December 24th

I have many more than five nice things I saw today. Shining examples are...

1. Mummy

2. Jaja

3. Bird

4. Jam

5. Kryptonite

6. Nanermellon

7. Capone

8. Summi

9. Kippen

I love you all.


Me and the sheep say merry christmas.

December 24th bonus

1. A small child was wearing a red and green striped elf hat complete with elf ears.

December 23rd

1. Snow! Walking home at night, it glistened in the lamplight, both in the sky, and on every surface. There weren't enough footprints to disturb its fresh whiteness, so everything looked very peaceful.

2. Your christmas present arrived today! Just in time for me to give it to you tomorrow. I was hoping it would be a christmas present.

3. I tried on bras in my black boots and jeans. I made me feel like a bond girl, and that I ought to go out and fight crime just like that.

4. I purchased the most fabulous bra as my christmas present from Mummy. It is very french-maid-esque.

5. I made and decorated chocolates. The little tiny white chocolate heart markings make me happy, and the white chocolate slightly marbled coating on the almond-brandy truffles turned out rather well for a first shot.


An angelic looking sheep:

December 22nd

5 Nice Things About Today

1. Kryptonite and I snuggled on the couch and watched Meet the Fockers

2. Mummy and I galumphed about the field, deep in a foot of snow, and found our christmas tree. We also found one with a bird's nest in it.

3. I wrapped my christmas presents. They are lying in my room looking as tantalizing as a box of quality street toffees or a pile of many shot-silk fabrics.

4. I put away the laundry and most of my clothes. A new square foot of my floor has been revealed.

5. Dodd's msn name now has the comment "joyus foot of thick white stuff". I'm glad others are also enjoying the snow like me :)


christmas sheep (one disguised as a reindeer):

December 21st

5 Nice Things About Today

1. Daddy reading advent stories to us (with voices and everything) while we decorated the christmas tree.

2. Jacki and I doing increasingly silly lipsyncs and dances to records of obscure musicals with Julie Andrews in them.


3. Decorating cookies with Capone and her family while we sang half remembered musical tunes. Creative interpretations of the cookie shapes were encouraged. My favorites were a squid and a rocket ship out of a clown head shape, and a man in swimming trunks carrying a surf board out of the soldier shape.

4. (It doesn't even need the sound)


5. I enjoyed reading Murder With Peacocks. It's one of my favorite books.

December 20th

5 Nice Things About Today

1. Dad and I bought a very frozen very tall christmas tree - one of the last 7 in the lot. The back door of our car wouldn't open, so we manouvered it through one of the windows. It was so tall that it wouldn't fit entirely inside the car, and the tip of it peered out over Dad's shoulder as he drove.

2. I brought home dogwood and rosehips to decorate dad's place with. Lovely, delicate, and red.

3. I talked to Dez about wanting to switch genders, and his explination, which can be partially encapsuled by... wanting to make it easier for people to put you in a category you're comfortable with so that they stop worrying about how to categorize you, and start getting to know you... gave me a sense of understanding, and an ability to relate, and made the world less of a crazy place and to quote Browning "God's in his heaven, alls right with the world."

4. I saw Capone and Dez and Summi and Kippen and Nanermellon and met the infamous Rock. It is always pleasing to hang out with friends.

5. We have about a million ornaments ready and waiting to hang on the tree... it's very exciting.

December 19th

5 Nice Things About Today (some of which gave me a sense of accomplishment)

1. I finished Dad's advent calendar, and hung the stories on a ribbon in his hallway, including this one by Karl Lorenz (also from "King Solomon's Ring" that I typed this morning:

