Purple Dragon

First off, thanks to everyone for the comments when I first posted about his shoulder. I shan't reply individually because that is what this post is for.

He went in yesterday and got x-rayed. He was a bit scared when I left him, and bit confused. Oh, turns out he weighs 27.5 kgs - they weighed him to see how much sedation he would need. Big boy, eh? Not at his full growth either. Not that he has a lot left to grow. I reckon he will smooth out around 30-35kg. Not as big as some dogs, WAY bigger than others!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he is fine. He has a soft tissue injury, probably from falling over or running into something. He is dead clumsy and even at 1.5 years old still can't seem to co-ordinate all four legs at once.

He is on NSAIDs for a couple of weeks and cage rest. He is allowed out if he isn't gonna be jumping about the place, and he can go outside for a short walk on the lead to empty himself and get some air, but that is about it. For a fortnight. WAY shorter than the 5 months I was dreading.

When he got home last night he lay with his head on my son's lap for about an hour, just getting clapped.

My pocket is £150 lighter but my heart is up in the clouds.

So I have been trying a bit harder to get into some sort of exercise regime to try and tone up the flab.

I have a rug beside my bed, and I use it as an exercise mat rather than roll out my proper one, because I'm lazy like that.

Last night, I added leg raises to the other exercises, which involves laying on your side and raising one leg up. This is good for the upper, outer thigh and also the hip.

It is not, however, good for the ego.

I have mirrored wardrobes in my room, and as I lay on the rug on my side, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought "ONG! What the hell is that growth on the side of my neck?" Turned out to be my neck. My neck is so flabby that it was hanging down when I lay on my side like those turkey wings you get under your arms.

Just fucking shoot me now. I'm a lost cause. *sob*

So we were in town this afternoon and Mum fell over. I was walking in front of her and she got me a good one in the back, and then when I was helping her back to her feet, I did my back. It is bloody sore and I have gymnastics tonight. Hopefully I can stretch it out.

I got my two new rescue hens today. Thy are brown. One has had her beak clipped so she will be called Beaky (yeah, yeah, okay); the other is a lighter brown and Rachel has decided to call her Willow because they came from Willows Animal Sanctuary. They are a bit skinny but have most of their feathers. I was expecting them to be bare. The rooster keeps going to the coop door (they are in a puppy cage inside the coop till the others get used to them. He keeps keeking in and running off. He's so brave

It is lambing up here just now, and there is a small flock at the bottom of the lane. There is this one lamb laying beside the storage unit. It has been laying all afternoon with no ewe nearby and I am worried it has been rejected. I'm really worried about it, but I can't find the number of the wife whose flock it is. I know it is alive because I have seen its head move and flick its ears.

My labradoodle has been lifting his right leg recently. To start with, he would lift it a little bit, and slowly it had been lifted whenever he is at rest. I had a look at his foot, between his pads, squeezed right up his leg looking for a reaction. Nothing.

So, this morning, a trip to the vet.

Turns out to be his shoulder. Apparently, in big, fast growing dogs, the bone outgrows the cartlidge and you can get gaps. He is going back in the morning for sedation and x-ray, and depending on the results, he could need surgery

Hopefully all he has done is tripped and fallen (which he does a lot) and has bashed himself. With his weight and the speed he runs, he wouldn't get much chance to rest the injury. He weighs about 20kgs I think.

This is what I found on the problem.

http://www.8pawsup.com/articles/labsocd.html

I just sat and watched the thing on the History Channel about 9/11. It was supposed to be from the point of view of the folk who experienced it in the city. Like, the local folk.

The thing I noticed most of all what the lack of children fleeing from the disaster. Do they not have kids in Manhattan? Did they edit it so that they didn't have kids shown, for reasons of child privacy, perhaps, or because it would be too heart rending for the watcher?

There was one child being carried away after the second tower had fallen. I assume it was his Dad carrying him, but the weird thing was - the Dad (?) had a gas mask on and the kid didn't. My kids would get my gas mask every time.

Had a rotten old day today.

First off the weather has been totally abyssmal. We've had really strong winds. Did I tell you my polytunnel has ripped? Well, it is now totally beyond repair.

We've had sleet, snow, rain, some sunshine. It's really cold and horrid. The sort of damp that gets into your bones and settles there for the duration.

I had the plumber come today to fit my cloakroom. A three hour job turned into a 5 hour job. The waste under the floor was iffy. The screws were rusted to the floor. There were a couple of parts missing from the manifests. Another part was buggered altogether. Ho hum. Anyway, it is done now. All we have left to do there is paint the room and put new flooring in. Probably linoleum.

