Dear Silenus Charm, Research Elf:

I did leacve some brief hints over the hint thread but since you saw my post here, I figured I'd best continue here.

First - please tell Santa that I am terribly allergic to Bleu Cheese of any kind. I have no other serious allergies but I discovered whilst working for a caterer in Graduate school that several forms of Bleu cheese caused me to break out in huge red welts. The stickier and more virulent the Bleu, the worse it gets. You mentioned Stilton so I figured I'd better speak up. Stilton isn't so bad as Bleu's go. I can handle it with gloves but I can't even be in the same room as Gorgonzola or Roquefort. 'Nuff said.

Speaking of food - If Santa happens to be in an area where he can locate dried Bilberries - we don't have Bilberries here in the USA and seeing as it isn't quite Loughnassa without them - well, I'd love some dried Bilberries for the pantry. Huckleberries would do in a pinch but those are hard to come by too. When I was growing up, we could still find Huckleberries wild even in NYC. (They grew in deserted parts of parks and along old footpaths) Incidentally, I am not a Pagan or a Neo-Pagan but that doesn't stop me from carrying on with a tradtional on Bilberry Sunday.

I am married - going on eleven years and have no children (not by choice). I am a doting auntie, but my nieces and nephews are far away. I have 1 and a half cats and sadly, my dog died last year. I have yet to recover enough to adopt another one. My full cat is a gigantic female marmalade. She's freakin' huge. She looks like she's a small dog wearing a cat suit. I blame it genetics - her father was also her grandfather - you know how cats do that sometimes. She doesn't need or want for anything - spoiled fat girl she is! Actually, she's not fat - just huge in size. I shouldn't call her fat - she'll get a complex.

My half of a cat is a small black male named Inky and he's my current "baby". He lives under out cottage except when it rains or is terribly cold. Then he asks to come in for a cuddle. He could use a nice bright red collar with a bell or any kind of cool, california hippy/surfer type of collar He tells me he surfs from time to time when it rains really hard and the waves start crashing in the storm drains.   His current collar is black and is getting frayed. Inky was tossed out of his first home by an evil boyfriend and came to live under our house when he was only 5 months old. He has trust issues but he's a good boy.

I'll come back and write more later.