not-a-date night

When he was ready (clean shirt and socks, both very important for dates I'm sure), Sherlock went outside and knocked on the door...because he remembered Lestrade saying it didn't count as a proper date otherwise...

He must've gone online looking for places to go, because he had the address written down to give to the taxi driver. I was not allowed to see it in advance, and I was...mildly concerned about where we'd end up. But it was, to my relief, a perfectly ordinary Japanese restaurant - or mainly ordinary.

He said he was looking for sea urchin sushi and found this place instead (I'd link but they don't seem to have a website). They do okonomiyaki, which is sort of...a cross between an omelet and a pizza? I'd never had it before, but it was quite good. You get to pick what goes in it, and, most important to Sherlock, they cook it right in front of you. Here's a picture of mine being cooked:

We also had a few bits of sushi while it was cooking, but not sea urchin. Sherlock told the waiter we were on a date. The man cooking our okonomiyaki said he was from Hokkaido, and Sherlock asked him many questions about it. Sherlock also told him we were on a date, which caused...a bit of confusion. 

Having traumatised the staff, we headed out for... Oh, wait, I'm forgetting. 

At the end of the meal, Sherlock produced L's bank card from his pocket and said he would pay... He swore L gave it to him of his own free will, so I let him. I have no idea what the waiter thought, but he looked amused.  

We went to have liquid nitrogen ice cream - chocolate for him, and blueberry muffin for me. Had a nice walk, discussed various things, such as why bananas grow upside down (it's probably the right way up from the banana's perspective), the point of the Olympics, and why they shouldn't give misleading information on QI (Stephen Fry is still in his bad books over the bronze sky incident). 

We came home, and he presented me with a somewhat wilted collection of reeds and grasses, which he forgot to give me before we left. He said he thought they'd be better than flowers because they came from the pond we built and that he was careful to take all the bugs off and leave them at school. 

He's so sweet sometimes it amazes me. 

just going out, may be some time

Sherlock's taking me out tonight (any minute now...he's just putting a clean shirt on). I don't know what we're doing, it's a surprise. I'm...amazed, amused, and touched.

I was also amazed and touched by everything L did this week to look after me while I was ill. And occasionally amused. He claims still not to be able to taste things properly after trying that napalm soup he made me. It was perfect though. And he picked up Sherlock from school, entertained him, fed him, and still somehow managed to do his job.

As he said, I know there are single parents who have to do that all the time, and I have no idea how they manage. It's my actual job, and I still get a lot of help, from L and Mrs H and Anthea when she's here, and even the boys, now that they're more used to the concept of chores.

Right, time to go... Hope you all have a lovely evening. I'm sure I will. 

not just ugh, contagious ugh

brb, coughing up phlegm and lungs for the foreseeable future. 

removable teeth

Hello, this is Mycroft.

John and I went to this museum of surgery today. They have an operating theatre from the 1800s, with tiered standing room all around it so students could come and watch the operations. We came up this spiral staircase:

man in a river

Mycroft and I went to the Tate Modern this morning. Afterwards, we walked along the river for a while. And saw this man...standing in it.

In the water. By the Millenium Bridge. With a microphone. Playing a guitar. An electric guitar. There was an amp on the shore. 

possibly turtles

If I've done this right, there will be a video of some turtles just under this sentence.

If I haven't...let me know, and I can add some pictures instead, but I'm through messing about with that video.

Today was mostly just walking, a search for Innie's cheese (we didn't find it), and a stop at Sherlock's school to see how the tadpoles are getting on (with permission this time). The turtles are not at Sherlock's school. He wanted to catch them and relocate them, but even if I'd approved of this idea, they were much too fast.

I find I'm missing L, even though he hasn't been gone anymore than usual this week. We don't have all that many lunches together, but I thought it'd be nice today and then remembered he's an hour and a half away and that wouldn't really work.

Mycroft's with his old tutor for a couple of hours, and Sherlock and I are just going to pick him up now. Want to leave us dinner suggestions? 

weird cheese

Yesterday, it was weird fruit; today it was weird cheese. I see a weird cheese and fruit platter in our future, since there was a limit to how much weird fruit the weird fruit salad would absorb before overflowing the edges of the bowl.

We have a stout cheese that's sort of geometrically patterned with little triangles and diamonds (my choice). We have a vampire cheese, which is crumbly and inundated with garlic (Sherlock's). And we have Stilton ice cream, which is of course not a cheese, but Mycroft insisted it was close enough. I'm not entirely sure I want to eat that one, but Mycroft says if I don't at least try it, I'm setting a bad example for Sherlock. Unfortunately, I think he's right.

