Mungo had a little run in with the Persian from round the corner last night. Normally nothing much but this time I think big grey and fluffy must have got in a lucky shot. When I went to go to bed there was Mungo sitting on the end with his usual look of "about time you came and gave me my evening fuss" and under him was this pink damp spot. I patted it with a tissue and it came away red. A quick call to the vet and she said to clip the fur if we could and then bathe the wound with saline. Not the easiest of tasks and, because it was still bleeding, we phoned again and were told to keep an eye on him and bring him in the next morning.

This morning Harry took Jodie to school while I loaded the cat in to the car and then went to pick him up so we could take Mungo up to the vet. When the vet shaved the matted fur away we could see two nice classic puncture marks where the Persian had got in a full bite. He has now had a shot of antibiotic, a painkiller, a course of pills to start on Friday, a few days stuck inside and a nice plastic coller to stop him licking the bite. The look I'm getting is foul. The wound is still weeping a little but that should wash out any residual dirt so all I've got to make sure is he stays off anything pale like Jodies Barbie bedspread or the paperwork I've got spread all over the back room table.

Now to try and find the Petplan paperwork to see if it's worth claiming.

Those mad gits at the DVLA have just decided that I'm safe to be let loose on the Queens Highway in a car as well as on a bike. This will probably mean a bootfull of tapes and Ataris being brought down to the filkcon next year so some of you lot better decide whats going to happen to that stuff.

I've just had to explain to Jodie who The Beatles were so she could get the gag in the cartoon she's watching.

Himself had a spare Dreamwidth code so I've joined ther herd. Same name as here like most of you, saves trying to remember another one.

No-one guessed the first two but then I stuck them in there to be evil as well as because they are two series of books I dip into again and again if I'm feeling rough because they are good easy reads.

I have a soft spot for the TV adaptation of The Martian Chronicles because it was that which made me search out a copy of the book and start a lifelong love of Bradburys work. He was the only writer I ever agreed with my English teacher about.

The Blue Aura is my favorite of Walters books mainly because it was the first place I learned about the wartime tunnels in the Channel Islands, an idea that fascinated me when I was young.

King Solomon's Mines is one of the only books my Mum specifically recommended to me. Usually when any of us moaned about being bored in the holidays we'd just get told "well you know where the bookshelf is and, if nothing there grabs you, how to get to the library". I think I must have been getting to her this one time because after moaning, again, about being bored she didn't come out with the usual litany but instead went into the back room and came out with this small red hardback, stuffed it into my hands and said "read this and shut up". It worked, I steadily worked my way through all the Quartermain books and have been helping Mum fill holes in her Haggard collection ever since.

1. George, Kate, Sally = Gideon of Scotland Yard by John Creasey writing as J J Marric

2. Janet, Martin, Richard = Inspector West by John Creasey

3. Gabriel de Witt, Conrad Tesdinic, Christopher = Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones (guessed by
sbisson )

4. Pierre Arronax, Ned Land, Consiel = 20000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne (guessed by antonia_tiger )

5. Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, Eunice Branca, Jake Salomon = I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein (guessed by occams_pyramid )

6. Robinette Broadhead, Gelle-Klara Moynlin, Sigfrid von Shrink = The Heechee Saga by Fred Pohl (guessed by occams_pyramid )

7. Nathaniel York, Sam Parkhill, Walter Gripp = The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (guessed by sbisson )

8. Chris Godfrey, General Whittle, Morrey Kant = The Blue Aura by Hugh Walters (guessed by
sbisson  )

9. Jestocost, Sto Odin, Arabella Underwood = The Instrumentality Of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith (guessed by occams_pyramid )

10. José Silvestre, King Twala, Ignosi = King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard  (series guessed by aunty_marion , title guessed by antonia_tiger )

Most of these have been guessed now so I'm putting up the answers to those ones and adding a couple of clues for the last three though if anyone gets the first two I will be well impressed. Some have been guessed by more than one person so credit goes to either who got it first or who got the right book in the series. Half a point goes to aunty_marion  for getting the right series for 10 but I'm still interested to see if anyone gets the right book.

