dissonance

A taste of the countryside down the street

Since I don't know how long I'll be living England, I often feel guilty about not taking advantage of this more often.  This weekend Craig and I took advantage of the fabulous weather on the bank holiday Monday (bank holidays are holidays where nothing is celebrated apart from having a holiday)(this is awesome).  We took a short walk to our local park to go to the Surrey County Fair.

There were cute donkeys!

There were ducks with afros!

And chickens with bigger afros!

And pygmy, yes PYGMY, goats!

There was also an inexplicable floral tribute to Robert Pattinson:

 

I mean, you can't knock it for real passion, as creepy stalker-ish as it is.  That said, I'm not one to judge as I couldn't really fathom the criteria for selecting a Winning Entry:

Any guesses as to what it is?

Eurovision 2009!

My first Eurovision experience was two years ago.  I watched last year with Kris but didn't get a chance to blog about it.  Unfortunately, I only thought about live blogging starting with Sweden.

Sweden - Good opera singing. Bad normal singing.  She needs more makeup and less self-tanner.  She reminds me of the blue singer from Fifth Element except she's orange.

Croatia - Not very dramatic costume changes.

Portugal - Happy happy joy joy!  Love the rainbow stage set but the song is missing something.

Iceland - Gorgeous girl.  Beautiful voice.  I kinda like the song.  But that dress.  My God. That dress.

Greece - Oh. My, God!  Those moves!!  FAAABULOUSNESS.  Most fabulous so far.

Armenia - I like that it sounds very cultural.  What IS a Nor Par?  I think it must be those hats they are wearing.

Russia - Homecourt advantage. Daddy is a billionaire eh? Too distracted watching the special affects on the screen behind her to pay much attention to the song.  This isn't going to win this year.

Azerbaijan - Right away some major contortioning going on.  Pretty girl, cheesy song, cliche lyrics, repetitive chorus. Yes this has good potential.  "Always in my mind". check. "Always in my heart." check. "Always in my dreams." Check. "I want to hold you next to me." Check. "All the time." Check.  Yes, those are the exact lyrics.

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Graham Norton "This song should go down well in developing countries".

Moldova - Woah short dress with purple knee high boots.  Classy.  Energetic dancing although I wish she wouldn't jump up so high, I worry for that skirt.  The hora from Moldova.  You don't say.

Malta - Zzzzzzzzzzz..........  Ooh wait she just did the Beyonce "oh no you di'n't"  head shake.  Zzzzzzzz....

Estonia - This sounds awfully famliar.  She's very pretty and looks like she's about to rock the violin as well.  Oh there she goes.  I must say I kinda like this one.

Denmark - I think he's trying really hard to sound American. Craig says he's actually trying to sound Irish like the guy who wrote the song (Ronin Keating, from Boyzone).  Those guitar boys in the back just walked across the stage and gave each other a high five!  Oooh long hair guitar boy is loving life right now.  Pyrotechnics finale of course.  I wish he wouldn't take the straddle position with such tight jeans on.

Germany - Dita Von Teese!  Oh but before that, let's check out sequin leggings man.  Bling blinging with a thick chain necklace as well.   AND tap dances!  Miss Von Teese!  How small is her waist????  Ugh otherwise, what a waste of a song.  I agree with Graham, that was pants.

Turkey -  Wannabe Shakira.  She needs more lessons.

Albania - Ok so she's 17 but does she really need to be in a tutu? I suppose those guys in the back are supposed to remind us of cirque du soleil, but they just look like creepy mimes.

Norway - Bookie favorites.  If the singer is the guy on the violin, those are some awesome facial expressions. Yes it is the singer.  He is so rocking the violin, already broke a bit of the bow.  He rocks his bow almost as much as he rocks his face.  It's a very "cute" song.

Quick interjection - How catty is Graham Norton?  me-ow!

Ukraine - Now, they were my faves two years ago. Oooh this is very very camp.  Men dressed as shirtless trojans.  Women dress like Marie Antoinette on stilts.  You are sexy BOM!

Romania - "The Balkan girls they like to party like nobody."  Ahhh Romania going for heterosexual appeal.  "My hips are ready to glow".  Brilliant.  What is up with the girl in blue banished to the back corner?  She must be ugly.

United Kingdom - Andrew Lloyd Weber's darling.  He's actually on the piano on stage.  Not exactly Dita von Teese.  Oops elbow in the face!  That violinist is so blackballed forever.

