Saturday 31 May 2008

Happy Birthday GinjaNinja!

Friday, we had both Big and Little Dragon out of their tanks - I had a firm thumb on Big Dragon's shoulders, Him likewise with Littlun. Tsam worried a bit when we brought Ky close, 'til Ky leaned forwards and licked him, I don't think he was expecting that! She happily hopped off onto the floor to have a run round, whilst Tsam bemusedly watched her.

Saturday, we all went out for GinjaNinja's birthday (Gratz to ya matey!) and drank a few. Wetherspoons was horrendously busy, and having waited some time, being stood on a few times (for goodness sake, I'm taller than most of the people in this town!) we all gave up and went to Globetrotters. Luckily they weren't charging entrance - I refuse to pay to be able to go sit in an almost empty pub! Mind you, I suppose the fact that I nearly got served twice in one go rather than not at all would sort of make up for it. And they had a bag of Quavers. Then we all went and tucked into nasty, yummy greasefood at the local Charcoal Grill, where a giant MayBug kept trying to get in and I kept throwing it back out. Those are BIG beetles. Somewhat begrudgingly I accepted that most of them were going to have kebab, and kept quiet from my usual comments of similarity to tapeworm etc etc. The photo is a spectacular shot of Big Dragon attempting to be a Shish Kebab. Way to go Big Girl...

Quote of the Day - "For all the new technology, this game comes in four colours. Grey, white, bloodred and muzzleflash." - Stalker, 6 years in the making, supposed to be the best graphics in any game. Except that the breeze causes the plants to twitch spastically. Bad show guys, bad show...

Thursday 29 May 2008

Dreadful Downpour

We got wet. Really wet. On Thursday, it was raining. Lots. According to forecasters, something like 11.8mm of water fell on the Yeovil Station, and the Sunshine Festival (oh beautiful irony) had to be called off. On the way home from work, we were coming past the Bell Inn when we discovered the road to be a foot high in water; The Boss was quite worried, as his little SmartCar nearly didn't make it through. I don't think the drains round here are built to take that much rainfall in one go, as the manholes were mostly blown out - the ones stubborn enough to stay put were gushing up fair sized geysers from the lifting holes...! Even the shop at the end of the road was having its problems, as the water quickly flooded their small garden, came up against the wall and sluiced over like a waterfall. So yes, it was wet. And His Lordship was too, having been waiting for the bus home.
(Thanks to Yahoo News for the photograph.)

Today's Quote: "Opportunist: A person who starts taking bath if he accidentally falls into a river." - Anon. Please contact to be named.

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Munchies at Mulberries

Little Dragon is progressing very well, eating 8 or so bugs a night. He's stopped panicking every time he claps eyes on Big Dragon - in fact, he's started "communicating" with her, fluffing up his little beard, head bobbing and the occasional wave. This morning she was very happy to join in, bobbing, fluffing and a good, single wave. We knew she wasn't being aggressive, because she kept her beard white. (When a beardie is angry or scared, it'll flush black.) At least he's not pretending to be a twig any more.

The photo here was taken on His Lordship's phone - I have to say, I'm impressed with the level of detail for a mobile. It's completely unedited, just loaded and blogged.

It's amazing. I spent quite a while looking. There doesn't seem to be another word for "thesaurus"... Comment board open now.

So, after most of the afternoon of Snekki being draped round my mother, we mooched our way down to Mulberries. Garth's team excelled themselves again, with my mother commenting that "it's as good as Cafe Rouge" - high praise indeed! My brother actually ate his dinner of chicken without the sauce, and my sister enjoyed a homemade burger - nearly the whole thing! His Lordship, my stepfather and I all had medium rare rump steak (which was so tender and juicy....!) whilst my mother tucked into the T-bone. We all enjoyed another "While You Wait", I still adore their sweet chilli dip, and then we all had puddings. I had two kinds of sorbet with mum and my sister, the boy and stepfather had icecreams, and He had the lemon cheesecake. "It was very light, thin compared to a normal cheesecake, very lemony, very nice. Like a really thick mousse. Mm, one that can't even spell it's name." Served with a raspberry coulis, it was very nice. (I swiped a bit in exchange for some of my creamy mango and passionfruit sorbet) Again, Mulberries are genius for lack of pontificating, no messing with the food, just good, basic ingredients served to their best. Thank you Garth and his team, you get another Dragon Lick Rating.

