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

*sniggers appreciatively, or at least she hopes that's how you spell it*

I trust it was titled "A Star is Prawn"

Eats I didn't think of that and now I WISH I HAD. A Star is Prawn, indeed. Love it.

Flamedancer! Yes I remember now.

>>Nativithai Prawn Soup

That nativity is quite something.

Going back a little top the discussions of work christmas parties, I had mine on Friday. Went out straight from work at 4.30pm. Got home at 3am. Slept until 3pm. Did not have a good Saturday...

Today I completed my christmas shopping (Fortunately I only buy fro my mother, father and sister, so it's not that hard), which was nice. Also went to visit my Grandmother at about 1pm, who it turned out was still in bed. She didn't have the hangover excuse I had yesterday, but did have the excuse of being 89 years old and having a cold. Having ascertained that she was fine and had had breakfast, I left her to go back to bed and posted her christmas cards for her. Also, a friend from work (who was still in the pub when I left on Friday) came round to take a cutting from the holly tree in my back garden for her christmas decorations. Apparently holly trees with red berries are much more rare than in previous years. So far, four people have had a go at ours, and I expect there will be more in the next two weeks.

Holly trees are gendered, aren't they?

[GDZ]

Yes. It's the female trees which produce the berries when their flowers are pollinated.

I'm glad you cooked them. I was a little concerned they would be sitting in your living room til gone 25th.

We saw huskies yesterday. They howled. We didn't see Father Christmas as there was a one and a half hour queue, but we did see lots and lots of exotic ducks. It being a water bird sanctuary. And the Star, having dived in amongst them and been much tutted, responded very well to my explanation that these were special ducks and we were not to herd them with our usual enthusiasm. And delighted passers by being practically hysterical with joy over all the different birds. Plus, I saw a bittern. A bittern, I tell you. What with all that and the lovely ice cold weather, that was a pretty good day out. I can't believe I've never been to this place before. It's only up the road.

I see Flamedancer's made herself at home *covers mufflewhump basket tightly* Sorry about the mess, Chloe...

I am now officially A Good Mom. PaperKid's been asking for one of those voice recognition password diary things for the last 2 birthdays and Christmases, so Tom and I figured that she may actually use it (plus, it doesn't take up a whole lot of room, which is very important right now). Tom wanted to wait until last night to do the shopping, so that he could be paid first--and, although I already knew I was going to get it online, he wanted to do all the shopping the same day. Turns out that this year's model of the diary is a hot gift, as well as being cool (it has a secret compartment with a voice lock and an mp3 player, as well as the main voice lock, invisible ink pen, black light, and intruder alarm) so that every single site I found it on last night, bar Amazon and eBay (both higher than we wanted to pay) either was sold out when I got there or sold out while I was dithering over shipping options (one site was for KMart, and I was trying to decide between shipping or picking the item up a few towns away). I spent 4 hours last night trying to get the darn thing, or even an older model, since PaperKid wouldn't know that I'd been looking at the fancy new one. I *did* finally manage to catch it in stock today, on the lowest price not-a-scam site I was looking at last night. So now the only shopping I have to do is for Tom and stocking stuffers (and supplies for food gifts--probably do that tomorrow, at least for coworkers and PaperKid's teacher--just this one week of school left before break).

Night all.

Being a good mom is a grand thing to be Amy

Were the bitterns booming Sol? That's about all I know about them, they have a booming call.

We have a tree sitting in the corner of our living room. A Fraser Fir this year, great scent

Google doodle:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/12/google-doodle-robert-noyce-birthday?newsfeed=true

Alas, I will never know the pleasure of being a Good Mum - hopefully I'll be an alright Dad, though. At the moment I'll settle for being someone with warm toes...
*Puts v/_\3 on*
How does a tree sit?

<BB<

[Mr. D - becoming acutely aware that he hasn't really contributed to the conversation lately.]

>How does a tree sit?

If it's a fir, maybe on pins and needles?

I'll get me coat...

Borrowed a phishing quiz from another thread. Got 11/14 because of being overly suspicious:

http://www.opendns.com/phishing-quiz/

Is that a fir coat Santra

14/14 for that Titania. Working in the internet world and having part of my job to secure computers, I'm even more paranoid about it than you I guess

It's certainly a good one to have a look through and see how you do.