our shopping list

Danger - now you're making the whole Tesco thing sound worse than it could be! I demand examples!

What I will be buying at Tesco today, offered without explanation:

denture cream
lube
honey
marmite
cucumbers (5)
disney princess plasters (Jasmine or Mulan, NOT Ariel Ariel for Lestrade)
clothes pegs

To be fair, the majority of this particular list is not L's fault. 

lighthouse

I love lighthouses. 

All of them. But especially old ones. With those massive Fresnel lenses. 

rainy days

We had storms yesterday that were, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, like someone was pouring the Atlantic Ocean over us, through a sieve. Just buckets of rain, the kind where it hits so hard it bounces back at you, so if you're out in it, your umbrella does you essentially no good at all since you're getting it from above and below, and it's trying to jump up your trousers as well as run down your collar.

dramatic tadpoles

The tadpoles are growing. This is actually from a few weeks ago, so they're probably much bigger now. I'm still refusing to let Sherlock take one home with him because I'm not at all certain how to keep them alive. Maybe I can get his teacher to do it as a class project.

school daze

Friday. It was a big day. It started, for me, at 3.30am when Sherlock snuck into our room to ask if it was time to go to school yet, and couldn't he just bring Lestrade with him in the morning and then he could stay all day and they could study together? Sherlock would teach him all about Set and Osiris and Anubis and also fish. (It's quite an eclectic course of studies at his school.)

six months

I'm not especially good at keeping track of dates. This one probably would've slipped by me if L hadn't pointed it out, but it has, as you all know by now, been six months since we met. Plus or minus a day or two. Most of my relationships made it to the three month mark and then fizzled out.

A few made it to five. Those tended to explode spectacularly - maybe the pressure of keeping their mouths shut for those extra two months on the subject of everything I was doing wrong? Of course, mainly what I was doing wrong was being in another country and not at home with them.

So I'm pretty happy it's been six months and Lestrade shows no sign of getting sick of me.

just say no

Dear Mrs Hudson and Amy,

I will not be knitting anything at all, thank you! I know how you knitting people are with the peer pressure. You should've seen my grandmother trying to get Harry into it. It was like she was trying to get her to join a cult. No, despite the many jumpers and scarves I could (probably fail to) make, I think I'll steer clear of this particular hobby.

I still think I need a job and somehow I sense that L isn't serious about taking me to work with him - I'd probably just end up doing his paperwork anyway while he went out and did all the fun stuff. Volunteer work. Or maybe I'll write a book.

Although the knitted skeleton is pretty cool.

a flying update

We're still out having more fun than you are (I don't know this for a fact, but I feel pretty confident about it because we're having a lot of fun), but I've been looking for an appropriate ecard on and off for Lestrade, and I think I've finally found the perfect one:

the most trouble

Hi. Sorry about the lack of updating. I'm afraid my brain isn't working properly the past...oh, week or so. As Lestrade has said, Sherlock's been...difficult. I think it's good though. A bit. In a way. At least he feels secure enough to act like a complete brat? And it's not all the time. He was very sweet on the way to school this morning, for no reason I could see. Held my hand and talked about learning to ride a bike in the summer and reminded me when we got to school that he's "the most trouble, right? I am, right?" Heh. I think he's proud of it. 

Anyhow, in poll news, Three Men in a Boa won by a landslide. The new one is up. Sherlock's said he'll do cover art for the one that eventually wins... "If it's a good one and if I feel like it. Maybe." 

more interesting with the final letter knocked off

Some of the book titles people came up with in the comments were so good I thought I'd put them in the poll. There's fifteen (if you did more than one I picked the one I liked best - I know, it's terribly objective and scientific), so I'll do them in three sets of five, and then I suppose the final three to find the ultimate winner. Maybe there could be a prize? I don't know what though. Let me know if you've got any ideas.

I hardly know how to talk about this weekend. Lestrade's been more amazing than usual. He doesn't seem to even realize that most people wouldn't have had that talk with Sherlock, that most people would just about tolerate the boys, if that, much less tell them stories and arrange fake crime scenes for them and try to help them grow up. I'm not sure he even sees there's anything for me to thank him for, and perhaps it's silly to thank him for being who he is, but I am incredibly thankful for that nevertheless.

panda lestrade

Sherlock's artistic talent has struck again. He's done a rendition of Lestrade's current rather unfortunate appearance. The detail is astonishing. This will obviously be going on the fridge as well.

straight on till morning

We were on the beach all night. It was chilly, but there were dogs and children and blankets to keep me warm. Mrs H must be impervious to cold. She kept wandering down the beach barefoot, in and out of the surf, blanket round her shoulders, but that was all.

mystery train

Well, we've had an eventful day. If you want to be completely accurate, it started last night around 23.30 last night with Sherlock's comment re: Mycroft's school and how "stupid" it is. How he got my phone again, I have no idea, but I'm starting to think about getting a lockbox of some sort into which all electronic devices will be placed at bedtime.

I didn't see the comment till this morning, and I wish I had as it would've provided me with some warning of what I was in for. To be honest, I did see this coming - just not so quickly. Even if Sherlock and Mycroft were still busy hating each other, I think Sherlock would be upset to see him go away to school. Lestrade pointed out that Mycroft's been the one constant in Sherlock's life, and he's quite right.

cake or death

So, only two people in the last poll said they were planning to join the crowds for the royal wedding. I meant to ask for a firsthand report, but then Lestrade said they were both him - and obviously he wasn't working after all.

We did watch it, as Lestrade said, with varying amounts of interest. Mrs Hudson was at the top, with special cake and hat, then Mycroft and I, and L and Sherlock at the bottom (though Sherlock's interest in the cake was definitely keen). To be fair, L's interest in anything at that point still wasn't terribly high. A couple of Anthea's minions snuck up to join us briefly as well, though she was up to chase them back down pretty sharply. I've never seen her roll her eyes so hard.

Anyhow, the next poll is for a far more important event - Mycroft's 13th birthday! It's coming right up, May 10th, and of course the final say on cake will be his, but he said I should do the poll anyway. "Ask the internet," were his exact words. It's becoming a popular phrase around here.

tuesday

Everyone goes back to their normal lives tomorrow - L to work, Sherlock to school, and Mycroft is fizzing with quiet joy because Ms P is finally back from South Africa. He's been missing her, or whatever madly advanced astrophysics they're doing, or both. I was going to feel guilty keeping L home today, but he was so wrecked after the swimming yesterday that I think it's completely justified.

It was an uphill battle keeping up with Sherlock. He can move pretty fast, even in bright orange water wings, and we nearly lost him a few times. Once when I caught up with him, he was having a splash fight with two other boys his age (also be-winged, which made him feel a bit better I think).