Thought for the day: "Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!" - So is this finally the cure for depression? (Madwahm.com)

Monday 26 May 2008

Hungry Horse and Appetite at Ask.

Today my mother and family visited. The fayre was closed, so we came back home to play with the animals. Eden kept licking Mum and making her laugh, and Tsam on my sister. He moved one leg, then the other, wriggled, then pooed all over her hand. I swear, it was as big as the lizard himself. My mother was most impressed.

Mm, Lizard Butt. We haven't trained that dragon yet.

Having been rained on, we tried the Hungry Horse for lunch, discovering the first three choices were all out of ingredients and having to rearrange orders. But to be fair, they did LARGE portions for your money, basic no-messing about bar food. You got what you asked for - I like simplicity like that. Also, see QOTD.

We all went to Ask for tea. Ask is quite nice, a local chain of restaurants that serve good foods. His Lordship and I had the mushroom ravioli which was rather delectable and vanished quickly enough, whilst my parents and sister enjoyed a twist on spaghetti and my brother tucked into a garlic bread with cheese and peperoni. He's a picky soandso... Yet again I had their honeycomb cheesecake. For an essentially chain operated group, they're surprisingly nice, you can watch the meals being cooked, the majority of it from scratch and as witnessed by my brother, they're quite accomodating to changes in menu. Last time we went to Ask was because we were completely ignored by Prezzo for a good 15 minutes. Oh well! Ask made up for it, and then some.
Today's Quote: "I bit into it, and it squirted red hot peaness..." REJP. My, how my mother laughed...

P.S, PURPLE! For Mum.

Sunday 25 May 2008

Pride in Preparation!

M'Mumma, I hope I made you proud today. He had holes in his socks.

On the way to Tesco, we were discussing buying some flowers, as Mum's coming down on Monday. And then we found some! No really, we found a bunch of Sweet Williams, just lying in the highstreet. Well, neither of us are the sort to pass up a free gift like that - it looks like someone had dropped them. We looked round for the owners, but clearly they were long gone, so the Williams are now in a nice vase in the kitchen. My Alliums look lovely in the livingroom, alongside my fern and a bowl of crystals.

I also did some housework and finally the cooker has come clean. It's taken me the best part of the afternoon, but it's done. Blessem, the three batchelors have lived here over a year, and only today did Hank learn how to cook Lasagne. In my clean cooker. Fortunately, George lent him the DEEP glass bowl and I lent some useful tips I learned from Mum years back when she made lasagne (and a jar of bolognaise sauce, and a wedge of cheese). Heads up to Hank though, it was pretty darn good. I like a big bowl of lasagne. I'm one happy fat ginger cat...

I didn't get any gardening done, as it'd tipped it down all night, but the herbs have flourished for it. I do need to get another pot though, I've used up my other three. I've got a lavender tree in the green one, and the two terracottas have lemon balm and garden mint - I still need one for my chocolate peppermint. Anyone got any tips for getting the local cat? His Lordship's fed up of finding catmess in his lush green lawn. My suggestion was to put carpet gripper along the top of the fence.

Quote of the Day: "Atheism is a non-prophet organization." - George Carlin

Friday 23 May 2008

Scrubs and Sand.

We've all seen the episode of "Scrubs" where the entire hospital gets penalised for stealing the scrubs uniformy outfit things, right? I was somewhat amused to discover Ed the Dog does actually own (well, when I say own...) about six pairs of scrubs. Apparently they make for very comfortable PJs and whilst he was at Uni, all of his dorm floor ended up with a pair of his scrubs "because they were so funky! They're also good for lounging around the house when you have a day off and can't be bothered to get dressed..."

Big Dragon was being silly today. I was saying to His Lordship that she's so placid I can bury her in the sand of her tank. He laughed, thinking I was joking, so I buried her. And she happily sat there as I stacked it up to her chin, with a big lizard grin. I took a series of photos and once I'd done, she looked at us, pulled herself out and sat on the pile.

