Archive for the 'Life, the Universe, and Everything' Category

Erangryn arrived!

Anatis January 7th, 2008

Erangryn - Front from left

Erangryn - Front from left,
originally uploaded by Anatiss.

So I bought myself a Christmas Present on Ebay.
His name is Erangryn and he’s back in his box now that I took the photographs.
He’s a Royal Doulton Enchantica Dragon… and not only that, he’s #3 of a limited edition of 2950.
Royal Doulton usually keep the first three pieces of those dragons for their archives.
He came with a certificate of authenticity and his (unopened) box.
There are more pics of him on my Flickr page. :) Enjoy. I know I’ve had to keep the drool off him the entire half hour he was allowed out of his box.

Waiting…

Anatis January 3rd, 2008

waiting1

waiting1,
originally uploaded by Anatiss.

I figured I’d share this one.
He’s waiting… to be let out. To be forgiven. Something. It was an image that sprang to mind and I don’t even know why.
Enjoy. :)

Happy Birthday to my lungs.

Anatis December 10th, 2007

Yes, indeed.

Hard to believe that it’s been a year.

A WHOLE year of being

Unbelievable!

Yay me!

I should have stayed in bed

Anatis December 7th, 2007

Ever had one of those days where you REALLY should have stayed in bed?
Today was one of those.
It started off pretty harmless. I woke up after not hearing my alarm.
Luckily it wasn’t that late, but still. I should have suspected it was going to go downhill from there.
I didn’t get to finish my coffee.
The bread I use to make sandwiches with… had green spots.
Fine, I use the other loaf. No biggie.
I then get into the carpark - I actually got the car today, usually I walk to work - get in the car and reverse out of the parking space.
My neighbor comes up and knocks on my window. I thought “Damn you, I’m late!” but alas, I wound down the window.
“Unless your car can fly… you won’t be going anywhere.” she says. “There’s a tree blocking the drive.”
“Ah. Ok I guess I walk.” I say.
She laughs.
Guess what. She was right. There was a big tree down across the drive and you couldn’t even climb over it. Phone call to the boss. “Uh…”
Tree Down

The crappy picture I took with the mobile. At this point most of the tree was already chopped.

Okay. So we tried to get a chainsaw to the tree. No dice. Its an electric chainsaw and the multitude of extension cables was simply too much. I run and get another cable…. and manage to lock myself out of the house.

How to bang your head against the wall

So I call my better half and tell him I’ve locked myself out.
He says he should be home around the same time I am.
Cool beans.

At 11am I finally managed to get to work - minus the car.
Which was unlocked, and in the carpark, all day.

At 3:30pm my butt starts to vibrate. (My phone is on vibrate and in my back pocket - don’t get too excited!)
I answer the phone. It’s the better half.

“Bad news,” he says. “I won’t be home before 7pm.”

It’s not my bloody day, is it?

Hopefully your day went better than mine, but I should clearly never have gotten up, much less left the house today!

Christmas Tag!

Anatis December 6th, 2007

Egawds. Here we go again. Angelle tagged me. You evil minion, you!

  1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate. Eww Eggnogg. What is it with you people!
  2. Does Santa wrap presents or just put them under the tree? Wraps them.
  3. Colored or white lights on tree/house? Eww to colored lights. That’s if I had lights.
  4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, I don’t want to end up kissing the 60 year old postman!
  5. When do you put your decorations up? Do christmas cards count as decorations? Our living room is too small for a tree. (Seriously) Besides, we usually end up elsewhere.
  6. What is your holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Paul. Oh… wait… Not dessert you said.
  7. Favorite holiday memory as a child. I’m German. We celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.
    I have to elaborate on the memory since not everyone knows what it’s like there. :)
    Christmas at my house started with “Waiting”. Waiting for the tree to be carried in. Waiting to be allowed to decorate it. (We use real candles, so this takes time and care.) Then, once it was all decorated, the living room door would be closed. It was the only time it was ever closed. Then you wait. Christmas in my house does not happen before 6pm.
    We would help in the kitchen, annoy Gran, drive everyone mad. And then…
    Then usually you would hear someone playing “Silent Night” on a trumpet from the Church tower and you’d sneak toward that closed door.
    The trumpet would finish. Everything goes quiet. The lights are out. Christmas music starts quietly beyond that closed door. And the door opens to reveal a dark room. A room lit by only the Christmas tree, the light sparkling in tinsel and baubles, the candles throwing lights all around the room.
    There was usually snow outside or it was snowing, making the world outside blue at night. I will never - ever - forget that sight, the sense of peace, the sense of excitement when that door opened and I saw the tree. Everything else just faded into the background for a few precious moments. Magic.
    I wish everyone could experience it and it still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it.
  8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t remember. Santa is different in Germany. He brings gifts on the 6th December. The “Christkind” (Christ Child) brings gifts on Christmas Eve. I remember my brother got stuffed into Santa’s Sack once because he was giving Santa lip…
  9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Hell yes. To me, Christmas Day is weird.
  10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Silver and muted reds. Mostly silver. Real Tree. Real Candles, too. And an Advent Ring with 4 fat red candles, ribbons… ahh… you have to be able to SMELL Christmas as well as see it, or it’s not real.
  11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it.
  12. Can you ice skate? Yes
  13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Gawd. No. I remember some toys I got, if that counts.
  14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? To be honest, to me only Christmas Eve really counts. Everything else is weird. I hate forced family gatherings with a passion.
  15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Cookies!
  16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? St. Nikolaus. (He puts candy in your shoes 6th December)
  17. What tops your tree? I don’t have one, but when I do… nothing.
  18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving. I never get what I want, so I don’t like it lol.
  19. What is your favourite Christmas song? Winter Wonderland - tho not really a Christmas song.
  20. Candy canes. Oh God… you’re talking to the dentally challenged here!
  21. Favourite Christmas movie? I don’t have one.
  22. What do you leave for Santa? What do you mean, leave for him? He’s supposed to leave for me!

