My friend L lost her dog last year - he was 13 I think and had been ill for some time. She just loved him to bits so it was sad (when is it not?)
So for Christmas, I have screen printed her an image of the lovely fellow. I'm just putting it in an embroidery hopp for now - she can decide what she would like to do with it.
Behold - my first ever screen print:
Her sister said she will cry when she gets this but she didn't really say this in a "it will be sweet" way - more in a "why would you do this" way. But I have since come to understand that her sister is a bit selfish so she can stick it. Personally, I woudl love to have one of these of my dog.
OH! What a good idea!!
Two co-wiorkers and i decided that this year we would not bank on the staff lunch to provide us with the wonderful Christmas meal we feel we desrve (and by the way, the satff lunch was, despite all the fancy talk on the menu, middle rate hotel food AT BEST.) but we were unwillilng to spend a crackign great sum on the meal we wanted. Then we hit on the idea...each payday for the last few months we have each dposited $20 in a jar. We now have almost $400 for our dinner. It's tomorrow night and it's here.
Ignore the annoying Moby. This place gets raves on chow.com so I am drooling in advance!
And in other news:
I took the dog to the vet on Saturday - he has been limping and favouring his right side and it didn't get better (As a hiking dog this has happened before) so I was concerned. So was the vet, a lovley holistic vet - she spent quite a bit of time trying to get him to show his feelings about her manipulations of his legs - he's so stoic about pain. Finally she figured out where the problem was and sat back down to her laptop - tap tap tapping away and saying that she is quite concerned (oh?) and would like to do an x-ray today (gulp), it could be just a sprain but where there is so much muscle atrophy (eh?!) and so much pain whe she touched the bone she has some serious concerns that we coudl be dealing with bone cancer. Cue Peanut bursting in to tears. Ever so helpful, sitting in the vet's office, clutching a box of tissue and sobbing as she tries to tell me it may be something else but what with his age etc, we really need that x-ray. Sob sob snuffle "go on, I'm listening" raggedy intake, quieter sobbing.
So she gos to finish with another patient and I go to the truck to get Roland, who, upon seeing my face believes that the dog has expired right there. He comes in and does a bang-up BF job, sitting with Rudy while I sob, lifting him on the x-ray table while I empty my schnoz into another tissue, helping them lay a distressed doggie down on the x-ray table while I hiccup and wheeze from the doorway, and then sitting with Rudy during the the x-rays (behind the vet's shield momentarily of course) and holding his head to keep him calm while I am banished to the doorway, still riding little waves of calm-sniffle-snifle-sob-calm. Thenthe short wait while they check the x-rays during hich Ibegin crying more as I am so sure of the dire outcome. THen the news that his bones are clear and he must have simply done some smashing damage to his muscles/ligaments etdc and they will give us some presecription anti-inflammatories for 3 weeks then come back for some massage and accupuncture and you know maybe next time we won't discuss the worst case scenario until we are sure? OK?
Sniffle, yes. Good idea.
Does anyone here have any experience with the very low temp slow roast method a la Blumenthal? I read an interesting set of instructions in the gaurdian for this and I am thinking this is how I will do my Chrismtas bird. THe bird he did was only 12lbs though and mine is 18 so i am trying to work out the math on this - his took 9 hours so I think mine shoudl take about 13.5. Anyone? Math? Cooking? Help?
Also, I read a little thingy by MPWhite talking about how not to stress on your turkey etc but to make sure it is small. Like 10 lbs. His point was that the larger birds are only purchased by those who wish to be flash, and that you will nto be able to properly fit this in your oven.
Wha? Flash? Look, pal, my bird is 18lbs and I do NOT consider that to be excessive. Do you know how much left ovr turkey I can consume? I dont get tired of it. not ever. Espcially if thre is plenty of left over gravy, stuffing and cranberry sauce.HOly GOD that makes a mother effing marvelous sandwich!!
AND what kind of oven does that guy have? I can fit an 18lb turkey in my oven and then some. My chum is doing a 30 lb'er and she has some challenges to meet, but 18? Come on. Christmas wimp. And my bird is not big becuase he's flash. No, if that were so, he woudl be wearing a sparkly medallion about his non-existent neck (dog gets that) and tiny little burberry boots on his hacked off foot stumps. .
Does MP White actually know how to cook or has he been fooling everyone all this time? FFS, 18lbs does not make my bird excessive! "may as well try to cook a brick." Oh yes? A brick, like say, the one your wife chucked through your window for cheating on her yet again, you fading culinary gobsmack?
He better back off my bird, that's all I'm saying.
But it's not my fault. Roland picked out this year's Chrismtas tree - he said he was just freezing and wanted to leave the lot, but no matter, he picked it. Not me.
We have a sloped ceiling in our living room - starts at about 8 ft and gets progressively higher until it reaches the fireplace. I lobbied for a tree big enough to put in front of the fireplace this year (you can't use an old fashioned fire place like that in the cold of winter - ti just sucks heat up the chimney) but Roland pointed out that if it were high enough to reach the ceiling, its girth woudl be too much - it would overwhelm the room. There woudl be no getting around it. No no nope. a smaller tree woudl do.
So, he picked out this year's tree - and in fairness to him I will say that it didn't look that big when it was in the lot. And its girth would be hard to judge as it had been freezing for days so the tree did not even need to be bagged it was so closed up and frozen. Like a evergreen popsicle.
Home it goes and into the stand to thaw and spread. And spread and spread, And have a few feet chopped off its top. And get moved further up the room so as to avoid chopping of another foot. And finally, last night, Roalnd came up with a great idea...let's move it in front of the fireplace - this way we have the possibility of still being able to move through the room somehow. Why what a great idea!
And girth - oh yeah. This tree is massive. I will post a pic once we get it decorated tonight - after we move all the furniture back to their orignal positions, including the massive sideboard filled with stereo system and booze.
Fa la la la la...he's already trying to tell peopel this wasn't his fault.
from today's BBC online news:
SATURN'S RINGS 'MAY LIVE FOREVER'
This is what I hate about science. Who the fuck will ever disprove that? Hmmm??
Maybe I am just feeling all science sucks today. I should not have listened to that Ulrich Beck thingy last night. Not thathe would induce me to dislike science, or even that he,himself is promting this, just that it the rusty old wheels turning a little more than ANTM would have and we all know that when forced to think about the world and its genenral state, I will always want to kick the scientists first. I'm not sure why, could be the lab coats. Maybe it's the clipboards.
Anyway...today,we are all scientists, specualting wildly on the futre and making claims like the one above. Why not? If you do it right, who the fuck will disprove them? .
Mine:
SUN WILL "FLAME OUT" IN 2500 YEARS!
your turn...
will be et by me here:
It's our office Chrismtas lunch. I believe I will be having the Kobe skirt steak and the blueberry tarte. Salted caramel ice cream...oh yes!
Yes there are.
They are so tough, all they eat in the winter is snow.
Badger, are you seeing your not so distant future???
Just so you all don't think I am horrible, I insisted he come in (he was very reluctant, being a tough old Canadian dog) and he is now lazing the the living room, doing this:
