Alien Spouse

New Year, New Phone.

Finally!

Can you guess which one is the old one?  I'll give you a clue, the old one's hinge has popped out.

Happy New Year's Eve!

Time for me to rush off to get changed now, so that we can go out to welcome the New Year with tapas and mixed drinks.  Hoorah!
I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve and a wonderful start to 2009!

Blogger's Lament.

It's New Year's Eve and as we are approaching 2009 it's a time to take stock and, I have to be honest here,  I'm not particularly chuffed with how Alien Spouse has been over the last few months. 

What happened was that I mentioned that I blog to someone I didn't know particularly well, and I sent her a link.  She then proceeded to tell a bunch of other people.  Who I work with. 

Actually she told them before I even got the job.  She suggested they read my blog when they were, in fact, preparing to interview me because my blog is just "so funny!"; I only found this out after I got the job, when they all assured me they hadn't read it.  When one of them first mentioned it to me I honestly felt my heart stop for a moment as my mind raced to think of anything that I might not want them to have read and I did go back and edit some of my archives.

Now it's always been a rule of mine that I don't blog about work directly anyway, but somehow knowing that your Departmental Director might just be bored one day and decide to check out what you've been blogging about recently really makes me think twice about sharing my thoughts on some subjects.  I'm pretty sure she wouldn't do that, but I can't know for certain, particularly as I must admit that if I knew one of my colleagues had a blog you can bet your bootstraps I would read it.  And please don't think for a moment that this is because I don't like any of the people in my office, they honestly do all rock!  But since knowing they are aware of Alien Spouse I have felt slightly uncomfortable, purely because I don't really know them very well yet, and I would have preferred to be the one who told them about my blog if I wanted to.  I suppose it's mainly that I am wary of offending anyone inadvertently, because I make a joke on my blog that they don't find funny, or that I'm having a bad day and rant about something that I don't think is in any connected to them, but, because this is a very small town, it turns out I'm actually saying something rude about their cousin.

Of course I know full well that this isn't controversial blog by any stretch of the imagination, it's written mainly for my mother's entertainment after all, but I certainly never meant for it to be primarily about my cats!  I was envisioning the odd cameo when they did something particularly cute, but lately they have taken over and  I don't want to write a crazy cat lady blog  (Although Nancy actually just play fought with me!  It's a breakthrough!  She even rabbit kicked!).

I'm not sure what to do about this situation, hence this slightly passive-aggressive post on the subject.  I haven't told anyone at work that I would feel uncomfortable knowing they read this, because that would probably be the quickest way to raise their curiosity about it, but I've kept an eye on my stats and there don't seem to be any new local readers lurking so I'm assuming they've simply forgotten all about it. 

It's funny how over time the sense of anonymity has become something I really wish I had protected more.  At first it seemed restrictive, but now that a large chunk of it has just been removed without my being able to do a thing about it, I realise how liberating it really was to have the opportunity to say pretty much anything I wanted.  It's most frustrating.  So much so that I have created a secret side project blog where I go off to scream rude words occasionally.  And, no, I'm not telling anyone where it is.

I may have said too much already.

Does This mean My New Phone's Ringtone Will be "Blue Suede Shoes"?

I like being able to track my deliveries on the fedex website; however it does mean I spend a lot of time pondering questions, such as why the hell my new phone has spent over 24 hours sitting around in Memphis. Is it visiting Graceland?

Belated Christmas Greetings!

Yesterday when we went to check our post office box there were several Christmas cards.

This one was from my grandparents, and that is what the envelope looked like when I took it out of the box.  I have no idea what happened to it, but I'm impressed that the card itself suffered very minimal damage.

The other cards were all from Doc's family.  Judging by the post mark which was the 23rd of December on all of them, I am guessing they weren't going to send a card at all, but then they got the ones that we sent them and felt they had to.  Doc C is notoriously bad at sending cards, so they must have assumed he wouldn't be doing so this year and then I talked him into it.

Not that I can talk.  The only Christmas card I actually successfully wrote, addressed and sent was to Mum and that didn't arrive until today.  Which isn;t too bad, until you consider that her birthday card and present were in the same envelope, so they were almost two weeks late.

Next year I will do better, I promise, and in the meantime I'm hoping everyone assumes that their card just got lost in the post.

Sandwich Joy!

For Christmas my lovely thoughtful Mum not only sent us stockings, but also, via Amazon, a couple of cookbooks from our favourite UK based eateries.  There are several good restaurants around town, but there are still many culinary options that are currently unavailable to me, and these books have helped with that quite considerably.

The first book to arrive was the Wagamama cookbook, and Doc C has already cooked us a couple of fantastic meals from that.  Noodles rock!

