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

I liked your website. How nice. I love the picture of Minxy the cat by Saskia. I have a wonderful cat named Micio (pronounced me-shoo). Eveline's collage looks like a Mondrian! Do you like his work? I do. It's great that you are encouraging your girls to be artistic. I like watching Stargate too, but it is only on late Sunday nights here in Memphis. (I don't have cable. ) Talk to you later then, Ellen

Hi,

Sorry I didn't get back until you nudged me *hangs head in shame*

Oh, I'm always surprised when people actually look at my site! My girlies are keen on drawing, Saskia loves to do rainbows right now, so we have about 5 of them to put on the site (unless I can pin her down to just one) at the weekend. Eveline just started playgroup, where they have a drawing table, with scissors & glue available (which she's not allowed at home!) so when we ask her what she did she always says "snipping and glueing".

>>Eveline's collage looks like a Mondrian!
Never heard of him/her (sorry, sadly lacking in the arts)... I'll have to look.

Where did you get your cat's name, that's lovely. Sounds just like the sort of thing a cat would like to be called. Mine have their names because that's what they are!

Ah, Stargate.... yes. I'm sadly obsessed at this stage. I think I'm going to have to start cutting back. Although I like the idea of writing the fics (which is very sad) because I'd love to be a writer. All I lack are skill & determination!

My memory is bad, but didn't you buy the Beatles ceramics? They sound really great. I love the Beatles, John Lennon was shot on my 17th birthday, which is really sad for me. Oh, hark at me bending your ear. Sorry!

You don't need to be upset about missing my little note - it was nothing urgent!

I got the name Micio from a wonderful children's book called The Painter's Cat by Sharon Wooding. The author says that Micio is "the friendly name given to any cat in Venice, like 'kitty' in the United States." The cat in the story looks very much like my own cat. I don't have any kids, so Micio is my "baby." She is very friendly, and I love to spoil her. In fact she's lying next to me even as I type.

I did indeed buy a Beatles ceramic. The folks that made it had a good idea! How sad that John died on your birthday. That must have been a blow. He died much too young. At least we have the gift of all his music he left behind.

we certainly do have the gift of his music. And what a gift!

when I turned 34 it was strange. Half my life with and half without John. and now there is more of my life that is Johnless.

My cats chase the cursor! little buggers.

No children? Oh, *sighs with reminiscence* those were the days (ah, not really!)

ho hum. Time for bed, methinks. I'm not as young and robust as I was.

I'll tell you who else's death really bothered me, that was River Phoenix. He was so young and so talented. What a waste to die of a drug overdose. I'll always remember looking down at the newspaper in the store and seeing his picture with the word "Autopsy" below it. I was so shocked. Didn't mean to get on such a morbid subject, sorry.

No worries!

How was your weekend? We've been making St.Martin lanterns and we had an Autumn Festival in the village hall yesterday. Great fun for the gruesome twosome!

What are St. Martin's lanterns? Are they anything like JackOLanterns? I need to get out and enjoy some of the fall foliage before it is all gone. Kind of hard too though, because I'm in the habit of sleeping during the day, and staying up at night. They say it's not good to go without sunlight for too long though.

St.Martin's lanterns are made of cardboard and tissuepaper. They look really pretty (we're making a multicoloured fish for #1, #2 is making an Ernie at playgroup). The fish isn't going to well, however, and it must be ready for tomorrow, which means stress tonight! ho hum!

The trees are beautiful, and you need some sun: why not wrap up and sleep through the day outside?

Oh right, I can see me snoozin under the autumn leaves!

When I was a kid I used to make "bottle people." You take an old coke bottle, put a tissue head on the top, and then tape on clothes made from color tissues. It was great fun.

Are you going to take your kids to see Harry Potter, are they old enough for it? I'm looking foward to it, even if it is a kid's film. It's supposed to be getting really good reviews. JE

I'll wait until it comes on tv (they're currently 3 and 4, although #1 will be 5 soon) so they're a tad young.

Also I don't want to see it in German. I prefer to hear the original language. But I can't wait. I devoured the books, and am totally in love with them. I wish they'd been around when I was a kid. The gruesomes do, however, know who Harry Potter is and like what they see.

I like the idea of the coke bottle people, I might just use that for a rainy day! The lanterns look ok now. I finished off the mangled one (fish) last night, and it's survived well. But I repaired one I made 2 years ago just in case. We're going to 2 events, so maybe both will get an outing. I can't wait to see #2's lantern though, the Ernie face. I'll put a pic on my website eventually, if you're interested.

