Egypt is... Wow...

Cairo is a cacophony of noise and sound and sights. Traffic is just amazing. There are lines for 3 lanes of traffic, yet you will see 5 rows of cars across... It's loud and the tourist sites are overwhelming with the hawkers but at the same time, it's beautiful. Poverty and wealth are crammed in next to one another. And the history... It's just beyond words. I WILL post pictures as soon as I can. But it probably won't be until I get back.

This IS the best birthday present possible.

So - I guess I did kind of not remember to keep this up after all... :-/

I've been back to see my family and back here to the UK again. It was really good to see the folks and I went to see Marcee too. I got to watch Auburn lose and NC State win in the Thanksgiving rivalry games. Got to see my brother and his family, up from Huntsville. I bought a bunch of stuff and just kind of relaxed. So, it was good.

Now... It's snowing here in Greenhithe. And I am on call this weekend AND on Christmas weekend... It's two weekends in a row because I thought it was preferable than being on call the day after the team's Christmas party.

I am liking my StudioXPS that I'd ordered and picked up back home, but I keep getting confused about where the " and @ should be. :-) (For those unfamiliar with the opposite... A UK Keyboard has the " above the 2 key, and a £ above the 3, US has @ above 2 and # above 3...

And I have decided that Win 7 doesn't exactly suck. But I want to right click on a folder and Search. I want to change to a theme that gives me the same damned toolbar that has ALWAYS been there. I want to do a couple other things that I can't do, but I can't remember what they are. Thank you cygwin for 1.7 so I can do a "find ./ -name blah" and/or a "grep -irl blah *".

Oh, well.... I will update again when I can...

So – I was awakened this morning by a 105 pound German Shepherd who has developed a fear of thunder and/or lightening... C'mon!! She spent most of her life, her formative years, in NC, where we have thunderstorms how often? The poor thing was so freaked out. Then it only got worse, we had a couple of lightening strikes nearby, then it started to hail. Then started actually trying to climb into the bed. Ray finally got her to calm down, and once the storm passed, she relaxed, sort of... High strung giant dogs can be not fun.

I tried to get a picture of the hail and stuff...

From Assorted UK Stuff

It's a bit difficult to make out, but if you look in the gutter at the slushie type ice, then on the ground near the dead flower pot... Not giant hail, golf ball sized hail or anything, but enough to be annoying.


Other interesting things...
We don't have grits here, but I do either 1) bring them back with me when I visit or 2) ask Mom and Dad to include them in care packages. So, I have grits. But grits require bacon, at least for me. And British bacon is not exactly... bacon. It's more like country ham but a bit less salt. It's not a bad food. But it's not bacon, either. So a couple weeks ago, we were in Sainsbury's because our ASDA was closed for renovations, and I discovered Oscar Mayer bacon! Actually shipped from Madison, WI to here via Spain, it seems, but still... It was real American bacon. Yum! Then eggs, and I had a perfect breakfast last Sunday. A friend from here who had an American girl friend at one point, who had made him southern biscuits lamented that I couldn't make those as well. I suppose I need to learn, as mine become these hard lumps of... ick.

Anyway I need to end this so we can get going – We have to go to the mall... We've got a couple of presents left... I've got something for Dad, but need to get something for Mom too...

Quick note: My "lesson of the day" from yesterday.

Ok - I make it sound like I learn something cool and worth commenting on every day... :-/

Anyway... So, I was plying my L3 team lead who is French with cookies in hopes of cheering him up. At the same time, we have our colleagues (never co-workers for some reason) from Romania here (thus the reason I'd made the cookies to start with). When one of the Romanians looked up and realised it was Vince, he started speaking to him in what sounded like pretty good French. (Alan, of course, turns to me and jokes, "What was that? Are they slagging us off?" which is even funnier as my French is worse than Alan's could possibly be.) Then Vince proceeds to explain that legionnaires, after 10 years of service to the Roman army, were given land. Norman Roman soldiers were given land in Romania. Thus, the Romanian language is actually a Latin language instead of the Slovak tongue you'd expect. And more so, it's closer to French than say, Italian or Spanish.

Cool, huh?

OK - So it's been ages since I've bothered to do a blog... April. Quite a bit has happened since then.

We went back to the US for a week to refinance our house (woohoo! We saved 1.5% AND went from a 30 year to a 15 year, cutting about 7 years off and saving a ton of cash.) This was well worth the airfare and pet sitting fees.

We went to Norway at the start of July, and did some kayaking and hiking. We visited Bergen and spent 3 days paddling the fjords and hiking about. This should have been peaceful, but of course...

Then, my sister died at the end of July. This was really hard on everyone, especially my folks. I came home for that as well. It was a nightmare trip trying to get emergency travel back home. American Airlines were a bunch of dicks about this as well, and it really rather upset me. If you can't offer bereavement fares, then why demand that I get funeral home info and everything else and tell me it's going to still be $2000 a person? Luckily, our company let us use the company travel agency. Sure, we still had to pay for it, but it was a third of the price that we would have paid to anyone else.

Anyway, a while after that, we went to the Cornish coast, and I have some lovely pictures. It was nice to be away, but even then, the same stressors of our everyday lives intrude. They never stop intruding.

I've done a bit of mountain biking, went to Dirt Divas (which I would highly recommend to any women in the UK who want to hone their bike handling skills). Also, I went on a weekend mountain bike trip with Ray in the Lakes District, but only did a single day because I am in shit shape. Really, all it did was make me feel worse about what I don't feel capable of doing.

I am working a hellish number of hours, and if I didn't have such a wonderful boss, I would probably walk right about now... The tension between various groups is unbelievable. The worst is dealing with my old team, and my old boss who is a second line manager now. She's still trying to make my life hell, but I have a good management team looking out for me. Among other things, she brought up a bit from when I was leaving her team, planning the move here. My "team lead" at that point had lied to her about a conversation that we'd had. When my manager at the time confronted me about it, I gave the only response I could, "You've already made your decision as to whom you will believe. You will believe her regardless, so there isn't any point in even attempting to defend myself." Or something along those lines. Really - My old manager was trying to get rid of me for whatever reasons she had. She was not going to believe me, no matter what, and confronting the person wouldn't have made a difference either. I have no evidence that I was telling the truth, or that the other person lied. At the time, I figured, "I am done with this, why bother fighting when I can't win." Though, it has always left me wondering what else she lied to our manager about regarding me, and in light of the fact that this has resurfaced, I have to wonder if I should have fought harder...

Anyway, the short of it is that every single part of my life has been stressful, to one extent or another over the last few months, but that's life, right?

On the positive side, I got a promotion, and the UK part of the company has decided to lift the pay freeze, so we will get pay raises this year, back dated to June (not a huge amount, a manager from another team has said - only 1-2% - but still, better than nothing, right?), and I will get a raise for my promotion, which will get back dated to July. And, the great thing about the UK is that, for some strange reason, band 8s and above get cars. I don't need a car, so, I will take the cash opt instead, and that also gets back dated to my promotion in July. So, yay - I feel less poor.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving because I am coming home to see my folks for 2 weeks. Mike and Norma and the kids will be there. Because of Sharon, Mom and Dad need me to come home soon, so Ray will be moving back on or around 1 May... I will get a small flat in London close to work, sell the car, send the dogs home, and live as cheaply as I can. I will be able to follow in September 2010. So, I intend to do a bunch of stuff related to getting ready for the move when I am visiting in November - Like talking to Hendrick Chevy about getting my truck and finding someone to re-do the kitchen.

So, this is where my life is right now. I will endeavor to keep this blog up to date in the future, but then again, I always endeavor, and don't often succeed for long.

Oh, and happy halloween! I have extra maltesers and mars bars! We didn't have nearly as many kids as we expected.

Really, this is a perfectly valid point...

So, both Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays here in the UK. At least for work it is, and I know that ASDA will be closed on Sunday, and probably Monday.... I don't care - I really just need a chance to relax a bit.

Anyway... You know what drives me nuts here in the UK? Mixer taps. Or rather, the fact that having a single faucet dispensing both hot and cold water at the same time is so rare that there has to be a special name for it... And it's poorly named because when you have a "mixer tap", as in the kitchen, you don't actually get "mixed" hot and cold water to get warm water - you get a stream of water that is hot on one side and cold on the other. The only time back home I can remember coming across someone's sink which had 2 faucets, one for hot water and one for cold, was my ex-boyfriend's Mom who lived in a really old house in Carrboro. I mean, built in like the 40's or 50's kind of old. But in the UK, this house we are living in is newer than my house back home. YET... The bathrooms have a hot water tap and a cold water tap. I don't understand how it could be THAT difficult to put in a normal type of Moen faucet that lets hot and cold water come out at the same time and be WARM water. There has to be something that I am missing... It can't be as simple as "it's always been this way, why change it".

