If this is a coincidence it's one of the spooky kind.

Well lets see shall we. We finally get some Sun on Sunday and it hasn't rained since. So that's three day with no rain but lots of sun. In fact so much Sun I had to frantically search for my sunglasses. So has summer actually arrived? But one thing to note is that the Sun started on Sunday, the same day Rhianna and that gosh darned annoying song Umbrella has finally been knocked off number one! Rhianna gets to number one we start gets lots of rain and bad weather. ten weeks later she's knocked off number 1 and we get lots of sun. Coincidence??

Well the weekend was fun. Grumpy was out on Saturday so it left muggins here to do the shopping. I'd forgot the difference in bootsize between mine and grumpys car, so a lot of the shopping had to go on the backseat. I also had to go and get my haircut because if I'd left it much longer I would have looked like Chewbacca although I probably wouldn't have made as much sense as chewy does :-) I thought I was going to have a problem as the usual place I go to was so jammed packed people were queuing out the door (literally!) Although I did then notice that next to the comic book store in Loughborough ( yes there's a comic book store in Loughborough and I go there.See I'm not exaggerating when I call myself uber geek :-) there is another barbers which didn't have a queue at all. And the people in there were actually a lot nicer and talkative compared to the other place who simply seem more interested in how quickly they can shear your hair and shove you out the door. So I might go back there again. ( btw the comic book shop does not a stereotypical comic book guy ala Simpson's. before anyone asks. Although he is American)

After getting the shopping home and doing what I mostly do at a weekend (nothing constructive :-) for a large chunk of the afternoon, I got a call from Engineseer ( who displayed some spookily like psychic powers earlier in the day, I'll explain some other time) and we headed off to see Transformers the movie. Which is a lot better then some people have made out. It's pitched perfectly, it's isn't meant to be a thought provoking film like V for vendetta, it's about giant robots fighting each other! It was also very cool to hear the same guy from the original cartoon voicing optimus prime. All in all it was a perfect geeky film. The only downside was as we went to the vue there was nearly half a hour of adverts before the film started!

For any "lurkers" who might be hanging around, they know who they are. The YSA are planning to take advantage of the reel cinemas Wednesday offer and go and see the Simpsons movie tomorrow. Text Engineseer for more details!

We had no YSA teacher on Sunday. Not sure where Sister F was. So we ended up sneaking into the back of one of the adult Sunday School classes. We were a bit thin on the ground YSA wise. Cordeila was off well somewhere near the Stake boundaries. I can never remember if it's M Branch of P Ward she's going to these days.

It was quite amusing after church however. One of Cordeilas nieces came up to Engineseer to announce that " Cordeilas not here today" Engineseer replied " I know that but can't I still talk to you anyway" The prompt response " No", cue long pause from Engineseer as he tried to think of something to say.

anyway, I think this post is approaching critical mass so I guess I leave it there.

Later!

Highlight at own risk

If you haven't read the final Harry potter book highlight this post to read it at your own risk! I found on a news site this morning a list of answers J K Rowling gave to questions about what happened to the characters after 'school' and before the epilogue.

You have been warned!




Rowling said the world was a sunnier, happier place after the seventh book and the death of Voldemort.

Harry Potter, who always voiced a desire to become an Auror, or someone who fights dark wizards, was named head of the Auror Department under the new wizarding government headed by his friend and ally, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

His wife, Ginny Weasley, stuck with her athletic career, playing for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female Quidditch team. Eventually, Ginny left the team to raise their three children --James, Albus and Lily -- while writing as the senior Quidditch correspondent for the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet.

Harry's best friend Ron Weasley joined his brother, George, as a partner at their successful joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Hermione Granger, Ron's wife and the third person of the series' dark wizard fighting trio, furthered the rights of subjugated creatures, such as house elves, in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before joining the magical law enforcement squad. The couple had two children -- Rose and Hugo.

Luna Lovegood, Harry's airily distracted friend with a love for imaginaryanimals who joins the fight against Voldemort in the Order of the Phoenix, becomes a famous wizarding naturalist who eventually marries the grandson of Newt Scamander, author of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

And what Muggle, or non-wizard, song would have been played at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, the most brilliant and talented wizard the world had ever known?
"Surely 'I Did It My Way' by Frank Sinatra," Rowling told her fans, referring to the song "My Way," written by Paul Anka but popularized by Sinatra, among other singers.

There's just this continuing sense of Deja vu

Well guess what happened for most of today? I'm sure you'll never guess? Well maybe you might. It's raining. Again!!! I mean where is it all coming from? I'll tell you one thing I've never been more glad of the fact that geektown is on high ground. I don't think I would be able to hack having a flooded house like all those people down south.

