Monthly Archives: December 2007

Dogs on Thurs… Friday?

By monnibo | Published: December 21, 2007

Today we took Harvey and Oscar out for a walk. No! They’re not my dogs… they are CW’s Dad’s Old English Sheep Dogs but they’ve recently been shaved. Here are some photos of our walk around Salford’s old Racecourse and the Irwell River. (Salford is the area in Manchester where all of CW’s family is from). Oscar (with tail) and Harvey. Oscar with CW Play fighting Oscar & Harvey on the riverbank The puddle-parts of the riverbank were frozen. View from the bridge across the Irwell River.

Posted in Dogs on Thursday, Out & About, Pets, Photos / Videos, Travel | Tagged christmas, dogs, Dogs on Thursday, england, travel | Comments closed

In Manchester for the Holidays

By monnibo | Published: December 21, 2007

On Wednesday CW and I headed to London Euston station to catch a Virgin Train home to Manchester. We won’t be back to the house in Potters Bar until after New Years. Christmas is a busy time with CW’s family, they always have lots of gatherings. Christmas Day Present-giving at Aunt’s & cousin’s house (it’s always at the house with the youngest kids) Christmas Day meal with maternal Grandparents, mom, aunts, uncles, cousins. (Last year CW ate two dinners, this one and another with his dad and girlfriend’s family.) Boxing Day meal with paternal Grandparents Grandad M’s birthday dinner (December 29th) New Year’s Day meal Quite the amount of get-togethers! So far we’ve been mostly just visiting and catching up with CW’s family. CW bought me a phone for Christmas… he let me choose and I picked the Samsung J600. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I’m on the O2 Network. It comes in blue and pink, of course I chose blue. My phone from Canada was supposed to be Tri-Band and work anywhere in the world, but it didn’t. Now my J600 is Tri-Band so if I want to bring it home, I suppose it will work in Canada. Before we left on Wednesday, I finished the Hot Water Bottle Cosy. It’s made with Blue Sky Alpacas (yum my fave!) Dyed Cotton in “Caribbean”. Speaking of Blue Sky Alpaca… Sharon is having her Blogoversary Contest. Go wish her a happy one and tell her I sent you! Her contest got me [...]

Posted in FO, Out & About, Photos / Videos, Travel | Tagged christmas, england, travel | Comments closed

CONTEST: Pimp My Swap!

By monnibo | Published: December 19, 2007

To promote the UK Swap, we’re having a Pimp the Swap contest! Head over to the UK Swap Blog to learn more about the swap and get ready for sign-ups on January 7th, 2008. Contest closes December 31st, 2007. Anyone can join the contest (any location in the world) but the swap itself is for UK-based participants. Leave a comment in the blog that you’re Pimping the Swap on your blog, and you’ll be entered into the draw for a fibery-prize.

Posted in UK Swap | Comments closed

To RSS Feed or Not

By monnibo | Published: December 18, 2007

So I’ve been playing with RSS Feed Readers for a bit. I have a bunch of blogs I like to read, and I wanted an easy desktop reader to keep up. I tried Bloglines (web-based) which I didn’t really like the layout of. It’s too much like their website combined with their RSS Reader. I’m on a Mac so I downloaded Shrook, but for some reason the Feeds weren’t registering. That might be my problem but the look wasn’t as clean as I’d have liked. It was laid out a bit like iTunes. I have been playing with NetNewsWire for the Mac and I like the feel, it’s like Safari (the web browser) so it feels like I’m just going to all my bookmarks. The only problem is NetNewsWire costs money and I’m on the trial version. But I suppose my main issue is, to RSS Feed or not? I like visiting people’s pages and seeing their sidebar and the different layouts. It’s inspiring. But at the moment I’m keeping the links I like to visit on my blog, but there are some “testing” blogs that I visit on occasion just to see if I like them. And I feel like I need a more organized way of doing this. Should I give Bloglines another shot? I hear a lot of people are using it. I feel like I should give the freeware Shrook another shot.

Posted in HTML & Web design | Comments closed

The Golden Compass

By monnibo | Published: December 18, 2007

Monday we went to see The Golden Compass. CW and I enjoyed it but agreed that it wasn’t very conclusive because it’s supposed to be a trilogy. I was sad there wasn’t more Daniel Craig. I told CW about the knits that everyone is talking about. (Have you seen the hat that Cass made?) I was totally shocked when the Ice Bear’s bottom jaw got knocked off! You should have seen my face… I thought he was just gonna get a good smack, but then his jaw went flying. I’d recommend seeing it, as it is good. But it was absolutely magnificent script-wise… I think they’re depending too much on it being a trilogy. The books felt more conclusive from what I remember when I was 12. Afterwards we came home and prepped the house for CW & RH’s Christmas Party. I baked so much shortbread! It went over really well though — Coleen is apparently addicted to them. I still have some dough left in the freezer because I plan to make some for CW’s Grandad J. I was really worried they wouldn’t turn out… but they tasted great. You should have seen how excited I was when I pulled the first batch out on Sunday night. I broke a warm cookie in half and ran to CW in the living room and we shared the first shortbread of the season. It felt good. But I can’t share the recipe! It’s my mom’s secret!

Posted in Out & About, Recipes, TV/Movies | Comments closed