Anyway... Going to fight my way through ASDA to stock up for this weekend.

I doubt that anyone has failed to hear by now that the G20 Summit is in London. It's one thing to peacefully protest, shout stupid slogans and regurgitated drivel, pretend to be self righteous, etc... (Because embracing expensive modern technology is anti-capitalist? Using a nylon tent – you do know that nylon is made from petroleum products? – in your fight against “big oil” is somehow ok?) But, then, people have to prove that they are nothing but idiots, spoiling for a fight, following mob rule... This poor moron can't even get the “Wunch of Bankers” joke right...

I AM a capitalist. I am not ashamed in the slightest of the fact that I enjoy my creature comforts. I miss my M5. I miss my real sized house. I miss the free cash I had when I lived in a country with a reasonable tax rate. I like stuff. I like techno-gadgets. I like being a capitalist. I will not apologize for it.

Do I have the slightest sympathy for the people who CHOSE to live the lives that they do? I am talking about those people who chose to be bike messengers or chose to be starving artists... If you have made a decision to do as little as you can, to rebel against everything and seek to destroy things that people have ACTUALLY WORKED HARD to achieve because you feel some injustice that has been done to by... who? The guy across from you on the train? Someone who worked harder than you? The government? Your parents? Some random god? Grow up. Get a fucking job. CONTRIBUTE to society! Stop whining and do something CONSTRUCTIVE!!!

Yes, I know people make bad choices. Yes, I know that bad things happen to good people. Yes, I know that life is unfair to a lot people. GET OVER IT. I've been through a lot of shit in my life. I made bad decisions, and good ones. Everyone has. Now, what you do at that point... THAT is what defines you as a person. Besides, these aren't the people I am complaining about...

Ok... End of my rant... I have nothing positive to say at this point. I don't understand the mindset. I can't understand it. And I am done trying.

OK - I know - I am horrible at keeping my blog up to date!

Anyway... Things are going pretty well. I am doing swimming lessons at the Dartford Council pool. This is the equivalent of the city pools in Fayetteville... So. Yuk. And the place isn't wonderfully maintained, so, like this past week the boiler wasn't working, so the pool was cold and there was no hot water for showers. But, on the other hand, the lessons are cheap enough and, being a kayaker, I really need to be a better swimmer. I've only had 2 of the 10 lessons so far, but, its already helped immensely. For one thing, I can actually get my head under water to swim. Hopefully, I will actually be able to get really good at this eventually.

The dogs and stuff... Dingo attacked Emma AGAIN... This time, Ray had just gone to drop me off at the train station in the morning. Just 15 minutes or so... And yet... So, we are getting a dog behavioralist in to work with her. They will evaluate them and see what we can do. As it is now, we keep them in different rooms every time we leave at all now. Or one of them goes in the car with us. We don't even let them in the back yard together and alone. But, rather than wait for the day when Dingo really does serious damage to Emma, we figured that maybe these folks can help us with her. It's odd, but Dingo is getting along fine with Abbie, and with Ed.

So, tomorrow is 7 years of being married to Ray... Wow.

Ummm. Not much else to say.

I am... ok

Not perfect, not terrible, but ok.

So, we got back to the UK ok. It was a bit problematic getting home, but we did. Then, Sunday morning, we went to A&E and after a few hours, I got the cast off and got an appointment with the "fracture clinic". (Nothing is broken, I am still confused about this!) But, then, Sunday afternoon, it started snowing. And it kept snowing. And Monday, there was a ton of it! And because they were so unable to cope with the snow, it seemed a good idea not to venture out to the hospital Monday morning. I had to reschedule the appointment, and the best the could do is the next Monday, a full week away, which is tomorrow. So, I will see how things are tomorrow, but honestly - I don't think it's that big of a deal. I am getting around ok, and it's not like I haven't torn up my knees before.

Hopefully, today, we can go to the Tri show at Sandown Park. It should be cool. And it would be nice to get out of the house.

That's about it for here... Oh- Except that I really want this mug:

CAD - Starbucks mug design @ SplitReason.com

Can't sleep... Again

So, we finally fly back home later today. It would have been a fun trip if I hadn't screwed up my knee. I've decided that Sunday, I am just going to the A&E and getting them to look at it along with the x-rays and medical report from Bulgaria. I am hoping that they will tell me it was all a misdiagnosis, and I don't have to wear any kind of cast. Even if it wasn't, and I have to wear something to immobilize the knee, I would hope that NHS is modern enough to have AirCasts so I can take the stupid thing off every now and then.

The worst part of the entire thing has been trying to get BUPA travel insurance to handle what they were supposed to handle. I have to have a “fit to fly” certificate and in order to get that, the docs have to either have payment in full or a guarantee of payment from the travel insurance company. Which makes sense. But, BUPA took forever to get anything done, and since I didn't get the fit-to-fly paperwork until last night, they didn't start processing it until this morning. I have called at least a dozen times, back to the UK, to talk to these idiots. And I get stupidity like, “It looks like they couldn't verify your insurance” (3 days after I first called them, and they never called me back to get more info so that they could) and “Oh, we will have this sorted in time for you to fly back in 2 days time.” No, you idiot, I fly out tomorrow. Because it took so long to get this straightened out, they couldn't book my extra seats on the Monarch flight I was supposed to be on. Instead, I have to EasyJet. Ok, maybe I am being petty, but it means no free meal. It means paying £1.50 for a 250ml Pepsi! Though Ray (despite currently snoring quite loudly) had to make the smart ass comment when he heard, “Hey, at least EasyJet paints the engines that bright orange, so when it falls off, they know who to return it to.” And this particular flight apparently never runs on time.

I hope the pups are doing well. We haven't heard from the pet sitters, but the cell signal doesn't always seem to work here.

Well, it's 3AM here in Pamporovo. I guess I will go back to tossing and turning.

Ok, so first time skiing. We got this really cool, very cheap trip from Crystal Ski, to here in Pamprovo, Bulgaria. It seemed like a good idea – it's mostly inclusive... the flights out and back, 6 days of beginner ski school, equipment rental, lift tickets, both breakfast and dinner, and a room with private shower and wc. Well – I know that I am not like Ray. Ray picks things up physically the way I pick things up intellectually. After the first day, I felt rather frustrated and kind of like I wasn't going to be able to get the hang of this... Of course, being me, I will not just quit and give up. Not only because I've already paid for this, but also because I can't just stop. It's just not me. I keep going until it's really stupid. And, once again, I've paid for it. I realized that I wasn't doing well, and I wanted to get private tuition. However, I dithered about the timing, and decided to see how I was doing at the end of the second day before actually doing it. Maybe that was my mistake. So... We are going down an easy slope – the one with the little pull lift at the bottom to get you back up – and one leg went one way, the other in the other direction, I went down, and I knew immediately that my knee was not well, and that I wouldn't be doing anything else for the rest of the day. It's not a big deal, I have crap knees, and I know that. So, ice, ibuprofen, and I should be good to go the next day. Except that the ski instructor really wanted me to see a doctor. So I did. I have a torn ligament and, of course, to limit my movement, my leg is now in a full, plaster, 10-ton cast. They don't have air casts like back home. Ok, it's not the most modern country. But they don't even have the resin casts? Ugh... This sucks. Really really really really sucks. I sent Ray out to ski today because at least he can have some fun. He really was managing to get the hang of it, so that's cool. I just hope he doesn't break something. That would make it very very difficult to get home. As it is, BUPA travel insurance is having to get me 3 seats on the plane so that I can keep my leg elevated. You aren't allowed to fly in a full leg cast otherwise, supposedly. Plus, the doc has to give me a “Fit for Travel” certificate or something. Oh, well. At least I tried. Now, going to go back to reading and being bored...

I know that I am a social retard. I know that I am so awkward, that I don't typically manage to get along very well in social situations. I am fairly cold and distant in groups. I don't tend to like people, I don't tend to trust people, and I don't make friends very often and I don't usually care that I have very, very few people that I am willing to call "friend". (There are 2 people, in the entire country of the UK whom I currently deem a friend, not counting Ray.) However, if I have reached out, and decided to that someone is a friend, then I guess I tend to be fairly blind and naïve about things surrounding them.

