The Images from the Chinese Earthquake

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are just chilling.  Whole villages destroyed in, what, 5 minutes? Less?

Having spent 7+ years in Northern California, I am no stranger to earthquakes.  Felt my first one when I was at work in the Silicon Valley.  I was on the phone with a client when my boss comes barreling into my cube “Its an earthquake!” she shouted, with something that sounded like glee.  I turned back to my call “Can I call you back? We’re having an earthquake.  Its my first one, I don’t want to miss it!”  By the time the sentence was out of my mouth, the earthquake was over.

I was also at the epicenter of one once, when I lived in Richmond California.  At the epicenter an earthquake is like this: – BANG!!!

They are scary.  Nothing stays still.  Not the ground, not the air, not the buildings, nothing.

So my thoughts go out to the people of China.  Who have lost their loved ones, their houses and their sense of security.

Uh oh

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So we have about 10 crates left to unpack. Please send good thoughts that in one of those crates are: –

  1. The plastic folder/envelope thingy that I keep the SMT’s receipts for expense reports in.
  2. DF&A’s notes from the Board Meeting for the Minutes.
  3. The catalogue for one of my office supply companies.

Number 1 could get me fired. Not really, but it will certainly get me yelled at!!

ETA: WHEW! Found them all!

So, On The Advice of My GP

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I have been varying the amount of Trazadone I take, to see how I sleep.

50 mg. Wake up in the middle of the night at least once, don’t get back to sleep for an hour or more.

100mg. Sleep straight through, but only about 7 hours (which is not enough sleep for me *at all*).

150mg. Sleep straight through, but only about 7 hours (which is not enough sleep for me *at all*).

So, since 100 and 150 is the same result, I’ll stay with 100 mg.

In other news, the following questions have been raised as we pack and unpack the office:

  1. Why do we have 100000000000 pieces of crockery? Very little of which match.
  2. Why do we have 100000000000 hanging file folders?
  3. Why do we have 100000000000 rubber bands, when we never use them?
  4. Note for Robyn: don’t purchase any more staples until you’re absolutely positively sure you are out.
  5. Therefore I know why we have 1000000000 staples.

The above list is full of a bit of hyperbole.  But not much.

Nice Hit Count Yesterday

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I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

In other news, after my post about Vaudeville the other day, I was talking to my dad. We were talking about my Great Great Uncle Jacob ‘Jack’ Leyser, aka Louis Lytton, who was an actor. He literally ran away from home and joined the theater.

I am trying to find out more information about him, but it is sparse. My Aunt is our family historian, so I sent the above link to my dad who sent it on to her (I didn’t have her email address…now I do!). She has all the old pictures and an advertising brochure from Uncle Jack: –

“Louis Lytton was guest lecturer and critic at Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, during its Shakespeare Festival in April, 1941. In recent tours he has appeared at the Universities of New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Indiana, Illinois, Montana, Ohio, Minnesota and other states. He has performed at senior high schools, clubs and educational centers throughout the United States. During a complete theatrical season recently he acted the role of the Duke of Venice in the celebrated Paul Robson production of “Othello.”
“Mr. Lytton is available for universities, colleges, high schools, little theatres, clubs, eductional units, etc.”
We are talking about sending some of the biographical information, like his birth name, to the IBDB.
So.Very.Neat.

Once More, With Feeling

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Okay, let’s try these pictures again, shall we?

The hallway after you first come through the front door of the flat: –

At the end of the hall there are some of my masks,  I have quite a few.

This is the hall bathroom, which is the first door on the left as you enter the flat: –

Nice, big, deep tub.  Shower too!

The next door on the left is our bedroom: –

If you look very carefully, just past the second set of pillows, you will see my dragon.  Her name is Isabella Francesca.  I got her a few weeks ago.  She is green and purple with silver fingernails.  I may take a closer picture of her later.

Another thing to note in the above picture:  There are, above our bed, two pictures that are exactly the same.  They are prints of a Georgia O’Keefe flower, framed identically.  I bought them at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  I framed them the same and posted one to Simon when I was in San Francisco and he was in Belfast.  Now they hang side by side.  (they hang a bit crooked because I used existing hooks…man are the walls *hard* in this place!)

The next picture is the view from the other side of the bed: –

That’s my dresser, which I use as a dressing table.  You can also see the very nice, big jewelry box that Simon bought me as a gift one year.  I love that thing.