We'd meant to go to the aquarium as well, but there were so many people when we got there that even Sherlock said maybe he could wait for another day. I think we'll have better luck going early. Thanks, incidentally, to everyone who gave us suggestions - I've got them written down. Might save Kew Gardens for when L can come with us. It sounds like something he'd enjoy, though I'm sure he's been before.

L's done for today and on his way home. I'm glad it seems to be going well for him. I suppose I'm also somewhat ambivalent about him going on this course. For reasons I can't seem to pin down. Anyway, it's done now, no sense dwelling on it. 

easter

When Harry and I were still young enough to dye Easter eggs, we usually went to our grandmother's house for it. She wouldn't buy the commercial kits, so it was onion skins or beets - basically either yellow-brown or pinky-red. They weren't very exciting, and the best part was rolling then down the hill in her back garden afterward, although when I say rolling, I actually mean chucking, often quite hard. I think both of us would've been even happier if they hadn't been hard boiled.

The idea was that you won if your egg was intact at the bottom, and you got to eat it, but both of loathed hard boiled eggs, so it wasn't much incentive.

And then one year we hurled them down as usual, went to collect them, and found that under the smashed bits they were all chocolate inside. She'd poked holes in the shells with a needle, drained the eggy part out, washed them, and filled them up with chocolate before she gave them to us.

She never did it again, and I can't blame her, because it must've been a beastly job. Lovely surprise though. I talked to my mum today and asked if she remembered that Easter. She said yes, because her mother had called her the day before we arrived while she was in the middle of doing it. She said it was the only time she'd ever heard her mum swear. I can believe it.

I am not that patient, and all the boys' eggs were of the solid chocolate or creme eggs. Fortunately, that's the way they seem to like it, especially Sherlock. He claims to have eaten 14, which I'm sure can't be true because we didn't buy that many, but his sugar high was epic. If the crash is equally epic, he may sleep till Christmas.

locks forever

I hardly know where to start. It was a very busy weekend, and with the boys home from school it's been an equally busy week. The week has mainly involved laundry and cooking and running about in the park. The weekend mainly involved...

...Locks. Lots of locks. Loads of locks. Legions of locks. A dubious birthday present perhaps, but made up for by the sight of L vaguely sweaty and breathless with his sleeves rolled up after the seventeenth one. Or occasionally sans shirt. I'll ignore the part where he took an involuntary swim with a decomposing rabbit. Although I do now wish that I'd thought to rinse his jeans and all Sherlock's clothes out at the time rather than stuffing them in a plastic bag to marinate.

It was lovely, actually. Even the locks. The boys were doing them on their own by the end - with the help of the dogs, of course - while L and I lounged about and tried to make sure Sherlock didn't go overboard, either literally or in his interrogation of strangers.

Sample questions:
"Why do you have so many rings in your lip? Doesn't that make it hard to eat? What happens to your nose ring if you get a cold, doesn't it go all snotty?"

"Why is your moustache so big?"

"Why is your flute so tiny?" (It was a piccolo.)

"Why are you wearing slippers outside?"

And, perhaps most potentially awkward, "Why are there three of you and only one bed in your boat?"

Everyone answered kindly and to the best of their ability.

It was a perfect trip. I may have to start looking forward to my birthdays again if they're going to be like this.

And after we got home, I got the most surprising of my presents - a birthday card from L's mum. 

from my phone

This is a very brief post to say that L is as amazing as you all suspected. I don't think I've ever been so surprised, despite knowing there was some sort of trip coming, and so touched that he'd go to this much trouble.

Have just herded Sherlock and Mycroft down off the roof again, with some regret. Mycroft was lying down looking at the stars, and Sherlock was playing 'star songs' on his violin. A lovely image, but a bit screechy to the ears with other people trying to sleep.

We're all back in bed now. Goodnight, everyone. 

a day out

Lovely day out on Saturday. Perfect weather, L relaxed, Sherlock at his most curious, turning over every rock and bringing us bugs and odd plant life and throwing rocks and sticks in the water. We are, as L mentioned in his post, getting bikes of the non-motor variety, and I'm hoping I can still ride one. I'm sure the phrase 'like riding a bike' exists for a reason, but it's been about twenty years.