OK - I know it's stupid, to let anyone get to me. The thing is, only someone I bothered to care about, only someone that I counted as a friend could get to me. She's so petty and stupid. It's all well and good for me to be arrogant, detached and cold about everything - I am the bigger person, I am in the right, I am more intelligent, I've never tried to screw her over, I have not lied to her... But she sat there making her snide little comments last Wednesday, all passive aggressive and condescending, with whomever was around, multiple times, feeling somehow superior, in her own way, and I sat there aloof and distant and pretending to not to hear, pretending to ignore her because it was beneath me... Yet small and petty and stupid and useless as she is, she has other idiots just like her for company, and all I have my arrogance, and that's it. I am all alone. And it just sucks. I am now really glad she is finally leaving after more than a year of saying she would, but its really screwed up to try to hurt someone's feelings. OK - to actually, purposely hurt my feelings is really completely screwed up and for what reason? And for the record – yes, you are a liar. Look, I don't even lie to cover my own ass. Do you think I would risk my good name, my integrity at WORK for your sake? Or anyone's sake? Realize though, while I will never lie FOR you, I would, for the sake of friendship, however, avoid pointing out to anyone else that you were lying – I would withhold the truth unless directly asked for it, and we all know how rarely that happens.

Part of this frustration is that work is not just a job. It's my way of providing for my life, my future. I bust my ass, I work as hard as I do, I am driven to succeed because this is not just some temporary job. It's my career, and I don't need someone else who does see it as just something to do for now, just something to make enough money to get drunk, to screw that up for me. You can say whatever you want about being a free spirit and wanting to live for NOW! But what happens when you are old? Do you really think that everything will just happen to work out? I plan for my future. Just because you are too stupid, too lazy, too whatever, to do the same, why do you hold me in contempt? Enjoy your life – that is cool. If you don't want to think beyond the next time you get drunk, that is your business, and I honestly don't begrudge you anything for that. (Yeah, I might think you are an idiot, but, as long as it doesn't impact me, I have no problem with people doing whatever they choose.) However, don't screw up my career, with your contemptuous arrogance that anything as big as the corporation we work for is beneath you because it's soulless or some stupidity like that. Your belief that you are entitled to screw over the company for everything you can just because it screwed you over is some vague imaginary way? Yeah, it's a load of crap. It is completely and utterly bullshit that you have told yourself to make YOU feel better about being who and what you are. Why do you work where you do? It's because you wanted money. Because you OBVIOUSLY believe in the capitalist system. You want pretty shiny toys. Just admit it.

Oh, I'm sorry. That would be asking you to reflect on yourself, your situation, your life and your impact on the people and the world around you. And you are far too self-centered to do that.

I feel better and I feel worse for the rant. It's a relief to say it, but it just emphasizes that sense of negativity that plagues me when I consider trying to make friends.

My brain just won't shut down. I am having the most awful time sleeping again… The result is that I overanalyse things. "I should have done that," or "That was stupid" kind of thoughts percolate through my head all night. (After I get bored factoring the time on the alarm clock. Look! I am not the only person in the world who does it!) The worst one right now is from when I got sick this last time. By the time we got home from the boat party, I was in an indescribable amount of pain, and, of course, running a fever. Finally, after taking some Tylenol and ibuprofen, for the pain and the fever, the last thought before falling asleep, was "I wish I'd kissed him." It keeps playing through my head – was it a moment of absolutely clarity, some secret understanding that I was denying to myself, or was it a fevered, nonsensical thought? It would be ok if I could just sleep and not be bombarded with random thoughts playing through my head, but… I am to the point that I am just zombie-like. I am so tired that very little is making sense. And, unlike Ray, I never get up and do anything – I just lay there, tossing and turning. I am always worried that if I do get up and do something, I won't ever go to sleep. At least in bed, I should be able to get myself into some kind of state resembling sleep. Eventually, I drift off, then wake up, then drift off… I am trying to get more exercise, riding on the trainer, and running on the treadmill and some yoga stuff, but that has yet to make me sleep any more than normal either. On the bright side – I am at my lowest weight in years, and I have even had to buy a new coat as my old one swallowed me whole. My should-be-skin-tight lycra Sugoi cycling shorts are too big for the first time since I bought them.

I don't necessarily mean to be lawful good. A guy I work with always says, "Chaotic good is more fun," but, it's too ingrained in me to be anything other. There are those folks who scam and scrape their way through life… I can think of too many that I know personally, in various ways, and they all annoy the crap out of me. I become less and less tolerant of these folks, the vast majority of the world, every single day.

I feel more and more strongly that I am only entitled to what I earn, thus WHY should you be entitled to more? Why should you get to sit on your perfectly healthy backside and take my tax money to watch day time television? (Yes, I am perpetuating a stereotype here, but I am actually related to one who fulfills the stereotype completely.) Or why should someone else be allowed to hold a job making as much as, or more than, I do, and yet, not do a quarter of the work I do? (And, yeah, I've learned not to ask that question out loud as it would make your manager look bad enough to decide you are not someone she wants working for her.)

So, the net result is that I always end up doing what is right because it's what is fair. I won't not buy a train ticket, just because I am pissed off at the fare increases, because, even if there are other people who don't pay, that isn't justification for me not to pay.

And there are people who lie like they breathe. You never know if they are telling the truth, even if there is no reason for them to lie...

And, then, the other day at work, we were discussing the arduous task of moving house. This guy had moved, but just down the street, so he didn't anticipate needing to get any equipment to help him move… He tried to steal a shopping cart, but in the UK, most are equipped with some kind of device to keep the carts from disappearing. So, he got to a certain point in trying to leave the perimeter of the store, and a strong magnet caused a brake to come down, and the cart could no longer be used. He didn't realize that would happen, and was baffled when it did. Of course, I started explaining that it was magnetic, etc, and a co-worker jumped in to clarify "You should have lifted it up over the line." I realized that they both thought I knew about this because I made a habit of stealing shopping trolleys, instead of what really happened: I saw the signs at Tesco, and I wanted to know what the method was they were using to actually stop the cart from working past a certain point, so I googled the brand name. (Not that they would actually acknowledge my explanation. I guess it makes them feel justified to believe that I was stealing shopping carts in my spare time.)

Look. These are people who work with me. They make as much money as I do, maybe more. These are SINGLE people who are only supporting themselves, not a husband, 3 dogs and a cat. (We try desperately to keep all of Ray's earnings in the US, so we live almost entirely off my paltry UK salary.) They should have tons of cash to spare to rent a trolley to move. It's easier to cheat and do what is wrong rather than the alternative, which I would have chosen.

And the worst part is: I am vaguely bitter and pissed off about this. Not enough to actually even argue futilely with them about why it's wrong. (They don't care. They don't believe it hurts anything.) But it's still there - that niggling little annoyance.

Installing SuSE on my vm system… So, I decided to write this to kill some time.

I got a credit card "offer" in the mail yesterday from Capital One, UK. They "offered" a 34.9% interest rate!! Omigod! I know that, being fairly new to this country, I don't exactly have real credit rating. They apparently don't have caps here as they have an option for a card that charges 59.99%. (Because that .01% is going to make a world of difference.) I would say, "How can anyone be so stupid to apply for one of these cards?" But I already know the answer.

Speaking of which… I had this awful dream the other night – It was one of those where you wake up, and you are trying to do whatever it was you were doing in the dream. In this case, I was yelling at Sharon. I had spoke to my parents earlier in the day, and Mom had said something like "Sharon is going to make us her chicken salad." So, in the dream, Sharon had poisoned them so they would die, and she would get their insurance money. Of course, when I tell Ray this upon waking, his only comment was that, considering her hygiene, she really wouldn't have to resort to poison. Just feeding them may put them both in the hospital with some disease.

So – The weather. It sucks. It is cold. Like, really cold. We've had some snow last few days. And the cul-de-sac where we live is basically just a frozen sheet of ice. Everyone keeps telling me that they can't remember it ever being so cold here…

Oh, well. My install still isn't done, but, I have some other stuff I can get done.

So... Assorted news thingies. I HAVE to make comments.

I am watching the France 24 news about Israel's invasion of Gaza... I have to say – I really cannot say Israel is wrong. They were attacked, they have to take action to protect their people... Its terrible that they have had to use ground troops and are fighting in this fashion, but it is justified.

The other thing is the financial situation in the US. And yeah, Obama is basically rehashing the New Deal. A co-worker claims that this is Keynesian and I should disagree with it because I agree with Smith's economic view of things. I really have to say that I rather resent that. I hate labels. Does it matter which camp the views fall into? If it gets the country moving again economically... Social Darwanism isn't something I necessarily disagree with (I won't say that I AGREE with it 100% either) but, let's be honest, it won't actually make our economy suddenly start working. Be reasonable about it! I am not going to espouse views that aren't economically feasible at this point. Ideals only work in an ideal world. You could say that just because Henry Ford was a racist, that his ideas should all be ignored. You have to pick and choose the best parts of the varying ideas and theories that exist to make something coherent and useful.

