Did you sing some Rod Stewart?
"The morning sun, when it's in your face..."

Something about a child's kiss that's heartwarming. :) I'm still smiling with you. ;)

Awww....this makes me smile too.

Gravdigr has a baby?? Who's the mommy? I knew he had a thing going with Monster but I think they broke up. Is he dating that new girl on here? Penis Spam??

you don't think it had anything to do with a chicken and celery recipe do you?!? :eek:

Could be...
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vbrMa5TSSd...head_large.jpg

I would never buy a hat from that shop. Look at the picture - there is NO WAY that hat would fit on Cabbage-head dude's cabbagey head. Their sales staff are hopeless!

But it IS the latest style...

So, after my intended strong stance on Tiger-kisses yesterday, I actually had two today.
I promise I will address this next week. Just one more tomorrow...

Thursday is my late day and I always try to stretch the session as long as his concentration allows. Today it was 40 minutes, a record! After that I wrote up my notes, then was asked to take a pupil to First Aid because he'd been accidentally stepped on - the joys of Reception!

When I got back to the class, Tiger & Tennant were in the cloakroom. They were checking if my bag was there because they thought I might have left. I reassured Tiger that I would always say goodbye to him in future.

I'd told Mrs P that Tiger had some holiday pictures in his diary (kept by parents). Parents were asked if they could share any holiday photos to help with our seaside theme this term. Tiger won't often put himself forward when he has something to tell, but he tells me and I can intercede.

Consequently he was invited to show and tell at 14.30, my going home time. Instead I took a seat and enjoyed the "presentation", which I know helped him to talk to the class, because he could check my face for reassurance and see I was smiling.

So as I left, he kissed me, then after I'd got my bag he came up to kiss me again. Yes I know - it's even more important not to let this become a ritual (esp considering his OCD) but Monday... Monday... Secret handshake begins Monday....

Oh and great session with him today. We had an empty room to ourselves. Miss D (trainee teacher) came to observe and he wasn't fazed by that at all. So much better than last week when we had to cut the session short - too much distraction, Tiger in a super-fizzy mood (as was the whole school that day it seemed) and just no focus.

For anonymity's sake, I refer to her as 'Baby' here. But, she gets called all kinds of things: Baby, Honey, Sugartits, Honeypants...she likes Darlin (w/no 'g')

Oh, hell noes!! The next line is "really shows your age", :lol2:, but that don't worry me none, cause in my eyes she's everything.

Oh, that's just funny as a train wreck.:right:




I kid, that was funny. A little.

Insurance has reversed their initial denial, and now the pill cam procedures have been approved for both kids. Fuckin-A, man.

They did the bare minimum after trying not to do even that. But it's still worth celebrating.

Woooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooo
That is the best news of the day!

Glad to hear that. I took the liberty of forwarding them the link of you saying words sarcastically.

Clod, you should be running the UN by now, with your patience, tangles with bureaucracy and dogged fighting skills.

I guess that incident in the liquor store really held you back, huh?

You wouldn't believe how good those UN guys are with google image searching!

Pilau and I just had a really nice play. gave that squeaky sheep a run for its money, oh yes. It'll think twice before getting all squeaky in future. Or at least it would if it was still capable of squeaking.

I love that, even though he's a rickety old man who wobbles when he walks, he can still get excited about playing.

there's a fire in the firepit on the patio in the back yard (there's a hole in the bottom of the sea...)

Pork butt on the smoker, cold beer in the fridge. Cue company in 3, 2, 1...

Its Friday and I'm free

I was gonna crash the fire in the firepit on the patio in the backyard...but, I got lost.

Now I'm trapped in a pit in Big Sarge's basement. He keeps saying something 'bout lotion and a basket.

I'ma gonna take over the Happy thread for a lickle while.
Good job we're pretty much in the Dead Zone for the Cellar. Well -yes, earlier would have been better, but I've been doing things. See below.

Mum gets up earlier than me, but stays in her nightdress while she does the housework. Sometimes until 10.00!
At 08.45 there was a knock at the door and a young lad delivered a parcel.
He had an electronic signature device, but fled before she could sign.
We think the nightdress might have put him off. She is called Mrs Robinson after all.
The parcel was for me, but I'd already left for school.

So when I came home I was really excited to find a big box, obviously from America, and bearing the return name and address of one Sarge. I deliberately did NOT look at the spoilers that Customs insist you include and Diz and I had much fun getting into it.
Well, I opened it and Diz tried to climb inside.

To my pleasure and surprise I had a veritable FEAST of American goodies.
Pork Skins, LOTS of Peeps (inc pink & blue rabbits), a Pecan Log Roll, Woody's Pecan & Walnut Praline, Rock Crystal Candy and Moon Pies.

