Pointless but cool

Via Ooh Shiny, this cute wee dude plugs into your USB. The faster you type the faster he pedals, and the LCD display shows your typing speed. I particularly love his manic little face!

I wonder if I could convince my boss that having this would boost my productivity?

All yours for 19.99 pounds (why does the standard New Zealand keyboard not have the pound symbol?), from here.

More Dali

Found on Fashionably Geek, this watch is definitely more within my price range than the clock I love. This is one of those statement items that has you engineering situations where people will ask you the time just so you can show it off! The ant, by the way, counts out the seconds, and his moustache halves are the hands of the watch. Brilliance!

And in case you're wondering, US$34.95, and available here.

Found in Translation

Since the Eccentric English Boyfriend came into my life I have been introduced to a whole new vocabulary of strange and seemingly nonsensical phrases, and I got to pondering on this today after EEB's mother asked me in an email whether I was going to be 'turning out' before we moved house. My English friends can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what she meant was will we be having a big chuck out of stuff we don't need any more? Either that or in England it's customary to turn your children out to live on the street when you move house - tempting I must say.

My favourite so far has to be 'pants'. As in "that band was pants". I really thought EEB had completely lost his mind when he first said this, then I started to wonder if perhaps he'd been reading too much Pratchett (if you don't get the reference then get thee to a bookshop and buy some Pratchett now!), until it finally dawned on me that it is in actuality a derogatory term.

EEB, on the other hand, has conniptions every time I describe someone (male or female) as spunky. Those of you living in England and not familiar with New Zealand slang can be assured that when I say this I do not mean that the person in question is covered in fluid of an ejaculatory nature, rather it is a compliment - said person is 'hot', or 'fine' or however else you like to phrase it. EEB's equivalent to this is 'fit', which has resulted in some very strange conversations:

EEB: She's really fit.
Me: Yes she does look like she works out a bit.
EEB: No, she's fit.
Me: Yes I get it, she's in good shape.
EEB: NO, she's fit.
Me: Look, if this is some sort of hint that I need to go to the gym more why don't you just come out and say it. And pass me the chocolate.

Surrealist Time

I am a long-time lover of the surrealist works of Salvador Dali - two posters of his works hung in our hallway when I was a child and I would stare at them for hours with a mixture of fascination and horror. In my early twenties I went through a wonderful phase where all my dreams contained the most stunning Dali-esque architecture. Imagine my delight then when I found this clock - now I just have to sell a kidney in order to be able to afford it!

For those with a spare USD$365, it can be found here.

The joys of being a step-dad

My kids adore The Eccentric English Boyfriend, and despite his steadfast refusal to be called a 'stepdad' he has most definitely become part of our nuclear family. There are many reasons for the kids' adoration, apart from the obvious stuff about him being lovely: with his 6 foot, broad-shouldered viking build he's like a giant playground for them, he buys them cool stuff, has a ridiculously silly sense of humour, and most importantly - despite his intelligence and intellect he really is just a big kid at heart. As an example, the following:

EEB was at the computer recently playing a game, with 8 year old son and the kid from across the road standing either side of him. Being small boys they took great delight in commenting on his playing (along the lines of "wow you suck at this" and "I can play this waaaaaaaaaay better than you can"). Once they got tired of insulting him they started on each other - "you're a stupid bum", "well you're a doo-doo brain" and other equally cutting remarks. After a while the sheer inanity of the conversation became just too much for EEB, and in the midst of a volley of "you're a poo-poo head", "no you're a poo-poo head", "no YOU'RE a poo-poo head" I heard him yell "YOU'RE BOTH POO-POO HEADS!".

Ahhhhh, such verbosity, such articulateness, such a broad vocabulary. You can see why I love 'im!

Get me some of that bunny lovin'

It is no secret that I am a sucker for small fluffy animals, and by logical extension for websites about small fluffy animals - the cuter the better. Ok so it's hardly original, wherever you go on the internet these days it seems you're only a click away from a photo of something fluffy with an amusing caption. One site I discovered recently however has changed my life (yes dammit lifechanging). I've been a bunny owner for several years now, but until I found Disapproving Rabbits, I could never quite understand why it was I always felt slightly nervous of my bunnies. Well now I know - it's because they disapprove! They disapprove of me, they disapprove of my children, they disapprove of their quarters, they disapprove of what I feed them - they just disapprove of everything!

As proof of this, here is a picture of Marky-Mark, who disapproves of his name (don't blame me, my kids aren't old enough to remember Mark Wahlburg before he was cool) and fiercely
disapproves of being given a bath.

And in other news of a bunny nature, Patches our black and white rabbit has spent the last few nights shacking up in the hutch of our neighbour's rabbit, in the hopes of there soon being the pitter patter of tiny bunny paws. Bunny breeding is not difficult, in fact I would venture to say breathing is more difficult than getting rabbits to shag! Patches was no exception, and within seconds of being in the cage was on top of Scamper going at it like the proverbial something that goes at it a lot. The bunny lovin' lasted well into the night, with Patches eventually becoming so exhausted that he fell asleep on top of Scamper. Of course we all had to watch as this took place - myself, my neighbour and our children. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that small children watching bunnies copulating is eventually going to result in crudity, and sure enough later that evening we heard my son yell out "look at me I'm Patches", and turned in time to see him on all fours on the trampoline making frantic jiggy movements with his hips.

Sigh. If the school rings I'll pretend I'm the housekeeper!

So much pink, so little money...

Pink is not a colour I wear a lot, the odd item here and there perhaps but mostly it's a clothing colour best left to my 12 year old daughter. It is however a colour I like elsewhere, much to The English Boyfriend's dismay, and when I found this site the horror on his face was a joy to behold! I tell you a girl can never have too many pink kitchen implements! My soon-to-be-married best friend has already put in a request for a pink toaster as an engagement present!

Daylight Savings

So Daylight Savings has begun, and as much as I love the longer daylight hours I spend the first few days in a perpetual state of zombiedom while my body clock adjusts. In years past the beginning of Daylight Savings marked the point when it began to feel like summer, but as they've moved the start earlier and earlier in the year it's become increasingly difficult to believe that summer is just around the corner when the heavens are doing a convincing imitation of Niagara Falls and the outdoor furniture is being blown across the deck by the gale-force winds!

In other news I'm abuzz with excitement as we're off to the Marilyn Manson concert tomorrow night. However I am wondering if the fact that we're in the 'seated' section, due to one of our group suffering from a bad back and another (me that is) being nervous of crowds, qualifies us as 'old farts'! Still, should be good.