If you hadn't intended to wash the kitchen floor...

... why did you drop a kettleful of water on it?

OK, a question or two

Background: the ravens put a lump sum into a ten-year savings plan ten years back. It's not a huge sum--a little over £2k--but we're not simply going to continue saving it all. So, what are we tempted to do? Well, two things spring to mind:

• a theremin
• chickens.

Or both.

So:

[Poll #300181]

A Fat Miscellany

Since it seems to be on many minds....

Even M's been "got" by it: he announced last night that according to the BBC's bmi, he was two inches too short. We think he's not quite got the message, but we could offer to purchase a nice little rack to help remedy the situation.

Walking home with Looby Loo yesterday evening, we were passed by a pink car. This, of course, provoked a comment, being both the favourite colour and also a relatively unusual one in cars. Playing "the pink game" (this involves asking LL a question in the expectation that the answer will be pink, as opposed to "the elephant game" which involves the ravens giving the answer elephant to every question), we asked what colour car LL would like when she grew up. The immediate response to which was that she wasn't going to have a car she was going to walk. Do we feel like a good parental role model? Elephant.

What's really annoying us about this whole fat "thing" is the dire threat that this generation's children will die before their parents. What, all of them? And if not, then what's so different from the past in the western world and the present in less fortunate parts, when/where many children didn't outlive their parents. We're very fortunate, and collectively short-memoried, in being able to make the assumption that every child will survive to adulthood.

And, in a spirit of completeness, 18.63.

Shopping redux

So, the theremin is currently winning. If we buy it, we will have to have a theremin party so that bugshaw can take a look (and anyone else who's interested!).

We might splash out and buy an appropriate amp at the same time, thereby satisfying half of the_magician's suggestion.

purpletigron has a good suggestion and one we hadn't considered--except that we have enough surplus heat from the Esse that we don't really need panels to heat the water. We have considered getting ones to generate electricity tho'. Would take a little more cash than we have to spare at present, especially as the roof would probably need a good seeing to at the same time. Either kind of solar panel would probably save more money than the saving in eggs.

But, we're most defintitely thinking hard about those hens. And the lure, as timill rightly spotted of cool gizmos. They'd provide eggs for only about as much work as looking after the cats. They'd keep the slugs down in the garden and probably eat the some of weeds too. If they ate too many plants, we'd just have to grow more at the allotment. They'd provide a useful means of converting kitchen waste into droppings that are apparently good for gardens and for speeding up compost heaps. They'd lay eggs. And they'd cluck.

We like the idea of cluck. With eerie sf accompaniment.

Don't suppose we ever mentioned that one of our pet names as a kid was chicken?