The other book was the Pret A Manger cookbook, this may seem odd because Pret specialise in upmarket sandwiches, soups and wraps (Oh, and great cakes, cookies and slices.  And really good coffee.  And root vegetable crisps.  And their smoothies are fabulous.  And the best salads), but really a Pret sandwich is a thing of such joy that it's worth having a book detailing how you put your favourite ones together.  Today I made my all time favourite ever sandwich, roast smoked salmon with horseradish.

It was a delicious sandwich.

Making myself that sandwich, eating it with a nice cup of tea, and knowing that I have enough ingredients to make another such sandwich tomorrow makes me very very happy.

"Valkyrie" (2008)

We just got back from watching "Valkyrie" which I thought was pretty good.  The cast was amazing; I love Bill Nighy, Kenneth Brannagh, Tom Wilkinson, Tom Hollander, Kevin R. McNally (although where has that "R" suddenly sprung from?) and I was thrilled to see Miss Minoes herself, Carice van Houten, playing Nina von Stauffenberg.  Of course the central role of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was played by Tom Cruise, and I'm not a Tom Cruise fan by any means.  I think you do have to say though that he can pick a project that suits him, and the hair cut was also very flattering.

Would I have preferred another actor in the lead role?  Well yes, as ever I would have much preferred to see someone like Leiv Schreiber or Peter Saarsgard, either one would have totally rocked that part, but Cruise didn't kill it; and, lets face it, his name may bring in a wider audience that might not otherwise see it and perhaps even pique their interest in world history.

Mainly though it's a Bryan Singer directed film, so it delivers some striking visuals, and the characters are fleshed in with some nice little bits of business.  I'd give it a 7/10, but that's mainly because the trailer I've seen in which Singer says this is a story not many people know annoys me.  Maybe not many Americans know this story, but I think I'm safe in saying that it's fairly well known in Europe.  I mean really when an historical event is the basis of an entire episode of "Red Dwarf" then I don't think you need to be a huge history buff to be aware of it.

Covert Feline Obs.

In a top secret operation Alien Spouse agents were able to capture photo evidence of the cats sitting next to each other.

Very exciting!

Nancy has definitely relaxed a fair bit over Christmas, and she's started copying some of Edith's behaviour.  For example Edith loves the blanket we have on the sofa and likes to make a cosy nest out of it, Nancy suddenly cottoned on to that idea about two days ago.

If Nancy is already sitting on the sofa, then Edith will come and sit next to her.  However that never happens the other way around, because Nancy is still quite wary of Edith.  I can't say I blame her, I would be too if someone kept leaping out when I least expected it to bite me, however playful they might be.  I think it is just starting to dawn on Nancy that Edith's ambushes are only a game; I've kept a close eye on them and I noticed that, although Edith seems to chase her quite ruthlessly, as soon as Nancy squeaks she leaves her alone.

Of course I'm really hoping that Nancy's new found playfulness and confidence means that Nancy will start to chase Edith, that would be fun!

Please Hold.

There is something going on with Picnik, so right now I can't crop the picture I want to post.  I'll bring it to you when I can!

Game Day.

When we got up today the weather was distinctly grey and damp, so I declared it to be Computer Game Day!  So for most of today I have been playing "Teen Titans", and I think my favourite character to play has to be Starfire.  She has some great powers, and I like being able to fly.

I've only seen the cartoon once or twice, but I love the jpop theme tune by Puffy Ami Yumi. 

It's so much fun, and I was very happy to be able to get it from iTunes.  Now that I've read their wikipedia entry, I really want to see Puffy Ami Yumi's own cartoon series.  In fact I think I need to add it to the Netflix queue; Doc C is not so thrilled.

Merry Second Day After Christmas!

I took this picture of Nancy trying to hypnotise a Cardinal through the living room window a few weeks ago.

The idea was to use it as the Alien Spouse Virtual Christmas Card this year.  Clearly I failed to do that.

What's Making Me Yell At The Television This Week!

There is a new tv ad campaign for Burger King Whoppers that I loath and detest. True I don't need to physically cover my ears and close my eyes like I do when the Mast General Store ad comes on (the woman in that is unbearably patronising), but each time it appears I have to voice my disdain.

The premise of the ad is that Burger King scouted the world for people who lived in communities so remote that they had never eaten a burger. Many of these people are shown wearing picturesque national costume to fully illustrate their "Otherness".

Burger King representatives, with the help of a translator, then conduct a taste test between a Whopper and a Big Mac (how they are supposed to have obtained freshly cooked examples in such a remote location is never explained. Are we to infer they brought the blind tasters to America?). They report that these "Whopper Virgins" (Their phrase, not mine) typically prefer the Whopper.

