Family and stuff
Finished The Cardigan…
…and it’s absolutely awful!
So much so that I’ve decided to rip the whole thing out, rinse the wool, rewind and start all over again knitting something else.
Oh well… that’ll teach me to try knitting something experimental.
Back Again
We’ve just got back from a few days in London.
Travelled on Friday evening and stayed near Euston overnight and then went onto to Ruislip on the Saturday morning for a final Discword Convention 2006 Committee meeting that took most of Saturday afternoon. R, K and I spent the night at a local bed and breakfast whilst N stayed at a friend’s house.
Caught up with friends on Sunday morning then back to Euston again.
Stuff
Finished off a series of three articles for accessites.org yesterday. The first is due to be published on October 16th.
Spent the day working on a couple of client sites and doing some paperwork for the accountants. Managed to find time to try out my new, smaller, graphic tablet which arrived yesterday afternoon. It’s a lot less bulky than my older A4 monster, so I may actually use it more.
When You Earn Your Living At A Keyboard…
… try not to drop red hot wax on your right hand.
This tip is brought to you courtesy of some very slow, one-handed typing.
Finished Wintersmith
Well, I finally finished Wintersmith last night and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mind you, the witches have always been my favourite characters, so that may well have had something to do with it.
It seems to me that this book is written for a slightly older audience than the first two ‘Tiffany’ books. Possibly an acknowledgement that the readers of the first book, “Wee Free Men”, are now a few years older? Or maybe it just reflects that fact that Tiffany herself is now 13?
Either way, I enjoyed being able to read the behind-the-scenes goings-on of witch training and the usual rivalry between Granny and just about every other ‘professional’ witch. Even Nanny seemed to have far greater depth than the earlier books (I’ve always found her character to be a little two-dimensional). All in all, a pleasant change from some of the more recent Watch orientated books.
We’re getting new bookcases
The joiner arrived today to measure up and design our new bookcases.
We’ve been promising ourselves some really serious bookcases for over 6 years – in fact, ever since we moved into this house. The downstairs room has a really high ceiling and deep alcoves either side of the chimney breast that really cry out for shelving of some description. And given the sheer number of books we have, we need all the shelves we can get!
Wintersmith
Started reading Wintersmith last night and got about a third of the way through the book before my concentration started to waver.
So far, though, I’m enjoying it. Probably because of Granny Weatherwax who still remains my favourite character.
With luck, I’ll manage a few more chapters tonight.
Awkward Kids
Remember ‘Class Monitors’?
Well, these days, they’re called ‘VIPs’ – or at least they are in K’s school. Each morning, Miss chooses the VIP for the day and this priviliged person gets a special chair and gets to help Miss. And… oh yes…they get to wear a badge/sticker.
K has kept most of his VIP stickers from last year so I gather that, in the world of a 6 year old, these things have some kudos.
Today, K was chosen as the VIP. The first time he’s been chosen by his new teacher. Yay!
So why did the little ?$*^#$ tell his teacher that he “wasn’t allowed to wear badges
“? That’s news to us. Apart from going through the pretty-standard-for-this-age phase of telling whopping fibs for no reason, he seems to be taking some sort of perverse pleasure, lately, in deliberately denying himself things that he wants and/or likes. And I have no idea why.
I intend to completely ignore this behaviour as much as possible but it completely bewilders me. Even as an experimental flexing of some sort of personal power/control muscle, it’s a bit drastic at times.
The Unseen University Cut Out Book
Current Mood: Suprised 😮
Our copies of The Unseen University Cut Out Book arrived this morning.
Yes – ‘copies’. His Nibs ordered two copies (without mentioning this to me, I might add). One copy is to be kept untouched and the other is intended to actually ‘make the model’. Only I don’t think he bargained on the sheer size of the book (176 pages – most of them actual cutouts) or the complexity of the model(s).
One thing did suprise me. There isn’t an easy way to detach individual pages from the book so that you can cut them out properly (and forget scissors – most of the cut-outs will need a very sharp craft knife and a cutting board). I appreciate that books with detachable pages probably pose a nightmare for booksellers but I’m not sure how you’re supposed to make the models properly otherwise.
Panic over…
K went missing for about 45 minutes earlier today.
When I say ‘missing’, I mean we couldn’t find him, it was lunchtime and he wasn’t beating the door down demanding food with menaces. For a six year old who probably lists eating as one of his top 3 occupations, this was a Major Hiccup.
