dissonance

For once I have a small head

So, if you use Gmail you may have seen this in your contacts sidebar recently:

Do these people look vaguely like anyone you know?

Perhaps somebody who writes this blog and her fiance?

Jus' sayin' is all.

Clearly I have just jinxed myself

I can't believe I'm going on my holidays in less than 2 days and:

• I might get laid off
• There's freaking out about the swine flu
• and... umm...~

Oh that's it. Well, that's not so bad.  I feel better for writing it down.

British politics in a nutshell

The setup - Labour government has just done something bordering on incompetence.

Tory MP: We would do so much better if you just gave us a chance!

BBC4: How?

Tory MP: Well we totally wouldn't do what they just did! By GOSH no!  Hurf durf durf.

BBC4: What would you do instead?

Tory MP: Yes, they are totally incompetent. Shameful. They're doing it wrong. We'd never do that.  Hurf durf.

BBC4: What. Would. You. DO?!

Tory MP: Ummm... Not what they did?

BBC4: Ok whatever. The time now is 8 minutes to 9.  Boop boop boop beeeeep.

At least Craig will chop onions now

Last night I attended a Pampered Chef party.  It's like Avon, where a friend of a friend of a friend hosts a representative from a company to hawk their products.  This company specializes in kitchenware.  DING!

I was pretty skeptical going in and well, I'm still pretty underwhelmed.  The girl obviously enjoys what she does, so that's good for her.  But the products were seriously overpriced.  They had a stainless steel pan, similar to my All-Clad (which I got for about $120) for £140!  With the conversion, that's well over $200 for a brand I'd never heard of.  I'm not normally a brand-whore but I stand by my All-Clad.

That said, I still bought something.

She made Baked Camembert with Pecans, Chillis, and Apricot sauce to demo a manual chopper... thing and I was convinced.  The combination of red wine and melty cheese was too much for me. You try to say no in that sort of situation!

Oh for crying out loud, I could get it in America for $30. I paid £27 which is close to $40.

Cheese, you will be the financial ruin of me!!!

Mouse money, 80's shirt, and Suffolk

Welcome to another episode of "what the hell is on my camera phone"!

Unlike England, Scotland's individual banks can print their own money.  They are valid British pounds and except for the occasional odd look from an overly sheltered merchant they are readily accepted everywhere.

This system allows for a lot of variation on the designs of money and I was particularly pleased to see this one commemorating the 250th birthday of Robert Burns.

The drawing represents one of his most famous poems, "To a Mouse", of which every Scottish child learns and Scottish grownups can muddle through at last the first verse.  I have somehow managed to learn the first line, and once you get the slang right it's actually really fun to say!

Wee, sleekit, cowrin', tim'rous beastie

Oh what a panic's in thy breastie!

You just have to believe me when I say I wrote that from memory.

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I was pretty pleased with the shirt I found for Chris' birthday:

Yes, he was born (and made) in the 80's... the young whippersnapper.

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Visit Suffolk!

So you can be as miserable as this kid.

(I kid. I'm sure Suffolk is quite nice, but seriously there has never be a kid more miserable in a suit of armor. What is wrong with a designer that can't tell the different between crying and smiling?)

The website is also funny for about 30 secs.

I'd like to present to you, Craig's current favorite advert:

There are several parts of this he likes:

1. That the meerkat lip syncs over his own jingle
2. "Listen miiine!"
3. "It don't even sown same!"

One out of four

Knitting non-news:
Had to rip back, beyond the heel flap (if you are a knitter I feel your sympathy) and slowly chugging along although I have a suspicion the sock is too tight for my stupid big calves.  The owls still need eyes.

Venue non-news:
Number of venues viewed: 7
Number of venues booked: None and plagued with hemming and hawing, which will only bite me in the ass when no dates are available until 2015.

Work non-news:
Uninspired and unmotivated.

Chocolate news:
Picked out all coffee and hazelnut flavored pieces from assorted box before sharing with others. Hurrah!

Just plain good

On Saturday we were surprised by a postcard day for our Grand Nationals bbq.  The winner was an outside shot with odds 100-1 and we actually had a winner in our group who scored a grand.  Yes, you read that right, a thousand pounds. Lins has a knack for selecting winners.  Lucky bastard.

Craig manned the grill:

He did a great job but as you can see it was very smoky!  We all had sore lungs the next morning and Craig's sworn we're getting a gas grill for next time.  Can't say I'd protest, I love the idea of being able to flip on the grill any night of a week for a quick steak!

Today we nursed our hangover with some football and internet surfing.

I had a sweet spring bouquet I put together from the grocery store to provide some cheerful eye candy.

 

It's been such a pleasant weekend, having friends over, the days full of simple fun and relaxation.  I hope the feeling stays with me through the week.

Now they're just playing dirty

Now who's holding the grudge?

Two weeks later...

Have you heard about the penguin

and the snowtrooper angel?


A story of true love