I suspect no matter how old I get, it'll still be odd to think I could've done anything as an adult twenty years ago. Well. Semi-adult. I'm not sure being in medical school actually counts.

In other news, L is enjoying my slow death due to curiosity about this weekend and isn't helping by claiming one of my presents has certain characteristics in common with bagpipes. I'm not sure I want to know.

We're getting Mycroft back on Thursday. I know he was just home for a visit not that long ago, but it seems like ages. I'll try to keep Sherlock from spontaneously combusting with excitement before he gets here, but I'm afraid the cards are stacked against me. 

jumping

The day Lestrade got this new case and had to be out past Sherlock's bedtime was the same day I had my physio. Could've gone badly. Sherlock's become very attached, as you probably couldn't help noticing, to his murder stories, but the stories aren't the real issue. He just likes having L there to tuck him in and say goodnight, not that I think he'll admit it. So it could've gone badly, but instead there was jumping.

Sherlock's not much for pretending, generally. Not for him the 'floor is made of lava' type games. Usually.  Turns out it works better with phrasing like, 'What if the flat was suddenly flooded with superstrong acid?' Although he did point out that it would eventually dissolve the furniture and the floor as well if it were that strong, and then we'd be in trouble, and anyway was there really an acid strong enough to 'melt people'?

There was a lot of jumping from one piece of furniture to another, followed by acid research online and wondering how hydrochloric acid could exist in our stomachs if it's that strong, which then led to him telling me all about carnivorous plants that trap their prey in various ways and digest them with acid. Although not all the way, because we also looked at some pictures of dissected pitcher plants online and they're all full of insect corpses. Fascinating really.

And then he asked about chlorine gas and chemical weapons, which was a less cheerful conversation, but did lead to him claiming he could do more jumping jacks than anyone in the Army. He demonstrated. I think he may possibly be right. By then, it was meant to be his quiet time before bed, so we read his mummy book on the couch for a while.

Never a dull moment. Even on the bad days, I sometimes wonder how I got this lucky. 

this is sherlock

We were going on a school trip to the museum which was already good and fun and we had a little bus and then it broke down and when the man came to pull it away he let me pull the lever that makes the rope get tighter and keeps the bus from falling off!! And then we couldn't get all the way to the museum or really anywhere because Mrs T said she wasn't taking all of us on the tube so then we all had ice cream and waited in a little park while she tried to get someone else to come and get us and then there wasn't enough time for the museum but that's okay because I've seen it before and we can go at the weekend anyway and THEN there still wasn't anyone to come and get us so she called some of the parents to see if they could pick up their kids early and John came and got me from the park so I got to go home early from school and really there was no school ALL DAY and now I'm home and it was the BEST DAY EVER!

previously on the moor

Mycroft and I had tea and an interesting conversation about people willingly giving up their privacy in exchange for the opportunity to vent to strangers all over the internet. At the time, I didn't think that applied to me at all...

Right, let's see...Baskerville Hall, excellent tea, bruised shins, what happened next? Oh yes. Sherlock came back just before dinner, I sent him upstairs to clean himself up, and he never came back. I had dinner with Mycroft, and then spent the entire bloody night looking for him, with no success. 

That house is massive, and I never did manage to search the whole place. If I'd had any sense I would've just waited in the kitchen with Mrs Hudson. As it turned out, he'd been in to get a sandwich from her and then took off out to the moor again. She gave me breakfast and also the paper, in which I read that something was killing people out there. 

I followed Sherlock, obviously. Slowly. Found him near one of the big tors. I think he may have kicked me again, can't quite remember. It started pouring, we shared his sandwich, and then we fell asleep in an alcove in the rock. 

It was dark when we woke up. Went outside. Sherlock said he saw something and took off. I saw it too. Didn't know what it was, just that it was glowing and growling and looked like something that had been on its way straight to Hell and took a slight detour to terrorise Dartmoor. I think I caught up to Sherlock and grabbed him just about the same time Anthea showed up out of nowhere and took a shot at the thing. It ran off. 

After that, it was a long and thankfully unexciting walk back to the house. Sherlock fell asleep. I didn't know it at the time, but I'd left my cane at the tor, which I would come to regret in the morning. That night I was just grateful to be in a bed and was certain the next day would go far more smoothly. [insert the hollow laughter of hindsight here]

badgers

Because I thought it should be collected somewhere... 

Badger Tales

by Desert Wanderer, A from NW, and ReReader
(Lightly edited to make the bits go together more smoothly.)