1 and 2 are crime series by the same writer but published originally under two different pen names.
10, Ignosi is also known as Umbopa

1. George, Kate, Sally

2. Janet, Martin, Richard

3. Gabriel de Witt, Conrad Tesdinic, Christopher = Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones (guessed by sbisson )

4. Pierre Arronax, Ned Land, Consiel = 20000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne (guessed by antonia_tiger )

5. Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, Eunice Branca, Jake Salomon = I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein (guessed by occams_pyramid )

6. Robinette Broadhead, Gelle-Klara Moynlin, Sigfrid von Shrink = The Heechee Saga by Fred Pohl (guessed by occams_pyramid )

7. Nathaniel York, Sam Parkhill, Walter Gripp = The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (guessed by sbisson )

8. Chris Godfrey, General Whittle, Morrey Kant = The Blue Aura by Hugh Walters (guessed by sbisson )

9. Jestocost, Sto Odin, Arabella Underwood = The Instrumentality Of Mankind by Cordwainer Smith (guessed by occams_pyramid )

10. José Silvestre, King Twala, Ignosi  (series guessed by aunty_marion but title still up for grabs)

Ganked from la_marquise_de_ and smallship1 

1. I list three characters from ten favourite books.
2. You try to guess what the books are!
3. I reserve the right to be sneaky and use secondary characters.

1. George, Kate, Sally
2. Janet, Martin, Richard
3. Gabriel de Witt, Conrad Tesdinic, Christopher
4. Pierre Arronax, Ned Land, Consiel
5. Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, Eunice Branca, Jake Salomon
6. Robinette Broadhead, Gelle-Klara Moynlin, Sigfrid von Shrink
7. Nathaniel York, Sam Parkhill, Walter Gripp
8. Chris Godfrey, General Whittle, Morrey Kant
9. Jestocost, Sto Odin, Arabella Underwood
10. José Silvestre, King Twala, Ignosi

Some of these are series.

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/holidayadvanced.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/collector.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/cookadvanced.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/freindtoanimals.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/homeskills.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/musician.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/outandabout.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/roadsafety.html

www.girlguiding.org.uk/Brownies/badges/seasons.html

and a blanket to sew them on.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and I'm sitting here with a checklist for Brownie Camp.

Please Lady can we have a nice weekend for the girls?

BTW if anyone is wondering why I've been even worse than usual about posting new entrys I have one word. Fallout.

I'm currently sitting playing Fallout 3 while being looked over by a large Totoro. Life is good.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.

It's one of those days.

Up :  took a lottery ticket I'd found pinned to the board down to the shop and won ten quid.

Down :  Got fed up waiting for my driving instructer and phoned the school only to find out that he was on holiday and the message hadn't got to me that my booking was cancelled.

Sideways : started sorting out the stack of boxes marked Comics & Mags Misc and may have a few spares come Easter including a pile of Crisis (if anyone remembers that from the 80s). Thinking of sorting out the Analog shelves as well and just concentrating on the American editions, I need the shelf space.

The cat does not like me at the moment.

Yesterday, in an attempt not to fall asleep after staying up most of the night to watch the Oscars, I decided to do some gardening. This was the big job of chopping down the shrubbery on the south side of the back garden that is mostly not doing very well thanks to the trees next door taking all the goodness out of the soil. The only bit that was doing well was the large prickly thing next to the climbing frame of course which had to be hacked back regularly to stop it taking over. This has apparently upset the dynamics of the local cat chess game by removing several hidyholes, or at least I think that's what Mungo is trying to tell me.

Today I washed the kitchen, living room and hall floors. From the stare I've been getting this seems to have just added insult to injury.

Off to the pub for a couple of hours I think while everything dries. Back's sore from the furniture shifting and floor scrubbing anyway.

Swiped from wolfette 

Get knitting

Best Serious
Talis Kimberley
Kitchen Heroes

Best Silly
 Peter Westhead
My Baggage Has Landed

At con
Simon Fairbourn
The Sergeant in "Before the Dawn"

Filk Gold
Rhodri James
Dawn

Pictures here

Just ripping this weekends CDs to the Mac when I realized I've managed to pick up a second copy of Just Beyond instead of the Abseiling for Beginners I meant to get. Anyone out there want a trade?

The SAMs are done and ready to be packed. Not complicated this year which is probably why it's taken ages to do them, too easy to procrastinate.

All I have to do now is pack my case tomorrow and get to the con. Only question is the trains 'cos it's snowing here in Yorkshire and has been since 8am. Looks like it may just be stopping now but that's been a nice new layer of fluffy stuff on top of the sludgy ice of yesterday. I think I'm taking a taxi to the station instead of the bus tomorrow.

I wandered into the living room this morning to do Jodies hair and glanced at the TV to see what they were watching. I then did a double take as I realized the Chop Socky Chooks were playing Rollerball!