Well, just a little woe, since my printer is no longer talking to my computer. I'll have to dig up a usb cable or something and see if non-wireless communication works better, but feeling way too stressed today. At least I'm caught up with nearly everything else!

Also? Nothing quite like being told there's no cause for alarm to make one quite alarmed. Or as the radio keeps telling me 'the threat level to Norway is unchanged' after Russia broke with Nato. So why do they keep harping the point? Hmmm!

Fish tank cleaned, flea marked info for the band updated in every location I can think of, gotten a nibble on my old car that I hope will bite, and now I'm taking the rest of the evening off!

I think that would be about the right word for this optimist who thought he could lay claim to the inheritance of a medieval norwegian king. Never mind that everybody who ever dabbled in genealogy in this country somehow seem to trace their ancestry back to this conveniently heirless king, he is indeed just a leeeetle bit late for a share there :)

New fun toy of the day: http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/

Especially fun when you get a random partner with a clue -- quickly figure out the unwritten rules for this 'game' ;)

Dropped by the webpage for my bookclub since they'd sent me this rebate code. (I don't usually bother, but this particular place sometimes actually has books that cost the same as the rebate, making them free.) Not this time, though, the 'special offers' link took me straight to an Oracle Application Server page, cheerfully telling me to 'start building your portal now'. Why yes, that is a special offer!

I'm merrily reading my way through the collected short stories about Hercule Poirot, all in neat chronological order. Of the 20+ I've read so far, all were published in 1923, and apparently written not too long before that. My head spins at maintaining that quantity and quality for so long! But most of all, in between the charming depictions of England after WWI, what makes me smile a lot at those stories is all the things that haven't changed.

Like the complaints about youth of the day -- spoiled and pampered, not spending enough time with soap and hairbrush, wearing odd clothing, impolite to their elders, and playing with these weird high-tech toys. (Like, oh, tape-recorders =).

Or the cook who was rambling on at length about the failing of the hospital system, releasing people from treatment far too early, and how everything was *much better* in the olden days with proper care for sick people.

Still, between Poirot and Jeeves&Wooster, I'm getting a vague urge to trawl the antique stores for anything made in the 1920ies or so. A pity my parent decided to ditch most of my grandmothers old kitchen things when she died -- she got married around that time if I recall correctly, and though it was hardly at the income level depicted by Christie et al, there were surely some amusing things there. Ahwell, must resist temptation, I'm trying to reduce my clutter and not add to it.

Keep an eye on http://rip.mozdev.org/ and see if it's ever out for current version of Firefox. I do so want to see if it can remove the Extremely Annoying scrolling text on the osl.no website.

Life continues well, Cat's away again to sleep over with her friend who moved to the countryside. Just when we were both finally awake at the same time after her return from England, too. Busy social Cat! Me, I'm doing housework, because I too know how to have fun =)

Listening to 'Bright Eyes' again was a big mistake. I've been earwormed! Can't get the song out of my head!

And now to stay awake until Cats plane arrives...

Went out for dinner yesterday, someplace Chicago themed, and ordered their Chicago Gangster Steak. That and a banana split and I was feeling all 'merican. Not to mention full, oof. Then, by accident and not design, we ended up in a communist themed bar afterwards. In hindsight, hee.

Was going to see Batman today, but it's all rain and thunder and blah outside. I think I'll stay home and work on more of my DVDs. Maybe tend Cats fish or something if I'm feeling terribly energetic. (Lucky girl is still in England. Sigh!)

It was only a question of time before this happened!

Zapped around the tv a bit after this mornings session with the Wii Fit. Depending on what channel one uses to get the news, the most important thing in the world now is either

a) Beijing olympics
b) War between Georgia and Russia
c) Some american politican had sex with somebody who wasn't his wife some years ago
With runner up:
d) Some american got attacked by somebody in china

(We've all forgotten about the middle east by now, apparently.)

*shakes head in wonder* Y'know, it would be amusing to have some sort of politician exchange program for a year. Send the french president to the US, send Bush to China, send whoever is the real leader of Russia these days to France... Which I suppose leaves chinas leaders in Russia. Horizons would be broadened, all around!

Should have thought of something memorable to do, considering the nice round date and the last day of my vacation. But in the end settled for sleeping in late, packing Cats suitcase for Sunday (I'll be stressed enough about the fact that I have to get up at 5am to drive to airport, don't want to have anything else to worry about), and then took Cat shopping on the very tag end of summers sales. She got herself a spiffy white bag and several t-shirts and tops, as well as a floppy widebrimmed hat that charmed me by looking quite a bit like one my mother made for me when I was seven or so. (Probably the previous time people were willing to wear that style hat...) Ohyes, and a new Hannah Montana drinking bottle and some school supplies with the same theme -- I think HM has displaced High School Musical as the tween must-have this year.

