“I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.”
~ John Steinbeck
Husband in town = neglect of minions. Aunty C. is sorry, but she still love you all and trusts you forgive her as long as she promises to remember you in the will.
We’ve been playing hard. Lots of movies, lots of eating out (which I will atone for once he’s gone by not setting foot in a restaurant for weeks), family time, and Easter celebrations.
Unfortunately almost none of this is documented. Some people take pictures of everything (looking at you, godfamily) and they have so many fun memories locked away in photos and online. J. and I? Well, pretty sure the last time either of us actually tried to take pictures was at our wedding, almost three years ago! If anyone asked us to prove we exist, we’d have a devil of a time trying to.
The trouble is, I’ve never been a photo taker. I prefer writing things down to remember them and I am one of those women who can’t take pictures. No, really. I can hold a smile until the very second the photographer presses a button somewhere – most pictures of me feature my face mid expression change. To say that this is unattractive is a gross understatement. There is also that sneaky problem of me looking very different in my head than I seem to in pictures. In my head I am taller, more fit, and my skin is flawless.
Ah well! We’re going to try and be better about snapping pics from now on, if for nothing else than to prove to perfect strangers that our respective spouses aren’t only to be found in Facebook profile pictures.
Here, see? J.'s real, not the deluded imaginings of a Dickens-esque spinster with far too many cats.
And this is what he, understandably, is looking at. The desert selection at our favorite place to eat. Come visit us, we'll take you there. And may I recommend the Banana Cream Cheese Pie (also known as the ambrosia of the gods!).
“Middle age is when you’re sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn’t for you.”
~ Ogden Nash
Randomness today, pumpkins. There is no theme or cohesion, don’t look for one, and for Odin’s sake don’t read too much into anything. Just enjoy the links.
See? Random.
I love museums. I LOVE museums. The British Museum, the V&A, the Louvre, the Smithsonian, the MOMA…if I could spend every weekend burried in a museum I’d be a happy Small Dog. Here are a few things I found in various museums this past week. Votes for women! The need of orthodontia! J. will want to see this exhibition, I’m positive.
Nutmeg is probably my favorite spice. I use it in my Mac n’ Cheese recipe, in soups, in cakes and cookies – I love it. But I had no idea what the process was to get it from beginning to end, or that mace (the spice…not the thing you carry to deter attackers and those people who chase you with fliers demanding you come see their installation art exhibit) came from the same plant!
Mum lived in Japan as a girl and it instilled in her a love of Asian antiques, our house is crammed with them. She also collected some textiles that she uses to decorate, which is probably what led me to read this article on Kabuki theatre costumes. I prefer the cabinets and tables myself (the siblings and I are going to have to arm wrestle one another for inheritance rights) but those kimono are pretty fabulous.
These sound delicious. I’m thinking of getting Dad a few for Father’s Day.
Here, the cover picture should cure you of your recent love affair with sheep pictures (seriously, minions, did I miss a memo and are sheep a thing now?). Mind you read the article in its entirety.
Here’s some Good Friday stuff after all. I am a huge fan of eating the proper foods on corresponding holidays. The food liturgical calendar in the Small Dog clan is strictly observed, and we’ve picked up tons of holidays – and their respective foods – we don’t even celebrate from all the places we’ve lived. Try it sometime, it’s a blast! Here’s a good place to start, good old English hot cross buns!
“Oh, Charles! You do have heavenly teeth.” – Cold Comfort Farm
Since J.’s in the country for the first time in months, I decided to drag him through the usual rounds of preventative medicine. Monday I called for a dentist appointment only to be told the only openings they had were long after he left…except for one in half an hour. Poor J. was on the receiving end of a bossy phone call, “Get in the shower, I’m on my way home now!” I had a soft spot drilled out an sealed up – being from the attack-is-the-form-of-defense school of dental health – and spent the rest of the afternoon with a numb upper lip.
The beauty-is-pain rituals topped off at Rite Aid at 10pm, coming home from the gym looking a hot post-Zumba mess, and needing to buy spot treatment cream and shampoo with tea tree oil for the eczema on my scalp.
Clearly I am some kind of super attractive sex goddess.
To be perfectly honest, the zumba doesn't always help either.
“There will be a rain dance Friday night, weather permitting.” – George Carlin
May you find enlightenment. Or a comfy nap spot. Whichever.