Finland - OH YESSSS when did Eminem move to Finland?!?!  Wow this is pretty painful.  Fire jugglers notwithsranding, that was rilly rilly bad.

Spain - She looks like she's wearing an ice skating outfit.  And she's doing some ice dancing moves.  And that's all I can say about the last song of the evening.  Oh I spoke too soon! They just did a shit disappearing/re-appearing magic trick.

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Oh my god. Astronauts have nothing better to do than call into Eurovision?

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Wow, the interval entertainment is super elaborate.  You'd think this was the opening ceremonies to the olympics.

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UK loves Turkey the best? Srsly?? Jiggly Shakira?  I can't even remember how the song goes.

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Ah so it's all over.  Well done UK for less shit than you been for years.  My favorites were Iceland and Estonia (I might actually try and find the Iceland song to buy, haha!!).

But the Eurovision 2009 winners is... Norway!!

Proving once a gain why bookies make money.

I like my internet nuggets with hot mustard sauce

I love Metafilter.  But I don't think a lot of you readers out there do (who ARE you guys??? Seriously I don't have that many friends.). So let me share some internet nuggets they have just served to me and made me add to my bloglines.

Doing it wrong - Pictures that display wrongness on a variety of levels.  Unfortunately I don't think this one has an RSS feed.

Picture is Unrelated - This one sold it to me.

Photobomb - You know when you take a picture and then when you look at it you notice that some f*cker in the background totally messed it up? Like totally?  Yeah, they're all here.  Possibly NSFW.  Actually, make that probably.  And you'll probably pee your pants.

Cake Wrecks - This will probably give me wedding cake nightmares but for now I find it gut-bustingly funny.

Awkward Family Photos - I don't think I can add much more to that.

The dreams of 4am

On Monday night when we returned from New York I slept perfectly fine through the night. I totally thought I escaped jet lag.  But last night Craig and I both woke up around 2:30 and tossed and turned for the next 3 hours so I guess that first night was just due to sheer exhaustion.

So I'm tossing and turning thinking about the most random crap ever and this particular thing has stuck with me and I need your help.  For some reason the image of this... thing... popped in my head and I can't remember what the hell it is:

1. It is from either high school or college biology.
2. It's like a really really small... thing... like you'd have to view it under a microscope but not too small that you couldn't kinda sorta see it with the naked eye.
3. It is a living thing.
4. It didn't have cute eyes like that, they were actually something else but they looked like eyes.
5. That image is what I had to draw to show what I saw as part of the class.
6. I particularly remember that a characteristic of this thing is that you can cut it in certain ways and that part will grow back but if you cut it some other way it won't... Or something like that was the takeaway message.

Anyone know what the hell I'm talking about??

Other things that flitted across my brain last night that I can remember:

• Wedding dresses
• Centerpieces for the reception
• If it is really stupid of me to contemplate a job in Mountain View
• What it would be like if I was really filthy rich
• How it was too cold outside the sheets but too hot under the covers and how this was possible
• Debated asking Craig to get me a glass of water
• Heard Craig get a glass of water, too lazy to ask for a sip
• How to cook a whole trout

Boston/NY trip wrap up

The extended 30th Birthday Bash in Boston and New York was awesome-o and just what was needed to mark a milestone.  This was Craig's first trip out to the east coast, which made it especially special.

Highlights from Boston:

• Happy happy joy joy reunion with my favorite pomeranian in the world, Lani!
• Yummy Cambodian food for the first time.
• Sitting on Kris and Brad's back porch drinking Dos Equis and munching on Sweet Chili Chips.
• Wedding dress shopping!!!
• Drinking at Cheers (the inside set).
• My first raw oyster. I liked it!
• Home cooked yumminess made by Brad helped gird us up against the eating out-fest in NY.

Highlights  from New York:

• Food!  Pho in Chinatown, steak at an Anthony Bordain restaurant, yummy chicken quesadilla, pizza from Grimaldi's (there was no line! For future reference this was at 6:27 pm on a Wed night.) bibimbop for my birthday hangover meal. For next time:  pastrami sandwich.
• Franz Ferdinand's awesome jam session when they all rocked on the drum set at the same time!
• The Bodies Exhibition - only gross for like 5 minutes and then it was just super super cool.
• Model as Muse exhibit at the Metropolitan museum - really interesting and fun for an inner fashionista, a bit too crowded for the fashionista's boyfriend.
• Walking across the Brooklyn bridge and checking out Brooklyn with Shar.
• Star Trek on opening night (yes, it was a highlight, I really liked the movie!! Neeeeeerd!!!)