Though, one good thing about the economic downturn is that everything is on sale. Zaavi is going into Administration, which is bankruptcy here. So, we picked up a bunch of movies pretty cheap. Like, we got all of the Monty Python stuff – the movies, the series, the Hollywood Bowl, literally EVERYTHING – for £30. Plus other stuff.

Anyway – I am going to bed now. I've not been sleeping very well, and I have to work tomorrow, so... 'Night.

So, we caught up on Torchwood season 2. You know, science fiction is one thing. I think I've complained about this before, and now I remember why I didn't watch it while it was on... Jeez. It doesn't take a lot for accuracy. Or just believability. Come on!. Dr Who is for kids, so the details of how a nuclear power plant works isn't really relevant. But Torchwood is for adults. Look - You don't have to be detailed. If you don't have perfectly accurate, it can be black box. But don't just make random crap up for the sake of drama. People cannot be that stupid! It's not possible for an adult to believe the crap they made up. It's ALMOST as bad as “Up and to the left”. GAHHHH! I guess it's just a question of how much disbelief you expect me to suspend...

So, at least I am feeling a bit better today. We didn't do much – just sat around and caught up on Torchwood episodes. We were going to go to Tracey's for Christmas Lunch, but, I didn't want to get anyone sick. Instead, Ray had to cook dinner. We had ham and mashed potatoes and sprouts, but Ray forgot to put the sprouts on, so it was just ham and mashed potatoes. :-) And a Reeses Whipps Candy Bar that Mom sent for dessert.

And Ray got me the coolest thing! A DeLonghi espresso machine! Yay!!

And well, that's about it. Happy Sundry Holidays.

So... Christmas Eve, if you celebrate that kind of thing. And if you do: Merry Christmas!

Long time, no post, I know... Same story as usual: I was really busy. Things have been hectic at work for me. I had a ton of administrivia to work on beyond my normal stuff. That's what kills you. We've also had a bunch of work things going on. We had a paintball thingy on the 9th at some place in Canary Wharf. That was actually a lot of fun – I ended up really bruised, but it was great.

Then, we had the big party, organized by dev, at Dogget's Coat and Badge again this year. We got the entire 4th floor to ourselves and a really big bar tab, and a number of folks from my team showed up. As I get older, I realize that, for me, drinking is kind of silly. I rarely ever drink now – I guess its been since we stopped hanging out with the Anderson bros – but the few times I have, it has occurred to me: I metabolize alcohol rather quickly. So, since it was pretty much an open bar, I had 4 of these Kopparberg Pear Ciders. (Have to provide a link because this is really my favorite alcoholic beverage EVER!!) Now, considering that I don't typically drink, thus have low tolerance, and that I have lost a considerable amount of weight over the last year or so, I really should have been completely drunk. A lot worse off than I was, at least. I reached a point of “Hey, I am buzzed, but I still need to be able to make my way home without falling over,” so, I drank a couple pints of water. Within another hour, I was half way sober. So, I had a final and 5th cider before leaving. The next morning, I woke up, perfectly normal, as usual, with no hangover. It was cool, since I wasn't actually paying for the alcohol, but, I am still not sure of the point. Anyway...

Then, just us L2 folks had our own party on a boat, again, just like last year. And it was fun this year too, though after that is when I started getting sick. Since Ray rode his bike out to Southbank, after we got off the boat, we had to return to collect his gear. As we started heading off, I realized I was feeling a bit crappy, kind of tired. We get to the station, and between Ray's need for organizing his gear in a specific way, and my slowness because I wasn't feeling quite well, we'd missed the train and, had to wait nearly another hour for the last train. By that point, I started shivering, with the chills. Yeah, I knew then I was getting sick. An interminable train ride later, complete with a shoving match between a couple where the woman was trying to leave the abusive boyfriend, and we get to Greenhithe for me to discover that someone had messed with my bike. They broke my front light, taking the actual front part of it off. They tried to steal the seat, but couldn't that all the way off, either. They also let air out of one of my tires. Why? Just because the kids here are little shits with nothing better to do with their time. If they'd stolen something, it would have pissed me off, but at least theft has a goal. Random destruction of a bike just because it was there... Granted – this is the bike Ray got off Ebay for me for £40 because we assumed it had a chance of being stolen or damaged when I took it to the station, but still... So, it took us another 20 minutes of getting things together to get the hell out of there. By the time we got home, every joint in my body, every muscle, everything hurt in an indescribably painful fashion. Yeah – gotta love the flu. Since then, I've pretty much stayed in bed, running a fever and being miserable. I did update my facebook, but you shouldn't do that when you are feverish and confused. I tried to send everyone gingerbread cookies, and sent something else instead. Still not quite sure what, though.

Yesterday, I went to the doc to get antibiotics. I have a sinus infection on top of it all. It's always been this way, it always will be. I get a nasty virus, it screws up my sinuses, and I get a secondary bacterial sinus infection following the viral infection. Anyway – So today is the first day I feel cogent. Not 100% well, not even 70% well. But... Not every part of me hurts, and I think I might stay awake for more than a 3 hour stretch. The antibiotic will help my sinuses in a day or two or three, now that the virus seems to be receding. I am guessing that I will actually feel completely better by next Monday, just in time for me to go back to work. :-)

We went to see “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”. It was quintessential Kevin Smith. It was funny and bawdy and offensive and wonderful. It was rated 18 here, which means that it is not a porno (which is 18-R and can only be sold in a licensed sex shop), but you must be 18 or older to attend. (And I am sure that they are as fastidious at stopping kids under 18 from entering a movie as they are about keeping under 18's from buying alcohol.) Anyway – I loved the movie! It made me laugh my ass off. Especially hearing MC Chris in there. Woo!

It's been a couple of weeks now, using my Dell with Ubuntu. I am still mostly happy about it. The only complaint, and this holds true with all laptops, except ThinkPads... I can't deal with the damned touch pad thingy. I always use the TrackPoint, and never learned how to type avoiding the touch pad. I am typing along and suddenly, I am at the start of a line or in a different window... Really, that annoys me. But, hey, really, it isn't bad otherwise. I even moved all of my financial stuff over here. I was doing everything in Excel, but OpenOffice has very nicely converted everything and it works great. I had some trouble talking to Dad in Skype, but honestly, I was having the exact same problem when I was running Skype on my Vista 64 system. It may be Dad's Skype that is wonky. But once I got the sound setup correctly - I had to actually enable the mic port in the OS – it worked great! I could see Dad's video, and I could see my own video. I will play around and see if we can get this working better.

Anyway... I am going to run now. It's a dreary, Sunday morning, but we need to get some stuff done around here.

Oooh! Cool! It's snowing and my gmail BusStop thingy shows a snowman... hehehe

I need to update my blog a lot more often...

So, I got really upset with the HP 2133 Mini Note... Quite simply, I wanted to get an activation code for SLED... I could not get it from HP. I argued, I yelled, I gave up. I took the laptop back to Curry's. They typically don't take back anything if it's been opened. I guess there is too much fraud. But – They called HP, and they were trying to talk to the tech support guys about it to see if HP would take it back... The manager is talking to them, and they are communicating, right up to the point he says “It's a 2133 Mini Note”. Suddenly, the guy at HP couldn't hear him at all and hung up on him. So, the manager of Curry's got pissed off and just decided to give us an exchange. So, I said “Screw it” and I got a Dell Inspiron 1318. It was preloaded with Windows, AND it came with handy preload CDs and everything, so if you toast your load, you don't have to beg for reload CDs or anything, you already have them. However, I have now wiped it and loaded Ubuntu on here. And it ROCKS! There were no problems, or gotchas. I just loaded it, and poof! Everything just worked! So, I am very happy with it. It works great! It isn't quite as small as I wanted, but, you know what, that is ok. It is a very cool laptop and I am quite happy with it! (And I am using it right now.)

So, we went to Leeds Castle today. It was really interesting... Ok, well, it was pretty interesting. The grounds were pretty. And there were tons of ducks. And geese. And swans. Ray suggests that I actually start figuring out what kind of birds I am taking pictures of, so instead of being “a goose that isn't a Canadian goose”, I can actually be a bit more specific.