I have several issues with this, but let's just stick to the main ones. First of all the gradual global dominance of burger chains is something to be feared for numerous reasons, not least because they are typically providing a low quality of nutrition with high calorie and I think we all know that's not a good thing. In fact you could argue that introducing people from indigenous cultures to, not just the burger itself, but actually two burgers on a bun smothered with cheese and sauce is almost irresponsible. "Hi there! Can I interest you in clinical obesity?"

However, even whilst I'm thinking all of that politically correct righteous indignation about the exploitation of third world civilisations to sell a damn hamburger, ironically, the aspect that really annoys me the most is the idea that someone who has never eaten a burger before is the best person to perform a taste test on them. What the hell do they know? Their palate is totally untrained! Why should their opinion impress me?

As I said it's an advert that I have some strong opinions on. Mostly unfavourable, but surprisingly complicated.

Boxing Day '08.

Ah Boxing Day!  I love it!  You are still in festive mood, and there is plenty of Christmassy stuff to entertain you, but it's more relaxing than Christmas Day.  All of the shops are open again so you can the bin bags you forgot to stock up on, and you can eat Christmas Dinner Left Over Sandwiches!  My favourite!

This year's sandwich is made with freshly baked whole wheat bread, a layer of roasted sweet potato, a layer of TVP with stuffing, and a generous swathe of red cabbage with cranberry (I forgot to buy apples, so this year's recipe was a sauteed onion and three cloves of roast garlic, add finely chopped red cabbage once the onions have softened a bit.  pour in a good splash of apple juice and the cranberries, then simmer until all of the cranberries have disintegrated and thickened the apple juice.  Season with salt, pepper, chinese five spice, nutmeg and honey to taste. Yummy!)

Of course the other great thing about Boxing day is playing with your Christmas presents.  So I carefully arranged the Muji wooden London that was in my stocking in front of the pop-up London card Doc C got from Mum, and then used the fairy lights to light it all artistically.

Thanks Mum!  I've been wanting one of these wooden London sets for ages, how did you know?

Christmas Day Summary

I had a lovely Christmas Day, thank you!

We got up lateish and Doc C made cranberry muffins from "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson, and then we opened the stockings Mum sent us.  I don't care if I am in my thirties now, I like having a stocking to unpack on Christmas morning!

After breakfast Doc C and I went for a five mile walk, pausing only to nip over to Laura and Randy's to borrow a roasting pan and a cocktail shaker (I have recently developed a taste for Martinis).  The walk we did was 2.5 miles up hill on the way, and then 2.5 miles downhill on the way back, frankly I preferred coming back but it was a lovely day for a walk and I burned off all of my breakfast calories.  I know this to be the case because, with my impeccable sense of timing, I chose this week to start calorie counting.  I've never bothered to do this before, because it involved too much fiddling around with note books and looking things up for my liking, but there is a very neat app for the iPod which counts calories for you and has an extensive database of foods.  Even better it takes off exercise points, which is extremely satisfying and motivating.  I also like that, whilst the database has a good range of restaurants and supermarket brands, it lets you put together your own recipes so it's really easy to be accurate about the calories in your home cooking too.  And the app was free, you can't really argue with that!

When we got home I cleaned the kitchen and then went upstairs to do some yoga whilst Doc cooked up a storm.  I haven't done yoga in ages and I must get back into the habit, because not only do I have a beautiful yoga mat, but I can actually feel the muscles respond gratefully to all the stretching.

For our late holiday lunch we both enjoyed roasts, mine TVP and his chicken, with lots of roast veggies.  I had a very small bowl of Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream for desert, which I regard as the proper thing to have on Christmas day.  The Doc then had his obligatory Christmas nap, with help from Edith, whilst I played with Nancy! 
This may not seem like a big deal, but we have never really seen Nancy actually play before.  She runs away from Edith when Edith wants to play fight, and she's never even sniffed one of the many cat toys we brought home for them, but in the past few days she has started pouncing on bits of fluff. It really was quite a breakthrough when she finally started to chase after the cat dancer when I made it move for her.  I can't decide if it's because her skin feels so much better, or if it's just that she's taken a while to relax in her new home, but I'm pleased she is behaving more like a teenage cat should.

The rest of the day was spent watching TV (mainly the "Mythbusters" marathon on the Discovery Channel), playing "Lego Batman", making martinis and generally relaxing.  The last thing we did was watch "The Maltease Falcon" whilst drinking a nice cup of tea.

Today I am looking forward to playing video games, making mince pies and especially to eating a cold Christmas dinner sandwich; in fact I made a small portion of red cabbage with cranberries just for this purpose.  Yum!

Christmas '08 Photo Collage.

A Very Rockette Christmas To You All!

Merry Christmas!

Doc C and I are about to head out for our Christmas walk, so I'll catch up properly with you later; stay tuned because I have festive cat photos, naturally. Nancy was even cajoled to pose for one! 