It was raining all day at work. Just rain, rain, rain and ever more flipping rain. This is seriously getting very depressing. It is honestly a real struggle to remember that is nearly the beginning of August! It doesn't help when we keep hearing reports about Europe being in a grip of heatwave and the USA having trouble with dry conditions and forest fires etc. Honestly it's not like we're intentionally hogging the rain here. If there was anyway to share it around we would, and they could take it with our blessing!

Well I had a good chance to demonstrate that the brakes on my car are all sorted as thanks to a absolute muppet coming the other way . Theres this hill on the way to work which has a blind corner and blind summit all in one! I'm coming down the hill and a muppet coming the other way decides to overtake a lorry so comes right into my lane coming up the hill as I'm coming down. So just to recap this guy is overtaking going uphill and on a blind summit. Having no choice whatsover I had to slam the brakes on a do a emergency stop. This guy didn't slow down once and managed to miss me by about half a foot. To then cap it off the person behind me then starts gesturing at me for having to stop as he had to slam on his brakes as well. Which was his own fault as he was faaarrrr to close to me. But driving so close to the car in front of you that your almost on top of it does seem to be the norm around Nottingham.

But that wasn't the end of my car adventures for the day. Oh no. I was crossing the car park to get to the car when I noticed the Car seemed to be at a odd angle. I blinked a little wondering if it was a optical illusion but it wasn't. by the time I got to the car I could see the awful truth. My front left tire was oh so very very flat. After a couple of seconds closer inspection I found the culprit. A screw of all things! however the main problem facing me was that I have never changed a tire before so I wasn't sure what to do. Fortuantely one of my work colleagues, agreed to help change the tire and show me what to do. So I was only home half an hour later then usual. On the plus side I get to use grumpys car tomorrow as he's taking mine to go and get a new tire.

later!

A geeky odyssey

Well all I can wonder right now is how things would have gone if there had been any flooding round here. and what am I referring to I hear some of you ask? Well the trip home from work last night which on a "clear run" takes 25 minutes turned into a mammoth 1 Hour 20 minutes odyssey! Apparently there was a accident on a motorway junction which caused the traffic to back up all the way into Nottingham which is at least 4 or 5 miles!

By the time I was able to reach a point where I could get off the main road and take a shortcut across country, low and behold I run into the tailback from another accident, which means I had to take a left turn instead of the right for the shortcut and ended up going on a magical mystery tour of the Nottingham countryside while I tried to figure out where I was ! I have to admit that I finally got back to geektown more through luck then judgment! But on the plus side I did see a lot of the countryside I’ve never seen before. For example I did discover that there is a lorry depot and gypsum plant that I never knew existed. Not very interesting I know but it just goes to show how you can live in a area for a long time and still not be aware of stuff.

The air con was still broken at work today but fortunately they finally managed to fix it by late afternoon. In a effort to ward off the soaring temperatures of yesterday they turned off two thirds of the lights. Which meant we were sitting in a semi darkness for most of the day. These efforts were successful and it wasn't as hot as yesterday. But it was still very hot!! It was probably one of the only times that would could say that at the height of (supposedly) summer we had to go outside to cool off rather then the other way around :-)

Later!

Seriously now. Who's still buying this song!

Well Rhianna has now been at number 1 for TEN WEEKS! With that now unbelievably annoying Song Umbrella. I mean really who is still buying the stupid song anyway? and is it still a coincidence that she's at number one with that song and it's still raining! The South of England is supposed to get another inch of rain today. Their already evacuating oxford as their expecting the surge from Friday's rain to reach their today and burst the rivers banks. We've got towns that now look like islands in their own right, and know 1000s of people have lost power because the floodwaters have taken out a substation. Which is all bad enough, but now 10s of 1000s of people have had their water cut off because the floodwaters have taken out a water treatment plant. Admittedly although it isn't funny most peoples first reaction on hearing that story is to laugh a little bit. I mean after all It does seem funny and a contradiction in terms that it seems like a large chunk of the country is underwater and their water supply is cut off? I hope the Driver clan is doing okay and they don't get hit again.

We also had a problem at work today. The AC broke down. Now Admittedly in this weather it shouldn't be that much of a problem. But! and this is a big one. Our office building has NO windows that can open, and has several sealed (to prevent drafts) security doors that you need passes to get through, throw in lots of lights, peoples, a whole lot of servers downstairs, and computers, printers and photocopiers that are all on and you will be surprised at how quickly the place heats up. As someone dubbed this place it's " a almost totally sealed box!". Although I'm sure Engineseer and Blackwidow(see no space again, I can learn ) would consider the temperature positively freezing when compared to the kitchens at work for them. There was a definite slow down as the temperature started to build. It looked like a office of clockwork toys sloowwiinnggg ddooowwwwnnnnn.