*

Once upon a time, in a garden far, far away (like, in Ipswich or something) lived two badgers, named George and Jack. They met each other over the scene of a honey pot theft that left another badger badly bitten. Of course, being our heroes, the badgers recovered the honey pot and gave the thief a good what-for.

During the scuffle, George had broken a claw and was very put upon. "Alas and woe betide me," he cried. "How ever am I to get yummy grubs and mealworms to eat without my claw?!"

Jack smirked at his funny language, but still felt bad for him. "Alas and woebetide?! Have no fear! I can fix a claw, for, before I became a crime-fighting badger, I was the greatest pawicurist in the whole county."

not just make up, 80s make up

Thank you, Nicky!

The banal details of our shopping trip clearly can't compare to this, so I'll just mention that Mycroft got a shirt with a pattern on (still very tasteful, but I think every single one he owns is solid colour but this), and Lestrade talked me into jeans that are probably too young for me and failed to talk me into ones with some sparkly thing on the bum. 

road worthy

Just going for the test now. Wish me luck.

the play's the thing

Sherlock's class has written and is currently acting/reading a play. I don't know if they mean to do it as a performance or not (I hope so). Apparently Mrs T said they had to base it on an existing play to give it some structure and gave them the general plot of Hamlet.

To give you some idea of how closely they've stuck to the original, Sherlock is playing Ophelia, but instead of drowning himself, he dives into the river and swims up to attack the pirate ship to avenge the death of his father. I think he also rides a moose at some point. I'm afraid the moose may have to go if they actually attempt to perform it.

Also, it's no longer set in Denmark, but in London, leading to the immortal line: Something is rotten in the Thames, you can tell because it stinks really badly right here, I think it's dead fish. The Thames is also the river Sherlophelia dives into. He thinks he should be able to do it for real. His secondary suggestion was that they put it on near the Serpentine and he could dive into that instead.

(L - Sally says you're feeling poorly. Anything I can do to help? Sorry I fell asleep all over you last night; you were very comfortable.)

Oh, and re: the spider discussion going on in the comments, my policy is that if they're in the house, they've got to go, usually via a shoe bottom or rolled up newspaper, so you're all much nicer people than I am. 

stick insects

Sherlock's going to love this.


Lord Howe Island Stick Insect hatching from Zoos Victoria on Vimeo.

There's an amazing article about them too.

On Lord Howe, there used to be an insect, famous for being big. It's a stick insect, a critter that masquerades as a piece of wood, and the Lord Howe Island version was so large — as big as a human hand — that the Europeans labeled it a "tree lobster" because of its size and hard, lobsterlike exoskeleton.

I wouldn't want to find one in my slipper, but I hope they get a second chance. 

Went for a nice ride with L this afternoon while Sherlock was squeezing all possible information of a visiting biologist about the pond. L even rode on the back for a while, with no apparent heart attacks. I imagine he'll still be glad when I get my own though. 

poetry for insomnia

A sleepy degu that Sherlock put in my lap earlier. I think it's Argon, but I'm not sure; I had them both at one point. 

Despite the title, I was asleep for a while, and I think I will be again. You get more poetry anyway though. This is from memory because I can't find it on google, which means it's probably a bit wrong (and the punctuation is all wrong). I imagine someone with more skill than I have can find the correct version.

I am a shepherd of those sheep that climb a wall by night
One by one, until I sleep, or the black pain goes white.
Because of which I cannot see a flock upon a hill
But doubts come tittering up to me that should by day be still,
And childish griefs I have outgrown into my eyes are thrust,
Till my dull tears go dropping down like lead into the dust.

Edna St Vincent Millay again.

Sounds actually rather depressing when I write it down, but it tends to cheer me up on bad nights. Which this is not one of, oddly. L and I had a good talk earlier, and...well, that's enough, really. He gives me hope. 

song about nothing, song about sheep

I had things to post about, but I can't remember any of them right now. Irritating.

L's been asleep most of the night, thankfully, though I think I hear him moving about now. Sherlock was up briefly, but I put him back to bed and stayed with him for a while. Nightmares all round tonight, apparently. Part of it was Mycroft going back to school with things so unsettled here I think. Neither of them were happy about it.

His nightmare was about a vampire in the living room. Coffin on the floor by the sofa. He said it was just lying in there with its eyes closed looking dead. And he made sure I knew he wasn't even frightened of vampires because they're not real.

