And then there were none.

And Then There Were None.

Well, so far no one has been murdered under suspicious circumstances, but there will have to be a gathering of some sort in a drawing room after this is over for some sort of beverage-type recovery. But that really is quite an excellent film.

In approx. 8 minutes (or so), the last Hobbit will be departing, with the assistance of The Mad Greek and The Wirish One and their respective vehicular transport. This should be quite a lot of fun attempting to transport boxes of kitchen supplies and copious amounts of yarn in various and sundry tote bags across Crwys Road during rush hour. To add to the feeling of home-like comfort, it seems that the humidity has raised its ugly head today, causing this Hobbit(ess) to sweat in a rather unladylike manner on her ride to the post office, two libraries and the letting agents to collect the new keys (from our Moron who always ends up being the free agent available to help us).

Bye, bye, Hobbit room!
(this is the latest arrangement. it is much emptier at the moment.)

Amusements at the end of August

One funny thing is thinking that butter left out overnight in another part of the world than the US South (e.g., Loozyanna) will be at any appropriate stage for sugar, vanilla and egg to be mixed into it to create a nice smooth beginning of cookie dough. In this situation, it works to sort of hold the blue plastic mixing bowl approximately 4 inches above a hob burner so that the heat is able to assist you.

Another funny thing is to realize that the wisk has vaporised from your kitchen. Hard butter tends to bend a fork.

To fully experience this comedy, you should plan to make a recipe which includes 3 1/2 cups of flour. For this to completely be fun, you should not have a sifter to hand. It is MUCH more entertaining to use a tea strainer for this purpose and an additional benefit is that it makes the hilarity last three times longer! Witty instructions directing one to sift flour mixture four times (are they mad?!) should be disregarded in this situation.

In Britain, wax paper is known as Greaseproof Paper.

Finally, and completely unrelated to your earlier cookie endeavour, the best way to end one's day is by charring two pieces of toast in absolutely hellish manner due to toaster having managed to lose its ability to pop up when finished with its task. This is best accomplished when the fire alarm goes off 14 times in five minutes after this activity and some unsuspecting person (unsuspecting of one's full toast burning tendencies) is working on your research data. But at least you know your toast is done.

How droll.

*******
The fabulous news of the day is that my data has been manipulated by clever person (who frighteningly claims to be able to mentally see the code that needs to be run to make it do greater and more fantastical things) and the numbers and beautiful graphs actually DO seem to show a relation between spelling awareness and cognitive style!
Oh, hoorah!

And tomorrow is the move. Oh, ick.

And then there was one.

The last Hobbit remains.
This is not a fragment statement of the presence of the remains of the last hobbit (or would that be hobbitess? hmmm.) but rather a complete sentence relating to faithful readers that there is only one hobbit left in the Hobbit Hole. And she is cleaning. And there are no more Gingernuts. And there is a massive pile of rubbish outside the front door. And She notes that it is good.

Further notes on today's activity:

*The postman pointed out that the doorbell has been stolen and is not merely dead, as I had thought.

*Fabiana and Alessandro left in a rather full taxi with an alarming amount of luggage to navigate through a train change in Manchester. More power to them!
*Meeting with supervisor went well -- have one week to complete whatever part of paper in final form we want scanned for silliness. And we do want it all scanned, don't we, so we had best get ourselves into gear.
*Our mother has informed us of devious plans to embarrass absent family members (namely me) with horrifyingly precocious pictures at the upcoming Strain/Jones/etc. reunion in the coming weekend. I request that any readers in attendance will refrain from raucous mockery. If there are pictures of any small girls in ruffly dress and foolishly lacy socks (white, of course. how silly! I mean, in theory "how silly!") sitting on top of a mud pile, those would be images completely unrelated to my distinguished past. As would any images involving the consumption of paste.
*Anyhoo, Paul has alerted us to the fact that there will be no Quidditch in the OoTP next summer. If you are feeling a bit low about your life at the moment, you may want to review comments posted in reference to this news item on the link above and know that you have a perfectly fine, NORMAL life. These people haven't one.
*Eamonn has alerted us to innovative new developments in Dutch golf. Those crazy Dutch.
*And a bit late, as this was sent last week... Matthew informs us of linguistic singularities of the Bovine kind. See comment re: OoTP fans above.

