Random ramblings from the Texan in London.

Coming out of arrivals was amusing. I was SICK, turbulence doesn't exactly agree with Jelly Bean. Airplane food either, for that matter, so we were not happy campers. However, my mother was there waiting when I drearily rolled my suitcases through the final set of doors, and she ran down the aisle to hug me and (of course) rub my belly. Monster Brother was there with her, but his attention span for waiting in airports is not huge, so he was lounging on a couch grumpily and refused to greet me until I informed him of the presence of airplane cookies in my bag with his name on them. I got a hug at that point. Walking out the doors into Texas weather was a bit of a shock, the turbulence on landing had been caused by a weather system moving into the DFW area, and the humidity had me not only feeling like I was swimming through the air, but also had me sporting a giant afro, which let me tell you was VERY attractive. My first real surprise came at the car, though. Monster Bro has...

I'm packing. And crying a little, but that's only because I'm pregnant and hormonal. That's right, folks, I'm leaving our 'appy 'ome for a little hiatus in Texas. I'm off tomorrow and will be back in mid-June. Most of me is excited. Most of me can't wait to see my family and spend the longest amount of concentrated time with them that I've had since I left in 2003. I'm looking forward to spending time in Austin with Sisters One and Three, and throwing an English tea party with Sister Two in her apartment in Denton. I'm looking forward to staying with The Mimi, and watching her taste the stuff I cook that she's never even heard of. I'm looking forward to hanging out with The Terror that is my youngest brother, we've made plans to go swimming (and eat nachos, of course). Speaking of nachos, I'm looking forward to Texan food. Then there's the part of me that's cringing a little at the prospect of almost two mo...

That's right. I made our family's slightly infamous cheesecake for a friend's birthday, and made sure to send the uneaten portion home with anyone who would take it. Those take-home portions apparently caused some threatened violence unless the recipe was attained, and as I can't have blood shed over cheesecake, here's the recipe: 1 cup crushed graham crackers (I used oaty biscuits due to lack of graham crackers in the UK, but ginger is nice too) 1/4 cup chopped pecans (I omitted this step due to some people not liking nuts, just added an extra 1/4 cup biscuits) 1 1/2 (plus 1/3 cup for sour cream layer) cups sugar 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 cup melted margarine three 8oz packages of cream cheese (softened) which is 680g, just less than three 200g packages 4 eggs 3 tsp vanilla 1 pint sour cream (this is an American liquid measurement, it's 473 ml in the UK) Preheat oven to 375F (190C) Mix the crushed biscuits, pecans, 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon and margarine Pres...

This morning as I stood outside chatting to a neighbour, I heard a faint yowling from somewhere above my head. When I looked up, what do you think I saw? That's right. Kit got brave. The yowling was because while she had been brave, she had overestimated her powers of climbing back down. I tried tuna. I tried taking Sophie out to lure her down. I tried taking our (woefully inadequate) ladder out in the hopes that if I got closer to her, she'd come down. Nada. I tried the RSPCA, who told me (twice, over two hours) that they'd call me back and let me know when somebody could come out and help me. After I called a third time, I finally got a call back. They informed me that she'd have to have been up there for at least 24 hours before they'd even send someone out to assess the situation, and that even then they'd only call the fire department out to get her down. And the point of the RSPCA is? No clue. I called the fire department, who informed me that the...

Bliss. Sun, moglets, sun, loads of good food, sun, and Himself. Good combo, let me tell you. We let the moggies out sans leads for the first time on Thursday (sporting their new collars and tags, and freshly dosed with flea drops), just for about an hour to see how they handled it. Both of them tore headlong into the flowerbeds in search of new smells and the occasional bug to eat. On Friday I left the back doors of the conservatory flung open to let the seriously amazing weather in and the felines out. This turned into me sitting in the conservatory for longer than I'd care to admit, book discarded to one side because watching them chase bees, butterflies and each other was more amusing. Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny, so I hied myself down to the conservatory (as I woke up around half six and thought Himself might rather sleep a LITTLE longer...) for a bowl of muesli, a cup of peppermint tea, some reading and yet more book neglecting as I watched the lunatics conti...

Himself is sick. Not in the twisted sense (although that could be argued on occasion) but in the sniffly, snotty, snowdrifts of tissues sense. He came home from work on Friday feeling fluey and it deteriorated from there. Of course, he still managed to make it out to Portobello with myself and Sister 2's Texas flatmate who's here studying abroad for a semester (she spent the weekend with us, we'll call her B-Dizzle)... apparently the draw of the Germans was simply too strong. A good time was had by all, we did Portobello, Westfield, Camden, Soho, Carnaby, King's Cross for Harry Potterage, Chinatown and Charing Cross Road, all over three days. There was a lot of walking, and B-Dizzle proved her limitless capacity for "busting a munch". Let me expound. On Sunday, we got up and went for a full English at a local pub. B and I both went for the veggie option, and all three of us went for the extra large version of our respective breakfasts. We finished arou...