In the meantime Thombeau over at Fabulon pointed his loyal readers over to this YouTube video, and I found it particularly amusing because I am fairly certain I saw the Rockettes do exactly the same routine when I saw them in Boston about five years ago.  I mentioned that in the comments on Fabulon, and Thombeau replied that he thinks all the women screaming in the background are the Rockettes!  These are their male dancers who put this together to give the girls a Christmas treat.  Love it!

Edith Hit's Her Mark.

Sometimes people ask why there are more pictures of Edith than Nancy when they are both very pretty cats.  It's not that I favour Edith over Nancy, because I think Nancy is very charming; in fact right now I am lying on the floor with the laptop and Nancy has climbed onto my back to curl up for a snooze.  Cute!

However it can not be denied that Edith is just a natural model, because she is such a poser.  She may not understand what a camera is, but she knows that it loves her and she instinctively knows when she looks particularly lovely.

An excellent example of this happened this morning.  I was putting up hooks to hang up the Christmas Stockings my Mum sent us, and whilst I was doing that I put the stockings on the floor.  Both cats were in the living room, but only Edith immediately came over and started snuggling up to the stockings, and looking cute.  Nancy tried rolling around in a patch of sun, which was very sweet but really Edith stole the show.

You just can't argue with natural talent.

Christmas Food!

We have just got back from our Christmas food shopping.  I don't know why we always leave it until Christmas Eve when we know full well the shops are going to be a nightmare, but we can never agree on what to cook for Christmas until the very last minute.  The difficulty lies in that I really love eating left over Christmas food in sandwiches for the next couple of days, because that is just so delicious, but The Doc detests left overs and that is not a source of joy for him.  So what to cook for both of us that leaves me with the wherewithal to fill sandwiches, but doesn't make Doc feel like he has to?

This year Doc C is having a roast chicken, I am having a stuffed faux-chicken and the cats will be having their extra-special vet-prescribed dry food.  The humans will also be having a selection of roasted vegetables, and I will make Jason's red cabbage with cranberries, and possibly some steamed kale with lemon.  Yum! 

I was particularly delighted to find the faux-chicken, because last year we totally failed to source that and I had some tempeh which on reflection was a bit burnt.

Yesterday we took care of all of our alcohol needs for the foreseeable future, which led to my discovering that Doc C pours a very generous dry martini, so I plan to be a little bit sloshed all day tomorrow frankly

It's A Good Thing She Is This Beautiful.

Have I mentioned that Edith is a lunatic?  She adores hopping in and out of paper bags, I'm not sure whether it's because she can completely hide in them (all the better for pouncing on poor little Nancy), or if it's because they are noisy because she loves sounds.

That is very sweet, and makes her very photogenic; which is very lucky because in other ways she is such a pain!

For example now that Nancy is using the toilet Edith has decided to pee in the hall way.  We are assuming it's some sort of territorial thing, or Edith is deliberately trying to drive me mad.

I am SO glad that we spent forty five bucks on plastic carpet protector, because other wise I think I might have completely lost my temper with her.  As it was she just got squirted with water at the time, and I have now bought some cat repellent to spray the hallway with.

Damn cats!

Bacon!

Megg over at Quiddity had the Baconiser (she got it from sf signal, and they got it from Whatever and he got it from Bacolicio.  And I think that's the complete chain off attributions, I don't know where Kevin Bacon fits in, but surely he must!), and I thought it was funny.  So click here to Baconise Alien Spouse!

And, yes, I am still vegetarian and have been for fifteen years, but funny is funny!

Dentists and Chocolate.

The right side of my mouth and tongue are completely numb after my trip to the dentists this afternoon.

The photo is of the light box they have set in the ceiling, when I took the picture the nurse told me that they have different pictures in all of the rooms.

There was also a large TV in the room and, whilst Dr. Keith took out the rest of the filling that needed to be replaced, "Jeopardy!" came on.  Of course I had heard of "Jeopardy!" before, but I have never actually seen an episode.  It was quite entertaining!  Particularly the round on Hershey's Chocolate because they had one of the researchers presenting a mini segment of fun facts about Hershey's.  One of the things I discovered was that Hershey's had been commissioned in WWII by the US army to make chocolate rations for the troops.  Hershey's were asked to develop chocolate that didn't melt easily and that didn't taste quite as nice as usual to stop the soldiers eating too much of it.  I fully expected the researcher to then inform us that Hershey's had achieved this by adding Parmesan and that ironically, GIs developed a taste for the less pleasant chocolate which is why Hershey's still use the same yucky recipe to this day.  But he didn't say that, it's just my own pet theory.

Anyway, I no longer have a hole in my tooth and I can look forward to being able to do a flawless impression of the Elephant Man all evening.

Post Script:  Drinking a cup of tea when you have no feeling in 65% of your tongue is really weird.