Then also home made rye soap (in an evidence bag!) a National Guard hat and wallet (with notebook inside) and National Guard commemorative coins.

I hope I haven't missed anything out.
It was an amazing haul, and not what I expected. Sarge said he'd put something in the post, but this was more like a care package.

Now some pics.
Me in my new sunhat.
And greeting my pig snacks.

Note to British Dwellars - Pork Skins as above are like the large pork scratchings you get in places - the puffed up ones. I'm going to send Sarge some real pork scratchings in response. The ones that sometimes still have hairs on them :worried:

What I thought would be cute was if I got a pic of Diz sniffing the open bag. Of course I had to open it, it was a strange and unusual food. What I forgot was that Diz will eat pork scratchings when he can get hold of them. He ran away with half a bag Mum left on the side of her chair once; we retrieved them, but he's a chancer. So there am I, letting him sniff the bag, camera at ready... and he's in and out like the SAS - a small piece in his mouth and scoffing it on the sofa. By the time I got my camera ready it was all but crumbs.

And Dads. He was rather suspicious (he was ready for his tea to be honest - meat & two veg no messing) but found them perfectly paletable.

I thought they were yummy. Less salty than pork scratchings anyway.

PEEEEEEEPS!

My sister & nephew turned up unexpectedly.
I was on the sofa with packaging around me and fast food wrappers in evidence.
I even had Maury on the TV (waiting for the programme that came on next actually, since you ask).

I felt like a bloated cliche.

But 13 year old boys don't judge.
Samuel had two Peep chicks.
And after they left I took a self portrait of a Peep peeping out.
(Let's face it, it could have been a lot ruder)

Moon pies are a lot like Wagon Wheels, but more cakey than biscuity (in UK terms).

I likey. Had one with my lunch today, and was really hoping someone would say, "Oh is that one of the things you got in your parcel?" I think they all thought it was a Wagon Wheel though.

Mum was quite keen too.
Have not zoomed in because I think our cluttered little kitchen is shown well in the photo.
I also think Mum looks really good!

So, bottom line - thank you SO much Sarge.
I've loved it and my family have too.
You will get some token items in return - I just hope I can put as much thought into it as you did. And it's definitely not a tit-for-tat move - you know I've wanted to put something together for a while and this just prompted me to stop stalling.

Oh and thank your girls so much for the soap.
I've read about the process, but had no idea it could make something so very clean.
It's in our bathroom tonight.

You're a lucky woman, Sundae. I can't speak for Sarge, but I don't share my Moon Pies with just anybody. :D

I was trying to giveher a taste of Down South junk food. I'm trying to tempt her to move. Can ya'll imagine Sundae slinging "chittlins"?

We even threw end a bar of homemade lye soap!

You chose well. Pork rinds and Moon Pies are both great stuff.

It's hard to find Moon Pies in Chicago, but I found that they're available at the local Hostess discount place. I'm partial to the banana flavor.

Moon pies were in the package my Secret Santa sent me. They're wonderful.

What really surprised me about the American sweetie snacks was that they seemed less sweet than their Brit counterparts. Compared to wagon wheels, the moonpies are really subtle.

Probably because most American sweets don't use real sugar. The fake stuff doesn't taste as sweet, but it's so much cheaper that they can put in 4 times as much to compensate. The first time I made homemade frosting out of plain powdered sugar, I was completely stunned at the taste difference compared to the canned stuff, which supposedly had more grams of (fake) "sugar."

fake=HFCS or Aspartame, et al?

What do you mean by fake sugar? There are many kinds of sugars (5 and 6 carbon); are you saying one of these is more legitimate than all the others?

The sugar that dare not speak its name...

Love sugar, always second best, love sugar different from the rest...

Dear Sir/Madam
I am Mohammed Abacha,the son of the late Nigerian Head of State who died on the 8th of June 1998.If you are conversant with world news,you will remember that, before his death, my father deposited several hundred thousand tonnes of sugar into a warehouse...

You can substitute the word "artificial" if you prefer.

Are you sure she doesn't mean corn syrup?

What happy food! Look at you all with your happy food faces. Good choices sarge.;)

I can't believe they taste less sweet than the UK counterparts.
I think they are very sweet, and the UK doesn't use high fructose corn syrup?

That's a beautiful thing, if so.

K, I went googling.

Ingredients of a moonpie, according to wiki:

Ingredients of a Wagon Wheel:

Ingredients of a Cowpie:

I don't think we do use that high fructose corn syrup much over here. We use glucose syrup though, which is made from grain starch, either corn or wheat or whatever.

We only use the corn syrup because we are subsidizing the corn farmers

According to a TIME article, Glucose seems to be the better sugar.

http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...892841,00.html

Glucose: The teacher's pet of sugar.
Mom loved Glucose the best. -- Fructose
Why can't you be more like Glucose?

