Consistently, predictably, dependably, unwaveringly ERRATIC

Fall Out Boy was awesome. The energy was incredible. Fangirls are awesome. And possibly insane - but in a good way. :)

I spent today sleeping and will probably spend tomorrow staring blankly at the walls. But we do plan to take the dogs for a walk as well.

The greyhound chased the cat up a tree while I was away. Not a good sign.

Haven't been around much, I know, partly for computer reasons (but we now have two working computers - we hope) and partly due to considerable reaction-fatigue/exhaustion and then inexplicable exhaustion and feeling rotten last week. But things are picking up and amongst the overdoing it and expensive dentist visit, several good things have occurred:

1) I AM GOING TO SEE FALL OUT BOY AFTER ALL!!! Not in Sydney but thanks to the kind offices of shinetheway, therathasspoken and why_am_i, I have a ticket to the Melbourne show and places to stay down there. Having found some discounted train fares as well, I'm all set! AND VERY EXCITED!!!

2) Finally managed to get Mum out of the house a few night ago to see The Hobbit before it disappeared from cinemas entirely. (I didn't want to go without her since she did want to see it but it was getting exasperating. Prebooking is the key.) I didn't love it immediately the way I did LOTR but I really enjoyed it. Loved Thorin, Killi was gorgeous, Gandalf remained magnificent in every way, Bilbo was quite delightful (and really, I sympathised - who wants a bunch of strangers eating everything in the larder and tossing the good china around?) I was impressed with how much information they managed to weave into the film. Shame Galadriel was the only woman.

New Zealand remains spectacular.

I have never seen such an amazing collection of noses. And not just the dwarves!

The cat is currently going through his summer moult and shedding even more suffocatingly than usual. This means we have been treated to several renditions of the hurkhurkhurk hairball cough (although no hairballs have yet made an appearance, fingers crossed this continues.) What does this have to do with The Hobbit? Well, the night after watching it, I heard the cat and realised that he sounded a great deal like Gollum spitting out his name. Now, whenever I hear Gollum coughing out, "Gollum! Gollum!" I'm going to be waiting for the hairball.

I cannot believe it's been twelve years since I first saw The Fellowship of the Ring. I turned to Mum at the end in great indignation, saying, "They can't end it there! It's just getting really interesting!" I hadn't read the books beforehand although I'd tried. Mum had an old omnibus paperback with miniscule type that somehow wasn't very inviting. After I'd seen the films, I bought the hardcovers with Alan Lee's art and they were wonderful to read. I did try to read The Hobbit after that but I couldn't get into it. And when I heard they were going to make a movie out of it ... well, I figured I'd try the same thing.

Didn't anticipate three movies! But I still think I'll wait. In the meantime, we watched The Fellowship last night and we're planning on The Two Towers tomorrow night. *g*

3) Doggy! After the first two dogs I looked at were adopted, I saw a pretty light brindle greyhound on petrescue and enquired. She hadn't been tested for cat tolerance at that point but the rescue co-ordinator, L, invited me to send in an application just in case. Unfortunately that hound finds cats a bit too exciting so that didn't work out but our application was approved and L said she'd let us know when they next had a cat-friendly, dog-friendly female. I still lurked obsessively around the greyhound rescue websites but given the dentist expenses I decided there was no rush. And today, I got a call!

They have a small, black, female greyhound, barely two years old and would we like her? And if so, would we like to foster for six weeks with a view to adopt or have someone else do the fostering/acclimatisation period and just have the usual two-week adoption trial?

Well, after discussion with Mum we've decided to foster (they supply food, leash, collar, muzzle, even bed and winter jacket if needed, for the six weeks, plus instructions and support) and our hound will be here in about ten days! (She's being desexed early next week so it depends on the stitches used/general recovery.)

She has a glossy black coat with white toes and a white tip to her tail and a little white patch on her chest and in one of the photos they sent it looks like a lopsided heart.