Human Victorious.

My Mum texted to ask who won last night. As if you had to ask Mother! There was no way on earth that I could allow Nancy to beat me!

True to get my victory I had to stay up until 3:30, but then Nancy HAD to go and realised she only had one option; what with me holding her on the toilet and everything.

This morning no such nonsense was needed. Nancy walked into the bathroom by herself, jumped on to the toilet by herself and did what she had to do.

Night Watch.

So, Internet, some of you may be wondering what I am doing up at this hour watching a Lindsay Lohan movie which heavily features McFly.

Well it's obvious really; I am attempting to get the better of a small grey and white cat.  You see I thought that when I got her to poop in the toilet once, that she would then see the error of her ways and stop using inappropriate alternative venues.  I was wrong in that assumption.

We cleaned the carpets with a wet/dry vac, then Doc C went out and bought two ten feet strips of plastic floor protector to cover her chosen stretch of carpet.  I have not left the house all day, because I have had the vital job of keeping an eye on Nancy since 8 o'clock this morning.

Nancy has not pooped once in over eighteen hours, and her tummy is like a drum.  She is waddling around, but she flatly refuses to poop in the toilet (and I've seen her do it, so I know she can), and she knows full well that I will not let her go on the carpet, so she is thinking that all she has to do is wait until I go to bed.  She is wrong in that assumption.

My plan is simple, I intend to stay up until her digestive system works it's magic, and I will stay awake all night if need be.  Doc C has to be up early, so he has gone to bed and it's just me, Lindsay, McFly and the cats.

We will see who poops first.

Crackers.

Last night we went to the local Thai restaurant to have dinner with friends from Doc C's department.  Usually at these sort of things it's only possibly to get a few people together at one time, but last night there was a great turn out and we had to keep adding tables to get enough seating.

Even better Kim and Jill had brought Christmas Crackers!  These are sufficiently unusual here that I had to explain how to use them; "Hold on to the end bits and pull! " I could have added to then put on the hat, read out the joke and commencing swapping the presents around, but everyone seemed to work that out for themselves.

It was really fun!  I got a pen, which I swapped with Doc for a little round purse, which then fitted Laura's silver yo-yo so perfectly that she insisted I have it.  So I did very well! 
I hadn't really tried to get crackers myself over here, only because it seemed so unlikely that I would find them, but they are one of the things that really make Christmas for me.

Funnily enough I was asked the other day what Christmas traditions my family had, and I said none. This was clearly disappointing to the person who asked me, I think she was expecting that I say we dress up in hoop skirts and bonnets to go caroling before midnight mass, but really we never did that.  Because we did not live in Dickensian England, mainly because that was over a hundred years ago and was, you know, fictional and stuff (end of rant). 
When I was a child Mum would decorate, we always had a lovely tree and then ate really well on Christmas day; but none of that was really what I'd call  a tradition.  It just seemed fun!

 Not being at home again for Christmas I have been determined to have some of the things I take for granted at Christmas in England, like mince pies; and whilst I may not be able to find a proper Christmas cake, I can now cross Crackers off the list.  Excellent!

Silver and Gold.

On an old episode of "House" (I don't know what season, but Cameron still had brown hair and was lusting after House, and Stacy's husband could still walk) Dr. Gregory House noticed that an elderly couple, who had come to him with a matching set of medical complaints, were wearing wedding rings that did not match and he therefore deduced that they were lovers who were married to other people.  This is odd, but even odder, I've seen exactly this plot device in "CSI:Miami" too. The non-matching wedding rings again denoting an extra marital affair.  I realise it's just a bit of business to indicate that the central character has amazing powers of observation, and that even a detail as tiny as rings that don't match can have significance to these deductive geniuses that mere mortals cannot divine.

I hope that this fairly weak plot device doesn't become an urban legend, or recognised bit of folk lore because Doc C and I wear totally different wedding rings; mine is an lovely antique gold band, whilst Doc's is a silver ring he bought for ten bucks after his original wedding ring started to turn his finger green.  There are excellent reasons why we have different rings; both my wedding ring and my engagement ring have histories that are important to me personally, and Doc C just doesn't like wearing gold.  That's all there is to it, no hidden drama.

Really I hadn't thought about the fact our rings don't match until I saw two quite different TV dramas put such significance in it.  Does this mean that all other married couples always have taste so similar they will be easily able to agree an matching jewelry that they both want to wear every day for the rest of their lives? Isn't it more likely that people usually don't always have the same taste in jewelry, which would mean that one of our hypothetical couple would be secretly unhappy with the symbol of their relationship?

No-one has ever commented on our lack of matchingness, but maybe they are just being polite.  I wonder what the script writers of "CSI: Miami" and "House" would say.

Festive Graffiti.