It was very hot over the weekend previous. I mean very hot. 27C hot. Reduced to flippin' flipflops hot. His Lordship gave Himself sunstroke trying to do too much in the garden and had to be packed off to a dark room for a few hours with hydrating fluids (mmm, baking powder and salt...) to sleep. Dragon loved it though, popped her harness on to wander to the shops for some gardenbits and stopped off at The Bell for a cold lemonade on the long walk back home. The barstaff were somewhat cautious at first, but then greatly amused when she shared my lemonade with me. She's always liked the fizzy drops placed on the end of her nose to lick off.

Word of the Week: "Splab" - a cross between a Spaniel and a Labrador. You get some really pants crossbreed names like cockerpoo. The best of all is the cross between a Bulldog and a Shi tzu...

Wednesday 21 May 2008

Mmmmmm Mulberries!

Mulberries has the latest Dragon's Lick Of Approval!

We whirled by there under the power of local reputation, and it's really rather classy. The tablemats were one of my favourite things, smooth slices of slate, very simple. Garth, the owner, was rather surprised by my odd question, but yes, they're Dragon-Friendly too!

We tried a bizarrely named "While You Wait". This was tender onion rings, herbed potato skins, garlic bread slices and fried mushrooms served with two dips, one sweet chili, perfect on the onions and one herby mayonaisse, which was delightful combined with the mushrooms. I had a mozzarella, mushroom and homecut ham omelette. He had a chicken and bacon salad, which judging by the appreciative sounds and too-busy-to-commentness, was very good indeed. The vinegrette was spot on, slightly spicy and sharp. I swiped a drop! Oh, and the sorbet! Lemon zest sorbet, zingy and sharp and sweet - I could have eaten three stunning purple glasses full. He had Belgian Sugarwaffles with homemade vanilla pod icecream. Mum, we're treating you to a meal out there, it might not make up for Cafe Rouge, but it ain't bad!

I'm glad I'm out of my old home town, where I once worked in a convenience store. Some friends of mine got held up at knifepoint Sunday 18th.... His Lordship was surprised - he'd actually been to the shop in the papers when he came up North with me.

Odd Quote: "Woooo. Woooooooo..." - Bloke at work. Apparently trying to scare his pen. It didn't work.

Monday 19 May 2008

Christ, That's Expensive!

Oh dear oh dear. We've been watching something about religion on telly. It's amused me, because one chappie has "Jesus" above his bed, so he isn't tempted by thoughts of the opposite sex scattered around in the day. He recons taking advantage of the morning to himself is as sinful as being gay. I had to laugh - the main public opinion to the Anti-Homosexuality leaflets was that it was tanamount to hate crime. THAT I can believe in. Hurrah for the public, actually saying something right for once.

Mind you, the public ought to have an outcry at this latest atrocity I stumbled upon. Yes, it's a pretty little candle, I agree. But does that justify the price tag? No, I'm not going for animal rights here etc, I'm being literal. I stumbled across it on the Coutts giftpage. It's £101.79.

Oh my, it gets better. "Muslims don't NEED a dead prophet!" I shan't laugh for fear of offence. *cough*POT*coughcough*KETTLE!*splutter* They recon Allah is Satan, and He contradicts things in the Bible. Honey, the BIBLE contradicts the Bible. Sorry, I respect Christianity, but not extremism and slander. Anyway. Enough of that. I'd like to hear some of your comments please, but do be respectful. Humour is acceptable, but keep it reasonably good taste!

"Wooo, controversial!" - Communal reply from the house. "Free will but you have to do what I say."

Friday 16 May 2008

'Tile on the Tiles! (Well, Carpet...)

Happy Hatchday Kuleana for the 12th of this month!

A full year today this rather large little lizard was a very small, just freshly hatched baby.

Related Quote of the Day: "More than 1 year remaining" - Windows - on loading "Orange Box".

Tsam is growing very quickly too, already another half an inch bigger and eating like a pig! Big dragon even waved and nodded at her the other day, I'm so pleased!

Sunday 11 May 2008

Blegs and Beardies.

He wanted to know "Have you made as many blegs as you have blogs?" Silly man, you don't MAKE blegs, you pick 'em! (For those that don't understand Northern, blegs are blackberries.) I explained "goosegogs" too. Gooseberries! Kuleana doesn't think much to goosegog sauce and is busy in airlick mode anyway. She dashes over to lick someone, stops about a cm away and licks nothing. Little dragon shed today and swam about for a while in her bath.

