Last week...

...in fact the very day of my last post, the lovely Michelle tagged me. Thank you Michelle!



Since I am a bad blogger (and currently ill) I have not responded to her tagging. So while I am having five minutes of not feeling terrible, here it is.

One word answers only. (and I've done my best not to expand!)

1. Where is your cell phone? Sofa

2. Where is your significant other? Birmingham

3. Your hair color? Blonde

4. Your mother? Essex

5. Your father? Deaded

6. Your favorite thing? Chocolate

7. Your dream last night? Reading

8. Your dream/goal? Ongoing

9. The room you're in? Cold

10. Your hobby? Cross-stitch

11. Your fear? Loss

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Family

13. Where were you last night? Bed

14. What you're not? Organised

15. One of your wish-list items? Framing (for one of my many finished cross-stitches)

16. Where you grew up? Billericay

17. The last thing you did? Yawn

18. What are you wearing? TWO jumpers

19. Your TV? Off

20. Your pets? Crazy

21. Your computer?

22. Your mood? Poorly

23. Missing someone? Yes

24. Your car? Broken (still)

25. Something you're not wearing? Contacts

26. Favorite store? Work

27. Your summer? Grey

28. Love someone? Anthony

29. Your favorite color? Turquoise

30. When is the last time you laughed? Yesterday

31. Last time you cried? Earlier

I am now supposed to tag five other people, but since the five other people I would normally tag have all been tagged already, I shall not bother this time. Edited to add: Emily has just done it off her own bat. I forget about tagging my sister!

Now if you will excuse me, I'm going back to flake out on the sofa and feel ill. Although I shall have to do a little tidying as a man from Virgin will be here between 1-6 to fit a V+ Box. (and just to reassure my sister who worries about my money, I got mine for £30)

Two and a half...

...years ago today, my new computer got fixed up with broadband.

I can't believe that I've been with Anthony that long, the time has just flown by.

Happy Anniversary my darling darling man.

Here's to the day when "That was a real proposal but we can't get engaged cos you're still married" no longer applies.

Now, I am a geek...

...for World of Warcraft and I freely admit it. Recently I haven't been playing so much, knowing that as soon as WotLK comes out I will be straight back into it again. I've even been dabbling with Guild Wars - Emily's MMORPG of choice.

Then yesterday came a bright shiny new patch, the last one before WotLK comes out. I'm in love with the game all over again.

They've done the usual thing and tweaked all the talent trees so you have to re spend your points, but they've also done things like adding your mounts and pets to your character. This means that instead of buying a mount/pet and having it take up a space in your bags, it becomes a little icon in your mount/pet screen and then you just click there. More bag space is always good!

My favourite thing so far is the achievements addition. Now I like exploring the world I'm playing in so I tend to go wandering about areas where I don't have quests and don't really need to go - according to other players I'm "wasting valuable levelling time". For me the game has always been about the whole thing, I don't need to get my fishing skill up to 350, it won't make me level any quicker or get me l33t gear to show off to other people. I just like doing it.
The achievements thing means that I will be earning points for all the "silly time wasting crap" that I like to do. That's a very good thing. It also means that I'll be playing my level 70's more, trying to finish off the last bits I'm missing for achievements. (My general love of exploring means I've got lots of points for that already!)

So in conclusion, I am a geek. But a very happy one.

Ingredients...

...for a relaxing bath.

iPod (in iPod dock) - for listening to audio books and therefore not having to actually hold a book.
Lush bath ballistics - for lovely coloured & scented water.
£1.50 - as credit on the electricity meter (as that's how much it costs to fill the bath with hot water using the electric shower - the boiler isn't up to the job)
candles - for pleasant relaxing lighting.

Added ingredient - Foley.

Foley + inquisitiveness + candles = horrible smell of burning hair + Foley with singed patch on bottom.



(She is fine, just lost a little more of the dignity she didn't have in the first place!)

Awww...

...they all look so cute, and they all need haircuts!

Scruffy Bugger Results:

1. Alonso
2. Kubica
3. Raikkonen

I have to admit that Hamilton fighting to unlap himself before Alonso crossed the line was a nice touch, little boy trying to make it seem like he had a chance.

And now...I am going back to bed!

Our boy...

...Kimi has just stuck in yet another fastest lap.

If this one sticks (and I hope it will as everyone is now pitting) then Kimi will have himself another record.

I just love looking at the DHL Fastest Laps page.

That's always...

...nice to see.

Hamilton doing his drive through penalty, and Jarno Trulli leading the Grand Prix.

Ok, Massa got a drive through too which is a bit pants, but to be honest if you were going to give one to Hamilton for what he did at the start (causing Coulthard's accident among other things) then you have to give one to Massa - even if I just wanna hug the man for putting Hamilton dead last.

WeeHoo! Watching Hamilton being lapped by Trulli is rather fun too!

I have...

...company.

"What, you think I could stay in bed with you making that much noise?!"

Good morning my darling man, I love you.

Oh...

...mwahahahaha again!

Lewis is last!

Silly little bugger.

Trying to put the squeeze on Massa by driving him off the road, so Massa comes straight back onto the track and Lewis is the one who gets squeezed!

I am glad I got up this early!

Mwahahaha...

...hahahahaha.

So Hamilton thinks he's the best at the start, gets passed by Kimi, then brakes so incrediably awkwardly that he causes all sorts of problems.

