Alien Spouse

Doc C Has Landed!

Doc C just texted to say he'd landed and was on his way, so he should be home in two hours.  He also asked if he should stop on the way to pick up some Dunkin' Donuts.  My response?

"Umm... HELLO?"

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday!

It's Thursday!

Doc C will be home from NYC tomorrow!

"Project Runway"!

There is a branch of H&M opening in Raleigh! 

It's only 6:30 and I'm already in my pyjamas!

Girly Monkey with a Mohawk Jazz Hands!

Experimental Cookery.

With Doc C away I am cooking just for myself this week, and I am experimenting with some new recipes.  Tonight for dinner I had mushrooms on toast, with wilted kale and I covered everything in lemon juice and black pepper. 

Before dinner I made a new large batch of rice pudding (the same Jamie Oliver recipe I used last time), but this time I stirred in some frozen raspberries about ten minutes before taking it off the heat.  I also toasted some chopped almonds and sprinkled a handful of those on top.  SO yummy.  I think that milk chocolate would work well with this too, but I'm very happy with how it tasted without that.

Watching the Academy Awards at Home.

It's Oscar night.

We have pizza. We have beer.  We have a big TV.

Sorted.

Creamy Carby Deliciousness.

This week I've made myself a basic rice pudding.  This doesn't sound like a huge challenge, but when you start researching recipes you quickly find that every food write out there has a very definite opinion and a slight variation on the recipe.  Just the cookbooks we have in the house disagreed wildly, with Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall flat out contradicting Nigella and Jamie Oliver going off on a totally different tangent.  After a great deal of thought, I went with Jamie, if only because his version called for the fewest ingredients (rice, milk, sugar) and I wanted to start off as simply as possible, so then I could tweak it by trying out the different variations.

I also wanted to make this batch on the stove, because that would take 30 minutes as opposed to 3 hours in the oven.  The only downside to the stove version as opposed to oven version is that it doesn't produce the skin on top, which I love.

The most difficult part was working out which rice to use, because in the UK I'd simply grab the bag marked "Pudding Rice", here the only pudding rice I could find was a pre-packaged Uncle Ben's box mix.  So I trusted in Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall's emphatic assertion that "Short-grain rice is essential. You cannot make a respectable rice pudding with the long-grain variety" (Neither of Nigella's recipes are for respectable rice puddings then, she must make the floozy version), and went with... Sushi rice.  Of course.

It was a gamble, but that was the only short-grain rice I could find and it actually worked really quite well.  I didn't rinse the rice first so there was enough starch to thicken up the milk nicely, and the rice maintained it's integrity and didn't turn to mush.  I made enough to have some for mid-afternoon snack at work every day this week.  Yummy!

It's Sunday Already?

The event yesterday seemed to go reasonably well, and I actually lasted the whole day! 8 to 5! I feel like death today, but I can just about do it!  This means I am well on the way to being able to work a full week, and then I'll be back en route on a full paycheck and perhaps even start accumulating some leave time!  So then I can go and see my Mum!  Yay!  So you see working a Saturday event was actually a good thing!

Of course the main way I kept going was drinking coffee, and eating way too much sugar.  I tried to be good, and I'd made sure there was a good selection of semi-healthy food on offer too, but somehow those peppermint patties just kept unwrapping themselves and jumping into my mouth.  Don't you hate when that happens?

The Accidental Snow Day.

I took an accidental snow day today.

The snow started again yesterday, and when I woke up this morning the very first thing I did was look at the University's website to see if there were any delays.  All classes were canceled until 12.30, which based on previous class cancellations meant the snow equivalent of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was marauding around campus.  I thought the storm must be a lot worse in town than it was around our house at that point, so I simply checked in with my office by e-mail and went back to sleep. 

As it turns out this entirely logical assumption was mistaken.  It's a bit of a mystery why the University canceled the whole morning, because apparently the roads really weren't that bad; so my colleagues made it into the office quite easily.  I did not know that until well into the afternoon however, because we lost power for a few hours, and I wasn't able to access the internet or e-mail. 