I was experimenting at one time with young mallards to find out why artificially incubated and freshly hatched ducklings of this species, in contrast to similarly treated greylag goslings, are unapproachable and shy. Greylag goslings unquestioning accept the first living being whom they meet as their mother, and run confidently after him. Mallards, on the contrary, always refused to do this. If I took from the incubator freshly hatched mallards, they invariably ran away from me and pressed themselves in the nearest dark corner. Why? I remembered that I had once let a muscovy duck hatch a clutch of mallard eggs and that the tiny mallards had also failed to accept this foster-mother. As soon as they were dry, they had simply run away from her and I had trouble enough to catch those crying, erring children. On the other hand, I oncelet a fat white farmyard duck hatch out mallards and the little wild things ran just as happily after her as if she had been their real mother. The secret must have lain in her call note, for, in external appearance, the domestic duck was quite as different from a mallard as was the muscovy; but what she had in common with the mallard (which, of course, is the wild progenitor of our farmyard duck) were her vocal expressions. Though, in the process of domestication, the duck has altered considerably in colour pattern and body form, its voice has remained practically the same. The inference was clear: I must quack like the mother mallard in order to make the little ducks run after me. No sooner said then done. When, one Whit-Saturday, a brood of pure-bred young mallards was due to hatch, I put the eggs in the incubator, took the babies, as soon as they were dry, under my personal care, and quaked for them the mother’s call note in my best Mallardese. For hours on end I kept it up, for half the day. The quacking was successful. The little ducks lifted their gaze confidently towards me, obviously had no fear of me this time, and as, still quacking, I drew slowly away from them, they also set themselves obediently in motion and scuttled after me in a tightly huddled group, just as ducklings follow their mother. My theory was indisputably proved. The freshly hatched ducklings have an inborn reaction to the call note, but not to the optical picture of their mother. Anything that emits the right quack note will be considered as a mother, whether it is a fat white Pekin duck or a still fatter man. However, the substituted object must not exceed a certain height. At the beginning of these experiments, I had sat myself down in the grass amongst the ducklings and, in order to make them follow me, had dragged myself sitting, away from them. As soon, however, as I stood up and tried, in a standing posture, to lead them on, they gave up, peered searchingly on all sides, but not upwards towards me and it was not long before they began that penetrating piping of abandoned ducklings that we are accustomed to simply call “crying.” They were unable to adapt themselves to that fact that their foster-mother had become so tall. So I was forced to move along, squatting low, if I wished them to follow me. This was not very comfortable; still less comfortable was the fact that the mother mallard quacks intermittently. If I ceased for even the space of half a minute from my melodious “Quahg, gegegegeg, Quahg, gegegegeg,” the necks of the ducklings became longer and longer corresponding exactly to “long faces” in human children – and I did not then immediately recommence quacking, the shrill weeping began anew. As soon as I was silent, they seemed to think that I had died, or perhaps that I loved them no more: cause enough for crying! The ducklings, in contrast to the greylag goslings, were the most demanding and tiring charges, for, imagine a two-hour walk with such children, all the time squatting low and quacking without interruption! In the interests of science I submitted myself literally to this ordeal. So it came about, on a certain Whit-Sunday, that, in the company of my ducklings, I was wandering about, squatting and quaking, in a May-green meadow at the upper part of our garden. I was congratulating myself on the obedience and exactitude with which my ducklings came waddling after me, when I suddenly looked up and saw the garden fence framed by a row of dead-white faces: a group of tourists was standing at the fence and staring horrified in my direction. Forgivable! For all they could see was a big man with a beard dragging himself, crouching, round the meadow, in figures of eight, glancing constantly over his shoulder and quacking – but the ducklings, the all-revealing and all-explaining ducklings were hidden in the tall spring grass from the view of the astonished crowd.


~Konrad Lorenz, King Solomon’s Ring

2. I drove! zooming slowly through the hillocks of snow.

3. I made an omelet, with cheese and onion and broccoli.

4. The starlings and sparrows were huddled up in our bird feeder out of the winter weather, puffed up like a small gang of thugs.

5. I love the mountains of snow at the side of the road after the snow plow has gone by. Every year I hope they will get higher than my head.


in honour of the movie I watched tonight, with the australian actor Paul Hogan: an australian sheep.

December 18th

5 Things In My Day Today That I Liked

1. Indian food for lunch! Oh so yummy yummy.

2. Buttertarts made by Nin! also delectable. With yummy nuts that didn't taste like pecans or walnuts. Whatever they were, I approve.

3. The word "'Rumstehscheiße". It means "shit that lies around". A poor english translation would be "nick-knacks", but I like the added connotations, and the pleasing way it rolls off the tongue.

