I almost wish I still lived in Marsfield

I spent the day with my almost 97 year old grandmother today. She's kind of amazing, still in very good health for her age, mentally sharp as a tack (regularly beats the socks off my mum playing scrabble) and always has something new and unexpected to tell me when I visit.

I was telling her that my good friend Ariane popped out a baby girl this morning (welcome to the world Elissa!) and so we got to talking about names and how so many of the names from her generation are no longer being used. Among other names, she mentioned Isabelle, which is one of the few that are still in use and I said we knew a number of Isabelles. And my very proper grandmother confessed to me that she and her friends used to tease Isabelles by saying "Is a bell necessary on a bike?". Hidden depths! LOL

We went down to the dining room for lunch and sat at Grandma's usual table with Betty and Jack. Betty was full of the news that Maxine McKew was going to be coming to the retirement village to talk to the residents. They'll be a tough audience I imagine! Next was the possibility being discussed in the media that John Howard may lose his seat to Maxine. I took great glee in clasping my hands in supplication and intoning "Oh dear god - please!" to the ceiling. All three looked at me in horror. "Oh, no! It would be terrible!" said Betty. I grinned, unrepentant, and assured them that it would be wonderful. Grandma shook her head in resignation and Betty said "Never mind, we'll still talk to you." Then we switched to talking about the Melbourne Cup :)

We used to live in Bennelong, it would almost be worth still being squished into a teeny townhouse just to have the pleasure of voting for Maxine. Almost, but not quite. I shall resign myself to placing my ineffectual vote against Ruddock instead.

Jipped

David just won the game of Super Munchkin we were playing by killing some Level 1 Thugs. There is no justice.

Also while we were playing guess who squeezed in between the fly screen and the closed kitchen window and succeeded in dislodging the screen from its frame altogether?

My daughter wishes me to share with you.

Oh yes, 9 year old humour, it is funny :D

Caitlin drew this while I was watching the episode Blink, I suspect it was by way of therapy of sorts after she'd inadvertently seen a few minutes of the show.

Now I just have to persuade her to do an entire comic strip's worth of drawings and we can get some really groan-worthy stuff happening....

I really should fix that fly-screen

There's a possum in the house!

It wasn't the least bothered by being caught in the act. All the lights were on and the kids were watching TV in the next room, so when I heard clattering in the kitchen I assumed they were raiding for after dinner snacks. When no-one answered my call of "What are you up to?" I dragged myself away from my blog reading and headed down the hall to the kitchen. No kids. Ah, the cat's in the sink. Wait a minute, that's not Samantha!

I was sure it would bolt back out the hole the moment it saw me but no! It wasn't giving up that easily, there was bread...just over there.... So I grabbed the camera.

Then came the persuading the possum to head back out through the window. I'm standing there knowing that if I'm silly enough to actually touch it bad things will happen, they have teeth you know, also, I've read the book, I want my house intact. The possum looks at me, I point at the hole in the fly screen, "Out you go", it looks at the window...and then back at me, "OUT!"....there's a brief stand-off and staring contest...and out it went. Good possum! Heheh :)

Back outside. Actually I really should clean that fly screen too!

Aaaaaargh!

Today I am wearing my "You Are Here" tshirt from thinkgeek. Caitlin's friend asked me if it was the milky way. Yes, and that's where the Earth is I say pointing to the spot indicated on the shirt. Then she asked me if I knew what was in the middle, so I said yes I did, did she know? And she told me, in all sincerity, that in the middle of the milky way there is a big special cross. Um, no, there's a big black hole says I. And in the middle of that there's a cross says she. She's seen a "documentary" says her mum. No that's not documentary, that's fantasy says I before my politeness circuit can kick in.

I am seized with an urge to offer to teach cosmology for kids to their class.

*cries*

New Joss TV show on the way!

Best News Ever! Joss Whedon Spills Exclusive Deets on His New Series
Kristin at E! Online reports:

Whedon's new Fox series, called Dollhouse, stars Miss Eliza Dushku, best known as Faith to you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. And this show isn't just a pilot. It's already been given a seven-episode commitment by Fox. Woo!

Here's how Fox describes the series:

Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody's fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo's burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

Go read the whole thing, there's a Joss interview there too.

More from Michael Ausiello at the Ausiello Report

Well, well, well :D and Tim Minear is going to be involved too.

Link-fest No.1

Not sure how often I'll post one of these, probably whenever I've collected a decent number of links and before they get too out of date.

On Alas! A blog Myca links to a series of essays titled "Christians in the Hand of an Angry God" posted by bradhicks on his LJ. (The LJ posts are 3 years old but still well worth a read.)

blue milk is asking "What does a feminist mother look like?", subsequent posts on her blog have some of the answers she's received. I may get around to posting my own response eventually.

Kate Harding has a post on Shapely Prose titled "Reality vs. relativism" about dieting and weight loss surgery.

Some of my friends had a great time at the Hub convention on the weekend, Leish has a recount on her LJ: Muhneys and Mcnabs and kangaroos, oh my!