That's it really.

"You're not just dumb, you're broken!" - Joyce, My Name Is Earl.

Saturday 10 May 2008

Guerilla Gardening Tactics.

Again, I've had fun playing with the customers. I had a chappy come in for a large sum, so I asked him how he would like it. I replied that we haven't got that many pennies, would he like some twos as well. You should have seen his face; just for a moment he thought I was being serious!

Little Tsam hasn't grown particularly, besides getting a bit wider. Ky has been rattling on the door like mad every time I try to feed her - Ky likes bugs too. She's pleased because she gets the leftovers as snacks and He's been spoiling her with fancy salads: dandelion and calcium, lettuce and pellets... Mmmm!

We launched an all out attack on the garden this week, His Lordship hacking back the lawns and forcing the conifers into a neater shape whilst I blasted into the damned dandelions, ripping off leaves and salting the remains of the roots. The lawn has actually fought back since I spent a good few blisters putting drainage into the clay soil with the fork. The raspberry plants are sprouting nicely, but those slugs have chewed into my passionflower and killed off my basil. But I have the last laugh - I've been and got slugpellets! Slug mortars ahoy. *smirk smirk*

Tim Hawkins - Kids Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5R8gSgedh4

"Oh sh*t, my bacon!" - Lew, having been online chatting for the last... ooh, hour.

Tuesday 6 May 2008

Walks and Waves.

We took Ky for a walk to Tesco today, where she was fussed over by some children. We got our icecreams (which she didn't think much to) and then let her have a good run up and down a steep grassy hill on her leash. Daisies are fun apparently.

Little dragon is too small to take for a walk (and too unpredictable) so she came out when we got home. Having warmed up under her lamp and eaten a good dinner, she dashed round like a wild thing before settling down to bond with us. The quality isn't good, but the clip below shows an odd beardie habit - waving. She was happy to keep doing it, so long as the person she waved at waved back at her. Which meant His Lordship and I were sat waving and headbobbing like loonies for the best part of fifteen minutes!



Today's tea was an odd one - chicken noodle soup with mushrooms, garlic and onion. But oh yummy! Oh, and rice pudding with goosegog compote! (Better than tuna sandwiches I had for lunch even, and that's saying something...)

"A friend once told me, you can't polish a turd." -Michael Palin.

Monday 5 May 2008

T'sam Eatdaleaf!

What can I say. His Lordship fell in love. This is little T'sam, a 5 week old dragon of 7.5". I spoke with her breeder and it turns out she's mostly the unusual German Giant species which gives her these rather pretty and odd markings. He couldn't resist at her price; £60 for the little dragon - IF we got a full 4 foot setup. Which turned out to be very good indeed, as we wouldn't have been able to keep the two dragons in the same tank. After I'd bartered and fought over the price (originally £200 for tank, dragon seperate), I paid them £160 in total. Quick breakdown: £60 for dragon. £21 for lighting ballast. £24 for the special bulb. £4 for the tub of pellets for Ky. £6 for the heating unit. Which means that the 4 foot tank which normally costs £140... (I'm grinning!) We got it for £45. Massive thanks to GreatUncle in Malta for teaching me to haggle.

So now Ky has a great new custom tank, and T'sam Eatdaleaf is merrily living up to her name. She's discovered she adores Basil (good for vitamin A), she enjoys apple (good for C and fibre) and absolutely LOVES lobster roaches covered in mixed vitamin and calcium powders. Ky doesn't quite know what to make of the new thing in her tank and we've been wary when they're out at the same time, keeping firm hold of one or the other. (As in the desert, big lizard sees little lizard as dinner...) However Ky has been enjoying exploring in her new home, having mistaken the partition support for a wall and thinking the tank was small. She was delighted when I poked her head around it and she discovered a whole extra "tank" with her bowl, plants and climbing sticks in.

Otherwise, not a lot has happened this Bank Holiday. I waged war on the bathroom, particularly the bizarre orange stuff on the grout/tiles. Now it gleams lovely and white - Hank was quite surprised that the tiles were less terracotta than he thought!

Quote of the Day: "Pretty epic lizard!" - Cpt. Luis, gamegeekery at it's best and most respected.