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

>The upside of having to cut people loose, is finding people you knew years ago, and becoming friends again. It's great when that happens!<

That hasn't really happened to me, yet. Though I have bumped into old schoolmates and done some vaguely social stuff before.

The other upside of having to cut people loose is giving yourself more time and energy for the people you *can* get on with, and sparing the people you can't the same.

No worries, I'm sure if you'd ever hurt my feelings it's long forgotten. Just because we each feel the other is a bit misinformed, doesn't mean either of us is a bad person. And you certainly never said anything as mean and hurtful as what I said that time.

I've mentioned this about you before, I actually kind of get a kick out of the way you give me cr*p sometimes. I prefer openly bad-tempered to back-stabbing any day.

I've just given our handicapped cat a bath... my arms look like I got stuck in a cheese grater. Sigh. But, the cat is clean!

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Wow, that's brave! Was there water everywhere? I remember trying to flea powder a cat once - and on the back of my right hand is a wee scar from when one of my Mum's cats misunderstood my intentions... In what way is your cat handicapped?

He has Feline Crebellar Hypoplasia, found in cats whose mothers were infected with distemper during pregnancy. He's my boyfriend's cat, and he's about four years old. He has extremely poor balance and coordination, his hind legs don't cooperate with him very well, and he tips over a lot. He normally can't leap, he climbs, using his front claws to pull himself onto upholstered furniture. But he certainly was able to leap out of the tub (quite a feat- it's one of those huge old claw-footed ones) and got water everywhere indeed.

Minor scratches on my forearm, really, and the is nice and soft today. He needed a bath after rolling around in some catnip which came out of a demolished toy mouse.

I hope I never have to do that again, he was howling like he was being scalped.

Poor thing! (Your cat). Still, it's obvious that you and your boyfriend are devoted to him, and he's so lucky to be a pet!

My son and his wife have a large cat called Cleo, who rules their lives. She will only drink running water, for instance, so they had to install a bird bath type arrangement in their living room when they went away last year, to nurse Megan's grandmother.

When Jim and I stayed with them at the time of their wedding in 2001, we were freaked out to find out that Cleo can open doors! She came in to the bedrooms where we were, to check us out.

Wow, Cleo sounds a little spoiled. I don't know if I'd install running water for Herman. He'd probably just fall in, anyway.

He is a sweet little buddy, though, and he has got me conned into spoiling him just a little bit... he nearly always gets a nibble if I'm having egg or cheese, and he won't eat it till I've crumbled it into little morsels for him.

He's very affectionate, though, so he's nice to have around. Much lower maintenance, and much easier to manage in an apartment, than a dog.

I used to have a cat named Jazz who would open doors. He would climb up on my night table while I was sleeping- never the bed- and just *stare* at me until I woke up. I had to get a sliding latch for the bedroom door to keep him from waking me up that way- it freaked me out!

Cleo is very spoiled - G & M got her when she was six weeks old, because G's father was stuck with her, and they were essentially rescuing her from the kind of neglect John would have inflicted on her.

One of my Mum's cats loved cheese, it was her favourite snack. (I'd never have thought of eggs, though).

My mother-in-law had two cats, Tom-Tom and Jerry-Tom, who ate what they were given, until some very spoiled felines moved in next door. Obviously, they compared notes, because Tom-Tom and Jerry-Tom started turning their noses up at Chef Jellymeat, until Ailsa managed to convince them that they were never going to get fillet steak! (She's on an old-age pension.)

I am definitely a fan of cats, rather than dogs, but my sister in Blenheim has both, and my niece has a pit-bull puppy called Reef, given to her by her fiance as a Christmas present. Her fiance is a passionate surfer, hence the 's name. It's as ugly as sin, judging by photos Nettie has sent me, but she loves it with an abiding passion!

Pit bulls are so ugly they're cute. One of my friends has a big dumb bull mastiff. Haven't seen them in a long time, though. The guitarist in one of my boyfriend's bands had two big labs, they're dumb as rocks and really stinky, but cute and affectionate. I'm not so keen on big dogs because I have a very bad knee (tore up several tendons and broke my femur some years back) and when the dogs plow into it, it buckles, which kinda hurts. And it also means I fall over, giving the stinky dogs a chance to pin me down and lick me to death.

I'm glad that Cleo was adopted by G&M, who love her, instead of being neglected. I don't like seeing animals mistreated by humans.

The only time I've felt bad having pets is when I first moved out on my own in 1988 and my cat Smoky got sick. I couldn't afford to bring him to the vet, and by the time I scraped it together, it was too late, and he died during surgery. Poor little guy, I'd had him for 7 or 8 years and felt like I'd totally failed him. Took along time to stop feeling guilty.

So ugly they're cute, that's a good point. Nettie's puppy is cute in a weird way, but I wonder what she's going to look like when she's no longer a puppy? When Nettie was a baby, her parents (my sis and brother-in-law) had a German Shepherd dog called Julie, born on the same day as Nettie, 11 September 1983. In about 1989, Julie went missing and was found drowned in a nearby river. I don't think Nettie ever recovered from having her 'dog twin' die when she was six years old.

