mi

So, the last day of November. I love this month, and once again the NaBloPoMo has been won.
There was some plans for this post to be all about my dad, to match the very first post this month about my mum... but I just finished a skype call with both of them that left all of us happy but tired.
Making plans for going to Sweden after Christmas. I am very much looking forward to it. Love to go on road trips with dad. There's always good fun to be had, bad puns, much singing and talking in general and that is even before we get too tired to not giggle at just about anything.
Being able to have my parents not just as parents but as good friends is definitely something that makes me happier in life.

Now sleep... working days tomorrow... Thanks for a good month NaBloPoMo. It is fun to write a blog most of times. :)

It's only today and tomorrow left of the NaBloPoMo for me this year, and so far, there has been a post every day although most of them has been almost almost almost the day after it's been intended to be sent, but that's how it is... Deadlines are more fun when almost failed. :)

The quality of the post haven't been too high all of the days, maybe even most of the days. I'm just not very good at writing, much better at ramblings. The one skill I really have with words seems to be to find interesting shapes to put them in and for that I have better forums than my blog. A brick of text is not as much of a challenge in an interface where there's no limit on the amount of characters in a row.
The better forum in this case is KOM. LysKOM just reached 2M posts. It's been around for quite a while now but it is not a very well known forum. For me it has always been a way to keep in touch with the computer clubs I've been around since my time in Stacken, although TokKOM seems to have died the death of the unmaintained.

That reminds me. I really should pay my membership fee for Stacken at some point soon. I might be a passive member nowadays, but I still very much want the computer club to stay alive.

Ramblings are now trailing off to the right... ... ... .. .. .

Today has been a very very nice day with pet shop browsing and fishie shopping. Unfortunately it has left me way too tired to write anything useful.

One inspiring thing though, was following mr Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan's advice in how to make a dog relaxed. Mr dog was a bit too hyper when on Pets at Home. He wanted to play with all the rabbits and rats and chinchillas and guinea pigs and so on and so forth. In the end I had to lay him on his side gently and wait, wait and wait for him to chill. It took time. Probably a good 10 minutes or so, but then suddenly he started yawning. During all that time I only stroked him and made sure that he laid on his side, didn't force him to stay that way, just told him that he should with gentle commands and a bit of nudging.

It made me happy, seeing him yawn and knowing that he could be relaxed in an environment so full of interesting stuff. He deserved a treat and he got one, the one he sniffed the most at (but didn't take as he is a good boy and knows not to take anything before he's allowed as long as someone is watching... ;) ) when going to the treats isle.

I have the bestest dog in the world. :)

Today I feel cold and tired, have been to a lovely pet shop and an equally nice aquatic shop and shopped my heart out for kitteh, doggie, fishies and shrimps. Now the big tank is much more plant populated and Mr dog has found the bestestest toy in the entire world. It's green and has a squeeky ball in it. Quite sturdy too so it will probably not be completely trashed this week.

I've been using the jacket i bought at REI. when I was in Denver. Tungsten grey, just taste that colour... It is utterly brilliant for insulation and keeping the rain at bay, less so for keeping the wind out, but I can live with that.

Generally I am not of the shopping kind, but take me to a pet shop, an aquarium shop or an outdoors store and I'll have to put barbed wire on my wallet to come home without ruining myself.

REI. is a lovely place for the latter. Very dangerous web store. They have quality stuff for a reasonable price and I can browse there for hours, both at home and in the store.

If you ever find yourself in the US and with time to spare, try finding your nearest REI and it will surely disappear. :)

Cheese is a lovely thing. Didn't really start to like it until my twenties, a bit like most alcohol, and I still prefer the melted form before anything else, but sometimes a bit of port and cheese is a lovely thing.

Tonight we had a bottle of 2006 Grahams late bottle vintage, well, just a reasonable glass, not the entire bottle. I had some cornish brie and Wensleydale with apricots while Leif went on the mature stilton and another blue cheese that I really can't recall the name of at the moment. Crackers were had as well of course. Unfortunately no saltines but the oat crackers were just as fine.

When it comes to port I put my trust in an old post from mansaxel in KOM for inspiration and when that fails the Grahams LBV tends to do the trick anyway.
For the cheeses it all depends on if the mood is for hard or soft cheese. unixsmurf is one for the blues and the ones that smells like a pair of socks have died many times over. They are a bit too strong for me. I prefer a good brie or creamy goats cheese, or a nutty and nice hard cheese or Västerbotten, you can't go wrong with Västerbotten. Cheddar is one of the few I just haven't got a grip of yet unfortunately, but then again, who needs cheddar when there are soo many cheeses and not enough time to consume them all.

We tend to go to the Cambridge Beer Festival that CAMRA arranges in May every year. I tend to try a few beers, drink to much mead and then launch a frontal assault on the cheese bar. The cheese bar there is absolutely brilliant. Local and almost local British cheeses with lovely names like wobbly bottom and suchlike, and amazing taste.
When the beer festival is not in town, so well, most times, theres always the Cambridge Cheese Company for a good supply of cheese. Even mesost, although it doesn't seem to be the favourite flavour for some of the staff there. More for us *MUHAHAHAHAHAHA* *cough* I meant, you can't convert them all.

The one cheese I would like to find though, is the quite mild Polish smoked cheese. Back in the old days (or something) when my oldest friend used to live with us in Haninge (13 years ago now I believe...) we used to steal most of the cheese my Polish then partner took home and make pasta bake in the oven with it. Almost like mac'n'cheese just not as creamy. Oh how I want that cheese again...

unixsmurf is claiming that my blog posts are lacking in quality.

Pah I say, pah! Yesterday I posted about cakes. Cakes are always good so I should be excused for being slightly exhausted today by overdose of cake.

I was planning to write about River cottage, that will probably happen in the near future instead. :)

Happy birthday unixsmurf!

I love you!

There's one tiger cake, one chocolate chilli cake and one sponge cake, cut in three layers, that is going to be the base of a Polly cake tomorrow. Looking forward to it, a lot. :)

Here's the recipe for the chocolate chilli cake:

3 eggs
375 ml sugar
1 table spoon vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
100 ml cocoa powder
225 ml plain flour
150g melted butter

Whisk all together in order, optionally whisk eggs and sugar until white and fluffy before adding the rest.
Bake in a round tin, 20-23cm in diameter, in 175°C (might be lower depending on oven) for 20-30 minutes.

Works well with melted chocolate as icing, and with a pinch of potent dried chilli powder. Alternatively ginger and cinnamon with or without orange zest and juice... there's plenty of options and ways to experiment with this cake.

Today I had planned to make cake. One sponge, one tiger and something lemony. I failed.
Tomorrow will be cake and cuddles day. If anyone has a good cookie recepie I would happily make them as well. :)

Now however, I am exhausted and shall have sleep. Night all.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Boing boing bork, hule mule meatballs...