******
AM out. Moooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Notes from a small mind.

Could caffeine, as a vasoconstrictor, make one's brain shrink? Hmmm.

Interesting item: The Cambridge University urban legend. This is about spelling, and so is remotely related to the really big load of fertiliser that I am typing up at the mo. The link is being input for the enjoyment of others but also so that I won't forget it. As I tend to do with lots of things lately.

A link, cunningly located by Katharine for dissertation tension relief, (and of course related to her topic. we are not piddling around mindlessly on the internet.) refers to the website of a remarkably silly man who eats new and horrifically unusual food items for the sheer trauma of it. And for our amusement. And trauma. Steve, don't eat it! This is certainly not for the faint-hearted or the easily offended. And you should not be drinking anything fizzy whilst reading as that could cause pain when you snort either in or out in hysteria. I feel rather sorry for this man's wife :)

If anyone who reads this page on a regular basis has been offended lately by Yahoo! IM not letting them talk to me saying they are "not on my list of contacts" or some such nonsense, this is due to the interfering nature of ZoneAlarm. Stupid ZoneAlarm. They ARE, in fact, on my contact list and should email me to schedule a 'date' and I will turn it off so's we can talk. It would behove me to say that I anticipate no 'dates' until after 15 September. Don't be offended.

Okay, must run now.
Run away! Run away!
(waving hands in the air)

Oh, listen! That bloody alarm has just started again... this is helpful.

Gingernuts are comforting.

(but they really need to be hidden somewhere)

Today's tip is:
If you use someone else's duvet (sans cover), try not to spill food on it as the weather might have gotten colder and the owner of soiled duvet might come looking for it because they froze last night. Should a morsel happen to fall, do not fold it up and leave it, esp. with dried morsel remaining. (grrrrrrrrr, snarl, hiss, spit).

On a socio-psychological level, it is really good for me to live with others after 10 years of being the Queen of my Realm -- learning to share, learning to care, learning that not everyone is OCD, blah, blah, blah -- but GAAAAaaahhhh... god bless america, learn some bloody courtesy! and i'm the Only Child here?
Library closed at 5 today.
Made lovely dinner attempting to eat remnants of food so as not to have to haul them across town in 9 days -- NINE days?!?!?!! eek.
Went to mass this evening and sat next to Sheila, who thought i had fallen off this side and landed back on the other bank of the pond (since have been wretched and not been to church in a month or more... b.a.d.).
Am packing and sorting things for charity.
And listening to Harry Potter audio book.
And must stop eating Gingernuts. (fyi, the people on this tea and bikkie site, have tooooo much time on their hands)
Al has sent article link about killer raccoons in america -- be afraid, be very afraid.
Matthew has sent a link in response to yesterday's irrational rant...
it amused me, but all i have to say is, if dr. smiley uses my duvet and spills food on it and doesn't clean up after himself, dr. smiley can take the piece of advice provided at the closing of yesterday's entry

Plug it in.

(not to be sung to the elfishly cheerful Glade commercial)

How is it that a library in a large research university of, oh, I don't know 30,000 or 40,000, whatever students can have so few blasted plugs? Were they suffering the effects of plug inflation the year they built the library? Have there been no sales on plugs and/or wiring since then?

