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

Welcome to the Atelier! If this is your first visit, please have a look at A304354 , our page. There is a link there that will take you to further backstory, illustrations and even a floorplan.

First, congratulations to Tartaronne, the scribe for our last thread, on a job well done. *Chloe presents tartaronne with the usual ostrich plume quill pen, but this one is in a base of cut emerald and the plume has been dyed green to match* This was Tartaronne's maiden scribing, and as you'll see, the prose is excellent.

The winner of the B4IWake Electric Cattle Prod for last arrival in a thread goes, this month, to my cyber-nephew, The Iron Maiden. There are no batteries in that thing, Mike -- but it will look impressive hanging at your hip. *Chloe presents TIM with a special Extreme Metal version of the cattle prod in black leather and chrome* Tartaronne tells the story: "For a long time Sea was the candidate for the Cattle Prod. Then St. Demon Drawer turned up in post 566 from his hosting of presidential discussions, and The Iron Maiden sailed in on broadband in post 941."

We had a fine crop of newcomers this time -- three articulate researchers who have already demonstrated facility with backlog management. Welcome to daSilva, Rosemary (considering taking out a contract on Bush in Assasins Guild) and
redpeckhamthegratepompomwithknobson.

And now for Tartaronne's notes.

With a great big sloppy group hug B. declared that "The Atelier is a special place, and the Salonistas are special folks".
And she was proven right in the 72Xth conversation at Lil's. Support and excellent advice flowed freely to those who needed it, and general offers of undying friendship were going round.

The Weather
It is late autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and we had reports of pouring rain, fog, stark wind, occasional snow, mist, cold and sunny days, beautiful colours and aurora borealis.

Celebrations
MR's BF had an MFA in music performance - voice. GDZ had 5 years anniversary at h2g2 and MR 4 years. Sea and Solnushka were congratulated on their birthdays, Caerwyn celebrated her wedding anniversary, and GDZ dryly commented that he had 1 year anniversary for his divorce. Lil kept her birthday under the radar. A number of salonistas took part in a Birmingham Meet with lots of fun and ale, and B. was sorry she missed the orgy in Z's flat with 6 sleepings guests. Rosemary later confessed to being present as a meet-virgin, but
found out about Lil's salon.

Halloween was celebrated and B's father saluted with s for past merits. She herself supplied pills for any over-saluting salonistas. MTG wore a kilt at a fetish night and were questioned about lingerie by a lot of curious females. .

No quizzes at all !

A busy lot
Trying to keep up as the scribe I sometimes wondered when you all had time to work A lot has happened on the workfront.
Mr T started a new job, and Teuchters #2 daughter landed a traineeship with a big firm. Witty Moniker was fired from a volunteer job as e-mail administrator because she pointed out flaws. Ormondroyd was invited to discuss ideas to write for
radio and had some old music reviews published in a book. Solnuska had a good start to her first task as a course leader.

Lil was engulfed in work and was rewarded when her photos were accepted for a national juried show, a book she illustrated was published, and an exhibition of her art and photography opened locally. Caerwynn got involved in writing a weekly article for
the in-game Guild newspaper, and B4 shared information on his new job with more responsibillity - whenever he had a break in his courses: "I'll work diligently to keep our power plant's name out of the press, unless it's for excellence in electric production to the public".

Z had success in an admissions ward and passed surgery with a (after the performance ). Phil confessed to have passed *out* in surgery - being the patient .

Hypatia had hassles with her library project. Administrators, politicians and architects worked their own agendas instead of the library's. . A small light was a donation for furniture to the children's section. Montana Redhead graded papers and relayed some of the funny stuff in them. (I was reminded of a French book - the title translated from Danish: The cow has four
corners.)

Amy went teaching in body armour and shared experiences with Lil of subscribing to that form of list management where you put the urgent/undersirable tasks at the top of the list and then do everything else. It's amazing how stress and the distraction of
routine chores keeps one from doing creative or nescessary work. Haven't we all been tarred with the same brush?

Marv prepared for and did well in a job interview and were vibrating with energy afterwards. Less energy was spent on making snow as it has been too warm. Also B is jobhunting locally and abroad - but nothing certain as yet. She signed up for at poetry course and it looks promising. Tartaronne ranted about finding more freelance work.TIM got a new gig at the post office.

And suddenly several salonistas were grabbed by an urge to clean - and cook from scratch.


The wee ones

MR considered getting D(aughter) diagnosed for ADHD. Salonistas shared their knowledge. Hati told about her troubles with her teenage daugther and created a whole new thread for that. Salonistas took part in the discussions there and offered advice
from their own experiences as teenagers or as parents of same.

Gwe7n became the proud 'mother' of an orange tabby, Elliot for short.

Romance

Agapanthus asked advice of how to time her invitations and about views on a gift list. Where is the fine line between telling guests that their presence is the most important and leaving them room for the pleasure of buying present? And between not wanting to be greedy and preventing to be presented with 14 toasters? Kelli received and was pleased with her magnets to
remind people of her wedding. Teucther lost her engagement ring, and found it during a cleaning session - lurking under the bed, nestled in fluff.

GDZ was on his first date for a year and had a great time. Thinks he will invite her again . MR enjoyed her romantic weekend with BF immensely.

Moving about

Hypatia made a rocade in the house to have F. on the groundfloor and create a workroom. Out went a lot of stuff. B4 entered to update us of a lot of shifting. The job (see above) and residence. He and family moved close to a lake, and a whole new world of bugs, to-does and carpeting was revealed. He suspects he will be closely aquainted to the nearest 'handyman store'. Advice from salon: Take time to play.

