February 2007

Boycott KFC!

Daily Dose, Foodie, Pet Peeves /

I’ve tried to give KFC the benefit of the doubt. But I just can’t turn my head any longer.

My children have all waved signs outside of KFC, and flexitarian that I am, I still ate a bit of original chicken every now and then.

I see my son’s yukky PETA KFC bumper sticker everyday and still I occasionally crave some of their excellent cole slaw.

Those disgusting bowl dishes that look like you know who’s vomit, I just pretended those were never invented and went on my merry way smiling at Colonel Sanders everyday.

But this, I cannot tolerate this. KFC should not be selling fish sandwiches. It’s wrong on so many levels. It’s even more wrong for them to request the Pope’s blessing for their fish sandwich. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Hell I wouldn’t support them even if they were calling it something interesting like TW’s suggested “Popecorn Fish”. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I am officially boycotting KFC until they remove fish from their menu AND apologize for making such an idiotic Papal request.

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Uhhh, sorry!

2 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day, Health and Wellness, Pet Peeves /

I forgot to mention we are home from England.  We got home Monday evening.  And, I’m tired.  More importantly, I’m sick.  Like fever, sore throat, coughing sick.  I should be grateful to have fended it off ’til we got home…but I’m not.  I’m annoyed.  Sick and annoyed. Damn grouchy, too, in case you’re wondering.

If you’re the customer service people at Music123, you’re probably aware of that grouchy bit.  But you should know that even if I wasn’t sick, I’d have been livid to discover you are not currently accepting your own gift cards and do not know when you might accept them in the future.  In fact, if I wasn’t sick, I’d probably still be on the phone with someone at your establishment.

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Talking to Addison

2007, Books in Bed, Chick Lit /

I had high hopes for Talking to Addison.  TW laughed out loud all the way through it.  I didn’t laugh out loud, I barely smiled.  It was just a little bit boring.  I didn’t really like any of the characters very much.  The computer geek recluse bit was dumb.  The other three flatmates, also dumb.  People just aren’t that dumb.  Or if they are, then they shouldn’t be and I don’t really want to read about them.

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My Lurid Past….

2007, Books in Bed, Chick Lit /

No I’m not about to fill you in on any of the details of MY lurid past.  I’m talking about a chick lit novel I read a few days ago and forgot to blog in the madness that was our last few days in London.

My Lurid Past was very lurid and didn’t resemble my lurid past in any way.  It was, oddly enough, set in London.  Full of sex and drugs and PR.   Not a bad book, as far as brit chick lit goes.  If you don’t mind gratuitous sex and drugs.  Which I don’t.

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Harrods and Flamingos with Koan

5 Comments / Family Funk, Friends & Family, Kid Talk, Travel Log /

Heh.  I met Koan, I met Koan! In person! Heh.

Koan met us outside of Harrods and graciously wandered around with the amazed Americans and helped us “herd the cats” that are our children.  She also made the children’s day by purchasing truffles for them.

After Harrods we went back to the Hotel Chocolat for a couple of gift items we had decided to purchase and bring home for friends and family.  And then, we found the Kensington Roof Gardens and THE FLAMINGOS!  It was sort of cool to take Koan somewhere that she didn’t know existed in her homeland.  😉

It was a fun little half-day and now we’re working on packing things up and restoring the flat to its former condition.

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Yankee Doodle Dead

1 Comment / 2007, Books in Bed, Fiction, Mystery /

I had a tough time getting interested in Yankee Doodle Dead – a Death on Demand mystery.  I think maybe I’m not a big enough mystery fan to really enjoy all of the mystery book references, which really slowed the story down for me.  About halfway through it – when the murder occurred, I was more interested and sat down and finished it right away.  But the first 100 pages, slow going.   Not a bad book for a vacation, though.  Light mystery.  Great female characters.  Nice lowcountry setting.

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Books, Books and Surrealism

1 Comment / Bookstores, cookbooks, Family Funk, Kid Talk, Travel Log /

First stop, after Cafe Nero for breakfast, was Foyles on Charing Cross.  OMG – better than the Tattered Cover in Denver because it’s well lit and modern and the books are new – except of course for the antiquities which I missed but TW saw – and bought… We spent a very long time there and could have spent a full day if we had left Master J at home.  E asked to go back at 5:30pm – even after a full day out.  It was that good.