It could have been worse.   I had power for long enough this morning to make a huge cup of tea, and watch "Shaun of the Dead".  Then I had a lovely nap, until the power came back on and woke me up by sounding the smoke alarm (which indicates that it's wired directly into the mains, which I hadn't previously realised).  By that point there was nothing more to be done with the afternoon then have another cup of tea, put a load of washing on and watch some police procedurals.  Lovely.

Of course tomorrow I have GOT to get to the office, because I will have a ton of stuff that has GOT to be done for the event of Saturday.

Not Exactly a Taste of Home.

A British themed pub has opened in town, and so naturally one of Doc's colleagues picked up a menu for me when they went in there.  It starts off strong by labeling itself "Pub Grub" and a cursory glance at the names of the dishes seems to indicate all is well.  However, a closer reading of the descriptions of the food has worried me.

I'm hopeful that the fish and chips will be ok; but the "Black Blue and Bacon" is a hamburger with cheese and bacon served on an English Muffin.  What kind of madness is this?  Equally the Ploughman's Special is "Your choice of roast beef or turkey stacked high on our fresh baked bread with cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato and mayo served with English chips." Mayo?  What the hell is MAYO doing anywhere near something calling itself a Ploughmans?  Where is the Branston Pickle, or even pickled onions?

And that's just the Pub Grub standards - I haven't even mentioned "Cambridge Chicken Caesar" which is a normal Caesar salad with a poached egg on top, or the "Wings over Britain" which are chicken wings served with celery and bleu cheese dipping sauce.  I wouldn't call myself an expert on the regional cuisines of all of England, there are many things I may not have tried, but these two things are news to me.

There is a possibility that I'm being overly critical here, particularly as I haven't been anywhere near the place yet, but I'm sure you can see my concerns here.

Mmm... Donut...

I can get so much visual enjoyment out of a donut with sprinkles and a cup of coffee, I find the colours and the shapes very satisfying.  When we stop at this particular Dunkin' we nearly always take the table by the window so I can set up an impromptu photo shoot.

This time I actually asked the barista (is that what they're called in a Dunkin' Donuts?) for a more photogenic donut.

And you have to admit, the camera does love this particular sweetie.

Happy 60th Dunkin'!

One good thing about having to drive for two hours to get to the specialist's office was that we could detour via Dunkin' Donuts. 

It's Dunkin's 60th birthday, and I love the paper cups with all of the fabulous logos they've employed in that time.

I'm also quite keen on the chocolate frosted donut with heart shaped sprinkles, but obviously only because it makes a great photographic opportunity.

more snow. Let's Talk Food Instead!

I spent one whole hour in the office today, before the snow sent me home again.  Actually, if it had been up to me, I'd probably not even have got in the car; but Doc C was a man on a mission, and that mission was to teach his three o'clock class.

Before we left I checked the university's website which said classes before ten were canceled, but proceeding as scheduled after that.  By the time we got into the office, about half an hour later, the whole day had been canceled.  I called Doc and gave him the happy news.  He was not amused.

Ah well, I did quite well out of it all, carbs wise.  I got a small soy latte and a scone on our way into the office, and the lovely Sybil (who is temping in the office for a few weeks whilst I'm still at half-strength from the Mono) had baked a butter pecan cake.  Yum!

The food theme carried on, because I've spent the afternoon curled up on the sofa, watching "Cold Case" (I cannot believe that might not be renewed next season, I adore the retro crime scene flashbacks and soundtracks they use) and started planning the refreshments for a couple of events coming up.  I'm seriously considering ordering a pseudo-wedding cake for the larger event, but with a graduation medal motif rather than roses.  For some reason I was very nervous about planning big events when I first started this job, but now it's one of my favourite tasks.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've let Doc off a card this year (which may prove to be a tactical error), but we did have some heart-shaped bread for breakfast.  That's the chocolate and cherry sourdough twisted with the white chocolate baguette.  I don't know which is more delicious!

Small Wooden Crate.

At Christmas we bought a small crate of clementines, for one thing because clementines are delicious and for another because I thought the crate would be good to store our fruit and vegetables in.

Which isn't very exciting, but at least the photos are more colourful than picture of the continuing snow.

 

Packaging.

I'm combing through my jpeg files to delete anything I don't need, and I found a picture I took on our trip home from Boston. 

