Category: Uncategorized

Taking a Break
Just in case anybody wonders why I’m not posting. I will be back, hopefully by my birthday… which is Oct 17th, in case you were wondering that too.

Anyway. I’m not actually gone anywhere, so I can answer email and comments and such. I’m just taking a break. TTFN.

I’m not dead. Just reeeeeally really tired. I always thought that insomnia would actually be pretty good – you could stay awake longer, and get more stuff done. And maybe some people do get it like that, I dunno. However, I’m just finding it practically impossible to go to sleep, even though I feel beyond knackered. It’s ridiculous. I can’t accomplish anything much when I’m up cos my eyes are grainy and my brain’s all fuzzy, and I can’t sleep either, except for so lightly that I’m still half awake. It’s weird, actually, dreaming while being aware that I’m lying in bed. It’s also getting more and more frustrating, which probably isn’t helping overall. Still, at least I’ve got my appointment on Thursday – hopefully she’ll be able to sort me out. Not that I want more drugs. Feh. But maybe there’ll be something short term to get me back on track. *crosses fingers*

Anyhoo, I’m intending to go to work in the morning, so I shall go lay down again now. I am feeling verrrrrry sleeeeeeeepy. (is it working yet?…)

*sigh* Headache again. Stupid head. Single again. Stupid men. Tuesday again. Doesn’t time fly?

1. Portland, Maine or Portland, Oregon?
Never been to either one. Didn’t even know there were two, in fact. *g*
2. New York or New Jersey?
Umm…. New Jersey, cos Bon Jovi come from there.
3. Van Gogh or Van Halen?
Both? Maybe marginally Van Halen.
4. Bill Clinton or Bill Gates?
Clinton.
5. Leonardo daVinci or Leonardo DiCaprio?
Definitely daVinci. Yupyup.
6. “American Pie” or “American Idol”?
Ooo… dunno. Pop Idol was fun (haven’t seen the American version). But then, so was American Pie….
7. George W. Bush or Curious George?
Neither.
8. Billy Joel or Billy Idol?
Billy Idol!!! Heeeee.
9. Donny Osmond or Donald Duck?
Heheheh. The Duck wins by a feather. Oh, I just crack myself up. Or not.
10. Dr. Seuss or Dr. Kevorkian?
Don’t know who the second guy is, so, ummmm?

I’m not dead! Really. I’ve just been under the weather, and included in that has been those headaches that get right behind your eyes and do the stabbing pain thing. So that’s meant that spending any time in front of the computer screen has been a bit of a no-no. But it’s not as bad now, so I shall no doubt be posting ad nauseam again. *g*

And just to get me started again, here’s This or That Tuesday:
1. Paper or plastic?
This is apparently money/credit cards… so paper, since it’s easier to keep track of!
2. Stripes or plaid?
Hmmm….. plaid. Trousers. With chains n stuff.
3. Baseball or football?
Well, neither really. Especially since that’s presumably American football, rather than real football. LOL.
4. TV or movies?
Oooo….. it depends. Both, I guess.
5. Craig Kilborn or Conan O’Brien?
Only very vague about who either of them are. So, neither.
6. Amazon or BN.com?
Amazon.
7. Yahoo or Google?
Goooooooooooooogle.
8. Star Trek or Star Wars?
Trek! But I like Star Wars too.
9. Cats or dogs?
Cats :-)
10. Is that for here or to go?
Eat in. But takeaway can be handy.

Free Mr Bear!!! Join the campaign to get Mr Bear back on his travels, and eventually back home. Definitely a worthwhile thing to do, and you can join in whereever you are in the world. What’re you waiting for – there’s a teddy-less little girl out there!

On the kitty-update side of things, Xandermog is doing well, and healing up. He’s asking to go out the front door as well, which is a pretty good sign, I’d say. I’m also feeling waaaay better now I’ve got my own prescription. By Friday morning, my brain was all ‘ka-ching! Idea! Idea! Idea!!’ Which is fun. *g*

Over the weekend, we mainly watched films, shopped, and vegged out. Nice and relaxing, on the whole. We saw Reign of Fire (Oooo, dragons), Men in Black 2 (yes, Sue, he really really is, isn’t he? I laughed out loud. *g*), Scooby Doo (enjoyably bad), Resident Evil (entertaining zombies and gore, some decent suspensful moments, and an ending that was actually quite scary), and Austin Powers 3 (shagadelic baby, yeah – excellent opening scene).

And I think that segues quite nicely into another Sexy Saturday question:
What is more sexier on a man? Thongs or Boxers?
Heh. I think it’d have to be boxers in general – not many blokes can carry off thongs that well. There could be ickiness there.

