Susan Cooper is famous for her children's series The Dark Is Rising (five books). My favourite of this is The Dark Is Rising (book 2) and when venta wrote her "Christmas" entry, it sounded amazingly like the Stanton one in the book (from decorating the tree to attending the church service). Having enjoyed that series I eventually decided to read some more of her work.

( Review of Seaward )

Now back to sorting out Empathy Path magic...

Hurrah !

I now have a purple "shape-sorter" elephant. I mean, the twins have. And a Winnie-the-Pooh baby walker.

Blueyonder definitely has its problems. Some of the emails I'm currently receiving were sent over 48 hours ago. Anyone receiving delayed responses from me - well, now you know why.

Emily isn't allowed in the twins room. Today she shoved her way in, so I reinforced the rule. This meant pulling myself to standing on the bottom bunk whilst fighting with Emily (who was on the top one). I did finally throw her out, but only after taking a certain amount of damage (several small cuts and one big one - stretching most of the length of my thumb).

The fight upset the twins and they burst into tears. I had to hug and console them, whilst dripping blood everywhere. Eventually they settled down again (it was difficult, 'cos I couldn't hug them both at once), so I went downstairs for cold water and plasters.

And this is all the thanks I get for rescuing her from next-door's shed last night.

1. Do not put your hand into the drawer when someone is trying to close it.
2. Do not sleep at the end of the cot nearest to the window.
3. Do not balance on the swivel chair when someone is trying to turn it.
4. When moving in convoy through a narrow gap, do not try to overtake.
5. Do not sit underneath a shelf of interesting objects.

Some plot in Buffy, but Angel didn't really go anywhere.

( Buffy - Get It Done, Angel - Release )

Other stuff ? Not much. Beatrice impressed her physiotherapist with her development (I stand, I cruise, I clap to order) whilst Ryan impressed me by not complaining too loudly about Beatrice's attention session. I'm mostly working on roleplaying characters and games right now (Midas character needs finalising today, Athory is on Sunday). Plus The Longest Journey is engrossing.

A watchable Buffy episode and a great Angel episode.

( Buffy - First Date, Angel - Salvage )

In other news, Mike liked the twins and they seemed to like him. He is vanishing from the continent pretty soon; so it was good to see him before he left. We discussed the game he had run based on the first three books of Jordan's "Wheel of Time". By the way, does anyone know when/if the series will end ? Apparently Jordan has been quoted as saying that he has an ending planned, but not when (as far as we could tell).

Admittedly, I never even started it. Initially players were banned from reading it and when the game finished I still wasn't keen. Why ? Because I don't like starting a series without an ending, in case the author never finishes it. Having already been stung by Wurts' Mistwraith saga (supposed to be five books, currently six are out and it looks likely that at least another six will be needed), I didn't fancy starting anything else.

And only twenty-nine days left to the second week-long abandoning of the twins.

A recent entry by smiorgan got me thinking about game contracts. Recent LJ postings (and conversations) suggest that they are The New Big Thing (TM) and that no game should be run without them. However, smiorgan was sceptical and, frankly, so am I.

( To contract or not to contract... )

Two interesting episodes, the Angel one moving the plot forward at some speed.

( Buffy - The Killer In Me, Angel - Calvary )

Not much other news. Bea's battle scars from yesterday are very visible. Plus I have had to change the twins twice already this morning due to a double dose of grimmest nappy. And that's probably too much information already.

It is cold and wet outside. I knew this before I looked out of the window because Emily Marle (our resident feline) has made a bid for the sofa. She is curled up with an air of "I'm staying put until dinnertime" which means that life on the other side of the catflap is pretty horrible.

Computer-wise, I have finished Broken Sword 2 and enjoyed it (I'm now considering ordering Broken Sword 1 which is supposed to be better). It is a click and point adventure in the style of the Monkey Island series although the hero, whilst blond with comic lines, is slightly less Guybrush-like than the original (his girlfriend has the best line though : "I decided to play dumb, but with good bone structure". OK, you probably had to be there.). Icewind Dale 2 is now listed (by WH Smith) as "out of stock" and "due to be restocked within 14 days". Hmmmm. It has already been nearly that for them to find out they were out of stock in the first place. Never mind, I have instead been looking at distant future releases such as Syberia 2, Final Fantasies X-2, XI and XII and reading the Final Fantasy VII sequel rumours (OK - only one actual official rumour, but pages of speculation).

The twins are a little more whingy and attention-grabby than usual. Bea fell asleep on a sofa cushion in a cute pose, so I photographed her, leaving Ryan feeling outdone (for once). Hopefully the Monde and Dragon-blooded sessions at the weekend will saturate their attention wants. Either that, or leave them incurably spoilt.

Finally, my second book is going incredibly slowly. At least its still going though. I thought last week I had become permanently stuck.