4. Cherry Brandy Roses.

5. Konrad Lorenz's story of his jewel fish. I relate it here:

The iridescent, bright blue spots in the red darkness of the dorsal fin of the jewel fish play a special role when the female is putting her babies to bed. She jerks her finrapidly up and down, making the jewels flash like a heliograph. At this, the young congregate under the mother and obediently descend into the nesting hole. The father, in the meantime, searches the whole tank for stragglers. He does not coax them along but simply inhales them into his roomy mouth, swims to the nest, and blows them into the hollow. The baby sinks at once heavily to the bottom and remains lying there. By an ingenious arrangement of reflexes, the swim-bladders of young “sleeping” cichlids contract so strongly that the tiny fishes become much heavier than water and remain, like little stones, lying in the hollow, just as they did in their earliest childhood before their swim-bladder was filled with gas. The same reaction of “being heavy” is also elicited when a parent fish takes a young one in its mouth. Without this reflex mechanism it would be impossible for the father, when he gathers up his children in the evening, to keep them together.
I once saw a jewel fish, during such an evening transport of strayed children, perform a deed which absolutely astonished me. I came, late one evening, into the laboratory. It was already dusk and I wished hurriedly to feed a few fishes which had not received anything to eat that day; amongst them was a pair of jewel fishes who were tending their young. As I approached the container, I saw that most of the young were already in the nesting hollow over which the mother was hovering. She refused to come for the food when I threw pieces of earthworm into the tank. The father, however, who, in great excitement, was dashing backwards and forwards searching for truants, allowed himself to be diverted from his duty by a nice hind-end of earthworm (for some unknown reason this end is preferred by all worm-eaters to the front one). He swam up and seized the worm, but, owing to its size, was unable to swallow it. As he was in the act of chewing this mouthful, he saw a baby fish swimming by itself across the tank; he started as though stung, raced after the baby and took it into his already filled mouth. It was a thrilling moment. The fish had in its mouth two different things of which one must go into the stomach and the other one into the nest. What would he do? I must confess that, at that moment, I would not have given twopence for the life of the tiny jewel fish. But wonderful what really happened! The fish stood stalk still with full cheeks, but did not chew. If ever I have seen a fish think, it was in that moment! What a truly remarkable thing that a fish can find itself in a genuinely conflicting situation and, in this case, behave exactly as a human being would; that is to say, it stops, blocked in all directions, and can go neither forward or backward. For many seconds the father jewel fish stood riveted and one could almost see how his feelings were working. Then he solved the conflict in a way for which one was bound to feel admiration: he spat out the whole contents of his mouth: the worm fell to the bottom, and the little jewel fish, becoming heavy in the way described above, did the same. Then the father turned resolutely to the worm and ate it up, without haste but all the time with one eye on the child which “obediently” lay on the bottom beneath him. When he had finished, he inhaled the baby and carried it home to its mother.
Some students, who had witnessed the whole scene, started as one man to applaud.
~Konrad Lorenz, King Solomon’s Ring.

December 17th

1. omg omg omg, it's us!

from here.

2. I am very nearly almostly - not quite! - done my christmas shopping. In one day!

3. I pumped iron in the morning. (that's funnier if you say it in a Arnold Schwarzenegger voice). "Muscles moved on the king's arms like footballs mating." ~ Terry Pratchett.

4. Snow! I walked outside with the snow song from White Christmas in my head. It was beautiful.

5. Summi and I were both silly, sleepy and fond of alliteration and the saying "Stop fussin' and mussin' on the bussin', and none of your cussin'!

December 16th

5 Nice Things About Today

1. My professor said he liked my essay :D

2. You made roasted brussell sprouts. They were very good. I've never had them before.

3. We put up my christmas lights, now my bushes look like they have jube jubes on them :)

4. I got to talk about the flow phenomenon - when everything seems to be going right, and your ego becomes unimportant, and you loose yourself in what you are doing, and time seems to become distorted - on my exam. I like the everything I learn about the phenomenon, so it made me very happy. It was very hard to write an essay, and not get excited and blather about how exciting it all was. I did finish off with "it's so cool :D" in very tiny writing a few lines down. I couldn't resist.

5. I get to go to sleep now. Bed is looking ever so cosy.



lotsa sheep. I'll be counting them soon.

December 15th

1. I changed a hole in my sock, so that it now looks like a very happy ninja. As you can see:


2. This series of bloopers made me very happy. I keep playing it over and over. I would also like to see the whole skit.


3. The Verve remix of Ella Fitzgerald singing What Are You Doing New Years Eve? is also making me very happy. It's another thing I keep playing over and over.