We picked up some snacks when we stopped to refuel and I could not resist this artwork.  Isn't that great?  Mama Zuma looks like a fifties pin-up Zapatista, which may be anachronistic but is fabulous none the less.

The crisps were deceptively sweet at first, but there was definitely a kick to them.

Escape to Bakery.

Doc C and I actually managed to leave the house today!  The escape was momentarily jeopardised when the front screen door wouldn't push open because of all the snow drifted up against it, but Doc and I shoved at the same time and managed to get it open.

I'll be honest.  I was mainly pushing that door to get to the Valentine Bread before it sold out again.  We got to the bakery in good time and I am very much looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

Rock - Hard Place.

We have been anticipating a major blizzard all day, and I'm kind of exhausted by it now.  It's just been hanging over the whole day, so I just want it to start already.

To be honest, I want to know is whether I'm going to be able to get into work tomorrow, or if I can turn off my alarms and sleep in.  On the one hand the sleep would be nice; and on the other, when I went to the bakery this afternoon, they had already sold out of all of this week's special bread (a Chocolate Cherry Sourdough twisted with White Chocolate Baguette) and I really want some.

You can see my dilemma I'm sure.

My Sweetheart and I.

Our favourite bakery sends out e-mail newsletters every week with the bread schedule for the week ahead, and once a month they have a customer of the month spot.  Doc C and I are the customers of the month for February, which is really nice, not least because we get a gift voucher!  Yay for free tasty baked goods!

Of course, the February newsletter is promoting the Valentine's specials, so it's all hearts and pink.  Our customer-of-the-month profile is suitably gushy, and we are described as "Lovebirds", which is very sweet I think.

The really hilarious part, to me at least, is that Doc C loathes Valentine's Day and here he is as the poster boy for smoochyness.

LA Rain.

Doc C is back at the college this morning, and I'm planning to pop out in a bit to get myself a smoothie and a shot of wheatgrass. I've also been told there is a shop that sells British food near here, I may have to check that out. 

It's raining in LA today, and apparently this is regarded as bad weather in Los Angeles - Ha! Back in North Carolina the University is closed for the whole day because of snow.  It's quite nice to all I have to do is throw on my trench coat and grab my ugly kitten umbrella before stroll over to get that smoothie, rather than putting on boots, a scarf, a hat, a coat and find at least one pair of mittens.

Napping in Pasadena.

Today Doc C left the hotel before 9 to go and meet with the Philosophy department of a local college, so I hung out in the hotel.  We've stayed in loads of hotels, but this one definitely goes the extra mile in terms of pampering.  The room has lovely bedding, with complimentary soaps and shampoos in their signature fragrance of white tea and aloe; all of which, and a lot more, is for sale through the hotel's website, which I think is genius. 

I slept until about 2, and then I went to find food.  Pasadena is great for wandering around, and everyone was so nice.  I ended up at a local supermarket, which had a really good deli; so lunch was an antioxidant chopped salad and low-fat rice pudding.  Yum.

My only complaint so far is that Bravo is not one of the channels available to watch.  which means that last night I missed the actual finale of "Launch My Line" and the season opened for "Shear Genius".  And if that's the only problem I can think of, I'm sure you will agree, we really have nothing to complain about.

Hurry Up and Wait.

Today has been a very long day.  It was broken down into sections of travelling, eating, napping but mostly waiting to do one of those three things.

• We drove for two hours to get to Charlotte airport, then flew to Atlanta where we had a two hour lay-over before our flight to LA.  Then we caught a shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel.  That is a lot of roaming for one day.
• The main problem when travelling is finding veggie food, it's lucky I eat fish, eggs and cheese because if I were vegan we would have to plan all of our meals before leaving the house.  Still it's been totally impossible to eat what you might call a healthy diet, whilst on the move today I've eaten a doughnut, half a breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs, potatoes, cheese and salsa in a tortilla), a tuna melt, french fries and a chocolate milkshake.  Dinner was a small shoal of sushi.
• I've slept sitting bolt upright on the plane, which meant my mouth kept falling open (I hate that) and curled up on a seat in the airport with my hand luggage has a pillow.
• The waiting involved a lot of waiting.

Doc and I had to sleep as soon as we got to the hotel, but what really helped was sitting in the hotel hot tub.  I think I could definitely get used to whirlpool hot tubs.

