Not location specific, No rules: Welcome to ILX heaven

I ask because I want to brag about being all packed already.

Since I came back from hols, PSU has been making a bad noise and running hot. Failed during the night, forced it to work again this morning and it failed again.

Weighed up the cost of a PSU and putting it in a 5 year old computer.

I AM WEAK.
(but I has a new computer)

You deserve it, after the holiday you just had. What are F's folks like (or is that a tricky/sensitive/embarrassing question?)

Nath, when you feel crap without having gone out, isn't that just illness? Maybe you're getting a head cold. I know I am. All the kids are doing it.

Kev-lol, your parents are me and Mister M. (except more cultured and traveled). We too are very insular, and I sometimes worry about what will happen to us when we're old.

Ronan, your dad is like my dad, except that my dad doesn't work anymore because only one of his lungs functions and he sometimes watches films. But he doesn't read books or really listen to music at all. He likes to go to standup comedy shows, though, as long as they're not too shouty.

I used to think F's parents were worse. Now I am not so sure.

The closest my dad gets to books is the bookies. That's only two letters out.

I have remembered another one from the holiday. The kids are looking through the photos on my phone and there is one of me and my friends Gary, Colin and Mike on Mike's birthday. My Ma hears us talking - she has met Colin several times, Gary twice, and has not met Mike - and comes over to look at the picture.

Ma: "Who's Gary?"
Me: "He's the one on the left in the photo."
Ma: "I don't think I know him."
Me: "You have, you've met him more than once."
Ma: "Oh, was that him with his sister? He was nice."
Me: "No, that was Nick."
Ma: "Oh, I know where we met him. Yes, he was short."
Me: "No, that was Yuma."
Ma: "Oh, I don't know then."

Gary is about my height and thin, and from Liverpool.
Nick is about the six foot mark and has a beard. He is from Leicester.
Yuma is a couple of inches shorter than me and about the same build. He is from Nigeria.

CAN YOU SPOT THE COMMON FACTOR THAT I HAVEN'T MENTIONED?

Then re-read this to remind yourself SHE HAD ACTUALLY SEEN GARY'S PICTURE.

Gary. Isn't he the one who was at that party that time with that nice girl who used to like you? She was lovely. Why didn't you marry her?

That would have been preferable to the implicit "all blacks look the same" that was the actual answer.

Ah, black fella, eh?

I'm afraid my dad would be no better on this score.

I am reminded of the amusing argument my dad had with middle brother the other day about the directions to his house. Where he lives, and Dad has been once before. But Dad still insisted on arguing with him about how to get there.

My mother and I have a pretty basic relationship limited to phone calls and 2 or 3 visits per year. The only thing we really have to bond over are health issues.

I have no relationship or contact with my father other than the restraining order I plan to get against him in the near future. </debbie downer>

Man, I just got back from my first class. It was full of freshman and the dude sitting next to me was wearing his high school ring and not even bothering to take notes. Meanwhile I was busy writing down everything the instructor said or put on the board. Every now and then he'd stop and say "Is everyone getting this?" I didn't speak up b/c I was getting absolutely none of it. I stopped math with Algebra II and that was nearly 20 years ago.

I'm going to go over my notes and the chapter we covered in the book very carefully and slowly over the next couple of nights. If that doesn't wake up the highly capable intellect that has apparently fallen asleep in my brain, it's tutor time.

Your notes will make more and more sense as you reread them. Such an exciting time going back to learn something. It's like mature students always do well in Uni, they actually care about what they're doing!

I really admire anyone who tries to learn maths-based things later in life. It's HARD.

It's HARD.

*cries*

Hmm. That wasn't supposed to put you off, that was supposed to give you a sense of achievement when you do get it. Which of course you will.

hahah, I know. I keep telling myself I will too. If these 18yr olds sitting next to me can do it, so can I.

So true!

Aww.
I'm so incompetent with math—I think the term is "inumeracy," as opposed to "illiteracy."
But my father had the highest math score in the country—100%—on his college boards. He ended up as a manager of a wire factory. Go figure.
I've been thinking of taking a math class, just to stretch my brain and get over my knee-jerk "I'm no good at math" attitude. First I want to do an intense Brazilian-Portuguese immersion, though. My Portuguese is so spazzy, and I'll get stuck that way if I don't correct it—start over from scatch.

Oh dear god Beth, I keep forgetting your card. Sorry!

I've always been more of a word person but I think I can handle a bit of math in my 30s.

Kv, no worries! I just need to keep mailing them out from my end before they fill my tiny office/studio to the ceiling. Not that I'm very efficient or timely about it either.

Okay. You'll never guess what I forgot again today... sorry Beth.

Right, I am so ready for this festival. There is nothing that I have not packed. I am a camping god!

Ooh, get you. etc.

So, it seems all of my Dublin mates are going to December ATP this year. I feel sadface and left out because I can't go.

Aldo, Onimo, you're not going are you?

I have never been to an ATP.

It was the boy's b-day yesterday. We went out for steaks (I had the tuna variety rather than cow) and tried to go bowling. But it was league night so no go (they did give us passes for free games though, which was nice.) We then tried to go see Halloween but realized it hadn't opened yet, doh! Instead, home to drink on the front porch, revel in our stray cat colony and complain about the neighbors. Ahh, old age. (There was a bit more to the night after that but I'll keep that private, thank you.)