So, there I was on Thursday evening, vegging out on the sofa watching a film. And all of a sudden, there’s a commotion outside, with barking and snarling and so on. My Xandermog was out, so I opened the door…. to find him being attacked by a bloody great dog. Some sort of pitbull terrior, I think. The owner of the dog and his friends was shouting and yelling, the dog was taking no notice, and poor Xander was trying to get the hell out of there. Only, every fence he jumped between the front gardens (they aren’t high), he was followed over by the dog. It wasn’t pretty. Eventually, they managed to get a hold of the dog – I tried to get Xander, but he bolted through next door’s cat flap. I assume the reason he didn’t run in my front door was cos the dog could have followed him in there.

Anyway, since this was at about 10:45, the bloke next door had gone to bed, but the noise obviously woke him up, cos the lights went back on. I knocked on the door and explained, and when I went in we found my poor moggy cowering under the table. I took him home and checked him over… at first I thought it was just his poor little feet that were all torn and bleeding (and I was hoping some of the blood belonged to the dog). But no, it turns out he also had a nasty big stomach wound. :-( Luckily, it was on the more fatty part of his tummy and wasn’t bleeding too much, so when I called the vet, she said it would be OK to leave him til morning to bring him in.

I had to leave him at the vet’s, of course, while he was stiched up and checked for internal damage, etc. He was lucky – nothing vital had been damaged, so now he’s home with tubes hanging out of either end of the three inch stitched wound (to drain it of any icky stuff), and one of those plastic cone head-collars to stop him pulling the tubs / stitches out. I’m actually pretty glad I hadn’t been able to see how nasty the wound really was before, because I would have completely freaked out! The head collar thing actually seems to be bothering Xander more than anything – he kept getting stuck, and crashing into things, which scared him. Last night, he was actually walking backwards for a while, so that he didn’t whack his head any more. Well, it worked! He’s getting used to it now, though, which is good.

Now, it’s just a matter of looking after him, and also of finding out if I have any chance of getting reimbursed by the owner of the dog. See, one of my neighbours apparantly saw it happen, and the owner actually let go of the dog knowing the cat was there. He probably assumed the cat would just bolt over the nearest high wall. Only my Xandermog can’t do that. Yeah, so. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t any malicious intent – it was just one of those stupid things. He’d been out for a few drinks with his mates – one of whom is a neighbour of mine – so I’m guessing it wasn’t exactly thought through clearly. I’ve spoken to one of the neighbours (the brother of the one who’s friends with the dog owner), and they’re going to give me the dog owner’s info. He also told me that he and his brother don’t like the dog anyway, and have now banned their friend from bringing it round here again. Which is quite a relief, cos I do want my mog to be able to go out again when he’s better! And fingers crossed, the dog owner will be OK with at least chipping in towards the vet bill, cos it wasn’t cheap.

And now for something completely different: this week’s Sexy Saturday question:
Are hickies ok or a no-no for you? If you answer a no-no, why?
Hmm. That actually reminds me that I used to translate “hickies” to mean spots. Guess I was confusing it with “hives”. We don’t use either of those – another US->UK confusion. LOL. But anyway, the question. Um. They don’t particularly appeal, and the idea of having a whacking great lovebite on your neck always seemed to be the ultimate horror when I was at school. *g* But I guess it all depends on the circumstances, and the placement, when it comes down to it. ;-)

I’ve decided to try taking part in This or That Tuesday. So here are this week’s answers:

1. Dr. Seuss characters: the Cat in the Hat or the Grinch?
I’ll have to go with the Cat, since I haven’t actually read the Grinch. My little bro had a Cat book.

2. “Anne of Green Gables” or “Little Women”?
I enjoyed both very much, but I think I’ll pick Little Women – I’d enjoy reading it again now, while Anne I could take or leave.

3. Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys?
Nancy Drew. Wasn’t really that interested in the Hardys.

4. Winnie the Pooh characters: Tigger or Eeyore?
Ahhhh…. I love Tigger for his bounciness. But I adore Eeyore’s wonderful melancholy. Can I have both? *g*

5. Which author: Judy Blume or Beverly Cleary?
Judy Blume… I haven’t read anything by Beverly Cleary (maybe she was more in the US?), but I did devour the Judy Blume books with everyone else at age 11.

6. Roald Dahl books: “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” (Willy Wonka) or “James & the Giant Peach”?
It’ll have to be Charlie, though both are wonderful. My real favourites, though, are The Twits, and Danny Champion of the World :-)

7. “Harry Potter” or “The Wizard of Oz”?
Until recently, I would’ve said the Wizard of Oz… but I’ve seen the Harry Potter movie now, and I’m now dying to read the books. I think I’m going to love them.

