Friday, 10 August 2012

NBC Olympic bloopers

These are very funny, courtesy of View_From_Here.


1. Weightlifting commentator: "This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing."

2. Dressage commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father."

4. Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious."

5. Softball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again."

6. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: "Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew."

8. Soccer commentator: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

9. Tennis commentator: "One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them...Oh my God, what have I just said?"

Thank you, View.

Thursday, 9 August 2012

Cake!

We've been busy, busy busy! So I'll post a recipe my sister sent me yesterday. She said it's absolutely delicious.


French Yogurt Cake


Ingredients

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
3/4 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

***

8 1/2 x 4 1/4-inch loaf pan

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat pan with vegetable oil spray. Dust with flour; tap out excess.

Whisk 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, and kosher salt in a medium bowl.

Using your fingers, rub sugar with lemon zest in a large bowl until sugar is moist. Add yogurt, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract; whisk to blend. Fold in dry ingredients just to blend.

Pour batter into prepared pan; smooth top. Bake until top of cake is golden brown and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50–55 minutes.

Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto rack; let it cool completely.

The recipe came from Bon Appetit.

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

Two is a crowd

MD sent me a collection of unusual photos, including this one:


I did a bit of searching and found out the population has doubled recently.

Buford was founded in 1866, during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in Wyoming. At its peak, the town boasted a population of 2000.

Don Sammons moved to Buford in 1980 with his wife and son. In 1992, he purchased the town. His wife died in 1995, and his son moved away around 2007, making him Buford's only resident.

The town, consisting of a convenience store, gas station, and modular home on 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of land, was put up for sale after Sammons decided to move closer to his son.

The town was put up for auction on April 5, 2012, with the highest bid of $900,000 by two unidentified Vietnamese men.


I focused on just one of the pictures because I can't imagine living in a place like this by myself or with just one other person!

I'll publish the other photos another time. Thank you, MD.

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Excited about the garden

I'm late again! We have been incredibly busy today, but it turned out to be a very good day.

We picked up the rest of the concrete blocks, then our neighbour offered to go with us to collect the timber in his van, so all the materials for the steps are now on site.

It's been very hot today, so after all the shifting of heavy stuff we went to a "vide grenier," which is like a yard sale, but communal. People display their bits and bobs around the village centre, etc. We picked up seven different containers which we're going to use for planting some pretty things. They include a handwash basin, some conventional pots, an old colander and a chamber pot!

I took this picture and I'm so sorry it's out of focus, but you'll get the idea.



Monday, 6 August 2012

Quick joke

I'm late with today's post... We bought the concrete blocks and have been busy carrying them to the garden. All is well, no injured backs, but we have worked up an appetite and should sleep very soundly tonight.

Here's a short and sweet from Mrsgunka:

The wife left a note on the fridge:

"It's not working. Can't take it anymore!!! Gone to stay with my mother."


I opened the fridge, the light came on and the beer was cold....... "What the hell is she talking about?"


Thank you, MrsG.

Saturday, 4 August 2012

I couldn't resist!

View_From_Here sent me a blonde joke but I couldn't resist adapting it a little bit and making it about a famous brunette:

After having some trouble with passwords and secret questions, a certain former half-politician decided to follow password instructions to the letter. Better to be safe than sorry...

This is her new password:

"MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofyJuneau"

When asked by an adviser why she had such a long password, she rolled her eyes and said:

"I know, it's unflippingbelievable! It has to be at least 8 characters and include at least one capital. Sheeesh..."


Thank you for the inspiration, View.

Friday, 3 August 2012

No giggling!


We haven't had a joke in a while. This one was sent to me by Mrsgunka:

A nurse got a new job at a new hospital. Her boss thought that she knew everything about the job, except for ONE THING:

"Never laugh at a patient, no matter what."

"Of course I won't laugh," the nurse said. "I'm a professional nurse. In over twenty years I've never laughed at a patient."

Three days later, the hospital received a new patient, who was assigned to this new nurse.

"I have a problem with my sexual organs," the man said.

"Okay, just drop your trousers for me," the nurse responded.

He proceeded to drop his trousers, revealing the tiniest penis the nurse had ever seen. Length and width, it couldn't have been bigger than an AAA battery.

Unable to control herself, the nurse started giggling, then almost fell to the floor laughing. A few minutes later she was able to regain her composure.


"I'm so sorry," said the nurse. "I don't know what came over me. On my honor as a nurse and a lady, I promise it won't happen again. Now tell me, what seems to be the problem?"

"It's swollen," he replied.

Thank you, MrsG.

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Very cheerful

In a new craze which is sweeping America, joggers are covered in paint as they attempt to complete a 5km run.


It looks lovely! It also looks remarkably like Holi, in India:


Wednesday, 1 August 2012

A pair of duhs need help...

I'm sorry today's post is so late. We've been looking into the cheapest possible way to make a staircase for the garden.


Perhaps somebody could help? The height from the ground to the top is around 1.3m (just over 50 inches). The width is around 6ft 3 in. It seems the cheapest option is to make something out of timber.

We're stumped!

Monday, 30 July 2012

Cat emotions

The use of emoticons can be traced back to the 19th century, and they were commonly used in casual and humorous writing. Typographical emoticons were published in 1881 by the U.S. satirical magazine Puck.

Here's a table of some popular emoticons, accompanied by the corresponding facial expressions.

Catmoticons?




Sunday, 29 July 2012

Lovely to see honest, sporting behaviour



I was so engrossed watching the women cyclists and spotting familiar sites that I neglected to prepare a post...

Well done Netherlands, Britain and Russia. Congratulations to all the competitors for taking part in such a long ride (on some lovely roads) and being so gracious at the finishing line.

Friday, 27 July 2012

Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Easy entertainment

View_From_Here shared this funny picture:

Thank you, View.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

The typewriter

Here's another gem from Mrsgunka:



Thank you, MrsG.

Monday, 23 July 2012

Beauty in flight

Mrsgunka shared these great pictures:





Thank you, Mrsgunka. Peacocks are very beautiful creatures, but this was the first time I've seen them flying.

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Busy, busy, busy

I don't have time to select anything for today's post. I've spent the day making tarts for an European Soiree tonight. We do it every year and the way the tasks were assigned to each group, the Brits are in charge of desserts on this occasion (last year we did the salads).

I made four strawberry, raspberry and blueberry tarts. They look good and I hope they taste ok. I'm proud of my crème pâtissière, the best I've produced to date.

I have to get ready and there's a queue for the shower, so I'd better hurry up!