Bittersweet week this time, ducklings. Hennessy’s last day was on Tuesday, she’s going to stay at home with her sweet little baby to help him kick Goltz Syndrome in the teeth! Savvy is moving out of state in just a few weeks and this saddens me. I spent all of Monday and Tuesday herding, feeding, and organizing FBI agents and law enforcement officers for a special training (which was exhausting!). J.’s been here for nearly two weeks now, which means we only have two more weeks until he has to go back to London for his exams – le sigh. But we’re not dwelling, kittens, because today is Friday and we’re going to have a lovely family filled weekend with good food and fun. How was that alliteration for you?
Here’s your weekly dose of randomness:
Mad Men is back and I am thrilled! Naturally the internet has been saturated with articles, surveys, tips for cocktail parties, and info about the late 60’s, but here was one of my favorites: some info on Diet and Exercise fads in the 60’s.
I did a post a long time ago (mostly because I was bored) on words I found particularly annoying or misused. I ended up giving a couple of history lessons…boredom produces odd effects in me. Anyway, here’s the history behind some more English words, and I vote that we bring back “fopdoodle.”
If you’re in a dry move, here’s an academic paper from the University of South Africa about what could be determined the first recorded great divorce scandal. Drama, drama, drama. (Link to full article towards bottom of the page.)
Speaking of marriages, here’s an interesting article that a rather amazing former coworker recently highlighted on her blog.
Here’s a fun tumblr from the National Archives of the United States.
I wonder how many of you, minions, get as worked up as my family does about board games. The first Christmas J. spent with my family he was reduced to hysterics when Snickers won two out of three Settlers of Catan games only to lose the third and spent the rest of the day plotting revenge. See, in his family, board games are excellent excuses for the brothers to talk smack and goof off. Not so in my clan! We are Borgias! If we can’t win we will conspire to take down as many enemies with us as we can, and we remember that you didn’t trade us for a brick that one Thanksgiving four years ago. Apparently, though Settlers can be used for good: here are some Catanpickup lines that will make any aficionado of the game chortle.
I am not a gardener, and not likely to ever be, but every year I plant a little basil bush that manages to provide me pesto well into autumn (if I don’t kill it first). I think that someday, if I’m very ambitious I may plant more spices in my Someday House back yard. Anyway, here’s a good post on stocking one’s spice cupboard – for the culinary ambitious among you!
Last week’s diamond ring was labeled vulgar after all, Aunty C. is proud you all have such good taste! Here’s someother sparkly things I found that I think are much more tasteful, pretty, and interesting.
Last but not least, history nerd humor! This week’s edition: courtly love, courtesy of Flight of the Conchords.
“It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.” – Douglas Adams
A few meandering thoughts for you today.
The office ladies and I held a vote, we’ve decided it should be Friday.
Leaving the gym the other day I passed the entirety of the football team leaving one of the practice facilities. A hoard of hulking men in padding lurched across the street and I found myself thinking, “Good grief, they’re young. Infants!” And then I clutched my pearls to think that I was nearly 4-8 years older than most of them. They can crush me…but I think they’re babies…
For some reason bright lipstick has recently become necessary to my happiness. I blame spring fever.
My secret stash of dark chocolate, hidden in my desk for emergencies, is running dangerously low. On an unrelated note, my exercising regimen has suffered with J. being in town. On another unrelated note, we’re eating out way too much because I still don’t apparently make enough food to keep him fed.
Scarlett just sent me her next manuscript to edit. Someday I will have read the next Young Adult literary craze months ahead of the rest of the public.
Speaking of, should probably read The Hunger Games at some point. Currently I’m in a theological phase reading the Confessions of St Augustine and a tome on the Book of Revelation by a scholar of gnostic Christianity. No doubt I’ll be in the mood for something easier soon.
I think there are some Thursdays that should be spent out in the Spring sun and not in fluorescent light bulb lit offices.
“Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.”
~ Richard Rorty
When young university students lightly turn to thoughts of... non-criminal activity...
Work is exceptionally slow, minions, and it has been for some time now. Which is odd. Normally Spring and Summer are the down times when most of the university’s population slinks back off from whence they came, but this year it’s been almost uniformly dull. University crime is on the decline, ducklings.
It makes it a bit hard to be at work, actually, now that I’ve got my boyfriend back in town, but we all must make sacrifices. We’re making up for it with a ton of dates. Last night I threw on a really hot dress and dragged him to a production of Loves Labour’s Lost, and like most things I drag him to he ended up liking it a lot. It got out too late to go to dinner, but he plans on taking care of his craving for American flavors (and portion sizes) this weekend.
