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November, 2009:

Pies and Soup and Cakes oh my!

Nov 6th, 2009
by Dan.
19 comments

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It seems that the Halloween pumpkin Evan and I carved has somehow contracted Single Parent Dad’s hideous body wasting disease. I think it must have happened when we took it down to his house last week. I think I may even been able to pinpoint the exact moment of infection:

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Thankfully I’m not worried about the health of any of the Hughes family as the disease is only transferred from vegetable to vegetable.

But this pumpkin is certainly rotting at quite an extraordinary rate, far faster than Amy’s one. Even renowned pumpkin expert Professor Beryl Chicken says it’s beyond hope:

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“I’m sorry, but I think this pumpkin’s clucked”

I’ve still got three healthy and uncarved pumpkins sitting out in the front garden however. I did have four but I used one on Monday to make a pie and some soup.

I was particularly pleased with the pie (made from a recipe very kindly sent me by DJ Kirkby). I even made the pastry from scratch and everything. Of course it took me about six hours in total to do it, and when I’d finished the only person who actually liked it was me (Kerry and the kids not being too keen on cinnamon). But I enjoyed myself and that’s the main thing. Plus I got a thrill out of the fact that both the pumpkin and the eggs I used were purely the product of Old McHughes farm. Tom Good has nothing on me.

On the other hand he soup was ok, but nothing special. I think it suffered from the fact that the variety of pumpkin I planted is intended for carving rather than cooking – the bigger ones are less tasty apparently. Again I was the only member of the family who was willing to eat it, but even then I ended up throwing half of it away. Don’t feel too sorry for me though as that’s the outcome of much of my “cooking” efforts so I’m very much used to it.

My next culinary project is going to be a Christmas cake, something else that I’m the only one who’ll eat (my family are both picky and weird). I put a call out on twitter for recipes and got a gratifying number of replies. I think I’m going to go for the one given me by Jane from Nine Long Months; mainly because it’s one handed down to her from her mother and I like the provenance that goes with that.

However, judging by the fact it took me so long to make the pumpkin pie, I think I’m going to have to clear a full week in my calendar for the cake. Maybe it’d be wise to aim for next Christmas rather than this so as to avoid disappointment.

The List

Nov 5th, 2009
by Dan.
34 comments

Like many bloggers I have an on-the-go list to record potential post ideas for future use. I’m not convinced that this adds anything to the quality of what I spew out here, but it does sometimes give me something to write about when otherwise my mind is blank.

Here’s a small extract from my list that hints at what you lucky people might be reading here at All That Comes With It over the next few weeks. Warning, contains spoilers:

  • Hate having to pay for ketchup
  • Pictures of muddy boots
  • Dinner vs Lunch

Pretty thrilling stuff eh? Perhaps this blog should come with caveat that it shouldn’t be read by pregnant women and people with heart conditions.

But this list doesn’t always steer me right however. I was flicking through it this evening trying to figure out if I had the energy to post when I noticed a couple of entries I made after waking up at 3am this morning.

  • New word: Tonither
  • Play on words on Obi-Wan Kenobi: Oh bee? One ken no bee! – work out joke with this as punchline.

It seems that 3am is not my most creative time of the day. Or my most lucid.

Still, after contemplating them for a while I was able to add another idea to my list:

  • Lazy post about crap post ideas

Job done.

NaMagPiMoGroMo

Nov 4th, 2009
by Dan.
19 comments

The month of November seems strangely suited to starting new projects. Maybe it’s the onset of cold weather and dark evenings that prompts people into generating ways by which to wile away the hours.

This is the month traditionally associated with NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), where people from all over the blogoshere pledge to post an entry every single day of November. This used to be an all pervasive event on the internet, but since the organizers went a bit mad with power and announced that every month was NaBloPoMo it seems to have lost momentum somewhat. Off the top of my head I only know of Mark from Views from the bike shed who is doing it this year. But that’s ok with me, as anything that encourages Mark to post more often can only be a good thing.

I am vaguely tempted to have a go at NaBloPoMo myself. I enjoyed it last time I did it, although it got a little wearing towards the end. As it stands I haven’t actually missed a day this month yet, so I think I’ll just see how it goes.

Of course some other lunatics, such as Preseli Mags are actually attempting to write an entire novel this November as part of NaNoWriMo. I’m guessing the men in white coats will be knocking on their doors any time soon.

But none of these people are doing anything as magnificent, heroic, or public spirited as Mr Lee Sargent from Quit Your Day Job. Because, ladies and gentleman, Lee Sargent is on a one man quest to bring back the Magnum P.I. style moustache.

In the month of November Lee has pledged to go from this:

leemag

To this:

tom

What-a-guy.

And what’s more, as if singlehandedly returning Tom Selleck’s ‘tash to the streets of Brisbane isn’t enough, Lee’s going to be raising funds for a very worthy cause as he does so.

Movember is an annual, month-long celebration of the mustache, highlighting men’s health issues, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. Close to 3,000 men die of prostate cancer each year in Australia alone and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime – many of whom don’t seek help. The Momember Foundation puts money into research, treatment programs, and awareness raising; doing valuable and much needed work on a global scale.

So why not head over to http://au.movember.com/mospace/204841/ and make a donation to a very worthy cause. You might as well – it’s only Australian dollars so it’s not like it’s real money. I mean look at it:

australia_dollar

I’ve seen more convincing currency in a monopoly set. I bet it’s got bloody koalas on it somewhere.

We’re going to pop in on Lee’s efforts throughout this month here on the blog, and you just know I’m going to keep nagging you until you give something. so you might as well just get it out of the way now and sling a few dollars his way. Go on. You know you want to.