Ray is currently watching “The Truth Behind the Moon Landings”... I am really surprised at the idiocy these folks spout forth. I am beginning to understand though – These folks want to feel special, like “I know something no one else knows!” How stupid people can be.

Anyway... Gonna go now...

Yay! I get to go home. Or at least, back to the UK. Really, Rome is a beautiful place - but the constant protests and demonstrations the entire time I've been here... Besides, I miss my pups, and Ray and stuff. Since we've moved, I've been away more than I've been home.

I am actually writing a blog now cause, well, I am awake. Its after 0130, and I can't get to sleep. I had a nasty headache earlier, so I took headache stuff and laid down, hoping it would go away. It did, but now I can't sleep. Oh, well.

I just realized that I don't have a lot to say at the moment. There's a ton of stuff going through my head, but it's a bit disorganized up there, and more than I want to share. :-)

So, here I am... Still in Rome. I am waiting for stuff to finish, and can't actually do ANYTHING until then...

I was asked to stay another week. It was cheaper for me to stay here over the weekend, in the hotel, getting my per diem, and having my laundry done (~£300 all together) rather than flying back, which would require me to take a taxi back to Heathrow on Monday morning (>£500). Plus – Even if I was somewhere with nothing to see or do, I would rather stay through the weekend because travelling back is more stress than it's worth. I would lose half a day Friday afternoon to leave and catch my plane, and half a day Monday morning, because of travelling in. Plus, to catch that Monday morning plane, I have to be book a taxi at 0430, which means I have to be up at like 0300 so I can do all of the normal morning activities required for me to get ready for work. My crit sit manager thought it odd that I shouldn't want to come home to see Ray for the weekend. But, really, it's far less relaxing and far more stressful for me to travel back. So, no.

But, it was sort of a valid point, so I checked and it was only like £250 to fly Ray out here. So, I did. Now, I still got to spend the weekend with Ray, Emma got to spend the weekend with dachsies at the pet sitter's house and I got to not be stressed out. It worked out for the best.

Among other things, we saw the Coliseum and the Palatine with Augustus' house. It was really neat. I have a ton of pictures. In fact, I filled up mu 4GB card with them. As usual – I will upload them eventually. Which so far has meant "never"... But, seriously, I really will this time.

It was a bit crap earlier in the week... I've been fighting something off for the last month or so. I get better, I get worse. I take sudafed and tylenol and get a little better. A couple of days later, I get a bit worse. Hopefully, I am actually over it now.

Last night was an absolute mess, though. It rained and poured like I've only seen back home. Warm rain, in buckets. Like we get from tropical storms. I got hit by a wave of water, which soaked through my jeans. I was wearing a rain coat, but I was still drenched to the bone. But its gorgeous and sunny today, so yay. Even though, I don't really get to enjoy it.

Anyway, I think we will go off to lunch while waiting for this stuff to finish doing what its doing...

OK – So, here I am in Rome. The little I've seen is really really neat. I found out today that the customer expects us to be gone at 1800 and was feeling rather put-upon because I spent an extra 15 minutes getting some data to send back. Since I didn't know this before, I didn't finish up what I was doing in time. And, of course, I still had emails to send and status updates, etc… So, I have to pay for internet in this hotel, and I do NOT get reimbursed for it… Yeah – I am just a bit grumpy about that. Oh well.

I am hoping tomorrow that 1) I feel a bit better and 2) I will have planned better so that I can go see some stuff tomorrow night.

I was just thinking that it's funny because you see these paintings EVERYWHERE in the US of some small street, and you can never tell what country its in, because everywhere I've been thus far on the continent - France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and here in Italy - they have those same narrow, picturesque streets, winding up a hill, with colorful buildings that have flower boxes hanging out windows.

Also, I want to say: We have no idea what a latte is. Yummmmm… I usually get a latte wherever I am. I got one here. It was just a shot of espresso with a dollop of milk. Put a lot of sugar in, and omigod it is tasty.

Last: I went to a grocery to get some Pespi Max and a bottle of water. 1) No Pepsi Max just a couple of bottles of Diet Pepsi, a couple of bottles of regular Pepsi. This is a Coca-Cola nation. 2) When I walked in, Plush by STP was playing. And some Italian guy was singing. Badly. With a heavy Italian accent. It was really funny.

Ok – Gotta go. I am kinda tired and just need to crash.

I didn't have a chance to write a blog since I got back from home...

So, Emma is doing ok. Her damned bandage keeps falling off, though. The vet says that its not really a good thing to put an actual full cast on dogs since they can't give input about if the cast is pinching or anything like that. So, Emma has a bandage with a hard bit in there to keep it stabilized. The problem is that she won't hold still. So she runs in circles until the whole thing falls off. I took her by to get it re-wrapped last Friday, and it was £35 just to have it changed and it came off within 10 minutes of getting home. So, we have just been re-doing her bandage ourselves.

Ray and I both had fun with Drew and Ashley and actually getting to see Mike and Norma and stuff. We spent time with them in Colonial Williamsburg. Also, we saw some fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls (though the really very coolest part of it was the page of the Gutenberg Bible). And, happily, we got to eat at El Dorado. Yay!

Next week I am going to Rome. I am kind of excited about it. A bit stressed, but it should be ok.

Anyway, I need to run. It's late enough and I have to get stuff done tomorrow.

Isn't vacation supposed to be relaxing?

It seems as though nothing is going right, though that's obviously not true. We made it here, AND both the flight from LHR to Detroit and the one from Detroit to RDU were EARLY!! The first one left 20 minutes early and got in the air and added another 40 minutes, so that we actually landed an entire hour early. Amazing! Ok, so it meant we wandered around the airport being bored for a longer period of time, but we weren't rushed or stressed or anything about "will we make the next flight?!" And I got Caribou Coffee as soon as we got there. And then, even the flight to RDU was early, but Dad still made it to pick us up, and was waiting. Our cab even got us to Heathrow quickly and cheaply (£70 from out past Dartford!), and checked in with no real delays. So, all that went really well – obviously that worked out.

However, Sunday morning EST/ noon-ish BST, we got a call from the pet sitters… Apparently, we were completely wrong about Dingo. She's been attacking Emma all this time. Every time something happened, there was another reasonable explanation. We think that maybe even the people we boarded with last year, when Emma's foot got broken, maybe they were right – maybe it was Dingo who attacked Emma. (But they didn't handle it well, so I am still unhappy with them.) Anyway, Liz from Animals At Home gave us a call, and Ray spoke with her. Emma's back foot is broken in at least 3 places, she had a bite on the front leg, and there was blood all over the house. Dingo attacked Emma. There is no other explanation. So, I am so stressed and worried about our poor Corgi, and feeling guilty because I should have known that Dingo is a bully, and wondering where we will get the money to pay for all of this. We would have tried to change the flight, to go back sooner but 1) because we got such cheap tickets, it would be stupid expensive to do so and 2) we are here to see Mike, Norma, Drew and Ashley. We are now in Colonial Williamsburg with them. It really sucks because I want to enjoy it and have fun with them – I never get to see my brother and sister-in-law and their kids… But I keep thinking about poor Emma.

At least the Animals at Home people are competent. They knew immediately what was wrong and took her to the vet's office. Of course, being Sunday, they couldn't go to our vet, but she is at a 24 hour place in Sidcup. They knew where to take her, what to do for her. They kept us apprised of the situation. I am happy with THEM even if I am upset about the situation. I've asked them to separate out Abbie and Dingo – to leave Ding in the kitchen and let Abbie roam the house. I forgot to ask how Abbie and her poor eye are doing. In all the fuss over Emma (well, Emma is far worse off than Abbie at this point), I forgot to see how her eye is doing. Well, I've sent an email now, and they will respond when they can. And we went with these folks because we had a pet sitter in Coulsdon from the same company - her name was Pearl. And even Dingo loved Pearl! So, I absolutely need to say: if you are in the UK, looking for a pet sitter, just google something like "Animals at Home" and your town or borough.

On top of all this crap, I am sick. My ears are killing me, my sinuses are all screwy, and because they are draining, my throat hurts and I have no voice. And I can't sleep. I've been awake since 3AM. Partly because stupid BT thought it a good idea to text me with some stupid sales message. So, I am kind of zombie-fied… Tired, sick, just kind of out of it.

On a positive note though, I've discovered that my niece and nephew are pretty cool kids. We discussed zombie movies and Slipknot with Drew and Ashley is a bit devious, but really smart and happy. They are cool kids.

Why can no one do their job?

