The wreath is complete. It has tinsel and glitter and various baubles and bits of old computer circuits on it. He's also made Murray one wrapped with bandages with some fake blood on and a drawing of a skull stapled to it. Murray is delighted and wants to hang it up at work...I feel this may end poorly for him.
L sent me this: Australia has nine foot long earthworms. I mean, of course it's Australia. Where else would it be? Picture behind the page break thing in case anyone is horrified by enormous worms. Lots more at the link.
Sherlock wants to know:
1. If we can have one as a pet (no)
2. If we can go to Australia and see one (maybe? someday?)
3. If he can have a box jellyfish instead (definitely no)
4. Well, what about a kind of jellyfish that won't kill you?
The last one devolved into a debate of jellyfish logistics and how he could TOTALLY fit a massive tank in his room for a Portuguese man of war, which, he wants you to know, isn't even a jellyfish really, and since I said no to the box jellyfish, he was trying to be FLEXIBLE.
97 comments:
He woke me up in the middle of the night last night, to ask if we could go on a sailing ship.
Or I think he did. I may have dreamt it.
Am I going to be attacked by our wreath as I walk up the stairs?
Probably, but it doesn't have teeth (that I'm aware of), so the most it can do is gum you a little.
What did you say about the sailboat?
Ohhh .... flexible .... I see!
Sherlock, you get points for trying, but you must admit that a Portuguese Man of War not the sort of thing you'll find at the closest pet store. Besides, I had a friend who once had a salt-water aquarium and it was nothing but trouble.
On another topic, your wreath sounds amazing and it was very nice of you to think of Murray and make one for him as well.
Hope you're all having a good evening.
LyricalSinger
I think I told him to go back to bed... and 'sailboat' is underselling it, I think. He was talking about rigging and crows nests as I carried him back to his room. I may have said something annoying like 'we'll see' or 'we'll talk about it tomorrow'.
I just don't understand how these things become so important in the middle of the night.
A crows nest, of course. Well...he doesn't like to do anything small, does he?
Indeed.
Like worms ;) or jellyfish. Or not-jellyfish. What is a man-o-war, given it's OBVIOUSLY not a jellyfish.
Great wreath, Sherlock! A wonderful addition to our door.
The wreath sounds wonderfly festive, Sherlock--and how nice of you to make such an appropriate wreath for Murray!
All this about giant worms and men-of-war (is that the correct plural) makes me think of Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country, which I think all four of you might enjoy, albeit for different reasons.
It's a siphonophore that's apparently made out of separate organisms that work together? I think he said siphonophore.
... of course it is.
You should be more interested in jellyfish not stupid football.
Are you making a wreath for your mum, Sherlock?
ha, jellyfish aren't winning one-nil!
two-nil, oh yes!
RR - he is making a wreath for his mum, although right now he's mostly making faces at L playing the guitar...
Lovely! (The wreath for his mother, not the faces, which I can't see. :))
You know, if he makes her a smaller wreath, she can hang it inside, where she can see it all the time. Just a thought!
playing guitar because I need to learn things for his bloody school, little troll.
He is now aggressively playing his violin at me. John looks pained.
How about some music from a different sort of wooden instrument?:
http://youtu.be/C_CDLBTJD4M
how can one small boy contain so much energy?
He's built a cold fusion generator and installed it inside him. It's the only explanation.
Yeah. Why can't he give me one of those? To deal with learning guitar songs and dealing with ship-related questions in the wee small hours.
It would certainly be useful.
Mrs N asked me if I knew any 'jolly, modern' Christmas songs.
And...I'm going in at lunchtime Friday, to help the kids learn a few, to sing a long to. Which sort of means I need to know them first...
...Do you know anything jolly and modern?
No. I like old depressing songs.
Heh.
Hence my sudden crash course from YouTube and online music thingies.
You could just teach them the old depressing ones...
And never be invited back again? You do have good ideas, Doc. I could also bake a bit of e.coli into the cakes...
A nice, depressing Christmas song never hurt anyone...
How about this one? It's uptempo and modern!: http://youtu.be/7E-47VmFopE
I can still sing you all the good ones.
I'm going to get the kids to do 'Holly and the Ivy' to the tune of 'Heartbreak Hotel'.
Although it will be hard not to laugh at the line 'the playing of the merry organ' ;)
What about While Shepherds Watched to the tune of either On Ilkley Moor b'out hat, or House of the Rising Sun?
Lancs. Anon
Lancs. - Perfect! It'll go on the list. Mrs N says they know 'some' carols, although I don't know which! But they will have lyric sheets too, and extras to hand out to parents to join in as well.
RR - I think that's way too hard for them. And me.
Yeah, I thought so--but I figured you'd get a grin out of it. :)
ha, we sing While Shepherds Watched to Ilkla Moor too, but I hadn't realized it also scans to House of the Rising Sun.
