i can't work in the garden; it hasn't stopped raining for a week.

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for someone new to impulse buying, my dad is worryingly good at it. i see that a combination of tactful cajoling and firm steering on my part will be called for.

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on thursday ariel celebrated his birthday with a dozen escargot at jack's. (when i went next door to congratulate him on turning six, he was busy putting on his shoes and said "i'm going to eat escargots, byebye!") which somehow put me in mind of frances the badger, and also of cindy's story about running away from home when she was a child. (without shoes, and she had to come home after a while, because the ground was too hot.)

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facebook has a scrabble application. this has not been beneficial to time management.

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the library didn't have caroline graham's inspector barnaby books (which were highly recommended by the bearded triffid's june review) but they did have the first few series of the tv adaption midsomer murders. they are rather good fun! all the murders are set in a cluster of buckinghamshire villages so there's a great deal of fetes on village greens and change ringing in churches (very nine tailors, don't you know) and english gardens and people going to the vicar for advice. you sometimes half forget it is a modern day series: st mary meade updated with cellphones and computers, so to speak.

at the very least everyone should see richard briers as a bitter, avenging vicar!

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i await the full story of julian and his uneducated philly rodents.

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von wants to start a bread company that would custom-bake bread shaped like words. "bread text!" he cries. i shall continue to pour scorn on the idea.

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the crucial question is: will the library get hold of philip reeve's here lies arthur before i leave?

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