Friday, September 29, 2006

He shoots, he scores!

While I was all caught in in the joy of my new site logo, I forgot to mention, Ali and I are having a baby :-) As befits any spawn of mine, it is due on the 1st of April. Perfect. Ali and I are chuffed to bits. We have been thinking of names but it is a bit hard because we don't know what flavour it is yet. We are currently using Herbert. Here is a picture of the little fella. Just to show any of you comedians that he hasn't got a beard yet.


It's funny but the one thing that no one ever seems to complain about is the weeks when you know t'wife is "with child" but you can't tell anyone. More to the point you have to lie all the time to try and cover up. The rest of our Pub Quiz team thought that I had murdered Ali because of the increasingly lame excuses I was coming out with for her non appearance. And Ali's friends at her running club were getting increasingly concerned as she kept on feigning back ache to get out of exercises. What a relief it is now public!

New Logo

You may have spotted that I have been messing around with site logo and design for a bit. Well this was just killing time while I was working on the real thing. Smart eh? I bet no one will guess where I stole the idea from?

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Just Fraking Google it!

Ever been asked a really stupid question which has prompted you to suggest that the questioner might like to consult the supplied documentation? Sometimes less politely referred to as RTFM. Well I have pretty much stolen this whole post from Julian Robichaux because I thought it was so fantastic.. In the new world of the web, stupid questions should be greeted by JFGI.


If you're interested, using Frak in place of the more robust alternative as in the title is stolen from the excellent new series of Battlestar Galactica

Cats really stink

I guess any one who knows Ali and I would realise how much we love our cats. Like most mogs they sometimes do naughty things which everyone would think are cute (e.g. chasing balls of wool or breaking wind (Barney is a real wind bag). However, cute and funny as Barney and Boo are they do have one major flaw. They shit on the carpet. I know - sounds a bit harsh and possibly a bit crude - but facts are facts. The dirty little boys seem to thing it is OK to hang their butt over the side of their litter tray and "fertilize the crops". Of couse we have no crops. Only a pongy carpet.

Having decided that the obvious solution was not viable (murdering cats can cause so much distress) we needed an alternative. Enter the Ferplast Magix litter tray. It is fully covered to prevent the hideous odours our furry friends are capable of producing and also has a front door to protect their privacy. Because it is their privacy that I'm worried about! Hopefully their smelly days are at an end (yeah right!). Incidentally - that is a stunt cat in the picture. Barney and Boo haven't figured the door out yet.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Bing Bong

One of the things which is nice about getting a bit older is seeing some things getting a little bit better. For example guitar tuners used to be horrible fiddly things with needles that only ever worked in absolute silence, whilst now you can get a fine Boss TU-2 tuner effect pedal that allows you to tune up on stage whilst a full band is playing beside you. You see - just a bit better. Another example might be cars. They just work better and a bit more comfortably than they ever used to. I guess geeky gadgets also fall into this realm. I shudder to think of my first mobile phone compared to my current slinky number which would certainly not disappoint Captain Kirk (well, except when he tried to teleport somewhere).

But the thing that has had me glowing with unexpected pleasure this week is our new door bell. I kid you not. Our old door bell was so rubbish it is a bit of a mystery why we put up with it so long. You needed the ears of a hound dog to hear it any distance from the door and the battery would suddenly fail with absolutely no warning leaving fuming guests waiting outside in the rain while Ali and I would continue watching television unawares (a problem often resolved by mobile phones!).

The last time the batteries gave out I couldn't bring myself to change them. It just didn't deserve it. But I was worried about how to install a replacement. I had visions of wiring diagrams and drilling holes through the front door. Had I only heard of Friedland I would have done it years ago. In the box you get a door bell that attaches to the door using a supplied stick pad. No screws here. Then the main alarm is pushed into any spare power socket. No batteries to run out here. And there is an extra portable chime which you can put in the garden or upstairs. All connected via the power of wireless. And you know what - it just works. No faff, no fuss. Out of the box to installed and running in less than five minutes. That's better.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Beach of irregular bottoms


My sister Pink and hubby Stew are on holiday in Spain the lucky things. Down on the beach today they saw this amusing sign which they sent me using the miracle of MMS from their mobile phone which I was able to forward from my phone to my Google Mail account where I could attach it too this entry. Much better than waiting for them to get back and going round to their house for a slide show :-/