Anyone got any idea how much I can get for a pair of brass basin taps with all the fittings?

In other news, I took No2Child to the school Dr today for her follow up from her coeliac/learning problem issues from last year. She doesn't need help any more and has caught up with the other children in her class.

The Dr thinks she shows ADHD traits. I think the Dr is a prat. I was so mad I could hardly talk. She bases her query on :
Laura talking in class and getting in trouble for it;
Laura not sitting still at the dinner table;
Laura not doing as she is told;
Laura getting bored with some things easily and stuff not holding her attention.
I was mad as anything.

They tried this with my son when he was at playgroup. PLAYGROUP! They said that because he was so much more full of energy than the other kids and had ants in his pants that he should be assessed. I enrolled him in gymnastics and he has never looked back. You try being hyper when you are a gymnast. It ain't happening!

Perhaps Laura has very slight hyper traits, all my kids do, but I will not have any of them labelled, to have it follow them thru their whole school careers, to be assessed by reports even before they have been met. There's probably a label on her file now that says "Mother in denial" or something.

Whatever. Laura won't be going back, I can tell you that.

In other news, I have just ordered the rest of my dinner set. I'm chuffed

Laura's op went well.

We got there at 11am and she was taken into theatre at 2.55 which was a horrendous wait. The surgeon was supposed to start at 1pm but didn't arrive till 2.20.

Ihate it when they go under the anaestehtic. She must feel like she is falling because she cried out, turned towards me, tried to hold onto me, but then was asleep. Of course, that always makes me cry - I hate feeling helpless around them.

When she came back she moaned and cried. She was in pain, disorientated, scared. I held her on my lap for a while, then Himself took over, eventually she went back to sleep and slept for hours.

The other children (there were 5 in total) all did the same - moaning and crying. I had to rush out at one point - I couldn't stand to hear them all cry. I went outside to get some air and have a small weep. All those poor little scared children. Awful. I don't know how the nurses cope.

When Lala woke up again, she felt a bit better. She had something to eat, another couple of small dozes and they let us out at 7.30

It was thick fog all the way home. We didn't get back till after 9pm. We never got over 40mph on the main road and when we turned off towards the village we had 9 miles to travel at less than 30mph.

By the time we got back I was a complete wreck. I put Rachel to bed, then put Lala to bed. She slept with me. I was dizzy, had a terrible headache, thought I was going to be sick. I just held Lala in my arms and we went off to sleep together.

She is still in some pain in her throat. She also has a very sick feeling tummy, with a runny bum, so I am starting to wonder about the painkillers they have given her. The tummy is taking too long to clear up, I think, if it was just the anaesthetic.

Well, it is done now. She is off school until Wednesday at the earliest.

No2 Child, Laura, is going into hospital today to have her grommets inserted and her adenoids removed.

All thoughts for a successful and painfree (as possible) procedure are appreciated.

Thank you

I was just reading something on Avrilo's blog about audio blogging. Apparently some folk have blogs where they don't type, they speak to folk instead.

I got to thinking how much fun it would be if we could all post something with our voices on. Just a few words, a "hello, this is me" sort of thing, so we could all hear how we each sound. I have never heard any of you speak, and I read your blogs in the voices that I think you sound like. I am probably completely wrong!

Is there any way we can do that?

The newest meme thing is Your 100th Post. Well mine was on 24th November 2005, and it said

Dad's Results
He went to see the oncologist again this morning, for his 6-weekly diagnosis.

The anomaly on his spine is osteoporosis, not the tumour that we feared.

Six weeks ago, he had one 1cm tumour in one lung. He now has a tumour in each lung, about the size of an orange.

At his last appointment, he had minimum cancer in his liver. It is now 50% cancer.

They have told him that they can’t do any more for him with conventional medicine. However, they have offered him a place on clinical trials for the first trials of a new medicine. Unfortunately, his oncologist says that he doesn’t think Dad qualifies. He will go to Oxford in January to see.

Apart from that, they are letting the cancer take its course.

Nice and cheery, eh? I don't even remember writing this one, although I remember the event.

Nicked from brokendownangel

Bold everything you've done:

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
8. Said "I love you" and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars (although I was actually totally drunk at the time)
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger (and was totally mortified when she said no and got offended)
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer (does 4 in one machine count?)
40. Visited all 50 American states
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an expert
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Eaten fugu
89. Had a one-night stand
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried one/both of your parents (well, cremated)
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show (but in the audience)
97. Raised children
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Written articles for a major publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Ridden a bike
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to university
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Happy Birthday, Jen! I hope you have a lovely day, that the weather stays sunny and warm for you, and you do whatever it is you want to do.