Hamilton into 6th!

Urgh...

...there must be something wonky in my brain to get me up this early.

Anthony has stayed in bed again but since I know that if I attempt to watch this in bed I would fall asleep at a crucial moment.

So I am awake and rather chilly.

Kate + sofa + blanket + cats + cross-stitch + Grand Prix = not asleep + cosy.

My week...

...was pretty good really.

Yes, the event was hellish in parts (I forget how rude teachers and librarians can be), the changeover was complicated by the staff shortages and the fact that half of my colleagues have a really nasty cold meant that we've all been flagging a bit.

But I have been extra kind to myself in the evenings, doing daring things like leaving the electric blanket on low all night (so that I don't wake up freezing cold) and not doing any washing-up again (which sounds terrible unless you realise that this means dirty plates/forks/knives/glasses x 4, and that's it).

Today I also finally got the affidavit for my divorce signed! I've been ringing the solicitors across the street ever day for the last few weeks and there's never been a solicitor in. (Always in court, says a lot about Wolverhampton). Today the receptionist went "Hi, there's someone here today! Will you be straight over?" (we've become quite chatty). So that is done and now just needs to be sent back to the courts and in 4/6 weeks I should get my decree nisi! The reason it's all taken so flipping long is that the Yeti took months to reply to it, I suspect his mother took her own sweet time about forwarding his mail.
Anyway, step 4 is now completed, not too much further to go!

I'm looking forward to this weekend. Anthony's car is still playing silly buggers, but he's being dropped off here later after work. Tomorrow we have plans for a lovely lie-in and then a day of doing who-knows-what. I have to get to bed early though, it's the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday - race start time, 13.30 local time, 05.30 BST.

Now I do actually quite enjoy the early morning races, once I manage to haul myself out of bed. The one thing that always throws me is when I decide I want a beer about mid-way through the race. I walk though to the kitchen, get a bottle from the fridge, open it, turn to walk back through the dining room and spot the time on the clock on the bookshelf - 6am. Yeah...
Never gonna be as bad as when I was tipsy by 8am after watching one of England's World Cup games back in 2002. That was the day I got together with the Yeti, think the match drinking might have been a factor?

It's been...

...a pretty good weekend considering.

That's considering the fact that I've been working both days and that Anthony's car is still playing up. The car thing meant that I saw him when he met me from work on Saturday night to go shopping (minimalist shopping since we had to carry it all) and that he spent last night and today here but has just left. He's very grumpy about his car, and very grumpy indeed that his car playing up means he has to cadge lifts from his dad - something he hasn't done for 17 years or so.

I now won't see him until next Saturday, probably. That's the main thing that's making me grumpy - I never know when he'll be able to get here or for how long he can stay, and if he can't get here at all it's rather depressing.

So last night and then when I got back from work today we did what Deanna describes as boating and what we think of as bed snuggling. We're not quite in the same league as her, for us it consisted of eating first (curry, yum), then lounging in bed watching Buffy until we both got too sleepy. The decision to do this last night was driven by the fact that neither of us could get warm and so bed with electric blankets was deemed very necessary.

My solitary form of snuggling has become me curled up on the sofa listening to audio books (rather than watching TV) and sewing. I've just finished listening to I Capture the Castle - in a very disjointed fashion as I realised I'd heard half of part one, then half of part two so had to match the story back up again. On Friday I had to choose between Sabriel (read by Tim Curry) or Stardust (read by Neil Gaiman himself). I went for Stardust and boy is it good. It's fabulous listening to the author read their own work, it means you know it sounds the way they want it to.

I have tomorrow off before a week of doom starts (out at an event on Tues, changeover Wed, generally short-staffed all week) and I think I just might have to listen to some more of it then. In fact, I shall put it on my to-do list for tomorrow.

This evening...

...has been a relaxing one.

I have finally caught up with reading all the lovely blogs captured in my Google Reader. I also found some delightful new blogs after playing with the Black Boxes widget a little more. Plus I went delving back into the archives of one new discovery and read some things that really rang true for my life at the moment. So I'll be thinking on those a bit more.

I've tatted about with my sidebar a little, and added a hopeful something at the bottom of my blog.

I also finally added notes to my blog header picture on Flickr, so if you ever wanted to know what anything was in that shot you can now find out. (Added bonus - if you go to the next item in the photostream you get to see live action kitties being funny and cute).

My statue photos are still very much a work in progress but I have a day off tomorrow so will do some more organising then.

Oh dear, watching that video has given the little darlings ideas, WWIII has just broken out in the hallway - I'm off to break it up.

This evening...

...I had to work some unpaid overtime in order to get out on display the 13 big new titles that are being published tomorrow. This way as soon as we open in the morning people can start buying them.

One of the books was the new Jacqueline Wilson book, Cookie.

It's in a very nice pink tin (for you to keep your cookies in) which was easier to stack that I thought it would be.

Ahhh...Jacqueline Wilson, a signatory on this statement against age-banding on children's books.

Hang on a sec, what's this on the back, just next to the price and the bar code...

9+

Yup.

Jacqueline Wilson has been age-banded.

I am not a happy bunny.

Update: Wilson's Cookie age-banded (and yes, I know it's What Katy Did rather than Katie - I was typing fast.)

My sister...

...needs your help.

In fact, she needs Shoe Help!

Since everyone knows that I am not good at shoes, you guys will be much more useful than me.