Thursday, April 30, 2009

Where did April Go?

How can we already be at May? Got the answers or the clues, let me know. As for Ze and cooking, one shall remember not to let her near your kitchen.

Now a quick thanks to all who wished me Happy B-day. I think today is my first day feeling human. But hey look around, it could have been worse. Hence time keeps moving by and here's hoping the planet finds Peace and Health soon.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming. Enjoy.

Elisa

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Must remember...

to change the batteries in the smoke alarms. We need new ones because they've had to work hard this past week. I always know when the rice is done because the smoke alarm in the hallway goes off. And I know it's really done beyond recognition as rice if the one on the upstairs landing goes off too. This week has been hard on the alarms. Even the ones in the bedrooms have been over-worked.

Did you know you can set fire to stir-fried vegetables?? While they're in the wok. While you're actually stood standing and stirring the damn' things. Well you can. Apparently quite easily. The vegetables go from completely raw to a pile of ashes in nano-seconds, without passing any intermediate stages of edibility along the way.

I don't know why I find cooking so difficult. It's not as if I haven't been very careful to read the instructions. I can build a fitted kitchen from scratch. Paper the walls and paint the woodwork. Plumb in a new sink. Fit new sockets and spotlights. All with no problem. But ask me to produce something edible in that same kitchen and all hell breaks loose. I can cook, I swear I can. I've lived alone and not starved to death. I've even had friends over for a meal and not poisoned them. It's just that 90% of the time food-type-things just sort of burst into flames when I go near them with a spatula. Is there such a thing as spontaneous brassica combustion??

Maybe I should stop trying to boil rice and just nuke it instead. I don't think you can nuke pasta though. I do need to find a way to get last night's spaghetti off the bottom of the saucepan it appears to have spot-welded itself to.

I think tomorrow I'll have salad.

Ze

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Bleh

Don't know what to say tonight. It hasn't been a very good week. It's been moderately stressful and I've been rushed off my feet. Partly work - lots of very good weather equals lots of overtime (I hate ten hour days but they do pay well). And partly a family problem. I haven't had a minute to call my own really. No time to read, play or wind people up on any of my Yahoo groups. Which is a shame. I may have to pop into a group and insult someone in a really evil way just to make up for it. And I missed CSI tonight!! (Not that it's the same without Sara but still...). Oh yeah - and my PS2 is broken and I really, really wanted to finish Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones this week. And you really do not want to see the mess the kitchen is in because I've had to cook (hah!! cook?? Is that what you call that burnt offering??) for myself since Friday.

So I guess I'll just say enjoy your updates and I'll try to do better tomorrow. Maybe I'll tell you about the time I was in The Black Forest and it rained...and I couldn't find a tree to shelter beneath. Only I could be in a forest and not find a tree. Or perhaps I'll scare you with tonight's dinner.

Ze

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Monday, April 27, 2009

Snotty Monday

So yesterday we decided to celebrate E's birthday. We cooked steaks for dinner and I made her a butterscotch cake. She opened some very keen presents. All in all, a good day. Now we get to her actual birthday and she woke up with a totally stuffed head. After an off-and-on night of sleep and she still went to work. Ick. She made it through the day and is ready to hit the hay after being appropriately medicated.

So help make this somewhat crappy birthday better and give her a holler.

Tamara

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Sunday, April 26, 2009

Sunday Returns

So another Sunday arrives as scheduled. For us it was a nifty slow one giving us the opportunity to enjoy the sun, the kids and life in general.

The future is not written and it can only bring change which is inevitable. It may not always be what we've hoped or aspired for, but in the end it's something we must accept, hence find the positive in it. Seek out that which one can find peace and enjoy.

On this last day/evening prior to returning to another long work week I'm reminded how lucky I am to have that job to return to. Here is hoping you all find your peace and may it bring along truth with it.

Enjoy the updates!

Elisa

p.s. Tamara here. Tomorrow is E's birthday. Sending her a birthday wish or two would be keen.