So far I like LA, anywhere that has flower beds full of Birds-of-Paradise on traffic islands is ok with me.

Chocolate for Breakfast.

We have over a foot of snow now, but we still have power; so everything is fine.  As long as I can make tea and have a hot shower I'm quite happy really, oh and internet access is nice too! 

Best of all I impulse bought a loaf of kulacs chocolate bread yesterday.  Would you LOOK at that...  Yes, that is bread swirled with dark chocolate drops.  It's like a very intense chocolate croissant, but with a lovely spongey bread instead of the flaky pastry of the croissant.  Delicious.

Any day that starts off with a couple of slices of chocolate bread is pretty good, but a Saturday with chocolate bread for breakfast? As Stacey London* would say, "Shut Up!"

* For British readers she is one of the presenters of the US version of "What Not To Wear".  I've been avoiding watching it, but I have to say that honestly I far prefer Stacey and her co-host Clinton Kelly to Trini and Susannah.  They are just a lot nicer.

Extreme Weather? Really?

It started snowing at about 3:45 this afternoon, and we are supposed to be getting over a foot by tomorrow.  There is an extreme weather warning and everything.

Doc and I were fairly blase about this, because we've got a full larder at home and nowhere we need to go this weekend; sure the local schools closed at 2, well before a single flake had fallen, but that didn't impress us particularly.  It wasn't until our favourite bakery twittered that they wouldn't be open tomorrow, that we started to wonder if we weren't taking this seriously enough.  Those guys are usually hardcore, and this is the first time that they've intimated that bad weather might actually come between them and supplying the demand for excellent baked goods and coffee on a Saturday.

I'll post an update on the weather conditions tomorrow.  Assuming we have power. sigh.

Half-Way Through the Week.

It's Wednesday.  I have a large glass of red wine.  I might go to bed early to watch the season finale of "Launch My Line" (which I care not a jot who wins, but I really want to see what nonsense they send down the runway this evening.) and eat some Ben and Jerry's.

This is pretty good for a Wednesday!

Third Anniversary.

The first business of the day was to start off well with a good breakfast at our favourite breakfast place, after the appalling lunch we had in Hickory yesterday.  I think the French Toast I ate has finally killed the tuna sandwich that I foolishly tried to choke down.

Then we went shopping for Doc, who needs some business wear, well, an academia version of business wear.  He now has a pair of grey trousers, a sage green shirt and a tie; it turns out that Calvin Klein can cut a shirt almost as well as H&M, even if 70% off isn't quite so bargain-licious.

This afternoon I've been crocheting like a mad thing, I have what feels like a billion projects bursting out of my head right now.  I have one more Threadknits design that I want to do, and then I have ideas for 3 or 4 amigurumi characters.  Yay crochet!

Mainly though I spent time with the Doc, because today is our third wedding anniversary and that made it a very nice day indeed.

Confidence, Success and Positivity.

It's Friday!  Friday!!!  And this week I have discovered this really great stuff, which is called coffee. Have you heard of it?  It's amazing!  I drink a cup of it, and then I'm able to actually to get some work done.  The only thing is that at the end of the day I was totally exhausted, so I had a nap the minute I hit the sofa, but it really helped me to combat the Mono for the working day.

One of my favourite nap accessories is my iPod, of course, and, yes, there is an app for that.  I really love a series of apps by Andrew Johnson (a Relaxation Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist, EFT therapist and Reiki Teacher), who is based in Ayrshire, Scotland.  So when I'm about to have a nap, I tell Doc C I'm going to listen to the Nice Scottish Man for a bit. 

I started off with the Success app, and then snapped up Confidence and Positivity when they were on special offer.  So I spent about $5 altogether, which I think is a bargain.

Aren't those little icon guys sweet?  All three of these start with Andrew talking you through a relaxation exercise, and then it moves onto positive affirmations.  I think.  I am usually soundly asleep before that part starts, but apparently my unconscious mind is still soaking all of that up. 

I wish these came in a cat format, because Nancy could really use some relaxation training.

 

Ah Munna Crochet Choo!

I've mentioned before that I love Threadless t-shirts, and the first one I ever bought was this angry pastry:

When I read about the Threadknits contest the Threatening Muffin seemed to be a great candidate for turning into an amigurumi, and so I did.  Ta-Dah!