So, we don't have broadband at the new place because it ALWAYS takes 5 working days from the time you get your new phone number… Why they couldn't have just transferred the service, I can't say… But SKY told us it would take 20 business days, so we decided to go with BT. I called a couple of days ago and was told the broadband order was pending. OK- Cool – that's what I expected. But, I called today, paranoid, just wanting to confirm everything was ok (and so I could find out when we would get our extra special BT Hub thing), and I discovered that THERE IS NO RECORD OF MY ORDER!!! WTF?!?! Ok, fine – do the order again. But, they can't speed it up, either. So, it's going to be next Tuesday before it's available. Hmmm – Next Tuesday. When we are back in the States!!! Bastards! And the thing is.... There is nothing we can do about it. It will just be that way. Trying to go through someone else would just make it take longer.

So, the next thing – gotta find out from Sky why they are trying to charge me £99 for another Sky+ box when we already have one. I call, someone named Deborah answers rudely, after spending 5 minutes navigating through the VRU. I explain the situation. She hangs up on me. That's bad enough as it is… But then!! I try to dial back in, spend another 5 minutes navigating through the VRU and, guess what! "We expect to handle your call within 26 minutes." That was 62 minutes ago. And right about now, I am going to have to hang up so we can go back to the old place long enough for Ray to mow the lawn and get the last load of crap into the car. (And so I can upload this plus send Dad an email)

ARGGGG!!!! Can't people just do their job!?!?!?!?!?!

Note: After I finished writing this, I gave Ray the phone to hold on while I packed up to come over here to the old place.... Someone FINALLY answered to tell us that it was a form letter, they weren't really charging us £99 and that they STILL haven't turned off Sky Broadband or Sky Talk. And it took about an hour and twenty minutes to get that answer...

So… Here I wait.

The confirmation said (this is copied and pasted from the email sent):
"Thank you for mail and taking decision to use Euro Removal for your forth coming move. We are pleased to confirm that our team will be at CR5 2NP on Sunday 28th September between 8 to 9am "

And yet. Here it is. 10:20. Where are they?!?!

And of course, when things go wrong, they really go wrong…

I had to have Dad transfer money here for us. Coastal Federal can't do it, so I have to transfer money to Dad, and Dad has to go to his bank and transfer money to us. (Yeah, I know – we could use Western Union or any of a dozen other wire transfer services, but those are REALLY expensive, and it's a lot cheaper going through Dad's bank.) So – he tells her to transfer over $4000. DOLLARS. USD. The form even said $4000 EQUIVALENT into GBP Sterling. What did the idiot there do? She "miskeyed" it and sent £4000. GBP. Pounds Sterling. Which meant that she nearly drained Dad's checking account. AND it took 2 extra days to transfer because she sent it in the wrong currency. AND it meant that I had to turn around and send a bunch of money back. It's really ridiculous. So – we got the money on Friday just in time so that I could get the Bankers Draft for the Estate Agent. Grrrr.

And, on top of that. Poor Abbie is not well. Her eye is swollen and red. The doc says its conjunctivitis, but luckily the other dogs haven't gotten it. The problem is that it's not getting better with the drops that we are putting in and it's spread to the other eye now. She felt warm to me this morning, as if she might be running a fever. Poor pup.

Oh well – I need to go call the moving company… It's now 10:30!!

I was doing really good for a while as far as updating my blog. And now…

So – I am watching TV, and there is this new Citreon C4 commercial. It's just a bit odd because we can't buy Citreons in the US. Though, it isn't as bad as this one for the Renault Clio. We don't sell crap cars like that.

In trying to get our broadband moved from here to our new place, I was told by the lady at Sky that I would have to be without broadband for 20 days!!! TWENTY DAYS?!?!?! Ok- I work from home at least 2 days a week, sometimes 3 or 4. Ray has no where else to work from. We CANNOT be without broadband for 20 days.

Anyway – Need to run before my laptop battery dies… I am getting REALLY excited now! We move in 1 week, and we go back home in 2 weeks! Yay!

So I once again had to get sick… This time it was a really awful stomach bug. It started last Thursday. Today is the first day since then that food has stayed where it should. That makes me happy.

So, everything else is going well. Ray and I are moving to a new place with a TON of room, and a real back yard and it's fully detached and has a garage and a workshop. It's in a real neighborhood, with fields near by for Dingo to run in. Ray and I will each have our own offices, instead of being jammed into one small room. Plus! It's close to a REAL, American-style shopping mall. We were concerned at first about whether or not we've been approved for it, because despite the fact that we make far more than enough to rent this place, we had not been in the country for 3 years. It turns out that I alone make enough to make the creditors happy! Yay! These poor folks were trying to sell their house for 6 months because they are moving to France. The market here is really that bad. But, it is good for us, because we are getting the perfect place. It's kinda funny because the ad says no dogs allowed, but they have a Chocolate Lab and a Irish Wolfhound. We met the owner, and brought the fat Corgi with us. Compared to her large dogs, she wasn't too concerned about our small, medium and large set of animals. So, YAY! We move on 27^th of September. A bit close to our October 4^th flight back home, but that's ok. We will need a vacation then!

Well, my FP install is done, so I am going to try to continue working for a bit more…

So there was something on TV the other night about polyamourous couples. All I can say is: At least they are honest about it. You see all these folks lying, cheating, going behind their boyfriend's or girlfriend's or husband's or wife's back to do whatever they want. (I can't count how many people I know that can fall under that description.) So you don't believe that monogamy is the natural for humans. As long as you are HONEST about it, and everyone agrees, why is it a problem? Why did they need to make such a big deal out of it and make a show about it on ITV? It was a British show with British producers, following 2 American polyamorous families. It was kinda stupid and overly dramatic. And yet, here I am talking about it. :-)

Another show that we watched the other night – this one really kind of scary... Supposedly, it is fashionable for women here to have plastic surgery on their feminine bits. It's called vaginoplasty. I am not very believing of random statistics thrown at me from sensationalist TV shows... 300% as many women last year as the previous 2 years, or something like that, is really meaningless when we have no idea how many had the surgery in previous years. Anyway – they showed a girl that like 17 or 18 who felt bad about herself – and had her labia “trimmed”. That was bad enough – It really doesn't make sense for any person that young who isn't terribly deformed to have surgery like that... What was worse was a woman that was rather obese that wanted to have vaginal surgery because she thought her twat was too big. There are other problems that she may want to address if she is THAT concerned with aesthetics. I feel pretty strongly that you should be happy with who you are, and that you should do what makes YOU happy. That is, if you feel better about yourself when you wear certain clothes, or make up, then you should do it. You should be the size that is right for you, not what society thinks is right. You should listen to music you like, read what you find interesting, watch stuff you like. If you do things because you think you have a better chance of attracting someone, or impressing someone or for another person other than yourself, then, there is something wrong with this. Just be who you are and be comfortable with who you are. Or maybe I am over simplifying...

I got into it with someone previously because she couldn't understand this point of view. “Oh, you want to be unique, like everyone else.” In her overeagerness to spout forth regurgitated wisdom, she'd missed the point that, unlike everyone else, I don't actually care what anyone else is doing. I don't like - or dislike, for that matter - something because popular opinion says it's wonderful. I make my own decisions. You should too! Just because I think your Uggs are horrendously, offensively stupid, useless, a waste of money and, well, ugly, doesn't mean my opinion should matter to you. Who am I that my opinion should have any effect on your wardrobe? As long as YOU like your Uggs and aren't wearing them JUST because some celebrity does.

Anyway, that's it for now. Gotta logon to work while I am still in a good mood, smiling at Dingo chasing squirrels in her sleep while snoring loudly.

Have I mentioned lately just how much I worship Joss Whedon and his family? Unfortunately, being in the UK, we cannot legally obtain Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, but as soon as I am able to get it from iTunes UK, I won’t hesitate to pay for it. (The people who make and sell stuff like that do get SOMETHING in the way of cash if I buy it from iTunes, right?) Don’t get me wrong, Doogie and Captain Tightpants were great! I just have great admiration for the brains behind it. (The brains also consisting of two of his brothers and one of the brothers’ fiancée.) It’s not JUST that the end product was wonderful, but also the idea behind it is really cool. Yeah, I know it has been out for a while – I have just been ultra slow in blogging about it.

So, tomorrow we are taking Ed back in for surgery tomorrow. They wanted to wait until the infection was under control, but the holes in his backside just keep getting bigger and bigger, even as they heal. Poor fellow. Oh, well – he will feel better after it’s done.

Anyway – That’s all for now.