My thumb has been seriously hurting all day. I was trying to tidy up the dining room last night and my hand slipped. Unfortunately I then discovered that one of the chair legs had a rather large 'splinter' of wood on one leg and my hand hit it, at just the right angle for this splinter to jam right under my thumbnail good and proper. Of course my first response was " Oh gosh darn and blast it. That splinter has jammed under my thumbnail good and proper and my thumb now hurts somewhat " (editors disclaimer : actually words uttered at time of injury may have varied from those shown). Fortunately the splinter was too big to get wedged in there. Downside it caused a huge cut under the nail so now my thumb is just very, very sore. See this is what I get for cleaning up after myself.

All I can say is, thank goodness for ibuprofen.


later!

well at least theres been a small amount of sunshine

Well I'm currently looking out of our "office" window here at home and I can actually see small amounts of blue sky. Blue sky!!! Anyone would think it was summer or sumthing.

Mind you I have heard that the Driver Clan House has been flooded. That's all I've heard so far. Grumpy said that it might not be too bad all he got in a text from tapdance was that they had been flooded. It might not be that deep even. Still lots of water inside the house that shouldn't be there is never a good thing regardless of how deep the water is!

The cinema was good on Wednesday. Banana even came. Which was really nice as we don't see a lot of her anymore. Strangly enough one of the conversation topics to come up was about Nemesis's blog and her post about the pool party. Cue much shaking of heads at the stupidness of the USA male YSA. They should make the most of the opportunities given them. They really should. ( see Nemesis you may be gone from the ward but your certainly not forgotten :-)

Church today, was well it kept up the standard for being a little bit strange since the switch. They had somebody confirmed to the priesthood actually in the sacrement meeting, which has never happened before. Then we had to do the "raising of hands" to welcome a new family into the ward (Eldar F's eldest son R) which we've also never done before. In between Sunday school and Priesthood we had a guy come into the chapel convinced it was a high school, asking where the wedding was. After only telling him SIX times he realised he was in the wrong building and that there was no wedding there.

Finally in priesthood can you guess what happened? I think ya can. Yes the EQ Pres stood up and again asked us to make sure we did our hometeaching this month. But I'm STILL waiting for a new list and partner. But maybe I can still claim 100%. I've done exactly what I've been given to do. Mind you we haven't had a hometeaching visit in months. So it looks like we haven't been assigned to someone yet. I'm sure we must have been reassigned from Bro P as I can't see him not doing his hometeaching. Engineseer and BlackWidow (see no space, he told me off for putting a space last time) weren't there. Apparently there were sleeping due to exhaustion. I don't know if I want to ask what they've been doing to give themselves exhaustion :-)

oh in case anyone did wonder. I have finished the last Harry potter book. Six hours it took to finish ( I must be slowing down in my old age)



later!

Wanted Guest bloggers!

Well as I'm closing in on 200 posts ( my how the time flies) I've decided to try something to celebrate. Now this might very well go horrifically wrong but at least I gave it a bash.

Basically I am looking for a series of guest bloggers for the week when I hit 200 posts ( so ideally 6 or 7 people) to write their own blog posts(which can be about anything they want, within reason mind you) which I'll post for them. Now admitally there is another reason for iniviting the guest bloggers. I'm hoping they'll tell other people their doing this and those people will come and visit. and keep coming back to visit and leave comments. Okay a somewhat silly hope I know but I've got to try something :-)

So if any of you are interested please let me know as soon as possible. By either email, text, or leaving a comment and I'll get back in touch with you.

later!

Badgers, Squirrels and now Monkeys! What's going on.

What is it with animals at the moment? Apparently Indian police are searching for a monkey accused of stealing a pair of glasses from a South Korean tourist. A tourist was visiting the country when he says the monkey jumped through an open window in his hotel room and made off with his reading glasses. A police spokesman said. "It is difficult to trace the monkey but I am trying my best to locate the rogue," he then admitted that, if the thief were found, he could not be brought to justice under current laws, which do not cover wild monkeys So does that mean it covers tame monkeys then?

Well we've had a second day with some sunshine. Shock! Horror! How Spanish inquistionally unexpected :-) You know if this was to keep going we might start to think that it's summer or something. Mind you I did get stuck in a hailstorm of all things on the way home yesterday. And it wasn't a gentle one either. The hail was 'huge' and coming down very, very fast. I did start to worry that the car was going to sustain some damage at one point it was that heavy!

After Reading Nemesis's latest blog post, I was forced to shake my head in puzzlement and pity for the guys in the USA. As Nemesis so aptly puts it

"Went to a pool party on Monday night. The host and most of the invited males stayed upstairs for most of the night while all the young, hot, bathing-suit-wearing girls cavorted in the pool and hot tub alone. This is possibly why the species is going to die out."

Is it just like that old saying. Familiarity breeds contempt? The guys are just so used to pool parties over their not bothered anymore? Maybe this would be a easy problem to fix if the English guys in the YSA could swap places with the guys in the USA. They could be over head and dazzle all of the girls with their accents and we could head over there and dazzle the girls with our accents and smooth English gentlemanly ways. We would also be smart enough to make the most of the opportunities given to us as well. I.e, we wouldn't stay upstairs while the girls downstairs in the pool and hot tub. Okay admitally that doesn't sound very gentlemanly but hey we're Mormons not Monks. As that old saying goes as a man your allowed to look one, it's if you look twice your not a missionary. I don't know what happens if you look three times. Burst into a ball of flames perhaps?

