My kingdom for a flush

Is it time YET??

With New Year’s Eve barreling down upon us, I think this is a good time for a random list. (I love lists)

~I am on vacation this week. Sweet, sweet vacation. Better timing there could not be

~My Mom got us a Keurig coffee machine and we LOVE it. If you were to picture the perfect gift for my family right at this moment in time, that would be it. Everyone (including myself) has been enjoying numerous hot beverages. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, you name it, we drank it. The best selling point for me? No clean up of the coffee grounds. Love. It.

~This morning, I made a FAUX-LATTE with a Newman’s Bold Keurig coffee, microwave warmed milk and my favorite Starbucks sugar free vanilla syrup. Yum. MO.

~Plumbers. Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t flush without ‘em. We are having plumbing “issues” involving a clogged main line. OH JOY! We technically have running water, we just can’t use it. Again. Joy.  If there is anything that will make a whole family cranky is the inability to freely use the bathroom at any given time in day or night.

~So, yeah, the clog showed up, like an unwanted guest, around 6 pm last night, depositing it’s effects in the basement (Luckily we caught it fairly soon so it was not a disaster of epic proportions) (We caught it on “Frozen Pipe Watch” because it is so North Pole cold. An igloo would most likely be our new home style with this kind of weather). For about 2 hours, we (ha, “WE”. Not we at all, ANDY) snaked the drain and fiddled and tried to move the unwanted guest along. To no avail. Clogged and clogged good. Old pipes will do that. New pipes will do that too but these pipes are senior citizens and then some.

Anyway, around 8 pm, we called a neighbor, who is a plumber. As luck would have it, he does not DO that kind of job. (I did not say GOOD luck, see?) but he gave us a name of someone who would do that kind of job. Great. A referral. We were feeling a bit cocky throwing the neighbor’s name around, thinking that would get us somewhere a bit faster. Yeah. No. It did nothing.

At 10 pm, not hearing from Mr. Referral Plumber (who most likely had the GALL to have a life when WE needed him so desperately!) I then called my place of employment, where plumbers are on the payroll. I figured that *I* could come through and have  Mr. Big Corporation Plumber That I Know Personally will come and save the day.

Yeah. No. Apparently *I* don’t have any pull either. Drat it all to hell.
We spent a long, flushless night waiting for the phone to ring. It did not ring. Until 8 am today. Mr Referral Plumber will be here at 10 am. Or so.

Fingers crossed please that we will be a modern, flushable home by 10:30. Today.

~Cold. It is so blasted cold

~I was reading my new book, my Christmas gift from Derek, Stephen King’s Under the Dome (which was sold out in many a book location this Christmas, good for YOU, Mr. King), 1088 pages. A hefty read to say the least!

Anyway, I was reading away, cozy and warm on the couch (praying that I would not have any intestinal worries all the evening) (Because of the non flush zone, yanno) and Mitchell the cat wanted on the lap. I moved the book, onehanded to the side to give him room to get comfy and I almost sprained a wrist. Cripes that book is HEAVY! A bit of weight training WHILE I read. Multi tasking at it’s best.

~Here we are on the doorstep of another year. They do have a habit of rushing by, don’t’ they? Remember 10 years ago, the turn of the millenium? The hype and hysteria that went along with it? The visions of planes falling from the sky and the electricity going out permanently?

~Well, that’s it for today. I could go on and on, I’m feeling especially chatty today. Must be all of the coffee beverages I’ve been consuming lately!

~Enjoy this day, stay healthy (poor Bethany is super sick with a horrible cold right now) and have a flush or 2 for me, will ya?

[Via http://mysubstitutesandysknittingblog.wordpress.com]

Personality Test^^

Just did my personality test! Hahas.. So have you done yours? I’m pretty sure this test can help you out in understanding yourself better and maybe guide you in your choice of career in future

Click here to take the test. [note: Just to let you know you'll need to register to take the test.]

Here’s my results:

[Via http://ichocopun.wordpress.com]

Saturnalia does something unspeakable with Uranus.

This was my first Xmas in Australia and I honetly did not know what to expect; even if Lizzie had tried to explain it to me. I probably had problems understanding it as Xmas, or Yule, is so deep root in my own culture it might make it difficult for me to understand something that can be extremely different.

As I am used to celebrating Xmas on the 24th I found it difficult to grasp that here the 24th is just a normal day. Lizzie told me so, making me scratch my head and almost looking at her in disbelief; but when we arrived at her parents I realised that the 24th was actually just a regular boring day.
This might be an individual thing, but I also noticed that typical Xmas(Yule) snacks and food were missing. The closes thing to a Yule snack was my rice chocolate (rischoklad).

