Saturday 31 March 2012

Think of the pastabilities...

Pastafarianism is much more fun than most religions I've discovered so far.

As a semi-satirical theology, it's perfect. It has a very simple moral guidance based on a solid foundation of acceptance - you don't even have to believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster because, hey, it's your choice and that's fine. Seems pretty mean to give someone free choice and then punish them for it.

What I particularly like about The Gospel and the working editions of The Loose Canon is that you don't HAVE to take everything as "the word". The FSM is accepting that a bunch of his followers are writing it, and takes no responsibility for the inaccuracies - especially not HIS inaccuracies. Heck, no-one can write in a reasonable and clear fashion when drunk/hung-over. You're lucky if they can talk when drunk/hung-over.

Anyway, getting back to the point -  I've just checked the regulations for getting my driver's licence updated - and yes, I might be able to get away with wearing a colander! "You must not wear a hat or cover your head unless for medical or religious reasons" - well, as I'm now an ordained Pastafarian minister, I have every right to wear religious headwear: I'm a pastor. Hah! Pastor/Pasta. Heh. (And yes, seriously. I have a certificate from the prophet Bobby to prove it.)

If anyone has any fun pasta-related ideas, let me know. It's Pastaver next weekend, and I want to invite some friends for a proper carbohydrate based feast!

R'Amen. 



Spaghetti, Wenches & Metaphysics: Episode 1—The FSM from Matt Tillman on Vimeo

Wednesday 28 March 2012

Guess what?

We've been playing a game of  "Guess What" on Google+. It's as simple as that - I try to find the most obscure looking item I can find, snap a pic and let people guess what it could be.

We've had such puzzlers as a jellied pot of gone off sweet and sour sauce, a box of ceramic meerkats, a shot down the neck of a cider bottle and even a darning mushroom - but this one got my favourite response:



My mother was delighted to hear that this was the first response, and poor Clare was mortified (until I explained how amused Mum was). That's Mum's wedding ring - and she's forever taunting my stepfather for it's... interesting look. In all fairness, she does make a good point. 

It DOES look like a curtain ring: http://www.johnlewis.com/157596/Product.aspx

You're welcome to join us on Google+ to play, or ping me an email if you've got a good puzzler for us. (Don't forget to tell me what your picture is, so I can congratulate the person that gets it right!)

Saturday 24 March 2012

Girly Games? HELL no!


So... yeah. I'm a geeky gamer girl. I finally and openly confess it. I know the difference between a D8 and a D20, as well as how many frags loses the game.

Once a fortnight, we meet up at Denz's house (conveniently and literally around the corner from here and directly opposite a good convenience store) to play Battlestar Galactica the Board Game, share a meal and some drinks, and to play naff card games after we all lose spectacularly.

The opposite fortnight, some of the lads come to ours for similar - swapping out Battlestar for DooM. (You can follow our game here if you're really that interested: DooM)

Rumour has it that soon we will be playing Dungeons and Dragons. I know, I know - D&D = Dangerously Dorky, but it was put to the vote. The more intelligent of us kicked ourselves when we realised we probably shouldn't have allowed a vote, but it was too late.

Friday 23 March 2012

Bookish Beardie

With the latest, sudden burst in growth, I think Hyphen's realised he's a bit... thick.

For the last couple of evenings, he's been coming up to bed with me and curling up with a good book: Hyphen is enjoying this novel as much as I am, though he still can't work out why there are so many bugs on each bit. They are interesting to watch though.

I'm wondering if the Ella's Organic babyfood purees I've been buying have boosted his brain - he's been having a lot of the pumpkin, apple and blueberry one recently, and blueberries are supposed to be good for mental development...

I do have to say, Ella's organic purees are awesomesauce.  Beardie keepers of the world, take notice: they are squeezy, resealable packets that last a good three days open AND you can freeze them to make them last longer. They also come in several tasty, dragon friendly flavours...

AND they mix really well with dragon medicines or supplements, which is always good. (Plus, Tesco's have them on special offer. WIN!)

Friday 16 March 2012

Location, Location? There'll do!

Well, I have the surveyor's report back on the house we want to buy, and so far it's pretty good. There's nothing too surprising on there that we hadn't already guessed at (besides asbestos down pipes, but they can be dealt with cheaply enough) and the valuation came in at exactly what we've offered, so that's also good news.

With the deposit I've got (thanks go to you-know-who), we can even afford the mortgage. It's not a particularly pretty house and a lot needs updating, but it'll do for us and it'll be fun doing it.

More importantly, it will be a house with MY name on the deeds. The first one that I own and can't be taken from me - well, except by the bank of course. But as I work for them anyway and certainly don't intend on defaulting the mortgage...

It's got a reasonable size garden, an alley thing, a big long kitchen that I'm putting my dining room in (after taking down that stupid spare bit of wall) and a long living room area. I'm thinking sofas in the window end and dragons in the other end - laminated floors again, perhaps real wood...