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Christmas in April

Today was trampoline construction day. There is zero backyard at E's house so the kids' trampoline was installed at Mike's. I'm glad we sprung for the trampoline enclosure. I don't worry so much about little e and Duncan but the Lord of Chaos surely would have flown off that thing and broken something major.

I was smart and got out of the trampoline assembly ordeal by tidying Calvin's room. Okay...tidying is a little mild for what I had to do but it sure does look nicer. I can actually make my way to the closet to hang up clothes.

The remainder of the evening should hold rest for all of us. Allergies are having their way with everyone but little e. Cal's may actually be a cold. I'm going to encourage no church tomorrow so we can hopefully avoid missing school on Monday.

Now for a heads up from Ze. Yahoo Geocities is shutting down. This means that any sites hosted at Geocities will go away "later this year". Here's a helpful FAQ page about the move: help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/geocities/geocities-05.html. Please take the time to make sure your favorite Geocities hosted sites are aware of the change.

Tamara

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Friday, April 24, 2009

An E day for Sure

This day has been splendid. I got the day off work to do nothing and the best part was so did Tamara. We lounged a bit this morning then made a easy trip to Target, Joe's and Best Buy. I spent some money and most of it was for me. Target was the store for all, but at Joe's clearance I got myself a nifty new pair of Hi-Tec walking shoes and then off to Best Buy were I signed up for another 2 years with AT&T and will hopefully enjoy my new LG Incite phone. Then home for a nap.

That is totally my kind of Friday. Now the sun is fully shining and we're almost done with this update and off to go enjoy some of it.

May Peace and Health find you all...plus back to your update, enjoy!

Elisa

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

End of the Work Week

It may only be Thursday but today is my Friday. E and I took the day off tomorrow to pre-celebrate her birthday (it's Monday). Not sure what we're going to do but it'll be nice to be kid free for the day.

Tamara

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

If you mean what you say...

... why don't you say what you mean. They're replacing the water pipes here. All of them. It's a slow job. Taken 6 months so far and likely to take another 6 more. Section by section chunks of the city's roads are closed off to allow the work. It causes a fair bit of disruption and delay in whichever bit of the city is affected at that moment. And the water gets shut off for about 5 hours a day. Our road was done in February. More recently an important junction on one of the busiest routes into the city centre was closed off. Several bus services use that route. I caught a bus to town today and (as you do when you're stuck on a bus and bored) I read the notices pasted up. There was one about the roadworks. It said "There will be severe disruption and delay to our timetables".

I sat there picturing a timetable with all the columns empty and the numbers which made up the scheduled times jumbled together in a heap at the bottom. Then I wondered about the delay part of the notice. Did that mean the summer timetable wouldn't be out until autumn?? When I stopped being amused by the thought of the timetables throwing a tantrum and turning up late, I started grumbling about the poor quality of English usage that seems to be so common now. Because of course what they meant to say was "There will be severe disruption and delays to our services." I reckon it's a result the way English is taught in schools these days When did it become more important to train kids to pass exams than give them a decent, well-rounded education??

That whirring sound you can hear is the nuns at my old school spinning in their graves at the thought that - finally - I'm listening to the things they taught me. Of course they wouldn't be too happy with me if I reach the point where I can no longer stand the sign on the window of the hairdresser's shop on the way to town and I chuck a brick through it. The shop is called Hair Gem's.

Enjoy your reading, goodnight and may your god/s go with you.

Ze

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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

It Ain't 'Arf 'Ot

In other words, it's a trifle warm. It was 21c in London today and 18c here in dere ol' Deb'n. Considering it's usually around 13 or 14 in late April that's flamin' hot. Ok - all you lot living in places like Florida or Texas or similar are falling over laughing right now at the idea of 21c being hot but trust me - 21 is hot in England. (I was in Orlando in October in 2005 and it was 34c - thirty-four degrees Celsius!! in October!! I've been places hotter, mind, but usually in summer not October) It's global warming!! We're doomed!! Or something.

