You could own a pub in Virginia -- buy it on ebay for only $125,000.00!!
Congratulations to Julia Roberts -- mum to twins! Born on Sunday... more info in this article.
I love the names -- Hazel & Phinnaeus -- Hazel & Phinn ... I like Finn better though...
Having been sick for these past few weeks -- with this stupid sinus & chest infection, I was up for a BIG surprise in reading Yahoo's news tonight...
here was the headline...
"Chocolate may hold cure for coughs" !!!!! I kid you not!!
Here's the article that stipulates that a chemical in chocolate is better for the common cough than codeine, which was previously thought to be the best cure!
Fabulous!! Roll on chocolate cough syrup!! No more of this nasty treacly Venos... yuck!!!
Sorry bout this, I'm really a pen freak (you can ask anyone who has known me more than 2 days!)... found another great article bout writing & pens... (still can't sleep -- ugh!)
Realised by reading this one, the O in my last post about pen nibs stands for Oblique... interesting.
Since I've been off ill from work I've been kind of bored so I was browsing the net looking for info on Fountain Pens -- particularly what the different nib sizes XF F M B BB O OB OBB mean -- I know the first five -- extra fine to extra bold, but I wanted to know what the O OB OBB meant. And I found this fab website that has a history of fountain pens, as well as an explanation on how to fill various types of pens and storage and cleaning and the nib sizes chart!!! Enjoy!
while being sick at home...
Ebay is soooo addictive.
I have learned some things about Ebay though--
1.) There is a right way and a wrong way to change your maximum bid -- the right way just changes it, the wrong way changes the current bid to your maximum bid straightaway -- doh!
2.) Ebay is totally boring and dead after midnight England time on Ebay.co.uk. Most auctions end at midnight and the next ones don't begin to end until lots later in the day, so enjoying a good bid when you can't sleep isn't a good idea because there won't be any!
see what you can learn when you are sleep (and company) deprived?
fabulous.
p.s. doc signed me off for another week today -- the viral thing has now reared it's ugly head and transformed into an acute sinus & chest infection. www.dictionary.com defines acute as "Having a rapid onset and following a short but severe course: acute disease." My translation -- it starts quick and knocks you on your bum and makes you lose the will to live. I was having chills yesterday that I couldn't shake even with a shirt, 2 fleeces, 2 blankets and my overstuffed goose-down duvet!! I was literally shaking and was so miserable it made me cry.
If you're like me and didn't grow in this country, then you wouldn't know who Bob Carolgees is, but if you did grow up in this country, and you're about my age, you'd remember "Spit the Dog" and Bob-- TV personalities on a saturday mornings' kids show.
Well now Bob has retired from that and owns and runs a fantastic candle shop at Lady Heyes craft centre in Frodsham, Cheshire. He's also got a website www.carolgeescandles.com. If you explore around on the website, and click on "Yankee" in the menu on the left, and click "go to Yankee Products" at the bottom of the newly loaded page -- then Select by Product and choose Large Candle (or any other candle size) and then pretend to order a candle, choose the fragrance and put a number in the quantity box and click "add to order" -- it brings up your shopping cart screen -- at the bottom of that screen you can see the cute drawing of Bob & Spit -- here's the fun part!!! Move the mouse over the candle to the right of Bob & Spit and it suddenly is lit!!! NOW click on Bob & Spit! (insert the really cool thing that happens but I can't tell you because I don't want to ruin the laugh here!)
Isn't that excellent?!?!?! Bob showed Debbie & I that the other week when we went in there and he was so proud of it! He was like a lil kid with a new toy!
At least some good is coming of it though...
Today in the post arrived 2 things-- an Orange sim card (which my hubby really cleverly hacked my old phone to fit in) so we can now appreciate Orange Wednesdays at the movie theatres!! And the second thing was my beautiful Parker 21 pen!! I unwrapped it and got my jar of Quink out and had a go at filling it and off I went... writing was dreamy with it-- it writes soooo smoothly!! I just love this pen. Oh my. It's beautiful. I might even post a pic of it just to show you the beautiful nib on it.