Hulk Elongated Man Lobo Punisher

Nov 4th, 2009
by Dan.
34 comments

On Monday I blogged about my inability to remember the NATO phonetic alphabet. In the comments section Steve from Life Begins joked:

What you need to do is to invent your own phonetic alphabet based on comic book heroes. You’ll be fluent in minutes.

Oh Steve, you really should be more careful what you suggest to me.

So here it is, my own special phonetic alphabet created with a set of self imposed rules. The primary one being that I didn’t allow myself to look anything up, every superhero name had to come from memory.

And there lies the problem, my memory is completely shot. Some letters were dead easy (I can think of about 20 heroes for B alone), but some are frustratingly elusive. The letter I in particular is very annoying. All I can come up with is Indigo Girls, but that’s not right (despite their incredible harmonizing and dungaree wearing powers). I must admit I’m somewhat hampered by my heavy DC bias, and so have a more limited knowledge bank to chose from

So I’m calling out for help from the readers of the blog. OK, so I’m not. I’m calling out for help from Rol, Greg, Lee, and Avitable. The rest of you useless buggers probably don’t even know your Red Hood from your Joker, but I’m more than willing to be proven wrong. Help me complete my list so I can submit it to NATO for consideration to replace their ridiculous and outdated version.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

  • A – Aquaman
  • B – Batman
  • C – Catwoman
  • D – Daredevil
  • E – Elongated Man
  • F – Flash
  • G – Gnort
  • H – Hulk
  • I –
  • J – Johnny Thunder
  • K – Kilowog
  • L – Lobo
  • M – Mister Miracle
  • N –
  • O – Orion
  • P – Punisher
  • Q – Question
  • R – Robin
  • S – Spiderman
  • T – Tick
  • U –
  • V – Valor
  • W – Wolverine
  • X – Xavier
  • Y –
  • Z –

Any suggestions?

blue-beetle-ted-kord
Drawing by the rather excellent Lee from Quit Your Day Job

Pop pop pop pop pop

Nov 2nd, 2009
by Dan.
18 comments

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[display_podcast]

Track list

1. Electric Car – They Might Be Giants
2. Monster Mash – Boris Pickett
3. Trying Vegetables – Joshua Rich
4. Purple People Eater – Barry Cryer
5. Older – They Might Be Giants
6. Popcorn – Barenaked Ladies
Intro and outro (Casino Royal: Mexican Border Brass Ensemble)

I’m very pleased to be able to present a special family focused episode of Radio All That Comes With It, with guest presenters from all corners of the globe (well, the English speaking bits anyway).

All the tracks on this podcast are either kids or kid friendly songs, and it’s my rough intent is the podcast is something that families can listen to together (in the car or whatever). I’ve played it through a few times at our house and it’s already a firm favorite with my two. Granted, that’s probably because the narcissistic buggers are actually featured in it, but you get my point.

Many thanks go to Lee, Clair, Idaho Dad, and Greg for contributing their vocal talents and musical tastes. Apologies go to the people who I’d offered to give a bit of technical support in creating a segment, and then got too busy to actually follow through my promises. The deal is still on though if you’re still up for it, as I plan on doing this again in the next couple of weeks.

Similarly if anyone reading this fancies having a go at presenting their own segment then you are more than welcome. In fact it would be fantastic. I had a great time putting this together, and think a collaborative global podcast is a really cool project to play with for a while.

Just leave a comment or send me an email at dghughes28@yahoo.co.uk and let me know you’re interested.

What goes “Ha, Ha, Bonk”?

Nov 1st, 2009
by Dan.
31 comments

Amy’s reading and writing skills have really come on in leaps and bounds recently. It’s even got to the point where Kerry and I have had to stop using the devious parenting trick of spelling out contraband conversations when we don’t want her to hear them, as she’s now able to piece together the letters and decipher the words

In an effort to prolong the possibility of a private conversation just a little bit longer we’ve now switched to using NATO’s phonetic alphabet. So for example “Shall we buy some S.W.E.E.T.S” (aka “candy” for the chronically American) has now become “Shall we buy some Sierra Whiskey Echo Echo Tango Sierra”.

This new system is all well and good, aside from the small fact that now I can’t understand what’s being said either. In fact I’m so bad at processing that particular type of information that I’m pretty sure that Amy will come to grips with it before I do. No doubt the time will come when Amy turns to her mother and says “Let’s put Dad’s Uniform Kilo Uniform Lima Echo Lima Echo in the Bravo India November without telling him”.

To illustrate my ineptitude, in order to write that last sentence I had to look at the entry for the phonetic Alphabet on the mighty Wikipedia nine times. Which wouldn’t be so bad if there weren’t only ten letters. And three of three of them weren’t repeated twice.

But anyway, as I was saying, Amy’s reading and writing has really come on recently. However she’s not quite at the point where she’s started reading for your own pleasure. All that’s about to change however as, inspired by a recent tweet from Dad Who Writes, I have ordered her a new book for her birthday.

Behold its wondrousness!:

9780140314120

This, combined with the Beano, is the very same book that started me off reading all those years ago and I couldn’t be more ecstatic that it’s still in print. As a child I struggled with reading quite a bit, what with my dyslexia and all. But I can still remember the thrill of sitting engrossed in this hallowed tome, eager to consume every last morsel it contained.

And now I get to pass that enthusiasm and joy on to my daughter.

Of course she’ll probably just throw it into a corner and play with the Nintendo DS we’re also buying her. But a father can dream can’t he?

And just because I can’t pass up an opportunity to post this photo, I should also mention that Amy is the only one of my children that inherits a relic from my childhood. About a year ago I gave Evan Larry, my stuffed sheep that shared my bed from birth all the way through to my late teens:

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