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

What are Twiglets? What kind of presents?

Twiglets are snacky things, like Marmite flavoured crunchy sticks. Not a big fan of them, to be honest. But food is food They go well with beer.

One of the presents is curtains, I was there when Simon chose them for me. The other one is a bit of a mystery, but it looks clothesey, and from Mary may well be something from her former employ. Nice stuff!

Hope work chills out a bit for you now.

Things will chill out after the 3rd. Then our annual audit will begin shortly after that. Things will be relatively quiet between mid-April and the end of summer, I imagine.

I'm not a big fan of Marmite flavor on its own. I use it to make gravy and stuff like that, but I don't eat it as a snack. Too salty and yeasty for me.

Curtains are a nice gift!

These ones are great. I noted how nice Simon's new ones were - ring-topped, faux-suede, nice and chunky. So he took me out to pick some. I have this perennial problem of wanting a light colour, but that'll block out the afternoon sunlight - my windows look out over the east, which makes for some stunning sunsets but also feeling like a bug under a magnifying glass. So he's got me a big beige one, with a black one to go behind it.

Sounds nice!

I've never had curtains. Beige sounds nice, though. That'll let some light through!

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a new rolling pin this year- K told his mom I wanted one. Other than that, I'm in the dark.

How on earth I am going to get through today is beyond me. I have a little work to do, not too much, and no motivation to do anything. And I'm feeling a tad unwell again; congested, with an ache in my sinuses. If I'm sick over my holiday I'm going to be royally pissed off.

Sorry if you've got it coming, as if there wasn't a shittier time. Still, you've probably got a better constitution for it, women seem to. Hang in there, lots of drinks and plenty of hot rest.

Talking of your need for a rolling pin, I've got an image of you in apron and slippers chasing Herman around yelling "Thommus!!" Oh, and you're black now, obviously.

Hope you get to have a nice wind-down one way or another.

I'd feel better if not for people following me around the office pestering me. Even when I'm hiding behind closed doors.

Herman does kind of look like Tom, doesn't he? Or Sylvester, with those whiskers!

He definitely is a sweet kitteh. I have one called Scruffy who comes round mewing some evenings for food and attention. Makes me want to get one, but that would mean he wouldn't be welcome any more (and he doesn't cost anything). A Brit comic called Jo Brand said she put a note in her cat's collar saying "If you're feeding my cat, call me." She got 14 calls!

My cold's all gone, but so's my voice. I sound like Tom Waits.

Tom Waits mid-puberty.

Kittehs will keep coming around to "visit" lovely people who feed them. There's a couple down the block who let their cats run around outside, and those two are always coming around looking for something to snack on. Though they hardly seem to be starving. I saw the little one running down the block with a huge pigeon in its mouth one day last week.

Herman can be a very sweet kitteh. He can also be a holy terror. Aside from the unsteady paws on hardwood floors (), there are a number of other antics, some of which are not always highly amusing. He'll take off at a gallop and send area rugs flying- when I get home from work they're all turned diagonally to their normal position, or he's rolled up in one like a big kitteh burrito. Then there's the pleasure of waking in the morning to a tail in your mouth, claws digging into your armpit, or the sounds of a hairball about to be hacked onto the bed. And the plaintive meowing, stamping around, and literally huffing and puffing when we have the *nerve* to have our dinner before serving him.

In other words, it's all good fun. Kittehs rule. But yeah, if you did get your own, the other shouldn't be allowed to visit. FLV and all that. And I really would recommend that if you ever do decide to go that route, you get a litter pan and keep the little guy indoors.

Cats are sluts basically, aren't they? You don't own them, they just tolerate your accomodation.

I reckon I will get one soon, but it'll have to be an old or infirm one, maybe a rescue cat, who'd need to be kept in - or I'd have to get a catflap put in and take my chances with the neighbours.

You can get double-sided tape for your rugs you know. I've got carpet tiles in the hall that don't budge a bit.

The current meme on b3ta is for lolchairs

http://www.b3ta.com/challenge/lochairs/

I know about the double-sided rug tape. There's a perfectly valid reason I don't use it. But I can't remember what that is.

Lolchairs- what will they think of next!

Herman was more or less a rescue cat; K picked him up at a farm in Wisconsin. He wouldn't have survived long outdoors. Cats with his condition can sometimes make decent hunters, if only because the prey thinks "that gimp will never catch me!", but they're also easy to catch. We nearly adopted a second, three-legged kitteh a couple of years ago, but the woman at the shelter loved him so much she took him home herself.

K's old roommates had two female cats who used to kick Herman's ass. But that's mainly because he'd always watch them poop.

We swapped gifts last night. K says it's because he was so embarrassed by his gift-wrapping skills, he couldn't bear to leave the evidence for another two days. I got a couple cool books and a rubber Godzilla series monster model (Hedorah).

Hedorah!

I'm planning on copy-and-pasting the Lovecraft transcripts and printing them out. would you like a copy of the document?

If it's not too much trouble, I wouldn't mind giving it a look. Thanks!

Hedorah's pretty cool- have you seen "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster"? Tripped-out, heavy-handed environmental message- and a helluva lot of fun. But now that the monster model floodgate has been opened, I'm really going to have to get cracking in my search for media shelving... because I'll need a free shelf for them all.

And in a weird sort of serendipity, I got K the "Ultraman" DVD set.

That's not serendipity, that's just sweet.

I'll put a doc file on CD for you. Sort of half-watching "Sans Soleil at the mo, having watched "La Jeteé" - nice to see how Twelve Monkeys came to be, but I'd like to see a little more action and less narration.

As an 8pt Times New Roman doc file, it weighs in at 5½Mb, and 308 pages. Better take it to work and print it out on the sly.

Thank goodness I have my own printer at work.

Ugh. I've got A Problem. Not suitable for online discussion. Let me know if you're around at all tomorrow and if you have IM. Sigh.

Surely. I've got lunch to do but I'll be home by about 10am your time. I'll send you an invite