Amazon didn't half cause a ruckus last week, didn't they? Accident my ar... erm... my left foot. What is it about big companies?? Do they get to a certain size (global takeover and world domination is ours!! **evil laughter**) and insist all their staff become brain donors or something?? There seems to be a critical overload if a company achieves a certain level - banks, Microsoft, Amazon all reached it recently - when common sense goes walkabout. A "we're too big to fail/care/bother" size. And then - pow - epic fail. Dozy pillocks. They won't suffer though - there will always be people who can't afford to shop elsewhere or don't have anywhere else to shop who will use them. I won't though. I don't see why I should give my hard earned money to a company that treats me with a lack of respect, if not outright contempt.

Ze

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Monday, April 20, 2009

One down and three to go....

Short week for Tamara and I...yippee! only three working days left this week.

I'm going to go enjoy some of our sunshine before it slips away. Our garden will be so happy to get some mulch spread throughout. And I'll be happy to be one step closer to actually planting the seeds.

Enjoy your updates!

Elisa

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Sunday, April 19, 2009

Content

We've had a relatively lazy Sunday. E made and delivered her monthly dessert obligation (school auction project). I got my hair cut. Now we're doing the update. Yeah, that's about it for the day. Not that I'm complaining. It's nice to laze around on a Sunday morning.

The weather is nice so the next part of our day will be spent at a local park with kids and dog. I'm hopeful I can have some comic book time later as well.

Big one today thanks to P&P. Enjoy 'em!

Tamara

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Saturday, April 18, 2009

Chore Day

Tamara and I spent money at Costco and Safeway than come home to chores galore. I got a ton of yard work done as Tamara did the vacuuming and inside details. Laundry is almost complete and then it's time for our treat...a quick trip to Best Buy. Who knows what one can find there.

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming. Enjoy your weekend!

Elisa

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Friday, April 17, 2009

Babble

Seems like an age since I last typed here. I'm now officially licensed to drive in the state of Washington. Don't get me started on the rigamarole I had to go through to prove I lived here and that I was who I said I was. My new license arrived this week. The picture is just lovely. The big blue van has Washington plates front and back now. I was sorry to see my Superman front plate go but the weather here had rusted it almost through. Next up is a check for insurance. Woo hoo! More money!

Max made the first trip to his new vet yesterday. He's been given a clean bill of health and is now up-to-date on all of his shots. I just need to take over a fresh poop sample (less than 6 hours old) and he'll be ready for his vacation at the Bone-a-fide Dog Ranch in July.

Another week of work down and I'm pooped. Overall the week at school was smooth. We went on our first outing to the Shoreline swimming pool this week. The kids did great and I only slightly startled a naked man in the Men's dressing room. All of the adult males at the Shoreline pool can now rest assured that I know where the family changing room is.

Tamara

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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Spring Arrives...

...and about time. No snow in the forecast, just the usual mix of sunshine and drizzle. All good in my book. I got out and mowed the yard today since rain is on the horizon and it may be a few days before it becomes dry enough again. I'm hoping the sun comes out some more this weekend for me to get mulch mixed into the dirt of our soon to be vegetable garden space.

Here is hoping you all have a great Friday. Enjoy your updates!

Elisa

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

On being British

Funny lot, us Brits. A multi-cultural society without a culture. There's no such thing a a British culture, in spite of the "we're losing our cultural identity" moaning of the right-wing newspapers. There isn't really a English culture either. There's a Welsh culture and a Scottish culture and several different Northern Irish cultures depending on your religious or political background. We're part of Europe - but we're not, not in our heart-of-hearts. We're no longer a force to be reckoned with in the world - but we cling to our past glories and our imperial history. We once owned half of creation and we still own a few small bits of it. We're proud of that - but ashamed as well. And nobody out there can hate us half as much as we do. United Kingdom?? Only against outsiders. Just ask any Taff or Jock what they think of the Sassenachs!! (Sorry - to my shame I don't know if the Welsh have a nickname for us - apart from "stupid English b****ds" that is). We taught the world to speak an obscure little Teutonic dialect - and most of them don't speak it quite the way we do - a goodly portion of them speak it better. We taught most of the world to play a bunch of sports (football, cricket, rugby) just so we could watch them humiliate us every time we play them. (Afghanistan just beat Scotland in the cricket and let's not talk about the Ashes...though the England women seem to do all right).