The London Lite has a section where people text in their messages and they may or may not get printed. Anyway, for some reason, I couldn't stop laughing over commentary about pidgins getting on the tube. One earlier in the week said "Got on the tube. Pigeon on seat. No one blinked an eye." For a while, there were texts from a bunch of folks about this pigeon that would get on the tube every day at around the same time, then get off at the next stop. People never think twice about these vermin. I wonder how they would react to the very large rat I saw the other day? It seems to be normal to see rodents at rail stations, and this one was as big as Ed! (Ok – That's an exaggeration… But, it WAS as big as squirrel, though the tail was longer, proportionately than a squirrel's tail. It was longer than the rat itself, and massively thick. If I ignore the face, it made me think more of a possum with black fur than a rat. Could you imagine getting on the tube and finding one of those sitting on the seats?

So, for my fellow Americans: There are 3 big free papers in London, and while I am including the links for the online version, they don't match the printed version. They are the Metro in the morning, and the London Paper and London Lite in the evening. (There is also one called City AM, but as it is financial and business news, no one seems to read it.) The Metro is the least reliable. About once a week they print something that is such utter bullshit, you will not find it anywhere else, even their website. For example, one of my more naïve and less intelligent co-workers saw a story about Americans buying Vietnamese babies. (Huh?) So I asked him to explain – he of course couldn't, so he starts looking for the story. Eventually, he goes, "But I read it in the Metro last week! They printed it, so there had to be something to it!!" I have concerns that this person may be an accurate representative of his country. If so… This is a sad, sad country. (Ray says I am being an intellectual elitist, though.)

There's a lot of things that I don't quite understand about what is socially acceptable here. If someone is squatting or trespassing, why can you not just haul them off to jail? Well, apparently, "squatting is not illegal"?!?!?!?! I mean, if I just walk into a house that is for rent, and say "Hey, I am living here and not paying you rent", I would expect someone to come arrest me. I am trespassing. Is it any different from getting into a random car that is left unlocked in a parking lot and taking a nap in the backseat? What right do these people have?

Ok – That was my rant for the day. I am just plain confused now.

So the good news is that Ed is doing better now. He has two good sized open incisions on his butt now, with all the pus and stuff oozing out. (They were abscesses – you can't stitch up abscesses after lancing them or they will just become re-infected.) We've got him isolated in his own room with no dogs and he seems ok. We are taking him to our own vet today at 1530 to have them check over him and see if they want to give him a different antibiotic or if they want to do anything else with him.

Also – tomorrow is Ray's birthday. So, I tried to make him a birthday cake. I am again glad I never took Ray's last name when we got married because I really wouldn't want people to mistake the name as a statement of ability… This is the gorgeous cake I tried to make:

And this is what I managed to do:

It actually collapsed while I was trying to take pictures of it, I managed to catch some of it on a plate.

You might have noticed that there is a slight difference in how mine looks vs the one from Smitten Kitchen. This is, I think, because I didn't have parchment paper, and Ray insisted that the cake wouldn't stick to brand new Teflon coated pans… (His rebuttal for my statement that its all his fault was that he's a Cook not a Baker.) The result was that a chunk got ripped out of the middle layer. It would not, under any circumstances go back together in a happy fashion. Also - the Smitten Kitchen lady says to stick the cakes in the freezer for 30 minutes. DO THIS! It would have helped immensely, as well as ignoring Ray's insistence that the cakes were cool enough to frost when they obviously weren't. The top layer is perfect because it stayed in the freezer long enough to actually freeze while I was trying to fix the other two layers. But, regardless of the mess that is "the cake" – it tastes AMAZING!!! It is just… omigod. The cake recipe itself, without the frosting, is just godlike, moist and wonderful. Then, the peanut butter frosting is really good. The peanut butter chocolate drizzle stuff… Well – I think I would put more peanut butter into it. It really just tasted of the chocolate instead of a chocolate-peanut butter mixture. But – overall, it still tastes damned good. I am really happy with it. And in the future, I know what I could do to make it look better.

- Use parchment paper.

- Leave the cakes in the freezer for a FULL hour, at least in my pitiful UK freezer.

- So that the cakes are a bit thinner, I should use 8in pans instead of these 7.7 in Woolworth pans.

Other lessons learned:

- They don't have half and half readily available in the UK, so I used Elmlea Single Cream since its supposed to be lighter than regular single cream and you can supposedly use it in coffee. I think it may have been better if I'd mixed it with some milk so that it was closer to half and half, but it wasn't bad.

- PLAIN or BAKING or COOKING chocolate in the UK isn't what we Americans would think. In the UK, it's semisweet or bittersweet chocolate. In the US, it's, well, unsweetened, nothing but chocolate. So, if you need semisweet chocolate chips or chunks or whatever, you have to get plain chocolate. If you want unsweetened chocolate, you get drinking chocolate. I don't understand it, but that's how it is…

- As far as Dutch Processed cocoa… I understand that it is cocoa that has been treated with an alkali to reduce it's acidity, but there is nothing in UK stores that claims to be Dutch Processed. So I used Cadbury's Bournville Cocoa because that is what I could find. It works quite well, though I suspect that it may not be dutch processed because the cake is really fluffy.

- You expect since the English have moved away from imperial measurements, that it would be more difficult to find 8 in pans (which would be 20.3 cm). But why 19.8 cm? Who the hell needs pans to be 19.8? It made the layers a bit thicker than I wanted. (I think I am going to pickup silicon pans when I am back home in Oct.)

- The Smitten Kitchen lady mentioned using a commercial peanut butter so that you don't get the oil separation. Except that all the peanut butter here tastes terrible. The ones with no sugar added have palm oil added. And I can't explain why, but it's just not as good as Jif or even Skippy. So, we've found a NYC brand of peanut butter that is pretty good and I used this. I think the rougher texture of this peanut butter is better in this recipe than the Skippy smooth. (We can get Skippy here, but not Jif and not Smucker's Natural.) By the time it's mixed in, there isn't really any concern with it separating back out or anything. It works pretty well, even though it's a pain to mix up initially.

- I couldn't find corn syrup, so I used Golden Syrup. It really wasn't bad at all, but have JUST NOW found a better solution. I will try the melted sugar next time and see how that goes.

Wow! This has been a long post. Oh, well. I hope someone else tries this cake and has better luck making it pretty. It is really really tasty.

So, I am waiting to hear from the vet... Poor Ed. We have no idea what happened, but somehow, he ended up with an abscess on his rump. At first, I thought he jumped out another window. He was outside Saturday, and I didn’t know that Ray had let him out. (Ray still can’t remember if he actually let him out or not.) He seemed to be walking funny, so, I thought he’d jumped, but he seemed to be intact other than his tail being a little sore. Nothing was broken – we didn’t worry about it. Then I realized Sunday that he was walking funnier than the day before – his butt stuck way out. Well, maybe his anal glands need to be expressed or something – it’s not that uncommon of a thing for Ed. I told Ray, and by the time Ray took a look at him 20-30 minutes later, Ed seemed to be in even more pain. So, I found a vet on a Sunday (today is a Bank Holiday and we didn’t think he could wait until Tuesday because he was in so much pain) in Caterham and took him in. They were a bit hesitant as it isn’t something that folks would usually want emergency service for, but Ed was in far too much pain for us not to take the poor fellow in. Well, we brought him in and it turns out, as I’d said, that it’s an abscess. The vet said that it’s commonly from another cat attacking, being the aggressor, and the cat being attacked (Ed in this case) turning tail and running – the aggressor would have clawed at Ed’s tail. Well – Ed is only allowed in the back yard, which is fenced off and he cannot escape. However, we know that the Persian behind us (Justin) can jump up onto the brick wall... Maybe he got into our yard and fought with Ed and ran off? Or, if Justin can get in there, then any of the other dozen cats that roam the streets could have as well, I would guess... That is the only explanation we can think of... Ed isn’t allowed to roam, so...? Poor guy. I hope everything is ok. But, it still doesn’t mean I like him. Really. I hate cats. They are all vile and evil. Eeeeevilllllllle. I only give him special tuna treats or ham and pet him and stuff so he doesn’t try to kill me in my sleep. I don’t actually like him at all. (And does anyone actually believe that?)

So, other stuff… I think Ray is exceedingly excited about going back home for a week in October! He keeps talking about going to the Mexican restaurant. :-) We figure with Mike, Norma and the kids, there won’t really be room for us, so, right now we are trying to figure out what hotel to stay in. I want to stay at one off I-95 because it offers a “southern style breakfast buffet”. Yum! Dunno yet, though. The bad thing is, though, because of Ed’s vet costs, there goes a lot of the money we’d put aside for this. Oh, well. It’s not as if our financial situation is THAT dire. And Mom and Dad are going to let us borrow a car, too, so we don’t have to rent one, which will be good.