Tagging Lara!

You know, I think I could get into this tag blogging thing!

Holy Fruitcake, Batman!

Anatis December 4th, 2007

I was sort of roaming the Net (as you do) looking for unusual gifts.
That’s when I tripped over a fruitcake.
But this was not just any fruitcake!

It was a fruitcake from The Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia.

I have to tell you… I might just go for some of that honey they sell. :) (I bet their world famous fruitcake can’t hold a candle to my Christmas Quark Stollen.)

It got me to thinking though. If you look around for unusual gifts, why not check out the monasteries and convents out there? No, I’m not suggesting you go out and buy rosaries and bibles for your friends, they do have other stuff too. :)
Reason I’m suggesting this is because those monestaries and convents work for and with people. They put what they get back into the community and I’m sure they will value every bit of support they get through their shops.

So here are a few links for you, blatantly stolen from some article I spotted that sent me to the monks with the fruitcakes. :)

Holy Transfiguration Skete (Check out the Jampot)

St. John the Forerunner (Check the online shop for some fantastic baskets)

The Holy Cross Abbey (Check out the oh… all of it. Yummy stuff.)

Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Arizona (Handmade Soaps, Salves, Candles and more)

I’d list more, but there are lots out there. I’d suggest to look up the monestaries near you and see if they do anything.
In Germany… you’d find a lot of them are brewing absolutely spectacular… beer. :)
And just because….

Kloster Andechs (Online shop for their beer)

Just what you need for Christmas!

Visit the Stars!

Anatis December 2nd, 2007

No no!

The OTHER stars. The ones up there, in the sky.
I subscribe to Astronomy Picture of the Day, which is a service by NASA and which brings some absolutely stunning images to your attention.
If you scroll down, you will see the widget in the sidebar.
I couldn’t find it on the Wordpress site, but here is the link to it for those who want to add it.
Anyway… APOD is well worth a visit!

Cookie Time!

Anatis November 27th, 2007

Yep, it’s that time of year again.

I’m baking. Today it was Butter-S’s.

Butter S

Those.

I will share… the recipe, that is.

You need:

375g (13oz) Plain Flour
125g (4.5oz) Sugar
1 Egg
250g (8.8oz) Butter
1 Eggwhite / Eggyoke
Coarse Sugar
Zest of 1 Lemon

First you beat the butter until it has a smooth, creamy/foamy consistency. Then you add the flour, sugar, lemon zest and egg and make a nice smooth STIRRED dough (don’t try to get there with kneading. :)) and give it one knead when smooth just to make sure it’s all nice and packed together.

Now take your dough and put it in a cool place until the dough is nice and stiff.
Make small middle finger long sticks, about the thickness of a little finger. Bend them into an S shape and put them onto a tray which has a bit of flour on it, or use baking paper.
When the tray is full, put it somewhere cold again to let the S’s stiffen (just like the dough earlier)
When they are stiff, dip the top-side of each S briefly into the eggwhite (you can use eggyoke too, but it might stain the sugar) and then into the coarse sugar, then put it back on the tray.
If you can’t find coarse sugar (I bring mine over from Germany), you can use something like sugar sprinkles, but I’d use white sugar because of the look. (In the UK you could use multicolored hundreds-and-thousands topping etc). Well, whatever works. :)
Once all your S’s are covered and back on the tray, put it in a preheated oven at 200C (392F)-210C (410F) and bake for about 10 mins until golden.
Let them cool and enjoy.
The above makes about 60 S’s. I generally make double that amount, because once those are done… they are gone faster than you can imagine.

There ya go! Hope the Americans have an idea of the weights etc now :)

OpenID - What’s that?

Anatis November 13th, 2007

OpenID LogoWriter’s Block is now Open ID enabled.
It’s disabled again. The plugin is too unreliable.
If I find one that actually works… I’ll put it back in.

Meaning if you want to leave a comment, and you have an OpenID, you can use that to sign in.
(I hope! I still have to test a bit. :))
If you use Livejournal, chances are you already have an OpenID.

If not, you can get one. It doesn’t cost anything. Click on the OpenID image, it will take you to a list of providers.

If you want to comment here, you can do so by simply putting your openid URL by the OpenID sign in the comment field.

Things should get filled out from there. :)

It’s still in the testing phase but… :)

- Edit — Okay…. it’s not working right yet. I’ll try to fix it!

Don’t use the login in the comment form, but the dashboard instead. Sorry!

Space Brain

Anatis November 11th, 2007

 NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula

Okay. I have the Astronomy Picture of the Day on my Google startpage. This was today’s picture.
At first I thought “Oh, cool looking… Uh. Is that what I think it is?”

I clicked on it. I looked closer.
Does this look like a brain to anyone else, too? (I’ve linked through to the originals etc.)

The bit below even looks like a brain stem!

Very odd. Very odd, indeed…

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