Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in t__m__i's LiveJournal:

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Friday, October 2nd, 2009
1:08 pm	I'M IN! London, here I come! Queues on Blackheath for the toilets, here I come! SQUEEEEEEEEE (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
4:19 pm	Green Hair Anyone got any tips on using spray-on hair colour? (This question is for me). Thought it might be fun for the next race (i.e. it only has to last a day or two, but has to cope with a bit of rain/sweating) - also will help <lj user="celestialweasel"> find me in a crowd. It isn't a problem if the colour lingers (certainly there's a lady at work who has all sorts of hair colours - wasn't too surprised to see her at <lj user="cleanskies"> wedding ! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
10:57 pm	Just for bibliogirl's blood pressure, and because it always cheers ME up... "I feel internally happier than at any time of my life, more content within my own skin. Maybe it is because I am not viewing the world through a specific set of spectacles.” says Jonathan Edwards (Times interview, 2007) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
9:31 pm	Seismographs out! Seismographs out, ears to the ground everyone. I am hoping someone will hear juggzy exploding when she reads... this . I'm going out to walk the dogs so will be looking to see if the flash is visible from a couple of counties away. Nicked from james_nicoll. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
7:20 pm	So still 2Dogs Me and my big mouth. We nearly acquired a whippet the other week. Luckily I wrote down the details of the national whippet rescue group, and I've just had a call from the (former) owner to say that her dog is now happily ensconced in a foster home that sounds like whippet paradise. Which is good, because I wouldn't like to have tried to get a whippet (*) into a bed which already had two people and a five-stone hairy lump of snoring lard on it... (*) whippets like to sleep in, yes IN, bed with you, if they can swing it... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
4:40 pm	UFOs OK so Abingdon is bang on the Benson<->Brize Norton flightpath. So what might be something pretty quiet which looked like a tiny ball of flame (like the balloon fire without the balloon, and much faster, aeroplane speed) ? At night. We saw two a few days ago, a minute or so apart, heading from south to north, about 10 or 11 pm. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 20th, 2009
11:05 pm	The Good, The Bad and the Watertight Harvey has passed his Good Citizen test! Great. Now we're taking the next term off. The working week has been dog class/run/run/run/gym you will observe no night off. High Wycombe Half Mara yesterday and my gun time was only a minute slower than last year! But I started five minutes late (v. long queue for loo & I was right at the back) so actually  much faster - v. pleased On way back however there were cries of distress from the passenger seat followed by a loud BLAT! Fortunately the race goody bag was swiftly emptied water tight However, tonight I can still hear heartrending sounds of coughing, retching, etc oh dear.... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
10:41 pm	Slow ... in .... SPAAAAACEEE Did anyone else notice that the James May/Space prog on BBC2 was clearly a different edit from the one put out on BBC4 later the same night? First time I think I've seen that. A bit odd (oh I've seen this oh hang on maybe I was out of the room no hang on that wasn't in it no hang on oh what?). (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 12th, 2009
9:31 pm	And also, bring bags Both dogs have been eating grass. Nellie is on antibiotics so fair enough. Harvey is defective (on many levels) and does not push hard enough when pooing (somehow this can co-exist with the ability to firehose out liquid poo when he wants at other times). So we have to haul the tangled clots of grass+turd out of him with bag-covered hands. Nice. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
7:03 pm	Ever Alert Nellie has managed to gouge herself twice in the last week (very stoic, greyhounds, they cack themselves and meander on and it is only half an hour later that you notice that the gouge which has mysteriously got unwrapped and split open is not the gouge you were thinking of but a new one on a different leg. The uncharitable might compare the dogs' nervous systems to those of the dinosaurs and the uncharitable might well be right). Meanwhile Harvey's tummy is still not 100% settled (and yes, by that I do mean, "Thank God we don't have carpet downstairs any more!"). With this in mind (i.e. Harvey has not cacked himself recently and Nellie might of course decide to get firehose diarrhea too!) we were delighted to find alcohol-free Erdinger (sp?) in Tesco. Something kind of like beer, but you can drive to the vets after drinking it. (Comment on this)
Friday, April 17th, 2009
10:46 pm	OMG Watching some Gok Wan repeatio on chanel 118247 and have just realised that Lou from Little Britain is really Janet Street-Porter. "I want THAT ONE" she said. Same voice same everything. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