Anyway, rather than more complaints or contemplation… Just going to grab some lunch and do nothing for a while.

It's been a VERY long time since I posted anything…. Sorry. I've been sick and busy, and I've been gone, etc… I will post pictures of Paris one day. When I get to it. Really! I promise!!

So, I am finally getting to it because I am watching a show called "BNP Wives". For Americans who aren't familiar the British National Party – imagine the KKK with actual real political power and people with these beliefs actually holding office. As in – these are Aryans. These are Blood and Honour (yes, with an extra "u" because it is the British arm of the same racist group). These are people that think the holocaust was a lie. Ummm… WTF? I mean, sure, it's sensationalist media, and sure they are probably taking the very worst sound bytes, but that doesn't change the fact that the women they are following ARE racists. I guess I just have this image in my head of the majority of the outspoken racists in the US as being on the lower rung of society. I mean - if you can't work well with others, and ignore all those things like race and sex and religion and sexual orientation and blah blah blah, then you will never be able to succeed because prejudices will keep you from recognizing potential. It's an obvious statement. But here, these people are winning elections and stuff.

I guess this really grates on me, too, because the other day, Ray walked down to the station to meet me, as he always does, and he brought Dingo with him. By his account: A fat lady with her fat kid and an old guy were standing on the platform waiting for the train. Dingo sniffed the kid, the lady yelled at Ray to keep Dingo on a shorter leash. He started to be apologetic, then she kept on. So he was Ray-like to her, ending with telling her off. The old guy had to point out that he was American and that started yet another argument. "Why don’t you go back and stop taking our jobs?" Well – to be fair – Ray does NOT have a UK job. He pays UK taxes, but doesn't actually take a job from the UK. He still has his US job, gets paid in US dollars, etc. He contributes more to the economy than the fat housewife and more than what the pensioner currently contributes. (Whether that was an assumption on his part that she was a house wife, or whether she said something, I can't tell you.) Then, of course, he goes into the "If there were enough qualified and motivated people in this almost third world country, it wouldn't be an issue, but here I am stuck in this place…" (If you've talked to Ray in the last couple of years, you've heard this rant enough times that you probably know it quite well.) Anyway – the point of the Ray-rant story is that while some of these folks will yell about immigrants to the UK and how they are losing jobs because of the European Union, they don't have the qualified workers in this country to sustain their economy. They don't seem to be aware of this, though. I could go on here about the current state of their economy - their overwhelming dependency on the world (read US) economy, but....

Oh, well. Once again, I say – not my country!

Oh – Good news – Ray and I will get to come back to the US in October to see my folks, because my brother is coming up from Huntsville… Airfare was $1060!! (If I'd gone with the UK sites, it would have been £670 for the two of us…)

That's it for now. I am going to bed, though I am still not quite over the shock of seeing the Blood and Honour tattoo on that guy.

Yay! Ray finished!! Not quite the time he wanted, but he hit a ton of problems: The swim took at least 15 minutes longer than he expected. When he got in the water, he said it felt like his chest constricted and he couldn't breathe. I think it's because he didn't get time to warm up, but he thinks it's because swimming has increased the size of his chest, and now the wetsuit is too small. Then, his bike shoes got closed so that as he was coming out of the transition area, and trying to mount and get his feet in… well, he couldn't. Then, the "hill" was a lot tougher than he thought it would be. (It's Switzerland. I mean. Come on. Of course you are going to go up little mountains.) Then, the worst part was the run. He bonked with about 5k left. He couldn't take in any calories because nothing would sit well on his stomach. (Gels are just evil to him.) So, he made it through the first 10 miles, but by that last bit, he had to walk. But, the important thing is this: He finished. That's more than I can say.

I will post pictures of stuff at some point soon. No, really. I will.

Switzerland itself was gorgeous. We were in Rapperswil, right on Lake Zurich. All I can say is: Wow. I have pictures, but I don't think they even start to do it justice. And the weather! Beautiful, sunny and warm. On the race day it was up to 76F / 24C, though it was comfortable in the days leading up to Sunday, as well. For those couple of days, we just relaxed, wandered around, took pictures of ducks. It was cool.

Another really interesting thing were the dogs. It's been this way in all the German speaking countries I've visited. Dogs are part of the family. They go in the restaurants with their humans, and, typically, they just sit there and behave. Though, twice (once a Dachsie and once a German Shepherd) there were folks with puppies trying to learn manners. They were really cute in both cases, and despite their less than perfect behaviour, they were better behaved than any of our dogs could ever be.

Other stuff:

Ed is getting really, really, really skinny. We've changed his food, and he seems to like it a lot better, so we will see how it goes. We realized that he couldn't be eating his food when, during lunch, he would come in and beg for whatever we were eating. It turns out that he absolutely loves ham. Also, we got Dominos a few weeks back, and left the box of free chicken strips on a low lying table. Ray went to get a napkin, I turned my back and only because I heard the cardboard scrape did I turn around. Ed was pilfering our chicken strips right out of the box!! So, we decided that we should change his food, see if we could make him happier with something that wasn't Iams. It's been less than a week, but he hasn't begged for ham yet…. One really bad thing is that he's taken to yowling at all hours, though. It's almost that tomcat yowl, but he's been fixed since he was a kitten, so, I don't really know why he does it.

Emma, on the other hand, is just plain fat. We aren't willing to change the food because Dingo likes it. We don't really want to stop them from free feeding, either because we don't want Abbie or Dingo to start losing weight. So… We are trying to walk Emma, and trying to keep her from eating as much. She doesn't get as much in the way of table scraps as the other two. But she is a Corgi, and they have a tendency towards portliness. All four of them get to go to the vet this Thursday for their yearly checkup. That should be fun.

A while back, I'd made the observation that someone in Schiphol was drinking a beer at 9AM… Our flight from Gatwick this time left at 8AM (or was supposed to). So, obviously it was really early. As expected, we couldn't get breakfast anywhere because everything was so packed. But, in every single establishment, there were large numbers of people drinking beer. At 6:30 in the morning. Is this normal?

Anyway, that's all for now…

I get a bit annoyed with folks who believe that it is wrong to be “better” than other folks, that all people are equal, etc. The truth of the matter is: Everyone is better at something than someone else. Everyone is worse at something than someone else. Yes, {insert name of your favorite cultural pop icon here} is bound by the same physiological rules as all of us, and yes, their poop stinks too. That doesn’t mean that they can’t {insert primary role of above named icon} better than you or many other people.

So, yeah, Brittany Spears gets paid a lot of money. If you disagree, don’t purchase her albums, t-shirts, anything that she sponsors. Don’t watch her videos on TV because if people watch, they can charge more for the ads placed there, and her publisher/distributer/production house (maybe Sony Entertainment? I can’t remember and can’t be bothered to google it) can demand more money for the videos. Don’t purchase the rags that publish pictures of her being chased down the street by paparazzi (because if people didn’t buy those magazines, there wouldn’t be a media frenzy, no one would care about her , she would stop being such a spectacle, and not get paid as much).

I remember someone telling me that she had dumped a boyfriend a long time ago because he had a view that he should go to work and “be the best” at his job, and she felt this was wrong. To be the best means that you are putting yourself above others. Well, I don’t know the guy, so I don’t know if he mean that he should be the best in a personal sense (improving himself, and always striving to better than the day before) or if he meant it in a competitive sense, and be the top performer on his team. Either way, I absolutely agree with the guy.

“Your best”, means that you should do better than you did yesterday. You should do your personal best. Otherwise, you stagnate. You stop trying and you have no motivation to improve. You have no motivation to succeed. (Yes, success is another point of contention – what is wrong with succeeding by YOUR OWN STANDARDS?)

If he meant is as “better than the other folks I work with”… No, it doesn’t mean you should step on others, or put others down to make yourself look better. If it means competing with the folks you work with, so be it. You can be competitive without being detrimental. It comes down to this: Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. A profitable company knows how to exploit the strengths and minimize the weaknesses. So, you can go to work and try to be the best employee there and it just means that you can do a particular task better than other folks there. I can’t see how that is a negative thing at all.

Just a thought: If everyone were actually equal, there would be no difference in anyone. There would be no geniuses. There would be no pro athletes. There would be no movie stars. Everything would be the same with no differentiating factors. Humans would all truly be interchangeable parts, with no free will.

It’s just the way the world works – it is imperative that different folks excel at different things, else progress would not be possible. Be realistic about it! Idealism doesn’t work in the real world!!