I've been scouring youtube for my favorites too but not finding them. :( There are a few John Roberts and Tony Barrand/Nowell Sing We Clear vids, and a few from Animaterra's winter concert a couple years ago, but... No video of Until the Dark Time Ends, by Alouette Iselin:
http://mudcat.org/Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=151584
aha, here is a link to someone singing it on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWAQ9NhEupI
with pretty much the tune as I remember it.
but it might not be jolly enough for your school thing, although you don't have to sing it as slow as it is in the video.
or of the lovely solstice round This Longest Night which I think is by Lorraine Lee:
This longest night your candles light
Keep watch over all the earth
Welcome hope and cheer as dawn draws near
And rejoice, rejoice at the sun's rebirth.
I don't know how to read ABC notation well enough to doublecheck what's at mudcat, and it might still be hard to match it to the words without an audio assist. But, if you *could* find it, it's a pretty quick and easy one to learn.
S
I've been listening to radiotuna online -- and if you want some ideas of some very bouncy (if odd) Christmas songs you should try the station there called "PNC Christmas". Although you might need an accordion.
Or there's "kringle radio" which is playing "I'm walking backwards for Christmas" just now...
wow, just checking out radiontuna which I had never heard of before. There are folk stations all over the world! bookmarking. Thanks!
S
I think we're going to see which carols they kknow, and jazz them up a bit... Not sure what else I can do.
You might also want to master some general winter songs so the Jewish/Muslim/other kids don't feel left out? I know sherlocks talked about non-Christian classmates. Or probably Mrs N has it under control.
It's now -9 degrees F. I should be allowed to stay in bed. I hope the homeless folk found warm places last night.
Ella
I fully agree, Ella--stay warm!
Some general winter season songs would be nice...
(My captcha was "musical"!)
Given the school is fairly multi faith, I feel pretty sure they'll have covered various winter songs. Mrs T is playing piano too, so she can play ones they know that I don't.
Have you sorted out when and where you're going away yet or are you keeping it all a surprise for your husband, Greg. (Or am I getting mixed up and was this his treat to arrange).
Only another 3 hours to go ;til you finish, it'll be especially nice to have 4 whole days off and to be able to spend the first couple with Mycroft home too, you get the best of all worlds. :)
Currently feel sick as a dog, but yes, not long to go. I'm taking J away Sunday. All arranged :)
Huh. I just found out whilst trying to see if anyone wanted to distribute hot chocolate that it's illegal to feed the homeless in Denver if you're not inside a building. I am not terribly religious but I find the un-Christian-ness of that really offensive.
Ella
Migraine, L? Whatever it is, feel better.
That's horrible, Ella, on an nasty lack-of-compassion level.. :(
Yeah migraine.
That's nasty, Ella. Hope you can find a way around it, if you were planning something.
I promise to use my powers of civil disobedience only for good, and be very polite to any officers writing me tickets. :)
Hope your migraine doesn't last long. :(
Ella
I hope you're home by now, and that the migraine is ebbing, L.
We'll all write you good character references, Ella.
John was a wonderful man and found me some of my drugs. Doesn't work as well when you take it so late, but better than nothing.
Did all the other essentials, threw up again, sat in a dark room, had a nice doctor give me a cuddle.
I am at least vertical now, sort of. and able to open my eyes.
More diagonal than vertical... ;)
Mmm. Feeling distinctly second hand.
You look a bit better, at least. Sorry your day was miserable.
it only became miserable part way through. Sal seems to take a perverse joy in working out what shade of grey I am.
I just should have had magic drugs with me. Silly boy for not having them, or time to get some.
Has she named the shades of grey?
(Are there 50 of them?)
she has made many such jokes.
Ah, I should've known.
but then I implied she'd read it, which made her backpedal furiously, which was good.
Ha!
oh, she told me to tell you Costa are giving free mince pies to people in (hideous) christmas jumpers.
I think you mean stunningly festive Christmas jumpers.
Certainly if they truly mean hideous jumpers then John won't qualify.
They may have left the 'hideous' part unsaid. Much in the ilk of what we were talking about the other day. "If you wear a super-smashing festive woolly jumper into our store!" meaning ' you poor, poor thing, we'll give you a mince pie to make up for your terrible jumper taste'.
Tomorrow morning is baking time. John, are you ready?
Maybe? What are we baking?
Speaking of lovely Christmas jumpers, we're joining in with Christmas jumper day http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/christmas-jumper-day It should be a laugh if nothing else.
Danger - thought you'd be in charge of a large batch of chocolate fridge cakes.
I'll do some flourless orange, and some cupcakes, then Sherlock can help decorate them later. Not sure what else.
Yes I'll decorate them! You have to make enough for me too not just selling them.
L - I'll try! At least I can't burn them, so it should be safe.