What's the weather like where you are (Memphis, right?) I've always imagined it to be sunny all the time, but then Geography isn't my strong point.

Memphis in the Summer is scorching hot, up in the 90's and 100's. The Winters are fairly mild, with only 2 or 3 snows per year, tops. Just a few inches. This suits me quite well, since I dislike the cold. I could never live up north in someplace like Chicago or, god forbid, Maine. Spring and Fall in Memphis are both very pleasant weather wise. Memphis has a lot of trees, so they are very pretty in Spring and Fall. We're lucky in that regard too. Memphis is a big small town, or a small city, depending on how you look at it.

I saw a fun movie today your kids will have to see when it comes out on video - Monsters, Inc. It was very clever, and my sister and I laughed ourselves silly. It was animated by the same people that made Toy Story, another kids' movie I like.

You said your kids are 3 and almost 5. Are they in school yet? If so, do they speak German in school, or English, or both? Just wondering. You do live in Germany, right? Do you like it there? I'm always curious. JE

Kids here start school proper at 7. From 3 they can go to Kindergarten, although my experience is that most people send them from 4. #1 goes to Kindergarten, has done since she was just a tad over 3 - she loves it. She started music school (just a small group, it's supposed to improve teamwork and concentration) once a week, and thinks she's very grown up because they get homework! (colouring mostly). #2 goes to playgroup 3 days a week (9-12) and starts Kindergarten in January. She can't wait, but then her speech is very advanced (talks the hind leg off a donkey) and she's not shy at all.

We speak English at home, but German elsewhere. It's incredible how easily they can go from one to the other. They have been surrounded by German since birth, but Saskia only really started speaking it at Kindergarten. Eveline just started speaking German in August when she started with the childminder. But now she's totally bilingual. I think I've mentioned before that I'm jealous that my German will never be as good as my kids'! I'm hoping to teach them a bit of Russian when they're 5, just singing and counting.

Memphis sounds beautiful, although I don't like the heat, I'd be good there from Autumn to Spring I reckon. I love the snow and the cold... but we mostly get fog and rain here. I live on the Dutch boarder (German side) and we're below sea level and totally flat. I miss the mountains (hills really) of home.

So I expect you're making plans for Thanksgiving? Will you do anything special?

Memphis is very flat too. We're up on a bluff, which overlooks the Mississippi River, which is very nice. My Dad has a houseboat on the river, one that he built himself. Too bad it's getting too cold for outings soon.

I am looking foward to Thanksgiving. I have a big family, with both my parents, 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Plus spouses and neices and nephews. (I'm the only single one.) So you see, our get togethers are very rambunctious. I'm trying to get my Mom to make her wonderful dressing this year. I'm very lucky, all I have to do is show up and pig out.

I am also looking foward to my birthday, which is the 19th. I'll be 36. I'm going out with some of my siblings to Cozymel's, a mexican restaurant with great fajitas. Yum.

I'm impressed that you can speak English, German, and some Russian. You're right though, kids can learn it so much faster than adults can. I took French back in high school, but I've forgotten most of it. JE

I learned Russian at school due to the fact that the Spanish teacher ran off with the Music teacher's husband. They needed a replacement modern languages teacher first, but they had to have French and one other... Russian turned up first! For which I'm glad. 2 school trips to the USSR and then my job in the Army... great fun.

Thanksgiving sounds like it will be fun - I love big family gatherings. We only seem to have them for funerals now unfortunately. Still, I think we have a family wedding next year, and the gruesomes may be bridesmaids.

How do you feel about having your birthday so close to Thanksgiving? Mine is in Advent, and it usually gets forgotten (except by my nearest and dearest) in the Christmas party fever. I ban all christmas decorations in our house (excepting Advent Calender and the stuff for St Nicholas) until after my birthday... because I'm mean like that! Still, my #1 daughter has the (at the moment) worst date for a birthday: 31st December. It's hard getting her little friends together for a party on the day, because their parents are usually away or off out somewhere and don't want to have to collect the kids. When she's older, however, I suspect she'll always have a blast.

We'll have a family wedding next year too. My niece just got engaged this week. It's very exciting - she got a lovely ring. Her fiance proposed on a fishing trip to Gatlinburg, TN.

I'm not crazy about having my birthday so close to Thanksgiving. Some years it's gotten overlooked entirely, or at least until I did some major sulking. This year should be fun though, going out for Mexican.

