Across and Inside my Universe

This n' That 6/30/12

Upon looking through a family Scottish cookbook, my daughter was reading out loud about Haggis.  I asked her, what does it say about it?  She said, "Haggis is a mixture of . . .EWWWWW!" and she backed away, as we all cracked up laughing for the next 5 minutes.

Apparently Haggis is a mixture of ewww.  I'd agree with that!

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After more than a week of no progress on the bedroom cleanout/organize project, I've made a leap or two forward by getting the area in front of the closet cleaned out.  SIX bags of stuff to go to the thrift store (toys, clothes, fabric) and four bags of garbage.  How did all that stuff fit there?  There'll actually be another bag for the thrift store after we finish washing the rest of the clothes to donate.

Progress is great!  Makes me feel good.

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We're trying to plan our Olympic meal/party for the opening ceremonies coming up.  We usually do a meal of a variety of appetizers, but this time we want British stuff, for at least part of it.  Fish and chips are the first thing on my daughter's list, and that sounds great to me too.

When I mention "spotted dick" to her, she screws up her face, says "ewww", and swiftly goes elsewhere.  I think she thinks I'm saying something different than what I think I'm saying.  It's a spongy sort of cake fingerish sort of thing, with currants in it I think for the spots.  So it's a wierd variation of a Twinkie, basically.

I just say it to tease her, though! 

I need some ideas for London food!  Welsh Rarebit is cheese on toast/bread.  I think.  I always thought it was a roasted rabbit when I was little.

See, I have Scottish, Britsh, Welsh, and maybe some Irish heritage too.  My maiden name is from a Welsh ancestor; means stone mason.  Which, funnily enough, my ancestors were, all the way down to my grandfather.

Oh, my married name, tradition has it, came from Ireland with a Mc in front of it.  Still not the easiest name to have, but I guess it makes sense.  So there's me some Irish (and Dutch Royalty too; if you go to St. Thomas or St. Croix, there's a Rum/sugar plantation and castle that's ours.  I mean, our Dutch Royal ancestors.)

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My therapist is back!  It was hard to prioritize what to talk about, and in fact it wasn't until a day after therapy this week that I remembered some of the important stuff I'd been going to talk about, and forgot.  I did pretty well though with what I did remember.

I'd been getting rather piled on by a variety of stuff, including one SIL who says I have a heart of gold but she doesn't want to be friends with me.  That was painful, but we're hammering out how we're going to relate to each other in the future. 

Part of me wonders, however, if I have a heart of gold, what's so bad about me that it drowns out the heart of gold?  But that's personalising; her choice is about her and what she wants in her life, and doesn't want.  It's hard to not take that personally, though.  It's sort of freeing to not be stuck in hurt at why she seemed to not give a fig about me; I can move on, now.

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A pet peeve of mine about blogs with alot of pictures, especially food and craft blogs; don't take 6 pictures from a zillion angles of your dish, cookie, necklace, scarf, whatever and post them ALL.  Really, one (or at most, 2, if one is a closeup or something) will do.  I know you're in love with how it turned out, and how well it photographed, but get over it.  Please.

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I tried a macaroni and cheese in a mug recipe that's popular on Pinterest.

Don't do it.  It sucks.

However, an Eggnog Pound Cake recipe I tried from Pinterest last Christmas, is now my preferred way to consume egg nog.  8^D 

Man, now I want egg nog, and it'll be months and months before it's available!

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Quote from Utah Governor yesterday, in regards to all the people rubber-necking the wildfires up by Herriman (and elsewhere in the state, like, 360,000 acres) and who are getting in the way of fire people getting to the fires:  "You can't outlaw stupid!"

You can possibly try, but you'll never get rid of it.

"Take the Money and Run"

This newish TV show is interesting . . . I'm finding tonight's episode much more interesting than that parts of the premier episode, but maybe it's because the two gay mens' reactions to lockup (cement block walls, no windows etc.) is so different. I'm not enjoying watching distress, but they DId know what they were signing up for. What I find interesting is what's going on with them, psychologically.

During the first hour they had to hide the briefcase full of $100k, the stuff they did to decoy the cops' later investigations, some of it was quite clever, one thing I thought, oh there's no way that's going to fool the cops, but it is! And stuff.

The one gay partner thought his partner, the opera singer, wouldn't handle lockup very well, being claustrophobic and all. Part of me wonders if they put that on their application for the show, to make him seem more vulnerable to the cops . . . because this opera singer guy is making ME think sometimes that he's not doing so good, and then later, when he reveals to the camera for the show that won't get shown to the cops, that he's playing them, well, he's an awfully good actor! Then again, opera singers act . . . have the cops forgotten this? One is on to him a little the other isn't, but during one bold-faced lie to the male interrogator the cop responds with, "That's the most honest answer I've heard in 20 hours! If it's a lie, it's a damn good one!"

That's the first point I thought, either the cop is an idiot, the guy is a superb actor, OR the cop thinks it's a lie but doesn't want the "perp" to know he knows it . . . Plus, nothing like a little flattery to make the guy think he's getting away with it, hoping he'll get overconfident. . .

I still have the last 5-10 mins of the show to go, so I don't know who's going to win the $100k, cops or the gay couple, but I suspect it's the latter. Just not enough time for the cops to suss out what happened, with the dodges and decoys the two men put in place.

The show also has the men describe what's going on with them psychologically/emotionally as it shows them pacing their cells, and it's very interesting. I imagine for some people, there comes a point where they want out so bad they give up the money's location in order to get out a day or half a day sooner.

I don't know if it's psychologically such a good idea to put yourself through the traumatizing experience of arrest, detention, interrogation, but then they don't have to sign up for the show, either. And of course, it's not an arrest that will be on your record because it's not a real arrest. It just feels all TOO real once they're in there, though, much more so than they could have imagined.

It's also interesting to see the psychological/manipulation techniques the cops use as they interrogate the "perps". The female interrogator actually got to feeling really guilty after her first interview with the opera singer.