I think we use fructose as well, but it's not the high fructose corn syrup.

All organic food tastes like that.

One 24 hour shift followed by an 8 hour shift and off to the Bahamas for a long weekend of fun sun and Rugby.

Nice:0

After about 6 million years (hold the comments), I have FINALLY worked out how to embed YouTube clips. No Eureka moment on the cataloguing coding yet, but this will do for today.

vid or it never happened

There's no stopping me now. See the music that just isn't "you"thread for starters...reposted here for your convenience.

Tiger had a school hot dinner today!
They only started Wednesday last week, but Tennant had one on Friday and Tiger even tasted some from his plate, declaring it to be good.

Today had two sausages, one scoop of mash and a pot of fruit salad. Okay he only had two pieces of fruit from the salad, but this is a boy who two years ago would only eat toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Yay Tiger!
Peer pressure at its best.

Back at work today. Yea! Work sucks, but at least it pays the bills. Oh and I'm likely I'll be getting a raise, so... Woo hoo!

I might be able to pick up an extra 7.5 hours a week from September.
The school is looking for staff for its Breakfast Club.

Now once upon a time this would have horrified me.
Leaving home at 07.00 would have led to many duvet days....
But I am going to bed earlier now and waking up earlier with little or no reluctance.
I have no idea which came first, but it is undoubtedly healthy.

And knowing there is a whole bunch of children (who I will get to know well) depending on me will make it likely I will struggle in through any minor ailments.

It's not a done deal, of course.
All I can hope is that the majority of support staff (they start there because we already know the school/ rules/ pupils and have CRB checks) have children themselves and won't be tempted.

Fingers crossed.

PS - it's not the hallway-running, statue-climbing, pot-smoking type of Breakfast Club.
The most I can hope for is free cereal. Every little helps.

Some feedback?
Any feedback?

I know I'm being bloody annoying.

But I've waited about 6 weeks to do so.
Rather than six hours.

I have half term coming up.
And the 'rents are away!
I will be having wall-to-wall-marathon TV sessions! I don't watch many programmes, but it will be lovely to watch those I enjoy back to back and whenever I please.

Old Torchwood
Old & New Doctor Who
The League
Psychoville

etc etc

Sorry, I seem to have gone for a hat-trick of happy.
But the last doesn't really count as it was part of berating Dani.

If you've watched any of it - or esp listened to the commentary - do let me know. Whatever your opinion it would please me enormously.
If not, get J round and have an evening. Stat.

Hahaha.


Alas I ended up with unexpected visitors that day and haven't had a chance combined with comedy mood to do a LoG marathon, which is how I want to watch those.

I will say I have been madly enjoying psychoville, and revisiting snippets of the original LoG radio and tv series as when mood and time collide. I've been on a bit of a Gatiss kick just lately. Clips, interviews, any panel show appearances etc. :)

Have a great time Sundae! Fingers crossed for you too.



I know this is going to sound like a commercial, but I saved $86 dollars a month switching to Progressive. That was three weeks ago. I am still feeling very very happy about it.

That is a huge chunk of change.:D

When aren't I on a Gatiss kick?
I even watched teh TV BAFTAs because he is part of the Sherlock team.
I was well rewarded, as he not only accepted one but presented one.

I'm so glad he has hair again.
Yes I respect him as a successful actor, writer, dog owner, author, script editor and all the rest. But he is still a man. And a ginger to boot. And the world comes alive when he grows his hair a little. I'm sure his husband agrees.

So go ahead and take your time.
In truth I'd far rather you enjoyed it.
I was just prodding because I'm waiting for payday (and especially to get a haircut) and everything is rubbing the wrong way right now. Or getting in my eyes. Either way.

lol, I just saw your sigline!


And counting :)


[eta] I am recockulously excited about seeing Barrowman again!

It's actually less than 7 months now - we're going on the 19th :biggrin:
Where is the best place to put the thread?

Last year I had PMs from people who had only just stumbled upon our trip months after. And yet it was in the fast moving Images thread (from what I remember). Hang on, maybe it was Cellar Meta?

Cities & Travel is even slower moving.
Perhaps all the build-up is in the right place, but we could put the post-GTG photos and write-up in Home?

This is not a case of trumpets blown, I just think that the trip was missed by people who were interested.

Is this a bit like plannng my 100th birthday on the moon?
I will address this nearer the time.

Seems like the right idea to me!

Actually, it's making me happy every day lately.

Max climbs up only my lap, puts his arms around my neck and his head on my shoulder and says, "I yuv you so much" and then gives me a kiss. He has trouble with L sounds at this stage which is funny when he says my friend Libby's name.

So cute...

Imagining that and then remembering times when friends' kids have said/done something similar is, apologies, but there is no other phrase for it, warm and fuzzy.