Are we masochists ???

At the train station yesterday I picked up a copy of an anthology called Bump in the Night.

It has a JD Robb novella in it called Haunted in Death which I hadn't read and wanted to read.

On the train trip home last night I read the JD Robb story - loved it.

This afternoon I thought I would read more of the book.  Read Mary Blayney's Poppy's Coin and read most of Ruth Ryan Langan's The Passenger.

What a load of obviously setup, poorly written, formulaic crap I have never read !!!!  What because its Romance, the plot needs to be as obvious as Run Spot Run ???  Oooh man and woman are attracted, man and woman are thrown together in unlikely circumstances, man and woman try to hide/ignore their mounting lust for one another, man and woman discover it is love not lust and they are "made for each other" they are "soul spirits" and *then* they have hot sweaty sex that transcends all other life experiences and then we assume man and woman live happily ever after prepared to accept and love each other because of their differences and flaws rather than in spite of them.

Does anyone other than me find Romance depressing to read ????

Ok the sex is fun - I've *had* earth-shatteringly good sex !! I know that isn't an impossibility :)  But the Romance ????

If you have real romance in your life, you do not need to read about it.  If you do not, then surely reading this claptrap heightens our feelings of inadequacy because we haven't gone through somethimg similar; *we* haven't found our "one true love".

So are woman masochists?  Do we torture ouselves by reading such poorly written formulaic crap that heightens the emptiness in our lives for any good reason ????

I've never read straight Romance fiction before and frankly I'm going back to reading supernatural romance - at least I *know* they're fantasties that can never come true.

Alright I'm off to find some cheese to go with the whine .....

Mel's Its-still-Sunday-somewhere-in-the-World Sunday Update

I actually finished this piece around midnight last night but my computer was doing a large defrag so I let it be and went to bed.  Washed ironed and removed the first layer of Trub hair from the design this morning before uploading pictures.

As some of you know i have been very very frustrated so far this year, because I haven't had enough energy or time in the evenings after work to stitch.  I am finding it incredibly frustrating.  So last Thursday night (knowing I didn't have to go to work on Friday) I was determined to stitch. 

I couldn't face a complicated project like The Castle and I was far too tired to do the one over one for Gail's Butterfly so a bad case of startitis (encouraged by Denise) set in and hunted through some patterns.  I really really  really wanted to start Bunny Battle by Arelate Studio but I didn't have a large enough piece of fabric for it ...

While I was hunting through my fabrics, Silkweaver's Blue Dynasty Lugana fell (jumped?) out of the cupboard onto the floor.  Hmmm light blue light blue ... aha !!!

Thus Promenade was chosen and about 150 stitches of black was put in that night.  The rest was done over watching three afternoons of cricket and one evening of tennis.

So now I have my second finish for the year :)

Kay can't fault me over not working on The Castle - after she is the one who RAKed me with the Promenade chart :) :) :)  Tee hee hee !!!!



OH MY GOODNESS !!!!!  I just went to the Silkweaver site to get the link for the Blue Dynasty fabric and I saw in the 2007 Showcase small division - that I have two entries !!!!!  WOW !!!!!  I submitted these ages ago but hadn't seen them so I thought they had been rejected .....  oh wow !!!!!   Look at the last two entries on the Small Division.

Two Lumps - webcomic

One fo my favourite comic strips and I have had times like this.

Two Lumps

Hugs all

How do you tell if you are a true Aussie?

I listen to this guy on the radio in the afternoons if I/when I can :)  Happy Australia Day everybody :)

How do you tell if you are a true Aussie?
Richard Glover
January 26, 2008

TODAY you'll probably want to party, celebrating all the things that make us unique. But how do you tell if you are a true Aussie? Here are my 43 top ways to tell if you're a local.

You know you're Australian if …

1. You know the meaning of the word "girt".

2. You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.

3. You think it's normal to have a leader called Kevin.

4. You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse.

5. You've made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something illegal such as watering the garden.

6. You believe it is appropriate to put a rubber in your son's pencil case when he first attends school.

7. When you hear that an American "roots for his team" you wonder how often and with whom.

8. You understand that the phrase "a group of women wearing black thongs" refers to footwear and may be less alluring than it sounds.

