I think I heard about the VAT in editorials about doing away with the income tax. Then when I was living in Spain for a semester, I saw the VAT stickers, but I didn't see anyone filing tax forms, of course. Boo for taxes. Do UnAmericans have the ritual of the annual refund?

OK, so it's about lunchtime in New Zealand and one of my babies is asleep and the other is watching Blue's Clues, and I'm... obsessing about Buffy. About it ending. About my adolescent Spuffy fantasies poofing into dust (that's what I fear anyway). Maybe I shall have to go and live in some hermetically sealed fanfiction bubble.

Is there a cure for this? Maybe the fact that I am going through marital apocalypse is a good enough excuse. All my angst is subliminated into a TV show. Admittedly a deserving TV show.

It's a pity Dru's nuttiness isn't hereditary, because crazy vampire puppies? It's comedy gold! But now I'm having horrible memories of Bunnicula, that annoying vegetarian vampire rabbit. That's not so funny.

I LOVE BUNNICULA! (As does Jilli, IIRC... wasn't Bunnicula part of the inspiration for Clovis?) Also, my mom is working on a project with James Howe, who wrote the Bunnicula books, so he is therefore cool by association even if the books weren't wonderful themselves.

Also, my mom is working on a project with James Howe, who wrote the Bunnicula books, so he is therefore cool by association even if the books weren't wonderful themselves.

I think whenever I read them I was uneducated in the vampirc genre, so it just annoyed me that he didn't actually eat anybody, rather than it being all ironically cute and such. But I just found Celery Stalks At Midnight on Amazon, and that's the best title ever, so I'll be quiet now.

it just annoyed me that he didn't actually eat anybody, rather than it being all ironically cute and such.

You were a very bloodthirsty child! (Or did you read them when you were older?) I only dimly recall anything about them--I just remember I loved them. Also? My mom says James Howe is a sweetie.

Do UnAmericans have the ritual of the annual refund?

I do. Except that it's called an "annual tax balance" instead.

Do UnAmericans have the ritual of the annual refund?

Yep. I'm in the enjoyable situation of getting to submit tax returns twice each year, six months apart, once in Australia and once in the US.

You were a very bloodthirsty child!

'Tis true. I watched The Smurfs religiously because I thought some of them had to get eaten eventually and I didn't want to miss seeing it happen. Wait--was that wizard guy going to eat them, or did he just want to cook them so they would turn into gold? Maybe it was the wizard's cat that wanted to eat them. Either way I wanted someone to do violence to those blue sanctimonious little snots.

Edited because the spelling troll gods are pissed at me.

Just for the UnAmerican record, where does Israel stand when it comes to the Jossverse:

"Buffy" - in a cable channel that you have to pay extra to the cable package in order to get (which is a less-whine way to say "Nilly can't afford it") they just finished showing season 5. They just showed Buffy die. In another cable channel, that is actually from India, I think ("Star World") they just started showing the 6th season (without any translation to Hebrew, of course, so most Israeli viewers can't follow the show there). The musical is going to be shown sometimes soon. And at my own private channel, meaning my tape fairy, the lost package that was sent 3 months ago Israel-wise, the one with the 2/3 of the 6th season? Was returned to the lovely fairy, after failing to get to my hands. Which is actually a very big 'yay' because we assumed it was completely lost, and now it can be re-sent to me, without my fairy needing to re-dub those episodes. See how I managed to end this paragraph in a non-whine note? I'm quite proud of that.

"Angel" - no Israeli channel has bought it yet. I heard some talk about it being bought by one, actually, but it seems like only talk, at least for the meantime. The translation-less cable channel that shows "Buffy" also shows "Angel" (even back-to-back), and recently started its third season. And that package from my tape fairy also has the final 2/3 of the third season (and, again, proud I could end the paragraph on a less-whine note).

"Firefly" - yeah, right (not even trying to hide the whine, can't find a way to un-whine it).

Nilly - would you like me to send you all of Seasons 7, 4 and Firefly? I still haven't actually watched the FF, but I probably wouldn't get to it before you sent it back to me anyway. I just want to rewatch the last couple of eps of Buffy, but I'll do that in the next couple of days.

I'd love to pass on the joy (and I had actually promised to anyway months ago).