My entry needs to be approved before it appears in the entry gallery, but you can see it here now.

Just keep your fingers away from his mouth.

Wrapper.

Yesterday I had a Snickers bar (British Person Over 30 Translation: A Marathon), and I noticed there was some writing inside the wrapper. I thought maybe I had won a prize or someone was trapped in the factory by an evil super-villain and was using the wrapper printer to send out an SOS.  What?  That could happen!

So I read it, and then took a photo so that you could appreciate it as well:

I may be taking this a little personally, but I feel like that chocolate bar just insinuated I'm not as motivated as I could be.  I'm afraid to eat another one, in case it implies something rude about my taste in clothes.

Echinacea and Goldenseal

My doctor suggested that I add Echinacea and Goldenseal to the many vitamins I'm already taking to boost my immune system.

You can get gel capsules but I'm taking 30 to 40 drops of a tincture in a glass of water three times a day for the next two weeks.  This means I can control the dosage more efficiently and I'm avoiding gelatin.

This is a herbal remedy, so it doesn't come in a fruit flavoured syrup.  It looks like brackish pond water, smells awful and it tastes horrible; so it must be doing me good.  Plus Doc C only sniffed the bottle and is now more than ever convinced that I must feel impressively terrible, because why else would I be drinking this three times a day?

Cupcake 2010

Let's get 2010 off to a good start on the cupcake front, shall we?

Boston, we bow to you.  These beautiful yellow rose cupcakes were on sale at a local Whole Foods supermarket.  I have no idea what they might taste like, but just seeing them was a treat.

We had a Boston Cream Pie instead.  Yum!

Hey, have I mentioned that I've put on a couple of pounds over the Christmas break?  I wonder how that can have happened?

Happy New Year's Eve!

It's snowing in Boston, and so our only trip out today was to the cinema to see "Young Victoria" (Emily Blunt was very good as the Queen, and Mark Strong is apparently set on cornering the market for Victorian/Edwardian villains this week) as we are staying at our friend Bob's house, we have made plans to stay in this evening.  We have bought hummus, pita bread, cake and wine, ordered Thai food and sourced a deck of cards.

Texas Hold 'Em and a fine selection of carbs shall ring in 2010.

More Food In NYC And A Shirt.

I know that I am scarcely the first to say this, but it remains the truth: I love New York.  This is mostly to do with the fact that I love to eat good food, and I like to shop at good (not necessarily expensive, but good) shops.  I've been looking for a black-&-white check shirt for a while, and UNIQLO in NYC provided a range of different checks to choose from, all in the perfect texture of warm brushed cotton.  Happy sigh.

Last night Doc C had to go and do conference things (Oh, did I not mention we were here for an actual reason?  Yep, Philosophy Conference.) so we agreed to have a late dinner when he got back.  Which turned out to be around midnight.

Fortunately, I had happened to browse the cookery section of a bookshop yesterday and found Bubby's Brunch Cookbook, which had some delicious recipes in it.  Then I noticed that Bubby's Pie Company, the restaurant the book was based around, was in Tribeca.  Back at the hotel I just happened to wander onto their website, and immediately decided that was what I wanted for dinner.  Which was extra specially good, because it's open 24 hours (except Mondays) and was about 5 minutes walk from our hotel.

Where else, but New York, can you get a perfect Macaroni Cheese in the middle of the night?  Hmmm?  And follow it up with a slice of fresh coconut cream pie?  SO happy!

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. And Books!

This morning I had a bowl of porridge for breakfast, whilst I finished off the detective novel I've been reading on this trip.  Then I walked around the corner to The Mysterious Bookshop on Warren Street, and they had, not one, but two Mrs Bradley Mysteries by Gladys Mitchell; neither of which I had previously read.  Score!

Then Doc met me for lunch, and we went to Le Pain Quotidien, for a simple rustic lunch.  And a teeny tiny raspberry custard tart.  So adorable, and so delicious.

This evening we are going to get a curry.

New York.  I bloody love it!

 

Mincepies Will Be Ours!

After dinner I whipped up a batch of pastry which is in the fridge chiiling overnight, and I'll make mincepies tomorrow. It is the traditional food of Christmas after all!

