Things are very routine and not a lot is happening at the moment, though we are slowly getting things planned out for the next few weeks. I'm going to Antwerp in two weeks to attend Javapolis, a week-long java programmer conference. I'm going to join Katy in Leicester the weekend I get back because she's having a tea party at her folks' place for an early birthday celebration. The following week, Katy and I are going to spend a few days in London for her proper birthday do, and then it's xmas. In between all of that, we have to fit in lots of cooking for xmas prep, a bit of home DIY and home decoration and get the xmas shopping done. It's going to be a busy time.
People conspire to annoy the hell out of me today
A lot of my daily work time is spent answering support emails. Usually, people ask questions that fall into a few general categories and these are quickly dealt with. Once in a while, they have a genuine bug to report or encounter a snag we haven't seen before. All of which are ok.
Once in a while though, you get dumbasses.
We have a very comprehensive user manual for all the projects we work on. It takes a lot of time to make sure it's up to date and complete. It is. Sadly, the dumbasses never seem to use it.
I have just spent the last 15 minutes politely answering questions sent by email when all I want to do is send a one liner that would simply state “clearly, you haven't read the fucking manual”.
One day, I will.
Personal responsibility surrenders…
A Russian woman who drank up to 5 000 litres of Coca Cola has successfully sued the company for making her ill. Natalya Kashuba, 27, the owner of an upmarket clothes shop, drank up to three litres of the soft drink every day for five years. She took legal action against the soft drinks giant after claiming that she had suffered insomnia and heartburn, reports the Telegraph.
Miss Kashuba said she had become addicted to the drink as a result of a promotional offer that allowed consumers to swap Coca Cola caps for prizes. Dozens of inflatable mattresses and radios she won were used as key evidence in the case.
“In October 2005, as a result of an examination by a gastroenterologist, she was diagnosed with a chronic condition whose main symptom is heart burn,” her lawyer, Alexey Monakhov, said.
In a landmark ruling, two Russian courts agreed that Coca Cola had failed to warn of the potential health risks of drinking too much Coke and awarded Miss Kashuba
Though the sum in itself is derisory, Miss Kashuba's victory is unprecedented and could, lawyers predict, prompt an avalanche of similar suits.
Miss Kashuba herself is seeking a further from Coca Cola in “moral damages”. – Ananova.com
So what do you know. Drinking 5000 liters of coke will make you wired and give you heartburn. Well fucking DUH!
Attention world: <b>FUCK YOU</b>
I am not having a good day. Please, for your sake and mine, leave me the fuck alone today and check your sarcasm at the door.
Are we having fun yet?
It's 5:30 and I've been tossing and turning for the last hour. I can't really say that the rest of the night has been any better. My back is killing me and I've been almost pushed out of bed twice tonight. Throw in Katy's snoring (she has a cold) and a bad case of wandering duvet and you get a really, really satisfying night's sleep. And if you believe that, I have some prime real estate I want to sell you in Florida…
In other news, I've already mentioned that Katy has a cold, which is making her miserable. A grumpy Katy tends to spread the love around and since I tend to be the closest target, I get a lot of it – which isn't doing wonders for my mental health at the minute.
All in all, I'm tired, my back hurts and I'm not in the best of moods today. To top it all off, today is Thursday – i.e. meeting day. This day can't get any better than this – and it hasn't really even begun yet.
JOY
[Recipe] Onion soup
Ingredients
1kg onions, cut into slices
2 pints beef stock
1 cup white wine
1 tsp sugar
olive oil
mozarella or gruyere cheese
crusty bread
Prep
In a large pot on high heat, add oil, onions and sugar and sautee for 5 minutes (until the edges of the onions start to blacken a bit). Reduce to minimum heat and let simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After that time, you'll be left with nicely browned onions and a good coating of flavour on the bottom of the pan. Deglaze gently with the white wine and add the beef stock. Let simmer for 1 hour.
Toast some crusty bread to make large croutons. Distribute soup into over-proof bowls. Top with croutons and cheese and broil until the cheese is golden.
Serve immediately.
We finally have room in the kitchen!
I've finally finished putting up the shelves in the pantry in the kitchen. Instead of a gaping, sloping hole that was only good to keep paint cans, we now have a fully usable space.
This means that we're reorganizing the whole kitchen so that we can finally put away the mountains of tupperware we had lying around and unpack stuff that was still in boxes because we had nowhere to put it. This makes me happy.
This also makes me want to go buy kitchen stuff, but shhhh!
Bit of a weekend update
Had a bit of a busy weekend.
In a nutshell:
– took last friday off to wait for our new fridge to be delivered
– painted the pantry in preparation to get shelves fitted in
– removed fresh paint off the cat (stupid animal)
– went to the gym for the first time in months. Happily, I'm not in as bad a shape as I thought I'd be after the wedding, the honeymoon and LA (where my diet went basically out the window for the whole time).
– the whole Smoked Meat affair, which has been mentioned previously.
– started installing the shelves in the pantry, where I concluded that my drill is not up to coping with British masonry walls.
That's about it, really.
Feel meh today.
Don't really know why.
*chortle*
HUGE numbers of British women admit to feeling sex-starved — and they blame the grind of doing the housework for their lack of nookie. Researchers found 35 per cent said they were too tired to enjoy sex because they were expected to do all the cooking, washing and cleaning.
Nearly half of the women surveyed revealed that in an average week they spend six hours doing chores but less than 15 minutes having sex. But they are more likely than ever to have careers — with 75 per cent in work, according to figures from entertainment company Buena Vista.
Writer and housework expert Rita Konig said: “Women are juggling so much something has to give — and it appears that it’s sex that suffers.”
Another hard-hitting article from The Sun…
That's what you get when you marry white trash
Pop singer Britney Spears' estranged hubby Kevin “Cletus” Federline has reportedly threatened to go public with the couples honeymoon sex tapes if she fails to make a hefty payout to him and hand custody of their two sons.
Britney fears the raunchy footage will destroy her wholesome image unless she caves in to his demands for a £16million payoff and custody of their children Sean Preston, one, and Jayden James, eight weeks.
…Gotta love trailer trash.