Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy Old Year!

We are trusting the humble abode of the FftS to HWWGTA for the New Years celebrations and spending the evening with friends. Such great friends that they have even asked a very kind teetotaller to do the driving. Thus TMTDUB and WFBOJ are in the hands of HWWGTA and (Now what will her acronym be? for the time being it will be HWA). They are holding a Murder Mystery Dinner with an Italian theme. Wonder if they will play the "Mafia" game after they have figured out who the murderer was?

Happily HWA arrived just in time to get the two legs of lamb into the oven. Yes, two and there are only 6 of them. Hope they like meat! She had asked me just after arriving; how organised HWWGTA was I nearly split my sides!!! He is after all his father's son!

Must go and get ready .... must be ready for our lift!!!

Puppy Bath Photo Blog

Early one morning WFBOJ needed a bath. Not that she wanted one! But for reasons that I won't go into here we knew that she did! As you can see from her very forlorn look.
Unfortunately she wasn't able to tell us just how bad we were at giving puppy baths. Though I suspect her attempts to frantically scrabble out of the sink was a sort of clue.

Finally the liberal application of a hair dryer produced a very interesting out of focus fuzzball effect!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

A resounding success!

It is sadly not often enough that the FftS meets up with the FfY. We did get a full set together, though the specific instance of full-set-ed-ness was unfortunately not long lived, must be something to do with the half life of the resulting element.

This occasion was the first introduction of TIBF to the "Full-Set". First impressions were that he was smart, clearly proven later in the evening to be an understatement. As an example he spends his spare time correcting the English in the latest QI book,.... I swear I would never have spotted the misused apostrophe it's indeed! Stephen how could you let the side down so badly by allowing your name to be connected to such badly constructed English book!. Being apparently so smart, is totally congruent with him being the (Ex) Italian boy friend of TBA.

The evening progressed onto food which of course, for TEIBF was surely the main trap, as being Italian (did I mention that?), and bound inexorably to the stereotypical model us Brits have of the Italian Male, he had to uphold his Mother's cooking at all costs.

The trap was neatly executed by TGSWAES, (who for my reader is TBA's mum) as she had cunningly decided to serve "Lasagne". What she was actually serving was the traditional 14th Century English dish Loseyns (pronounced Lasan). which in turn is likely to have originated from the Scandinavian "Langkake", popular from the Viking ages, a multi-layered dish consisting of flatbread, meat sauce and cheese.. (I wonder if TBA has already found Archaeological proof of all this.)

Any how.. back to the neatly executed trap, TEIBF shewn earlier to be not short of a braincell or two, had spotted the trap and on being asked (a little too blatantly for my taste in traps) by TGSWAES "How does it compare to your mother's Lasagne?". He replied with a perfectly executed and very simple "It's different!". The tone held enough to clearly convey that his Mother's culinary dominance had not been assailed, certainly not equalled, and the very thought of it having been surpassed, not even a remote possibility!. To have the grasp of English tone to execute in 2.5 simple words so much, had me in awe. The effect on the table was quite interesting, as the various parties bound to support the slighted one. At this point TEIBF executed another blinding verbal pirouette by helping us understand that the execution of most foreign cooking by the English was "different", "take for example" Indian food in England. We all pictured in our minds eye the Chicken Tikka Masala dish that we had come to understand had never been cooked in India, until arriving English tourists demanded it! As TEIBF had said "diferrent"!

It is so easy after the fact to see how simply he lead us all neatly away from discussing the true origins of Lasagne. Clever really how we never really got to prove that Lasagne was English, before it was Italian!.

The latter part of the evening involved playing a most interesting Parlour Games, called variously Mafia or WereWolf. The rules we played can be found here, originating from Russia it is one of the most recently invented parlour games. For its history and other rules check the Wikipedia entry

HWWGTA was the Narrator, and he had the challenge of selecting a Detective, a member of the Mafioso. He had to make it difficult to guess, but how? So his selection made the game began... The individual playing the Mafia moved in quick and took out the three eldest Males of the village , assisted by the villagers in their lynching selection. His second strike took out the Detective, who had correctly identified him just before his demise. He spoke little but when he did it always resulted in a shift of blame and his survival.

One by one the innocent villagers fell to the power of the "Mafia", the game came to its inevitable conclusion. I will never forget the spine tingling comment of TIBF on our departure. Paraphrased his comment simply recognised that the result was not unexpected given the experience of the person that HWWGTA had selected to be Mafia. I was still numb from the fact that HWWGTA had chosen to double bluff and select TEIBF, after all who would suspect he would choose an Italian. So when TEIBF shared the inevitability of the result, I of course shivered! I just hope he reads this and then smiles benignly! If this blog comes to an abrupt end, you will know he didn't!