Maybe we should suggest that one of the activities at this years YSA convention is a pool party. See how fast the organizers heads explode, he, he, he, he, he.

We should be off to the cinema this evening. Although I don't know that for definite as my phones battery decided to choose a very, very bad time to die out. I just hope if Engineseer has texted me he doesn't need a urgent reply!

It should be a fun night, assuming I don't run into jinx again.

anyway,

Later!

Are the animals are up to something

Firstly it was the Badgers. There were rumors/claims that Man eating badgers were roaming the countryside outside of Basra in Iraqi. Some people were claiming that British forces had released them.

Now the squirrels seem to be getting in on the act. I've just seen this a news website and it seems to be totally serious. I am not making this up!
" Iran has claimed that 14 squirrels found near the nation's borders were spies. The Iranian The state-sponsored news agency IRNA claimed that "In recent weeks, intelligence operatives have arrested 14 squirrels within Iran's borders. The squirrels were carrying spy gear of foreign agencies, and were stopped before they could act, thanks to the alertness of our intelligence services."

Right so that makes Man eating badgers and Spying squirrels so far. What's coming next? Commando camels? Talking dolphins? No wait, the Simpson already did that one.

Any how. Asda are really not having a good day, nor anyone who has reserved/was going to buy a copy of the last Harry potter book from them. The publishers have just cancelled their order for half a million copies. It's not totally clear why as there's a lot of " He said, She said" going on between the shop and the publisher right now, but I get the feeling there might be a mad scramble today as people try to reserve copies elsewhere. I hope mechancius has ordered any copies for his 'brood' online already and wasn't going to go to Asda.

Also according to the news we're due at least two more weeks of rain, before we get any decent sunshine. Their also forecasting lots of thunderstorms and Friday is supposed to be especially bad. We're supposed to have some today as a matter of fact and looking out the window right now I can well believe it from the look of that sky!

The YSA will be off to the cinema again tomorrow. To reel obviously as it is only £3 on a Wednesday. We're going to watch Die Hard 4.0, which apparently has a different name in the states, don't ask me why . When Engineseer mentioned it on Sunday, Cordeilas new BF said " Doesn't that have swearing and violence in?" " Yes " Was engineseers simple reply, which in turn lead to a few moments of silence as no one was quite sure what to say :-) I'll speak to Engineseer in a effort to only use one car this week, so we don't get a telling off from Cordeila again! At least for not being organised again, I don't know if we'll get a telling off for being too geeky.

Again.

Well if I remember correctly all of the Engineseer household we're doing the close at Mc D's last night. I guess I should have asked tapdance to check to see if there was a giant hole where the restuarant used to stand!

anyway,

Later !

Maybe the book wasn’t so wrong after all.

Well I was looking out the window about half an hour ago and it reminded me of a book. Where it started to snow and just didn’t stop. Eventually the whole world was buried in snow and everything’s generally going very badly as it tends to do in post apocalyptic novels . Well what reminded me of this book? Well it was raining. Again!!! This is ridiculous it’s mid July and we’ve only had one really nice day and that was yesterday! Well I know it could be worse and we could be in a heat wave, with hose pipe bans and all that stuff, but it would be nice to get at least a few nice days.

Well Church was….interesting. There was a distinct lack of people as the summer(ha, ha, ha) holidays have started a few families were missing. I think the weather is starting to get to some people, the opening hymn sounded like it was being sung by a load of people whose batteries were almost exhausted. You know what I mean when the music startsss ggooiinng vvvery slllooowwllyy. Sunday school was even more interesting. It was about the atonement and the teacher, well lets just say she came up with a novel use for tomato sauce as a teaching aid :-)

Priesthood well that started off really funny, the EQ president announced that as it was the summer holidays that we should all go and visit our families as soon as possible this month before they go away. He’s obviously forgotten that a third of the quorum are still waiting on lists which he did say should have been ready two weeks ago! Well on the plus side myself and Engineseer can still claim 100%. We’ve done exactly what we’ve been given. Which is nothing. If nothings said next week, I think I might so and give the presidency a subtle nudge. It’s been nearly four months know we’ve been waiting for the lists to be confirmed and updated.

The YSA board has been updated (finally), by Cordelia. So it doesn’t have a ton of outdated information on it anymore. Ya!!! That does remind me however, Smooth was back for a visit. Abet briefly. He did mention that he had seven dates lined up for when he got back to the states with seven different girls. Now that’s just greedy. My only hope is that they all find out he’s dating the others and he ends up with none. Petty I know, but it would still be funny and would make my week.

