As a US expat I have the delightful opportunity to vote by mail in national and state elections (for expats they use your last state of residence, which for me is California), and I cast my vote last week. There’s a strange satisfaction about being able to walk down to the mailbox in our local village, slide in […]

Posted in Current events, Home life, Politics No Comments »

I’m working on it right now and hope to have it up at the weekend. Apologies for the delay: there have been some home / family issues this last month which have disrupted work. (Nothing serious, just disruptive.)
Thanks, all!

Posted in "The Big Meow", Home life, Writing No Comments »

Very unwell. And apparently getting more so. I’m starting to work my way through all the usual stages to make sure of where the problem is — replacing the monitor driver, installing new display drivers for the card (it’s a Radeon 9800), running diagnostics — but at the moment, here’s what I’ve got.
 

…Not much to say […]

Posted in Administrivia, Computer stuff, Home life 1 Comment »

Folks, work on the present project has run a a couple of days further into this week than planned, so it’s going to be Thursday or Friday before I can get that next chapter posted. Please bear with me, as things are a bit frantic at the moment.
Thanks!
 
Tags: The+Big+Meow, chapter, eight, 8, update

Posted in "The Big Meow", Home life, Writing No Comments »

I really hate to have to post this, but due to last-minute developments secondary to a current work commitment, Peter and I will not be able to attend the Discworld Convention in Birmingham this weekend.
We got a sense around midweek that a time-sensitive project I’m working on — one which I’d been attempting to ensure would not […]

Posted in Conventions, Home life No Comments »

Folks, just a quick word: this week has become unusually disrupted due to other work that’s going on in-house, so I’m going to have to postpone the chapter posting until just after the 27th. Unfortunately the chapter’s just not ready to go up yet, the in-house crisis won’t allow any work on any other projects until […]

Posted in "The Big Meow", Home life, Travel, Writing 1 Comment »

Specifically, for online pick-your-own-ingredients-and-we’ll-ship-it-to-you muesli.
From this week muesli lovers in the UK will be able to order their very own custom made cereal choosing their ingredients online.
The German firm ‘Well’ launched www.mymuesli.com last year and it has proved successful in its homeland. Customers are able to use the website to dream up their personalised breakfast […]

Posted in Food, restaurants and cooking, Home life, Online life No Comments »

Some of you constant readers may remember this message of last spring when I was in the process of getting rid of / cleaning out some old books.
The process got badly messed up by the numerous health problems of the later spring and the family losses of the summer and fall. As a result I […]

Posted in Fantasy and science fiction, Home life, Star Trek and other licensed properties, Writing, Young Wizards No Comments »

Peter was riding over to the next town to pick up a couple of things yesterday afternoon when his bike’s chain broke and he went over the handlebars and came down in a friendly hedge. (“Friendly” only because it broke his fall and there were no nettles in it.)
He’s okay, thank heaven.  (“Shaken but not […]

Posted in Food, restaurants and cooking, Home life, Ireland No Comments »

Or, rather, without the flimsy semi-transparent bag with handles that cut into your hands like cheesewire if you put something in the bag that weighs more than a pound? Here in Ireland, it’s been a pleasure.
I see the concept of dumping the bag — by one mechanism or another — is being introduced in Los Angeles County […]

Posted in Europe, Hobbyhorses and General Ranting, Home life, Ireland, Politics 4 Comments »

It would have been perfect for the crumpets.
(via Clotilde at Chocolate and Zucchini)
Tags: food, cooking, batter, dough, whisk, kitchen, tools

Posted in Food, restaurants and cooking, Home life, Toys 1 Comment »

We’ve been idly looking for something to replace our old rusty hibachi. This looks like a nice possibility. It’s British (but the sales source is in the US: must see who’s carrying it locally).

The grilles both swing in and out and are height-adjustable (with the big one, the swing facility this means you can add charcoal […]

Posted in Food, restaurants and cooking, Home life 1 Comment »