As they do not celebrate Xmas on the 24th, they do so on the 25th; which is a bit odd to me.
We woke up on the 25th, unpacked our presents like a wild pack of dingoes. It was more or less everyone for themselves; grabbing the gifts with your name on it and tearing off the wrapping as quick as possible.
That was followed by, to me, a pretty normal breakfast. After that you did nothing, other than maybe play around with your gifts and just be more lazy than your were on the 24th. Later in the evening you have some kind of dinner; anything goes, so nothing I know from my own Yuletide celebration.
That is more or less Xmas in Australia; or at least how I experienced it.

It was nice spending time with the family and the gifts I got were awesome, but the Yule feeling was not there at all. It was not just the lack off snow, because I have not experienced so many snowy winters the last years; but more the lack of Yule spirit and tradition.
It gladly made me appreciate my own Yule tradition even more.
Hopefully we will be back in Scandinavia next Yule.

The last days with Lizzie had been great. We have been relaxing and relaxed; just doing what we want and not having to worry about anything.
Tonight I do feel that those days might be coming to an end. I need to contact people in Sweden as I am planning to study by distance, from Australia in Sweden. Hopefully this works out better than the study here in Australia. I also need to go back to looking for work; but lucky me, I have no clue what kind of work. Can I work full-time, part-time or just casual?

Only thing I know for sure is that 2010 will start off pretty rough and with great uncertainty.

Note: This is a really crappy post, but I am posting it just as evidence that I am still alive. I am only pleased with the name; which I am not sure it deserves.

[Via http://randomoid.com]

compliments

aren’t compliments the best?  i love it when my husband compliments my cooking.  it makes me feel good and makes me want to cook more.  maybe the food sucks and he’s lying but i wouldn’t know.  i just know i still want to make more stuff.  it’s just a good, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside feeling.  i’m happy to be able to cook for my family and know that it taste really good.

funny, today i was making a salty beef dish and even i was like woah…this smells just like it!  i still shock myself.

i’m just happy right now.

cooking tip #4

i wish i took a picture to display but unfortunately, i threw it away before i remembered to take a picture.

so the tip, purchase a good sturdy chef’s knife.  you’ll use it a lot and it needs to be strong.  mine was a cheap $8 knife and it bent when i tried to cut through a frozen fish.  it was the craziest thing ever!  the knife bent!  like the bottom of the knife bent in a fold.  i dunno, too hard to explain it but really crazy.

i hope everyone had a happy holiday season!!!

more photo’s of more yummies!

beef slices with green onion salad wrapped in red leaf lettuce!

green onion salad

cod porridge

bean sprouts

spinach

jangjorim

bibimbap

soon dobu – tofu soup with beef, veges & mixed seafood

[Via http://kwonsies.wordpress.com]

giant's wife, cont.

The day’s ride towards General Putwet’s camp seemed very much to be the calm before the storm. Most of them generally ignored her and she found herself riding alone. Commander Borut favored either riding alone or to discuss millitary buisness with his officers while he rode. And though she occasionally saw Adela, the womaan regarded her now with hostility and resentment so approuching her would be impossible….

[Via http://alwaysawriter.wordpress.com]

Sings to the joy

MERRY CHRISTMAS PEOPLE!!! XD

How is everyone christmas going? Fine?

Well, had dark chocalate log cake yesterday…

Yummy!!♥

Nice log cake, isn’t it? =D

Well, it is my first post in wordpress here.

Hope everyone enjoy their reading about this blog. =)

Emily

[Via http://bubblezdotz.wordpress.com]

The Benifits of Being Silent

If people want to get in contact with you, care about you, want to hear what you have to say, or are even mildly interested in you or what you have to say – there are advantages to being silent.

People might get worried about you. Your silence will raise questions. Where did he go? Why isn’t she saying anything? Something must be wrong because he usually never shuts up. This kind of worry can work to your benefit. Aside from sympathy, worry can lead to a heightened sense of awareness which can lead to anticipation. The next thing you visibly say or do after a period of silence will get more attention.

It is also possible that people will think you are simply deep in thought. For some reason silent people are considered deep. For instance, monks who have taken vows of silence and movie characters who do not say much are considered deep. Whenever one of these silent people speak it is always perceived that they will say something earth shattering or life changing. In reality these people are probably just out of things to say, but the perception surrounding people who are intentionally silent can work to your advantage.

Maybe people will just think you are mentally sub-normal and therefore will treat you nicer or make things easier for you.

Of course, the most likely thing to happen is that people will just be pissed at the fact that you seem to be ignoring them or haven’t made contact in a while.

On a side note: I am afraid that some people can text faster than I can type. This scares me. I type a lot.

[Via http://mmstr.wordpress.com]