may also wish to scoop out inserts into the polystrene for little pockets of earth,the more cleverer or alternative thinkers,may think now if i got that old supermarket trolley,lying in the river,alleyway ect covered that in this stuff left a couple of decent spaces i could put a grow bag inside for those (plants that need deeper roots).rocks,slate can be fixed by useing waterproof sealents,better than a lot of glue as dont melt poly, smaller shale can also be glued just by coating in a mixture of beaten eggs cream little part of animal glue stick that has been warmed gently in pan,this can give some impresive moss growth in the right location, also good are the boxes turkeys are shipped in they are naturaly water proof and can be used as base for the above,or as tub or as a source of water collection receptor.
also old sacking/clothing can be use full as self watering tool ,bury one end in soil thread through bit if hose/or simuler and place other end in six/pint milk carton/bottle fill with water if you can utilise the over flow from gutter to fill said receptical so much the better.

Hypatia
I had no idea being a librarian could be so potentially dangereous

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31193-2003Dec25.html

logicus, that post is just plain hard to read. Could you use a few full stops or carriage returns, please? Legibility is a big thing in netiquette. Your posts are quite useful and informative, I'm sure, but a dense unpunctuated block of prose tends to get ignored.

I've spent so much time with backlog and xml errors that I have to go already.

Saw Return of the King yesterday, and I would have posted about it but we had a power failure from 6:30 pm onward till the wee hours when I had already gone to bed. I spent the evening reading a Peter Straub horror novel by candlelight.

Anyway, my favorite line from the movie has to be "That still only counts as one!" I'm glad I saw it on the big screen, even though the experience was extra moody because I had forgotten my regular glasses and had to watch it with my sunglasses on. The temperature was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the cinema as well, but I hardly noticed.

Who remembers the pandimensional safari of 2000, when we discovered a skin called Orchid which we feared might destroy H2G2 as we knew it? The prophecy has come to pass!

Oetzi, someone yikesd a post of yours in the last thread -- I could tell you which post this afternoon, maybe. I'm sure it won't happen again, though. We'll just throw buns at you instead.

sorry afraid at times i do tend to forget.
that i'm communicateing,via written word.
how ever i cannot change style of writeing.
As it is ingrained at(taught/or not as in my case) 40+years ago least you do not have to try and translate my written work, i might add would do any dr pround.
You could try cut n paste any segments into "word" and hit format.
That what i tend to do ,have fun.

Not much in the way of snow right now but, the wind is something fierce.

visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F127493?thread=362815 for revised version.

BB, that is a fascinating article. And I hadn't read it previously, so I appreciate the link.

The only think I've come across in the course of my job that was actually dangerous was a powder that bursts into flame when it comes into contact with water. It was dumped into our bookdrop a few days after the anthrax scare - in the middle of a rainstorm - and ruined everything inside. There was a slight scorching, probably from wet books being deposited on top of it, but the dropbox is water tight as you would imagine, so there were no actual flames.

I turned the entire contents of the bookdrop(I had no idea what the powder was) over to the police who took it to the crime lab in Joplin. They told me the name of it but I don't remember exactly. It was a carbide of some kind is all I can remember - like they used to put in lamps. But it wasn't anthrax or anything else biological, which was the concern.

Most of the things we find are more disgusting than dangerous.

So that's what those plants are called

My mum had them growing in a gap in the wall. My Brother and I used to snap the leaves in half and write on the pavement with them!

Happy coz Munchkin has just downloaded a really good version of Toccata and Fugue in D minor for me

Hello, all! Back from Christmas vacation, when the residents of Missoula were lucky enough to wake up on Christmas morning to several inches of snow. We've had several snow storms move through the Rockies since that time, and another one is whipping up right outside my windows. Our family had enjoyed a lovely prime rib dinner, and I spent much of my Christmas bonus from work on things for my new apartment: a rug for the dining room, new pots and pans, shelves, etc. The day after the holiday, we went to see Cold Mountain, which I can't recommend enough to everyone. Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger are amazing and, as always, Anthony Minghella does a fantastic job adapting a beloved novel for the screen. Too bad I didn't take another week off.