4. One of the multiple choice questions on my exam was "Which person does the homunculus in the somatosensory cortex look most like?" the correct answer was Mick Jagger, because of his extremely large sensuous lips.

5. I worked up the courage to overcome my shyness of strangers and wander up to a friend of a friend who is in my class, and who also admitted to being shy the one time I met her.


Some sheep who seem a little confused about what mood to be in, like me.

December 14th

1. Jaja came up with excellent hints while helping me study. I will now remember Allie the Thespian (Alliesthesia, the process by which your brain creates cravings based on nutritional needs), the porn star duo of Buck and Axel (who discovered 350 different types of olfactory receptors in humans, and 1000 in mice), Cats in Holland (Hollins and Katz who came up with the Duplex Theory of Touch Perception), and Operas and Asylums which come after your insula in your gustatory pathway (your opercilum cortex).

2. Kryptonite sent me this video of a little drum n' bass robot:

and when I said I liked the robot that ran around until it found something that it could hit, he said "it's like you and biting :D"

3. We chilled. Always excellent. You were looking especially lovely.

4. I put on the Verve Christmas Remix cd and we all (mummy, my sisters and I) danced around the room imitating Patrick Swayze doing his "Love Man" walk in dirty dancing.

5. My bed felt especially snuggly this morning, and I awoke feeling cosy and refreshed.

December 13th

5 Things That Made Me Smile Today

1. I came across this most excellent video:


2. We were watching the Cat sleep in her nest of boxes in the workroom of the store, when Madmoiselle-the-owner told us of a cold January day when she herself had pulled all the boxes off the shelf above the radiator, and wedged herself in under the counter and lay on the shelf in an attempt to warm up. It was so cosy and comfortable there, she could almost have fallen asleep. Her mind was pleasantly drifting, and the feeling was returning to her fingers and toes, when a customer came into the store. In a moment of panic she wasn't sure she could get out again, and as she wriggled about, desperately trying to free herself before the customer came into the store, she kept calling out "be with you in a minute!"

3. There was exceptionally good, bouncy, strident opera on the radio this morning. The sort that makes you wave your hands about and sing along.

4. I have no idea what we were talking about, other than it occasionally involved a dictionary, as we are a group of co-workers that is fond of lexical erudition, and we spent much of the time laughing hysterically. I do remember that D. put forth the suggestion that we display the dictionary on a stand like the Bible. I like days like this :)

5. You, oh most excellent Kippen, found part of my christmas quest. Oh how I thank you!

December 12th

5 Nice Things About Today

1. There was a man playing steel drums in the subway. Such happy music.
   
2. A guy sat on the very back and centre seat of the bus, with his feet up on two of the chairs down the ailse in front of him. He looked like a king on his throne, surveying his territory.
   
3. I came across these two Audrey Hepburn quotes, which I have seen before, but really like:
   "Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it`s at the end of your arm. As you get older, remember you have another hand: the first is to help yourself, the second is to help others."
   "For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you will never walk alone. People, even more than things have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed."
   
4. The young black man that nearly ran into me had a very nice smile.
   
5. The barista at Second Cup looked surprised and then pleased when I asked for whipped cream on my hot chocolate.
   

December 11th

eep! sorry I am late. I fell asleep...

5 Amusing and or nice things about yesterday...

1. Almost everyone who came into the store was a few cards short of a full deck.

• I thought a lady called and spoke french to me. So flustered by the language, I answered the question incorrectly even though I understood it. She really was speaking english.
  
• Another lady worried about a plastic container melting when the candle burned down. It was glass.
  
• When Fabbalous demonstrated how a group of poinsettias would look in a basket she placed a few in on one side to demonstrate the feel. The customer worried that the other side of the basket would look a little bare.
  
• A lady came and sniffed the pine cones by the front desk, and worried that they didn't smell very strongly. Fabbalous pointed out that they were fake. And pine cones don't smell.
  

It was very companionable.

2. I ate agedashi tofu. Omigosh is so very very yummy.

3. I saw a movie with yetis in it.

4. Madmoiselle-the-owner brought in the most beautiful ranunculus.
They reminded me of Audrey Hepburn's hat in Funny Face, which I was in love with as a kid.