10:59 pm	BLESS Yesterday, for some reason known only to him, when celestialweasel came home and said, "We should go now..." (referring to the regular run which has been on this day for years and years), Harvey decided that SOMETHING WONDERFUL (dog class?) was about to happen and writhed about in fit-to-bust doggy joy, whinnying with excitement and happiness, while we tried to explain that actually, no, nothing, sorry, not what you think (whatever that is...). Oh dear. It's a good job dogs can't cry, or I think we would have had great big blobby toddler tears from him once he cottoned on that, in fact, his future held nothing more than being briefly abandoned. Even so he came close. Those ears... Oh dear. What was it made him think it was Dog Class (which is also on a regular night of the week but, obviously, not the same as Run Night)? His Daddy going to the fridge (where the dog-training Cheez Stringz are kept) and then saying "we'd better go"? Was I cooking something I often cook on Dog Class Night? (Lentils fwiw). Quite surprising really as usually they do work out what part of the week it is. In particular Ranger used to get us up on Saturday morning just (apparently) so he could go downstairs and sit in solitary splendour in front of the cartoons. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
3:11 pm	The taste of biscuits Have had a very Proustian week this week. It started on Monday when my pal at work who spends his lunchtimes playing with old computers brought in an old Ferguson mono tabletop cassette recorder EXACTLY LIKE the one I had in my youth. OMG how I stroked its keys and slid its sliders (being careful to put them back the way I'd found them). Now, both sets of parents sold the homes I grew up in and moved away (which is partly why I have a bit of a hoarding problem). Must admit I felt a terrible pang for parting with its twin, even though I hadn't used it for decades! My faithful friend, how could I have abandoned you? I got the photo from an eBay listing (currently up to three pounds twenty). Clearly they were built very well - the one at work still had that lovely damped feel to the keys and the cassette door. Then on Thursday I came home to a copy of "Awake!" pushed through the door. Now, when I was little my great-Aunt would get visited by the JWs (she liked the company because she wasn't all that mobile) and so she had STACKS of Awake! and Watchtower that I would plough merrily through. They are quite good reads in a sort of Readers Digest way, if you have the facility (which I do) of tuning out when the Bible references start getting dense and being immune (which I am) to all the bits about transfusions and Christmas. There was an interesting bit about salt pans in Africa in this one. We don't normally get JWs (or Mormons) round our way (not rich pickings I suspect among the plumbers & programmers). In the Redditch days a pair came to the door and asked celestialweasel if he'd thought about what would happen when he died. "Yes!", he said, "let me show you the pictures!" and got out his pile of copies of Cryonics. Bwahahahahah. Ah well, I suppose it livened up their day a bit! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
10:16 pm	Oldies just take a breadknife and gaffer tape Since my first, educational, foray into distance running (the one that ended up in 6-9 months of strange men poking around my arse, inevitably on days where I'd forgotten not to wear the enormous gray pants from Walgreens which are nigh on a decade old but still soldiering on) I am a reformed character. Specifically, I have now got some idea of what shoes to wear and I keep track of their milage. Recently, 3 pairs went into the recycle skip outside the running shop(*) as they all had 300+ miles on them, and I acquired yet another pair of Asics Nimbus no! a pair of Sauconys. Now, most decent running shops will let you take your new pair down the gym, do a few miles on the tready and bring them back in looks-like-new condition if your feet started sprouting blisters/black toenails by Mile Four. However I think once you've bled on them that's it. Even a little bit. The heels were rubbing; just a little. Otherwise I liked them. I compared them with my Asics and noticed that the Sauconys go up at the back of the heel but the Asics dip in a U shape. So I took a breadknife and gaffer tape to the back of the Sauconys, and was able to do ten miles in them on Sunday in perfect comfort! Now I know this is not quite Ron Hill and his string vest but I was ridiculously pleased with my l33t problem-solving sk1llz! Think it shows I'm getting old though - this is why oldies are relatively happy - if something doesn't fit, they just take the breadknife to it until it does... (*) I understand the shoes are flogged to the middle east (raising money for the charity whose bin it was) and are then re-sold to, well, I guess, "the poor" - who fortunately tend to run more off-road and be a lot younger than me, so can get an extra few hundred miles out of them. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
11:08 pm	Progress Spare room now set up with computer table (had to take wheels off to get it upstairs) and printer table made out of the sturdy speaker stands with the shelf that will no longer go in the airing cupboard now that we have POWER SHOWERS. Printer still not set up, but is unpacked at least. Harvey paced round the room sniffing everything while I said, "DARLING, JUST DON'T PEE ON ANYTHING, OKAYYYYY?". (The first foster dog we had was - we were told - housetrained, but - we found out - was not, and she would sneak into the spare room and wee, until we had a "party" in there where we said what a great room it was, whereupon she looked mortified as if to say, "OMG and I thought it was just a well-carpeted toilet! Quel social disaster!". It probably still smells of wee, to a dog...). (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
