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  • Misplaced Mojo

    So, those of you who remember, we’ve been trying for a baby. This month we had our second go, and we found out this morning that it’s not worked. My beloved isn’t pregnant. Truly, we found out it was unlikely yesterday, in the tail end of ‘our xmas’* but kinda clung to the slim, slim possibility that it might still’ve worked. But no. We’ve still got another go, but there’s this thing called the Two Week Wait, and it’s astonishing how when it’s over and it’s not worked, how utterly demoralising it is. How very, very sad you feel when it’s not worked.

    Despite the glorious day we had yesterday** I’ve got up today and am now feeling a complete lack of motivation to do anything. I was a little vague on what I was going to do today, anyhow, because it’s ‘my boxing day’ and Kathryn’s at work. But now I’m lacking motivation to do anything.

    * Being a healthcare worker, this year we celebrated Xmas on the 26th because I was at work on the 24th and the 25th.
    ** Prezzie opening (my best beloved got me some amazing music and some great book, and many, many other things because she’s way too kind; our families bought us thoughtful lovely gifts too, we are very lucky people), a really good xmas dinner that we prepped together, a non-awful Doctor who christmas special*** and a touching Call the Midwife xmas special followed by a card game (gift) and listening to more music.
    *** Hardly fantastic, but watchable (although the end was tediously repetitive and there were some gaping plot holes).

  • People with bad eye sight will understand

    eat-me-out-oppa:

    Eye doctor: “one…*switches lenses*..or two? Choose which is better…one….*switches lens again*..or two”

    Me: *sweats nervously*

    Oh god, for years I’d been sat there going:

    “Uuuuuuuh, the first one?”

    And then last time I went, the optician was waiting whilst I was vacillating between the two, and she stopped me and said “if you’re not sure, just say, because if it’s that close it doesn’t matter”.

    WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS BEFORE? 

  • thatfuckingplatypus:

    ipromiseiwilltakeyouthere:

    themanicpixiedreamgrrrl:

    heartlit:

    bruised—babe:

    foxadhd:

    Women Are Paying $1,300 More A Year For The Same Exact Products As Men

    So fucking glad this is finally coming to light…

    Not only do we make less, but we are forced to spend more on gendered products

    What the fuck

    lets all just start buying guys shit 

    One of my friends at Uni pointed this out – in the midst of a long rant. And from that day on, men’s razors (until my legs got such bad reactions to shaving that I quit shaving them).

    On which note, I heard about this bunch: http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/ but not living in the States never tried ‘em. They might be good or not, but they are certainly way cheaper than any disposable blades in the UK.

  • backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

    backwardsandinheels:

    yahtzee63:

    micdotcom:

    15 badass Elizabeth Warren quotes prove she’s the icon Democrats have been waiting for

    Follow micdotcom 

    Ten years ago, in my previous life as a journalist, I interviewed Elizabeth Warren on multiple occasions. Not only was she extremely intelligent and well-informed on a broad range of topics, but she was also unfailingly polite, patient and gracious. I’ve been watching her political ascent with a mix of happiness and, frankly, surprise — I wasn’t sure anybody like this even got into politics anymore.

    Someone called her the next FDR in an article the other day and I think they’re right.

  • For some inexplicable reason I am completely wrecked today. Just made mince pies (and not-mince pies, for my best beloved) and the whole process has left me needing a nice long sit-down. Fortunately, I’ve now got mince pies to have with my sit-down.

    So that’s good.

    But the inexplicable exhaustion? Odd.

  • …and my afternoon’s viewing is sorted

    …and my afternoon’s viewing is sorted

    …and my afternoon’s viewing is sorted

    …and my afternoon’s viewing is sorted

    …and my afternoon’s viewing is sorted

    …and my afternoon’s viewing is sorted

  • Capped and Tiled

    So, our roof was, as was suspected, hideous. Although the original survey stated ‘The roof will need to be replaced at some point in the future’, a statement that I felt was both startlingly accurate and also startlingly useless (up there with ‘surveyors are unable to see through solid walls’), I’d hoped it’d make it until we sell up and dash off to another land.

    It had become apparent that this wasn’t going to happen last year, but the temporary repair held up until… well… late summer? So the scaffolding went up a bit over a week ago, and then last week, the roofer turned up and revealed horrors. Unfortunately I didn’t shimmy up the scaffold before they’d cleared the tiles off. Although I’d thought that the problems were mainly down to the valley rusting through (and cracking, it turns out), they actually went somewhat further. The valley was structured incorrectly, and the felt under the tiles was allowing water to run underneath it. Also, the felt at the bottom edge of the roof had rotted away almost completely…

    IMG_20141217_102220

    IMG_20141217_105100

    As we’d agreed – and he’d presumed – he completely stripped the bay and also stripped back into the main roof allowing him to put new felt and battens down on the bay and on the renewed sections of the main roof.

    IMG_20141217_102152

    IMG_20141217_134149

    Annoyingly, again, I didn’t take a shot that captured how far across they went (it was a few tiles into the main roof)… but I wasn’t going to spend the whole day up on the scaffold.

    We didn’t get the tiles replaced either, well, a few were replaced but most were just reused. One of the ridge tiles disintegrated, so that’s been replaced but all the replacements were reclaimed. We could have gone for new tiles but I didn’t really want to have a completely different looking bay – it suggests that you might need to do the rest of the roof soon. Or at least, that’s what it suggests to me.

    Anyhow, the new valleys look pretty damn good (a hell of a lot better than what was there), and apart from one tile that he didn’t replace that I’d’ve gone for changing (it’s delaminating a bit, if that’s the term for ceramic tiles disintegrating).

    IMG_20141220_124034

    And the ridge is looking a hell of a lot better:

    IMG_20141220_124113

    As a bonus whilst he was up there he capped off the two chimney stacks that we don’t use (front and rear bedroom)… Which means we’ve finally got them properly capped at the top and bottom (with a nice ventilator in them at the base). So whilst I’ve barely got off my arse, and progress inside has been non-existent, there has been actual progress on the house.

    Hopefully this year we can have a warm and dry Christmas (and the same to all of you lovely folks :) )

    Prezzies out and decorations on our dinky tree...

  • tinierpurplefishes:

    wilwheaton:

    Shh. Shhhhhh. Shhhhhhhhhh. Stop talking. Just stop talking, and go punch yourself in the face until you fall down.

    The only way to not sound like a racist after that lead-in is to go for a complete non-sequitur. “I’m not a racist, but I sure do like apples.”

  • I have to say, this is one of the more bizarre promotional items I’ve seen…. on Flickr.

    I have to say, this is one of the more bizarre promotional items I’ve seen….

  • neversaysdie:

    theguilteaparty:

    rhrealitycheck:

    Politicians pretend to value life while voting to take away funds for food from struggling families and children. 

    I’ve known people where their families didn’t have a lot of money, or even a little. Their school lunches where their only meals in the day. Think about that. They voted to take away their only meal.

    I have gone to a grocery store with my roommate and bought tons of pasta, peanut butter, bread, and ‘box meals’ the night before major school breaks, divided them into bags and boxes and then ‘casually’ asked kids throughout the day if they would mind taking them off my hands because I was going home for break and wanted to clean out my pantry.

    Because I know that my babies LITERALLY depend on school for steady meals. One of the richest countries in the goddamn world and I’m sending peanut butter home with my students so they won’t go to bed hungry over Christmas break.

    Fuck you, GOP.