I found this in a news article the other day;

“To the men who are reading this article: There are a lot of women who are very unhappy with you. Really. I know because as a dating coach, I hear women tell me all the time in the most exasperated tone: “How come I never meet a nice, normal guy? Why do I only get approached by creeps?” You’ve probably heard women say this yourself. So how would you respond to them?I’m guessing it’s something like: “Nice guys are afraid of rejection, don’t want to bother you when you’re out, and are generally more concerned with the consequences of being embarrassed than with actually meeting you.” It may be true, but, as truth goes, it’s a pretty sad state of affairs. What’s easy to forget is that most women want to be approached by you. By not approaching, you’re letting them down and allowing the creeps to take their shot. Follow these lessons and the next time you’re out, maybe you’ll prove that nice guys don’t finish last.”

Who knows, Maybe this guy has a point?

Later!

Coincidence?

That song by Rhianna " Umbrella" which was okay the first time I heard it, but it's now really, really, really, really, really, etc annoying, has been at number 1 in the charts for eight weeks. Since then it more or less hasn't stopped raining. Coincidence or sinister plot? You decide.

Yes after a couple of days where our hopes were raised that we might actually be getting a summer it's raining, again! In fact it's been raining all day so our car park is half flooded at the moment. I get the feeling that I'm going to get very, very wet feet on the war back to the car. I should have known the weather was trying to lull us into a false sense of security!

Oh at work apparently we no longer work in a office building. It's been rechristened a 'Death fortress". Please don't ask. Not that we get to stay in our death fortress much longer. The powers that be have decided we're moving buildings, which means I'm going to have to do a long overdue clear out of my desk area to get rid of the junk. I have no idea what I'm going to find! Place your bets now!

Engineseer Brother 1 now has his own codename and before anyone has a go at me I would like to stress that this is his own choosing as it's the name he uses on the internet. So Brother 1 is now " Black Widow". I am choosing to assume he is well aware of what a black widow is and the connotations behind the name.

The YSA went to the cinema on Wednesday night. And it wasn't the vue. * Gasp! Shock! etc, etc*. We've actually discovered that it's only £3 a ticket at the Reel in Loughborough on a Wednesday. Which admitally means that's only useful during the summer when institute isn't on but considering the weather at the moment it's not like we're going to be do much outside. Also it does mean we can go to the cinema twice at the reel for the cost of going to vue once!

Anyway I was waiting for the others to turn up when I realized Jinx of all people was coming down the street towards the cinema. After a initial moment of outright panic as I really wasn't in the mood to face a awkward conversation, I was provided with a escape option of being able to walk away from the cinema without her seeing me as with their impeccable sense of timing Engineseer and Cordeila appeared. Although both Engineseer and I got a telling off for coming in separate cars. Which admitally she did have a point about how it was a bit silly.

The P's were coming across from Leicester so they missed the start of the film, which was shrek 3 by the way. It was quite good, gratifyingly short as well, in the days of three hour long blockbusters. Although both cordelia and I started dancing in our seats to the song at the end. Engineseer just continued to look at the screen with a look on his face which seemed to say " Don't look at me, I'm not with them :-)"

Well after the movie ended we had half a hour to 'kill' as we waited for the P's they were in the next showing of the film. So we decided we would do something constructive and useful. Yes we decided to go an annoy black widow as he was working in Mc D's. The look on his face as we walked in was interesting. I'm sure he felt his day was complete
" Here they come to wreck the day!"
The P's arrived after about half a hour and we then continued to hang around, chat and generally bug Black widow for another half a hour after that. ( that's where the picture of cordelia came from in case anyone was wondering).

Well it's Friday again. Nothing YSA tonight. Engineseer is working, I don't know what Cordelias up to, Social, well she's probably doing her own thing as she has been for the past few weeks.Oh well, maybe next week.

later!

Look Cordeilas made some new friends

(picture taken using Engineseer's phone,)

all suggestions for captions welcome :-)

okay maybe this is the eighth sign

Prepare yourselves for a shock. My car has passed it's MOT first time. Yes, yes you heard that correctly a car of mine managed to pass it's MOT first time.

Talking of milestones another one occurred on Saturday. For the first time in a very looonnngggg time we actually had a day without rain. and even better then that we actually had some sun. Amazing, anyone would think it was supposed to be summer.
Anyway, church on Sunday was, well it still feels odd to have everything the 'otherway round" as it were. They also still haven't sorted out the home teaching assignments. Which is still annoying but does mean for those of us who haven't had any we can still claim 100%. We've been given nothing and so we've done exactly what we've been given. Nothing:-) I also managed to get my form signed for convention signed by the Bishop. So just got to send the form off and everything's groovy there. I do hope some more people from Leicester start signed up soon though, not too keen on the thought of going on my own! It's probably going to be bad enough with people staring anyway. Step right up folks, Look it everyone it's one of those dangers to society, a YSA over 25 whose not married! Come see this very rare creature folks

Grumpys latest 'thing' at the moment is that he is obsessing over someone saying that he has a 'wacky sense of humour'. He just won't leave it aloonnneee!! Every so often, " Wacky sense of humour, I don't have a wacky sense of humour do I" . I'm assuming or at least hoping these are rhetorical statements because I don't wanna touch this one with a 10 foot barge pole. Mind you I did manage to confuse him greatly last night. He looked over my shoulder whilst I was playing civilization 3, and spent the next five minutes trying to figure out how the roman empire still existed in 1715AD complete with tanks and jet fighters! He finally gave up realizing there's something's where it's better just not to ask!