Mine, predictably, was about Afghanistan. At what point exactly do I get to go back to having nightmares about...oh, giant potatoes crushing me, or clams, or boots with teeth? You know, normal things. 

paint

I really wonder about the people who make up paint names. There's one we looked at called Dark Linen that's quite a light sort of spring green colour, which I think you'll agree is neither dark nor linen-coloured. Our wall now looks like a patchwork quilt of browns and blues and lots of colours that are really beige but called Rum Caramel or Twisted Bamboo or Desert Dawn.

There is paint on Sherlock's nose and a bit at the ends of his hair, and a Sherlock-sized handprint on the back of Mycroft's shirt. One of the dogs also has a Striking Cyan tip on his tail. He's going to be harder to clean than Sherlock, or at least harder to keep still.

Mycroft's learning Morse code and trying to teach the dogs to tap out words with their tails for treats. I'm not convinced the dogs have that much control over their tails.

That's all, I suppose. Decent enough day, considering. 

all's well that ends well

L's back to work, and Mary's entertaining the boys, and I'll try to explain things a bit without bringing down the wrath of Mrs H.

I used to know the man who was behind the abduction of Mary's mum. A long time ago. He was in the Army then. I gather he was thrown out on his ear not long after, and I'm not surprised. There was a lot of rumours. Him talking to the wrong people and information getting where it shouldn't, things going missing. Nothing was ever proved, although apparently it was later on.

I can only assume that's why Mrs H wanted me involved, although if she already knew who he was... I don't know. Maybe she just wanted confirmation. You can run yourself to death trying to follow her trains of thought.

Most of the packages Mary was getting were a sort of trail of breadcrumbs from her mum that I won't go into the details of because I don't know how on Earth she managed it, but a little while ago there was something else, from him. A sort of threat-slash-bribe. Mrs Morstan was not giving him what he wanted, and he thought he could get it from Mary instead.

I recognised his... Not signature. This odd little sign he used to doodle all the time. Either as a result of that, or independently, I have no idea, Mrs H and her people found and retrieved Mrs Morstan. I went to give Mary the good news...and he broke into her flat while we were having tea and tried to... I don't really know what his goal was, actually.

Fortunately, he came on his own. We had a bit of a scuffle, I knocked him out, and you've read the aftermath. Mrs H tells us Mrs Morstan should be home tomorrow. 

so

L, call me when you see this. Or call Mary. Don't worry, it's not that bad. 

fine

Busy day. Got Sherlock to school, got me to work. I was the only doctor there this morning so it was a bit busy. Lots of sniffles, coughs, fevers, etc (not that kind of etc). The flowers L sent are out on the receptionist's desk now, because as nice as they smell, it's a little overwhelming in an enclosed space, and the room I see patients in is quite a small enclosed space. She says my 'young man' must be very sweet, and I told her she was right.

After work, first physical therapy appointment. Yes, it hurt. I'm fine. It's just pain; it's not as if there's anything actually wrong. If I was quiet, it's because the alternative was being snippy, and I don't want to do that. I know you're all just worried.

Picked Sherlock up. He looked at me like was going to explode for a few minutes and then declared that I was fine and not bleeding or anything so why was L so worried? Ha. 

the flowers that ate london

I got some flowers at work today. I forgot to take a picture before I left, but here is one I've stolen from the internet to give you an idea of the general scale...

Bloody enormous, in other words. Pink and red, mainly roses. They smell lovely. L denies sending them, but the poem that came with them gave him away. He can share it with you if he wants to. I'll just say...I can't believe he dictated that over the phone to a stranger. Good lord. I wonder if florists get a lot of that sort of thing on Valentine's Day. 

And then I checked I checked his blog on the way to pick up Sherlock and found his post... Well. I can't think of a better gift than that.

hollandaise

He wasn't joking about the breakfast in bed. I woke up to tea and eggs benedict, all made from scratch.

Me: You can make hollandaise sauce?
L: Where did you think it came from?
Me: A jar at the supermarket?

Although honestly, I'm not sure I've ever seen it at the supermarket, and I know I've never had it at home. It was excellent, of course, much better than when I've had it in restaurants, and presented on a tray with a rose and everything. I was very impressed. (That sounds flippant when I read it over, but I really was. Am still. Not used to that sort of thing.)

This is the mill:

We've been out walking most of the afternoon. It's chilly and quiet and peaceful. The only thing you hear is the water and the wind. 

mummies and policemen

The museum yesterday was interesting, lots of information on the mummies' placards. Sherlock got a book in the gift shop called Conversations with Mummies, which was written by the woman who used to be the head of the museum's Egyptology department. Mrs T is going to get more than she asked for, but she's used to that by now. 

