InterNutters

I had a fantastically relaxing weekend away with 'my internet nutters' - a bunch of people I have hung out with across two message boards almost every day since August 2002, and met up with face-to-face 3 times now. As someone working from home, those message boards are my 'local' and/or my works canteen/water cooler, I guess. I can pop in at most hours of the day and even the small hours of the night, and have a chat with several people, or I can leave a message that will get picked up later by others and have a conversation that way, over the course of a few hours. I can just hang out and read other people's conversations for a bit, if I don't feel like chatting, I can read back anything I missed and follow the lives of a group of 60 or so people, some posting on both boards, some on one only. When I'm working, I can translate a page or two, then make myself a cuppa and pop in for 10 minutes for some conversation. We have shared 3 and a half years of laughter, tears, rants, moans, commiserations, celebrations and day-to-day life. Long may it continue. I have made good, lasting friendships there.

F and J stayed home and had a lovely time - they went for a couple of short walks and F did a lot of drawings, some cutting out and a bit of writing, which was all lovely to come home to.
In the past week or so, she has helped me make sausage rolls, spelt 'CAT' but been utterly baffled by 'BAT' and 'HAT', told me four fives are twenty, and looked at all the numbers up to a hundred - I printed out and laminated a number square, then she wanted a pink one, so she helped me to do another one on the computer in Excel. One thing led to another and now she has five or six laminated number squares around. Leapster continues to get quite a bit of use, and she's also been back on the X-Box and PC quite a bit (Shrek 2, Wallace and Gromit, new BBC Jam thing, Little Robots). Books I have read to her include Mrs Pepperpot stories, Amelia Jane, Naughty Little Sister, Q Pootle 5, Mog. We have socializationed ourselves with MonsterTeeny and Music and Movement and Grandma Joy and a few other incidentals.
Today she has been drawing and cutting out shapes, and asking J and I to do some, when she couldn't get them how she wanted them. And apparently been to the moon, so she says. Last night she was sick in the middle of the night, but she seems OK today.

I have ordered another Leapster cartridge, some stationery and some books, which should all be arriving over the next week.
My To Do list is very long again, but seems to have nicer things on it.