You would think that the edifice of an entire 100' wall made up of study cubicles and tables would have at least ONE plug on it, wouldn't you? Oh no. You would be incorrect. Why would there be plugs in the most fabulously quiet part of the library? (I guess we know why it is so quiet and why Georgia and I, in fact, had to unstack chairs and create our own little study area.) Just as a point of trivia, the 300'-400' wall running perpendicular to our first wall appears to only have two plugs on it. And those plugs would be running a copy machine that no one uses and some sort of card reader machine that goes with copy machine.

Actually, I am being a little irate and irrational here. They are in the process of making an office in the back corner of this area, which is approximately 6'x12'. Would you like to guess how many plugs are in this office? No fewer than 12. Whilst we were diligently studying and blistering our little synapses, the workmen decided they had had enough and it was time to leave, right around the time that my battery wilted away as the weak, pansy thing that it is. The workmen kindly told me that indeed the plugs were live in this area and it would be fine for me to use them to recharge said floral battery. Trying to be good citizen, I foolishly went to the front desk and inquired if it would be okay to do this as I had no hidden plans to colour on the walls or soil the carpeting in any way. Was this inquiry met with a positive response? Oh no. It was as if I had asked if I could pitch a tent and build a campfire on which to brew coffee, which would then be flung on the newly installed windows.

'But there are lots of plugs on the top floor...(But I don't want to go to the top floor) there is a whole wall of them!!!' Right. On the opposite 100' wall on the top floor, would you like to hazard a guess as to the number of plugs?

Five would be the correct answer here. Five? Reeeeally? WOW! That is an amazing number!

After settling my seething nerves (and dealing with the fact that it was noisier and stuffily warmer upstairs) a fairly good deal of work was persuant. Which is a positive thing since I meet with my supervisor tomorrow in grovelling submission, hoping that I am not talking rubbish :)

Anyhoo, it has been an overall good day and I have rewarded myself with four Gingernut cookies and a glass of milk. But if you are looking for a plug in the ASSL (Arts and Social Science Library -- they have obviously just added the 'L' out of propriety), you know where you can plug it.

Mad Greeks and Alarms

Oh my GOSH!!!!!! A second alarm has just chorussed in with the first alarm that has gone off three times within the past hour -- this time, it has been screeching for at least 20 minutes solid. I may begin to pull leaves off the basil plant in a minute and burn them. Or draw on the walls with coloured pens. But we wouldn't want to jeopardise the bond (deposit) now... so burning basil leaves it should be.

Ooh, it has stopped! Both of them!

******
Anyhoo, the purpose of this post is to (besides the obvious avoidance of writing) attempt to promote the festive occasion that was the Greek's birthday last night! And naturally, the pictures don't seem to want to have anything to do with this phenomenon called uploading. Damnable BloggerPhoto.

******
Oh, listen! The alarm has started up AGAIN! Get out the matches.

It stopped!!!!! Thank the Good Lord.

Oh, wait. NO -- J.K., kids, J.K....

Stopped.

(pause 12 seconds) START!

Stopped (2.1 seconds pause)

START!

Stop... (nope)....

Can you smell the herbal smoke from where you are sitting?

*********
Anyhoo, a lovely time was had by all. E provided champers for the birthday girl, which started the evening off in a bubblier than bubbly manner! Plus, we made a private party area on the sofas upstairs in Central over the window floor -- be alert if you wear a dress.

It was so great to get out of the vortex of mental drain that is this dissertation (for four of us, at least) and have some lightness and sparkliness for a while. We have made our own little support group this year and, although the group is much smaller now since a lot of people have gone home, it is a shame not to utilise each other's shoulders in our feelings of vacuity more often.
'Hi! My name is Amrie and I haven't written a word in TWO days...!!!!'

Dawn and I decided that a foray into the wild and wonderful organic world of pear cider (aka, perry) was called for. It was a lovely foray. And there was much rejoicing.