This is the unwrapping of the 'Two Brothers'; they were Sherlock's favourites. I liked the coffin made for a cat.   

Got back in time to hear L's talk, or parts of it at least. Three hours is a very long time for Sherlock to sit still and listen to anything, even if it's about murders, so there were a few breaks.

Today was a little boring for Sherlock I'm afraid, as I had to pick up some things, but he hauled his new book around with him and read parts of it aloud to me (and policemen at the hotel and strangers in shops).

We met Darren for dinner, and I hope he doesn't regret agreeing to it. Sherlock had an enormous number of questions for him, half of which were about police work, and half of which were more about establishing Sherlock's territory (i.e. Lestrade and I). Darren was very, very patient, and Sherlock did warm up to him after a bit.

Tomorrow, we're going flying. 

snow forever

It did not snow forever, despite Sherlock's hopes. His plan was that Mycroft would have to stay home tomorrow because he couldn't get back to Harrow, L wouldn't be able to get in to work, and we would build a massive snow fort in the middle of the road.

Mycroft is, sadly, back at school now, along with Anthea and the hounds, but we all had a nice day at the park, with snow balls, peculiar snow sculptures, snow angels, and a particular DI who clearly wanted me to tackle him into the snow or he wouldn't have stuffed a handful of icy slush down my shirt while he was kissing me. There wasn't really enough for an entire snowman, but Sherlock did attempt a snow pancreas. It wasn't bad, considering the limitations of his medium. He fed it to the dogs when he was done.

Mycroft and I watched bits of the England vs Scotland match yesterday. England won, first time at Murrayfield in years, so I'm pleased, my father is probably cranky about it, and my grandfather would be livid. Mycroft, I think, doesn't quite see the point of team sports, and Sherlock said it was more interesting when L and I were playing, which I took as a compliment until I remembered how keen he was to see a broken bone up close.

Back to normal tomorrow for everyone. 

spare parts

Photos of soldiers, taken before, during, and after Afghanistan. I don't really know what to say. I didn't know you could see the difference.

Let's see...still cold. Still no snow. We have Mycroft and Anthea and two large, excited dogs home. Sherlock is besieging his brother with Quite Interesting facts, such as that the Earth apparently has two moons and that there's a jellyfish with 200 foot long tentacles. On the haircut front, he alternately wants a mohawk, a shaved head, or no haircut at all, so no real progress there, although I think he's getting a bit frustrated struggling to keep his hat on.

Mycroft says school is going fairly well 'for school', which I suppose is the best you can ask from school. He also says that it sometimes seems calculated to let you learn as little as possible and that people would be better off just reading. Glad it wasn't just me, then. I remember times when I had so much homework to do there was no time left to try to understand any of it.

They're both interested in L's latest case. Less so now that all the bits have been found, although Sherlock would very much like to help Molly put them all together. Never in my life did I think I'd write a sentence even remotely similar to that.

A short story from the day Sherlock lost his tooth: we were walking back from school and he was showing it to...basically everyone. One of them was an older woman, about of an age to be his grandmother and clearly accustomed to children showing her odd things, because when he did...

S: Look, it just came out today!
Her: That's lovely, dear. Now put it back where you found it.

in victorian novel terms

Remembering of course that I can't tell you eighty...no, now make it ninety percent of what's going on... The map we found, and the directions Mary's been getting seem to be related. I'm starting to have an idea of why Mrs Holmes picked me for this, and it hasn't got a lot to do with my investigative skills.

In other news, we might have snow this weekend, or, to put it as Sherlock has, several times: 'IT'S GOING TO SNOW AND SNOW FOREVER AND WE CAN SLED TO SCHOOL EXCEPT I WON'T HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL BECAUSE THERE WILL BE SO MUCH SNOWWWWWWWWWWWW.'

He lost his tooth at last, put it in the designated tooth fairy box under his pillow, and went to sleep, barely. He's scornful of the entire concept of course, but still happy to have both the chance of catching me making the switch and the money. Happily, he slept through it.

We've got Mycroft coming home this weekend, and if it doesn't 'snow and snow forever', L suggested we go to an indoor ski place, where they make their own. I am hoping for real snow (see blog background), but that sounds like fun as well. And maybe better than ice skating, in that snow is softer when you fall down on it.