Can you believe all the fuss some people are making over Harry Potter? They're saying it's evil because it has witchcraft in it. I think that's silly. Everyone knows it's a fantasy.

Did you notice the guy Thog who stumbled upon the drool thread? He retreated with the dry heaves. I thought that was funny. Does the drool thread ever get censored by the moderators? I actually like the fact that h2g2 has some standards and sticks to them. I have been in some AOL chatrooms that got just vile. Our drool thread seems pretty harmless in comparison.

so far we've never been moderated... even the c-word (sort of) got in there!! I expect the (female) mods have a good laugh at some of the things we say! It started when some of us (AGB certainly, she started the drool thread, me, Gwennie and some others were dribbling over the Andromeda thread, and decided to move it so as not to offend people, which I think is pretty cool). We're harmless. I think if anyone got over the top we'd either stop or ask them to stop it (well, I would certainly, since it's on my page, and my mum goes there!). Thog... I may go over and leave a message on his page.

I'm always surprised that people actually read my page... I naver have time to look at other people's.

Still.... I'm putting some pics of my girlies in their Halloween costumes on my website tonight (after Stargate) so if you want to see a fairy and a pumpkin....

Nieces getting married next year must be trendy, my friend's niece is also getting married. It's so exciting planning a wedding, I might just get married again for the hell of it!! (to the same guy, for all his faults - not many really - I've got him well trained. He even cleaned the guest loo yesterday!!)

I go to some forums on Delphi and I'm continually amazed by the reactions to Harry Potter. I'm all for anything that gets kids reading, and most kids nowadays are sooooo cynical that they don't actually believe in magic or anything anyway. I did, however, hear a report that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds are now worried that people will start buying Owls as pets. Which would be awful. I can't wait to see the film, but suspect I'll be in for a bit of a wait, it's been graded as from age 6 here, and my two are nowhere near that. Although since they've seen me reading the books and since they see all the merchandise they recognise HP straight away.

Ho hum... time to earn an honest crust!

Your girls are cute as buttons in their fairy and pumpkin costumes. And I liked their firefighter outfits too.

Your husband is a rare bird if he actually cleans the bathroom.

Your ratings system must be stricter there than here in the US. Here kids can even get in R rated films I think, as long as a parent accompanies them.

To be honest I'm not sure how the ratings system works here. It says from age 6, but I'm not sure if that means they can get in before with an adult.

I'll wait until it comes out on Vid/DVD or onto the TV (more likely) because they probably wouldn't understand anyway, and they fidget too much (although the 3 films I've taken Saskia to, and the 2 that Eveline also came to went well - but they were for all ages anyway)

The pumpkin outfit will double as a carrot for carnival, with the addition of a green sparkly wig! I can't wait.

I've just heard that there is the Leonid meteor shower this weekend, do you think you'll see it? I'm hoping it's visible over here. What a great way to mark your birthday! (can I ask how old? It's just that apparently it only comes once every 33 years or so)

I found some pictures of the cats I have owned, so maybe I'll give them their own page on our website, poor sorry mangy looking bunch that they are!

Is the meteor shower Friday night or Saturday night? I'll have to watch for it. I will be 36 on Monday. By the way, on Saturday, the 17th, Shee and I are having a dual "birthday party." It will be at 3pm Memphis time on the thread that started out "the Beatles!" and is now "Birthday Party-yippee!" Do come if the time is convenient - I know you are halfway round the world, and I am not very good with time zones. Hope you get my message in time, I know it's short notice. And I know you have kids, so you may be busy. I know how that is. I think it's funny that I know a Shee and a Sho, now all I have to do is meet a Sha. Later then. Oh and yes, you should definitely set up a cat page! I wish I had one for Micio!

Oh, I'll try and get there... weekends can be a bit hectic for me... but often I'm on a Stargate board (told you, I'm obsessed!) at the chat, so it might be possible.

36 eh? You're just a tad younger than me (38 next month! I can't believe it!) so have fun!!

I think the meteor thing will go on all weekend. But if you type Leonid shower in any search engine, you should find something. Actually, try putting it in the h2g2 search, I'm sure I read something here once upon a time.

You could always change your name to Sha... then we'd be there, Shee, Sho and Sha... we can practice our assonance, or is it consonance... yes, I think it's that *rummages around in English lessons memory and comes up with nothing*

ho hum...

Maybe "speak" to you tomorrow? In any case, have a good weekend, and I'll deffo see you on Monday!