Currently enjoying the new awning (sun's on the horizon and I can still see the screen!) and vaguely wondering if I should get up super-early tomorrow so Sundays 5 am wakeup won't be so harsh, or just stay up tonight and turn day and night around as vicarious travel nerves will probably prevent me from sleeping night to Sunday anyhow, so I might as well spend daytime Saturday sleeping. This England trip will be great fun for Cat and a lovely childhood memory later, but it's taking a grater to my poor nerves.

Overslept today, eep! I've been terribly slack about getting up all of this vacation, but had intended to turn the day around so I'm coherent when the awning people get here eeearly tomorrow. Ahwell, there's always coffee...

Otherwise spent a slack day downtown, getting an errand or two done and then mostly windowshopping. (Designer stores are fun to windowshop -- the things are too expensive and take too much space to really consider buying, but fun to look at.) Then bought a couple of things for Cat at the tag end of summer sales, and finally treated myself to buying some books and comics in a real brick&mortar bookstore for a change.

My grand plan for tomorrow is to pack Cat's suitcase for her England trip (so I'll have time to buy anything found missing on Friday), then try to catch a showing of Batman. I may dig out the old batshirt for that, twee though it is :)

Cat's off to spend the rest of my vacation at the cabin of one of her friends. Splendid opportunity for her, really, one of the very rare chances she has to go fishing and all that. Still, I was all 'pity poor me' today, while I tried to think of what to do with my unexpected free time. I think I shall go window-shopping tomorrow, and maybe even go have coffee at a real cafe or something. Those things that childless adults do when they have a day off, if I can recall from dim memory...

Meanwhile, this link from the Pharyngula log cheered me right up. In an adult kind of way. ;-)

http://www.holytaco.com/2008/08/04/church-signs-that-wont-make-you-go-to-church/

In the interest of adapting chores to age, Cats newest one is to be responsible for dinner once a week. As in, responsible for planning the menu, buying groceries, cooking food, and cleaning afterwards. And today was her first day of doing so, with great success! Dinner turned out to be tomato soup (decorated with a heart drawn with milk in each bowl of soup), with a side dish of lettuce, tomato and cheese sandwich. And for dessert vanilla icecream with blueberry syrup and caramel sauce. All very delicious! And she even did the cleaning of afterwards, which I suspected would be the difficult part. So definitely keeping this up -- weekends initially, so I can be around to help out and put out any fires, but if it continues this well I shall look forward to coming home from work to finished dinner sometime :)

Still all thundery here, but at least it's not so hot. Forecast promises more rain this week, so it looks like less time spent outside this vacation than I had hoped -- it's either been too hot or too rainy most days. Ahwell, I'm getting stuff done at home at least. Even picked up the crosstitching again after a long period of just feeling too overwhelmed for it.

Wow, that was a weird movie. Half slapstick, half Von Däniken. I kept shifting up gears on my willing suspension on disbelief, and still had trouble getting through. Cat enjoyed it a lot though, apart from the needlessly graphic scene of a man being eaten alive by giant ants. Ick. I managed to cover her eyes for most of it, at least.

Still, nice to see the old faces again, and pick up little references to previous movies. Cat hasn't actually seen any before, so when Indy had his dramatic first scene, she leaned over and asked me who that was. Aaaah, I feel old again!

http://kotaku.com/5029840/star-trek-online-official-announced-first-screenshots

City of Heroes people making Star Trek? I think I'll need that upgraded computer soon :D

Still meltingly hot. The forecast said it would be cooler today -- which turned out to mean 29.5 C rather than 31, and as far as I can tell a much higher humidity. Difference that makes no difference, really. But, that didn't stop us from going to the very hilly amusement park today and utterly exhausting ourselves! Great fun was had by all, and Cat was especially happy to have a farmor around who was less scared of going on rides than mamma :)

( Aquarium TMI )
Aaah. Thundering now, it sounds like! At least that might mean an end to this muggy heat...

Temperature above 30 and due to climb steadily the next couple of days. Aaaah! I'm not made for the heat! Spent a precious vacation day today just panting in the shadow inside, in front of an inadequate fan. On the other hand, we had fun the last two days before that, visiting Kristiansand Dyrepark and admiring the animals and going on rides. (Well, Cat went on rides with the rest of the family, I stayed safely on the ground :)

Now to do a quick websearch to see which museums in the city are airconditioned so we have somewhere to hide out tomorrow...

Just about ready for Cat to come home now, I'm running out of distractions! Less than two days to go...

Also: Vacatiooooooon! The ultimate TGIF!

I succumbed to Wii Fit at last, after walking past a big pile of them at the local hypermart. Discovered I shouldn't have tried that after three hours of carrying and bending, my back is very unhappy with me after adding Wii yoga to that, but otherwise it was fun. Whee, hula hoops! Interesting to see how much weaker/unbalanced I am on the left than the right, that does fit with everyday observation, too. Hope back cooperates tomorrow so I can try some more.
And now to write the daily letter to Cat at camp :)