But first the electrics need completely ripping out and replacing and possibly likewise for the heating/boiler system. Goodness - what HAVE I got myself in for?! (Hehehehehhehe...)


Thursday 15 March 2012

Jam or Egg Sammich?

Jam has a talent for annoying Sandy. Lately, she's decided that Sandy's tank is the perfect place for digging for calcium/tunnels/just digging. Sandy has given up bothering to fend Jam off, as Jam's obsession is far too focussed:
"DIGDIGDIGDIG" 
"Goddammit girl, push off and dig in your own tank!" 
"DIGDIGDIGDIGDIGDIG".
.. "sigh..."




She has dropped another batch of eggs - a whacking seventeen infertile eggs this time, causing her to drop in weight by about 20 grams. (And when you're only 370g, that's quite a lot!) She's still digging like a mad thing, haring around in full spring fever and generally being a total pain in the backside, but I find it's impossible to be cross at a dragon when they cheekily pull this face at you.

Monday 12 March 2012

The cake is NOT a lie

I wish I was able to video His Lordship's birthday cake moment - but I rather had my hands full...

He forgot how literal we are when he said "Pass the cake round to the left" as he was slicing the next wedge.  As a family, we managed to get the full six slices juggling round the table at the same time, for several rotations - to the left of course. And managed to wind up so my sister didn't get a slice.

For those that are interested, this is LAST week's effort at the cake. The proper version was eaten rather too quickly to photograph, as it consists of Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix, whipped cream, thick chocolate ganache and raspberry coulis.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Random Act of Kindness

My random act of kindness today was to send a big box of 500 crickets to LG the handi-capable beardie and her poorly owner in California.

LG is a little miracle - her owner rescued her as a tiny baby, badly mauled, and managed to fix the poor wee mite up. She's got no arms or legs, just little nubs, but she really gets round and about! (And loves crickets - so they'll be in for a nice surprise!)


Read LG's story

Update from J: "Thankyou so much to "TheDragonKeepers" for sending me that dumptruck of crickets; There must be a couple thousand of them!!! I am keeping them well fed and watered so LG will be able to enjoy them for a while. Will even look into what it takes to get them buggers to breed.

If anyone else is interested in sending LG presents, let me know - I can forward things to them from here for you.

Monday 5 March 2012

Oh that's just chuffin' brilliant...

We got some bad news earlier - His Lordship's father changed his will and left everything to steam trains, and there's nothing we can do about it. We have yet to find out if we even get to keep our house, but hey, that's just how things go sometimes.

I was cheering Himself up by reminding him of nice things; he has me, food, a roof over his head, you know, all the small things that you forget to appreciate in life, when he said, "You don't have to consolidate me you know... wait, no..."

Considering I was listing the things he has in life, I think "consolidate" is the perfect word!

Phew! I'm just exhausted.  I've had a storming week at work, followed by a mental Saturday where we went out for dinner with the grandparents, did the shopping for my friend with hairline fracture in his leg, cooked two IMMENSE cottage pies to serve five starving grown men and played cards until 2 in the morning.

This is the Martian's serving. It's bigger than a chihuahua. And is his second helping. Considering he's not a huge guy, he can REALLY pack away the victuals - I don't know where he puts it. He emptied that plateful in under five minutes and started eyeing up the second pie I'd reserved for tomorrow...

Anyway, on Sunday we viewed two potential new homes (one crap, the other nice but too expensive), before prepping the veg and helping to cook dinner for seven at Mum's. We then all played cards with Nan until 11.

Friday 2 March 2012

Must be nuts!

I bought Terry a comfy, funky new bed. Two in fact.

A rather nice chap on eBay hollows coconuts and drills them - and he was very happy to do some custom-coconutting for my little gecko.

He put two 35mm entry and exit holes through the sides, and a wee hole in the top. I got clever with some short lengths of sink-plug chain and suspended the resulting swingin' pads from the roof of his vivarium.

Terry's been very pleased with them for multiple reasons - throwing yourself at them makes them swing in a most delightful fashion; geckos are just the right size to fit inside; they're easy to grip on to AND they provide somewhere relatively dark, quiet and less likely to be disturbed than in his usual cluster of fake cheeseplant leaves or under one of the giant banana leaves.

If you keep cresties and fancy rigging up this funky hangout for yourselves, this is where you can get the coconut shells and chains.

Also, after days of being grumpy and bad tempered, Jam started laying the first clutch of eggs.

They're about 2 centimetres long and kind of squishy, yolk all the way through. They're squishy because they're designed to soak up water from the surroundings and double in size.

Apologies, I'm not likely to end up with eight baby dragons - these eggs are all infertile - thankfully. I'm not equipped to handle or home baby beardies - though I believe she's still got eggs left to go. Mind, it's quite normal to take some time between laying.

Any ideas what to do with infertile eggs? Mini omelettes come to mind, but His Lordship has banned me from even considering this thought. Tsam did have a look but thought they were too icky looking and squishy to eat.