I've just been reading this article on Yahoo news about this Christmas movie that people will be able to see on "destructable" dvds-- basically on the play side of the dvd there is a chemical which reacts when it's packaging is opened, and anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours it ruins the play side because of being exposed to the air.
That's weird, but not the weirdest bit... further on down the article the following line appears:
"McDonald's has even installed DVD vending machines in more than 100 Denver-area restaurants, where they rent for $1 per night with a credit card."
DVD vending machines at Mickey D's... how bizarre is that?
I've heard of Waste Management Technicians to define binmen, but now Suffolk County Council (sorry Anna!!) have advertised for a "Garbology Officer" to "raise awareness of waste and educate children about their local heritage"...
not bad for £23,313 a year!!
I can't shake it. It seems to get worse and then plateau and get a lil bit better and then plateau and then worse etc. Vicious cycle.
I'm going to the doc today but it remains to be seen how that may help. I don't know if it's an infection or just a really nasty cold. I'm half hoping he signs me off work for another couple of days.
Andy says I just like giving in my notice and quitting jobs, but I guess I'm just really ready to be in the states and not mess with politics at work anymore. It's so daft really-- when I was at Crewe, there was the hell of the two blokes with their heads up their bums, but there was a real sense of comraderie and friendship there-- you could have a good laugh with most of the staff and on the Enquiry desk there were always 2 people (sometimes it was even 3) one in Ref and one on Enquiries, but most of the time there weren't any Ref things to do so you at least had someone to help you or someone to talk to-- whereas at Congleton, it's much more serious, the staff have less of a sense of humor and you can't even see the Issues counter from the Enquiry desk, so when you're on the Enquiry desk (which they call the IP -- Information Point), it's extremely lonely, and somewhat stressful when you have several people who need help -- and the silly thing is that they only have one computer with access to the catalog on there, so if there is a queue, and you buzz the person in the workroom to come out and help, they can only do certain things, or they have to take the people to a computer at the other counter to serve them. And this isn't going to change (I've brought it up a couple of times) because of the cost of running another Galaxy line to the desk, plus the fact that some libraries don't even have as many Galaxy pcs as they need for everyday use, much less for when you have a queue (which isn't that often, really...) so I was told it won't change.
Man I'm good at whinging when I'm ill. And according to Andy I'm ill all the time.... so I should be a professional whinger instead of a librarian. It's perfectly logical.
Get me outta here.
I found this interesting website from a fountain pen collector-- antiques etc...
have a browse...
I won a couple of auctions on ebay today! I already got the "Buy it now" Orange mobile phone sim card-- to send text messages to 241 and get one person in free on "Orange Wednesdays" and then later I found pages full of Fountain pens and Playing Cards!! I bid on a couple of fountain pens and lost -- but I did win one important one! For a Mont Blanc.... whoar! It's going to be a beaut. I've always wanted a MB -- and I paid less than a fifth of the retail price!! yippee!!
Watch this space over the next couple of weeks as my MB wings its way over from somewhere in the far east to Merrye Olde England!
The other auction I won was for some round playing cards with the union jack flag on them-- they're ace. They should arrive sometime next week.
It's really addictive!
I can only claim innocence and blame Bjorn for my newest addiction -- ebay.
I discovered they have loads of fountain pens on ebay for lovely prices... Mont Blancs, Watermans, ooh I'm drooling just typing this!
I've bid on a Waterman set and a Mont Blanc-- both auctions are finishing today, so I shall keep you posted on what I won!
Our house has finally been advertised in the paper -- House for sale in Congleton, Cheshire!!
Here's the quick link to the ad online...
Something big came out on DVD in the UK before the US!!!!!
Shrek 2! They decided in the US that it would be better to release Shrek 2 on the Friday of last week rather than on the Tuesday (when it hit UK shelves) because of the "drama" of the Presidential Election! Strange.
Read more here.
I was just on my favourite movie website -- good ol' IMDB (which incidentally was mentioned in a book I read recently called Aphrodite by Russell Andrews!) -- anyhoo I was just browsing and did a search for "ER" that great american show about the Emergency Room at a hospital in Chicago -- series written by Michael Crichton (of Jurassic Park fame).
They had so many people on that show as guest stars it was amazing. If you were ever wondering who guest-starred when click here. It's a list of the episodes in order with their guest stars and character names. And being the wonder that it is, IMDB have linked all the guest star names to their own actor pages so you can click them and see what else the person was in!!
what "suffering succotash!" meant? Made famous by good ol' Sylvester the lisping cat on Looney Tunes... Andy and the gang at his work were wondering what it meant (the conversation started off with asking about what grits were made of, then went through various types of infamously-named foods with mysterious contents)...
so I found out!
It's actually a "minced oath" -- and according to Brainy Encyclopedia -- "Minced oaths are corrupted forms of (usually religion-related) swear words that arose in English culture sometime before the Victorian Age, as part of the cultural impact of Puritanism after the Protestant Reformation. The censorship caused people to develop a wide variety of minced oaths to avoid swearing on holy names. They were used for swearing and other types of interjections. With time they came to have a mildly comedic effect. Since they avoid using profanities or holy words, the minced oaths are not equivalent in strength (likelihood to cause offence) as their derivitions listed below. However, some of these minced oaths should be avoided in polite speech (e.g. mofo)." (direct quote from Brainy Encyclopedia.com.
so the answer is that "Suffering Succotash!" is a minced oath of "Suffering Saviour!"
scary thing is that going down through that list of minced oaths (click on the link at the end of the quoted part) I was really convicted as a Christian about how many of those minced oaths actually come out of my mouth on occasion!
Makes you think twice...
This lil piggy went trick or treating... this lil piggy stayed home...
I am having serious problems with stress lately. There are so many what ifs in my life right now. What if the Embassy don't get Andy's visa sorted out for ages and ages... what if the house doesn't sell before Christmas... what if the house doesn't sell for months and months... what if the house doesn't sell at all??????
ugh.
I know that God is in control and I am in his hands and He loves me and has a plan for me. I just wish I was better at letting go and letting God. Know what I mean? I wish I was better at praying about things instead of fretting and worrying-- better at being at peace and being still instead of imagining and listing in my head all the things that could possibly go wrong.
The stress only sets off headaches and sinus problems and I end up chewing around my nails giving myself the world's worst hangnails on every finger.
Doesn't really sound like a Christian who is trusting God, does it.
didn't think so.
The estate agent came around to measure and take photos and write up a description of the house last monday (the 25th of Oct) and he said that we'd have the details to look over and sign by the end of the week, and that the house would be in the paper this week.
I was extremely chuffed and dead excited about it-- couldn't wait to see our house in the pages of the Congleton Chronicle!
I was working at Alsager Library on Friday, and they get a copy of the Cong. paper-- but it hadn't arrived that morning, so they'd had to chase it up. It turned up mid-morning, and as soon as it arrived, they brought it over to me so I could look! I flipped to the middle, opening the page right onto the estate agents page and scanned through the photos. It's easy to read them because they go from lowest price to highest from the top of the page to the bottom. So my eyes went from 70,000s 80,000s and so forth but.... no Helsby house.
hmm.
Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed.
Later on when I phoned the agent (and mind you, the paperwork hadn't turned up either-- so I wasn't feeling altogether happy about talking to him), he defended himself by saying it wasn't close of business yet on this friday and that he'd be putting it through our postbox sometime that afternoon. He also said that in the draft that was prepared for the Chronicle, our house was on there, but for whatever reason, the Chronicle had substituted 2 houses which were spare for 2 houses on the draft (ours and some other poor sods') and therefore, it wasn't on there. But he assured me it would be in this week's paper.
We shall see.
I'm calling October 2004 "the month I lost my faith in what people say they will do". I fell for two nicely wrapped packages, hoping that the inside would be what the outside promises, but alas. I'm naiive.