No one told me that when I had children,
every time something happened to one of them,
every time they suffered a defeat,
every time someone said something nasty to them,
every time they were sad or lonely,
that I would suffer along with them,
tenfold.

Today, my heart aches,
and I want to gather my babies
and disappear somewhere
where the big, bad world can't touch them.

I don't know if this is true or not, and can't be bothered to check! I am sure someone out there has already checked and wil either agree or disagree with me

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/09/youtube_blocks_music_vids_in_uk/

As y'all know, I'm into yoga. I love it. I make my kids do it (although 'make' isn't really the right word) every morning with me. I want to train as a yoga teacher, but it is proving a challenge. Ho hum.

However, there is more to yoga than the asanas - there is the sutras.

There was this bloke a long time ago (Patanjali) who defined the philosophy of yoga and wrote it all down in the sutras. Unfortunately, he wrote it all in Sanskrit, and I don't know about you lot, but I'm not fluent

However, this other bloke - Salvatore Zambito (yeah, I know - sounds made up, eh?) - got his head down and not only wrote a book offering English translations, but also English translations and interpretations from 12 authorities on the sutras. He called it The Unadorned Thread of Yoga - The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali in English and as soon as I heard about it, I rushed out and bought it.

It is totally brilliant. Each translation has a subtle variation on the other 11, and it really opens up the definition of each sutra.

However ...

I have also just found a website that offers the original Sanskrit sutra in japa/kirtan form, which you can download onto your MP3 player and use as a tool for meditation. How totally cool is that?

I'm so excited I could pee myself!

I have been wandering round the house all afternoon, chanting "atha yoganusasanam".

Theft Problem - Warn Your Friends

You've heard about people who have been abducted and had their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves.

My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago. I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs. It was just that quick. The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine?

I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs. Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans. And then the thieves struck again.

My butt was next. I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier. But my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than my original! I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in favor of long skirts.

Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush.

This was really getting scary - my body was being replaced one section at a time. What could they do to me next?

When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story.

Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee! Those 'plastic' surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts -stolen from you and me! The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look again - was it lifted from you?

*THIS IS NOT A HOAX*. This is happening to women everywhere every night.

*WARN YOUR FRIENDS!*

*P.S. Last year I thought some one had stolen my Boobs. I was lying in bed and they were gone!

But when I jumped out of bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept.

Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.

My man is a complete superstar.

My washing machine died yesterday. I've been expecting it, because it has been playing up a wee bit for a few weeks.

Looked it up on the 'net and to buy the equivalent machine would have been about £450 - at which I baulked, believe me! I had a poke around and settled myself on buying a simple Hotpoint at about £280 - much better price, I am sure you will agree.

He pulled it out this morning and with one screwdriver, appears to have fixed it

What a total superstar! Now, what can I buy for £280 for memememe?

Thoughts for Today--

When I'm feeling down, I like to whistle.
It makes the neighbor's dog run to the end of his chain and gag himself.

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight,
because by then your body and your fat have gotten to be really good friends.

The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement .

Did you ever notice:
The Roman Numerals for forty (40) are ' XL.'

The sole purpose of a child's middle name is so he can tell when he's really in trouble.

There's always a lot to be thankful for if you take time to look for it.
For example I am sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt .

Did you ever notice:
When you put the 2 words 'The' and 'IRS' together it spells 'Theirs.'

Aging: Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age
and start bragging about it.

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Some people try to turn back their odometers.
Not me, I want people to know 'why' I look this way.
I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth,
think of Algebra.

Ah, being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft.
Today, it's called golf.

Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth..AMEN..!!

From : http://www.urbandictionary.com/

I got :

* a hot, irresistable female with a big heart

* a sophisticated middle-aged woman with a knack for communicating with woodland creatures

* A short, fiery red-headed female extraordinarily good at busting a guy's balls.

* A poster child for those unfortunately stricken blind in science-class accidents, Carol didn't wear her safety glasses. Now she doesn't need them.

* A Large Product Of Gay Circle Fun When In Need Of Much Satisfaction In The Night

Phew - what a couple of days. Serves me right for lazing around on Tuesday!

Yesterday No3Child had swimming lessons, then back homne for lunch, then off to nursery. Collect No1Child to take him to the hospital.

A wee bit of history - he has had hearing problems since he was a baby. Multiple ear infections, deaf in playgroup onwards, yadda yadda. Poor kid. Subsequently he has had four operations to try and sort him out, the latest being a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and more grommets. Although he hasn't had a problem with deafness recently, every single cold he has ends up with him at the Dr getting more antibiotics to cure the ear infection that invariably arises. The last time his ear drum burst with major gunkage, the time before, the same happened but with lots of blood and gunk. Nice.

