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

yep, I'm home and have been spending some time on the website of the orgazation it was for. Btw I have a weather radar thingy and a flashlight with a hand crank and normal radio both are pretty usefull don't know if they can be combined though.

Hi PC, thank goodness your power is finally back on! That must have been awful going so long without it. How did Herman cope? He okay?

Glad to hear things are back to "normal" PC.

We had a nice big storm last night, so I filmed a bit and made a montage. Not exactly epic but still pretty. Although predictably the best bits were out of shot, and one massive one right over our heads, came about a minute after I stopped filming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk_dzdP8r4E

Hi JEllen- we managed all right, and Herman didn't even seem to notice. It didn't get *too* hot in the apartment, and it had cooled down to a comfortable temperature by bedtime.

We actually did OK without most stuff, it was the uncomfortable warmth those two nights, and the waste of so much food, that annoyed me so.

Of course, K went around and re-set all of the clocks last night. Unfortunately, he got the AM/PM settings backwards and we woke up 30 minutes late this morning. Only we could manage to get up on time when the power's out, and late when it's back on...

Chris, I'll check out that video this evening. It didn't occur to me to film any of the awesome lightning or the funnel clouds on Monday. I was too busy trying to barricade Herman and myself in a closet or something. Apparently, this makes me abnormal- everyone else I talked to at work about it said that they stand right in front of the windows and watch those kinds of things. Me, I try to stay as far away from things that can decapitate me as possible.

sane woman

Where?

It's good to hear that you're back to 'normal' - well almost.

Thanks, Bel! It's good to be back to almost "normal" again, for sure. Especially as it's almost time to head home for the day. Hopefully we can catch up on DVD rentals that piled up while we couldn't watch them.

What's on the agenda? I've got Full Metal Jacket, and Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers to watch.

did you get some of the anime me and tb recomended

We've got Billy Liar, which we watched last night, Opening Night, and another of the Tom Baker Doctor Who DVDs. Also, Sho sent me a recent Who episode that's not available over here yet (Series 1-3 are out on DVD but cost a fair bit, and PBS is only up to what I think is Series 2- the last one we watched was the last one w/ Rose, and Catherine Tate was in the at the end).

I did add some of the anime you recommended, but it hasn't come up in the queue yet.

That's what I get for having 200+ titles in queue. Next time we're absolutely in the mood for an anime soon, I'll push one of those to the top of the queue. I'll try to catch up soon so we have more to talk about over in the anime threads.

It's going to be an absolutely gorgeous weekend, and it looks like we're meeting two friends to see a couple of local bands on Saturday night.

Oh so you could watch the DVD?

We haven't tried it yet, but I am sure it works fine. I wanted to watch it over the weekend, but something came up and we didn't have a chance. And then the stupid power was out. I'll try it tonight for sure- can't wait!

I've totally gotten onto a Who kick now. I've added all of the available Tom Baker DVDs (except the Key To Time which we already own on DVD) and Series 2 & 3 of the more recent ones to the Netflix queue and we've been getting one DVD every couple of weeks or so.

Christopher was generous enough to send me a DVD with the Christmas special, the one with Kylie Minogue. And a toy Dalek.

I'm turning into a really big these days.

I'm busting for a remote control Dalek.

And we remembered that in one of our gazillion "bake a character cake" type books and leaflets, that we have a chocolate Dalek cake. I showed #2 and of course now she wants one. Can't say that I disagree with her.

How cool is that!!!

I would love a remote control Dalek, too. It's not as if I have too many toys already, is it?

A Dalek cake would be awesome. If you bake one together can you share a photo? I'd love to see that!

I don't have any "bake a character" type things. Though I do have a few silly themed cookbooks, like "It Came From the Kitchen" (actors from various B-movies send in their favorite recipes) and of course "Nanny Ogg's Cookbook". Oh, and Apocalypse Chow, which came in handy earlier this week- basically "recipes" for preparing decent meals with the power out, rather than just eating the stuff right from the cans.

I like the sound of Apocalypse Chow - perhaps I should get one (although I like food straight from the tin)

We have a lot of character cakes, because (quite a while back now) had a good sideline in birthday cakes.

I bought Apocalypse Chow mostly because the title cracked me up. But it is kind of neat, offering ways to "dress up" the non-perishables a bit so you don't feel like you're in some crazed cult compound waiting for the world to end.

Character cakes are awesome. I just wonder if I'd have the patience. Or if I could fit one in my oven.

A few years ago, one of my friends baked me an elephant cake for my birthday. She even made gray frosting. We ate the legs and body and I took the head part home. I waited for *weeks* to call her at home, from work, and ask her, just loudly enough to be overheard, if she wanted to come over that night "so we can finally take the head out of the freezer and eat it".

Mostly the character cakes are pretty easy, especially those that don't need bits of painting (the care-bare cake is excellent but I can't do the face properly)

Usually you have to make basic shapes then cut them up and move the pieces around, or cut bits off, or make different shapes (large bowl shape, small bowl shape etc)

My mum does great cakes too - she usually uses really hard icing (pastillage -sp?) and uses food colours to paint them. She made my grandad a Perfect Cribbage Hand with life-sized playing cards - and she hand-painted each one. If you play crib you'll know that it means picture cards...