Snowed In (Not Really, But What The Hell!)

So, did you hear that it snowed?   

It really did!  A lot!  In fact we got snowed into our house; well, ok some spoilsport did actually snowplough our road, so technically I think we could get out with a bit of effort.  However, I studiously avoided noticing that; and did my best to distract Doc from noticing either, so we stayed inside all day today.  Yay!

We slept late, Skyped my lovely Mum, ate very well, watched Hulu ("Dollhouse" is so rocking, I still cannot believe that Fox cancelled it.  Damn you Fox! *shakes fist at sky*) and allowed the cats to spend the entire day alternating between our laps.  I also did a lot of knitting, whilst Doc C did a lot of reading.

I did take photos, of course, and I particularly loved the shots I got of the birdfeeder in use.  We're weren't 100% sure what this bird was, but our best guess is a woodpecker; what say you?

Christmas Snow Day

It started snowing at 8:06 this morning, and it hasn't stopped since; so there's now well over a foot of snow on the ground. Doc and I left work early because we knew the roads were going to get bad  (AND the heat had been turned off in my building, and if turning the heat off during a snowstorm doesn't say the management think you should go home now, well, I don't know what does) but we still had to change our usual route to get to our house because we couldn't get up one particularly hill.  There was a tense moment when we wondered if the other road would actually be any better, but the little car got us home!  Yay!

Then I called my Mum to wish her a happy birthday before settling down to one of the best naps ever, ever, ever.  It was like three hours of comfy dozy goodness.

Now I'm sitting drinking ovaltine with a healthy slug of brandy in it, and eating a slice of fresh stollen from our favourite bakery.

The Christmas holidays are officially here.

Festive Food Binge.

When we got home this evening, I whipped up a dozen mincepies. We ate all of them, warm from the oven, with large cups of tea.

Now neither of us is particularly hungry, and I think that may just turn out to be our dinner this evening.

Do you think that at least counts as one of our portions of fruit for the day?  Yes?

Twinkle, Twinkle, Pastry Stars.

I made mincepies for my office's Christmas party, ummm, Team Building on Friday and that used up the only jar of Crosse and Blackwell's mincemeat that I'd found here.  I think it was worth it, everyone made appreciative noises at least!

So, yesterday, I made my own mincemeat!  With like raisins, and currants, and apples, and zest, and stuff!  And a hefty shot of rum!

Then, tonight, I made my first set of totally home-made mincepies.

I followed the recipes from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", and by way of an experiment on my part I zested the orange before I juiced it for the pie crusts; so that's what the curly stuff under the stars is.  It makes them smell amazing.

Shelling Out Blame.

Doc just accused the cats of peeing on his washing because of a musty smell; but then, as he was doing a very thorough sniff-through for firm evidence of this, he discovered a mussel that had been thrown in the machine with his towels.

We had mussels for dinner two weeks ago.

"If You Want to Be A Record Breaker!"

Doc C has to go to the doctor on Monday, and for reasons we needn't go into here, he can't eat anything on Sunday except for blue or yellow jello.  We were talking about that on the way into work this morning, and I said that I quite like jelly (as long as I don't think about the actual gelatin of course).  Doc looked at me and said "Jelly or Jell-O?", and I explained that in England we call Jell-O Jelly.  So Doc asked if that meant we make Jelly moulds, which yes we do; but we'd just call it Jelly, and the shaped mould part would usually be assumed (My Mum had a mould shaped like a rabbit for example.  Or it might have been a cat.  Hmmm).  Actually, a few days ago, a British archaeologist we were watching on a documentary about Pompeii described something as having held it's shape, like "a Jello Mould", and I thought it was really odd because it was so Americanised a way of phrasing it.

The UK Vs US thing still crops up occasionally, not in a confrontational way but sometimes something that was just an ingrained aspect of my childhood will pop into my head and no-one will have the slightest clue what I'm talking about.  For example, when I started singing the theme tune to "Record Breakers", which I know wasn't shown over here, so then I tried explaining what it was to Doc C and he was just bemused by the whole thing.  Possibly my explanation was a little garbled -

"Well, it was a kid's TV show and it was always on.  The presenter was Roy Castle and he sang the theme tune, and played the trumpet on the theme tune, and lead record breaking tap dance routines on that fountain at BBC Television Centre.  Oh, and they had Norris McWhirter, who was a proper adjudicator from the Guiness Book of Records, and people would, um, break records.  Which is why it was called 'Record Breakers'.  Anyway... "Dedication. Ooh Dedication.  Dedication!  That's what you need! If you want to be the best, and if you want to beat the rest, Oo-Oh Dedication's what you need!'"