The YSA are supposed to be going to the cinema tonight. I'm still waiting on the details from Engineseer though. But I'm sure it all in hand. I hope :-)

I was starting to wonder if there is a male equivalent of the term spinster. Because if there is I'm starting to feel a bit like one at the moment. Especially with two couples being there in the YSA class on Sunday. Someone did say maybe you'll meet a girl whose in GW. That would be brilliant if it did happen but girls who are into GW are rare enough in the "outside world" the odds of actually finding a girl into GW inside the church are unfortunately pretty remote. If there was, it would probably lead to a fight to the death between me, engineseer and any other single male ysa whose into GW complete with 'spock versus Kirk" music
" De, de, de de de de de, de derdy de de"
I'm not joking. there would be one. We'll sell tickets :-)

later!

Is us actually getting a summer really so much to ask?

Unsurprisingly it was raining last night on the way home from work for the fourth day in a row!! This is just plain getting ridiculous now. Where's it all coming from. And then irony of ironies the water was cut off at home last night. It's been the wettest couple of months ever. We've had so much rain the path in the back garden has turned into a brook the water is that deep and the water cuts off. It's like that old saying

" Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink"

Fortunately when I got up the water was back on. Which was good otherwise I was ready to instruct grumpy to go down the co-op to buy lots of bottled water. As you see no one does panic buying like the English :-)

Although we are seeing a small amount of sunshine and shock horror! Some actual blue sky. I'm not convinced however. I'm sure the weathers just lulling us into a false sense of security and it will be raining when it's time to go home.

Well it seems like another Friday and nothing YSA going on. On the plus side Grumpy doesn't go out on a Friday night anymore. There's nothing as depressing as staying at home while your Dad goes out on a Friday night. And it some cases a Saturday night and a Sunday night!

I'm going to try and catch the bishop on Sunday so I can get my form signed for convention. They've now put a advert on you tube, believe it or not about the convention to show 'all the great activities' we'll be doing. Their starting to come off as a tad desperate in their efforts to convince people to go.

I still can't thing of any nicknames for Enginseers brothers. They look set to remain as Engineseer brother 1 and Engineseer brother 2 for the foreseeable future!

Aspiring angel had a fourth of July party on Wednesday (unsurprisingly) however I didn't go. Mainly because I never got a email just a txt very late on from engineseer and because I was absolutely shattered. I had spent most of the day traipsing up and down the main road hauling boxes and parcels back and forth between the office and the warehouse down the road. Which after the sixth trip in the pouring rain does start to wear you down just a bit. :-)

anyway it's Friday. No work for another two days. Just got the shopping to do tomorrow, then I'll probably spend the rest of the weekend trying to get something constructive done but failing miserably.

Typical Weekend then :-)

Mind you I have just seen the 'final' trailer for the Simpson's movie and at the end Homer sings a song which I now can't get out of my head. I won't tell you wants happening in the trailer ( you have to see it to get why it's so funny) but it's sung to the tune of 'Spiderman'. All right everybody!!

Spider-Pig, Spider-pig, does what ever a spider pig does....Look out here comes the spider-pig (repeat to fade)


later!

If only there wasn't a Atlantic ocean this might be easy to solve.

I was reading Nemesis's blog. If you haven't read her latest post " I weep for the future of the world" now go on, go read it. The link to her blog is on the right in the links section. Go on, go. I wouldn't be saying anything funny for a little while.

Here's some music while we wait for those who've gone to come back.
" Dum, di, di dum, dum, dum, di, di, di, di di-dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum"

All back? Good. Right where was I? Oh yes, I was reading Nemesis's blog and mainly laughing my head off ( that girl is very funny) when it got me to thinking( yes, yes dangerous past time I know). What did I learn in young men's?

Well based on what I can remember not a whole lot. But hey that might just be my memory for you. Sometimes it's near photographic when it comes to the most useless or geeky of information, but ask me where I've just put my keys or if I just locked the door and sometimes I can't remember. Well two incidents stand out. The first is the duty to God awards that used to be run in our stake for the young men. ( I think it's the equivalent to whatever that scheme is in young women's the name of which currently escapes me) Anyway if you completed a year you got this god statue/award thingies. If you completed four years you got a special award, certificate and your mum got a pin badge to wear. I had completed three years when they switched to a new program. Argghhhhhh!!!! The second is when one day all of the Young women in the branch I was in walked into the Young men's and declared they had voted and decided that they had decided only one of the young men(smooth) was worthy enough to become a husband to any of them. The rest of us didn't and we should accept that we weren't going to get married. Not a thing that people who were insecure about themselves would want to hear is it? There were charming young ladies in our branch at that point weren't there?