There are a couple of designated areas in town for graffiti, which totally misses the whole point of graffiti don't you think? 

Anyway I quite liked this image, which looks like some sort of doily was used as a stencil for spray paint.

It seemed Christmassy!

Christmas is a Time for Dental Care and Carpet Maintenance!

That's it!  I had one last function for work this morning and now I am on holiday until January! 

This Christmas I will be getting a filling replaced!  And we have hired a carpet shampoo machine! 

Festive!

...My True Love Gave to Me Fiiiiive Christmas Trees!

As I was walking back from lunch today I heard a call from the window of a building I was passing, my friend Kristin came rushing out carrying a pot-plant sized pre-decorated Norfolk pine tree.  We were all given one of them at a recent meeting, but I had to leave early and missed that announcement.

For those of you keeping score at home this now means that I have three Christmas trees of my own, and two at the office.  So I have five trees now!

On the left here we have tree number 4 which is the miniature black vinyl Paperchase tree, with a pink glass bauble; whilst on the left we have a  Norfolk pine with a red plastic bauble with raised white snowflake.

Not So Constant Comments.

On a blog housekeeping note, I've been beta testing the new Typepad Connect comments accounts and I had some feedback asking what the heck was going on!

Well the idea was that you could sign up for a Typepad Connect account which keeps track of your comments, and when people click on your user ID it takes you to a profile page.  If you comment on my blog when signed in that way anyone can then click on your ID and see where else you have commented, and that might introduce them to a new blog or just give them a better idea of who you are (Not your name and address or anything like that, just a better idea of your personality).  Setting up an account also means that you can select an image to have next to your comment instead of those spirograph images, although I do think those are pretty cool.  Essentially it's a way of creating ownership of comments, and making commenting much more of a community thing.

However I found that people didn't like having to set up an account, and it seems a bit buggy in relation to non-typepad blogs, so I've played with the settings so that you don't have to sign in to a Connect account anymore.  I mean you can if you would like, and I do use mine because it's just a really nifty idea, but it's not mandatory on Alien Spouse!

Comments will still require a name and an e-mail address, but I have also decided not to moderate so  they should now come up straight away.  Although, please note, any comment that doesn't meet my strict guidelines (on both commenting and chocolate) will still be smite down with a stroke of the mighty delete key.

Abby, I'm looking at you.

Proof of Postage.

With any luck this arrived today, but if not Happy Birthday My Mum!

Love you! x x x

Cats: Poop and Affection.

Top tip for Citikitty trainers:  Only cut out sections on weekends, so you can keep a very close eye on the little darlings.  Edith was a very good girl and carried on as usual, but Nancy was being distinctly bad.  I refused to be beaten by a small cat, so I persevered but Nancy would wait until we were asleep or at work, which showed previously unsuspected levels of sneakiness.

Fortunately I was home early today after a dentists appointment (I lost a filling which will be replaced on Monday. I had x-rays today, which clearly showed that my lower wisdom teeth are impacted too!  Yay!) and I caught Piggy Big-Eyes at exactly the right moment to get her in position on the toilet and, well, at this point I shall draw a veil over proceedings, but let's just say everything went according to plan.

The other very exciting thing that happened this week is that the cats were actually observed being affectionate to each other.  Nancy nuzzled Edith, and Edith reciprocated by licking the top of Nancy's head.  It was so sweet!

Orange and Blue.

This is another picture from Winston-Salem.

I love the lamp posts there, and the light from this one was just particularly gorgeous on the autumnal leaves.

Pretty!

Greetings Cards - The Bain of My Existence.

When I got up this morning at 6:30 (EST) the first thing I did was to call my mother to wish her a Happy Birthday.  She was a bit surprised by this because her birthday is actually tomorrow.

Which is good because it means her birthday card has a marginally better chance of reaching her.  I posted it yesterday.

Add to that that I still haven't posted any of my Christmas cards that need to reach the UK in less than a week and you could accurately conclude that I'm just not on top of things this festive season.  My apologies.

Coffee, Art and A Connection with My Home.

I had a coffee from one of the University's coffee shops the other day.  I ordered a latte and the barista drew a fern in the foam; so I carefully carried it all the way back to my office without disturbing it by taking a sip and then I photographed it.

Also if you look very carefully at the paper cup you will see a map of the world which features a teeny blobby United Kingdom.

All in all a pretty good caffeinated beverage I'm sure you would agree.

Top Tip # 27: Catering As Therapy.

I highly recommend if you are feeling, perhaps, a little PMTish (Symptoms can include, but are not limited to, bursting into tears when someone tags a hideous photo of you on Facebook.  For example.), that you arrange some sort of event that will call for large quantities of Warm Chocolate Fondue with a selection of fresh fruit.

It improves things enormously. 