Doc's used to that sort of thing every now and again, but it's a damn catchy theme tune to inflict on a poor unsuspecting husband.

AND - I found out this week that they don't really do Advent Calendars in the South!  I still can't quite get my head around that one.  No tiny piece of chocolate shaped like an elf?  No little plastic toys that are almost certainly a choking hazard?  No pictures of mangers and stars?  But how did you know when it actually was Christmas?

Gingerbread Jen.

How much do you love it when you have colleagues at the office who unexpectedly bake gingerbread people and write everyone's names on in icing?  Oh, and there were red and green gumdrops on the plate too.

I especially love that my name (Yes, I'm "Jennifer" in the office) was hyphenated on mine, and she's got cute bunches (American Translation: Pigtails).

Find Happiness Within (Hint: Ice Cream Can Help With That)

Last night we went out for a really nice birthday dinner at the new tapas and martini bar in town, where I can highly recommend the cheese plate, the calamari and the Dry London Fog (which is a shaken vodka martini with two olives stuffed with blue cheese.  Yum).

We then went for a drive to let dinner settle, before getting some ice cream from Marble Slab, whose trade marked slogan is "Find Happiness Within".  I wish they had that printed on a t-shirt, with a suitably retro graphic.

In case you are wondering, Doc had his usual, which is a scoop of coffee ice cream with pecans mixed-in.  I went for a scoop of birthday cake ice cream, with frozen raspberries mixed in.  Fabulous; particularly on your birthday, curled up on the sofa in your PJs, whilst watching "Project Runway" with your husband and your cats.

Yeah, married couples in their mid-thirties know how to party.

Woooh!

The Many Teas of the Alien Spouse Household.

We ran low on all our tea reserves at once, so we had to restock as a matter of some urgency. As you can see we take our tea very seriously round here. 

From left to right, we have:

1. Constant Comment - A black tea blend with orange and spices, which I really like.
2. Green Tea - Doc's green tea.
3. Earl Grey Green - Green tea with bergamot, which I have a huge cup of every morning for breakfast.  Seriously my breakfast cup is about 1/2 a litre.
4. PG Tips - When making tea for each other we always ask "Normal tea?" and that means PG Tips.  Any other tea has to be clearly specified.

Do NOT Drink Me.

I bought this water-bottle a few weeks ago, as it happens it was just a few days before I caught Mono.  At the time I bought it simply because I love my skull-and-crossbones stuff.

The timing is somewhat ironic, as it's now the bottle I'm using at work, because of course, it is a Plague Bottle that is covered with Mono Lurgey (American Translation: Cooties) now.

Three Good Things.

1. Very excitingly I will be buying this book from Rex Parker, replacing my current copy of this title; because I want as much of my Marsh collection to have vintage covers as possible.
2. I also bought some new clothes today, nothing particularly dramatic; a denim skirt, a pair of cords, and a black sweater, but the skirt is a US size ten so a UK size 12.  Um, squee!
3. And we found blackcurrant jam in one of the local supermarkets.

Yeah, I'm pretty easily pleased actually...

A Very Quiet Halloween.

Halloween was really quiet around here.  Doc left the front door open (The screen door kept the cats in and the bugs out), and set up a bowl of sweets on our wooden footstool with the small pumpkin.  He put his wig on whilst he was in the front room working on lectures and kept telling me to keep an ear out for trick-or-treaters.

But nobody came.  sigh.

The Doc was visibly disappointed.  I don't think there are that many families with kids of the right age around here.  Actually that's probably not a bad thing anyway, because Doc had taken the massive bowl of sweets into one of his lessons and the gannets had eaten everything except the tootsie rolls and the candy corn; so if there had been trick-or-treaters we wouldn't have had much to offer them. Instead we turned off all the lights to watch a couple of the cheesy movies I bought in Walgreen's.  I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed them both, but Doc felt they were lacking in actual horror.  Which is probably why they suited me down to the ground.

