1. My 18-month-old daughter can now say “actually”, “flower” and “onion”. Not “plinth”, though. I’m thinking of teaching her to say it, just so I can leer at mothers at the park and say “MY baby says plinth. Does YOUR baby say plinth?” until they hustle their child off the seesaw and hurry away. Anyway, today in town she was pointing at a ten-year-old and saying “baby”, and without thinking I said “Pig, not everybody under 6 foot two is actually a baby”. She then spent several minutes shouting “ACTUALLY” at passers-by while I hauled her by the middle through a mall. Remind me to expunge that word from my vocabulary. (On a related note, remind me to expunge the pig. She’s getting a bit whiffy.)
2. This is the uberest Halloween costume ever. Scroll down if you’re a Firefly fan. If you’re not a Firefly fan, shame on you. Ditto if you’re not a Doctor Who fan, which is actually more relevant to the costume. ‘Tis neat, no?
3. First randomly-selected library book, The Girl Who Proposed by Elizabeth Smither, is quite good so far. It’s a collection of short stories, most of them angsty and on the topic of LURV. Not what I’d normally read, but not offensive to the mind in any respect. Plus, short stories are a useful format when one is reading in proximity to a snortlepig.
4. Speaking of reading and snortlepigses, Ollie by Olivier Someone-or-Other is the most delightful thing I have read in a good long while. I recommend it.
5. I didn’t really think the numbering through on this post. “Five Things”, I typed; it just came out. I don’t have five things, really. Nope. But let’s see… the snortlepig fell off the bed today and wailed… Helpdesk Man took her on a walk to buy likker after work (enrichment, innit) and I was able to de-henna my hair in peace; we had fish for dinner again; oh, I know! Yes. I have a challenge for you. Write a thousand-word short story or dissertation on the subject “The anemone of my enemy is my friend”. And if I like it, I will personally make you an e-sticker using my formidable Gimp skills.
Contests, man. They keep the readers flooding back.