And if there is also wine on hand, that would really not hurt either.

Pre-Christmas Jaunt to Winston-Salem.

We went to Winston-Salem on Saturday, and we didn't leave our house until around two so we got there at about four.  Mainly we just wanted to wander around somewhere quiet and pretty, so Old Salem was exactly what we were after.  It's just lovely.

 I particularly like that many of the houses have electric candles in all of their windows.  That may sound tacky but the effect is really quite lovely.  It made me think of my Mum!

Fortunately there was some sort of special Christmassy event going on in ye olde Salem, so all the shops were open late.  Doc C found some quaint but not religious Christmas cards which he has sent to his family and we both enjoyed gawking a the shop full of kind of cool, but super expensive and very faux antique things.

We then went to Borders and went a bit crazy with the freedom of browsing books, CDs, games and cool stuff.  They had a reasonable range of Paperchase merchandise, which whilst it could not compare with the flag ship branch of Paperchase on Tottenhamcourt Road, was still very welcome.  I may have got a little bit misty.  I somehow resisted the black flock reindeer (which also wore feather boas and had a heavy sprinkling of glitter), but I did buy a black foot high fake Christmas tree and a box of the red and pink mini baubles.  It doesn't go with any of our house decorations, so I might have it on my desk for the rest of the semester.

I also bought three boxes of Paperchase Christmas cards, which I have spent so long deliberating over who gets which that I am pretty sure none of them will arrive on time.  But they are still super cute!  Damn it!

Five Dice and a Rule Book.

Last night we went to Randy and Laura's house to play a new board game that they had which was based on the books of H.P. Lovecraft.

I've never read any Lovecraft, and I've never played any sort of D&D related games, so I was completely lost in the first five minutes but it was really fun!  Really complicated fun!

Ok we didn't actually complete a game, but we got to grips with the gist of it all and next time I am sure we will vanquish the Unnameable!  And isn't that really what we all want for Christmas?

I Made Christmas!

Look!  I made mince pies!

I literally just made them, they are still warm and they are delicious with a cup of tea.  I am actually even still wearing my Buckingham Place Pinny, that is how fresh these are!

At this point I would like to give a shout out to Jayne The Barefoot Kitchen Witch (Who is now twittering too, which is great!).  I was following a Nigella recipe and Nigella's instructions on pastry making involve using a mixer and she specifically says that is the best way of doing it.  Great; except I I do not have a mixer.

Fortunately sometime ago Jayne mentioned in a post that she had used a pastry blender to make pastry manually; they look a bit like a potato masher, but not really and I am here to tell you that pastry blenders ROCK!

In all honesty I do need to do something to the mincemeat to bring it up to M&S standard; but I did buy my mincemeat in a jar in an American supermarket and Americans do not make mince pies, so I wasn't expecting perfection.  And, really, these are quite acceptable until I can get my hands on a bottle of brandy or something.  What does M&S add to their pies these days?

Cleaning Crew STAT!

Nancy was shut in the bedroom last night after Edith got shut out; this seemed fair because Nancy was not behaving like a lunatic.

However I was woken up by a very distinctive noise.

On the one hand: OhMyGod disgusting clean up on aisle 2. And it's damn early for that kind of thing.
On the other hand: Nancy may have found the quickest method ever of illustrating to a man why taking his clothes off and just dropping them on the bedroom floor is a bad idea.

*****************

Post Script: If anyone would like a brown t-shirt with a picture of a blue helicopter on it (size: Men's Small), they would be welcome to it. It's clean I swear, it's just Doc C can't even think of wearing it again. He's going to buy a new one.

Art in the Office.

Last week my office choose art from the University's collection to hang in our offices, and it was hung yesterday.  Most of them went in the lobby which has two walls with different themes; we have rockets launching on the main wall, and then birds on the side wall.  There is a connection with the idea of taking off and flight, and it also connects in with our logo which is a bird in flight. 

We also all choose one piece that we particularly liked that didn't necessarily go with those themes which were put in or near our own offices.

I asked for a poster which advertised an exhibition by Suzanne Stryk.  I wish I'd seen the show, or been able to get one of the actual pieces, because I really like the images on the poster.  I've Picniked it, so the colour is boosted here because I've had to make the images extra miniature, and the boost just gives you some more of the detail.

I particularly like the bee in the top left corner, here's a close up of that:

How Bettie Page Saved Christmas NaBloPoMo.

Bettie Page saved me from skipping a day of NaBloPoMo posting because I was so sad to read that she had died that I posted first thing in the morning, which is unusual for me.  I meant to post after work as well, but we were going for drinks at a friends house, and I was so tired (is it just me or has this been a really long week?) that before we left I opted to take a nap.  Doc said he'd wake me in 10 minutes, but acually I got in 25 minutes of Zzzz Zzzz Zzzz before he came to get me.  It was a lovely nap.  