Consultant was the same one as I see with No2Child. He was a little bemused I think. He recognised me, but with the wrong kid. LOL. He doesn't want to do another operation because of the risk of scarring and potentially deafness. Fair enough. I can live with that. So he has put him on an 8 week course of antibiotics. His eustatian tubes are still too narrow for his size but there is nothing they can do about that. I asked about permanent grommets and he refused - he says he has never put permanent ones in children because they need surgery to remove them and as the children grow, the grommets don't, and it can cause a permanent hole in the eardrum. Flip me - don't want that then!

Then it was the rush back to here to collect another kid for gymnastics. I actually got training last night. The senior instructor knew how unhappy and upset I was about what happened last week, and I think she is worried about losing me, so she became a 'floating' instructor and gave me loads of training. It was great. I feel so much more confident now about handing the children. Unfortunately we had the airtrack out last night, and our group were doing standing handstands, and I put my back out a wee bit. I have never been on the airtrack before and keeping not only my balance but helping the girls keep theirs was a challenge!

My case study couldn't come this morning. She got caught up in a work emergency. I have to say I was rather relieved because I had a valium hangover and I don't think giving Reiki when I felt like that would have been a good experience for either of us! I still feel leaden. Got a good nights sleep though! So I took the dood for a walk in the woods instead. He is such a lollop!

And now it is snowing.

Apparently the BBC reckons we have only read 6 of the 100 books listed.
I wonder which 6 they think they are?

Instructions:
Look at the list and put those you have read in bold, italicise the ones you own bus havent read yet.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible but not all of it
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott and I own the sequel Jo's Boys too
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare [Ok - not strictly all of them, but as far as I'm concerned if the ones you've read include Richard II and Titus Andronicus, you pass the test.]
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams plus sequels
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis Surely part of the Chronicles of Narnia?
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne all of them, plus the Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood I have all her books
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert again - all of them
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce [I can't believe I actually finished this]
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare [IS IN COMPLETE WORKS!]
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Hmm, 36 - fewer than I thought. I wonder what the criteria were?

Just checked the weather forecast for tomorrow.

Wed 4th Mar 03:00 AM Heavy Snow 1°C 6 mph North Westerly
Wed 4th Mar 06:00 AM Light Snow 0°C 6 mph North Westerly
Wed 4th Mar 09:00 AM Light Snow 1°C 8 mph Westerly
Wed 4th Mar 12:00 PM Light Snow 2°C 10 mph South Westerly

I thought it was flippin cold. I've got the heating on, and I am considering putting the blow heater on coz I'm frozen!

I am *SO* over snow.

I have done bugger all today!

Got the kids off to school and was supposed to meet a mate to walk the dogs, but she forgot she was working, so I went myself. It was nice. The woods were SO quiet, and I quite often wished I had taken my camera - there were some amazing bird nests in the trees. I love nests.

Picked litt'lun up from nursery and went to another pals house. She was having a jewellery party. Rachel chose me a handbag. I loved it when I was inside, but when I got outside it was rather a different shade to what I thought, so I am disappointed now. I am not disappointed, however, with the two silver rings and the silver necklance I bought One ring is like celtic knotwork and the other is similar but more square with like a seed thing in the middle. I will see if I can get some nice pixc bt my camera doesn;'t really do close ups.

Poor Rachel was helping the presentation wife put down her display table and one of the legs whacked off her face. She has a cut on her lower cheek, has split her lip right in the corner and bit the inside of her lip too. Much blood. Much crying. Poor munchkin She's okay now though. She tends to recover pretty quick, which is handy because she is always damaging herself.

Just before we left for swimming, The Boy asked for a heated up sausage roll. For some reason, he likes them heated in the microwave (yeuch) so I shoved one in, and then there were sparks, banging, the most dreadful stink of burning, and smoke, so I switched it off sharpish and unplugged it from the wall. Another microwave bites the dust. That is two we've had since we lived here. The first one, Laura decided to cook the instruction manual and the whole thing went on fire. Sigh. Just as well we have a spare.

I'm sitting here typing with a small french stick stuffed with thick ham and grated (and melted) cheese. Nom nom.

Plenty happys

This story, from the Daily Mail on 28th February, makes me just want to pack a trowel and jump straight on a plane.

One wonders why we spend so much on space travel when there are so many wonders beneath our feet that we do't know about.

Look at the pictures and read the text. Amazing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1157784/Do-mysterious-stones-mark-site-Garden-Eden.html