We have a three day weekend coming up here in the US. I imagine the bowling and/or the Halloween will happen at some point.

Tonight it's all about my math homework!! I've been reading on the bus and it's becoming a little more clear. Yesterday I was dressed in pink, with my pink notebook and pink pencil and totally clueless look on my face. I was one feathered pen away from being Elle Woods. Felt ridiculous. Will def. cowboy up on this one.

I bought a cowboy hat for the festival! I'll join you. I do not look good in pink mind. Fuschia I can just about get away with.

LOL I CNA'T SLELP!

I am not going to the December ATP, I am having F put in suspended animation.

We are not going to December ATP. One a year is as much as we can manage as it means having to sort out 4 days worth of babysitter cover for three kids. It would be nice to make a December one at some point as they always fall round about mrs o's birthday.

Are they always in the same place? It sounds a bit involved.

I have a cowboy hat but I never wear it. It serves a decoration in the living room.

It is a bit involved, Ms M, but substantially less so than other music festivals because you don't have to bring camping gear.

Oh kev-lol, I hope the weather holds up for the weekend for you.

Happy birthday, Mister Misery, btw.

Haha, Mister Misery. We are the same age now until December.

I have never been to a music festival that involved camping.

Man, my obgyn sent me a postcard yesterday saying I needed to call them and discuss the results of my pap smear. I was terrified but just now they said they were normal and they just needed my new number. Couldn't they have marked "normal" on the card and asked me to call and update my contact info?

argh.

Kev, nah no Electric Picnic for me. I am working on the Sunday and then I agreed to DJ for four hours on Saturday night in the Pod, I'll make good money doing that plus four hour sets are rare as hell. Going on holidays on Monday too so need money/health as much as possible.

The American use of 'pap smear' always confuses me, because it doesn't involve paps at all.

ATP is not involved, really, and you get a nice chalet to stay in rather than a tent. It has changed location recently from Camber to Minehead, and will stay there until F0und4ti0n manage to piss off Butlins so much that they tell them to poke off (2 years, tops).

I don't know what a pap is! Other than, you know, the pappiness it involves here.

Ronan, sorry I won't get to FAP with you now. Enjoy your holliers though!

Weather is meant to be cloudy but dry. Fingers crossed!

Oh yeah and happy bday to the male mis!

Hmmmm male ms mis would have worked better.

Yeah mixed reports on the weather. I'm sure there'll be an FAP this autumn sometime. I am off to parent's house in Spain with my gf so I can't wait. I intend to read/drink/swim for 5 days. Though when I said this to a friend on Sunday night he said "isn't that what you do here? look you're drinking right now. and you said you were swimming earlier".

I am off to parent's house in Spain with my gf

That sounds lovely. I am jealous of the girlfriend you've landed.

Paps is a slang term for breasts. It was also used in the Bible (srsly!).

ahh, this is new to me. :)

x-post I'm lucky with the parents too I guess, I couldn't afford to go anywhere if they didn't offer me this option, plus it's nice knowing the place will be nice and having good info on the area and stuff.

Paps are, as the Black Eyed Peas would have it, lady lumps.

1. <anatomy> A nipple; a mammilla; a teat. "The paps which thou hast sucked." (Luke xi. 27)

2. A rounded, nipplelike hill or peak; anything resembling a nipple in shape; a mamelon.

Origin: Cf. OSw. Papp. Cf. Pap soft food.

Source: Websters Dictionary

There is a pair of hills on the island of Jura, off Scotland, called the Paps of Jura exactly for this reason.

Wikipedia is more revealing as to why it is called a pap smear in the US: In gynecology, the Papanikolaou test or Papanicolaou test (also called Pap smear, Pap test, cervical smear, or smear test) is a medical screening method, invented by Georgios Papanikolaou, primarily designed to detect premalignant and malignant processes in the ectocervix.

xposting

Aldo dropping the science.

nice set of paps
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/45/Papsofjura1.jpg/300px-Papsofjura1.jpg

mmm, latte.

argh, my concentration is not good. I keep thinking instead about my homework and the silent war I'm raging against my boss. He should be gone after 11, maybe it will be easier to work then.

guys i need a recipe for like a chipotle garnish for a salmon burger. why can't i find a cooking thread?

You'll get better results if you go straight to epicurious.com or foodnetwork.com. It's flattering that you'd think of ILX first though.

haha no no i DID go to epicurious first but then don't have the exact thing i want. maybe i'll try foodnetwork.com...

i dunno see i'm a REALLY bad googler sometimes, and ILX caters to me "just gimme the answer" impulse =P

get some general ideas and then make it up yourself.

yes i think that's really going to be the strategy - i love experimenting with flavors. have my instincts are good enough for it (the other half need the recipe)

i really am trying to type intelligbly :-)

This one looks good (o jesus, it's from "Dweezil and Lisa") --

Chipotle Dressing:
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons water
2 small shallots, or 2 tablespoons white onions, diced
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1 egg yolk*
3 chipotle peppers in adobo
1 cup olive oil (not extra-virgin)

Place the first 7 ingredients in a blender and blend on high for 1 minute. With the blender running, slowly drizzle in oil, and blend until emulsified. Reserve until needed.