In case you have ever wondered about my position on napping I can tell you that I am in favour of them, and I particularly like to curl up fully clothed on top of of the bed covers with an extra pillow and a light cotton throw for maximum napping efficiency.

I read a very interesting article about napping here.  I have since taken the advice to heart and will nap on the sofa in Doc's office at lunch time occaisionally.  It's not ideal, because it's a two person sofa, and I really am more of a three-to-four person length woman so there is some small difficulty in getting optimum comfort.

Anyway, so after my nap I just had time to get changed, put on some lip stain (Benetint: Making me look less washed out since 2006) and rush out of the door.  It was a great to be out on a Friday night and we were introduced to some really nice people, who I believe I will be facebook friending later today.  It was so much fun, but by the time we got home it was almost one.  So if I hadn't posted that morning, this experiment in blogging keepie uppie would have ended in failure.

And that is how Bettie Page saved Christmas NaBloPoMo.

Goodbye Bettie.

I knew this week was not a good one.  Bettie Page died last night.

It must be true because it's reported on the BBC news website.

UV G&T.

How cool is my new UV light?

That is a gin and tonic!  Isn't that amazing? 

One of Martha's Halloween suggestions was serving G&Ts under ultra violet light because the quinine reacts in this way.  Someone on Martha's creative team certainly knows their stuff.

13 Days Until Christmas? Flipping Heck.

It has rained all day today, and not just a little bit: in fact the precipitation was so persistent that it washed the bow off the top of my department's outdoor Christmas tree.  Tomorrow it's supposed to be freezing rain, which sounds utterly delightful.
I am very pleased to report that Doc C's outdoor lights are holding their own against the elements and they still look gorgeous.

I still have not got my act together on Christmas cards.  I have really tried to find something I like, but my choices seem to be religious or sentimental and neither are really very me.  Doc C could care less he says, but when I suggested we send out some of the University's official cards he pulled a face.

So what do we do?  This weekend we are going to go to Winston-Salem which is super pretty, quaint, knows how to do Christmas and it doesn't hurt that it's also home to the nearest Krispy Kreme donut shop.  Anyway the plan is that we will find a craft shop and I will get stuff to make cards with.  Then we will find a shop that sells card and Doc will grab the nearest box of cards that don't make him want to throw up and that will be what his family get.

We still have time to do this!  I think!  Keep your fingers crossed!

Atlas Statue.

So I didn't take any photos at work, and when I got home I was very excited about making some quite disgusting cat related things fluoresce.

Bearing all this in mind please enjoy this photo I took of the Atlas statue. In Port Merion.  Two years ago.

And, yes, the statue is another "The Prisoner" reference. 

I'm on a roll.

Glowing Cat Pee. It's a Thing.

Doc C picked up a parcel for me from our PO box today, inside was a small UV light from my step-dad Stu.  I can confirm that cat pee does indeed fluoresce, as does cat poop, and cat puke.  It's fascinating!

I checked the entire house, and I can also confirm that they have been very good cats.

A Post About Shoes That Segues Into "The Prisoner". Seamlessly.

One of my colleagues commented today on how clean my Black and White Converse All Star are.

I hadn't intentionally tried to keep them clean, but I have been enjoying about wearing my new wellies in bad weather (how else can I stomp in puddles with impunity?), so these have only been worn outside on dry days and otherwise just around the office.  The Chucks were bought to wear at work because I wanted some vaguely smart but still trainer-ish shoes. 

Plus I think there is a certain"The Prisoner" vibe to them.  It's not 100% accurate because obviously Number 6 wore more of a deck shoe, without the white toe-cap but it's close enough for jazz.  It's still nice to occasionally glance down and think "I am not a number!  I am a free woman!" during the working day.

At Long Last Fabulosity is Mine!

Last night Doc C was unwell, and this morning I have to be at work early for much overdue budget training.  And it's Tuesday.  sigh.

With these less than glamorous aspects of daily life to book end it, it is particularly sweet to have garnered extra bonus fabulosity points for identifying Planet Fabulon's latest Mysterion correctly!  Thank you Thombeau, and thank you Goldie!

CSI: Le Singe Est Dans L'Arbre.

Wait, Grissom proposed whilst covered in bees?  Who wrote this episode?  Eddie Izzard?

My Winter Tea: Bigelow's Constant Comment.

A picture I took last week of my new mug was invited to join a Flickr group devoted to tea tags.  I took a new batch of tea into the office today, Bigelow's Constant Comment, and when I made some, the red tag looked nice against the black mug so I took a couple of shots for the group.

I really like the tea, it's black tea with orange peel and spices so it's similar to Fortnum and Mason's Christmas Blend, but I have no idea what the name means.