That’s what we’ll be doing, how about you? As always, here’s some fun things I found for you to enjoy:
French women. A certain, je ne sais quoi. (Random French phrases today, my loves, you’d never believe I used to be quite a proficient French speaker by how much vocabulaire I’ve lost. Quelle horreur!)
Pintrest. Oh, Pintrest. I’ve written of my grudging love for you before, as well as some of your less than glorious offerings. Some kind, caring soul has taken the time to compile the strangest things people find on you. The public is grateful.
Last week’s sheep pic was a hit. Here’s another one for your viewing pleasure.
If we all pool our money, sell some organs, and go into smuggling, in about a century (give or take a cartel operation or two) we may be able to afford this. You make the call: very nifty or horridly vulgar? I lean towards the latter, but you darlings have been known to surprise me with your opinions, so I leave the final judgement up to you.
“A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short.”
~Andre Maurois
That title makes us sound like the most dysfunctional couple imaginable, but really, all things considered, I really like my marriage. Even when we split the party between two continents, I’ve always felt confident in and enthusiastic about being married to J. He’s a catch.
But a six month absence does lead to some funny instances of, “Oh. I’d forgotten you do that.”
For example, he is much better at doing dishes than me. In fact, I came home from work yesterday to find he had redone a load of dishes that had failed to live up to his exacting standards. Lovely for me – who hates doing dishes with a vicious passion – until it makes me question if my plates, pots and pans have been (in spite of my best efforts) dirty for the last six months.
Me: "Good grief, you're hungry again?" Him: "I've only had one dinner!"
Also: feeding him. Last night I made a pot of curry, an easy and tasty recipe (courtesy of Savvy) and one that would have lasted me three days prior to Monday. Monday being the day J. flew in. It’s completely gone.
In spite of his voracious appetite and his singular ability to make me feel domestically challenged, I’m awfully glad he’s here!
“O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
It’s the first day of Spring and J. is here! There may have been a freak snow storm last night and it may be freezing outside (after the most mild winter in recent memory), but I’m happy as a clam! We’ve got plans to go to all our favorite places to eat, catch a few plays and shows on campus and around town, visit our new nephew (born yesterday!), and spend time with family.
More practically, I’ll have to relearn how to share a bed with another person who’s got over a foot on me, I’ve liked sleeping sprawled in the middle for the last few months. I may have also taken over his old side of the closet… Luckily he’s still too thrilled to see me to care. He’s going to spend his break studying for his finals, then return to the UK to take them, and graduate in July. We’re nearly done, kittens!
“Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.”
~ Richard Rorty
Logic.
It’s been a slow week, my doves, the most exciting thing that happened was buying armloads of Girl Scout cookies (thereby funding the downfall of Western Civilization, according to some), and spending the majority of work at a conference. It’s lovely to get out of the office, but it would have been lovelier if we could have held the whole thing outside – the weather has been gorgeous!
The big news is that J. is coming to visit. On Monday! For a month! Hurrah for term breaks before finals!
Here’s some fun stuff for the weekend for you, hope you’re looking forward to it as much as me:
Letters from Henry VIII and Jane Seymour have been found. I’m partisan to Anne Boleyn myself, Catherine Parr’s a close second, but how nifty is it to see the letter confirming the birth of his son? And all it took was throwing over multiple religious factions, a vicious divorce, a beheading, quelling very tiny insurrections, countless mistresses, wars with France, and dissolving and pillaging the monasteries. All in day’s work.
If obesity rates are to be believed (and I think they are) we’re spending an awful lot of time sitting down. But who knew chairs were so interesting?
Gah! GAH! They should slap this on the cartons along with health warnings, “May cause loss of historical monuments and priceless cultural treasures. Oh and cancer…”
One of my old university mates is also living in the US. She’s additionally, apparently, cooking up a storm. Here’s her recipes for genuine British fish and chips (hands down J.’s favorite Britannic concoction) and French onion soup.
For my fellow world travelers. Someday I’m going to get a bunch of vintage maps of all the places J. and I have lived, set them in interesting frames, and fill a wall with them!
What have you discovered lately that should be shared with the minion coterie?
“There’s one thing more powerful than your magic and that’s knowledge. And I know something you don’t.” “And what is that? Dude?” “Daylight Savings Time.” – Hocus Pocus (1993)
I suffer from Daylight Savings Time Affective Disorder, apparently.
I just referred to one of of our sergeants as senator.
Small Dog Syndrome 