Ooh, your knee injury sounds horrible. You have my sympathy! I'm sorry to hear about your cat which died in surgery. It's terrible not to be able to afford vet bills, isn't it? Sometimes, G&M have problems with that, as well..

Things are better now, not having problems with money like I did when I first moved on my own. I appreciate your sympathy, though. And for the knee, as well, which is healing up nicely and usually works as it should!

What a week this is turning out to be. Summer is holding on one more day- we're near 90 F today- and it's so busy here at the office. Hope your week is treating you well.

You lucky things! Here, spring has decided to go away again... we've had rain and cold for two weeks now, and to add to the misery, I have horrible hay fever! I'm sneezing, my eyes are red - you get the picture!

So, I am sitting here waiting for the pill to work, while Jim is off having fun - he has a full day today, lucky toyota.

I get horrible hay fever this time of year, too. It was unseasonably warm and humid here the past several days, now we're down to the low 60s today, with a lovely night forecast in the upper 30s or lower 40s F. 30% chance of rain. I'm looking forward to the first frost, which gets rid of all the pollen and stuff I'm allergic to outdoors.

Hope you're feeling better today!

Thanks, I am feeling a bit better today, but freezing cold! Jim has an early day today, he gets home about 10.45, which is why I am on so early! He put in his last assignment for the year, yesterday, after that, all he has is his exams and two weeks on the wards... he's looking forward to that. Then - there's the fun of getting a vacation job, which will be a new experience for him. What fun!

Unseasonably warm is IMO better than unseasonal cold! But hay fever stinks on ice! (Well, not on ice, which is okay.)

Hey there, how are you holding up weatherwise now? It's *finally* cooled off here to my favorite kind of weather- sweater weather! We've gotten to the point where the highs are in the mid-50s F and lows in the lower 40s F. Just my kind of weather!!

How are things otherwise? I've been busy at work but everything's good!

Oh my, and a very important post script: I see you recently had a birthday, something of which I was unaware. Sorry for the belatedness, but I hope you had a happy birthday and wish you many happy returns.

Hi, thanks for the birthday wishes! That's so nice... I like your anagram, by the way, and I like that you've stuck with just one of them.. sometimes, I just wonder who someone is!

The weather here is glorious! The rain has gone away, and we have glorious wonderful sunshine, but not too hot. Because I am not working today, I am wearing a long skirt and bare feet and legs, which is wonderful to be able to do.

The problem is, I cut my hair back in May, and it's getting to the really awkward stage - too long to be comfortable in hot weather, but too short to put up out of the way. Maybe I should get it cut again, but I don't wanna... What to do?

My hair has been in that in between stage for a while now, too. Drives me nuts! It's cool enough now that I don't need to worry about it.

I was afraid people would think my anagram was dumb! But it seems to have gone over well enough.

Hope you and Jim are doing well? We're doing fine here. Just bought a DVD box set with several Ed Wood films, and hope to have it in time for the weekend. That's about it, really, otherwise it's been mostly work, eat, sleep!

Gaaaa, don't talk to me about hair. Mine is recently cut (chin-length-ish) but all I can ever do with it is plaster it back into either a ponytail or bun.

Noggin and I have been to the immigration dept these past few days as he needs to get a residency permit. These sorts of things always require that you return day after day after day because they never tell you on day-one what you actually needed to give them!

Anyhoodle, yesterday there was a very attractive black woman with an almost 'Supremes' 60's flippy hairdo . . . then today we saw the same woman wearing bright red short dreads. Noggin reckoned that she had either been very busy since yesterday or it was wigs.

What a concept! I think I should seriously consider getting a wig or two. I'd really love to have fringe again!


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One of the other administrative assistants here, a really pretty black woman, has an assortment of wigs she wears, she rotates daily and doesn't care who notices.

Several of the other girls have gotten extensions. I'd thought about trying that, but I'm afraid they'll fall out.

My hair's about shoulder-length these days, but it's extremely fine and wispy, so I need to add a curl activator gel to keep it from going limp by midday. I had really nice dreads (for a white girl) from about age 17 till I was around 26 or so. When I had them out, they cut my hair down to about 3" long! It's still growing out, ever so slowly these days, from that. Sigh!

Mine has got very curly, which is good, and I have (almost) a Jackie Kennedy flip. Bizarre!

Today is cooler than the last few have been, so it's not as much of a nuisance as it was.

A variety of wigs would be a good idea, provided that they were all nice ones.

I hope Noggin has a smooth and trouble-free time with his residency permits...

I swear, at first I thought Della was going to say she hoped Noggin had a smooth scalp!

I am so ashamed of myself for even thinking such a thing, not to mention attributing my evil thoughts to the innocent!!

Dunno if I could do wigs, I'm always really warm and I would be afraid I'd sweat underneath them and get all dandruffy.