SUMPTUOUS HELLOES
Janey's cat died. :(

He officially belongs to us (Janey saved him from being drowned as a kitten when she was living in the country), but he was living with Janey's grandfather down in Geelong until such time as Pop could no longer look after him. But he got mauled by a dog. Apparently the dog also attacked a person so the cat is going to be used as evidence. O_O

VALE BULLBAR

Of course my aunt also died, which is a far more significant event, but we knew that was coming. She had cancer everywhere and lasted a lot longer and in more comfort than was expected. Anyway mum's pretty sad right now and Dad's just headed off to a conference in Wales, so we're trying to make sure she gets to see Toby reasonably often as he is good therapy.

Janey's mum is going to use Pop's money to buy him a digital TV and video recorder. I'm not exactly sure why, as I'm sure Pop has no particular desire for either of these things. I suspect she just likes buying things. We've been offered his old TV which is itself only a couple of years old and perfectly good. I think it may even have been a previous mum purchase. It's probably better than ours for watching movies so if we can find a taker for our current TV we might go for the upgrade. If not, I'm happy to keep ours: there's no way we need TWO of them. I'm guessing Janey's brother might want Pop's for when he moves out and if so he's welcome.

I've found you can manufacture a sense of achievement in your leisure time by making lists of entertainment and ticking things off as you consume them. Computer games track progress internally so you don't need to make a list for those, but I've got lists of books, music, movies and TV shows. Hooray, my life is Progress Quest! I also have a list of actual things I have to DO, but it's been sadly neglected lately. This is partly because we don't have any actual money, but I talked to the guy I think is my manager at the moment about a raise and he agreed that this would be A Good Thing. Now I have to judge what's the appropriate intervals to wait before a) continually reminding him (also how to do this without wheedling) and b) giving up and finding another job.

I've started going to a Blockbuster near work to get the occasional weekly rental as they have a much better selection than our local stores. This means I can go back to gradually whittling away at the aforementioned movie list. We've seen A Very Long Engagement, Waking Life and Nausicaa so far. We also figure we're due for a "real" movie and so I think I'll have to choose between Superman Returns and Pirates 2. Janey's been to see The Break-up twice with different mother's groups but it's not something she'd choose to see otherwise.

Toby greets me with wide eyes when I get home in the evenings and comes crawling over at top speed. Last night he added unearthly hooting to the procedure. I have never known someone to be so impressed with the act of walking through a door. I hope it will not be too much of a shock to him when he realises we are not perfect heavenly beings.