And the other side of the room: –

Where the stereo lives!  That door straight ahead is to: –

Our ensuite bathroom.  I deliberately didn’t shoot the floor, but trust me, its blue. The shower is to the left and the toilet to the right.  That glass shelf with the towel rack Simon and I installed ourselves.

This is the view from the door of the Master Bedroom down the hall to the lounge: –

On the top of the shelves to the right you can see some of my puzzle globes.

The first door on the left is: –

The library.  All that bedding on the bed is new as of yesterday.  I was in Primark and found a duvet set, with sheet and pillow case, for about £7.  And a duvet for £4.  And its pink because I expect the only person who will ever stay in there will be my nieces.  And they love pink!

If you stand with your back to that bed and look to your left you will see: –

A set of bookcases.  Look, there is *actually* room for more books!  Those pictures at the top are of my nieces and nephews.

And the other side of the room: –

More bookcases! Hence being the library.  On top of those are my baseball caps.

The next door down the hall to the left is the guest bedroom: –

I have no idea why that duvet is so lumpy…anyway it is completely coincidental that the duvet cover actually matches the curtains.  We brought the duvet cover with us, the curtains were already there.  And that picture on the wall? Its a chicken.  That was already here!

Here is the view to the foot of the bed: –

Wait, you mean you and Simon have even *more* bookcases? Why yes, yes we do!

Next up is the view from the lounge door back to our bedroom: –

More masks on the right there.  And another shot of my globes!

And then you enter the lounge: –

This is what you see when you look left.  Well, Simon isn’t always there, but a lot of the time!

And when you look right: –

The dining area.  And a bit of the kitchen.

And here are our new wall units: –

Look! All my pretties are out!  And that curved shelf is my perfume bottle collection.

And finally, the kitchen: –

Isn’t it pretty?

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  Come back and see me sometime!!

MAKE UP! *POOF*

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You probably only get my title if you are my father (hi dad) or if you know anything about old Vaudeville Comedy.  Here’s the joke:

Funny Man:  I really miss my girl, we had a big fight.

Straight Man: You really should kiss and make up!

Funny Man: MAKE UP!! (hits the Other Man with a big powder puff of powder)

The old jokes are the best.

Anyway, I am in the process of changing Make Up (MAKE UP! POOF!) brands.  I usually use Benefit, which I really really like, but it is really really expensive and we are trying to watch our spending right now.  So I went to Boots during the week and picked out a few things to try. (Let me just note here, for the record, that I bought 2 powders and 3 foundations for about £25.00.  *One* item of Benefit is usually about £23.00).

And the winner? Mabeline (can you hear Simon singing their theme in the background there?) Minerals *rock*.  I have my new foundation brand.

In other shopping news, bought some stuff today.  Jeans, undies, PJs and some stuff for the house.  And had two really great moments.

The first was when I was in Boots (again, I swear I spend more money in that store…) and was wandering the make up (MAKE UP!! POOF!) aisle again.  I turned the corner and there was this older couple, probably late 50s, early 60s, standing by the cheaper brands of perfume.  And the husband kept grabbing the bottles and spraying his wife with them when she wasn’t looking.  She was giggling like a school girl.  I said “You have to watch him every minute, don’t you?” “Yes, yes I do.”

Then I was in New Look, looking for shirts (sidebar:  I am not living in Victoria London, why do all the ‘work’ tops this season have lace and flounce and stuff? YUCK!).  I was walking towards a woman with a baby buggy and two other school aged children.  She was off to one side, organizing her various packages.  A box she was trying to get into a bag flew out of her hands and she instantly grabbed it.  “Nice catch!” I said to her.  “Thanks,  you get used to that sort of thing when you have three kids!”

So bits of human contact in the middle of my shopping.  It was nice.

What is *not* nice are the self checkouts Tesco at City Centre has installed, rather than have enough cashiers on duty.  We made it through using one, but it was very annoying.

And, finally, Simon and I watched Stargate SG-1 Arc of the Truth last night.  And at one point Cam says to Sam “Do you want to sit in the big chair?” and she replies “Nope, but I’ve got your back!”  And Simon and I agreed that we could totally hear my sister in law, B, saying that to someone.  It was very B. (sidebar:  We’ve been calling her B for much longer than Faith called Buffy that.  Like the whole time she’s been married to my brother, which is somewhere around 16 years this June).