Friday, December 22, 2006

Dastardly Multi Letter Acronyms

My "reader" has given me clear feedback about my DMLA's, they are apparently too dastardly, despite the fact that I pepper clues to their meaning throughout a blog in which they are introduced, often just plain spelling them out! Well for most of them ,of course HWWGTA is not going to get any clues! None, NARDA, just ain't happenin'!

So I am going to use this Blog as the key for all those who do not have the desire to wrestle with them... of course I fear I am putting myself in mortal danger by publicly declaring an order to my Surrogate Daughters, but they were created in a very strict time dependant order, so hopefully they will not pillory me for being a clock watcher!

I will add DMLA's a few at a time and keep them in Alphabetical order for ease of reference.

D.M.L.A. KEY

AFGF A DMLA that for the time being shall remain lost in the history of the old millenium.

FftN A simple one to start including lower case to signify "little words", this one means "Family from the North". An indicator of the current geographic location of one of the Families mentioned in the Blog.

FftS Clearly the opposite of FftN

FfY this one means "Family from Yately". Comprising TREE, TGSWAES. TBA, *****, HWINKU.

HWA this one is a temporary one that means "Her Without Acronym".

HWINKU another silent DMLA disclosue {insert Evil Laugh here} which means "He Who Is Never Knowingly Uncool". You have to see, to believe!

HWWGTA this one gives me insane pleasure in silently publishing as it means "He Who Will Get This Acronym". He is getting closure, so by publishing I can at least claim he could have read it here!

SDO Ever feel like the sword of Damacles was suspended above you, this one stands for "Surrogate Daughter One", it in NO way is intended to rank by any means other than time-based, things like their downright cussedness, the power of their eminently powerful laser looks (although I can secretly disclose here that there have been not a few incidents that have been put down by officialdom as being caused by "Natural Disasters", when in fact it was simply me riling one of them a step too far!!) Not to mention things like Weight, Height Beauty etc., for clearly any SD of mine is perfection personified.

SDT I am simply not telling you!

SGM Speedy GrandMa after one GrandMa that we know, who "got done" for speeding which clearly scored her MANY brownie points with the young of the FftS and the FftN.

SWDNFT She Who *** Wait ... for .... it!

SWHWMD She WhoWants More Dogs The old DMLA for SWHAND

TBA "The B******** Archaelogist", She knows who she is, and her brothers will be making up words beginning with B until they find one that finally gets under her skin!

TGSWAES "The Good Samaritan With an Evil Streak", despite the fact that it sounds harsh, to those who don't know her, she knows I'm right! It also one of her most loveable aspects, if only she didn't keep it under control! I have to be carefull here as I can feel an urge to gush... Phew! Nearly complimented her, that was close!

TEIBF "The Ex Italian Boy Friend", Like you needed this one explained!!! Yeah right! (Though it turns out he wasn't as bright as I thought he was! Perhaps he was kinder and more generous than I can imagine.)

TREE "The Real Electronic Engineer, I knew as soon as I met, him many moons ago that he knew about electrons and I would always be feeling in the dark. Happily his IQ does n't stop him having flaws, like the urge to eat chips before arriving to dine.

TVBNL "The Very Bright Northern Lad" the father of AFGF (not sure I am ready to disclose that last Acronym.)

TVBNLSSL "The Very Bright Northern Lad's Sweet Southern Lass" the Mother of AFGF (still not sure I am ready to disclose that Acronym.) (This acronym care of SWHAND)

TMO "The Messy One" also known as the Trundling Grunt whose Blog is known as Secrets and Lies ((Magnificent indeed!!!))

WFBOJ "White Furry Bundle Of Bundle Joy" The old DMLA for the latest addition to the FftS household, selected before we knew better.

WFT "White Furry Terrorist, the more apposite DMLA for the latest addition to the FftS household.

***** DMLA Wildcard. Normally means that I have had to veto most of my DMLA's for the individual referred to using the wild card, or that I have not had that AHA! moment yet.

I wonder if this will appease my reader!?

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Blogs! Who has time for Blogs with a new puppy!

This will be short terse and hopefully as sweet as the new puppy! She arrived in a flash of white fur and introduced herself to TMTDUB, who didn't even know she existed as an extra member of the household, by sneaking up behind him and running under his belly to poke her head up under his chin! Well! To say he was enamoured would be a downright lie! He jumped about 4,000 feet into the air, all the while spinning round to check out what this alien being was, and then landed paws splayed, snarl at the ready and took his first snap at her, but she must have been expecting it as she wasn't where his jaws snapped shut. We had hoped just maybe he was just playing, but he hasn't stopped snarling since!?