Agapanthus undertook a great project installing an excercise bike, and Z was inspired by 'the cleaners' to redecorate. ltp offered advice of new, cheap ways to paint involving fireworks and a cat - not nescessarily at the same time.

Politics

Bush was elected and not without sad and harsh remarks from the salon. GDZ felt rebellious and burnt a flag.

Health

Lil described the salon as a sounding board and many offered their thoughts, advice and consolation for the salonitas in pain or poor health. Especially Hypatia is going through extremely hard times physically and emotionally taking care of her F. Life is fatal...and it is heartbreaking to see the life quality of you loved ones deteriorate.

FG had aftermath of her car accident, and a supposedly 'nice guy' rather than support her added to her stress. Advice: Sell the guy and fix the car. B. has been through a lot of changes, and Lil got a sensitive tooth fixed. Several salonistas suffered from flu, cold, infected sinusses and Amy the Ant spent a lot of time in the kleenexbox. GDZ's son's high temperature was broken
with a lot of water.

Kelli and Agapathus turned fat into muscles, and FG danced her butt off at an awesome concert and did some complicated excercising on the balcony. Linguistic discussions of the word shag. B4 added embarrassing moments in couple-ation in his
own poetic way. And MTG seems to have stopped smoking. (Maybe I should go for pneumonia )

Culture

Music, concerts, TV-shows and computergames were shared and commented. Lil initiated a discussion of favourite horror movies in time for Halloween. Many salonistas confessed to being wimps hiding behind the sofa. Still it seems most people enjoy some frissons of fright.

Munchin was blown away by her first classical concert, and Ormondroyd to his own surprise enjoyed singing operetta, a pirate in a Gilbert&Sullivan musical - and dreamt of groupies. Stories of fireworks and facts about Touching the Void, a film about mountaineers were discussed. Rosemary recommended an art exhibition and enjoyed a classical concert for free - working at the place.

Miscellaneous

Teuchter went to the races - and almost broke even.
Mysteries of car registration in USA.
Amy had some bins flattened in front of her door.
MTG was face to face with a motor that caught fire - but wasn't harmed. Also a train in front of Z caught fire.
Advice on how to avoid salesmen/women on telephone and doorsteps.
John Peel was mourned and remembered with tears, smiles and tales.
Gyn-exams either side of the pond were discussed.
MR started a discussion about fake nails that spread to painting, gnawing and doing pet's nails. ltp who is into recyling of course bites his nails. , and the conversation also included advice about how to handle clogged toilets.
Neugen was mourned and Kelli had concern for Stealth.



And that is Tartaronne's recapitulation of the most recent conversation. While we've been listening, Chloe and Matina have cleaned, and a fire is burning merrily in the hearth, with two unaus dozing on the hearth rug. Come in and join us!

Am I first?

suprise

Looks like it Z

*Matina brings Z an irish coffee in a FTTF mug, as well a tee shirt*

*she then turns to ltp and hands him an ale glass full of ale, with AFTTF etched on the side, before returning to the kitchen*

A large hot toddy and a bucket of Tixylix for me please Matina *cough cough*

Whatever the darn germlet doing the rounds is, it's got me *argh help help* as I have a goodly headache, a cough and a temperature. I tried drowning it in a nice scented bath, but it seems it can swim, so I think I'll have to take it to bed and suffocate it with the duvet. Just in time for the weekend, fan-ing-tastic. And lucky S - a stressy week at work and he gets to come home on Friday evening to a coughing grumpy refusing-to-cook-dinner-ish sort of me.

Well, greetings everyone. I'll probably slink off for the evening and see you all sometime tomorrow.

*Fluffs the sofa cushions and settles in for the next thousand or so posts.*

First LED at least

*off to concert *

so who has changed the time to 37 mins since post, if i had not had 501 error would have been above Z(mins) conspiracy L is before Z.

It's all the server's fault.

Agapanthus, I hope you feel better tomorrow!

See what happens when I get stuck on a long call?

This is quite unprecedented arriving this early.

(runs off to find some batteries for his new cattle prod )

*Brings for Agapanthus*
Any with that?

*Admires the emerald green quill and places it on the desk right beside a clay bird in cage with white fluffy hair - a gift from Hati*

Ooops I've just dicovered that I'd been 'fooled' by Munchkin . Wrong gender.

And Lil, for the editing .

That was a terrific re-cap, tartaronne! Now for the sequel...

We finished a big project here at work and one of my coworkers is buying all of us pizza to celebrate. Luckily, no one else likes the kind of pizza I do, so I get a whole one to meself. I even brought a plastic baggie to sneak a few slices home with me.

Christmas decorations from the last conversation: on my way into work today I drove by a house with all their outdoor decorations up! Arrrgh! It's not even Thanksgiving yet! I feel sorry for Thanksgiving. It's the Rodney Dangerfield of holidays--it gets no respect. I haven't decorated my house since I started living on my own. I have a box of Christmas decorations, mostly ones from my childhood that have special sentimental significance, but since I'm neither Christian nor live with anyone it seems silly to me to tart the place up. Perhaps I will this year, just to do something different. I do love making popcorn and cranberry garlands.

Great scribing tartaronne

Made it on the first led anyway.

Hope you recover quickly Agapanthus *proffers leftover sachets of lemsip max strength*

k

I'm not around much due to *ork at the moment so my best wishes to all. especially Hyp.
Worries about TIM being let loose with the cattle prod and contemplates the marketing opportunities for aluminium suits which would short it out.

[BB]

*sweetly*
Oh, TIM would never use the cattle prod in ~here~. I have the mother of all cattle prods right here. *pats her handbag*

if you call your hadbag pat
of course your purse is percy
whats your shoulder bag called

I am under the distinct impression that I should be sleeping... All is well, the sun is out, and I have a long weekend to relax.