And the little quirks we have... I buy my petrol (gasoline) in litres but drive for miles. I buy my food by the kilo, my milk by the litre but my beer by the pint. I buy wood by the metre - but today I unloaded a bunch of 2 metre long bits of 2inch by 1inch timber. I measure a room in square metres to calculate wallpaper - but my allotment is measured in rods!!

Funny lot, us Brits.

Ze


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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

You'll Never Walk Alone

I've been quite subdued. Thinking solemn thoughts. All brought on by this evening's fantastic Champions' League match between Liverpool and Chelsea. Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of The Hillsborough Disaster. That event was so shattering that the only word needed for most English folk (especially the football fans) is Hillsborough. It was a truly awful occurrence but the what made it worse was that it could have been prevented. We knew the ground could be a danger. We knew fences were bad. They'd been part of the problem at Heysel If they'd had fences at Bradford the loss of life (bad as it was) would have been horrendous. Hillsborough was a disaster waiting to happen. It could have been less of a tragedy, fewer people might have died if the people giving the orders had listened to the officers at pitch level but the Police commander made some pretty bad errors of judgement. The Sun newspaper (I'm not providing a link for that rag) in its usual just below a bottom-feeding sea-slug style of "reporting" told some disgusting lies about the fans. To this day The Sun's sales in Liverpool are negligible because of it. I haven't bought a copy since.

Good stuff did come from it eventually. The fences are gone, we have all-seater stadia now not terraces. Premier League football grounds are some of the safest in the world. My lads play tomorrow and I'll feel safer that I used to, as a kid, the next time I get to the stadium to watch. It's just a shame it cost so many lives.

Ze

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Monday, April 13, 2009

Spring?

We have odd weather from time to time and I can say for the last few years averages haven't been very average like. Winter seems to be dragging on this year and I am ready. I walked from my office to grab some lunch today and in those short 3 blocks I once again experienced snow.

You know when I was a kid this area averaged 2-3 snow events with less than an inch of snow every year. I begged for those days to be more. This year we've had over 15 different days with snow many with 5 or more inches each. I certainly am not begging for any more.

Let Spring be found soon, please.

Enjoy your update.

Elisa

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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Rainy Easter Sunday

We did it. We hid eggs in Mike's backyard even with the drizzle. I didn't put any of the hard boiled eggs out. That would have been a mess. As it was we had some very grassy, wet plastic eggs due to Mike mowing the yard the day before. The kids had a good time and that's what mattered.

We were going to go all out for dinner and pick up Costco pizza. Unfortunate for us, but good for Costco employees, they were closed Easter Sunday. Darn. Now I have to cook.

Tamara

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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Bonus Day

The sun continues to shine. Our forecasters are once again proven wrong. I like it when the odds are in our favor. Tamara is officially a resident of Washington state, her new license should arrive in 7-30 days and the minivan is now minus the Oklahoma plate.

We got the dog signed up at the Bone-A-Fide Dog Ranch. It gives him the opportunity to have fun even when the boys are in Oklahoma for the summer. Hopefully he could be less lonely and bored.

Now I leave you with your update and I get to go out and start figuring how to set up the veggie garden this year. All dandy.

Enjoy the update!

Elisa

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Friday, April 10, 2009

Woo hoo! Friday!

Mom made it to Oklahoma just in time for the wildfires. She was practically drowned by rain here and goes back to not enough rain at home.

It's our first Easter in Seattle. I've been told that usually means heavy rain. Kind of makes hiding eggs in the backyard problematic. I'm hoping for a drizzly period. Hiding eggs in the house just isn't the same.

Off to get my two weeks of comics. Y'all enjoy the update.

Tamara

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