11:22 pm	vicarage will be proud But first would anyone like one of those Hinari FootSpa jobbies? Else it's going to Redbridge. This week I've work-free-cycled a couple of panniers of random computer gubbins, 2 x 5g weights, and have an ancient PC rejuvenated with Puppy Linux and another cunning bundle ready to shovel into the back of the first colleague's sensible car to roll up outside my door (somehow the ones with sports cars always seem to be able to resist, though the ones with bicycles not, so it's not a practicality thing!). The VCR is dead (as is the copy of Patient X involved in testing, no great loss however, shame on you Chris Carter) and off to Redbridge. The parallel ZipDrive has had the data copied off its disks and is stacked on top of the VCR now, ready for its journey to who knows where. We copied some data off a few floppies while we still had a machine with a floppy drive (there's a USB floppy drive at work if I ever need to read any more). The point behind all this is: * printer cartridges all dry or empty * cannot find CISS for my printer * time for new printer! * I seek one that no-one hates. This narrows things down very quickly indeed. I order. * I then notice it is an A3 printer (ooh) + size of house (ah) * time to move forward the spare-room-as-officeden project House still the usual jumble, mind, and (particularly thanks to geroge's recent kind donations, even more just one large dog bed. The duvets appear to have brought out a great passion for scrobbling in Nellie (no not LastFM) - every night she enthusiastically yanks and scoops and scratches them into a bit scrunched ball and then sits herself on top of the lot with a certain air of smugness. Harvey of course will have plonked himself heavily down on the bed between us with an irresistible air of a sleepy toddler and in 5 secs will be asleep (or making a convincing and determined pretense of sleep) so he doesn't care. Of course, when we bounce him off later on, he will care, but then he just looks pathetic and bewildered until one of us gets out of bed and sorts him out (bed, jimjams, toy, bedtime story...). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 5th, 2009
8:21 pm	I'VE GOT PIE FOR YOU celestialweasel is playing a strange yet haunting tune on the blender. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
10:29 pm	Bunny bunny bunny Best thing ever - my stepmum got an outdoor standalone webcam for Xmas and it's been set up to point along a path in the woods just outside their garden. I've been watching it tonight and there was a little light - whose eye? - had to be a rabbit as it was so low ... then a pair of eyes appeared and the rabbit, definitely a rabbit now, started to move. For a moment we were worried we were going to be treated to a live bunny-munching. Luckily it was two deer, not a fox. She's put peanuts, carrots etc out on the path and so all the local wildlife are out there munching away! There's another bunny right now. We were up there at the weekend. Dad was a very keen sportsman in his youth and is still active. Well he never got to see my school sports days, which was no loss as I had terrible asthma & was as blind as a bat. He had expressed interest in seeing me race (sorry "race") so I booked in for the May Hill Massacre just down the road from him, and was rewarded with VERY vocal support from him & sis before a slap-up feed from the webcam's proud owner. Anyway back to the cam - it captures video when it senses motion, so I saw a "highlights" collection on Sunday with deer, foxes, bats, birds, all sorts! It's pretty cool. Wonder if I can set up the Tesco Value Webcam to point out into our garden...? Would need some extra software I suppose! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
10:31 am	Next: knitting own muesli (*) I have just made my own margarine. Bit too much lemon juice I think but not bad for a first go. Am now watching Harvey live up to his "Mr. Pony Poo" nickname in the garden. (*)actually do make my own muesli - don't like the wheat flakes you get in the bought ones (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
7:53 pm	The UN Greyhound Observer As we may have mentioned in the past, Nellie has taken the role of UN Greyhound Observer upon herself. For years now, if we are doing something to one of the other dogs (nail clipping, washing, stuffing pills down 'em) she has liked to be there, staring sorry observing. Tonight I had another little hack at Harvey's corn (which was gouged out by the vet and promptly grew back 5mm to the left, so at least it is on the side of his foot now and easier to hack flush with the rest of the pad). He squealed fit to bust in the manner of a small child being bathed or having a hair cut (but bless him, he holds no malice. I think he just squeals in the hope of ... something or other). Afterwards Nellie pottered over and sniffed gently at his nose, as if to say, "You are OK aren't you?". Bless her. Of course you daren't exclude her. The time the vet came round to hasten poor Dash to his Great Reward, she'd advised we not have Nellie in the room (I imagine among other things she'd have got in the way) and we shut her in our bedroom, where she got on the bed and peed vast amounts in the very centre of the mattress. (3 Comments |Comment on this)