We've been cleaning up some of the dark recesses of the kitchen. It feels like Star Trek -- boldly going where no man has gone before, seeking out strange new life forms ( Read more... )

Postulate that I'm writing some direct speach, and I want to represent the normal contraction for "I would have". Would I write "I'd've"? If so, why have I seen it so rarely? And if not, then what ( Read more... )

What do you call the long thin pieces of wood the grow in willow bushes, or mature coppiced hazel? I mean the 3-5 metre long, things that grow out of the ground and are maybe 8cm across at the base, tapering to not much at the top, usually unbranched ( Read more... )

We have the pathology report back. It says a number of things. Lots of medical latin and greek designed to confuse the uninitiated. However, the bottom line is that there was a rather peculiar thing growing in there. What we had as a teratoma. For those of you with sufficient greek, this is a rather scary sounding name meaning Monster Growth. ( Read more... )

Baffin is not a greyhound. Nor a labrador. More like a small lumbering elephant ( Read more... )

Anne was up and about yesterday, even taking the dog for a couple of short (1km) walks ( Read more... )

They Know when you have not backed them up for a while. The @#$U& machine will boot up OK about once every 4 hours, and run for about 30 min before crashing. I've got most important stuff off, and and gently working down the list of lesser important stuff ( Read more... )

Anne is home from hospital. discharged lunch time today. She was fine in hospital, but rather weak and tired by the time she got home. basically, she is doing fine. No problems, just needs to recover gently for the next few weeks.

Anne has been unplumbed and is awaking around. She is still on fluids, but what they call "full fluids" rather than "clear fluids". She also looks and sounds pretty good. A bit sore, but who wouldn't be ( Read more... )

she was in surgery from 10:30 - gone 13:00 They took a look, decided they did not really like what they saw, and ripped the whole shooting match out. I sat with Anne until about 45 min ago. She is (no surprise) a bit dopy, but should be fine.

bruised most things, including self image. But we caught the tumour plenty early enough.