Yeah, should be!
Nelson Mandela has died.
A truly great person. The world would be a much poorer place without him. I hope his influence lives on for a long time. He was a force for good.
That is truly sad news.
I hope people honour him and his struggles in life by continuing his excellent work.
It's the premier of Long Walk to Freedom tonight, in town. Must be incredibly emotional, being there.
wow, that is sad, he's one of those people you hoped would live forever.
S
Yeah. Had a chat to Sherlock as I put him to bed. Of course, in his head, he just can't comprehend why Nelson Mandela was ever in jail for 27 years. It's just...unthinkable to him. I'm sure he'll be asking us some hard questions in the next few days!
Mandela is one of the people that made this a world in which the idea can be unthinkable to Sherlock and his generation. And it's good to think on these things.
Migraines are evil, since I'm averaging three or four per week at the moment I would opt for guillotine if it were offered! Drugs are good... medical ones that is Sherlock!
Feel better L
Kira
xoxo
Meant to say that my family / friends spot mine coming on when I start squinting at them with one eye and forgetting words... I have no idea what colour I am at the time as I can't focus on a mirror!
I'm lucky that I do generally carry my drugs with me, and if I take them soon enough I can usually put off the worst, although not always avoid it. And once the drugs have worked, I'm just left feeling a bit sick, nothing I can't deal with. Have you been through the full run of drugs to see if any help?
Today I was doing an attractive squint - left eye closed - and frequent long pauses when I forget what I was saying. Along with hair even more unruly than usual, because I kept rubbing my head. It was a good look!
I've never found anything that works on my migraines but a nap in a dark room. Well, no, not quite. I once had to do some storytelling to a group of preschoolers who all sang me the Barney song, and somehow the headache went away. (It was a room with no windows, though.) Do you get rainbows? I get them and I know I've got about forty-five minutes to go hide or I'll be miserable for three days.
Really sorry to hear about Nelson Mandela. He was one of the world's giants.
So sad to hear about Mandela, he was truly one of the great men of our times.
I hope you're feeling better, L. Migraines are horrible.
I can always tell I'm starting to get one because I tend to start yawning a lot, then forgetting words and what I was saying. When my vision goes blurry, I know I'm in real trouble soon.
Kira, have you tried cutting out wheat or dairy? I used to have 3 or 4 migraines a week, and when I cut out wheat, they went down to about once or twice a month. My sister cut dairy and she went from nearly constant to down to about once a month.
Hope you're feeling better today, Greg, got to be fighting fit for all that baking today and for the Carol practising - is that today too?
Good luck with the fridge cakes, John, I'm sure you'll even show Greg up with your skills. ;)
Have fun decorating later, Sherlock, I'm sure they'll all look fabulous, have you got some Christmassy glitter to sprinkle on.
What time will you be making your family complete later. Welcome home for Christmas, Mycroft.
Have a great day everyone. :)
It´s snowing for the first time this year (in the wake of "Xaver"). Lot´s of wet snow, cars stopping unexpectedly and me in a warm room with a cold and a nice cup of tea. It´s finally looking like Christmas out there!
I'm still drugged up, fighting it off. I haven't got time for a migraine!
We are baking, and this afternoon is singing. I'm sure John is planning to come along and join in.;)
I've done the elimination thing and only Aspartame seemed to be a problem. I've also been on 12 drugs so far! Preventative ones that is... went to the National Migraine Centre a couple of weeks ago and had injections into the back of my head - the same type that you get for tennis elbow! Didn't work so now am trying med 13... wish me luck??
Hope you are feeling better L.... I remember trying to work with one functioning eye and half a brain, it wasn't fun! Does hugging John work as an analgesic?
Kira
We have mastered jingle bells. We have sung a very high pitched silent night. We are now loudly fa-la-la-la-la-ing as we deck the halls. John looks like he wants to deck something, anyway ;)
Will anyone deck me if I say that that's so sweet? ;)
(I hope your migraine is staying at a distance.)
This is enough to give anyone a migraine...
Now, now, where's your holiday spirit? (She says from a safe ocean-distance away... ;D)
Small children are very high pitched. Still, over now. Until tomorrow.
You are a very patient man. Can I buy you coffee? Or some other reward?
Wonder if anyone can guess my answer...
Both?
Think you learn patience, working with the legal system :)
We have a Mycroft! He is ours until 2014.
Welcome home, Mycroft!
Have a great weekend, all--until Sunday, when you should have separate great rest-of-the-weekends!
I've got nerds to eat and Lestrade keeps stealing them and I'm decorating cakes with Smarties and stars and sprinkles and John is helping and the dogs keep eating the bits that go on the floor.
they're tasty!
That that sounds like fun, Sherlock--Enjoy creating your masterpieces!
(I had to look up nerds--they look good!)
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