5. Mummy and I thought alike about christmas present ideas. great minds, great minds.

December 10th

1. The lake and sky were all Kippen colours tonight.






2. Death Was The Other Woman is turning out to be very satisfying to read.

3. I organized my pencil drawer. I now know how many pens I have, and THEY ALL WORK.

4. Mummy brought me treats while I was studying. Pears and yogurt, and fruit gummies. Eating in bed is nice, if sometimes messy.

5. Earlier in the evening Kryptonite took this photo:
I think it's amazing, where we live.


I'm not sure what's going on with these sheep, but I think I like it :)

December 9th

1. The park was magical. It was filled with mist, and snow covered, so both the air and the ground were white. The only thing you could see in the distance was the glow of the lamps and the silhouettes of tree trunks.

2. I was talking to Summi on the phone and at the same time as I said "that's a gigantic puddle, the whole road has turned to water," she almost slipped in a puddle covering the floor of the grocery store. Even cities apart we are in synch.

3. I got a book out from the library, appealingly described on its dust jacket: "As the lawlessness of Prohibition pushes against the desperation of the Depression, there are two ways to make a living in Los Angeles: join the criminals or collar them.
Kitty Pangborn has chosen the crime-fighters, becoming secretary to Dexter J. Theroux, one of the hard-drinking, tough-talking PIs that pepper the city's stew. But after Dex takes an assignment from Rita Heppelwaite, the mistress of Harrison Dempsey, one of L.A.'s shadiest -- and richest -- businessmen, Kitty isn't so sure what side of the law she's on.
Rita suspects Dempsey has been stepping out on both his wife and his mistress, and so she's asked Dex to tail her lover. It's an easy enough task, but Dex's morning stroll with Johnnie Walker would make it tough for him to trail his own shadow. Kitty insists she go along for the ride, keeping her boss -- and hopefully her salary -- safe. However, she's about to realize that there's something far more unpleasant than a three-timing husband at the end of this trail, and that there's more at risk than just her paycheck.
Richly satisfying and stylishly gritty, Death Was the Other Woman gives a brand new twist to the hard-boiled style, revealing that while veteran PIs like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe spent their time slugging scotch and wooing women, it may well have been the Girl Fridays of the world who really cracked their cases." I'm looking forward to reading it.

4. I ate some creamy organic german chocolate. yum.

5. I'm re-reading Howl's Moving Castle. So very excellent a novel.

December 8th

1. Old favorite disney songs, now in German!


2. Bright clean snow falling in big fat flakes, the air crisp and cold. This weather makes me want to frolic outside like a puppy.

3. Mummy made bright green potato pancakes. One of the yummiest foods. And a most interesting colour. It matched my sweater.

4. Kryptonite brought over a wonderful remix of christmassy jazz songs that he found. It is entirely danceable and requires much shaking of the booty and sliding in the socks while listening to it.

5. Yoda and stormtroopers dance:



and the same song sung by a sheep...

December 7th

5 Nice Things About Today

1. The Cutting Edge was on tv! I'd been wanting to see that again for such a long time.

2. A friend sent me to listen to this speech.

3. There was a very talented mouse on cute overload.

I was most impressed. Though more by the mouse or the person who made the obstacle course, I could not say.

4. Typing this won't do it justice, but it's from a Noël Coward play. Said in a petulantly, with lots of sob in the voice: "Last night you said I was the one the you'd been searching for always, and now that you found me you'd never let me go." Then the glamorous sweeping voice "That was perfectly true! I never shall let you go! You will be here in my heart forever." I felt the need to rush down the stairs and quote it to jaja, and then we declared it to each other with many sweeping arm gestures.

5. We ate dinner by candle light.

December 6th

Another busy day with a conglomeration of nice things.
1. We went to an epic poetry reading, indian dance and music performance, with a sweet lady speaking the poem, she had a beautiful spirit. Very still, and very alive, like a lake.
2. I fell asleep at the poetry reading, and dozed in an alert sleep.
3. Jaja did reiki on my hand (twice) today, and made the itching go away and made the hand tingly with healing.
4. We visited Bird and Jame, and they fed us a wealth of interesting foods on little dishes. Rolled egg, and seaweed, and kale salad. Rum toff and raisin toast, and hot chocolate with old melty marshmallows. All delicious.
5. I opened my boot this morning and inside was an edward gorey postcard calendar. Expect exciting mail in the future :)

A whole sheep video. I especially like the curlers and oven mitts.