In Nemesis's blog there seems to be a worry that a lot of the girls there weren't pretty enough. That's rubbish, if there's one consistent thing about church girls where ever you go, it's that their all pretty and smart. Somebody left a comment on her blog which quoted the old saying "Looks open the door, personality keeps it open." This is all too true. And never more demonstrated then at Uni. There were some girls who were very pretty, but when you started to talk to them you released there was very little upstairs. One example is a girl who was nicknamed " Hills and Valleys". She was a stereotypical blonde, very pretty, but unfortunately very little in the way of common sense or personality. She actually had to be freed by security from a fridge ( yes you read that right) after she got her head stuck in between it's shelves, when she stuck her head in there and tried to close the door in a effort to see if the fridge light really did go out when the door is shut. Church girls do have real personalities and the looks to match.

I would be lying if I said looks don't play a small factor with me sometimes. But I do value personality much more. ( and I hope there are girls out there who do as well otherwise I got problems :-)I learnt this at uni, it got very very boring talking to girls who had zero upstairs no matter how nice she looked.

Talking of Uni has reminded me of a story that proves that guys outside of the church sometimes really, really don't appreciate what they've got. There was girl during my final year of uni who most people called Kitty ( see don't have to think of codename for this one :-), she was pretty, extremely intelligent, very friendly, basically as perfect as a girl outside of the church could be. If you asked most guys they were aware of who she was. When she arrived she was engaged, she and her fiancé had both decided to come to the same uni and if I remember correctly were planning to get married as soon as they finished their course. After a few weeks he decided to drop a bombshell. Slightly Para phrasing here as I can't remember the exact words he used, but he said he wanted to make the most of his time at uni, so he wanted to call off the engagement and break up with her for the duration of their degrees so he could and I quote ( this were his words not mine before anyone has a go at me) " Sow his wild oats". Once their degree had finished he said that could get back together and the engagement would be on. And before you ask, no I'm not making this up. The guy really, really was that stupid. Most guys when they heard this story seemed to triple check at the very least before they would believe it. However as you can imagine the news of this spread round the campus like wildfire and all of the girls got to hear about it. Suffice to say this guy didn't get to sow anything for the rest of his degree. And no she never got back with him.

All this talk has remind me of the one comment that I have heard in YSA that annoyed me the most. One girl stated ' It's much harder for girls to get married then guys , that's why we're going out to the states. Guys can get married *clicks fingers* just like that if they want to'... Well at least part of this sentence is true an increasing number of girls are heading out to the states. However with regards to guys being able to get married really easily, did I miss a Sunday school lesson or Young men's lesson or something where that secret is shared? Was I supposed to have a interview with the Bishop. " Welcome to young men's, allow me to share the secret of getting married when ever you want to with you" Did I choose the wrong Sunday to be absent? So it seems we have a load of single guys over here and a load of single girls over there. Hmmm, If only there wasn't an Atlantic ocean this might be easy to solve.

I couldn't help but laugh at another comment left on Nemesis's blog in regards to the latest post ( is this cheating basing a huge blog post based on her blog post?) where there was a scandal about women wearing backpacks/bags with straps that cross their chest, because they accentuate their boobs. All I have to say is what? What? What? What? If they think that was bad they should try seeing some of the outfits that girls wear in the UK on nights out ( as I'm sure Engineseer can attest too). If any girl at BYU wore something like that, there would probably be a few people dropping dead from shock! It did remind me of one of the US exchange students at Uni. She stayed all year rather then one semester, and when the new students arrived she was going to go on a night out with them. She came in to the common room with a outfit and was really worried one the American girls would think of her. We told her not to worry as although she have may though it was revealing, compared to the usual outfits the UK girls wear, she was wearing the equivalent of one of those huge 18th century dresses!

Well I think I'll leave it there for now as this blog post seems about ready to reach critical mass.

Later!

If I Ever Become an Evil Overlord:

( I know this is a repeat of a old post but I still think it's funny)

My legions of terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.

My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box.

I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.When the rebel leader challenges me to fight one-on-one and asks, "Or are you afraid without your armies to back you up?" My reply will be, "No, just sensible."

When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll shoot him, and then say "No".

After I kidnap the beautiful princess, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.
I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled "Danger: Do Not Push".

I will not order my trusted lieutenant to kill the infant who is destined to overthrow me -- I'll do it myself.

I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

I will not waste time making my enemy's death look like an accident: I'm not accountable to anyone and my other enemies wouldn't believe it.

