My BIL told me that he was very happy with his new toothbrush (we have scintillating conversations of a Sunday teatime don't we?) which was a Philips Sonicare. I thought I'd ask for one for Christmas so the old man complied and I tried it out Christmas Day night. I'm not a gadget fan and I've not used an electric toothbrush before and I wasn't at all prepared for what was going on inside my mouth. It tickled and hurt at the same time, and that was on 'beginner level', so I veered between wanting to giggle and needing to cry. You know you're dealing with something serious when it needs a beginner level don't you? After 14 brushes it threatened to increase its speed and ferocity, but I'm happy to report that by then I was ready. So, if anyone wants a really good cleaning, I recommend the Philips Sonicare. Just go slowly.

I'm in a quandary. The Steve Reich boxed set of 10 cds has gone down from £63 to £50 on amazon. It has done this before and then shot up to £75 (it has been in my shopping basket for a very long time.) Should I? It's still a heck of a lot of money. I'll probably procrastinate as usual and it'll shoot back up again so that'll solve that one!

For feck's sake, next time the computer tells me it can't find the site I won't believe it and hit 'try again' 10 times, only to find each time the entry had gone through. How embarrassing!

And who's as scared by pictures of him now as I am??  Whenever I make my daughter a hot water bottle I call it Walter and she doesn't really know why.  I looked up Walter on the 'net, I think he was in Playhour comic in the late 60's, and here he is!  Blimey, it's no wonder I'm a nervous nelly having to look at images like that.  What with that and Tenniel's drawings for Alice in Wonderland I don't know how I ever slept peacefully!

The Alien Illusion scarf is finished!  Please excuse the awful photos as DH has the good camera in the US, and I am also a  bad photographer.

See, it's just a green and black stripey scarf until you see it at the right angle, and then it's got alien faces on.  Ooh, I'm happy with this one

I didn't put my face in the picture as I need a haircut. I have an appointment booked for 6 weeks after the last one but at 4 weeks it already needs trimming.  My hair grows too fast.

As I have got 5 weeks without the old man breathing down my neck I shall have another go And as my daughter has now reached the stage where she doesn't really much want to be in the same room as me most of the time (10 going on 14) then I get quite a lot of time to myself and it can't all be spent playing with two sticks and a bit of pretty string can it, so I shall try blogging again. For people who read this and don't know, she's home educated so we're together all the time. I said that without screaming, aren't I good?

I must do something about the laptop battery. I say that like I know what I'm talking about! When it was new I could take it to my bed and have about an hour and a half on battery but now it seems to only last 33 minutes! Don't think I'd better try and buy one of those on my own, only get the wrong thing.

So, apart from knitting .... Big Brother? I'm glad Ken's gone, I was worried for him. You can't go in there at 79, it's all too revolting. They make sure of that by putting the likes of Jackie in there. I even felt sorry for Jade yesterday and that's a first!

Anybody who's as old as me got any experience of ulcers? I'm not impressed if that's what I've got, but it sure as heck hurt last night. As I am on my own I got my hypochondriac hat on and was sure that the back pain meant it was perforated and eating into my pancreas. If I don't return, it probably wasD

What an exciting return, I'm not sure you're all ready for me! I'll try harder next time

Ooh, I came back 'cos I thought of something else! We set up Skype and a webcam and we can actually see the old man in Atlanta, Georgia while we speak to him on the computer. How amazing is that? Trouble is, now I have to get dressed at a decent time in the morning or he can see I'm being a lazybones in my dressing gown while he's not here. As soon as we went on though I got some man with a picture of himself with huge muscles come through asking to chat, please, can he be my friend??? Go away scary man! I made the mistake of using my daughter's first name on the profile so that was inevitable I suppose. Just an initial would have been far wiser.

I dunno, it's not feeling the same and I'm all out of place. Add that to the fact that I think I'm losing the plot with mood-swings ....

I think I expect too much.

I'm disgruntled. Laptop's doing some mad thing, you know when you're trying to do what you want to and there's something madly going on in the background? Like it's trying to load something HUUUUUGE and it won't let you type until it's blooming well finished? Apparently it needs defragging. Ooh, get you!