Note: The Greek is very rarely motionless and so is a blur in most of my photos :)

List of a few pictures which, thankfully, Flickr has aided me in displaying to all and sundry (that'll teach you, BloggerPhoto):
* D&G (not Dolce and Gabana)
* A warmly lit shot of Steffi, the Greek and Alex (note amusing comment in Flickr re: t.v. caption)
* This is The Greek, me, Kat and John being all confused about the picture taking, and not at all on the same page, partly because we had just had two movies taken of us -- that's why the camera didn't flash!
* And two Welsh gangstas (that's my best guess)

******
In other corners of my world, am fighting with SPSS (a social science data manipulation program. And which, by the way, stands for Stupid Program is Stubborn and Squirrelly). When I try to get it to manipulate my numbers in any sort of way at all, but hoping against hope that something will come out significant and angels will begin to sing, it gives me this pompous reply:

'All variables in the working file or in the sets in use are inappropriate for this dialog box.'

Stupid dialog box. Who said I wanted dialog in the first place? It won't even make senseless charts with coloured lines. Stupid program. And the SPSS Survival Manual is not throwing me much of a life preserver even though there is one drawn in hideous orange pastel on the front. Stupid book.

If this weren't enough to make one's head ache, I am trying to compute ages of Subjects in my data set with only my brain and my fingers (the toes are a bit cold to be out). It seems I have misplaced a certain computer person who could perhaps make Excel figure out ages in years and months.

Have been introduced this week (very cruelly, I might say) to the most FABulous shops for home, garden and crafty things, now that someone has access to a car! It is a really good thing I have remained ignorant of their existence so long, or I would have far, far, far too much stuff to move. Must try to forget about these stores now, and how near they are to my home, due to need to focus and fact that do not have job -- where is a good hypnotherapist when you need one?

Today, I heard thunder! Oh my goodness, I miss thunderstorms so much. It rained a really good spell today and I wanted to go outside and play in puddles so badly. But instead, I ate a burger from a burger stand in a parking lot and retained a smidgen of dignity.

Got letter from Oma this morning and actually caught her at home (before she went to water aerobics). Lovely mail!

Talked to parental units as well (after finally finding them... it is 8am. Do you know where your parents are?) as today is their anniversary! I want to say 38 years (hoorah!), although as evidenced above am not so good at annual computations. Am missing celebratory dinner at Smith's Cross Lake Inn tonight. Slightly bitter about missing this and am on hunger strike (well, actually, just being too lazy to go fix self sustenance).

AND, talked to Cousine Lindsey briefly as well! So much to talk about, so little time... boo :(

In further computer news, I heard a report two days ago on the radio about Dell computers spontaneously bursting into flame due to faulty batteries. Have investigated and found that indeed my battery is one of the 'Danger, Will Robinson. Danger.' ones... have made an inquiry into IT at Centenary for it. In the mean time, I shall perhaps need to start backing up my data more regularly. Well, backing it up at all, since am a silly monkey. And will turn computer off completely when not attended. How vexing.

Additionally, I do NOT WANT the Yahoo! toolbar on my task bar area. Why won't it stay turned off?!?
And DO WANT the clever little personal clock thing that E wrote for me to stay ON when my homepage is on instead of being blocked by pompous virus alert system! aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh........

(Readers may sense that many things are occupying my fragile little mind right now... At this point, the alarm has gone on and off at LEAST 72 times. Those muscles on the back of my neck are approaching the relaxation state of, oh, say a rock. I am now completely mad and must go and wipe the drool from my chin. And then burn things.)

Exodus

The Hobbit Hole Exodus has begun.
:(

Hiroko left today to go back to Osaka (while she could still use her return ticket from Rotary). She will go back to work on 1 September. No more dissertation for her! Hoorah!

Maurizio returns to Italy tomorrow with his precious mama, who has been visiting for a week, and he won't be back until the lease is over, so he has moved all of his stuff to a friend's house. Then, it will just be Fabiana and moi puttering around gloomily quiet for the next three weeks finishing up this Trial by Ink and Leatherette Binding that we have brought upon ourselves.