8. Curious George or Madeline?
I have no clue who either of those are.

9. “A Wrinkle in Time” or “Little House on the Prairie”?
Haven’t even heard of the first one, but I didn’t read the second, either. Again, maybe those were more popular in the US?

10. Dr. Seuss again: “Horton Hears a Who” or “The Lorax”?
Aaaaand again, I’m guessing Dr Seuss is more of an American phenomenon. Because, huh? *g*

As well as that, I’m going to be doing Sexy Saturday as well. Running a bit late this week, but here we go:

What do you find sexier: a man with tattoo’s or without?
Hmmm…. I do like tattoos. But it actually depends what they’re of, and where they are. And on the man! *g* However, overall, I’d say with.

I’ve done the Who’s Who page – I really liked Catt’s suggestion of calling it ‘The Usual Suspects’, but… um…. that title was much longer than anything else in the menu, so I went with the boring, shorter, one instead. Anyone that I’ve included that would rather not be there, just shout. Or if you want what I’ve put changed, or whatever. Or, hey, if you’re feeling left out. *g* Speak!

Anjiiiiiiiiiii! Are you out there? The email addresses I have for you don’t seem to be working. Speak to meeeee!

Ooo, and query: I’ve noticed that some people have a “Cast” / “Dramatis Personae” (sp?) page on their blog, so readers can find out a teeny bit about regularly mentioned people. I generally find these pretty interesting and useful…. would anyone find it handy for me to do a similar thingy? Only, under a different title to those two above, cos they make it sound like the people are fictional. Er, any ideas what else it could be called, if I do do one?

Oh. Dear. And, yuck yuck yuck. I’d already seen this story on Yahoo news, but Vince sent me the Guardian link in an email titled “This is where watching Buffy gets you!”. Um, yes…. thanks for that, Vince. *g*

Ozzy’s back on the road. Once again, tons of get well vibes to Mrs O. I really hope this course of treatment does the trick. *crosses fingers*

And these posts are getting shorter again. Heh. Well, when I’ve got a bit more time, I shall get back to rambling about what I was doing when I wasn’t posting much. Hoorah.

People are randomly breaking into song. Heh.

In other news, Freaky.nu is finally officially open. It’s only taken me, oh, over a year, but at last it has a nice (ahem) design, actual content, and is open for hosting applications. Hoorah!

Oh, and in other, other, news, Mum and Dad are arriving this afternoon / evening, and will be around til Tuesday. So if I don’t update between now and then, I’m not dead, just parentally-harrassed…..

There was a great big storm last night – big enough that it prompted me to switch everything off. Started out as just an electrical storm, but the rain followed on afterwards. The cat couldn’t understand why I wasn’t letting him go out to play. He likes the rain, and apparantly has no storm-fear whatsoever. *g* Daft animal. This morning was back to warm and sunny, but it’s clouded over now and has just started to rain again a bit. Of course, I haven’t brought an umbrella.

I have various website things to get done, including moving my sites off of soulstar.co.uk (part of the budgetting effort, since that server requires me to dial up to a per-minute paid connection to upload), and redesigning S&S. Not sure how much I’ll actually get done this week, though, cos Mum and Dad are visiting – they’ll be here from Thursday evening until Tuesday morning.

And talking of budgetting, that reminds me I have to pay my rent. Better go and sort that out, then….

I hope I’m not being premature, or jinxing myself by saying this, but…. I feel better. Quite a lot better. Not physically ill at all, and far more with-it than I have done for some time. :-) It’s good. Financially I may be somewhat up the spout, but I’ll cope. Hoorah!

Woah, it is way too hot out there! I was intending to take advantage of the sunny weather by doing a load of washing, but I just can’t bring myself to walk to the laundrette in this. Ugh ugh ugh. Is this unnatural of me? All the neighbours seem to be busy basting themselves. I’ll stick with “pale and interesting”, thanks. Though the “interesting” bit is debatable ;-)

I’ve been doing various things on the website front recently. I have two new hostees at Freedom.Freaky: Evolution, which is a group blog, and Momento Mori which is David’s journal-portfolio-etc. Check them out :-) I’ve also ‘lost’ a hostee – Marie, formerly of freedom.freaky.nu/thatslife, has moved her blog over to a friend’s domain.

The main part of Freaky.nu should be up very soon, too. And I’m going to be doing some moving around, as well, in an effort to save money. Sites that I currently have on servers that I have to pay to dial up to will be moved to new servers (and domain names). Hopefully not too big a job, though. *crosses fingers*

Oh well, I think I’ll go and see if I can find some shade outside to veg in for a bit. It does seem silly lurking indoors like this. But…. hot!!!! Feh.