Then we went back across town and walked down Portobello Road, without getting pickpocketed though someone else did while we were there, and got to Books for Cooks just in time to get a table for lunch.  I enjoyed the shop, and the lunch, so much that I PURCHASED COOKBOOKS.  TW also purchased cookbooks.  And, I bought one for RJ too but I don’t think she knows that I did.

We went home and dropped off our books and took a 15 minute breather and then headed across town in the other direction for a walk past Big Ben and a visit to Dali Universe.  Not enough paintings, a lot of sketches and watercolors but the sculptures… fabulous.  If we could combine Dali Universe in London with the Dali Museum in St Pete… now that would be a Dali museum! The kids enjoyed the trip more than I thought they would.  Surrealism is always interesting and at the end of the musuem they have a gallery with Dalis (and Picassos and Chagalls) for sale.  We all picked out one or six that we would like to buy.  Ah to own a Dali.

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Harry Potter Day

4 Comments / Family Funk, Harry Potter, Kid Talk, Travel Log /

The little children are huge Harry Potter fans so we had to visit Kings Cross aka Saint Pancras to see Platform 9 3/4 both the plaque and the platform where the scenes were filmed. Not only did we see these and take pictures there, the children insisted on acting out some of the scenes. And STICK TO YOUR TICKET became the phrase of the day.

From there, we went to Diagon Alley aka Leadenhall Market which was gorgeous. We arrived early and there were very few people there, which was nice. In London it can be hard to find tourist stops that are not crowded, heh. We had some very good hot chocolate and some really excellent orangy gingery biscuits there.

Then hours and hours at the British Museum. The Reading Room was a hit. The girls would have stayed there all day, Prince J was not as enthralled by it. We didn’t manage to see it all but we did see everything on the ground floor and about 1/3 of the upper level, maybe still a good bit. Unfortunately two of the rooms we really wanted to see were closed. Pout.

Another good, full, day – and an incredibly crowded subway ride home, which was good because we all should experience the madness of a London rush hour home.

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Tubes, Tea and Shakespeare

1 Comment / Coffee & Tea, Family Funk, Kid Talk, Travel Log /

The tubes at the Tate Modern were excellent.  If you are in London and thinking about ignoring the “get there early to get tickets” advice – don’t.  Underground slowness this morning put us about 45 minutes late and we got there just in the nick of time.  Our tickets were for 11:30 and by 11:30 they were sold out til 3pm.  They are well worth the wait.  I only did Tube 3 and it was a smooth and easy ride, not nearly as bumpy as I was afraid it would be.  I was going to do Tube 5 but decided not to push my luck and instead stayed with E while the others did Tube 5.  The kids, they had a blast.

The modern art, also a hit but not a huge hit.  They were most interested in the light board in one of the last rooms we visited.  Prince J was interested in Guerrilla Girl art, which was cool.  They all liked Dali’s lobster phone.  E was thrilled to see the Pollacks and explain all sorts of things about his work.  She also spent a lot of time plotting out future art projects of her own.  Mixed media seems to be her primary interest.  Nobody but me really enjoyed “The Kiss”, hmph.

The Cofee & Tea Musuem was a nice and easy 3 aisle walk with a full tea afterwards.  Cucumber sandwiches, crumpets, tea cakes, scones and cake – and several pots of tea.  We actually did the tea thing after the tubes and went back to the Tate for the bulk of the art after the Globe.

Everyone we had talked to said the Globe was the best but I was skeptical.  They were right, it was excellent.  The kids had a great time in the exhibit area.  There are booths that allow you to read lines of various plays and then they’re played back.  You can practice or you can just launch into it.  RJ did Hamlet, E was Juliet, Prince J was Lady MacBeth.  It was fun and they’d have been happy to stay there and keep reading lines over and over again.

When we got off the tube at Earl’s Court, some big “to do” was happening with red carpets and papparazzi and celebrities and limos.  I have no idea what we walked into but we were there, lol.

A full, full day – and a pretty nice Valentine’s Day, too.

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