I will make it clear that I do know the meaning of the word "mercy"; I simply choose not show them any.

One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

All slain enemies will be cremated, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

My undercover agents will not have tattoos identifying them as members of my organization, nor will they be required to wear military boots or adhere to any other dress codes.

The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.

I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.I

will design all doomsday machines myself. If I must hire a mad scientist to assist me, I will make sure that he is sufficiently twisted to never regret his evil ways and seek to undo the damage he's caused.

I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

Why do they even bother anymore?

I'm seriously beginning to wonder why there even bothering to do weather reports at the moment. Rather then going on about how much rain there's going to be, they should cut the report short. I mean it's not a surprise that it's raining. All they need to say is something along the lines of " Guess what the weathers going to be like" and keep with the short bulletins till the weather changes! Apparently in June rather then the average rain fall of 55mm Nottingham got around 175mm! It's really hard to believe we're in July now!

Great item in the news today. A American company decided to donate 300 laptops to a school in Nigeria. Only one small problem. They forgot to check that there was any electricity in the town or school! Oh well, I suppose it's the thought that counts :-)

For those of you who haven't noticed the new options on the right. I have started to add labels to all of my blog posts. For those of you who don't know the labels will allow you to click on a 'subject label' such as photos and will bring up all of my blog posts that I have labeled 'photos'. Unsurprisingly in this case if you select photos it will bring up all of my blog posts that contain photos. However please bear with me as with a 181 odd blog posts it's going to take a while before I can work back and label them all.

anyway, hit a bit of a mental block right now, so that's all I guess

later!

Sometimes it's just really better not to ask.

Well after all the mamoth reports of doom, where it said to expect lots and lots of rain. Well we got..... not that much too be honest and it came in fits and starts between bouts of sunshine. In fact there was so much sunshine yesterday I was able to put some washing out on the Line and it got dry! Honest! In fact with all this sunshine you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's actually supposed to be summer. Mind you knowing the english weather, we're all going to be happy to see the sun until a heatwave hits then we'll just spend all the time moaning about how hot it is!

Well it was time for the new times rather then the old times, but it would be okay as long we remembered the new times, ( wait I think I've confused myself) at church yesterday. Okay well maybe not technically new times more in a different order. It's now sacrament first, Sunday School second and Presthood/reflief society last. There were one or two small teething problems. Firstly the priamry children who were supposed to have all been there for 9.20 to do the prelude music didn't all appear and start singing till 9.29 and sacrement starts at 9.30! The member of the bishopric who was conducting announced the end of Sacrememnt nearly twenty minutes early. Then had to get up again and announce he was wrong! On the somewhat odd side we now have 'bouncers' on each door.... All right, not bouncers users. (same job different day :-)

They were trying to get memebers of the Elders quorum to 'volunteer' to take on this new responsibilty each week. Unsurprisingly there wasn't a huge rush to sign up.

Once Sacrament had finished there was this very weird pause. You could see most people wanted to go and talk and gossip, sorry, sorry not gossip I mean pass information they might find interesting to one another. Also you could see some people were thinking, isn't it time to go home now?

So finally we wonder out downstairs to go to Sunday school. The lesson was on the last supper, so as it was fast Sunday cna you guess what happened???

The teacher had set up two tables and asked us to sit round them, to illistrate the last supper she had a bowl, soap and a towel for washing of feet. Then two glasses of juice and one huge basket of very nice home braked bread which smelt lovely. Trust me you've never seen a ysa class look so dismayed to find food there. It was a very full class as well. Especially with RP ?( socials brother, I can't remember Nemesis's code name for him) visiting. At the end of the class the teacher said if anyone wanted a piece of bread they could take one. No one did. Although we figured out later that was probably more likely because no one wanted to be the first person to take a piece and was waiting for someone else to take a piece. That doesn't help when the whole class is thinking it does it?

But the funnist thing that happened all day happened in the Elders Quorum meeting. The Eldars quorum president stated that it was time for the quarterly report for home teaching and he would need everybodies figures. One guy near the front piped up and said that he hadn't been given a list. So the EQ President then asked for everyone who didn't know their hometeaching assignments to put their hands up, and which point almost a third of the quorum did. The look on his face was priceless.

He then proceeded to read through the hometeaching assigments. He got to NL and DL (mechanicus's brother) and referred to them as the the Brothers L. He then got further down the list and announced he had another Brother L on the list. At this point DL and NL looked a little confused. He looked at them and asked if there was another Brother L in the ward. They shook their heads. He then asked if they were sure that another Brother L wasn't moving into the ward. They nodded they were sure. He then asked was maybe a Brother in Law moving into the ward. At which point they both looked very confused. Understandbly. because it's extremely unlikely for a brother in law to have the same surname! The EQ president thn looked back at his list and simply said
" There seems to be a mistake with the list"

I looked at engineseer and said;
" A mistake?"