Shaun The Sheep - Funny bloopers are a click away

December 5th

today was exhausting but still had lots of nice moments...
1. Two little kids were hopping down the side walk on one leg (practicing I guess).
2. A very fat bulldog stared at me with soulful eyes.
3. The bean pods made lovely sqwooshing noises underneath my feet as I walked across the park (like the rustle of fall leaves times ten).
4. The story of Elvis the Steer appeared on my screen as I was typing up stories for my Dad's advent calendar before, like a fortuitous gift, for it fit right in with my animal theme. It truly appeared too, I was typing a word document when my internet screen opened and covered it up with Elvis.
5. I like my Dad's kitchen which is warm and big and orange, which has lots of space to cook, and a nice Dad to walk in and snack on muchables I am making and to chat with.

A christmas lamb . . .

December 4th

1. It snowed!

2. I found a fantabulous blog with good pictures. Such as:
The killer seagull:
The Piranha:

The Manatee:

and The Excellent One About Hats:


3. My poet friend S. William's wrote a poem that pleased me. Et voila:

Pure Trouble

Here comes trouble
with bright red lips
stickin' her chest out
and shakin' her hips.
Yeah, she's gorgeous
but what's it do ya?
when her deep blue eyes
cut right through ya.
She doesn't need
the meager thrill
of going in
for the kill
on any schmuck
who's in her path.
She's pretty, yeah,
but do the math.
She knows she's hot
and I'll agree,
her look does certain
things to me,
but when I see through
her shallow game:
That girl is trouble
and that's a shame.

4. My advent calendar is hanging up, looking delicious.

5. Jaja and Kryptonite drew on a SNAP newspaper to make the characters entirely different. Now one's a puppet, the other is an animae in a rather daring outfit (it, is Jaja points out, not done).



ps. A sheep...

December 3rd

Things I feel blessed by today...

1. There was a van disguised as a reindeer.

2. Three teenaged boys were sitting in the park playing music together. A snare drum, a guitar and a bongo drum, and three voices in song.
3. The world continues to reveal strange and hidden mysteries, for Columbus had a map of the Americas before he went there, and Mallegan had a map of the straight named after him before he sailed there...
4. Dirty Dancing
5. Decadent chocolate chip cookies. I ate them for breakfast.

December 2nd

5 Nice Things About Today

1. I saw you!
2. A small child was wearing a white knitted hat with ears. I approve of ears.
3. Waiting for the bus, I watched a pigeon fly around and around in circles, its white under-wings catching in the sunlight on every pass.
4. Winter clementines!
5. I learned the illuminating fact that everyone has one nostril bigger than the other, and every few hours which one is bigger switches.

December 1st

5 Nice Things I Noticed About Today:

1. A quote from my prof I scrawled across the top of my sociology lecture notes: "One of the horrors ahead of you as you grow older you may find that you have to go to cocktail parties. They're awful." so be warned :)

2. Mummy found a letter Bird wrote to our grandparents when she was little. Translated from the German, it says "Dear Oma and Opa, I love you very much. I will tell you a story about my tooth. He fell out! How are you? Did you get any easter bunnies? Love Bird."

3. I have discovered a new way of dipping chocolates so they come out with smoother rounder tops which makes them look even yummier.

4. There was classical music playing in the subway, which makes my day feel more romantic.

5. The last question on my sociology exam read something like: "Durkheim predicted that a decrease of social solidarity in modern societies would lead to an increase in:

a) egotistic suicide

b) altruistic suicide

c) fatalistic suicide

d) anomic suicide

e) emo kids in the 'hood"

How tempting it was to select option "e"...

advent

Good morning Kippen!

For those days when life is fabulous and you feel like extra celebration, and for those blue days when it's being difficult, I'm going to count my blessings instead of sheep.

They wont be the same as your blessings, but, after all, we do share a brain, so they might be close enough!

luff and fluff, 

Pashmina.

ps. your first sheep: