Procrastination

I got up this morning, ready to go tippety tap and write a post.
Unfortunately, I then started watching Agents of Cracked videos (featuring my imaginary boyfriend Dan O'Brien) and, well, that was some time ago.

And I updated my friend's website for her books. And read articles on wikipedia about white blood cells and H. G. Wells and Stevengraphs. And I re-read half an Agatha Christie novel (Third Girl).

If there were an award for procrastination, I'd totally win. I'll be there to receive it in a moment. Just let me finish this one thing...

And writing this blog is something I enjoy doing! Just imagine how bad I am when it comes to boring stuff. Boring to me, I mean. This may well be boring to you. If so, what are you doing reading it? Go outside! Get some fresh air! Ride a donkey!

*ahem*
Anyway, today is 'get rid of all the useless non-fitting clothes that are cluttering up the house and giving me anxiety headaches' day. Or GROATUN-FCTACUTHAGMAH day for short. Hmm. Doesn't 'groatun' sound like a really unpleasant scrotum? But I digress.

I did a purge of clothing recently. And having given it a month or two, I am doing a secondary (and more vicious) purge. Have I worn it in the intervening period? If yes, fine. If no, why not? And if there is no satisfactory reason then out it goes.

I also spent some time on Friday trying on all my pairs of leggings and jeans, and getting rid of ones that were too big, or too small, or had holes in (unless they were meant to). And I managed this without going into a huge depressive body-image spiral when some of them were too small. Go me! I now have about a fifth of what I had, but I know they all fit, which is nice. When Matt wakes up (he looks pretty damn adorable and snuggly in bed, damn him!) I'm going to be going through all my drawers and getting rid of stuff I don't need or want or wear. It's pretty satisfying, actually.

And I may, last night, have looked at the state of our bedroom and called items of clothing "bitches". I am not willing to confirm or deny this.

Ok, I'm desperately trying to find a way to draw this all to a close. Maybe link the ramblings together in some coherent way.
*taps fingers*

Oh, I know! Let's just pretend it's the end of a Thundercats cartoon. Lion-O will say something moral and vaguely condescending, and then we'll all laugh at Snarf whilst only moving our heads.
Yeah, that works. Totally.

Grownups

Matt and I have full-time jobs. We pay the rent and the bills. We have pensions and a savings account and bus passes. We donate to charity. We look after ourselves and our pets. And yet, there are a lot of people out there who would (and do) say we're immature.

Why?
Because we play computer games.
Because we are passionate about science fiction.
Because we have long and involved debates about fictional or hypothetical scenarios.
Because we buy toys.
Because (as Matt told me) every day is costume day to me.
And for myriad other reasons that make no sense.

Personally, I don't understand it. I mean, is a large part of maturity not learning who you are and being comfortable in your own skin? I think that with my thirties has come a better understanding of who I am, and an examination and embracing of all those weirdnesses that make up my personality.

I have also found myself being more publically and openly me. I'm not hiding my nerdishness, not trying to be seen as cool, not trying to be in with the 'in people', not wondering whether I maybe shouldn't say something or post something online because people will tell me it's stupid or immature or wrong.

So yeah, every day IS costume day. I'm not talking about underpants-on-the-outside type costumery, but more a work-appropriate outfit with a theme. Such as Victorian safari. Or witch. Or techno-futuristic. It's amazing what one can do with a basic outfit and some good accessorising.

And yes, today we went out to the supermarket intending to buy yoghurt and vegetables (see above re: taking care of ourselves). Instead, we bought yoghurt and vegetables and masses of reduced meat for freezing. And also a double-ended Darth Maul lightsaber. Because it's fucking awesome, that's why. (I cut the tape on the box using our axe. We're just that awesome.)

There were two noticable types of reactions from other shoppers. 1) A kind of I-also-am-a-nerd-and-I-approve nod or 2) A look of disgust.
I don't get it. In what way is this a thing that's worthy of disgust?

Yes, we're adults and yes, we're buying a lightsaber. We're not selling babies wrapped in dead kittens.

Fuck it. Matt and I are embracing our quirks. And it's marvellous.

The QTEE

It's a chilly Sunday, so today we're doing very little. Bit of napping, bit of rugby watching. And we're going to go through our freezer. It's got to that stage where it's full, and we have no idea what's in it. I really enjoy doing that sort of thing, actually. It's like an icy voyage of discovery.

I'm very much in a cooking mood this week. I don't know if it's the weather, but I want to cook all sorts of deliciousness. We've got lots of interesting and new to us foods, because we're still devoted to our philosophical path - the Quest To Eat Everything - so we have eddoes, samphire (which is amazing cooked in butter with leek and garlic, alongside salmon), sprats, globe courgettes, red chicory, and so forth. Quite excitingly (ok, excitingly for me, culinarily), Matt's recently decided that he does, after all, like rice. All the rice-based recipes that he wouldn't eat before are now fair game!

We're lucky, because one of our local supermarkets has just started doing more unusual vegetables, which makes the QTEE easier. And I did try llama the other day. It was... a little disappointing. Quite chewy and tough.
Thing is, we don't expect to love everything we try. But it's a lot of fun trying them nonetheless.

Langoustine!

Chopped red onion, garlic, lemongrass, chilli and ginger. For...

...Chilli sauce.

Yum yum yum.

Dance With The Rabbit

Peh. You know how some people with depression get all super-creative and whatnot when it gets bad? Well, that is not me. I get all mumpy and boring. And I irritate myself. You think I'm annoying now? Try living in the same head as me!

Anyway, I had this ghastly stomach virus thing which led to me not absorbing my anti-mental pills for a couple of weeks, and now I'm having to put up with the stupid brain chemicals until the meds start working again. Fun, fun.

The virus has also left me with short-term lactose intolerance, which is bloody awful, as it means I can't eat cheese without a lot of pain. And you guys know how much I love cheese. We were in a supermarket cafe yesterday, and I came thisclose to breaking through the clear barrier and licking the macaroni cheese. *sigh*

Mind you, it gives me an excuse to google new recipes (like I need an excuse), and prompted me to make Thai chilli sauce from scratch last night, so that's good, I guess? Silver lining?

Whatever. I want cheese.

So, new year. New EXCITING year, as we've booked our time off work to go and see Nettie and Christian! Yeah, it's not until October, but that's only nine months away now, and therefore it is easily near enough for Nettie and I to start being intolerably excited. Nettie's already posted a list of things we're planning to do, so I won't recreate that here, but you can see from her blog that it's going to be AMAZING. We love Perth, and we love Nettie and Christian, and now I'm working myself up into a state of incomprehensible excitement (again), so I'll stop typing about that.

Other than that, nothing particularly of note has been happening over the last couple of weeks. Work, sleep, books, food, N64. That's about it. So have some pictures from over the festive period (not of my stomach virus, though. You should thank me for that). Many of them are of Zeph and Belle, so if you are uninterested in toddlers and dogs, now would be the time to stop looking at this post. Seriously. Close your eyes. Try and navigate away from the page using only your own innate power of internets.

This is either Dave reading to Zeph, or Zeph reading to Dave. I'm not sure which.

The look of awe on a nephew's face as he sees all the Christmas presents for the first time!

On the way back from (my only annual visit to) church, Huw and I found this. I was all "Look! That rust! It's a rabbit doing a dance! Dance with the rabbit!", so he did.

Matt and Rowenna were the Dingbat Winners. To the relief of everyone, because that meant the game was finished (it's a madly annoying game, yet we still always play it).

Once Thomas joined the cage match, it was all over bar the screaming.

Sometimes Belle is just so mad that even the two-year-old notices. Here, she's staring at the wall to see if her friends (light reflections) are going to come and visit.

Zeph LOVED his little motorbike.

Cutest dog in the world.

I played around on Photoscape with this one. I like it. It's very 70s.

A walk round the loch at New Year. It sleeted. And Zeph gave up on the way back.

Swans!

Zeph!

I love this one of my dad, Rowenna and Zeph taking a shortcut.

Awwww... Huw and Kirsty, looking handsome and pretty, respectively.

Travelling in style.