It is just really all terribly sad since, as Maurizio says, we have made ourselves into such a nice little family this year.

But change must happen, as we all know, now that we are supposed to be gone from the 100-Aker Wood. I just hate it, though, (change, that is) at the very time that it is happening, as well as the neurotic anticipation of it (change, that is) happening. And I need to buy stock in tissues.
(My critics will no doubt find this quite rich coming from the person who uprooted her dull, predictable life and abandoned her cat-child to a life of pampered bird-watching and treat-eating in order to move 3,500 miles across an ocean, when she had never ventured a residence further than 45 miles from the hospital where she was born and never more than 10 miles from her parental units -- hahaha.)

******
On a completely different and slightly more uplifted note:
Georgia and I were chauffered by kind Eamonn to the Abbey Bindery today and have booked ourselves in for having our dissertations bound on 12 September, to be collected on the 13th (two whole days early -- small hoorah!). SO, NOW we really must get busy...
Steffi and I found a place to move to on 1 September this week
(hoorah! no living in a box!).
I have a new electric toothbrush and a new shiny electric silver kettle!
(double hoorah! appliances!) arse
But do NOT call me Salad Fingers.

How to Win Friends and...

This episode sponsored by Dale Carnegie (and the letter K, of course).

A tip for winning at Scrabble is to break your opponent's hand (or, if you don't really want to sully your own hands -- heh heh heh -- just make sure it is done somehow, preferrably with the slightest protrusion of osseous tissue).

In our next tip-giving edition, we shall address the pulse-pounding issue of Packing Light & Running Fast.

Leapin' Lizards

The American Musical is one of the Greatest Capitalist Inventions of the entire 20th century...

Or, that is what has just been said by David Edgar on Desert Island Discs as a preface to playing 'Gee, Officer Krupke' from "the greatest musical of them all": West Side Story. (hmmm.) If you are in doubt, he is a very, very left playwright. This just made me laugh.

*******
On another musical note, I got out of bed this morning to the melodious sound of someone being sick outside the window...

Happy Friday.

Come on, Dover!

Move your bloomin' arse!!!!

Were that my name, someone would need to yell that repeatedly in my ear :)

Last night, The Venerable John Lewis took me to see My Fair Lady at the Wales Millennium Centre. It was an absol. magnificent production, although the flow of the show was slightly skippy-jumpy due to cutting and revisions to fit it into 3 hours. The stage, though, was amazingly well-designed with receeding arches forming the frame into which various sets dropped and were tracked in -- in particular the library, which was like a magical jigsaw puzzle every time it moved in!

A couple of additions to the script were very enjoyable, such as the Stomp!-ish dancing added to the 'With a Little Bit o' Luck' routine and underworld dance girls added to 'Get Me to the Church on Time'. However, the Underground version of Eliza's journey through London when she runs away and the end scene, which was just indescribably campy with Prof. Higgins and Eliza crossing their arms in defiance of each other and then bursting into laughter, were not enjoyed by moi (famous theatre critic). Costumes were great, the Ascot scene was very amusing and Freddy Einsford-Hill giggled so very giddily, which was quite amusing (plus, he had an amazing voice).

Additionally, this was my first time inside the Millennium Centre auditorium, and it is unbelievable (and I thought the lobby was fantabulous)! The outside of this structure is gorgeous and the inside is rather like a computer-generated dream. (Speaking of computer-generated', if anyone has not seen Elephant's Dream, completely created with open source graphic software, it is VERY impressive. This is things that one becomes aware of when one begins to hang out with CGTs -- Computer Genius Types.) Naturally, no camera. But we shall see if I can't figure out something else to go to to remedy this circumstance :)...

*******
In other news, a small break from the domination of the computer, consisting of 45 minutes of knitting at Hoffi Coffi with a cuppa tea, calms a twitching eye. Hoorah! Justification!

******
Come on. Come on! Come on, Dover....!!!!!