The beaver is a proud and noble animal

2.5 kg tomatoes (blanched, peeled and grossly chopped)
1 head of celery
6 onions, chopped (I like to mix white and red onions)
3 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup salt

Mix everything together and let sit for 2 hours, then drain to remove as much liquid as possible. Once that's done, add:

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp ground black pepper

Mix together 1 cup and 1 cup white vinegar in a bowl. Add just enough to fully cover the veggies. If you need some more, mix up another batch of sugar/vinegar in a 1:1 ratio. Once the veggies are just covered, add another 3/4 cup sugar.

Bring to a simmer and cook for 3 hours, mixing regularly. Adjust sweetness/tartness to taste while it's cooking. Once it's done, put in sterilized pots.

To sterilize pots (I use jam jars, but mason jars work just as well), wash in warm soapy water, rinse with very hot water, place upside down on a baking tin and leave in a medium oven for 15 minutes. Boil lids. Fill while warm and cover promptly. Tighten lid and Bob's your uncle.

PS: For a bit more of a kick, you can add one or two finely chopped chilies.

I miss cabs. In Montreal, if you want a cab, you usually just have to walk to a semi-major intersection and wait for about 2.37 seconds and you can just hail one. The UK is a cab boondocks. I went for my first phobia therapy session this morning. It ended at 10am. I had to wait a solid friggin hour to get a cab. Oh, and the receptionist charged me 10p to make the call to the cab company. Bastards. Is the NHS that broke???

The List

I went to Starbucks this morning and the barista was named Bodil. This made me think of Michel and giggle silently to myself. Unless you khow why, I'm not telling you the reason.

Spent ooodles of money this morning. It's going to cost me 100 quid to get my watch serviced. The good news is that I'll now have another 12 months of warranty. The bad news is that it's going to take a month to do. Did some more xmas shopping. I'm almost done with everybody, only some bits and pieces left to buy.

Shit like this freaks me out when it happens. Katy was channel surfing and stopped on Family Guy. My only exposure to that show has been through LJ icons and the random bits that Sara's quoted. I was only half watching the show when I thought of one of those Sara quotes: “I've licked my share of peanut butter”. 5 minutes later, I kid you not, Brian the dog says that exact line. Woah, dude!

Katy and I spent ooodles of money today on xmas prezzies. Yaay! Funfunfun. Pretties and shinies and tasties and smellies. Still have a bit to cover, but most people are well under way. It's been a weird day. The Grogan clan and I spent the day outside and shopping to change our collective thoughts. Other interesting incidents occurring today were Katy poking me in the eye with her finger and being offered a Star wars balloon, finding out that all of the computers we wanted to buy were discontinued and out of stock and me spending over an hour in a bookstore and coming out bookless. How sad is that?

I had poutine tonight, or the closest British equivalent. We had chip-shop chips (which I have to say are better then their Canadian bretheren), with an assload of Bisto gravy and some grated cheese. That was the only letdown – I can't find fresh milk cheese curds hereabouts :( It was nummylicious! Thanks petkatyyazzick!

Your Birthdate: August 7

Born on the 7th day of month gives you a tendency to be something of a perfectionist and makes you more individualistic in many ways. Your mind is good at deep mental analysis and complicated reasoning. You are very psychic and sensitive, and you should usually follow your hunches. You may not take orders too well, so you may want to work alone or in a situation where you can be the boss. This birthday gives a tendency to be somewhat self-centered and a little stubborn.

Psychic? or Psychotic? Hmmmm…

Last night, I dreamed that I went trick or treating on the McGill campus (which looked like the Cambridge rail station) and President Dubya Bush gave me a kitkat.

WTF??

I've come up with a nice term for weird dreams: introucing bugs in my OS (It came to me while I was dreaming, but I like it). Katy woke me up last night at 1am to ask me who the pretentious man in a suit was. Mmmokay. She'll come up with random statements like that when she's asleep. Apparently, she was trying to stop a war so it's ok.

I don't know what I did to myself last night but this morning *both* shoulders hurt.

Not a happy camper.

So last night my dream involved:

buying a house from my current landlords and finding the poopsmith in the basement and further finding out that one of the rooms lead to a leasure establishment (think Spirited away, but more Tiki than Oriental) that had Elvis Fridays. Fast forward/segway into an evil overlord-type plan to do something evil (that part is still murky) that involved an insane asylum, the grown up children from Roseanne and a shower that turned me into a really buff samourai with white hair and a sculpted (and well endowed) body… Muh?

I need to get my watch repaired. Joy. I looked at it this morning and it was off by 20 minutes (which by itself almost gave me a coronary as I was running late) and now the sweep hand of the chronograph is stuck. I am not a happy camper.