Well between then and now we have been introduced to this amazing phenomena, a tiny white furry bundle that just KNOWS she is in charge! Which does not serve to increase TMTDUB's sense of well being and calm, and has done a lot to have him perfect a terrifying lip curling display fo fangs. He seems to have a permanent snarl with a continuous low pitched rumble coming from deep in his belly. Which appears to be intended to communicate to WFBOJ, that she should stay well clear. What she actually does is simply ignore him. Which only serves to wind him up more... Puppies are supposed to be subservient to older Male dogs that bare their teeth right....??? Not WFBOJ!

After all she owns the place already! Charlie just hasn't got accustomed to the fact yet!

But neither have we, it seems a little weird coming to the realisation that something so small can take instantaneous control of 4 adults and an older male dog.

So hourly trips into the garden, which is after all a wonderful new place to explore is a requirement for many reasons not least that it's best to tire her out as quickly as possible so that we can get something done! But actually it is quite entertaining, the first time she tried to walk across the pond was quite a sight! The netting, there to protect the fish from the dratted Herons. served to stop her sinking to the bottom of the pond, but as luck would have it she still had her hind legs on terra-firma so with a complicated fast reverse coupled with a body roll to her left she avoided drowning....

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

12 Days of Hogswatch


You Terry Pratchett fans should be pretty excited about the upcoming Sky One event on the 17th and 18th of December Hi Def too! Yippee!!

Unless of course you don't get Sky One! :-)

So as a teaser, watch "Death" in the '12 Days of Hogswatch' here..

Be quick they are already on day 2...

Saturday, December 02, 2006

A new cocktail to celebrate: KT's Surprise

After the news last night I designed a new cocktail to celebrate.

Glass: Martini Cocktail Glass

Ingredients:
2 parts Golden Cayman Island Rum
1 part Roses Grenadine Syrup
1 Maraschino Cherry

Recipe
Chill Glass to achieve frosting (increases the chances of the surprise)
Half fill shaker with crushed ice
Add liquids to the shaker
Shake well till ice forms on the outside of the shaker
Remove glass from freezer
Drop Maraschino Cherry in the bottom of the glass
Pour in the Pink liquid over the cherry to "hide" it!

Serve and Enjoy

Background
Cayman Island Golden Rum reminds me of the best of holidays
The cherry disappears beneath the pink liquid and emerges from the depths as the drink progresses.

Friday, December 01, 2006

YIPEEE!! great news...


"I have never heard HWWGTA squeal as high pitched, it was really sweet!", said SDO.

I will remember that line for a while, but not as long as I will recall the squeal just after he had picked up the phone. What! I said.... and he passed me the phone... I just managed to avoid beating his squeal! So sad how age affects one...

All triggered by the purchase of 29 pink roses, 2 bottles of pink champagne and a circle of metal with what are rumored to be terribly well cut and polished oxides of aluminium colored by iron and titanium. The human units have a penchant for digging up objects out of the dirt and turning them into attractive shiny objects to adorn the orifices and digits of the female units of the species, primarily.

The first time I met TSO, now presumably better known as FSSILO; was in SDO's college room, and like her Mum, it took me seconds to realise he was hooked. Well, 5 years on he has proposed and SDO has said yes! YIPEEEE!

It hasn't really sunk in yet but I suppose the backlash will hit me far less than it will PoSDO. Surrogacy has a diminishing effect on the pain I'm sure. At present I am still just plain chuffed and even more convinced that I want to go up and see them in their new abode. I suppose the other thing that is keeping the pain at bay is the fact that I have had 5 years to prepare for this day.

Weird that it occurred on the very day that I was feeling guilty for not sending the bits to put in the HMAC. The relief is palpable, FSSILO now has the official duty of filing up the said advent calendar. So, some rules to help him get it right...
1) Don't put the same thing in every pocket!
2) Mix the value, at least 60% can be chocolate or other silly things
3) The rest different surprises, one of which needs to be of a higher value of the others... OMG! he wouldn't have been that clever would he? He already made me look stingey with SWWMD, Pink Roses and Pink Champagne indeed! "Girls like that sort of thing you know" With the knowing look that signifies now you have to get me something more than Millie for Christmas!

So with that thought bouncing round my head, I will sign off this blog, with a final congratulations to the happy couple! Can't wait till 2008, that's if I can persuade them that I deserve an invite! As this first metal band signifies that another band or two will be required, along with possibly some other banns being read.