Flying Spaghetti Monster

according to El Informador which I found via Living Without Borders which in turn I found because they got wind of the fototour and have complimentary things to say about my flickr photostream. Bless em. If you’re surfing in from there for some reason, then yes, in all likelihood it’ll be a Spanish speaking event, but there’s always the universal language of photography and beers. I’d have posted a comment over there but they have comments disabled. Anyroad, all are welcome. It’s nothing too formal and none of us know each other outside of Flickr commentaries and the occasional Flickrmail.

Anyroad, got to go. The home made pizza’s burning. Pizzas No’tardamos aren’t open on Wednesdays…

10 working days left till I’m outta here. They’re getting their money’s worth in the meantime, mind. I thought I was busy before… anyroad, I’m putting the comments back on to see if they get spammed again after 2 weeks absence, we’ll see.

I drove out to San Martin de los Flores expecting to see scenes like this, along with all the fun of the Passion… self-flagellation, stigmata, special Easter empanadas etc., but couldn’t see anything. It’s in a pretty dodgy part of the city and the car’s been playing up of late so I considered parking it facing down the hill so I could push start it if need be but no… just turned around and drove home. I made the right decision though cos it’s not starting again. Might just have to keep the car running tomorrow when we go to the airport to pick up Sally and Minnie.

I got a few more cars looking like their surroundings pix, but I like this one best of a shop looking like tree tree looking like shopfront on my wander round today. I added a picture of our beautiful kerb a couple of posts down too. Might have to get a few purple swirls on that too. There’s hardly any traffic around and a fair few people wearing their sunday best on a Friday and it was nice to wander round Santa Tere with hardly anyone around.

I was looking around friends’ blogs for inspiration today (cos I promised to post more often even if I’ve nothing much to write about) and I remembered Flash had recently unearthed the Things you love beginning with… meme. Way back in 2006 I got W. This time (via Skype chat)… 

[8:37:38 AM] Gwyn says: Oy, Flash! Give us a letter for that meme. You gave me a W last time and I need some inspiration. (thanks 🙂 )
[8:37:59 AM] Flash says: you want a different letter?
[8:38:05 AM] Gwyn says: yep
[8:38:11 AM] Flash says: *thinks*
[8:38:17 AM] Flash says: P
[8:38:20 AM] Gwyn says: yay!
[8:38:20 AM] Flash says: ok?
[8:38:21 AM] Gwyn says: thanks
[8:38:24 AM] Flash says: np!

10 things I love beginning with P:

Parents, Phoning home

If it weren’t for skype, cheap international phone calls and the internet I wouldn’t be living so far away from home. Hi Mum & Dad!

Photography (+Picasa)

Here’s one from the other day. It looks like an apple, but is actually an acorn.

Chose focal black and white in Picasa’s options menu, waved my magic mouse and uploaded it to Flickr.
Photography is one of the most rewarding hobbies I have, not just taking photos but admiring and being inspired by other people’s too. Also it brings you little moments to treasure like Atticus finally overtaking “Dead Horse” in the LA Times and being the 2nd Best Animal at time of writing…  I promise I only voted once. The votes have nothing to do with the judges so here’s hoping he gets printed in the LA Times paper edition this Sunday…

Potatoes

I could live on these exclusively for months. Like I did through most of university. I reckon the antiscience hicks have it all wrong and that spuds, rather than bananas, are the real “Atheist’s nightmare“…

Planting stuff in the jardin.

I won’t call it growing veggies just yet. That would be premature. I enjoyed the actual planting, even if the resulting rows of slug-eaten greenery is not (and may never be) fit for human consumption. The herbs’re doing grand though and the dandelions are thriving. 

Peep Show

The facebook group has it about right: “If you don’t like Peep Show, you’re probably not worth knowing.” Harsh, but fair. 

Pratchett, Terry

and his lovely discworld series. I started reading them when I was 13 or so and have read them all in order ever since. They’re enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the minute round here as Powells Books has a fair few used copies on sale. I’m still patiently waiting for Making Money to come out in paperback Stateside. 

Pasties & al Pastor, Tacos

I’m going to have to get back to Mexico soon if only to gorge on Tacos al Pastor again.

Pasties are also missed, though we had the Chilean version round a colleague of Sarita’s house the other day, empanadas. Lighter pastry, an olive, egg and raisins got added to the recipe when it travelled south. Wikipedia has some handy pasty facts… “It is said that a good pasty should be strong enough to endure being dropped down a mine shaft.” 

PCs

Yeah, they crash occasionally. Yeah, some of my drivers stopped working with Vista. Yeah, Microsoft… But when PCs go wrong I can usually fix them, swapping out some part for another cheaply bought one, or messing with the registry. When your Mac goes wrong, it goes wrong. Usually in spectacular/ expensive fashion. 

I got my first PC from Drsita’s dad, Martin when I started at UMass in August 2000. I’d probably still be trying to teach Spanish to spoilt teenagers now if it wasn’t for him.

Parks

Parks are good. They used to be for drinking cider and playing guitar in, now they’re for being dragged through by a 25lb + schipperke. 

Pubs

Though it turns out it’s not the place, it’s the company. Still working on finding some Portland pub peeps.

Posters

I seem to be making lots of posters lately. Here’s today’s…

(Thrills youtubery) 

That feels like 10. Maybe more. If anyone would like a letter, comment away.

Thanks for wading through all that, though the biggest news of late is we’re well chuffed to be having some Mexican mates over in January.

via BoingBoing.net:

Stop whatever you’re doing and click on the flash video player thing above… Doesn’t lose its magic no matter how many times you play it.

Other news: Just removed Larsen B ice shelf from our fridgefreezer and what with the drizzle and half a metric ton of ice in the front garden, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Let’s start with Friday. I got home from work around 5ish and Sita and I took Mr. Atticus to the beach where he was correctly identified as part schipperke by a stranger. This happens with alarming regularity, many denizens of Santa Cruz appear to have an encyclopedic knowledge of dog breeds. My in-built dog reference guide has bulldog and poodle with a big gap in between. anyroad, after much leaping around and photography we headed home, put Atticus out to pasture and brought Klem and Lulu in for a hop around the furniture… Then we went out for a sophisticated romantic dinner at Pearl Alley Bistro with fine wine and rare meats, dessert and an espresso, all bankrolled by my folks as birthday treat. We went to Well Within and on the way out saw a friend from Scotts’ Valley High, where I used to work, we spent 15 minutes in the street catching up on the goings on of the last few months, and agreed we’d meet up for a beer in the near future. We said our goodbyes and then, as one, turned around and said let’s have them now. Lo it came to pass and we spent the rest of the evening getting through pitchers of Newcastle Brown in the Poet and Patriot pseudo-Irish pub and talking nonsense. Result. or ‘Epic’ as some readers of this blog may say… got home settled Mr.A into his deluxe doggy bed and hit the hay… cue saturday morning. – TO BE CONTINUED- Have to go and watch sita play netball with girls from ucsc at the local elementary school.

Sun streams in throught the window, coffee gets brewed, breakfast is slowly knocked together and a nice long phone call from me mum’n’dad arrives… after that i saddle up the Nissam Altima, get me mobile, radio and camera together and I headed off into the Santa Cruz mountains for to explore the sights and sounds. I timed it just right to hear Car Talk, This American Life and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell me on NPR. And when they ran out I had a few episodes fo the ‘The 99p Show’ burnt onto CDs. Went all along route 9, stopping at the summit for an hour’s walk or so with well pretty views, then moseyed on to Saratoga for a coffee, a muffin and to pick up a copy of The Wave and then onto town…