Knitting group was the living end last night. I don't think I could have upset one person there any more if I had tried, and I wasn't trying in the least! That's the thing with people you don't know very well isn't it? It's just hard work sometimes. Who would think knitting would lead to stress? Might not go any more, I'm one of the youngest at 44 anyway *sigh*

Right, well I have company coming tomorrow so I had better do something to make this tip presentable. I wondered what the horrid smell was in the sitting room and then I realised it was the bouquet we got from Tescos at the weekend. They have those ornamental cabbage plants in them, that look like roses you know? Smells terrible in here

Husband's gone away for a bit at least so there's just me and the littl'un which is usually a lot more relaxed. "And breathe ....." as my yoga teacher used to say

Edited to add: I found out how to de-frag but it didn't really make the computer work any better. I passed a few pleasant minutes watching it though.

That didn't take long. I left this 'ere blogland a year ago because my husband was starting to work from home and it kind of made surfing a bit difficult and now I've been back a few days and already I'm addicted. Why am I so weak? I'm all over everyone's blogs like a rash and friend-collecting like there's no tomorrow

By the way, if he doesn't sod off somewhere soon, I'm going to do something ugly. No, really Actually, it's alright, there's a week long business trip starting tomorrow so yaaaaaayyyyyyy! I'm not really mean, I'm just not the sort of person that likes constant company. And as I home educate our daughter there isn't much chance for solitude for me. Never mind, she'll be old enough to do her own thing in a few years and I can do my own thing too. Here's hoping I'm not too old to enjoy it!

... knitting in cashmere. Yum! I'll take pictures of the soft woolly goodness when the scarves are done. They're for Christmas presents, not for me unfortunately.

I've got halfway through my Alien Illusion scarf (this is the first sixth!)

which is looking pretty darn cool though I say it myself. When you look at this from above it's just green and black stripes, but when you come at it from an angle, you see the faces. Yay! Chuffed! This one's probably for me because I want it!

Still on knitting - yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not exactly thrilling these days - I have got stuck on 'Sgt. Pepper'. It's further on than this, having finished the whole jacket now, but I have to make epaulettes, button plackets (10 of them?) and loads of little rope-like cords to trim the cuffs and do the buttons up with. Should be worth it when it's finished but boyohboy is this a labour of love? Shame I've made it too big. It's taken so much bloody work I shall wear it even if I look like a loon.

That should look like this when it's finished. Snazzy, eh? Am I allowed to say snazzy?

We bought The Mighty Boosh's live dvd to give to DD for Christmas but we got bored last weekend and decided we'd all have a watch a month early. Ah, lovely boys, how we laughed And how excited I got looking at young Mr. Fielding. Pretty boy.

I've been to the inlaws this afternoon/evening, I just have to go and have a small scream in the garden to get it out of my system. Before I go, thank you to everyone who has agreed to be my blog friend.

I'm not a shoe-loving woman (I get blisters if I look at a new pair of shoes) and tend to stick to flatties so I can run for the bus if I have to. But I was looking at some people's WISTS (www.wists.com - sort of wishlists in computer form)and saw these lovely shoes on a US site. If anybody sees something like this in the UK I'd love to know. Mmmm, they are so nice. Pink or green, I don't mind.

http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w%5B0%5D=attribute%3AWomens&w%5B1%5D=order%3Afresh&p=76&pp=9&view=detail&colourID=1347&cook=t

OK, I'm having to put out an APB (is that the correct terminology?) as two of my best blog buds have disappeared. Just in case their huge egos cause them to google their own names and they find this Or if anyone has their email addresses (Deadhead?) could they let me know?

Thanks

EDIT: I've found Alasdair's defunct blog and sent him a message, that's good news. For me, not him of courseD

So, I've only been here a day and already it's turning rude. The little red bear (he's not like any bear I've met before) wants me to name 9 pieces of music that have been playing when I have had a sexual encounter. It's something to do with an arthouse film called '9 Songs' which I hadn't heard of. As it is a bit unbecoming for people of my age to go into detail I won't,I promise, but I've thought of some to be going on with.
In maybe some sort of vague chronological order but probably not:

Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper
Herbie Hancock - I Thought It Was You
Led Zeppelin - Battle of Nevermore
Genesis - The Musical Box
Billy Paul - Me and Mrs. Jones
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart
Nine Inch Nails -Something I Can Never Have
The Waterboys - A Pagan Place
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy

They're the ones that stand out in my mind, once I've cleared the cobwebs away. Maybe not the best music for such times but they're what was playing anyway. We managed