The spookiest thing that happened was that neither of us realised that today was daylight savings, so some of our clocks changed automatically and some didn't and that is always somewhat disconcerting. Well that, and two different birds have flown against the living room window today.  What is that about?  Birds flying into stuff is never a good omen, but atleast both of them survived the collision and the cats are having a lovely time waiting for one to actually make it through the glass into the room.

Pumpkins!

We got two different size pumpkins this year, because I talked Doc into it. They were locally grown, and we bought them from one of the Pumpkin Patches that spring up around town at this time of year.  It took us ages to decided which ones we wanted, but I think we got excellent specimens.

Doc didn't want to join in on the carving, so I did both of them and I saved all the seeds and flesh, so we can make pumpkin related yummy stuff.  I'd like to try making pumpkin seed brittle, and Doc's interested in trying to do a fresh pumpkin pie.

Dorm of Doom Cookies,

It's traditional for  the students in my department have Dorm of Doom party every Halloween, because ours is the halls of residence that is supposed to be haunted.  The party this year has been moved to this evening because the University has an (American) football game on Saturday, so it's traditional but just because something is tradition doesn't mean you can't shift it to a more convenient day.

Anyway it was at least a month ago that I offered to make cookies that the students could then decorate at the party.  I am pleased that they all turned out really well, so you can see what they are meant to be even without icing.  Well, I suppose the skulls and the gravestones are still a touch ambiguous, but look at those bats!  They are particularly pleasing because every other time I've tried to use that cookie cutter, they've just turned into blobby things.

I was going to use up the rest of the dough making a bunch of small stars, but I ran out of baking time.  That's ok though, because it means I can make some cookies just for Doc C this evening and if anyone deserves a batch of fresh baked cookies it's the Doc.

A Big Bowl of Halloween

Doc C took me into the office for a couple of hours today, and then I came home to sleep whilst he went food shopping.  Before he left I said something about maybe getting some Halloween sweets, and when he came back he had a whole carrier bag full.  I laughed, and told him I hadn't meant him to go quite that crazy, and he was all "What? This is nothing, this is the bare minimum!" and then ate 14 Almond Joys.*

As was clearly required if only for blog posting purposes, I immediately had to take some photos, so I set the bowl up next to my huge volume of Poe and a nice candle-in-a-storm-lantern.  As you will probably observe my career in product placement is already over before it had any opportunity to begin; almost all of the logos in this picture are either upside down or partially obscured.

_{* Footnote regarding Chocolate for British Readers:}

_{Almond Joy are like Bounty bars, but with an almond perched on top of the coconut.  They're nice!  If you really want to approximate a Bounty whilst here, then you need to look for Mounds; which ironically do not have as much of a mound because they don't have the almond on top.  American chocolate naming conventions are most peculiar.  For example what we would think of as a Milky Way is called a Three Musketeers over here, and how does that make any sense at all?  It only has TWO components - The fluffy stuff in the middle and the chocolate, so where does the third Musketeer come into it?  Has he nipped out for a bit?  Oh, and I have no idea what an American Milky Way is like, but I am pleased to say that Kitkats are exactly the same over here, which is very reassuring.  Actually the thing I'm most surprised to be unable to find here is a Dime bar, I mean how American sounding a product is that?  The closest I've found is a Heath Bar, but it's not quite the same texture of brittle toffee and the chocolate also needs some work in my opinion.}

Channelling the Spirit of Martha.

Whilst tidying up the house I decided to Halloween the living room up a bit.

We don't have any suitable sweets (American Translation: Candy) or Biscuits (American Translation: Cookies) to hand, so I made do with fruit instead.

I honestly didn't purposely position this installation of apples in a Halloween sweet bowl it in the shaft of sunlight.  The sun moved around, and I suddenly realised I had created probably my most twee decoration ever.

A Pleasant Martini Glow.

This evening I didn't have a class, so we came home and I made myself a Martini, with two olives.

What with the calorie counting and stuff it's been a while since I've had a strong drink, so it has gone straight to my head.  It's nice, I feel like I've got a little fluffy cloud round my head.

Happy sigh.