9. You pronounce Melbourne as "Mel-bin".

10. You pronounce Penrith as "Pen-riff".

11. You believe the "l" in the word "Australia" is optional.

12. You can translate: "Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas."

13. You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.

14. You call your best friend "a total bastard" but someone you really, truly despise is just "a bit of a bastard".

15. You think "Woolloomooloo" is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.

16. You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.

17. You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.

18. You understand that "Wagga Wagga" can be abbreviated to "Wagga" but "Woy Woy" can't be called "Woy".

19. You believe that cooked-down axlegrease makes a good breakfast spread.

20. You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.

21. Hamburger. Beetroot. Of course.

22. You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels' song Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again.

23. You believe, as an article of faith, that the confectionary known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.

24. You still don't get why the "Labor" in "Australian Labor Party" is not spelt with a "u".

25. You wear ugh boots outside the house.

26. You believe, as an article of faith, that every important discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off to the Yanks for a pittance.

27. You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them.

28. Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language.

29. You understand that "excuse me" can sound rude, while "scuse me" is always polite.

30. You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose.

31. You understand that "you" has a plural and that it's "youse".

32. You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle.

33. Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket.

34. You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call "Anzac cookies".

35. You still think of Kylie as "that girl off Neighbours".

36. When returning home from overseas, you expect to be brutally strip-searched by Customs - just in case you're trying to sneak in fruit.

37. You believe the phrase "smart casual" refers to a pair of black tracky-daks, suitably laundered.

38. You understand that all train timetables are works of fiction.

39. When working on a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.

40. You get choked up with emotion by the first verse of the national anthem and then have trouble remembering the second.

41. You find yourself ignorant of nearly all the facts deemed essential in the government's new test for migrants.

42. You know, whatever the tourist books say, that no one says "cobber".

43. And you will immediately forward this list to other Australians, here and overseas, realising that only they will understand.

Happy Australia Day.

Puzzle of the Week

Ok a slightly easier one - or a more classical lateral thinking question anyway:

An explorer walks one mile due South, turns and walks one mile due East, turns again and walks one mile due North.  He finds himself back where he started.  He shoots a bear.  What colour is the bear?

Oh and in other news

I made some positive changes to my lifestyle last weekend after the bust-up in regards to diet, exercise, house cleaning etc etc.

Parts of my house are now very clean (and most importantly back to being the way *I* want things).  Paul and Dad both had a habit changing my kitchen around to suit them - so now its back to having the appliances *I* use out on the bench tops and the items *I* want to use back at the front of the cupboards in easy reach.

Probably something very psychological there :)

But the other good news is I have dropped 4 kilos (a little over 8 pounds) this week.

Yay for a great start - even if it was in crappy circumstances :) :)

Mel's Sunday Update

Well I got a *little* bit of stitching in this week - it was a very draining week - both professionally and personally so didn't get as much done as I wanted.

I did however stitch on the train for three days this week - working again on the secret present project.

I also re-started Gail's butterfly pattern. 

I honestly thought this pattern, 2 over 2 on 28 count was going to be too blocky - so I decided to rip out everything I had done and yesterday while watching the cricket I restarted doing one over one on the same Silkweaver 28ct opalescent fabric.

I have to stop here and say Karen (and all other people like you who willingly like doing one over one on such small counts) are nuts !!!

You are true masochists and fruitcakes !!!!

My eyesight is being affected by this project - how the heck can you do confetti stitching on one over one on 32ct for seven hours straight ?????????????????

I'm now even more in awe of your Lady and the Unicorn project !!

But none the less I'm going to persevere with my project just so I can say I've completed a one over one project and because I this particular chart will look great when I'm finished !!!

I might be blind- but it will look great :) :)

Now off to clean house and then grid up my Gemstone Dragons which needs to be arranged stitched and posted off before 1 Feb 2008.

Oh I also have put up pics of my wonderful RAKs this week.